Somebody here yesterday asked whether there were even any family members left to receive compensation for the US's wrongful drone strike on an innocent family in Kabul.
Afghan survivors of US drone strike: Sorry 'is not enough'
"Sorry is not enough for the Afghan survivors of an errant US drone strike that killed 10 members of their family, including seven children.
Emal Ahmadi, whose 3-year-old daughter Malika was killed on August 29, when the US hellfire missile struck his elder brother's car, told The Associated Presson Saturday that the family demands Washington investigate who fired the drone and punish the military personnel responsible for the strike."
“That is not enough for us to say sorry,” said Ahmadi. “The USA should find the person who did this."
"Ahmadi said the family is also seeking financial compensation for their losses and demanded that several members of the family be relocated to a third country, without specifying which country.
…
Even as evidence mounted to the contrary, Pentagon officials asserted that the strike had been conducted correctly, to protect the US troops remaining at Kabul's airport ahead of the final pullout the following day, on August 30.
…
Zemerai was the family's breadwinner had looked after his three brothers, including Emal, and their children."
"'Now I am the one who is responsible for all my family and I am jobless,' said Emal Ahmadi. The situation “is not good”, said Ahmadi of life under the Taliban. International aid groups and the United Nations have warned of a looming humanitarian crisis that could drive most Afghans below the poverty level.
…
Ahmadi wondered how the family's home could have been mistaken for an Islamic State hideout."
“The USA can see from everywhere," he said of US drone capabilities. “They can see that there were innocent children near the car and in the car. Whoever did this should be punished.”
Couple of items of interest on Afghanistan reported on Aljazeera tv news:
“Taliban leaders have turned the Kabul building that housed Afghanistan’s Ministry of Women’s Affairs into the offices for the religious police, an ominous portent for women’s rights.”
And, according to Aljaz tv reporting, the Taliban have announced that all BOYS should return to their secondary schools from today. Creating fears that girls are not going to be permitted to attend secondary schools.
Aljaz further reports that co-ed schools in Afghanistan (or it might just be Kabul) have been strictly segregated, & the Taliban have previously recently said that young women may return to Universities (but in segregated classes, & to bectaught only by women – which several female academics there have said will end up being impractical & unaffordable for many, so that it’s likely a tactic to ultimately achieve the goal of sending women back into their homes, while initially avoiding world condemnation). So this has created general confusion.
PS: The Taliban leadership has apparently just said it will be making an announcement about when girls can return to secondary schools at some point soon.
I’m losing count of the number of Auckland L4 lockdown breachers being arrested by the police all over the motu. Some folk up there are starting to go stir-crazy, it seems.
Although I noticed that masks and social distance had suddenly become quite universal around Queenstown locals, including a couple of gentlemen who were prominent at the howl a month or so back. The sense of security from isolation, 'covid's just in South Auckland, none down here', gone and replaced by a quiet concern.
Pleasing to see but last week very few were masking or distancing, and if you did you got shit. Retail staff were scared and very thankful to those that were masking. Retailers Assn has done a lot of good work educating employers and staff of the requirements and reasons for masking and staff feel vulnerable. It's pleasing to see some responsibility from the public, even if it is motivated by personal fear.
Yes, I'm in Welly. Just got back from my supermarket shopping. Everyone's masked up, including yours truly, & shoppers are all trying to keep a reasonable amount of distance from other shoppers at Level 2.
I get a bit hacked off with the mask fogging up me specs, but until we get everyone possible vaccinated, I'm quite happy to keep wearing a mask when out in public.
I find I can prevent my glasses fogging with stillsuit breathing (if you know Herbert's Dune); in through the mouth, and out through the nose. Though it does take a couple of minutes to switch back to more regular patterns when the mask comes off. Also, the bridge of the glasses helps hold the mask on too – but I am using washable cloth ones rather than wired disposables.
I bought 3 cloth masks, made in India, sold to me off my Dentist’s counter. He & his missus are both Kiwi Indians with still-strong connections to whanau back in the old country which, until Covid, they visit regularly. They’re both practising Christians & were selling them for an orphanage charity in India that they support.
