Nat leader exposing border failures seems effective, but declaring a Nat govt would do the job properly is unconvincing. If the border control shambles is produced by public servants unable to collaborate or even follow instructions, obviously the same outcome would occur if a National minister was (nominally) in charge of the process.
While still in the House, she tweeted her criticism of Ardern's response. "Really interesting verbal gymnastics from the PM today in [Question Time] trying to justify her statement of 15 July that all frontline border staff were being regularly tested." Collins said that eight weeks after that, some 63 per cent of Auckland staff had not been tested.
Posturing in parliament doesn't solve the problem. The problem seems to be due to poor coordination of the govt depts involved, right? How can politicians mouthing off at it correct the situation? Media can't cope with reporting the problem due to inability to discover who in the public service is getting it wrong.
So the PM has laboured under the delusion that the public service was implementing decisions made by her govt two months ago, and can only express disappointment at the news that implementation hadn't been happening – or, at best, only partially.
If bureaucrats can keep using anonymity to evade accountability for failure, we can't expect National to do any better than Labour – bureaucrats are the ones with the real power over the situation, and they are either useless or can't be bothered getting their act together. Winston said yesterday that someone ought to be held accountable but didn't specify who – the system stops him discovering who screwed up.
I wish we had honesty about this from both major party leaders. It would be refreshing to see them admitting the real nature of the problem. That ought to be happening when they discuss the situation in parliament. Pretending that one lot can do better than the other is merely a sham to con voters.
Speaking from experience, I can say that having to answer questions in parliament does ensure Ministers are on top of their portfolios. Ministers will make sure they ask the right questions of officials, they will follow up.
That is the value of public accountability in parliament. It forces better performance than does a closed system with no public accountability.
Yes, the failures are very public, but they are also more quickly fixed.
What I'd like to see happening in parliament is this q+a: What are the names of the public servants who were given the job of establishing the border control systems to stop the virus re-entering? What areas of operation were they each responsible for?
This is in accord with the principle of transparency in governance. Traditional Nat/Lab collusion in evading such implementation in the past derives from complacent assumption that the public have no right to know. I believe we do. If public servants have a shaming potential gearing their thinking, they are more likely to avoid the misbehaviour that will produce the shaming.
Designing systems with negative-feedback incorporated to produce suitable outputs has been conventional in technology for a very long time. It is also part of nature. Ongoing failure to improve democracy via such design is evidence of inadequacy.
But, once those KPIs are linked to incentives, they stop being a navigation tool and become a target an individual has to hit to secure their bonus. And, as soon as that happens, the individuals involved can become very creative in how they can manipulate the information or their behaviour to ensure they receive the incentive.
And, yes, I have seen that happen and so have other people that I know.
Would you like the names of Police? How about the names of public hospital psychiatrists? And all those lab technicians? What about the names of all the security guards and customs workers? Let's keep going and go for the names of all the teachers that might have been in contact as well? All the Defence Force personnel? And of course all the nurses?
Why don't we just lock them all in a great big shipping container, throw in a knife, and open it up in the morning?
At some point the blood lust for blame is just rage.
What a feeble apology for institutionalised incompetence! You do realise that operational reporting occurs in the private sector, and produces efficiencies as a natural consequence, and this has been happening since the 19th century if not earlier?? So why the hell do you expect the public sector to be eternally hamstrung by bad design?
What kind of moron would take such inquiries seriously?? Have you ever seen anything other than cover-ups from them?
I expect the public service to operate to the same standards of accountability as everyone else. If you have operational responsibilities, you are accountable to all stakeholders for their performance.
Trying to excuse institutionalised moral corruption isn't a swamp you ought to be wallowing in. Extract yourself.
You expect too much and show zero empathy for frontline staff.
Clearly you have no-one close to you working in this situation.
Stop your frothing for blood. It achieves nothing except more rage. People are not to blame for the spread of the virus: people are the solution.
Inquiries in this country are regularly carried out and quite effectively, and they go through a series of levels of severity.
We should expect to see multiple structural adjustments across all kinds of public department after this – the Simpson Report is just a start to what is in front.
Totally with you Ad; if operational staff were exposed to public witch hunts and shaming the entire system would fail. No-one would be willing to do the work.
The chain of public sector accountability starts at the top and works it's way downward. The reason why the top managers get the big salaries is because they are the ones exposed to this risk. Ordinary operational staff are not paid for this.
You & Red are chewing your own red herring. I never specified operational staff. They just follow orders. I specified managers of operations. I meant those who either failed to give orders to implement govt policy, or failed to report that the orders they gave didn't produce the intended outcome.
You do realise that operational reporting occurs in the private sector, and produces efficiencies as a natural consequence, and this has been happening since the 19th century if not earlier??
Indeed, we need a smaller government and state sector and need to privatise as much as we can and possibly more \sarc
The flaw in your otherwise flawless thinking is that private and state sectors are the same. They aren’t. This kind of corporate thinking AKA dogmatic neoliberal orthodoxy has taken over many of our public institutions such as universities, hospitals, and DHBs. And people wonder why it is not working out so well …
You do realise that the manager’s wet dream of operational reporting is drowning and suffocating institutions because it creates its own bureaucracy? The answer always seems to be “more” while, in fact, less is more.
The problem with operational reporting and so-called feedback loops is that they are too general. Instead, they should be highly specific, focussed, and targeted. Only then can you ‘measure’ something properly without a whole lot of noise that needs to be filtered out AKA ‘analysed’.
Agree with Ad, disagree with public doxing, it is why we have the leaders, they are the public face, why they get paid the big bucks afterall. Public naming & shaming & chucking juniors under busses is what I'd expect Collins & Brownlee to do, to appease the Mervs on talkback & the Hootons in newsprint. Fuk that.
Yeah but that's an outlier likelihood. I suspect the lack of implementation resulted in fuzzy upward reporting, such as `yeah, yeah, we're getting a round tuit', the ole MoW spade-leaning strategy recycled ad nauseum.
You're on the right track though. Someone, or some, in the public service do seem to have got away with setting up the govt &/or the DG. Such scurrilous behaviour deserves serious consequences. My faith that they will happen in due course is zero – due to too many precedents fading into history…
I'm prone to making mistakes (although I do try to learn from them), so that trait would probably rapidly exclude me from public service if I was silly enough to seek such a role under Dennis' proposed regime of naming and shaming.
If you are referring to mistakes in scientific operations, the parallel would be whatever communal decision-making gets triggered by them. You could make helpful suggestions deriving from such professional experience. By analogy, you could then suggest how similar corrective measures could be incorporated into the public service.
Mistakes in general, Dennis, in general. We all make 'em, ‘some’ more often than others. "A gradual decline of cognitive function and concurrent loss of brain volume is an expected process even in healthy aging." Normal Cognitive Aging
Non-lethal mistakes are the best ‘teachers‘, IMHO. Also IMHO, a clear distinction should be made between (simple) mistakes and self-serving or malicious decision making whenever possible.
I agree – the quasi-corporate presumptions of neo-liberalism devolved enormous power to civil servants. With that power should come accountability and responsibility. The scoundrels who granted the Bottle O migrant exploiter over 100 work permits need to be fined and sacked – in effect they exported over 100 NZ jobs. They were his de facto accomplices.
Ah – that's getting close to it! And you can be sure the 'scoundrels' will be high up in the chain and have important rw connections. More than just rooting out one group of bad eggs there needs to be an investigation and overhaul of the entire public service!
Denis, I tend not to read what you have written, because there it is most often too long………….
Having been employed in a DHB 20 years ago, let me assure you that clinicians are held to account quite rigoursly (as are their managers)……In health so much can go wrong and we knew back then, if it did we would undergo a very thorough review, sometimes with a lawyer (district inspector) involved. Same with KPIs Rosie Lee.
But by all means let's name all these health professionals and administrators doing the heavy lifting with the virus at the borders. Such a popular job and I am sure others will be lining up to do it……
I've heard a report about this on RNZ. There is a lot of stress over the budget, board and staff. And between them and the Ministry.
It would appear the Health Board needs the increases in funding it gets just to maintain services, and needs a separate funding stream – shovel ready project job creation to fix up/replace earthquake damaged buildings still being used.
More generally, all health boards and a few councils are burdened by historic debt – this localised/regional burden continuing when government debt is so cheap is surprising.
I'll leave aside the issue of some of the building accounting cost HB's are subject to, that needs review given government debt costs also.
Honesty is one thing we almost certainly won’t see from anybody in this. Hipkins’s mea culpa to the House yesterday will be about as much as you get from the government and in order for National to get any electoral benefit from the shambles they will need to convince us that they would be able to do a vastly better job. There’s plenty of dick waving to come.
I wonder though if Reti has departed from National’s script with the blessing of his leadership?
As for Winston, it’s election time and he loves to be an opposition politician.
Oh I don’t know anker? Repeatedly assuring the country that front line border staff were indeed all getting tested, only to have to admit that in reality it was just 40% when the inevitable outbreak occurred, and you’d just put the country’s largest city into Level 3 restrictions, might just be the teensiest of own goals wouldn’t you say?
But the testing regime is in now way responsible for or a causation of the current outbreak, so, even if the testing had been covering all employees, we still would've had this outbreak as no one in border Quarantine has, or has had the same strain as the current outbreak.
That may well be. But the government’s response to the outbreak would have been much better received if they weren’t also dealing with accusations, correct or otherwise, that they had failed to deliver on their earlier rhetoric around testing of frontline staff at the border.
ScottGN …….shambles. = A state of total disorder………..
No its a shambles doesn't wash. The fact that we are in level three shows its not disorder. The testing at the border of returnees was working well. Securing the facilities from escapees………..testing and contract tracing working to contain the cluster. Unprecidented numbers being tested.
So I have to say Scott GN, describing it as a shambles is bull shit.
I guess it depends on who you mean by "front line border staff", and how often you expect testing to happen. Quite reasonably baggage handlers at an airport may get tested less frequently than nurses in a quarantine facility, or even only tested if they show symptoms. There are a huge number of people doing different jobs – what do you mean by front line border staff? If for example everyone is to be tested twice a month, then rather than doing everyone on one day, it may be reasonable to start testing in a staggered way. After two weeks, there may be quite a few of those workers still not tested, but there may have been less of a shambles than trying to test everyone in a week . . .
they are either useless or can't be bothered getting their act together
The third option is deliberate undermining by “someone”… doesn’t happen? Well I would put forward MSD and Immigration as two likely places it does, and the top and Parliamentary levels of the National Party e.g. Boag, Woodhouse and Falloon.
Collins needs a good sharp shock a day working as a cleaner at the Jet Park Hotel might do it. Her attitude is unhelpful because she needs to be part of the solution and not adding to the problems which the government are trying to fix. Collins is entitled to ask balanced questions so a process is as reliable as it can be.
The only real way to detect these kinds of issues is to go and walk around sites periodically and ask questions from front face people. Not only politicians, but also their trusted staff.
Yeah, exactly. That reality-check ought to have been included as part of operational design, so that managers discover non-compliance asap. Two months in a pandemic crisis is way too long to wait for operational feedback!
The constant with risk management, is what can be done better – and this should be continuous and on-going. Best practice – kaizen, is not an end but a process.
ISTM the both the opposition and the media are looking for scapegoats. While a typical human reaction, we all want someone to blame, this would be highly inappropriate right now. Once this pandemic is well under control, and we are all at level 1 or 0, then is the time for the full inquiry.
While we are still in the middle of it, all scapegoating would do is create a climate of fear among all border workers. It may suit Judith, but it would hamper any decent border control.
Scapegoating is a red herring. Knowing who is responsible for operational areas eliminates covert behaviour that is anti-public by design. It changes the operational incentive-structure, tilting it in the direction of appropriate decision-making.
Govt inquiries routinely mask lines of accountability, so it is naive to expect them to expose those who let the side down.
Border workers ought to fear infection produced by bad management. If they know managers can’t hide, they will have more confidence that the system will work.
Most Ministers ought not to know who public servant is undertaking which action, unless it is criminal. And even if charges have been laid, that is an operational matter for their management and for the Police.
So now you want to exhibit a lack of knowledge of how complex systems operate. As if to distract everyone from the real issue: public safety endangered by anonymous incompetent bureaucrats, plus current govt made to look hopelessly inadequate in consequence. Make you feel good?
Why do people persist in reading stuff into comments that isn't actually there?? Take what I wrote at face value, why don't you? Nobody's perfect, we just need to own our performance consequences.
Absolutely agree, just not in public. Nobody likes to be called out by the boss in front of the rest of the world. Deal with it at work, have the inquiry when the time is right.
Fudging moral responsibility never works. And I agree that being called out for personal failures is unpleasant, but public safety weighs more heavily in the balance, eh? Tolerating the status quo, in which public servants use their cloak of anonymity as a cover for laziness, has no moral basis.
you are full of it dennis. own our performance consequences! what stone have you been living under for 40 yrs? try getting what you are asking for out of ANY large organisation, gov or private . the modern way is to avoid responsibility and hide behind a wall of secretaries, put off by bad telephone answering systems ,and ever less face to face service. try getting your downed copper phone line repaired, what a circus. your phone provider sends a request through to chorus ,who pass it on to downer, who then MIGHT pass it on to yet another link in the chain, who then will look for the cheapest self employed technician with a ladder and pliers. getting names out of any of these links is like getting truth out of trump.
Look, you don't solve a social problem by institutionalising it. Defeatism is the wrong attitude to adopt. Social reform is the suitable response to such problems. That means adopting a sensible design solution.
you also dont solve a problem by coming on a political website and jumping up and down . in my case, I got off my arse, got off the internet, and did some actual legwork. try it……
I specified the structural problem in our govt that keeps inflicting this type of bullshit on us, then suggested a suitable design of reform to solve that problem.
If that look like jumping up and down to you, improvement of focus may help to clarify your vision. Can't do wood art unless you can see the design in your mind that your art is deployed to produce out of the wood!
cant do wood art by jumping up and down and expecting others to take note of your jumping up and down, when you jump up and down all of the time. as somebody else on here stated today, "dont bother to read your posts, dennis ,because they are too long" . putting up posts every two minutes gets the same results. a gigantic "meh"
I know the system should have been up and running with testing border staff. It didn't get rolled out fast enough……..managing a pandemic has not been done before in our life time. They are having to develop and implement systems that normally take years.
I also know if I was one of those border workers who was refused a test, I would have tried to get one at my GP's, talked to my union and written to Hipkins, Bloomfield and Ardern………….I am not meaning to blame the victim here.
There use to be an add on the tele in the 60's LV Martin "its the putting right that counts"…. I am going with that.
Collins hasnt exposed fuck all, she jumped on the band wagon once media got the story, if the useless old crone had been being a proper opposition leader they would have exposed this weeks ago .
That made me laugh bwag, for another laugh listen to the Morn Rep interview, Collins spends 5 or so minutes criticising the Tracer Ph App, then has to ask Corin Dann what the Ph App actually does coz she doesn't know! But, she's going to reveal a better one.
If the border control shambles is produced by public servants unable to collaborate or even follow instructions, obviously the same outcome would occur if a National minister was (nominally) in charge of the process.
And would, as a matter of fact, be a hell of a lot worse as National would be contracting the whole out to the lowest bidder in the private sector.
So the PM has laboured under the delusion that the public service was implementing decisions made by her govt two months ago, and can only express disappointment at the news that implementation hadn't been happening – or, at best, only partially.
What news about that? So far, I haven't seen any indication that the implementation hadn't been happening.
I wish we had honesty about this from both major party leaders.
Honesty isn't confirming what you think is happening bet telling everyone what the evidence shows.
Justin Trudeau has appointed Christia Freeland (Canada’s version of Megan Woods) to the role of Finance Minister after securing the resignation of Bill Morneau in an attempt to mop up a damaging conflict of interest scandal.
Freeland will remain Deputy Prime Minister (an uncommon role in Canada’s version of Westminster cabinet government) but will give up the special job of heading intergovernmental relations that Trudeau had given her to try and sort out the fraying relationships between Ottawa and the Provincial governments.
Trudeau has just prorogued the parliament in Ottawa. The House of Commons is in summer recess so effectively what he has done is suspend all parliamentary business including committees probing the ethic controversy that’s consumed his government until the GG delivers a new speech from the throne when the house resumes on Sep 23.
Non-profit organisation Water New Zealand data scientist Lesley Smith said Auckland had a lower leakage rate than the rest of the country. For Auckland's 13 percent loss, the rest of the country averages about 18 percent.
She said to find and fix leaking pipes was not easy, and often resource-intensive.
"It's an expensive exercise," Smith said. "Water loss from pipes that are hidden underground are very difficult to identify and very difficult to rehabilitate.
As cities get older, pipes that were installed many decades ago tend to fail, and this inevitably drives the leak rate up. The good news is that modern piping materials and techniques, especially fusion welded HDPE plastic pipes installed to a good standard have a much lower leak rate and much longer lifetimes. As these new pipes become a larger fraction of the system and older ones more fragile ones are replaced, the total leak rate will decline. Reticulation managers everywhere are in a slow race between the rate of failure of older pipes and the rate at which they can replace or fix them.
Every water supplier is aware of the issue, and most will endeavour to spend their maintenance budget as effectively balance the cost of the leaks against the cost of upgrading the pipes. Basic asset management 101.
You have touched on, what I think, is the crux of the issue. The neo-liberal approach to business. Concern for this and next year's balance sheet.
It's cheaper to just buy more water than to treat water as the taonga that it is. Perhaps if Auckland adjusted the KPI.s for the next CEO of Watercare, so that they were to become global leaders of water reticulation.
I thought Dann did a pretty OK job of trying to keep her on track actually.
National knows what a gift this is for them, especially considering the terrible state they’re in. That was obvious from the moment the news broke a week ago. Don’t expect them to give it up anytime soon.
As for the government, well you’d have to be a blind acolyte not to see that they have dropped the ball big time with the border testing fiasco. Why somebody wasn’t detailed from the ministry to absolutely make sure this was getting done properly is unfathomable. It’s not like we didn’t already know opaque and intractable the wallahs in the health ministry are.
Judith doesn’t have to look prime ministerial just yet. The government, thanks to its apparent inability to learn anything from the quarantine testing shambles a couple of months ago when the two women were let out untested to drive up and down the country, has given National the lifeline they were desperate for. Don’t expect them not to use it.
only if National had not gone bonkers the last few months, if this was their first foray into criticism, but they're their own worse enemies. No one has forgotten only a few weaks ago they were screaming "open the borders".'
Exactly. NZ would be in a total lock down and a lot of us oldies would be dead had the Nats been in power with their open border plan putting money first over keeping people alive. That point must be stated over and over.
There’s plenty of time for Judith to adopt the mantle of PM-in-waiting as we get further into the campaign. Whether she is successful at that only time will tell.
Right now though her job is to attack the government over what are obvious slip ups with testing of front line border staff. Part of National’s election strategy is to cast the government (and the PM particularly) as good at the talk and poor at the delivery. Unfortunately this latest episode is great boon to them in that endeavour.
plenty of time?…I think not, voting can begin in 45 days, and the public having expected to vote considerably earlier will have largely nailed down their preference…Collins' performing as she is gives them little reason to reconsider
so when does collins need to look like a PM in waiting? tomorrow,? three weeks? six weeks? think most people have already made their minds up on who to vote for, so collins should have looked like a PM in waiting, the day she got the nod to led the nats.
Oh I think Judith will be wearing the mantle of gravitas befitting a potential PM about the time she and Ardern face off in the election debates – or at least she’ll be trying to. Hopefully her inner nature will get the better of her.
so, she will be doing it for the undecided voters then? because her acolytes have already decided she;s the one, and everybody else is already tuned out. election debates are like cooking shows, cheap programming for bored invalids.
Scott the govt learnt that tighter systems needed to be put in place for the people isolating and they did that…….tighter testing, tighter social distancing and tighter patrols in the facilities. To say the govt learnt nothing from 2 months ago, simply isn't true
Sure after the last embarrassing slip up they moved to put the proper protocols in place for returnees. Great.
That doesn’t distract though from the fact that there has been something of a chasm between what the government told us was happening with testing frontline border staff (as opposed to people returning and in quarantine) and the reality on the ground.
It probably shouldn’t surprise anyone, practically every western government has been badly tripped up by covid at one point or another. Ours was never going to be any different.
It would be mischevious to imply that the NZ government and public health service strategy (Covid-19 elimination), and the response of the team of nearly five million, isn't different to that of the US, UK, Sweden, Brazil, Spain, Italy, France, Ireland, etc. etc. And our Covid-19 health outcomes are different too – go figure.
Of course, I don’t for a moment think our response has been anywhere near as chaotic as other governments. And we’re right to be proud of what we’ve achieved. But, as the PM herself has been saying, Covid is a tricky bugger and there will be missteps along the way.
Jude be nimble, Jude be quick, Gerry jump over the Covid stick.
“Jumping candlesticks was a form of fortune telling and a sport. Good luck was said to be signalled by clearing a candle without extinguishing the flame.“
“National leader Judith Collins is distancing herself from her party’s earlier stand on allowing international students to isolate in university accommodation, refusing to endorse it as a current policy.
Instead, she and border policy spokesman Gerry Brownlee both told media that National would release its full Covid-19 border policy later this week.”
This is a welcome acknowledgement by the leaders of the opposition National party that responding to the health threats posed by the Covid-19 pandemic requires that policy and responses be adjusted as we learn more about how this virus spreads, compromises health, and kills.
Is there someplace Collins and Brownlee would rather be?
I downloaded it and am using it – seems easy. As easy as many other apps – if you can't use it, you probably also can't use your camera app, twitter etc.
I agree. I use it every day. It’s easy and it’s never failed to read any QR code I’ve scanned so far.
On Morning Report this morning though Collins seemed to conflate the job of the covid app and the general population using it with the task of health officials contact tracing backwards from a confirmed case. I’m not sure if that was just not understanding on her part or a deliberate attempt to confuse the two?
My ph won't accept it, but I keep a diary & I fill out forms wherever I go, and I see plenty of others scanning, no seems to want to be seen as a dickhead. And this is in L2.
I heard it and my first instinct was to assume that she was stupid – but more charitably put it down to a brain-fart under questioning from Dann. She seemed to think that the app was intended to trace the pathway of infection between individuals. I shouted at the radio – "that would need us to all have a bloody QR code on our foreheads and scan it for everyone we meet".
A Covid Card that everyone carried and which recorded the unique ID of every other Covid card it came within 2 metres of, would do something like that. Don't know if it is even possible though.
Yeah, with some reluctance I've started using the app too. Much quicker than doing a pen and paper sign in, and trying to find out what the time is, etc, and your details aren't on display for everyone to see.
I have difficulty believing JC has difficulty understanding the app. It seems to me a ploy to create a perception that it is complicated and that she’s just an ordinary Kiwi just like Sir John. NB JC joined Twitter in August 2012 and has been a prolific tweeter. Does she understand Twitter?
Yeah, I heard that. She is also telling porkies (why I am I not surprised) she has stated that "some people" are coming forward saying they were REFUSED the covid19 tests. Air Commodore Webb stated to John Campbell on Breakfast that EVERYBODY involved in the border security was OFFERED the test, (but it was voluntary until recently) but 60% declined being tested.
Here we go again the slime from the right is starting the dirty politics again. Someone wants to challenge Collins with the statement she made.
My opinion for what it is worth I am so pleased we have had an incompetent government running the show up to now, with all the glitches, if we had the likes of Goldsmith, Brownlee with all the "wants" by the whinging right, it would have been a complete and total disaster. Let's not forget that this virus is a new threat to NZ – it's a real testament to the Government that we have ended up as world leaders in our response – it's just a pity National and those on the right don't seem to acknowledge this.
They’re politicians, they all tell porkies or at least blur the truth to suit themselves, they’re hardwired to do it.
And don’t get me wrong I recoil in horror at the thought of Collins and Brownlee and the rest of National in charge too. But the government have made this mess for themselves. There’s going to be a few hard days at the office for Jacinda and co while they try and get on top of it.
Judith Collins, RNZ this morning, running the old “several people working the border have approached me and said they were refused tests” line is just a variation on the Woodhouse “homeless man”.
It does not matter if it is a fabrication, if it cannot be refuted 100%, or even if it could! the doubt has been implanted in public consciousness and a political hit scored.
This is a Labour own goal–again–and it will continue if they do not clamp down hard on the underminers in the public service. There has to be senior officials taking the piss and just not doing what they have been asked to. The other leg is leaving often low paid workers on border control and expecting top level results.
If Judith says "several people working on the border have approached me…" then that has happened. In my experience politicians (irrespective of party) don't deliberately lie. If they say something as direct as that, then you have to accept it.
What is the story with the 60% rate of border employees refusing to be tested? Is this a cultural thing? It seems extraordinarily high. Surely something can be written into employment contracts that their conditions of employment require a test. After all forestry workers have mandatory drug/alcohol tests, and some of these are embarrassing to do, women especially. Not saying that there would be termination consequences, as there are for forestry workers, but surely their employment contracts can be looked at to make it more or less compulsory unless…..then give some exceptions. 60% is way way above the exception rate that you would expect.
Or if no testing then no work in MIQ facilities/borders?
Judith's dishonesty lies not in stating that some people had told her that they had asked for tests, and been refused them. This probably happened – though I expect they were deferred or told it was unnecessary rather than 'refused'.
The major dishonesty lay in implying that because this had happened, it could not be true that (as Ardern had asserted) that some people had refused to have tests.
It is likely that both occurred – because we are dealing with a seething mass of humanity and all the inevitable stupidity, paranoia and instransigence you get with people.
What might be marginally interesting is the relative proportions of the refused and the refusers. Though not really – life is too short and Collins too-plainly barking for me to care.
"Then there are offshore education agents, which the government could require to be licenced." (Basic stuff really)
It could also make course providers in New Zealand do more to prove their worth" (Calling NZQA's "Comms people" )
(AND it could at least use foreign media in an applicant's country to warn of charlatans, and stop removing a presence in the countries being targeted in a way NZ Post would be proud of.)
" …. if you’re going to promote a pathway to residency, then have a genuine pathway to residency, rather than one where you have to be exploited.”
"If the [government] are taking in students, they have to think of their futures too – not just the money you are taking from them…,” says Bhavdeep Singh. “If you can’t afford to settle that many students, why are you taking them in? "
– “It is embarrassing: Today I would have to tell people I spent $30,000 to come to New Zealand to work for five years for $10 an hour and not earn anything. Now I have to start again.”
– "Bhavdeep Singh laughs at the business courses he studied. “The education I was getting here I can compare to like my tenth grade school.” "
(Some courses would have been better to have been called "Howto Suck Eggs" for the bargain price of $30k)
To which I'd add: Ensure immigrants use good Immigration Advisors who act on behalf of the immigrant (such as those quoted in the article) rather than in their own self-interest – such as the 'vertically integrated' ones MBIE once promoted who happened to be running a shitty PTE on the side, or a tinpot security firm, or labour hire company, or even an orchard or (in the past) a bloody beauty parlour. (Your own Companies Register might provide a clue as to who they might be)
And of course the article focuses on Punjabis predominantly, but a similar situation applies to immigrants from other regions.
There are a heap of others of course in the 'Bizzniss of Immigration' even before we get to consider various attitudes towards an immigrant.
Things like the economic work unit that is the immigrant should not expect to have the same ambitions or lifestyles we might enjoy ourselves – such as the baggage of a wife and children.
Depends on the visa – working holidays and partnership work visas don't have an employer on them, for example.
Even if people do have an employer on their visa, it can be varied or a new visa applied for with a new employer provided a new job can be found.
Part of the problem is not just the employer being on the visa, it's that the employees don't realise they still have options, and don't always have the time or money to explore those options.
The visa scam and exploitation was one of the worst things National did in government, and they still haven't been held to account for it. Whenever you hear a Nat say "economic growth" remember how they did it – and the consequences that still linger today.
(and to avoid any doubt, that criticism is not aimed at the migrants themselves, but at the corrupt exploiters and the government that enabled them)
Asked which parties voters would prefer Labour to govern with if it won a second term …
Lab governing alone: 35%
Lab & Green: 22%
Lab & NZF: 13%
Lab + Green + NZF (Status Quo) 4%
Other: 9%
Not Sure: 17%
Support for Labour governing alone was higher among older New Zealanders aged 60 plus (46%) … support for a Labour-Green government was more popular among younger voters. Thirty per cent of those aged 18-29 wanted it.
Interesting, eh? My take is that the PM will conclude from this that the current format is not replicable, in principle. So she's likely to try for a Labour only govt during the campaign, while retaining sufficiently flexibility to preserve the fall-back options of Labour-Green & Labour-NZF if voters make those viable.
. So she's likely to try for a Labour only govt during the campaign
Possibly … but may be ill-advised … as I suggested a few weeks ago, might be an idea for Ardern to downplay the prospect of governing alone.
At the same point in the run up to the 2002 General Election, the Clark-led Labour Party was sitting on precisely the same rating (53%) in the Colmar Brunton … only to fall 12 points to 41% by Election Day.
NZES analysis suggests this was partly a corollary of the impending Election result appearing a fait accompli (thus suppressing turnout)… but also that Clark's initial decision to campaign vigorously for a Single-Party Govt (on the basis of stability & her personal popularity) alienated voters (particularly on the Left) … seen as arrogant, dictatorial & a reversion to old-fashioned FPP-thinking. (Campaign Mini-scandals Corngate & Paintergate simply reinforced this mood). A hefty chunk of intending Labour voters subsequently swung elsewhere … first & foremost into non-voting. Luckily for the Party, the Nats' plunge was even steeper.
Whenever NZES polls on attitudes to the Electoral System, it always finds substantial majority support for MMP & Coalition Govt among Left voters & majority support for FPP & single-Party Govt among Nat supporters.
Hence, while many of the 400k newly-acquired former Nats might be more comfortable with a sole Labour Govt … to hold on to a sizeable segment of core Labour voters*, Ardern may just need to downplay any sense of arrogance or entitlement around the issue.
Can we reliably see Labour slip in the polls after this week and if so by how much? Where will they go? If you were attracted to Labour by Ardern’s positivity and their relative success, repulsed by National’s shambles, but feel let down by the latest outbreak, where do you go? And I’m talking about those middle-class educated urban swing voters who aren’t going for the fringe parties. Will they stick it out with Labour, find someone else, or not vote? What’s the word on the street?
Well, as a long-time crack cocaine-dealing jewel-encrusted Pimp on the mean streets of Wellington's Lower Eastside Red Light District, my mind's focussed more on diabolical liberties taken by pond-sucking scum against my honour,
Ya Dig ? ….
… currently strutting along Vivian St muttering: Bitch better have my money !!!
I think people should stop being cocks – weather-cocks that is. Don't swing with every breath of change, stick it out and stay left. Be firm and stay with a decision, the future for you relies on you having values about people and the environment, that hold to a reasonable standard. We can see which Parties care in general about these two matters – Labour and Greens do, others not so much or at all. It's easy to make up your mind when you look at things overall and don't react to every bit of positive or negative news. Follow the upward trend and don't be deflected. That is all.
I can’t see Ardern actively campaigning for a majority. And in any case if this last week is a sign of things to come the chances of it actually happening are diminishing rapidly.
That is the impression I get from Adern, she's happy to be in charge as long as everyone wants her to be, whereas Collins wants to be in charge whatever anyone thinks, win at all costs. It's personal with Collins, ego driven.
Labour may get some of the oldies at present with Winnie, and if there were enough of them to sway decisions, they may decide to go alone, with other positions as you say DF. And what will we progressives get then?
More of the same, look here at the national GDP etc and not much at all at anything else. Deal with dissension using the new passport-ready scanning system, and 5G to smooth out the bumps for a quicker pace on the way to – the stars? Baby it's cold out there, bad enough on the streets, they don't make cardboard as thick as they used to.
Possibly. But if it’s a Lab/Green configuration after Election Day I think the lure of a place finally at the Cabinet table will be too much for the Greens to resist.
You reckon? If the Greens numbers are needed to form a government of either stripe then they can probably start demanding don’t you think?
Personally I think the Greens are positioned to do best out of this latest testing slip up. They are far enough away from the scene of the crime to keep their hands clean and Labour’s chances of being able to govern without them are diminishing.
Sane, sound and sensible advice from Kiwi GP. I'm sure someone will have posted this here on TS already, but it will do not harm to repeat.
As well as the professional recommendations, there is hope and optimism and a message that a diagnosis of Covid19 does not necessarily mean death and debility.
that was really good, thanks. I also appreciated her positive attitude, and the home management is possible messages (with the caveat on when to get help. She probably could have emphasised that a bit more).
Thanks for the edit…(distracted..other part of brain mentally tackling the tree that succumbed to the gales in the Far North overnight.)
It is the positive message that captured me. That, and her treating her audience like autonomous beings. With the right tools and education, beating this disease (that we are being constantly told by a breathless MSM is a death sentence for many) is doable.
Her target audience is India (and Sri Lanka? The same video is dubbed in Hindi and Tamil) where access to medical treatment can be difficult, if not impossible. Here too, early on, the message was that the hospitals would soon be overloaded…and that treatment would need to be rationed. It pays to be resilient.
I saw the Spinoff clip this morning…we've been taking Vit C, Zinc and Vit D for months now, and coincidentally I bought Betadine liquid just yesterday. Of course, we always have soda bicarb in the house.
This is just the sort of empowering stuff that needs to be put out there. Good on the Spinoff for taking a punt and featuring it.
I got the Betadine gargle back in March. Not the soda bicarb yet.
Vitamin D and to a lesser degree zinc are well known.
This guy thinks everyone who gets infected should have their Vitamin D levels tested and given mega doses if necessary, and all those over 60 should be taking a daily does (the same for Polynesian/Maori especially if with health issues).
Lying people on their front is mainstream hospital practice for this, they use maternity mattresses for the obese.
Back in the day, in the UK, taking cod liver oil was considered almost mandatory…especially for children. My partner has been taking it as he has developed a spinal injury /autonomic dysfunction manifestation that has him losing conciousness if he even slightly overheats. I am working outside for some of each day so I probably don't need it. Peter has taken zinc for some years to help with skin integrity and the post leukeamia Vit C absorbtion. Every little helps…
The Vitamin C supplements used to also be officially recommended and gargling with salt or soda bicarb was 'prescribed' by the doctor. A few drops of the old Betadine…iodine…to slap down the virus…makes sense.
What doesn't make any sense is why our Ministry of Health hasn't produced something akin to this video…they could be pro-active. Build community resilience, making folk less dependent on an overloaded health system.
With the Vitamin D, the skin produces less from sunlight as we age.
I remember cod liver oil in the home when I once was young. There are the fish oil omega 3 capsules around now. And of course tumeric also assists with inflammation.
Vitamin D3 is available on prescription in NZ – one 50,000IU capsule per month is Pharmac’s recommended dose, although some GPs will increase the frequency. My GP does that as I have an auto immune disease.
The huge effort that the Government and Health has put into creating a huge new program/process in such a short time is miraculous. It baffles me that those who condemn the whole process on the problems that have and will arise. Shambles? Debacle?
From nothing to something earns applause doesn't it?
For mine they've done well from a weak position back in March.
The background is they did not prepare well between the WHO pandemic warning in 2016 till then. Not surprising National were in office at the time, and response required more ICU beds and more trained staff (they did not even ask HB's to check whether their reserves of equipment were still fit for use).
Our strong lockdown approach which made elimination an option/possible was informed by our relatively weak health system, poor health of many New Zealanders (obese/diabetes etc) and likelihood of quick spread in vulnerable communities due to overcrowding – housing costs.
From weakness to an effective response. All a bit shaolin, not confronting the threat (allowing community spread) but avoiding it with flexibility and balance.