The only thing is they seemed to be a single layer cloth – but nope, I’ve just gone & checked them carefully & they’re lined: 2 layers.
I’ve got a biggish box of surgical masks, so I’m using a few of them up first. They’re supposed to be one-use-only, but I go out from my home base relatively infrequently & often for only about 30 mins or so, so most the time I take it off in the car & re-use it a few times in Level 2, where there’s less risk of Covid being in the air & getting on the mask.
In Level 4 lockdowns – when Welly’s had cases in the community – they get trashed after one use.
I notice on Aljazeera tv-shown Press Conferences that the Taliban & the Iranian leadership have the same problem, McFlock. 😀 I’ve just got a mo. Not so much of a problem.
Good to see the 'evil doers' taking their civic responsibilities seriously.
It seems that these terrible inhuman monsters, that we have to slaughter hundreds of innocent civilians. just to get to one of them, shares some very human frailties with the rest of us.
Nearly 90 Percent Of People Killed In Recent Drone Strikes Were Not The Target
U.S. drone strikes have killed scores of civilians in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia.
However it's a sunny, quite warm day today & I noticed when trying on my mask outside, there wasn't that much of a problem today.
It may well diminish or disappear as the weather gets warmer – though no doubt we'll get a real "Polar Blast" barreling up the whole country sometime before the end of September. Happens every year.
Went for a bush walk here on Auckland's North Shore yesterday. Close to our home about 2km away. A bit hesistant as the track narrows in a lot of places and it was a nice day – but stuck our masks on and assumed others would too. Only about 20% masked – people puffing their way back uphill unmasked and right past others who were also unmasked and taking a breather. Completed our walk – albeit with a fair bit of backing into the bushes and keeping clear of others when we hit the beach at the bottom. Regretted the decision to go. Looked a bit like a case of "Covid's just in South Auckland, none up here…"
Mask compliance here in Whanganui is nearly universal. Late last week I saw a kuia bawling out a group of school kids over their not wearing masks in a crowded main street. The whole lot donned the masks they were carrying.
Good on her. From my observations, they allow a fair bit of latitude to young kids & don’t always bawl out their tamariki for misdemeanors. When they do, I bet the kidz listen up !
Nah they were escaping last time. Family on the Coromandel commented on how many Aucklanders were flying in by helicopter during lock down and/or arriving in the middle of the night.
I think it is more that people have lost tolerance for the behaviour this time.
Here’s an even scarier statement, from the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare’s strategies during crisis standards of care:
“Universal DNR Order: Adult patients hospitalized during a public health emergency, when crisis standards of care have been declared, should receive aggressive interventions; however, they should receive NO attempts at resuscitation (compressions, shocks or intubation if not yet intubated) in the event of cardiac arrest. The likelihood of survival after a cardiac arrest is extremely low for adult patients. As well, resuscitation poses significant risk to healthcare workers due to aerosolization of body fluids and uses large quantities of scarce resources such as staff time, personal protective equipment, and lifesaving medications, with minimal opportunity for benefit.”
In other words, whether we’ve signed a “do not resuscitate” directive or not, everyone single one of us is now under a DNR directive in Idaho because we’ve reached crisis standards of care due to a deadly and overwhelming surge of unvaccinated COVID-19 patients in our hospitals.
If it were up to me, I would now be setting up tents in the far corner of hospital carparks as the Unvaccinated Covid wards. And giving the directive that unvaccinated (but eligible for vaccination) covid patients are first on the list for triaging.
Conventional triaging and medical ethics is built around events out of the control of those injured. But what we've got coming at us is very much foreseeable, and there is a very safe, very effective, and free precaution (almost) all of us can take against being a part of the coming problem (that unfortunately isn't quite 100% effective). However, some will refuse to do their very minimal bit for their community and help themselves at the same time.
Responding to this problem is a society-wide values and ethics and resource-allocation issue, not a conventional medical ethics and triaging situation. Therefore conventional medical ethicists are not the right people for setting the response guidelines.
Our government needs to be the ones to step up and give the hard word.