I give credit to frontline staff, and confident messaging from Ardern. And a small population where but for a few degrees we're all related. Leadership from the Ministry has been at best, variable, at worst, woeful.
They were warned…we should all do our homework on this and give our vote to the party which commits to a complete purge and overhaul of this dysfunctional and rogue Ministry. I suspect Ardern finally realises she can't trust them to do what they're told… or trust what they say they're doing they are actually doing.
From memory the old parts of the health act related to pandemics was an antique from before the 1970s and at that was just amendments from a 1950s rewrite of legislation from the 1920s.
I am disgusted by the attack on our front line clinical staff and those here who have been sucked in.
There is no "failure" "catastrophy" or any other derogatory term just people making triage decisions apportioning provisions in the context of demand overload. To attack those in hindsight for making decisions that had to be made at the time is just sad!
So far there is (despite huge effort) no understanding of the mechanism of escape of the virus or even if there was any escape or some other vector.
Discussion.. blame.. bulshit. pointscoring. and undermining the ability of our clinical staff to make decisions on the ground is all completely counterproductive at this point.
Should we at some point in the future have an understanding of the mechanism of community release then that will be the moment for reasoned discussion of how to close any gap… but still without blame
so much political sewerage every three years does huge harm
This longish CNN piece ruminating about the US conventions has a few insights relevant to NZ and elsewhere:
In an eloquent passage, Dole, a World War II veteran whose small Kansas town supported him during his grueling recovery from grievous wounds in battle, presented himself as the catalyst to restore a more caring and connected America.
"Age has its advantages," Dole declared. "Let me be the bridge to an America that only the unknowing call myth. Let me be the bridge to a time of tranquility, faith and confidence in action."
Only a few minutes after Dole spoke those words at the GOP convention in San Diego, Begala recalled, the phone rang at his home in Austin, Texas, where he was watching the speech. Begala's caller was someone he described as "a certain resident of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue," in other words his friend and client, Clinton.
"I don't believe I would say that," Begala recalled the then-President telling him that night. "I said, 'Why, sir? It was beautiful.' He said, 'No one wants a bridge to the past.' He saw that from the jump, as the words came out from Dole's mouth: Elections are always about the future, not the past." (my italics)
—
… The result, Begala recalled, was that many voters assumed he [Clinton] was a child of privilege, "a wealthy ne'er-do-well tooling around in his father's Alfa Romeo living off of a trust fund."
In fact, Clinton had been raised in difficult circumstances by his mother and an alcoholic stepfather. Much of the convention, including a riveting biographical film, was devoted to providing those details for voters. The effort culminated in Clinton's acceptance speech when he pledged to govern for "the forgotten middle class."
"I am a product of that middle class," Clinton dramatically declared. "And when I am president you will be forgotten no more."
Bill Clinton faces a cheering audience after taking the podium to deliver his acceptance speech as his party's presidential nominee at the Democratic National Convention in New York, July 16, 1992.
The underlying message, Begala noted, was that Clinton's "values grew out of his experience and his agenda grew out of his values. … Every word of that speech was trying to build that bridge from biography to values to policy."
Biden, with his throwback locutions and extended Washington pedigree, is unlikely to ever strike younger voters as someone personally attuned to their experiences. But, these former convention strategists say, he might establish the same connection Clinton did between his own setbacks and the strains so many Americans feel today.
In local terms, who is trying to build a bridge to the future and who is trying to build a bridge to the past?
Who has a relatable and aspirational backstory that's shaped their values and goals? The one that worked a fish'n'chip shop as a teen still in school, or the lawyer for wannabe tax dodgers as an entry to decades of attack politics?
Duncan Garner's 'eyes and ears' in MIQ, Dubai property lawyer Michael Ljunevich, is upset. Seems he has been breaking rules inside quarantine by mixing with other cohorts and didn't like it when Megan Woods called him out.
Wonder how Ljunevich knew that the people that he was mixing with were those at the end of their stay? And if they were, wouldn't they protest at his presence which could infect them and ruin their release?
Yeah it totally doesn’t make any sense. You’d be mad to even share space having a gasper with a newbie if you were on your final days quarantine. This absolutely smacks of a Garner set up.
I like that Megan – good value. She seems to have stopped just short of saying – where is the personal responsibility here that the right wing preach to everyone else?.
Other than that – I think this joker maybe needs another 14 days in quarantine just to be sure he hasn't mixed incorrectly. – paid for by him of course. He should be on the naughty step.
All this whinging and whining that "Testing" hasn't been upto the the expectations of some here.
I have yet to see a single shred of evidence that the current outbreak is linked to " a failure of testing staff", whether front line or support.
There are some people who would very much like to see a failure in procedures surrounding Isolation and Quarantine, only for political gain.
Such is human nature.
We still can't rule out a deliberate attempt to "trip up the Government", after all that has happened over the recent months and the History of some political parties to attempt to skew opinion and deliberately undermine the efforts combined with the "Conspiracy Theories"
We know we have political parties who will say and do Anything to get elected, anything, there is No bottom line.
I like your use of the phrase "shred of evidence". It is one of Winston's favourites every time he is accused of anything at all. (Always with 'not' just in front of it.)
He claimed a few days ago that it was all a border breach, but, of course, he could not reveal his source.
If they prove it all came from within NZ, he will not have a shred of evidence, will he?
It is true that things at the border have had problems, but lessons have been learnt and the battle against the virus continues, it could be worse, the Nats could have been in charge with their open the border line and NZF with the trans tasman bubble should have been happening. So while the Bat attack may ring bells for some at this very momment, their nature will soon enough trip them up again before the election, it is a long time for them yo susrain attacks about the border. The Nats would have had the border open and many more elderly would have died, that seems just collateral damage in Nat thinking.
edit
This is what really makes me angry about the way women are too often treated – objects of perversion. The reason that this man would be so nutty is a broad field of discussion that doesn't relate to anything natural in men, but a society off centre from understanding of oneself and acceptance of what it is to be a person in balance, and what part our culture plays in our thoughts of our sexuality as well as gender. This seems to be a never-ending journey.
Commenters here today have seemed like a gaggle of turkeys gobbling about christmas. Awareness of the danger to Labour of the current situation has apparently not yet penetrated. Ben Thomas flags the problem while criticising National's response:
A serious communication breakdown between officials on the ground and ministers in the war room is unacceptable, but a failure to account for how it happened is worse. This is the second time assurances about testing at the border have turned out to be simply untrue, and the second time ministers have been caught by surprise.
A government agency that can’t or won’t execute policy is an embarrassment in normal times, and a serious risk to public safety during a pandemic.
Ardern and Hipkins then assured the public that the main line of defence against infection of border staff was the use of PPE and daily health checks of employees.
I don't really know what people expect. We, humans, don't have a full grasp yet of how covid is transmitted, although that knowledge is growing each day.
MoH, by it's very nature, will be working conservatively. This means that they take the best advice from mainstream science that is available and develop policy from that.
As Micky pointed out in his post, some people seem to think that we should have a 100% system by now, but the only way to do that is to lock the borders completely, stop importing anything, and test everyone. Which would patently be ridiculous.
The MoH aren't perfect, we need a competent Opposition and MSM to keep holding the govt to account. Unfortunately we don't have a competent Opposition, we have a dangerous one, and I'm not sure the MSM is always up to the task either. Almost like they're humans rather than machines.
Put up some informed and considered and referenced critique of the MoH and I'm all ears (I can certainly point to some weaknesses in the system).
For mine, I'm a fan of two weeks isolation in the room (maybe exception for testing elsewhere on day 3 and 12 or for any health concerns). Stuff from the room goes out in bags picked up with tongs and is into a wheelie bin.
And staff have 6 weeks on (expected to socially isolate when not at work during these weeks – with the regular health checks during these weeks, temp etc) and 6 weeks off on full pay (passing test first, and passing another test before returning to work).
That’s sort of beside the point. Any governments focus should always be based around doing things better, and this has nothing to do with opposition criticism or media stories, but best operating practice.
No. And you will note they have constantly made changes since the regime came into place and they will make more changes yet. And at a much faster rate than applies to other areas of governence – because this task is taking on a important role in our security, safety and economic.
That's the problem I suggested a solution to. I disagree with those leftists here who prefer to let the Nats get away with pretending it is a coalition stuff-up, when it seems obvious that public service non-compliance caused the threat to public safety.
So, rather than allowing the cover-up to succeed, via trad left/right collusion, outing those who failed to implement instructions ought to happen. Don't allow them to evade accountability – the precedent that sets ensures future repetition!
So, rather than allowing the cover-up to succeed, via trad left/right collusion, outing those who failed to implement instructions ought to happen. Don't allow them to evade accountability – the precedent that sets ensures future repetition!
So much confusion and bias packaged together that it is almost impossible to unpack.
A “cover-up” implies deliberate intent. Not always the case.
Who knows what you mean by “trad left/right collusion”? Only you do.
Following instructions only works if they are crystal clear and unambiguous. Some instructions will have unintended and unexpected consequences even when they’re followed ‘to the letter’.
Outing is one of the worst ways of achieving institutional responsibility. People will duck responsibility out of fear of making a mistake and being ‘outed’. They will hide, they will obfuscate, they will delay. Look at what the OIA achieved; the exact opposite of accountability and transparency. The ‘no surprises’ policy aimed to avoid embarrassment and has almost completely neutered Ministerial accountability and turned civil servants into political body guards.
You seem to be stuck with the old-school carrot-stick model. We’re not dealing with children here! Your tar & feathers ideas are utterly impractical and outright dangerous for fostering a positive feedback culture!
A government agency that can’t or won’t execute policy is an embarrassment in normal times, and a serious risk to public safety during a pandemic.
He also points to the flaw in representative democracy that keeps the shit happening: accountability to the public can only occur through ministers in a democratically elected government.
Another flaw though, Ministers can't choose or easily refuse, the civil servants they work with. And these people generally are not known to the public, yet they decide how policies are implemented, and Ministers' powers are curtailed. Who decides on the country's course, the Captain or the crew at the wheel, and the way that things are run, if the orders are not followed, then who has the real power?
Yes, you've echoed my concern nicely. The problem is built into the structure of our democracy. It allows delinquent public servants to defeat the government of the day.
The system is not fit for purpose in the 21st century. It needs to be reconfigured, using the rationale of harm minimisation. It is a key part of the social contract. Let's hope the border control tightens sufficiently in the interim; but not fixing the problem makes us vulnerable to worse situations in the future…
The Fat Dog posted up yesterday that their staff has gotten their tests back, all negative. This just to point out that businesses, specially the small and very small businesses are taking this very seriously, have put in place not only procedures, but prespex windows/seperators, remodelled their cafes, shops, businesses to allow for social distancing, for keeping the staff / customers/ delivery dudes/ettes safe etc at great cost to them, as there are no government grants available to them for this purpose.
This is to say that there is not guarantee that this virus will not do damage, or will be able to run rampant at some stage. But chances are this will only happen if a. the business sector don't give a fudge – which in NZ they do, they do very much care well at least the small / micro businesses, b. the government don't give a fudge – which in NZ they do, maybe not to the degree i or others would like them to do but they do, and then the public at large. And hte public at large as seen over the last few days are quite good about it too, the worst offender so far – old people – like seriously, oh, honey i don't care if i die ,i am old, Oh i don't want to wear a mask it is so uncomfortable, besides i am old, oh i don't know how to work this app, seriously can you not just serve me, plus a few of the CT and Qanon crowd. But the old people? Oh good grief.
The young ones are pretty good about it, they just order online, and do curb side pick up. The really young ones wear masks without a fuss if hteir parents wear them. But those 60+ started to piss me off.
The reason i have my plague door made is that i can't be arsed to be polite to people that want to whinge about hte government tracing/tracking all their doings (have you checked your bank statement lately?), can't be arsed debating if wearing masks is an inconvenience or just politesse, it is the easiest to just simply keep them out of the shop altogether and serve them at the door.
So to the ones that want businesses to be better, try harder with less and stop asking for the wage subsidy, businesses already do, and you have to have a 40% loss to actually get the much vaunted $480 (after tax – cause gotta pay tax) per week, to keep that business open rather then join the unemployment queue.
Maybe a small advertising campaign about mask usage, app usage and standard politesse while dealing with people in shops doing their jobs would be good. Because they are the ones bearing hte brunt of the idiots of this country.
I wonder how superior the writer of this piece on uk universities is? Perhaps the universities that are struggling are the ones that country really needs to get its head out of its own back history. The Institute for Fiscal Studies recently announced that 13 universities in the UK face "a very real prospect" of going bust.
This is a heads up and you will have to trace back to get the story.
Ardern is getting control of the narrative back. Great work. And in the process demonstrating just why the opposition was right to fear her appearance at the daily briefing.
If you ever doubted the links btwn the rabbithole and violent white extremists, google Kyle Chapman, marae firebomber & former Director of the NZ National Front, NZs largest neo-nazi org. He is organizing speaking events for NZPP/Advance & inviting Sue Grey to speak. pic.twitter.com/dRT2nkHY9n
Sounds like a good call. That way they know whether or not the testing has taken place as mandated. The contract health staff were replaced by DHB staff a while back.
Be good to see if returnees could do more of their own cooking and cleaning – in appropriate facilities.
I also wouldn't want anyone trying to take Ash out of the equation – replacement might be a horror.
Good to see it acknowledged that the profit motive tends to (though not invariably) undermine the delivery of social goals. Shame there weren't enough old heads around to tell them that before they came up with the KiwiBuild idea.
I agree, great idea. Now that MBIE does it for their security, it's time for DHBs to follow suit and employ it's own, better trained, better paid security.
Yep – pretty standard from the courts. Along with offenders raising harm to their grandmothers, partners and family, visa status, ( not that they thought of them earlier) mental health issues etc etc. There have been some sentenced who struggle to see that they are doing anything wrong.
But Kmart needed better responses to prevent evidence being deleted. Business who will frequently call the cops for every bit of shoplifting. Staff ( although likely to be young and minimum wage) and security should have arrived a lot sooner and the manager should have been onto it a lot earlier.
QT today only 10 questions. (Yesterday 11.) So I guess it will lead to another 20 minutes of Collins trying to catch out Jacinda.
Q2 Hon JUDITH COLLINS to the Prime Minister: Is she confident her Government moved at an appropriate pace to put in appropriate measures to manage the risk of COVID-19 re-emerging in the community?
Q6 Hon JUDITH COLLINS to the Prime Minister: Is the resurgence plan she referred to on 11 August publicly available, and is it being rolled out as effectively as she believed it would be?
Just saw Judith Collins on TV before going into the Chamber. She looks flat. She did as well yesterday at Question Time. We'll see soon how she sparks up in the House.
Leader of this Opposition must be a stressful and draining job………..
Question Time was a great opportunity for the Opposition to "roast" the Government. Collins failed miserably to even make a dent. A lacklustre pointless exercise. The Ministers were well prepared and answered every question well.
And Hipkins in reply to Collins was very strong spelling out the mixed, confused messages from National that were reactive to supporters' pressure rather than based on science or logic. He called Collins out for the scaremongering that she was doing, and especially pointed out the hypocrisy of criticising the government for not using regulatory powers earlier when National opposed the bill that granted those powers.
Hipkins made the point to Collins, who is now touting the shining light of Harvard-trained Dr Shane Reti, that she should have listened to him much earlier in the game, rather than to play the dangerous game of conspiracy and stupid exaggeration.
Shaw called Browning out for just that later in the general debate.
Way back 5.1.1 at 8.16 am this morning I wondered why nobody had been detailed to knock heads together and actually get the results that the government had told us they were getting. Today Ardern has appointed Heather Simpson and Sir Brian Roche to do just that.
You’re welcome 😊
It's never a news headline when a thing that is feared, isn't really happening. It just fades out of the news.
So it seems Rotorua, Tokoroa, Taupo etc do not have significant covid spread or clusters after all. Even though they have had thousands of tests – and stayed at level 2, not 3. The rapid response is working well. But it's success, it's good news, so it's not a headline.
Does anyone know how much Stuff and NZME are paying as finders fees for coming up with some moaning grizzling or bitching person because by their reckoning everything was not 10000000% perfect about some isolation facility?
Or someone who was incensed that a security guard 'looked them strangely' or somesuch.
Or broke a fingermmnail which indicates health and safety concerns with the facilities were non-existent and border control procedures were totally out of control and so J Ardern should resign.
Melissa Nightingale incorrectly wrote in the Herald:
The first nine days of the national lockdown were illegal but justified, the High Court has ruled.
Words matter and the actual was:
The court has agreed the statements conveyed New Zealanders were required – under threat of police enforcement – to stay at home in their bubbles, despite the fact it was not legally supported at the time. ie Unlawful.
Illegal means it broke the Law. Unlawful means that there were no Laws about this to break.
I am a secondary school teacher, and listening to/reading our journalists, I am sorry to say that many have poor language skills, and would not know the difference between uninterested and disinterested, or infer and imply, let alone the difference between illegal and unlawful. Civics would probably not help them.
Dunno. All we were hearing about at that time was David Clark going mountainbiking and taking his family to the beach. Maybe that's now retrospectively OK and he can have the Health portfolio back.
Yes, if one checked the list of their full names, many would have the first name of 'Richard'.
Edit
Sorry – that is just a negative attack that adds no value.
May I add that Judith accused Jacinda of ‘verbal gymnastics’. My riposte would be that Judith is not capable of verbal gymnastics. When she speaks she reminds me (verbally) of a poor little toddler clomping about in an infants’ ballet class into which she should never have been put.
I guess that is pretty negative too, but I think Judith asked for it.
When will Judith stun us with some eloquent wit?
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Nathaniel ScharpingIn March, as the Covid-19 pandemic began to shut down major cities in the U.S., researchers were thinking about blood. In particular, they were worried about the U.S. blood supply — the millions of donations every year that help keep hospital patients alive when they need a transfusion. ...
Sarah L Caddy, University of CambridgeVaccines are a marvel of medicine. Few interventions can claim to have saved as many lives. But it may surprise you to know that not all vaccines provide the same level of protection. Some vaccines stop you getting symptomatic disease, but others stop you ...