If it were up to me, I would now be setting up tents in the far corner of hospital carparks as the Unvaccinated Covid wards. And giving the directive that unvaccinated (but eligible for vaccination) covid patients are first on the list for triaging.
You could sell tickets – the morally superior vaccinated people could come and watch the spectacle of the 'filth' choking to death. Seems it would be popular.
But I would set up another tent in a different corner of the carpark as a vaccination centre. So those that need the shock of seeing how nasty it is to nudge them into protecting themselves can get it done then and there.
We won't discuss the morality of kids needing care after a car accident, for example, not getting admitted to hospital, because it is full of idiots who didn't get vaccinated, when it is easily available.
Already happening in New York State, from a first hand description.
US hospitals ration care amid shortages and Covid-19 surge
Surges in coronavirus cases in several US states this week, along with staffing and equipment shortages, are exacting a mounting toll on hospitals and their workers, leading to warnings at some facilities that care would be rationed.
…
In Alaska, the influx is so heavy the state's largest hospital is no longer able to provide life-saving care to every patient who needs it due to the influx of Covid-19 hospitalisations, according to an open letter from the medical executive committee of Providence Alaska Medical Centre this week.
"If you or your loved one need speciality care at Providence, such as a cardiologist, trauma surgeon, or a neurosurgeon, we sadly may not have room now," the letter read. "There are no more staffed beds left."
Yes Gezza, apparently therre was a protest on women's suffrage day in Dunedin calling for trans rights. I am informed the protesters countering the women's celebrations seem to have no idea what women's suffrage was about. That women had to fight hard for their right to cast a vote.
Was there Anker? I haven't heard anything about that myself (but then the last time I bothered marching in protest was against the TPPA, so people know better than to ask me along), and I am familiar with a few takatāpui kaiwhakahē o Ōtepoti. Do you have a link?
This is the closest I could find (from yesterday), but then again – I don't use Twitter or suchlike:
Local feminists are marching for their rights in Wellington and Dunedin on New Zealand Suffrage Day, this Sunday, in protest against two bills before Parliament that the women say will erode their rights; the Births, Deaths, Marriages and Relationships Registration Bill and the Conversion Practices Prohibition Legislation Bill…
The Wellington protest will take place on Sunday, 19 September, at 12.00pm, at Te Aro Park, and a rally will be held at the Octagon in Dunedin from 11 am.
Sufferage became universal for males for all males in 1879 (as opposed to male land owners only being able to vote)
In 1867 the Maori seats were established so Maori males could vote.
Then women got the vote in 1893, the first country in the world that allowed women to vote. Women fought hard for this in NZ and in other countries. In some countries like Switzerland women didn't get the vote till the 1970's.
Voting rights were restricted biological sex. That's why suffrage is celebrated by women.
Women have always celebrated suffrage on our day 19th September. It was then that we were included. We are remembering how hard our sisters fought to be included.
The protests were against SUFW hijacking the Suffrage Day celebration (there were posters saying the Octagon even was organised by the SUFW to oppose self ID thing), not against the Suffrage Movement.
Afaik, it wasn't SUFW, it was Women's Liberation Aotearoa and Mana Wāhine Kōrero. And they didn't hijack a Suffrage Day celebration, they organised it. They have a FB page if you want to look it up.
The universal in "universal suffrage" refers more to the right to both; vote for, and stand for, elected office. Universal suffrage in NZ was deemed to have been achieved even before women and Māori got the right to vote. Māori votes were problematic from 1867 (when they were worth about a quarter as much as Pākehā by population, and weren't permitted to use secret ballots, or electoral rolls) all the way up until 1992 with the adoption of MMP that finally gave (those who chose to risk discrimination for identifying as) Māori a proportionate voice in parliament.
However, I would argue that we have not yet reached true universal suffrage due to age restrictions (particularly in the 16-17 age group; which I think is currently before the courts based on the HRA, but even younger might be feasible through proxy). Also the removal of voting rights for prisoners, and preventing those convicted of a crime punishable for more than 2 years imprisonment (even if the actual sentence is less than that). Plus NZ citizens losing the right to vote if they have been out of the country for too long (3 years, I think – that's going to be an live issue come 2023).
Exclusive: The government is bracing itself for supplies of beer, fizzy drinks and meat to be hit by a severe shortage of CO2, with supermarkets and restaurants expected to be affected in the coming days.
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) was warned on Thursday that shortages of CO2, caused by the closure this week of two major fertilizer plants, would affect manufacturers across food and drink industry, PoliticsHome understands.
[…]
The CO2 shortage is set to compound ongoing disruption to food and drink supplies caused by chronic shortages of lorry drivers, processors, and other workers in the UK's supply chains.
The labour shortages, which have been exacerbated by the coronavirus and Brexit, have resulted in household names like McDonald's, Gregg's, and the Co-op running out of certain items in recent weeks, with the disruption expected to worsen in the coming weeks in the run-up to Christmas.
The final outcome of Brexit is uncertain. In my view the EU is a bloated bureaucratic that has long ago lost it's way. The sooner it returns to a simple trade pact the better.
"but their labour laws only caught up on them now… because brexit."
On the contrary. The article states "Decades of anti-union legislation has tilted what was always an unequal relationship between workers and capital even further in the latter’s favour. "
"Some people would rather rule over peasants in muck than live in a developed and equitable society."
On the back of 300mil quid a week, and other bullshit.
The basic problem with that article is that unionisation wouldn't stop EU drivers making cross-channel deliveries. So unions or not, crashing out of the EU was still a predictably stupid thing to do.
So the "nuanced" view is that if Brexit hadn't happened, there'd still be the same shortages now?
Because it seems to me that if they had enough drivers before Brexit, and not enough drivers after, then maybe that's an issue they should have fucking considered and solved before crashing out of the EU.
That article was written in 2019, and includes this "This article demonstrates why the NHS is currently suffering from a staffing crisis…". So the staffing crisis existed BEFORE Brexit came into effect.
From that link "London still has a towering lead over rivals Frankfurt, Milan and Paris when it comes to trading stocks, currencies and derivatives and playing host to asset managers." You're quoting from an article written less than 2 months after Brexit came into effect, that is extolling London's virtues! Look I can give you more.
The people of the UK overwhelmingly backed pro-Brexit policies of the Conservatives in the last election. They will have a far better country as a result.
Well, the kingdom wasn't quite united on that one.
But it's funny how the driver shortages really hit home when they can't just get some Baltic drivers in at the last minute, innit. Pure coincidence, according to the nuanced view?
More the energy crunch due to large increases in natural gas prices.
With the large fertilizer manufacturers shutting production of Nitrogen and ammonia urea,there will be large increases in food costs,and the cost of building materials such as waste pipes,guttering etc.
Electricity has also (like NZ) skyrocketed in Europe.
Meamwhile Collins and co are trying to find a way of saying we should, open up immediately, and accept however many deaths and disabilities, as well as the economic loss to businesses and workers, that were largely able to carry on business as usual, due to the success of comprehensive but short lockdowns, without actually saying it.
Oh dear, we have a Plan B parrot that tripped over a few logical fallacies and fell in a rabbit hole. Please enlighten us, in your own words, as to why you claim that lockdowns in NZ are not working.
Cases are constant as are the mystery numbers. Shows covid is in the community and getting aroind
I never said plan B. I said level 3 with more mandatory restrictions to enjoy it. Open up just enough to give Aucklanders some relief but keep it safe.
You didn’t have to, it was crystal clear; in fact, no link required or desired, this time, as it would show you as the Plan B parrot that you are.
Shows covid is in the community and getting aroind [sic]
That comment shows a profound misunderstanding of lockdown, which is exactly because of spread in the community. In all reality, the peak has passed, but the tail is long (and hard), and most if not all news cases are linked to existing clusters within 24 hours and occur in households of known positive cases. Lockdown is definitely working, even against the much tougher Delta variant.
I hope you enjoyed the briefing at 4 pm by Ardern and Bloomfield and found it informative and educational. Lockdowns do work indeed!
In fact, it works so well that they have decided to use it again:
For the Mangatangi community to the east of Maramarua and the southeast of Miranda on the firth of Thames, a section 70 order has been put in place extending the road boundary currently around Auckland.