Back in 2016, the Portuguese government announced plans to stop burning coal by 2030. But progress has come much quicker, and they're now scheduled to close their last coal plant by the end of this year: The Sines coal plant in Portugal went offline at midnight yesterday evening (14 ...
The Sincerest Form Of Flattery: As anybody with the intestinal fortitude to brave the commentary threads of local news-sites, large and small, will attest, the number of Trump-supporting New Zealanders is really quite astounding. IT’S SO DIFFICULT to resist the temptation to be smug. From the distant perspective of New Zealand, ...
RNZ reports on continued arbitrariness on decisions at the border. British comedian Russell Howard is about to tour New Zealand and other acts allowed in through managed isolation this summer include drag queen RuPaul and musicians at Northern Bass in Mangawhai and the Bay Dreams festival. The vice-president of the ...
As families around the world mourn more than two million people dead from Covid-19, the Plan B academics and their PR industry collaborator continue to argue that the New Zealand government should stop focusing on our managed isolation and quarantine system and instead protect the elderly so that they can ...
A chronological listing of news articles linked to on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week: Sun, Jan 10, 2021 through Sat, Jan 16, 2021Editor's ChoiceNASA says 2020 tied for hottest year on record — here’s what you can do to helpPhoto by Michael Held on Unsplash ...
Health authorities in Norway are reporting some concerns about deaths in frail elderly after receiving their COVID-19 vaccine. Is this causally related to the vaccine? Probably not but here are the things to consider. According to the news there have been 23 deaths in Norway shortly after vaccine administration and ...
Happy New Year! No, experts are not concerned that “…one of New Zealand’s COIVD-1( vaccines will fail to protect the country” Here is why. But first I wish to issue an expletive about this journalism (First in Australia and then in NZ). It exhibits utter failure to actually truly consult ...
All nations have shadows; some acknowledge them. For others they shape their image in uncomfortable ways.The staunch Labour supporter was in despair at what her Rogernomics Government was doing. But she finished ‘at least, we got rid of Muldoon’, a response which tells us that then, and today, one’s views ...
Grigori GuitchountsIn November, Springer Nature, one of the world’s largest publishers of scientific journals, made an attention-grabbing announcement: More than 30 of its most prestigious journals, including the flagship Nature, will now allow authors to pay a fee of US$11,390 to make their papers freely available for anyone to read ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Gary Yohe, Henry Jacoby, Richard Richels, and Benjamin Santer Imagine a major climate change law passing the U.S. Congress unanimously? Don’t bother. It turns out that you don’t need to imagine it. Get this: The Global Change Research Act of 1990 was passed ...
“They’re here already! You’re next! You’re next! You’re next!”WHO CAN FORGET the penultimate scene of the 1956 movie classic, Invasion of the Body Snatchers? The wild-eyed doctor, stumbling down the highway, trying desperately to warn his fellow citizens: “They’re here already! You’re next! You’re next! You’re next!”Ostensibly science-fiction, the movie ...
TheOneRing.Net has got its paws on the official synopsis of the upcoming Amazon Tolkien TV series. It’s a development that brings to mind the line about Sauron deliberately releasing Gollum from the dungeons of Barad-dûr. Amazon knew exactly what they were doing here, in terms of drumming up publicity: ...
Since Dwight Eisenhower’s inauguration in 1953, US presidents have joined an informal club intended to provide support - and occasionally rivalry - between those few who have been ‘leaders of the free world’. Donald Trump, elected on a promise to ‘drain the swamp’ and a constant mocker of his predecessors, ...
For over a decade commentators have noted the rise of a new brand of explicitly ideological politics throughout the world. By this they usually refer to the re-emergence of national populism and avowedly illiberal approaches to governance throughout the “advanced” democratic community, but they also extend the thought to the ...
The US House of Representatives has just impeached Donald Trump, giving him the dubious honour of being the only US President to be impeached twice. Ten Republicans voted for impeachement, making it the most bipartisan impeachment ever. The question now is whether the Senate will rise to the occasion, and ...
Kieren Mitchell; Alice Mouton, Université de Liège; Angela Perri, Durham University, and Laurent Frantz, Ludwig Maximilian University of MunichThanks to the hit television series Game of Thrones, the dire wolf has gained a near-mythical status. But it was a real animal that roamed the Americas for at least 250,000 ...
Tide of tidal data rises Having cast our own fate to include rising sea level, there's a degree of urgency in learning the history of mean sea level in any given spot, beyond idle curiosity. Sea level rise (SLR) isn't equal from one place to another and even at a particular ...
Well, some of those chickens sure came home bigly, didn’t they… and proceeded to shit all over the nice carpet in the Capitol. What we were seeing here are societal forces that have long had difficulty trying to reconcile people to the “idea” of America and the reality of ...
In the wake of Donald Trump's incitement of an assault on the US capitol, Twitter finally enforced its terms of service and suspended his account. They've since followed that up with action against prominent QAnon accounts and Trumpers, including in New Zealand. I'm not unhappy with this: Trump regularly violated ...
Peter S. Ross, University of British ColumbiaThe Arctic has long proven to be a barometer of the health of our planet. This remote part of the world faces unprecedented environmental assaults, as climate change and industrial chemicals threaten a way of life for Inuit and other Indigenous and northern ...
Susan St John makes the case for taxing a deemed rate of return on excessive real estate holdings (after a family home exemption), to redirect scarce housing resources to where they are needed most. Read the full article here ...
I’m less than convinced by arguments that platforms like Twitter should be subject to common carrier regulation preventing them from being able to decide who to keep on as clients of their free services, and who they would not like to serve. It’s much easier to create competition for the ...
The hypocritical actions of political leaders throughout the global Covid pandemic have damaged public faith in institutions and governance. Liam Hehir chronicles the way in which contemporary politicians have let down the public, and explains how real leadership means walking the talk. During the Blitz, when German bombs were ...
Over the years, we've published many rebuttals, blog posts and graphics which came about due to direct interactions with the scientists actually carrying out the underlying research or being knowledgable about a topic in general. We'll highlight some of these interactions in this blog post. We'll start with two memorable ...
Yesterday we had the unseemly sight of a landleech threatening to keep his houses empty in response to better tenancy laws. Meanwhile in Catalonia they have a solution for that: nationalisation: Barcelona is deploying a new weapon in its quest to increase the city’s available rental housing: the power ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Jeff Masters, PhD The 2020 global wildfire season brought extreme fire activity to the western U.S., Australia, the Arctic, and Brazil, making it the fifth most expensive year for wildfire losses on record. The year began with an unprecedented fire event ...
NOTE: This is an excerpt from a digital story – read the full story here.Tess TuxfordKo te Kauri Ko Au, Ko te Au ko Kauri I am the kauri, the kauri is me Te Roroa proverb In Waipoua Forest, at the top of the North Island, New ...
Story of the Week... Toon of the Week... Coming Soon on SkS... Poster of the Week... SkS Week in Review... Story of the Week... Coming attraction: IPCC's upcoming major climate assessmentLook for more emphasis on 'solutions,' efforts by cities, climate equity ... and outlook for emissions cuts in ...
Ringing A Clear Historical Bell: The extraordinary images captured in and around the US Capitol Building on 6 January 2021 mirror some of the worst images of America's past.THERE IS A SCENE in the 1982 movie Missing which has remained with me for nearly 40 years. Directed by the Greek-French ...
To impact or not to impeach? I understand why some of those who are justifiably aghast at Trump’s behaviour over recent days might still counsel against impeaching him for a second time. To impeach him, they argue, would run the risk of making him a martyr in the eyes of ...
The Capitol Building, Washington DC, Wednesday, 6 January 2021. Oh come, my little one, come.The day is almost done.Be at my side, behold the sightOf evening on the land.The life, my love, is hardAnd heavy is my heart.How should I live if you should leaveAnd we should be apart?Come, let me ...
A chronological listing of news articles linked to on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week: Sun, Jan 3, 2021 through Sat, Jan 9, 2021Editor's ChoiceAfter the Insurrection: Accountability, Reform, and the Science of Democracy The poisonous lies and enablers of sedition--including Senator Hawley, pictured ...
This article, guest authored by Prof. Angela Gallego-Sala & Dr. Julie Loisel, was originally published on the Carbon Brief website on Dec 21, 2020. It is reposted below in its entirety. Click here to access the original article and comments. Peatlands Peatlands are ecosystems unlike any other. Perpetually saturated, their ...
The assault on the US Capitol and constitutional crisis that it has caused was telegraphed, predictable and yet unexpected and confusing. There are several subplots involved: whether the occupation of the Michigan State House in May was a trial run for the attacks on Congress; whether people involved in the ...
On Christmas Eve, child number 1 spotted a crack in a window. It’s a double-glazed window, and inspection showed that the small, horizontal crack was in the outermost pane. It was perpendicular to the frame, about three-quarters of the way up one side. The origins are a mystery. It MIGHT ...
Anne-Marie Broudehoux, Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM)Will the COVID-19 pandemic prompt a shift to healthier cities that focus on wellness rather than functional and economic concerns? This is a hypothesis that seems to be supported by several researchers around the world. In many ways, containment and physical distancing ...
Does the US need to strike a grand bargain with like-minded countries to pool their efforts? What does this tell us about today’s global politics? Perhaps the most remarkable editorial of last year was the cover leader of the London Economist on 19 November 2020. Shortly after Joe Biden was ...
Alexander Gillespie, University of Waikato and Valmaine Toki, University of WaikatoAotearoa New Zealand likes to think it punches above its weight internationally, but there is one area where we are conspicuously falling behind — the number of sites recognised by the UNESCO World Heritage Convention. Globally, there are 1,121 ...
An event organised by the Auckland PhilippinesSolidarity group Have a three-course lunch at Nanam Eatery with us! Help support the organic farming of our Lumad communities through the Mindanao Community School Agricultural Foundation. Each ticket is $50. Food will be served on shared plates. To purchase, please email phsolidarity@gmail.com or ...
"Abandon Hope All Ye Who Enter Here." Prisons are places of unceasing emotional and physical violence, unrelieved despair and unforgivable human waste.IT WAS NATIONAL’S Bill English who accurately described New Zealand’s prisons as “fiscal and moral failures”. On the same subject, Labour’s Dr Martyn Findlay memorably suggested that no prison ...
This is a re-post from Inside Climate News by Ilana Cohen. Inside Climate News is a nonprofit, independent news organization that covers climate, energy and the environment. Sign up for the ICN newsletter here. Whether or not people accept the science on Covid-19 and climate change, both global crises will have lasting impacts on health and ...
. . American Burlesque As I write this (Wednesday evening, 6 January), the US Presidential election is all but resolved, confirming Joe Biden as the next President of the (Dis-)United State of America. Trump’s turbulent political career has lasted just four years – one of the few single-term US presidents ...
The session started off so well. Annalax – suitably chastised – spent a pleasant morning with his new girlfriend (he would say paramour, of course, but for our purposes, girlfriend is easier*). He told her about Waking World Drow, and their worship of Her Ladyship. And he started ...
In a recent column I wrote for local newspapers, I ventured to suggest that Donald Trump – in addition to being a liar and a cheat, and sexist and racist – was a fascist in the making and would probably try, if he were to lose the election, to defy ...
When I was preparing for my School C English exam I knew I needed some quotes to splash through my essays. But remembering lines was never my strong point, so I tended to look for the low-hanging fruit. We’d studied Shakespeare’s King Lear that year and perhaps the lowest hanging ...
When I went to bed last night, I was expecting today to be eventful. A lot of pouting in Congress as last-ditch Trumpers staged bad-faith "objections" to a democratic election, maybe some rioting on the streets of Washington DC from angry Trump supporters. But I wasn't expecting anything like an ...
Melted ice of the past answers question today? Kate Ashley and a large crew of coauthors wind back the clock to look at Antarctic sea ice behavior in times gone by, in Mid-Holocene Antarctic sea-ice increase driven by marine ice sheet retreat. For armchair scientists following the Antarctic sea ice situation, something jumps out in ...
Christina SzalinskiWhen Martha Field became pregnant in 2005, a singular fear weighed on her mind. Not long before, as a Cornell University graduate student researching how genes and nutrients interact to cause disease, she had seen images of unborn mouse pups smaller than her pinkie nail, some with ...
A growing public housing waiting list and continued increase of house prices must be urgently addressed by Government, Green Party Co-leader Marama Davidson said today. ...
As we welcome in the new year, our focus is on continuing to keep New Zealanders safe and moving forward with our economic recovery. There’s a lot to get on with, but before we say a final goodbye to 2020, here’s a quick look back at some of the milestones ...
A major investment to tackle wilding pines in Mt Richmond will create jobs and help protect the area’s unique ecosystems, Biosecurity Minister Damien O’Connor says. The Mt Richmond Forest Park has unique ecosystems developed on mineral-rich geology, including taonga plant species found nowhere else in the country. “These special plant ...
To further protect New Zealand from COVID-19, the Government is extending pre-departure testing to all passengers to New Zealand except from Australia, Antarctica and most Pacific Islands, COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said today. “The change will come into force for all flights arriving in New Zealand after 11:59pm (NZT) on Monday ...
Bay Conservation Cadets launched with first intake Supported with $3.5 million grant Part of $1.245b Jobs for Nature programme to accelerate recover from Covid Cadets will learn skills to protect and enhance environment Environment Minister David Parker today welcomed the first intake of cadets at the launch of the Bay ...
The Prime Minister of New Zealand Jacinda Ardern and the Prime Minister of the Cook Islands Mark Brown have announced passengers from the Cook Islands can resume quarantine-free travel into New Zealand from 21 January, enabling access to essential services such as health. “Following confirmation of the Cook Islands’ COVID ...
Jobs for Nature funding is being made available to conservation groups and landowners to employ staff and contractors in a move aimed at boosting local biodiversity-focused projects, Conservation Minister Kiritapu Allan has announced. It is estimated some 400-plus jobs will be created with employment opportunities in ecology, restoration, trapping, ...
The Government has approved an exception class for 1000 international tertiary students, degree level and above, who began their study in New Zealand but were caught offshore when border restrictions began. The exception will allow students to return to New Zealand in stages from April 2021. “Our top priority continues ...
Today’s deal between Meridian and Rio Tinto for the Tiwai smelter to remain open another four years provides time for a managed transition for Southland. “The deal provides welcome certainty to the Southland community by protecting jobs and incomes as the region plans for the future. The Government is committed ...
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has appointed Anna Curzon to the APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC). The leader of each APEC economy appoints three private sector representatives to ABAC. ABAC provides advice to leaders annually on business priorities. “ABAC helps ensure that APEC’s work programme is informed by business community perspectives ...
The Government’s prudent fiscal management and strong policy programme in the face of the COVID-19 global pandemic have been acknowledged by the credit rating agency Fitch. Fitch has today affirmed New Zealand’s local currency rating at AA+ with a stable outlook and foreign currency rating at AA with a positive ...
The Government is putting in place a suite of additional actions to protect New Zealand from COVID-19, including new emerging variants, COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said today. “Given the high rates of infection in many countries and evidence of the global spread of more transmissible variants, it’s clear that ...
$36 million of Government funding alongside councils and others for 19 projects Investment will clean up and protect waterways and create local jobs Boots on the ground expected in Q2 of 2021 Funding part of the Jobs for Nature policy package A package of 19 projects will help clean up ...
The commemoration of the 175th anniversary of the Battle of Ruapekapeka represents an opportunity for all New Zealanders to reflect on the role these conflicts have had in creating our modern nation, says Associate Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Kiri Allan. “The Battle at Te Ruapekapeka Pā, which took ...
Babies born with tongue-tie will be assessed and treated consistently under new guidelines released by the Ministry of Health, Associate Minister of Health Dr Ayesha Verrall announced today. Around 5% to 10% of babies are born with a tongue-tie, or ankyloglossia, in New Zealand each year. At least half can ...
The prisoner disorder event at Waikeria Prison is over, with all remaining prisoners now safely and securely detained, Corrections Minister Kelvin Davis says. The majority of those involved in the event are members of the Mongols and Comancheros. Five of the men are deportees from Australia, with three subject to ...
Travellers from the United Kingdom or the United States bound for New Zealand will be required to get a negative test result for COVID-19 before departing, and work is underway to extend the requirement to other long haul flights to New Zealand, COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins confirmed today. “The new PCR test requirement, foreshadowed last ...
By Lorraine Ecarma in Cebu City The University of the Philippines Visayas (UPV) will continue to stand against any threats to human rights, chancellor Clement Camposano has declared in response to the termination of a long-standing accord preventing military incursion on campus. In a Facebook post, Camposano said the academic ...
ANALYSIS:By Jennifer S. Hunt, Australian National University Every four years on January 20, the US exercises a key tenant of democratic government: the peaceful transfer of power. This year, the scene looks a bit different. If the last US presidential inauguration in 2017 debuted the phrase “alternative facts”, the ...
By Lulu Mark in Port Moresby In spite of Papua New Guinea’s mandatory mask-wearing requirement under the National Pandemic Act 2020, many public servants attending a dedication service in Port Moresby have failed to wear one. They were issued masks before entering the Sir John Guise Indoor Complex but took ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Christian Moro, Associate Professor of Science & Medicine, Bond University How do scabs form? — Talila, aged 8 Great question, Talila! Our skin has many different jobs. One is to act as a barrier, protecting us from harmful things in the ...
US President Donald Trump is pardoning former White House adviser Steve Bannon, who is accused of fraud in a case involving funds for the border wall. ...
Joel Little with Lorde, Dera Meelan with Church & AP, Josh Fountain with Maala and Randa and Benee – producers make good songs great. Now a new fund from NZ on Air is putting the focus on them.Six months ago it looked like the music industry was on the brink ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Denise Buiten, Senior Lecturer in Social Justice and Sociology, University of Notre Dame Australia On average, one child is killed by a parent almost every fortnight in Australia. Last week, three children — Claire, 7, Anna, 5, and Matthew, 3 — were ...