This area, under the advice of the Director-General of Health Doctor Ashley Bloomfield, is in a "bespoke Level 4'' arrangement for five days.
That means getting tested, staying home, and monitoring symptoms until that deadline is up.
It's tough, but it is working. Sydney and Melbourne show that if you ease off this sucker even a little bit, Auckland will be counting deaths by the day. Maybe when damned near everyone is double-jabbed, but not before.
I'd like to see some analysis on how onward transmission is still occurring at L4. The inference given at the 1PM today was that it isn't through the consumption of essential services, i.e. it's not unrelated people using the same dairy, laundromat, etc. Rather it's due to inter-household contact, either due to outright bubble-breaking, or to special circumstances where someone from one household has to provide support to another household. And if that's the case, I don't see how you stop it without tightening controls even further and/or throwing more resources and people at it.
For the most part many of the activities of people infectious in the community, are essential visits.
They haven't tended to see cases spin-off from locations of interest such as pharmacies and supermarkets. They're seeing transmission within households.
The weasel wording of "for the most part" and "haven't tended" suggests to me that some is indeed happening. Which would have an easy solution: instead of them having to go out on their essential trips, deliver their essential supplies instead. The government can easily stump up the delivery fee.
Most if not all new cases can be linked to known existing cases within 24 hours.
Most if not all transmission takes place within households.
Most of the activities of people who are deemed infectious in the community are (for) essential visits.
One possibility is to provide extra assistance to those identified households, e.g., using some kind of personalised chaperone system with experienced health care professionals from within the local community. This might help break the so-called long hard tail of this Delta outbreak in Auckland and allow the rules to be somewhat relaxed for the rest of the greater Auckland region that is in lockdown and the rest of the whole country sooner rather than later. In other words, more tailored and targeted measures with more flexibility and nuance reflecting the specific and local circumstances rather than the current crude blanket measures that seem to obey the rule (mantra) that one size fits all. How hard can that be?
Yes, maybe something new needs to be done, even if it is hard. Throwing 'wrap-around' care at households where someone is identified as a close contact – so they literally don't go anywhere until negative Day12 tests are returned, or into MIQ if tests are positive. Low numbers of such households presumably make it feasible.
But I guess everyone is scared of scenes like we saw in the early days in Wuhan with full PPE-wearing cops positioned outside people's front doors and physically shoving them back inside.
Yes, it would have its own set of difficulties and would indeed require some finesse for want of a better word.
I was thinking of allowing members of those households to continue to go about their ways under lockdown rather than give them full house arrest and without extra limitations and restrictions that could stigmatise them in their (local) communities.
A fully vaccinated professional could show them the do’s & don’ts, including mask-wearing and hand-washing, for example, and also chaperone them safely from a discrete distance without looking like a bodyguard in full armour, so to speak. Maybe appoint one member of the household as gatekeeper and observer of QC and adherence to good practice, but this may not gel well with certain socio-cultural norms within those households.
Things need to be tailored or they won’t work at all and possibly even backfire; intra-household wedges are not desired outcomes.
We need more lateral thinking and solutions after more than 18 months of dealing with this pandemic. We also need boldness combined with kind firmness.
I had a friend in Wuhan Province during their initial lock-down. They used a lot of workers to man intersections and then building entrances – eventually taking orders for shopping and delivering them for residents. It minimised contact between households and enabled a successful and orderly lockdown. there may have been police involved, and they were quick to use full body covering including masks. I did not hear of any widespread unrest; most of the population readily complied with requests. Whether that would have worked here is a moot point; they have a much higher density of population in cities than we do – and China is one of the few countries that has better Covid statistics then we do.
… provide extra assistance to those identified households, e.g., using some kind of personalised chaperone system with experienced health care professionals from within the local community. This might help break the so-called long hard tail of this Delta outbreak in Auckland and allow the rules to be somewhat relaxed for the rest of the greater Auckland region…
Its a no-brainer. Lets be honest for once about the problem in Auckland:
This outbreak appears pretty much confined to one ethnicity and in large part is caused by too many people in one household and the tendency to socially meet in large numbers eg. church functions. Setting aside the reason for this scenario which I know is not entirely their fault, it would be absurd if the whole of the Auckland region should continue to suffer the consequences of a L4 lockdown.