This commendable and realistic decision again underlines that it is the police, not government, who are largely responsible for the reduction in cannabis prosecutions over the past 15 years, writes Russell Brown.The news that New Zealand police have discontinued the annual Helicopter Recovery Operation, which has, each summer for more ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ilan Noy, Professor and Chair in the Economics of Disasters and Climate Change, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington We will not be able to put the COVID-19 pandemic behind us until the world’s population is mostly immune through vaccination ...
Welcome to The Spinoff’s US inauguration live blog: inauguration news, analysis and reaction, updated throughout Wednesday and Thursday, NZ time. Reach me at catherine@thespinoff.co.nz.4.00pm: What will Trump be doing tomorrow?It’s pretty well known by now that outgoing president Donald Trump intends to throw out the rulebook when it comes to ...
The Auckland Ratepayers’ Alliance is calling out Mayor Phil Goff for his undignified comment that the claim made by Councillor Greg Sayers asking why Auckland Council is funding yoga classes is “bullshit.” Yesterday, Councillor Greg Sayers penned ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Melbourne At 4am Thursday AEDT, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris will be inaugurated as president and vice president of the United States, replacing Donald Trump and Mike Pence. What follows is ...
*This article was originally published on RNZ and is republished with permission. New Zealanders flocked to beaches and lakes this summer, but it wasn't enough to fill the gap left by international tourists in other regions. The tourism industry is struggling to fill a $6 billion hole left by international tourists ...
Summer reissue: Chef Monique Fiso joins us for a chat about Hiakai – her acclaimed Wellington restaurant, and the title of her stunning new book.First published November 3, 2020.Independent journalism depends on you. Help us stay curious in 2021. The Spinoff’s journalism is funded by its members – click here to learn ...
A new trough was brought to our attention this morning, although ethnicity will limit the numbers of eligible applicants. If you are non-Maori, it looks like you shouldn’t bother getting into the queue – but who knows?We learned of the trough from the Scoop website, where the Kapiti ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Britta Denise Hardesty, Principal Research Scientist, Oceans and Atmosphere Flagship, CSIRO Illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing costs economies up to US$50 billion globally each year, and makes up to one-fifth of the global catch. It’s a huge problem not only for the ...
Police stopping major cannabis eradication operations has given the green light to drug dealers and gangs to expand operations, make more profit, and continue to wreak havoc on the most vulnerable in our society, says Sensible Sentencing Trust. ...
Varieties of merino wool footwear are emerging faster than Netflix series about British aristocracy. Michael Andrew takes a look at the rise of the shoe that almost everyone – including his 95-year-old grandma – is wearing.Some might say it all started with Allbirds. After all, to the average consumer, it ...
A new report from New Zealand’s Independent Monitoring Mechanism (IMM) highlights the realities and challenges disabled people faced during the COVID-19 emergency. The report, Making Disability Rights Real in a Pandemic, Te Whakatinana i ngā Tika ...
The Maritime Union is questioning the reasons provided for ongoing delays at the Ports of Auckland. Maritime Union of New Zealand National Secretary Craig Harrison says there is a need for an honest conversation about what has gone wrong at the ...
As New Zealand faces a dire shortage of veterinarians, a petition has been launched urging the Government to reclassify veterinarians as critical workers so we can Get Vets into NZ. “New Zealand desperately needs veterinarians from overseas to counter ...
New Zealand is fast developing a reputation as a South Pacific vandal, says Greenpeace, as the government continues to fight against increased ocean protection. At the upcoming meeting of the South Pacific Regional Fisheries Management Organisation (SPRFMO), ...
The Department of Internal Affairs and Netsafe are urging parents and caregivers to be mindful of the online content their tamariki may be consuming in the lead up to the inauguration of president-elect of the United States of America Joe Biden ...
Care is at the centre of Auckland Zoo’s mandate, and it’s clear to see when you witness the staff doing their day-to-day jobs up close. Leonie Hayden went behind the scenes to talk to two people who would do anything for the animals they look after. “We were having this ...
The Game Animal Council (GAC) is applying its expertise in the use of firearms for hunting to work alongside Police, other agencies and stakeholder groups to improve the compliance provisions for hunters and other firearms users. The GAC has been ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Verica Rupar, Professor, Auckland University of Technology “The lie outlasts the liar,” writes historian Timothy Snyder, referring to outgoing president Donald Trump and his contribution to the “post-truth” era in the US. Indeed, the mass rejection of reason that erupted in a ...
The internet ain’t what it used to be, thanks to privacy issues, data leaks, censorship and hate speech. But a group of New Zealanders are working on a way to give power back to the people. A flood of headlines over the last week made it clear: the internet has become ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rob Brooks, Scientia Professor of Evolutionary Ecology; Academic Lead of UNSW’s Grand Challenges Program, UNSW The views of women and men can differ on important gendered issues such as abortion, gender equity and government spending priorities. Surprisingly, however, average differences in sex ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jennifer S. Hunt, Lecturer in National Security, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University Every four years on January 20, the US exercises a key tenant of democratic government: the peaceful transfer of power. This year, the scene looks a bit ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clare Collins, Laureate Professor in Nutrition and Dietetics, University of Newcastle In Australia and around the world, research is showing changes in body weight, cooking, eating and drinking patterns associated with COVID lockdowns. Some changes have been positive, such as people cooking ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Hao Tan, Associate professor, University of Newcastle Australian coal exports to China plummeted last year. While this is due in part to recent trade tensions between Australia and China, our research suggests coal plant closures are a bigger threat to Australia’s export ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Asha Bowen, Head, Skin Health, Telethon Kids Institute A year ago, in late January 2020, Australia reported its first cases of COVID-19. Since then, we have seen almost 29,000 confirmed cases and 909 deaths. As cases climbed in Australian cities in 2020, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kevin Davis, Emeritus Professor of Finance, University of Melbourne Political pressure forced the federal government in 2017 – when Scott Morrison was treasurer – to call the royal commission into misconduct in the banking, superannuation and financial services sector. Commissioner Kenneth Hayne ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Justin Ellis, Lecturer in Criminology at the University of Newcastle, University of Newcastle The Rise and Fall of Saint George is a story about place, belonging and community that taps into universal tensions of identity and faith in multicultural societies. Playing for ...
An in-depth analysis of media coverage of the euthanasia and cannabis referendums has found that while both sides of the euthanasia referendum were given reasonably fair and balanced coverage, the YES position in the cannabis debate received a heavily ...
*This article was originally published on RNZ and is republished with permission Auckland has no plans to hand over the ownership of it assets under the government's planned water reforms, with Auckland Mayor Phil Goff saying his top priority is to ensure it stacks up for the city. Despite ...
Auckland Transport is putting nine new electric buses on the roads today, as it dramatically accelerates its plans to get rid of all its diesel buses – in a funding challenge to the council. Public transport operators are being told to not buy any more diesel buses or risk losing their council ...
Summer reissue: Join Michèle A’Court, Alex Casey and Leonie Hayden as they find out exactly what we’re voting on in the cannabis referendum, and discover how legalising weed is a women’s issue.First published August 4, 2020.Independent journalism depends on you. Help us stay curious in 2021. The Spinoff’s journalism is ...
A principal analyst for the Climate Change Commission says more needs to be done to reduce agricultural emissions or the country will miss its methane targets. ...
New Zealand needs to be bold in making developers enhance the environment - not just limit its degradation, writes Stephen Knight-Lenihan All human activity should help restore the natural world. This is a concept that may resonate following the upheavals of 2020 and one which is beginning to appear in law. Imagine ...
Derek Challis, son of the legendary author Robin Hyde, died last Thursday. Michelle Leggott pays tribute He opens a suitcase and there they are, the precious manuscript notebooks written by his poet mother Iris Wilkinson aka Robin Hyde. We are in Dunedin for a Hyde conference. Yes, says Derek Arden ...
Former New Zealand gymnast Katya Nosova is now a champion bodybuilder, who was prepared to spend Christmas alone in quarantine to compete in the 'Olympics' of her sport. Katya Nosova was willing to do everything she could to pose on the world stage in her third Ms Olympia. Despite a ...
Concerts and some sports look likely to be on the move in Auckland after a big win for Eden Park – and politicians and officials may now want to win the public some control over the independent stadium. The advent of big concerts at Eden Park will, in all likelihood, mean ...
Despite promises of improvement, questions remain about colonoscopy services in Otago and Southland.David Williams reports The apology, when it came, was fulsome. “On behalf of the Southern DHB, I offer a sincere apology for lapses and inadequacies in colonoscopy services over the past several years,” district health board chair ...
The issues political editor Justin Giovannetti will be keeping an eye on in 2021 (that have nothing to do with Covid-19).New Zealand will be busy in 2021. The border will remain closed to nearly all travellers and Covid-19 will continue to lead the news, but the country has a packed ...
A former case manager says that his experience working with beneficiaries suggests claims of a ‘complete shift’ in the service’s approach are laughable.A former Work and Income case manager who now works with beneficiaries engaging with the service has spoken out on a “toxic” culture which he says denies beneficiaries ...
ACC Minister Carmel Sepuloni must confirm whether the Government supports ACC’s apparent policy to make payouts for illegal overstayers , says the New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union . Union spokesman Jordan Williams says, “Since when was it ACC policy to ...
By RNZ News An independent panel says Chinese officials could have applied public health measures more forcefully in January to curb the initial covid-19 outbreak, and criticised the World Health Organisation (WHO) for not declaring an international emergency until 30 January. The experts reviewing the global handling of the pandemic, ...
Pacific Media Watch newsdesk Fiji’s NGO Coalition on Human Rights has called for stronger accountability and commitment to human rights at home in response to the country taking the world stage as the head of a UN body. The UN Human Rights Council (UNHCR) elected Fiji’s ambassador Nazhat Shameem as ...
Danyl McLauchlan reviews Stuart Ritchie’s Science Fictions, which outlines the staggering systemic flaws in the funding and publication of scientific papers. Back in August of 2006 a number of New Zealand scientists were caught up in a media controversy about whether Māori had a genetic predisposition towards violent crime. It kicked ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Robert G. Patman, Professor of International Relations, University of Otago America is currently experiencing its worst political and constitutional crisis since the civil war when the very survival of Abraham Lincoln’s government “of, by and for the people” was at stake. On ...
Manaaki Rangatahi report that young people experiencing homelessness are being further traumatized within the emergency accommodation where they have sought safety. Often these environments are unsafe, and unsuitable for young people to live in, and rangatahi ...
Can you figure out which of the above is the real Jacinda Ardern? Probably! But one day, that might not be true.There are many reasons to believe the internet shouldn’t exist. Social media empires exerting, intentionally or not, their control over sovereign governments. Baby Shark. Your aunt on Facebook.It pains ...
The Point of Order Ministers on a Mission Monitor has flickered only fleetingly for much of the month. More than once, the minister to trigger it has been David Parker, who set it off again yesterday with an announcement that shows how he has been spending our money. He welcomed ...
Ban Bomb Day event at the New Brighton Pier, 9am, on January 22nd, 2021 January 22nd, 2021, marks the first day the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) Enters into Force and becomes international law. Aotearoa NZ is one of the ...
Why are New Zealand’s 2 Minute Noodles called 3 Minute Noodles in the UK? It’s a puzzle that has taken hold of Dylan Reeve and refuses to let go.I’m a child of the 80s and 90s. I watched a lot of TV and was a big fan of aggressively marketed ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jonatan A Lassa, Senior Lecturer, Humanitarian Emergency and Disaster Management, College of Indigenous Futures, Arts and Society, Charles Darwin University News of storms battering parts of Queensland and the threat posed by Cyclone Kimi reminded me of a recent experience I’d had. ...
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Nat leader exposing border failures seems effective, but declaring a Nat govt would do the job properly is unconvincing. If the border control shambles is produced by public servants unable to collaborate or even follow instructions, obviously the same outcome would occur if a National minister was (nominally) in charge of the process.
Posturing in parliament doesn't solve the problem. The problem seems to be due to poor coordination of the govt depts involved, right? How can politicians mouthing off at it correct the situation? Media can't cope with reporting the problem due to inability to discover who in the public service is getting it wrong.
So the PM has laboured under the delusion that the public service was implementing decisions made by her govt two months ago, and can only express disappointment at the news that implementation hadn't been happening – or, at best, only partially.
If bureaucrats can keep using anonymity to evade accountability for failure, we can't expect National to do any better than Labour – bureaucrats are the ones with the real power over the situation, and they are either useless or can't be bothered getting their act together. Winston said yesterday that someone ought to be held accountable but didn't specify who – the system stops him discovering who screwed up.
I wish we had honesty about this from both major party leaders. It would be refreshing to see them admitting the real nature of the problem. That ought to be happening when they discuss the situation in parliament. Pretending that one lot can do better than the other is merely a sham to con voters.
Speaking from experience, I can say that having to answer questions in parliament does ensure Ministers are on top of their portfolios. Ministers will make sure they ask the right questions of officials, they will follow up.
That is the value of public accountability in parliament. It forces better performance than does a closed system with no public accountability.
Yes, the failures are very public, but they are also more quickly fixed.
An essential part of a democracy.
What I'd like to see happening in parliament is this q+a: What are the names of the public servants who were given the job of establishing the border control systems to stop the virus re-entering? What areas of operation were they each responsible for?
This is in accord with the principle of transparency in governance. Traditional Nat/Lab collusion in evading such implementation in the past derives from complacent assumption that the public have no right to know. I believe we do. If public servants have a shaming potential gearing their thinking, they are more likely to avoid the misbehaviour that will produce the shaming.
Designing systems with negative-feedback incorporated to produce suitable outputs has been conventional in technology for a very long time. It is also part of nature. Ongoing failure to improve democracy via such design is evidence of inadequacy.
And clear KPIs to be enforced in their performance reviews.
KPIs can actually bring about poor performance:
And, yes, I have seen that happen and so have other people that I know.
KPIs are not a magic fix.
That is so stupid.
Would you like the names of Police? How about the names of public hospital psychiatrists? And all those lab technicians? What about the names of all the security guards and customs workers? Let's keep going and go for the names of all the teachers that might have been in contact as well? All the Defence Force personnel? And of course all the nurses?
Why don't we just lock them all in a great big shipping container, throw in a knife, and open it up in the morning?
At some point the blood lust for blame is just rage.
What a feeble apology for institutionalised incompetence! You do realise that operational reporting occurs in the private sector, and produces efficiencies as a natural consequence, and this has been happening since the 19th century if not earlier?? So why the hell do you expect the public sector to be eternally hamstrung by bad design?
If you want a court of inquiry or Parliamentary inquiry, then propose that.
Not a witch hunt.
Asking for the naming and shaming of public servants is categorically wrong.
What kind of moron would take such inquiries seriously?? Have you ever seen anything other than cover-ups from them?
I expect the public service to operate to the same standards of accountability as everyone else. If you have operational responsibilities, you are accountable to all stakeholders for their performance.
Trying to excuse institutionalised moral corruption isn't a swamp you ought to be wallowing in. Extract yourself.
You expect too much and show zero empathy for frontline staff.
Clearly you have no-one close to you working in this situation.
Stop your frothing for blood. It achieves nothing except more rage. People are not to blame for the spread of the virus: people are the solution.
Inquiries in this country are regularly carried out and quite effectively, and they go through a series of levels of severity.
We should expect to see multiple structural adjustments across all kinds of public department after this – the Simpson Report is just a start to what is in front.
Totally with you Ad; if operational staff were exposed to public witch hunts and shaming the entire system would fail. No-one would be willing to do the work.
The chain of public sector accountability starts at the top and works it's way downward. The reason why the top managers get the big salaries is because they are the ones exposed to this risk. Ordinary operational staff are not paid for this.
You & Red are chewing your own red herring. I never specified operational staff. They just follow orders. I specified managers of operations. I meant those who either failed to give orders to implement govt policy, or failed to report that the orders they gave didn't produce the intended outcome.
Yes you did right here:
Yes, the people doing the job are, as a matter of fact, the operational staff.
This is the kinder gentler Dennis is it? You got a bee lodged up your tailpipe or sutin?
Indeed, we need a smaller government and state sector and need to privatise as much as we can and possibly more \sarc
The flaw in your otherwise flawless thinking is that private and state sectors are the same. They aren’t. This kind of corporate thinking AKA dogmatic neoliberal orthodoxy has taken over many of our public institutions such as universities, hospitals, and DHBs. And people wonder why it is not working out so well …
You do realise that the manager’s wet dream of operational reporting is drowning and suffocating institutions because it creates its own bureaucracy? The answer always seems to be “more” while, in fact, less is more.
The problem with operational reporting and so-called feedback loops is that they are too general. Instead, they should be highly specific, focussed, and targeted. Only then can you ‘measure’ something properly without a whole lot of noise that needs to be filtered out AKA ‘analysed’.
Agree with Ad, disagree with public doxing, it is why we have the leaders, they are the public face, why they get paid the big bucks afterall. Public naming & shaming & chucking juniors under busses is what I'd expect Collins & Brownlee to do, to appease the Mervs on talkback & the Hootons in newsprint. Fuk that.
On the other hand, public servants who lie to their ministers should be seeking employment in the private sector pretty smartly.
Yeah but that's an outlier likelihood. I suspect the lack of implementation resulted in fuzzy upward reporting, such as `yeah, yeah, we're getting a round tuit', the ole MoW spade-leaning strategy recycled ad nauseum.
You're on the right track though. Someone, or some, in the public service do seem to have got away with setting up the govt &/or the DG. Such scurrilous behaviour deserves serious consequences. My faith that they will happen in due course is zero – due to too many precedents fading into history…
I'm prone to making mistakes (although I do try to learn from them), so that trait would probably rapidly exclude me from public service if I was silly enough to seek such a role under Dennis' proposed regime of naming and shaming.
If you are referring to mistakes in scientific operations, the parallel would be whatever communal decision-making gets triggered by them. You could make helpful suggestions deriving from such professional experience. By analogy, you could then suggest how similar corrective measures could be incorporated into the public service.