It was pertinent to the recovery process up until now, but any continuation would be harmful to Auckland and the rest of the country. Instead concentrate resources into the group who are currently topping the 'cases chart' and assist them to overcome the plight so many are currently in.
As an aside, to be really effective, public health measures need to be taken and tailored to the people who need it, i.e., know your audience. This means great(er) involvement of local community medical centres and GPs. This is one major reason why I’m quite wary of the abolishing of the DHBs, which are indeed a shambles, and replacing them with a more centralised structure and system. Public health happens at grassroots and patient level, not in boardrooms on top floors of tall buildings by managers in suits with bonus payments based on meeting KPIs. Same could be said about many societal issues, for that matter.
I think most community health centres and GPs are involved now. What I suspect happened is the government did not have sufficient vaccine to go too hard out and that is why they delayed bringing in the bulk of the medical clinics. Whether that was an error of judgement or they were constrained by sticking to one brand or for some other reason I don't know. Whatever, the situation has now changed.
We'll have to wait and see the fine print re-the proposed new Health Boards but there is little argument the country has way too many DHBs. I trust Andrew Little to set them up in such a way they will not turn into big corporate-type conglomerates. We had a good health system prior to neoliberalism. In fact it was regarded as one of the best in the world.
'A prisoner who arrived at an Auckland jail attended court on Friday when no technology was available for him to appear remotely, and he later tested positive for Covid-19.
More than a dozen people are regarded as contacts and Manukau District Court, a nearby custody unit and police vehicles had to be deep-cleaned.
But legal sources including one who was at the court on Friday say even more staff who were present now have to isolate, and some were not alerted to the situation until today.
After Herald enquiries, police and the Ministry of Justice confirmed the man attended Manukau District Court in person.
The Herald understands the defendant was in Courtroom 4 from 12.05 to 12.21pm.
Officials have said four police officers, five Corrections staff and six prisoners were being treated as contacts.'
the irony there is that no-one on the left with a job they care about would dare satirise the impact of individiualising pronouns on people's jobs. Or the English language.
Or how contradictory gender identity theory is,
"Because gender is a social construct, and I was born this way."
At 34 days NZ's and VIC's graphs are identical. If it's L4 keeping us there, any lifting of it will see our graph follow VIC's.
I can tell you now, Auckland isn't happy. Five more weeks at L4 to try suppress that graph when just a few people are not following the rules and ruining it for everyone else is going to result in some serious social division.
It used to be that naming and shaming rule breakers worked a treat. The government seems to have gone gun-shy yet again…
Taiwan and Vietnam do not tolerate such antisocial behaviour.
What are you trying to say there? That NZ does “tolerate” such behaviour and/or that NZ should become more like those countries and change the law to hand out tougher penalties and punishments? It sounds like a comment that could have come from a dog-whistling virtue-signalling two-faced politician talking from both sides of their mouth, if you asked me.
The moment Russiagate took the person I love most by Serena Sopwith-Fotherington, Daisycutter Sports News, Dec. 18, 2021
[deleted]
[I have no idea what the hell that was, but deleted because at least some of it was a cut and paste from a BBC website. Morrissey, you haveto make clear what are your words, and what are someone else’s and you have to do so in a manner that other people, including the mods, can understand. Use the blockquote tag, or some other way of making it clear – weka]
I will not utter profanities, but 🤬. And leave any other reactive comments to myself and go online and order a bottle of Whisky or 2. By the time they are finished Auckland maybe at level 3 🙁
Forgot to get a 4 pack of Tip Top Boysenberry Trumpets when I shopped at the supermarket today. No treats in the house at all today. I blame the guvermint.
(It’s not their fault, I just often blame all guvermints so I can move on from my trauma.)
ISRAEL CAPTURES LAST TWO PRISONERS WHO TUNNELLED OUT OF HIGH SECURITY PRISON
Aljazeera tv is reporting that Israeli police have just recaptured the remaining two Palestinian escapees from an Israeli high security prison.