Mistakes in general, Dennis, in general. We all make 'em, ‘some’ more often than others. "A gradual decline of cognitive function and concurrent loss of brain volume is an expected process even in healthy aging." Normal Cognitive Aging
Non-lethal mistakes are the best ‘teachers‘, IMHO. Also IMHO, a clear distinction should be made between (simple) mistakes and self-serving or malicious decision making whenever possible.
I agree – the quasi-corporate presumptions of neo-liberalism devolved enormous power to civil servants. With that power should come accountability and responsibility. The scoundrels who granted the Bottle O migrant exploiter over 100 work permits need to be fined and sacked – in effect they exported over 100 NZ jobs. They were his de facto accomplices.
100%
Ah – that's getting close to it! And you can be sure the 'scoundrels' will be high up in the chain and have important rw connections. More than just rooting out one group of bad eggs there needs to be an investigation and overhaul of the entire public service!
Denis, I tend not to read what you have written, because there it is most often too long………….
Having been employed in a DHB 20 years ago, let me assure you that clinicians are held to account quite rigoursly (as are their managers)……In health so much can go wrong and we knew back then, if it did we would undergo a very thorough review, sometimes with a lawyer (district inspector) involved. Same with KPIs Rosie Lee.
But by all means let's name all these health professionals and administrators doing the heavy lifting with the virus at the borders. Such a popular job and I am sure others will be lining up to do it……
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/423646/canterbury-district-health-board-faces-fifth-high-level-resignation-since-last-month
I've heard a report about this on RNZ. There is a lot of stress over the budget, board and staff. And between them and the Ministry.
It would appear the Health Board needs the increases in funding it gets just to maintain services, and needs a separate funding stream – shovel ready project job creation to fix up/replace earthquake damaged buildings still being used.
More generally, all health boards and a few councils are burdened by historic debt – this localised/regional burden continuing when government debt is so cheap is surprising.
I'll leave aside the issue of some of the building accounting cost HB's are subject to, that needs review given government debt costs also.
I tend not to read what Dennis writes too, but for entirely different reasons.
First thing you have said that I agree with for a very long time.
Honesty is one thing we almost certainly won’t see from anybody in this. Hipkins’s mea culpa to the House yesterday will be about as much as you get from the government and in order for National to get any electoral benefit from the shambles they will need to convince us that they would be able to do a vastly better job. There’s plenty of dick waving to come.
I wonder though if Reti has departed from National’s script with the blessing of his leadership?
As for Winston, it’s election time and he loves to be an opposition politician.
Scott GN. what is the shambles????????
Perhaps you are agreeing with the Donald "we don't want that here"
Oh I don’t know anker? Repeatedly assuring the country that front line border staff were indeed all getting tested, only to have to admit that in reality it was just 40% when the inevitable outbreak occurred, and you’d just put the country’s largest city into Level 3 restrictions, might just be the teensiest of own goals wouldn’t you say?
But the testing regime is in now way responsible for or a causation of the current outbreak, so, even if the testing had been covering all employees, we still would've had this outbreak as no one in border Quarantine has, or has had the same strain as the current outbreak.
That may well be. But the government’s response to the outbreak would have been much better received if they weren’t also dealing with accusations, correct or otherwise, that they had failed to deliver on their earlier rhetoric around testing of frontline staff at the border.
ScottGN …….shambles. = A state of total disorder………..
No its a shambles doesn't wash. The fact that we are in level three shows its not disorder. The testing at the border of returnees was working well. Securing the facilities from escapees………..testing and contract tracing working to contain the cluster. Unprecidented numbers being tested.
So I have to say Scott GN, describing it as a shambles is bull shit.
I guess it depends on who you mean by "front line border staff", and how often you expect testing to happen. Quite reasonably baggage handlers at an airport may get tested less frequently than nurses in a quarantine facility, or even only tested if they show symptoms. There are a huge number of people doing different jobs – what do you mean by front line border staff? If for example everyone is to be tested twice a month, then rather than doing everyone on one day, it may be reasonable to start testing in a staggered way. After two weeks, there may be quite a few of those workers still not tested, but there may have been less of a shambles than trying to test everyone in a week . . .
The third option is deliberate undermining by “someone”… doesn’t happen? Well I would put forward MSD and Immigration as two likely places it does, and the top and Parliamentary levels of the National Party e.g. Boag, Woodhouse and Falloon.
Plenty of evidence there are people who would deliberately try to undermine the Govts efforts for political gain.
Collins needs a good sharp shock a day working as a cleaner at the Jet Park Hotel might do it. Her attitude is unhelpful because she needs to be part of the solution and not adding to the problems which the government are trying to fix. Collins is entitled to ask balanced questions so a process is as reliable as it can be.
The only real way to detect these kinds of issues is to go and walk around sites periodically and ask questions from front face people. Not only politicians, but also their trusted staff.
Yeah, exactly. That reality-check ought to have been included as part of operational design, so that managers discover non-compliance asap. Two months in a pandemic crisis is way too long to wait for operational feedback!
And that's where economics comes in. It's something that's simply impossible to do to the degree that you're demanding.
No process is perfect and it simply cannot be.
The constant with risk management, is what can be done better – and this should be continuous and on-going. Best practice – kaizen, is not an end but a process.
ISTM the both the opposition and the media are looking for scapegoats. While a typical human reaction, we all want someone to blame, this would be highly inappropriate right now. Once this pandemic is well under control, and we are all at level 1 or 0, then is the time for the full inquiry.
While we are still in the middle of it, all scapegoating would do is create a climate of fear among all border workers. It may suit Judith, but it would hamper any decent border control.
Scapegoating is a red herring. Knowing who is responsible for operational areas eliminates covert behaviour that is anti-public by design. It changes the operational incentive-structure, tilting it in the direction of appropriate decision-making.
Govt inquiries routinely mask lines of accountability, so it is naive to expect them to expose those who let the side down.
Border workers ought to fear infection produced by bad management. If they know managers can’t hide, they will have more confidence that the system will work.
Most Ministers ought not to know who public servant is undertaking which action, unless it is criminal. And even if charges have been laid, that is an operational matter for their management and for the Police.
So now you want to exhibit a lack of knowledge of how complex systems operate. As if to distract everyone from the real issue: public safety endangered by anonymous incompetent bureaucrats, plus current govt made to look hopelessly inadequate in consequence. Make you feel good?
Actually I feel nothing but gratitude for the thousands of public servants, volunteers and contractors who are indeed keeping us safe.
Try it.
So what you're asking for is perfection from every health sector worker. Having had some experience with the health dept, good luck with that.
Why do people persist in reading stuff into comments that isn't actually there?? Take what I wrote at face value, why don't you? Nobody's perfect, we just need to own our performance consequences.
Absolutely agree, just not in public. Nobody likes to be called out by the boss in front of the rest of the world. Deal with it at work, have the inquiry when the time is right.
Fudging moral responsibility never works. And I agree that being called out for personal failures is unpleasant, but public safety weighs more heavily in the balance, eh? Tolerating the status quo, in which public servants use their cloak of anonymity as a cover for laziness, has no moral basis.
Institutionalised bullying is not public safety.
you are full of it dennis. own our performance consequences! what stone have you been living under for 40 yrs? try getting what you are asking for out of ANY large organisation, gov or private . the modern way is to avoid responsibility and hide behind a wall of secretaries, put off by bad telephone answering systems ,and ever less face to face service. try getting your downed copper phone line repaired, what a circus. your phone provider sends a request through to chorus ,who pass it on to downer, who then MIGHT pass it on to yet another link in the chain, who then will look for the cheapest self employed technician with a ladder and pliers. getting names out of any of these links is like getting truth out of trump.
Look, you don't solve a social problem by institutionalising it. Defeatism is the wrong attitude to adopt. Social reform is the suitable response to such problems. That means adopting a sensible design solution.
you also dont solve a problem by coming on a political website and jumping up and down . in my case, I got off my arse, got off the internet, and did some actual legwork. try it……
jumping up and down
I specified the structural problem in our govt that keeps inflicting this type of bullshit on us, then suggested a suitable design of reform to solve that problem.
If that look like jumping up and down to you, improvement of focus may help to clarify your vision. Can't do wood art unless you can see the design in your mind that your art is deployed to produce out of the wood!
cant do wood art by jumping up and down and expecting others to take note of your jumping up and down, when you jump up and down all of the time. as somebody else on here stated today, "dont bother to read your posts, dennis ,because they are too long" . putting up posts every two minutes gets the same results. a gigantic "meh"
110% Stephen D…..
I know the system should have been up and running with testing border staff. It didn't get rolled out fast enough……..managing a pandemic has not been done before in our life time. They are having to develop and implement systems that normally take years.
I also know if I was one of those border workers who was refused a test, I would have tried to get one at my GP's, talked to my union and written to Hipkins, Bloomfield and Ardern………….I am not meaning to blame the victim here.
There use to be an add on the tele in the 60's LV Martin "its the putting right that counts"…. I am going with that.
Collins hasnt exposed fuck all, she jumped on the band wagon once media got the story, if the useless old crone had been being a proper opposition leader they would have exposed this weeks ago .
That made me laugh bwag, for another laugh listen to the Morn Rep interview, Collins spends 5 or so minutes criticising the Tracer Ph App, then has to ask Corin Dann what the Ph App actually does coz she doesn't know! But, she's going to reveal a better one.
And would, as a matter of fact, be a hell of a lot worse as National would be contracting the whole out to the lowest bidder in the private sector.
What news about that? So far, I haven't seen any indication that the implementation hadn't been happening.
Honesty isn't confirming what you think is happening bet telling everyone what the evidence shows.
How to be a covidiot!
https://witchdoctor.co.nz/index.php/2020/08/a-diy-guide-to-covidiocy/
Should be compulsory reading for all conspiracy theorists from Big G downwards!
Justin Trudeau has appointed Christia Freeland (Canada’s version of Megan Woods) to the role of Finance Minister after securing the resignation of Bill Morneau in an attempt to mop up a damaging conflict of interest scandal.
Freeland will remain Deputy Prime Minister (an uncommon role in Canada’s version of Westminster cabinet government) but will give up the special job of heading intergovernmental relations that Trudeau had given her to try and sort out the fraying relationships between Ottawa and the Provincial governments.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/trudeau-cabinet-finance-minister-1.5690404
Trudeau has just prorogued the parliament in Ottawa. The House of Commons is in summer recess so effectively what he has done is suspend all parliamentary business including committees probing the ethic controversy that’s consumed his government until the GG delivers a new speech from the throne when the house resumes on Sep 23.
So how much money do we spend to get a CEO who can make it rain?
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/122480402/775k-auckland-council-agency-salaries-must-be-cut–but-its-not-the-ceos-fault
What about someone who doesn't worship at the altar of markets or read the holy scripture of balance sheets?
How about someone who can get the leaks fixed? 50 million litres a day. A day!
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/420455/auckland-s-leaky-pipes-lose-more-water-than-the-city-saves
Someone with the creativity and charisma to get Aucklanders to think and act to conserve water.
All reticulation systems leak. The older they are the more they leak.
As cities get older, pipes that were installed many decades ago tend to fail, and this inevitably drives the leak rate up. The good news is that modern piping materials and techniques, especially fusion welded HDPE plastic pipes installed to a good standard have a much lower leak rate and much longer lifetimes. As these new pipes become a larger fraction of the system and older ones more fragile ones are replaced, the total leak rate will decline. Reticulation managers everywhere are in a slow race between the rate of failure of older pipes and the rate at which they can replace or fix them.
Every water supplier is aware of the issue, and most will endeavour to spend their maintenance budget as effectively balance the cost of the leaks against the cost of upgrading the pipes. Basic asset management 101.
There is a fair bit more to this if you are interested.
A good 2010 NZ overview.
But in short the global leakage range in developed countries is 8 – 24%. For the whole of NZ it’s about 18%. Auckland is doing OK at a bit over 13%.
Thanks RL, I wI'll give it a read after work.
You have touched on, what I think, is the crux of the issue. The neo-liberal approach to business. Concern for this and next year's balance sheet.
It's cheaper to just buy more water than to treat water as the taonga that it is. Perhaps if Auckland adjusted the KPI.s for the next CEO of Watercare, so that they were to become global leaders of water reticulation.
Collins is not doing herself any favours on Morning Report just now. She gets herself into a tangle whenever anything technical comes up.
So why does RNZ give her the oxygen? Dann allowed her to repeat and repeat the same garbage. Where is Kim Hill when we need her?
I thought Dann did a pretty OK job of trying to keep her on track actually.
National knows what a gift this is for them, especially considering the terrible state they’re in. That was obvious from the moment the news broke a week ago. Don’t expect them to give it up anytime soon.
As for the government, well you’d have to be a blind acolyte not to see that they have dropped the ball big time with the border testing fiasco. Why somebody wasn’t detailed from the ministry to absolutely make sure this was getting done properly is unfathomable. It’s not like we didn’t already know opaque and intractable the wallahs in the health ministry are.
Very Prime Ministerial…..not
Judith doesn’t have to look prime ministerial just yet. The government, thanks to its apparent inability to learn anything from the quarantine testing shambles a couple of months ago when the two women were let out untested to drive up and down the country, has given National the lifeline they were desperate for. Don’t expect them not to use it.
only if National had not gone bonkers the last few months, if this was their first foray into criticism, but they're their own worse enemies. No one has forgotten only a few weaks ago they were screaming "open the borders".'
Exactly. NZ would be in a total lock down and a lot of us oldies would be dead had the Nats been in power with their open border plan putting money first over keeping people alive. That point must be stated over and over.
"Judith doesn’t have to look prime ministerial just yet"
On the contrary, thats exactly what she needs to present…a viable alternative
There’s plenty of time for Judith to adopt the mantle of PM-in-waiting as we get further into the campaign. Whether she is successful at that only time will tell.
Right now though her job is to attack the government over what are obvious slip ups with testing of front line border staff. Part of National’s election strategy is to cast the government (and the PM particularly) as good at the talk and poor at the delivery. Unfortunately this latest episode is great boon to them in that endeavour.
plenty of time?…I think not, voting can begin in 45 days, and the public having expected to vote considerably earlier will have largely nailed down their preference…Collins' performing as she is gives them little reason to reconsider
so when does collins need to look like a PM in waiting? tomorrow,? three weeks? six weeks? think most people have already made their minds up on who to vote for, so collins should have looked like a PM in waiting, the day she got the nod to led the nats.
Oh I think Judith will be wearing the mantle of gravitas befitting a potential PM about the time she and Ardern face off in the election debates – or at least she’ll be trying to. Hopefully her inner nature will get the better of her.
so, she will be doing it for the undecided voters then? because her acolytes have already decided she;s the one, and everybody else is already tuned out. election debates are like cooking shows, cheap programming for bored invalids.
Ben Thomas was asked if the Nats looked like a Govt in waiting, he said "ask me in a few weeks", ha!
Scott the govt learnt that tighter systems needed to be put in place for the people isolating and they did that…….tighter testing, tighter social distancing and tighter patrols in the facilities. To say the govt learnt nothing from 2 months ago, simply isn't true
The Govt response has been world class, the proof is the state of the rest of the world.
Sure after the last embarrassing slip up they moved to put the proper protocols in place for returnees. Great.
That doesn’t distract though from the fact that there has been something of a chasm between what the government told us was happening with testing frontline border staff (as opposed to people returning and in quarantine) and the reality on the ground.
It probably shouldn’t surprise anyone, practically every western government has been badly tripped up by covid at one point or another. Ours was never going to be any different.
Our government will continue to make mistakes.
It would be mischevious to imply that the NZ government and public health service strategy (Covid-19 elimination), and the response of the team of nearly five million, isn't different to that of the US, UK, Sweden, Brazil, Spain, Italy, France, Ireland, etc. etc. And our Covid-19 health outcomes are different too – go figure.
“We don’t know how lucky we are in this country”
Of course, I don’t for a moment think our response has been anywhere near as chaotic as other governments. And we’re right to be proud of what we’ve achieved. But, as the PM herself has been saying, Covid is a tricky bugger and there will be missteps along the way.
Jude be nimble, Jude be quick, Gerry jump over the Covid stick.
“National leader Judith Collins is distancing herself from her party’s earlier stand on allowing international students to isolate in university accommodation, refusing to endorse it as a current policy.
Instead, she and border policy spokesman Gerry Brownlee both told media that National would release its full Covid-19 border policy later this week.”
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/300085183/coronavirus-national-goes-cold-on-international-student-policy
This is a welcome acknowledgement by the leaders of the opposition National party that responding to the health threats posed by the Covid-19 pandemic requires that policy and responses be adjusted as we learn more about how this virus spreads, compromises health, and kills.
Is there someplace Collins and Brownlee would rather be?
“We don’t know how lucky we are in this country”
Judith "I'm confused.. about the App" Collins.
Sounds like she expects it to work like some radar detector, setting off an alert when you're within 500km of a recent Covid case.
She seemed to really struggle to understand how the covid app was supposed to work.
Or she's purposely sowing seeds about how complicated it is to use, spreading chaos and fear, it's too hard to use and "no one understands it".
I downloaded it and am using it – seems easy. As easy as many other apps – if you can't use it, you probably also can't use your camera app, twitter etc.
I agree. I use it every day. It’s easy and it’s never failed to read any QR code I’ve scanned so far.
On Morning Report this morning though Collins seemed to conflate the job of the covid app and the general population using it with the task of health officials contact tracing backwards from a confirmed case. I’m not sure if that was just not understanding on her part or a deliberate attempt to confuse the two?
My ph won't accept it, but I keep a diary & I fill out forms wherever I go, and I see plenty of others scanning, no seems to want to be seen as a dickhead. And this is in L2.
Probably we should have all still been using it in Level 1. We might not be in this situation if we had.
I heard it and my first instinct was to assume that she was stupid – but more charitably put it down to a brain-fart under questioning from Dann. She seemed to think that the app was intended to trace the pathway of infection between individuals. I shouted at the radio – "that would need us to all have a bloody QR code on our foreheads and scan it for everyone we meet".
A Covid Card that everyone carried and which recorded the unique ID of every other Covid card it came within 2 metres of, would do something like that. Don't know if it is even possible though.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/122366243/coronavirus-hundreds-of-people-in-rotorua-will-test-covidcard-bluetooth-device
Not sure if this trial went ahead given the
current outbreak.
After initially sounding positive about this back in April the Gov for some reason appears to have gone cold on the idea.
I’m glad I’m not the only one shouting at Judith on the radio.
Yeah, with some reluctance I've started using the app too. Much quicker than doing a pen and paper sign in, and trying to find out what the time is, etc, and your details aren't on display for everyone to see.
I have difficulty believing JC has difficulty understanding the app. It seems to me a ploy to create a perception that it is complicated and that she’s just an ordinary Kiwi just like Sir John. NB JC joined Twitter in August 2012 and has been a prolific tweeter. Does she understand Twitter?
Answer to ScottGN @ 5 7.34 am
Yeah, I heard that. She is also telling porkies (why I am I not surprised) she has stated that "some people" are coming forward saying they were REFUSED the covid19 tests. Air Commodore Webb stated to John Campbell on Breakfast that EVERYBODY involved in the border security was OFFERED the test, (but it was voluntary until recently) but 60% declined being tested.
Here we go again the slime from the right is starting the dirty politics again. Someone wants to challenge Collins with the statement she made.
My opinion for what it is worth I am so pleased we have had an incompetent government running the show up to now, with all the glitches, if we had the likes of Goldsmith, Brownlee with all the "wants" by the whinging right, it would have been a complete and total disaster. Let's not forget that this virus is a new threat to NZ – it's a real testament to the Government that we have ended up as world leaders in our response – it's just a pity National and those on the right don't seem to acknowledge this.
They’re politicians, they all tell porkies or at least blur the truth to suit themselves, they’re hardwired to do it.
And don’t get me wrong I recoil in horror at the thought of Collins and Brownlee and the rest of National in charge too. But the government have made this mess for themselves. There’s going to be a few hard days at the office for Jacinda and co while they try and get on top of it.
Dirty that rubs off. Not only on national but the grubby media who echo it without question.
Because it is clickbait – gets them attention, circulation and advertising revenue.
An utterly corrupt way to run any news medium.
Judith Collins, RNZ this morning, running the old “several people working the border have approached me and said they were refused tests” line is just a variation on the Woodhouse “homeless man”.
It does not matter if it is a fabrication, if it cannot be refuted 100%, or even if it could! the doubt has been implanted in public consciousness and a political hit scored.
This is a Labour own goal–again–and it will continue if they do not clamp down hard on the underminers in the public service. There has to be senior officials taking the piss and just not doing what they have been asked to. The other leg is leaving often low paid workers on border control and expecting top level results.
If Judith says "several people working on the border have approached me…" then that has happened. In my experience politicians (irrespective of party) don't deliberately lie. If they say something as direct as that, then you have to accept it.
Yes dear.
You take the piss, surely? It must take a lot of practice to do that unintentional lying. I think John Key was a master at that.
That may have been true of you – but the statistical confidence of your colleague's utterances is less than chance.
That may have been true of you
Possibly, but with the memory issues it probably wasn't obvious.
If, when they do not say who refused the tests, there is no ability of media to corroborate.
Homeless Man, Merv, just asking questions and your own "I forgot", ffs, Dirty Politics! Pull the other one Wayne, jeez.
Not forgetting this shrill shill for the opposition National party:
“You are the company you keep.” “Though you may be wise, foolish friends will eventually destroy you.“
What is the story with the 60% rate of border employees refusing to be tested? Is this a cultural thing? It seems extraordinarily high. Surely something can be written into employment contracts that their conditions of employment require a test. After all forestry workers have mandatory drug/alcohol tests, and some of these are embarrassing to do, women especially. Not saying that there would be termination consequences, as there are for forestry workers, but surely their employment contracts can be looked at to make it more or less compulsory unless…..then give some exceptions. 60% is way way above the exception rate that you would expect.
Or if no testing then no work in MIQ facilities/borders?
This rate of non testing puts everybody at risk.
Judith's dishonesty lies not in stating that some people had told her that they had asked for tests, and been refused them. This probably happened – though I expect they were deferred or told it was unnecessary rather than 'refused'.
The major dishonesty lay in implying that because this had happened, it could not be true that (as Ardern had asserted) that some people had refused to have tests.
It is likely that both occurred – because we are dealing with a seething mass of humanity and all the inevitable stupidity, paranoia and instransigence you get with people.
What might be marginally interesting is the relative proportions of the refused and the refusers. Though not really – life is too short and Collins too-plainly barking for me to care.
Homeless man.
Yeah, they do. Especially National Party ones.
Thankyou Steve Kilgallon – you deserve a promotion to NEWSROOM
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/122467368/vicious-cycle-why-are-some-indian-migrants-so-badly-exploited-in-nz
Just a few excerpts …..
"Then there are offshore education agents, which the government could require to be licenced." (Basic stuff really)
It could also make course providers in New Zealand do more to prove their worth" (Calling NZQA's "Comms people" )
(AND it could at least use foreign media in an applicant's country to warn of charlatans, and stop removing a presence in the countries being targeted in a way NZ Post would be proud of.)
" …. if you’re going to promote a pathway to residency, then have a genuine pathway to residency, rather than one where you have to be exploited.”
"If the [government] are taking in students, they have to think of their futures too – not just the money you are taking from them…,” says Bhavdeep Singh. “If you can’t afford to settle that many students, why are you taking them in? "
– “It is embarrassing: Today I would have to tell people I spent $30,000 to come to New Zealand to work for five years for $10 an hour and not earn anything. Now I have to start again.”
– "Bhavdeep Singh laughs at the business courses he studied. “The education I was getting here I can compare to like my tenth grade school.” "
(Some courses would have been better to have been called "Howto Suck Eggs" for the bargain price of $30k)
To which I'd add: Ensure immigrants use good Immigration Advisors who act on behalf of the immigrant (such as those quoted in the article) rather than in their own self-interest – such as the 'vertically integrated' ones MBIE once promoted who happened to be running a shitty PTE on the side, or a tinpot security firm, or labour hire company, or even an orchard or (in the past) a bloody beauty parlour. (Your own Companies Register might provide a clue as to who they might be)
And of course the article focuses on Punjabis predominantly, but a similar situation applies to immigrants from other regions.
Overseas workers on work Visa's are not allowed to change employer.
So far to many employers take advantage.
Indeed! That's also one of the bigliest problems.
There are a heap of others of course in the 'Bizzniss of Immigration' even before we get to consider various attitudes towards an immigrant.
Things like the economic work unit that is the immigrant should not expect to have the same ambitions or lifestyles we might enjoy ourselves – such as the baggage of a wife and children.
Depends on the visa – working holidays and partnership work visas don't have an employer on them, for example.
Even if people do have an employer on their visa, it can be varied or a new visa applied for with a new employer provided a new job can be found.
Part of the problem is not just the employer being on the visa, it's that the employees don't realise they still have options, and don't always have the time or money to explore those options.
Yes, good report from Kilgallon.
The visa scam and exploitation was one of the worst things National did in government, and they still haven't been held to account for it. Whenever you hear a Nat say "economic growth" remember how they did it – and the consequences that still linger today.
(and to avoid any doubt, that criticism is not aimed at the migrants themselves, but at the corrupt exploiters and the government that enabled them)
.
Herald-Kantar Vote 2020 Poll
(August 12-16 / 1000 Respondents)
Lab governing alone: 35%
Lab & Green: 22%
Lab & NZF: 13%
Lab + Green + NZF (Status Quo) 4%
Other: 9%
Not Sure: 17%
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12357640 (paywall)
Interesting, eh? My take is that the PM will conclude from this that the current format is not replicable, in principle. So she's likely to try for a Labour only govt during the campaign, while retaining sufficiently flexibility to preserve the fall-back options of Labour-Green & Labour-NZF if voters make those viable.
.
Possibly … but may be ill-advised … as I suggested a few weeks ago, might be an idea for Ardern to downplay the prospect of governing alone.
At the same point in the run up to the 2002 General Election, the Clark-led Labour Party was sitting on precisely the same rating (53%) in the Colmar Brunton … only to fall 12 points to 41% by Election Day.
NZES analysis suggests this was partly a corollary of the impending Election result appearing a fait accompli (thus suppressing turnout)… but also that Clark's initial decision to campaign vigorously for a Single-Party Govt (on the basis of stability & her personal popularity) alienated voters (particularly on the Left) … seen as arrogant, dictatorial & a reversion to old-fashioned FPP-thinking. (Campaign Mini-scandals Corngate & Paintergate simply reinforced this mood). A hefty chunk of intending Labour voters subsequently swung elsewhere … first & foremost into non-voting. Luckily for the Party, the Nats' plunge was even steeper.
Whenever NZES polls on attitudes to the Electoral System, it always finds substantial majority support for MMP & Coalition Govt among Left voters & majority support for FPP & single-Party Govt among Nat supporters.
Hence, while many of the 400k newly-acquired former Nats might be more comfortable with a sole Labour Govt … to hold on to a sizeable segment of core Labour voters*, Ardern may just need to downplay any sense of arrogance or entitlement around the issue.
[* Incl Green & NZF-friendly Labour voters]
Can we reliably see Labour slip in the polls after this week and if so by how much? Where will they go? If you were attracted to Labour by Ardern’s positivity and their relative success, repulsed by National’s shambles, but feel let down by the latest outbreak, where do you go? And I’m talking about those middle-class educated urban swing voters who aren’t going for the fringe parties. Will they stick it out with Labour, find someone else, or not vote? What’s the word on the street?
Well, as a long-time crack cocaine-dealing jewel-encrusted Pimp on the mean streets of Wellington's Lower Eastside Red Light District, my mind's focussed more on diabolical liberties taken by pond-sucking scum against my honour,
Ya Dig ? ….
… currently strutting along Vivian St muttering: Bitch better have my money !!!
swordfish I didn't know you had those proclivities. /sarc
I think people should stop being cocks – weather-cocks that is. Don't swing with every breath of change, stick it out and stay left. Be firm and stay with a decision, the future for you relies on you having values about people and the environment, that hold to a reasonable standard. We can see which Parties care in general about these two matters – Labour and Greens do, others not so much or at all. It's easy to make up your mind when you look at things overall and don't react to every bit of positive or negative news. Follow the upward trend and don't be deflected. That is all.
Yeah, that all makes sense. On reflection, could be she's savvy enough not to fall for the hubris option…
I think she'll say labour are happy to govern with any who share their values and policies.
I can’t see Ardern actively campaigning for a majority. And in any case if this last week is a sign of things to come the chances of it actually happening are diminishing rapidly.
That is the impression I get from Adern, she's happy to be in charge as long as everyone wants her to be, whereas Collins wants to be in charge whatever anyone thinks, win at all costs. It's personal with Collins, ego driven.
Labour may get some of the oldies at present with Winnie, and if there were enough of them to sway decisions, they may decide to go alone, with other positions as you say DF. And what will we progressives get then?
More of the same, look here at the national GDP etc and not much at all at anything else. Deal with dissension using the new passport-ready scanning system, and 5G to smooth out the bumps for a quicker pace on the way to – the stars? Baby it's cold out there, bad enough on the streets, they don't make cardboard as thick as they used to.
IF the Greens get back in, they could just do what they are doing now and have a little agreement with a few things to tick off. It wouldn't hurt.
Possibly. But if it’s a Lab/Green configuration after Election Day I think the lure of a place finally at the Cabinet table will be too much for the Greens to resist.
More importantly they would need to be asked.
You reckon? If the Greens numbers are needed to form a government of either stripe then they can probably start demanding don’t you think?
Personally I think the Greens are positioned to do best out of this latest testing slip up. They are far enough away from the scene of the crime to keep their hands clean and Labour’s chances of being able to govern without them are diminishing.
I'm almost out of reckons for this election.
But Labour will be much more wary about the tail wagging the dog as it did last time.
And I think the Greens have the eq to get that.
I think the whole conversation will be excessively polite.
Me too. Though if I was the Greens I’d be practicing my iron-fist-in-a-kid-glove routine.
Sane, sound and sensible advice from Kiwi GP. I'm sure someone will have posted this here on TS already, but it will do not harm to repeat.
As well as the professional recommendations, there is hope and optimism and a message that a diagnosis of Covid19 does not necessarily mean death and debility.
https://thespinoff.co.nz/society/18-08-2020/the-auckland-doctor-saving-lives-from-her-home-office/
Should be compulsory viewing…especially the breathing exercises and the polite idiot's guide on how our lungs work.
did you mean that to start at 15 mins? If not, I'll edit it to start at the start.
that was really good, thanks. I also appreciated her positive attitude, and the home management is possible messages (with the caveat on when to get help. She probably could have emphasised that a bit more).
Thanks for the edit…(distracted..other part of brain mentally tackling the tree that succumbed to the gales in the Far North overnight.)
It is the positive message that captured me. That, and her treating her audience like autonomous beings. With the right tools and education, beating this disease (that we are being constantly told by a breathless MSM is a death sentence for many) is doable.
Her target audience is India (and Sri Lanka? The same video is dubbed in Hindi and Tamil) where access to medical treatment can be difficult, if not impossible. Here too, early on, the message was that the hospitals would soon be overloaded…and that treatment would need to be rationed. It pays to be resilient.
I saw the Spinoff clip this morning…we've been taking Vit C, Zinc and Vit D for months now, and coincidentally I bought Betadine liquid just yesterday. Of course, we always have soda bicarb in the house.
This is just the sort of empowering stuff that needs to be put out there. Good on the Spinoff for taking a punt and featuring it.
I got the Betadine gargle back in March. Not the soda bicarb yet.
Vitamin D and to a lesser degree zinc are well known.
This guy thinks everyone who gets infected should have their Vitamin D levels tested and given mega doses if necessary, and all those over 60 should be taking a daily does (the same for Polynesian/Maori especially if with health issues).
Lying people on their front is mainstream hospital practice for this, they use maternity mattresses for the obese.
Back in the day, in the UK, taking cod liver oil was considered almost mandatory…especially for children. My partner has been taking it as he has developed a spinal injury /autonomic dysfunction manifestation that has him losing conciousness if he even slightly overheats. I am working outside for some of each day so I probably don't need it. Peter has taken zinc for some years to help with skin integrity and the post leukeamia Vit C absorbtion. Every little helps…
The Vitamin C supplements used to also be officially recommended and gargling with salt or soda bicarb was 'prescribed' by the doctor. A few drops of the old Betadine…iodine…to slap down the virus…makes sense.
What doesn't make any sense is why our Ministry of Health hasn't produced something akin to this video…they could be pro-active. Build community resilience, making folk less dependent on an overloaded health system.
With the Vitamin D, the skin produces less from sunlight as we age.
I remember cod liver oil in the home when I once was young. There are the fish oil omega 3 capsules around now. And of course tumeric also assists with inflammation.
Vitamin D3 is available on prescription in NZ – one 50,000IU capsule per month is Pharmac’s recommended dose, although some GPs will increase the frequency. My GP does that as I have an auto immune disease.
It's a very different message than would come from the MoH too 😉
Pelosi calls back Congress early and changes to US Mail have been suspended.
https://www.bbc.com/news/election-us-2020-53829347
The music and the community connection brought a tear to my eye. Beautiful.
Yeah
Glorious
And the little girl who stood there on her own, entranced – magical!
that film is an almost perfect piece of art. Very moving.
Fabulous! Thanks.
Thanks from me too. But what language was it in? Not the original German, but I couldn't pick out any English either!
Sabadell (Catalan pronunciation: [səβəˈðeʎ]) is the fifth-largest city in Catalonia. North of Barcelona. The Sabadell Bank bankrolled it!
Thanks, Greywarshark.
My hearing is not failing quite so badly as I had feared!
The huge effort that the Government and Health has put into creating a huge new program/process in such a short time is miraculous. It baffles me that those who condemn the whole process on the problems that have and will arise. Shambles? Debacle?
From nothing to something earns applause doesn't it?
Indeed.
Not quite 'from nothing'.
https://blogs.otago.ac.nz/pubhealthexpert/2019/11/11/new-zealands-poor-pandemic-preparedness-according-to-the-global-health-security-index/
https://www.civildefence.govt.nz/cdem-sector/the-4rs/readiness-and-response/nz-influenza-pandemic-action-plan-information-for-cdem-groups/
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/new-zealand-wasnt-ready-for-a-pandemic
There was a Plan…but not a very good one.
The Ministry and the Government were warned.
Applause, my arse.
For mine they've done well from a weak position back in March.
The background is they did not prepare well between the WHO pandemic warning in 2016 till then. Not surprising National were in office at the time, and response required more ICU beds and more trained staff (they did not even ask HB's to check whether their reserves of equipment were still fit for use).
Our strong lockdown approach which made elimination an option/possible was informed by our relatively weak health system, poor health of many New Zealanders (obese/diabetes etc) and likelihood of quick spread in vulnerable communities due to overcrowding – housing costs.
From weakness to an effective response. All a bit shaolin, not confronting the threat (allowing community spread) but avoiding it with flexibility and balance.
I give credit to frontline staff, and confident messaging from Ardern. And a small population where but for a few degrees we're all related. Leadership from the Ministry has been at best, variable, at worst, woeful.
They were warned…we should all do our homework on this and give our vote to the party which commits to a complete purge and overhaul of this dysfunctional and rogue Ministry. I suspect Ardern finally realises she can't trust them to do what they're told… or trust what they say they're doing they are actually doing.
Longer than that. Effectively little had been done since the 2000s.
The Epidemic Preparedness Act 2006 wasn’t actioned. Labour got booted in 2007.
From memory the old parts of the health act related to pandemics was an antique from before the 1970s and at that was just amendments from a 1950s rewrite of legislation from the 1920s.
But yeah, they hadn't funded anything.
I am disgusted by the attack on our front line clinical staff and those here who have been sucked in.