The Israelis might now be able to stand down the thousands of police, security & other IDF personnel who have been deployed in the Palestinian occupied territories during the hunt for the fugitives, fearful that they might have been planning to stage attacks in Israel.
A Palestinian Rights Group says the Israelis have arrested over 100 Palestinians since those 6 prisoners escaped a few weeks ago. Their troops, a female Palestinian representative of the Group says, have also been roughing up & harassing & detaining hundreds of Palestinians while searching for the escapees.
TL;DR: Here’s the top six news items of note in climate news for Aotearoa-NZ this week, and a discussion above that was recorded yesterday afternoon above between and The Kākā’s climate correspondent : An independent review panel into the emergency response to Cyclone Gabrielle in Hawkes Bayconcluded “that ...
There are now only a few days left to give feedback on the Draft Government Policy Statement (GPS) on Land Transport 2024-34 (see our earlier post this week on GPS submission guides). As we’ve reported, the GPS is a disaster for Local Government, so we were particularly interested to hear ...
Willis has pledged to go ahead with the debt-funded tax cuts, despite growing opposition from her own supporters worried about appearing fiscally irresponsible. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for ...
Open access notables A survey of interventions to actively conserve the frozen North, van Wijngaarden et al., Climatic Change:The frozen elements of the high North are thawing as the region warms much faster than the global mean. The dangers of sea level rise due to melting glacier ice, increased ...
Bryce Edwards writes – New Zealand’s biggest-ever political donations scandal is finally at an end. But what is the conclusion? No one can really be sure. The Court of Appeal released its judgement on Tuesday about the Serious Fraud Office case against the NZ First Foundation. On ...
In 2015, then-Prime Minister John Key announced plans for a huge ocean sanctuary around the Kermadec Islands, banning fishing and mining from 15% of Aotearoa's EEZ. It was bold, it was ambitious, and it suggested that National might actually care about the environment. Except they fucked it up: Key failed ...
1. Who has just been given the accolade New Zealander of the Year?a. The Kokakob. The Cook Strait Ferryc. Fair God. Dr Jim Salinger 2. Which of these is an affront to decent society?a. Dame Edna Everageb. Mrs Doubtfire c. Dr. Frank-N-Furterd. Brian 3. Who is Penny Simmonds?a. The aspiring actress in Big ...
New Zealand’s biggest-ever political donations scandal is finally at an end. But what is the conclusion? No one can really be sure.The Court of Appeal released its judgement on Tuesday about the Serious Fraud Office case against the NZ First Foundation. On the face of it, the court found ...
Buzz from the Beehive Waves of rain are set to lash much of the North Island during Easter Weekend as a low-pressure system forms east of New Zealand, according to a weather forecast published in the past day or so. Niwa was warning of a “moisture-laden” long weekend, with rain expected ...
Look around us…Nicola Willis’ promises of balancing the books, of cutting spending without reducing services, and of delivering game changing tax cuts are disappearing before her eyes.Everyday we see stories of violent crime ending in horrific injuries, or worse. The cost of living worsens, whereas the PM claimed renters would ...
TL;DR: My top six news of note on the morning of Thursday, March 28 include:The Government will have to borrow between $10 billion to $15 billion more than previously expected in order to make up for a slowing economy and to pay for $14.9 billion of tax cuts, according to ...
This story by Naveena Sadasivam and Kate Yoder was originally published by Grist and is part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story. The long-awaited jobs board for the American Climate Corps, promised early in the Biden administration, will open next month, according to details shared exclusively ...
Should landlords be able to deduct the interest on the loans they take out to bankroll their property speculation? The US Senate Budget Committee and Bloomberg News don’t think this is a good idea, for reasons set out below. Regardless, our coalition government has been burning through a ton of ...
Treasury’s first report on the economy since the change of government presents a damning indictment of Labour’s economic management. The problem for National is that it is so damning that logically, coupled with a rapidly slowing economy, Finance Minister Nicola Willis should respond to it by postponing or even cancelling ...