There is no "failure" "catastrophy" or any other derogatory term just people making triage decisions apportioning provisions in the context of demand overload. To attack those in hindsight for making decisions that had to be made at the time is just sad!
So far there is (despite huge effort) no understanding of the mechanism of escape of the virus or even if there was any escape or some other vector.
Discussion.. blame.. bulshit. pointscoring. and undermining the ability of our clinical staff to make decisions on the ground is all completely counterproductive at this point.
Should we at some point in the future have an understanding of the mechanism of community release then that will be the moment for reasoned discussion of how to close any gap… but still without blame
so much political sewerage every three years does huge harm
Yes, and all those workers, health staff, border, hotel, police, army, the magnitude! But a bunch of know it alls on blogs and Twitter can do better.
Not to mention certain politicians…
This longish CNN piece ruminating about the US conventions has a few insights relevant to NZ and elsewhere:
In local terms, who is trying to build a bridge to the future and who is trying to build a bridge to the past?
Who has a relatable and aspirational backstory that's shaped their values and goals? The one that worked a fish'n'chip shop as a teen still in school, or the lawyer for wannabe tax dodgers as an entry to decades of attack politics?
Duncan Garner's 'eyes and ears' in MIQ, Dubai property lawyer Michael Ljunevich, is upset. Seems he has been breaking rules inside quarantine by mixing with other cohorts and didn't like it when Megan Woods called him out.
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2020/08/coronavirus-megan-woods-questions-credibility-of-kiwi-who-says-groups-mingled-in-managed-isolation.html
Having been in Dubai so long, Mr Ljunevich seems to have forgotten the concepts of both collectivism and personal responsibility.
Wonder how Ljunevich knew that the people that he was mixing with were those at the end of their stay? And if they were, wouldn't they protest at his presence which could infect them and ruin their release?
Yeah it totally doesn’t make any sense. You’d be mad to even share space having a gasper with a newbie if you were on your final days quarantine. This absolutely smacks of a Garner set up.
I like that Megan – good value. She seems to have stopped just short of saying – where is the personal responsibility here that the right wing preach to everyone else?.
Other than that – I think this joker maybe needs another 14 days in quarantine just to be sure he hasn't mixed incorrectly. – paid for by him of course. He should be on the naughty step.
216 new cases and 12 deaths in Victoria. Slowly and painfully heading in the right direction.
All this whinging and whining that "Testing" hasn't been upto the the expectations of some here.
I have yet to see a single shred of evidence that the current outbreak is linked to " a failure of testing staff", whether front line or support.
There are some people who would very much like to see a failure in procedures surrounding Isolation and Quarantine, only for political gain.
Such is human nature.
We still can't rule out a deliberate attempt to "trip up the Government", after all that has happened over the recent months and the History of some political parties to attempt to skew opinion and deliberately undermine the efforts combined with the "Conspiracy Theories"
We know we have political parties who will say and do Anything to get elected, anything, there is No bottom line.
History, unfortunately, proves this point.
I like your use of the phrase "shred of evidence". It is one of Winston's favourites every time he is accused of anything at all. (Always with 'not' just in front of it.)
He claimed a few days ago that it was all a border breach, but, of course, he could not reveal his source.
If they prove it all came from within NZ, he will not have a shred of evidence, will he?
But he still has great skill with weasel words…
Another infamous WP-ism:
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/parliament-a-possum-in-the-headlights-as-ardern-mulls-election-date
It is true that things at the border have had problems, but lessons have been learnt and the battle against the virus continues, it could be worse, the Nats could have been in charge with their open the border line and NZF with the trans tasman bubble should have been happening. So while the Bat attack may ring bells for some at this very momment, their nature will soon enough trip them up again before the election, it is a long time for them yo susrain attacks about the border. The Nats would have had the border open and many more elderly would have died, that seems just collateral damage in Nat thinking.
edit
This is what really makes me angry about the way women are too often treated – objects of perversion. The reason that this man would be so nutty is a broad field of discussion that doesn't relate to anything natural in men, but a society off centre from understanding of oneself and acceptance of what it is to be a person in balance, and what part our culture plays in our thoughts of our sexuality as well as gender. This seems to be a never-ending journey.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/in-depth/423888/i-was-filmed-in-a-kmart-changing-cubicle
It happened in NZ. Often what you read is some imported piece of sensation. No, it mentions town in NZ.
Commenters here today have seemed like a gaggle of turkeys gobbling about christmas. Awareness of the danger to Labour of the current situation has apparently not yet penetrated. Ben Thomas flags the problem while criticising National's response:
He also points to the flaw in representative democracy that keeps the shit happening:
which assurances were untrue?
This apparently,
I don't really know what people expect. We, humans, don't have a full grasp yet of how covid is transmitted, although that knowledge is growing each day.
MoH, by it's very nature, will be working conservatively. This means that they take the best advice from mainstream science that is available and develop policy from that.
As Micky pointed out in his post, some people seem to think that we should have a 100% system by now, but the only way to do that is to lock the borders completely, stop importing anything, and test everyone. Which would patently be ridiculous.
The MoH aren't perfect, we need a competent Opposition and MSM to keep holding the govt to account. Unfortunately we don't have a competent Opposition, we have a dangerous one, and I'm not sure the MSM is always up to the task either. Almost like they're humans rather than machines.
Put up some informed and considered and referenced critique of the MoH and I'm all ears (I can certainly point to some weaknesses in the system).
For mine, I'm a fan of two weeks isolation in the room (maybe exception for testing elsewhere on day 3 and 12 or for any health concerns). Stuff from the room goes out in bags picked up with tongs and is into a wheelie bin.
And staff have 6 weeks on (expected to socially isolate when not at work during these weeks – with the regular health checks during these weeks, temp etc) and 6 weeks off on full pay (passing test first, and passing another test before returning to work).
I guess if we were having infections of staff that might be useful, but we've had a single case that seems to be connected to Q staff right?
Continual improvement of the isolation regime is the way to reduce risk.
Constant wingeing about it, or politicised attacks won't help that.
That’s sort of beside the point. Any governments focus should always be based around doing things better, and this has nothing to do with opposition criticism or media stories, but best operating practice.
are you saying that the current govt doesn't?
No. And you will note they have constantly made changes since the regime came into place and they will make more changes yet. And at a much faster rate than applies to other areas of governence – because this task is taking on a important role in our security, safety and economic.
Which agency are we talking about?
Border agencies i.e. MBIE (Immigration NZ), Customs, MPI, Maritime NZ? Airports e.g. Aviation Security, the actual airport staff? Airline staff? Seaport staff? Shipping, cargo, freight staff?
Health agencies? MoH, DHBs, primary health providers, Maori health providers and agencies? GPs?
Quarantine facilities? Hotels, security, NZDF?
Police?
I mean sure, blame the government, but it's not like it's a small system out there either.
blame the government
That's the problem I suggested a solution to. I disagree with those leftists here who prefer to let the Nats get away with pretending it is a coalition stuff-up, when it seems obvious that public service non-compliance caused the threat to public safety.
So, rather than allowing the cover-up to succeed, via trad left/right collusion, outing those who failed to implement instructions ought to happen. Don't allow them to evade accountability – the precedent that sets ensures future repetition!
So much confusion and bias packaged together that it is almost impossible to unpack.
A “cover-up” implies deliberate intent. Not always the case.
Who knows what you mean by “trad left/right collusion”? Only you do.
Following instructions only works if they are crystal clear and unambiguous. Some instructions will have unintended and unexpected consequences even when they’re followed ‘to the letter’.
Outing is one of the worst ways of achieving institutional responsibility. People will duck responsibility out of fear of making a mistake and being ‘outed’. They will hide, they will obfuscate, they will delay. Look at what the OIA achieved; the exact opposite of accountability and transparency. The ‘no surprises’ policy aimed to avoid embarrassment and has almost completely neutered Ministerial accountability and turned civil servants into political body guards.
You seem to be stuck with the old-school carrot-stick model. We’re not dealing with children here! Your tar & feathers ideas are utterly impractical and outright dangerous for fostering a positive feedback culture!
From Dennis Frank 19 – Important points:
A government agency that can’t or won’t execute policy is an embarrassment in normal times, and a serious risk to public safety during a pandemic.
He also points to the flaw in representative democracy that keeps the shit happening: accountability to the public can only occur through ministers in a democratically elected government.
Another flaw though, Ministers can't choose or easily refuse, the civil servants they work with. And these people generally are not known to the public, yet they decide how policies are implemented, and Ministers' powers are curtailed. Who decides on the country's course, the Captain or the crew at the wheel, and the way that things are run, if the orders are not followed, then who has the real power?
Yes, you've echoed my concern nicely. The problem is built into the structure of our democracy. It allows delinquent public servants to defeat the government of the day.
The system is not fit for purpose in the 21st century. It needs to be reconfigured, using the rationale of harm minimisation. It is a key part of the social contract. Let's hope the border control tightens sufficiently in the interim; but not fixing the problem makes us vulnerable to worse situations in the future…
OK,,, But your idea of naming the guilty would not work in that way.
It would not reform the system overnight, and the public would see the Govt as scapegoating people to shift the blame.
Back to your drawing board, please.
The Fat Dog posted up yesterday that their staff has gotten their tests back, all negative. This just to point out that businesses, specially the small and very small businesses are taking this very seriously, have put in place not only procedures, but prespex windows/seperators, remodelled their cafes, shops, businesses to allow for social distancing, for keeping the staff / customers/ delivery dudes/ettes safe etc at great cost to them, as there are no government grants available to them for this purpose.
This is to say that there is not guarantee that this virus will not do damage, or will be able to run rampant at some stage. But chances are this will only happen if a. the business sector don't give a fudge – which in NZ they do, they do very much care well at least the small / micro businesses, b. the government don't give a fudge – which in NZ they do, maybe not to the degree i or others would like them to do but they do, and then the public at large. And hte public at large as seen over the last few days are quite good about it too, the worst offender so far – old people – like seriously, oh, honey i don't care if i die ,i am old, Oh i don't want to wear a mask it is so uncomfortable, besides i am old, oh i don't know how to work this app, seriously can you not just serve me, plus a few of the CT and Qanon crowd. But the old people? Oh good grief.
The young ones are pretty good about it, they just order online, and do curb side pick up. The really young ones wear masks without a fuss if hteir parents wear them. But those 60+ started to piss me off.
The reason i have my plague door made is that i can't be arsed to be polite to people that want to whinge about hte government tracing/tracking all their doings (have you checked your bank statement lately?), can't be arsed debating if wearing masks is an inconvenience or just politesse, it is the easiest to just simply keep them out of the shop altogether and serve them at the door.
So to the ones that want businesses to be better, try harder with less and stop asking for the wage subsidy, businesses already do, and you have to have a 40% loss to actually get the much vaunted $480 (after tax – cause gotta pay tax) per week, to keep that business open rather then join the unemployment queue.
Maybe a small advertising campaign about mask usage, app usage and standard politesse while dealing with people in shops doing their jobs would be good. Because they are the ones bearing hte brunt of the idiots of this country.
I wonder how superior the writer of this piece on uk universities is? Perhaps the universities that are struggling are the ones that country really needs to get its head out of its own back history. The Institute for Fiscal Studies recently announced that 13 universities in the UK face "a very real prospect" of going bust.
This is a heads up and you will have to trace back to get the story.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/08/15/britains-universities-have-become-indoctrination-camps-reckoning/
Ardern is getting control of the narrative back. Great work. And in the process demonstrating just why the opposition was right to fear her appearance at the daily briefing.
YesScott. Today at 1pm, she smoothly and calmly shifted the rhetoric back to a more reasonable level. Even the stupid questioning petered out.
The circle completes, again.
Brilliant. Telling security company management that they are shit is long overdue. That’s called taking control. Well done Jacinda.
Sounds like a good call. That way they know whether or not the testing has taken place as mandated. The contract health staff were replaced by DHB staff a while back.
Be good to see if returnees could do more of their own cooking and cleaning – in appropriate facilities.
I also wouldn't want anyone trying to take Ash out of the equation – replacement might be a horror.
Good to see it acknowledged that the profit motive tends to (though not invariably) undermine the delivery of social goals. Shame there weren't enough old heads around to tell them that before they came up with the KiwiBuild idea.
I agree, great idea. Now that MBIE does it for their security, it's time for DHBs to follow suit and employ it's own, better trained, better paid security.
And inserting several times into the conversation the reminder that private security staff are on shit wages
Those security companies are all a joke minimum wage poorly organized Zero hour contracts poor training hiring dodgy people.
oh boy this is a sobering read..on sexual violence, getting people to believe you and getting justice or well trying to getting justice
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/300086006/i-was-filmed-in-a-kmart-changing-cubicle
Yep – pretty standard from the courts. Along with offenders raising harm to their grandmothers, partners and family, visa status, ( not that they thought of them earlier) mental health issues etc etc. There have been some sentenced who struggle to see that they are doing anything wrong.
But Kmart needed better responses to prevent evidence being deleted. Business who will frequently call the cops for every bit of shoplifting. Staff ( although likely to be young and minimum wage) and security should have arrived a lot sooner and the manager should have been onto it a lot earlier.
I put that up at 18 as i felt outrage about her treatment all along the way.
QT today only 10 questions. (Yesterday 11.) So I guess it will lead to another 20 minutes of Collins trying to catch out Jacinda.
Q2 Hon JUDITH COLLINS to the Prime Minister: Is she confident her Government moved at an appropriate pace to put in appropriate measures to manage the risk of COVID-19 re-emerging in the community?
Q6 Hon JUDITH COLLINS to the Prime Minister: Is the resurgence plan she referred to on 11 August publicly available, and is it being rolled out as effectively as she believed it would be?
Just saw Judith Collins on TV before going into the Chamber. She looks flat. She did as well yesterday at Question Time. We'll see soon how she sparks up in the House.
Leader of this Opposition must be a stressful and draining job………..
She didn't "spark up" at all but did seem aroused by the news that Heather and Sir Brian are aboard!
Question Time was a great opportunity for the Opposition to "roast" the Government. Collins failed miserably to even make a dent. A lacklustre pointless exercise. The Ministers were well prepared and answered every question well.
You are right Robert. Heather and Sir Brian are aboard and Collins is incensed in her leading General speech now.
And Hipkins in reply to Collins was very strong spelling out the mixed, confused messages from National that were reactive to supporters' pressure rather than based on science or logic. He called Collins out for the scaremongering that she was doing, and especially pointed out the hypocrisy of criticising the government for not using regulatory powers earlier when National opposed the bill that granted those powers.
Hipkins made the point to Collins, who is now touting the shining light of Harvard-trained Dr Shane Reti, that she should have listened to him much earlier in the game, rather than to play the dangerous game of conspiracy and stupid exaggeration.
Shaw called Browning out for just that later in the general debate.
Codger's coaches have apparently instructed her to talk like a robot. So as to seem more human, I guess.
It is easier to understand than her native R'lyehian.
Way back 5.1.1 at 8.16 am this morning I wondered why nobody had been detailed to knock heads together and actually get the results that the government had told us they were getting. Today Ardern has appointed Heather Simpson and Sir Brian Roche to do just that.
You’re welcome 😊
Nice work ScottGN.
It's never a news headline when a thing that is feared, isn't really happening. It just fades out of the news.
So it seems Rotorua, Tokoroa, Taupo etc do not have significant covid spread or clusters after all. Even though they have had thousands of tests – and stayed at level 2, not 3. The rapid response is working well. But it's success, it's good news, so it's not a headline.
I imagine the people in those communities will have noticed though observer.
Does anyone know how much Stuff and NZME are paying as finders fees for coming up with some moaning grizzling or bitching person because by their reckoning everything was not 10000000% perfect about some isolation facility?
Or someone who was incensed that a security guard 'looked them strangely' or somesuch.
Or broke a fingermmnail which indicates health and safety concerns with the facilities were non-existent and border control procedures were totally out of control and so J Ardern should resign.
About 50 mil
Convirus Legal decision.
Melissa Nightingale incorrectly wrote in the Herald:
Words matter and the actual was:
Illegal means it broke the Law. Unlawful means that there were no Laws about this to break.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12357931
Yeah. I do wonder about the lack of basic training in civics that journalists gets.
I am a secondary school teacher, and listening to/reading our journalists, I am sorry to say that many have poor language skills, and would not know the difference between uninterested and disinterested, or infer and imply, let alone the difference between illegal and unlawful. Civics would probably not help them.
True however if the police arrested you in that 9 day period and detained you that would have been an illegal detention.
Did anyone get arrested, charged or fined in that period? I wasn’t in the country at that time.
dont think anyone charged/fined in early period…initially the police were implementing an 'education' programme
Who cares!
I’m curious to know if anyone could take them (the police that is) to court is all.
From what I remember, the police were only arresting for the usual offences then.
But if I am wrong then anyone convicted under the act can appeal their conviction.
But it is kind of hard to see a way that anyone could take a civil case against the police.
They could try for the Police Complaints Authority.
Dunno. All we were hearing about at that time was David Clark going mountainbiking and taking his family to the beach. Maybe that's now retrospectively OK and he can have the Health portfolio back.
Doubt it – it was still the wrong thing to do, lawful or otherwise
There are unwritten laws of society one of them is don't be a dick every party has them at the moment National seem to have a majority.
Yes, if one checked the list of their full names, many would have the first name of 'Richard'.
Edit
Sorry – that is just a negative attack that adds no value.
May I add that Judith accused Jacinda of ‘verbal gymnastics’. My riposte would be that Judith is not capable of verbal gymnastics. When she speaks she reminds me (verbally) of a poor little toddler clomping about in an infants’ ballet class into which she should never have been put.
I guess that is pretty negative too, but I think Judith asked for it.
When will Judith stun us with some eloquent wit?
Dunno, but I do look forward to her speech on Saturday night around 9:30 PM.
I fear that you may as well look forward to a meal of cold fish and chips.
But who knows?
Sorry, forgot to include the date: 17 Oct. It will be popcorn time.