Budget tensions are becoming evident within the Coalition Government. Winston Peters made numerous political points in his speech to the NZF annual conference. But the attack on his own government’s fiscal policies raised issues of substance. ‘Today in the Sunday Star Times, journalist and former advisor to the Labour ...
Buzz from the Beehive The media – sure enough – have been binging on Finance Minister Nicola Willis’ release of the Budget Policy Statement and a statement headed Government announces Budget priorities This assures us – or rather, this parrots the Luxon team mantra – that the Budget “will deliver ...
The Ides of March brought me COVID followed by a bereavement. No wonder they tell you to be careful of them.I’m home now and have resumed the interrupted recuperation. Very much looking forward to getting back to regular things. Meanwhile, some thoughts…OneThis new Prime Minister guy just keeps getting more dire. ...
News that the Chinese ATP 40 cyber-hacking unit penetrated parliamentary internet networks in 2021 has renewed concerns about the PRC’s malign intentions in Aotearoa. But is the hack that significant given the length of time that has passed since its … Continue reading → ...
When Parliament passed the Intelligence and security Act in 2017, they assured us all that it was full of safeguards. Any intrusive surveillance of New Zealanders would be subject to a "triple lock", requiring the approval of the Minister and (supposedly independent) Commissioner of Intelligence Warrants, as well as post-facto ...
Eric Crampton writes – Richard Harman’s Politik newsletter provides a bit of the context that ought to have been showing up in other media reports on potential reductions in public service staffing. Media has been reporting on staffing cuts on the order of about 7%. Is that ...
Mike Grimshaw writes – It’s becoming increasingly apparent that many perceive free speech to have become the preserve of the politically right wing, the religiously conservative, the libertarian fringe, the anti-trans, the anti-Māori and…. well, just fill in with whatever groups or individuals you don’t like and don’t ...
Don Brash writes – As everybody who is not blind and deaf is aware, there is a huge political preoccupation with climate change at the moment, a widespread (though by no means unanimous) belief that global temperatures are rising mainly as a result of the greenhouse gases created ...
TL;DR: My six things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy on Wednesday, March 27 include:Chris Bishop laid out his vision for filling Aotearoa-NZ’s $100 billion infrastructure deficit in a speech yesterday, emphasising user pays and private funding, but failed to say how to achieve bipartisanship on population, public borrowing and ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Former Finance Minister Grant Robertson and former Prime Minister Chris Hipkins have been conveying how unhappy they are with the tax system. Last week in his valedictory speech, Robertson called for the introduction of a wealth or capital gains tax. And this week Hipkins ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
Buzz from the Beehive China has loomed large in Beehive considerations over the past 24 hours, largely because of that country’s mischief-making in the cyber espionage department. Two media statements emerged on that subject hard on the heels of the PM baulking at questions put to him on RNZ’s Morning ...
Chris Trotter writes – WHY IS THE NATIONAL PARTY doing so much for landlords, property developers, trucking, and construction companies, and so little for everybody who isn’t already pretty well-off? It’s as if protecting landlords’ investments and building apartments and roads now constitute the whole of National’s ...
Bryce Edwards writes – When she was campaigning to be Minister of Finance last year, Nicola Willis pledged that she would resign from the job if she failed to deliver tax cuts in her first Budget. Now, it’s that pledge, along with Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s ...
Robert MacCulloch writes – The Reserve Bank has doubled staff numbers in five years to 510, with personnel costs rising to $80 million in 2023 from $32 million in 2018 – up by a whopping 150%. I guess when you print $50 billion and flood markets with liquidity, ...
The furore. In case you didn’t notice there was a controversy in the weekend involving dolphins in a little town off the South Island. Don’t panic, they haven’t declared independence and resumed whaling, this was simply a sailing event.The problem began when racing was cancelled on the opening day of ...
For 20 years or more, the case for a meaningful capital tax gains has been mulled over and analysed to death, including by the tax working group chaired by Sir Michael Cullen. More than once, the International Monetary Fund has said a CGT would be a good idea for New ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: The Public Health Communications Centre (PHCC) call for urgent preventive action and a risk assessment survey of long covid in this briefing noteLocal scoop: NZ road deaths surpass OECD rates, so why is the govt reversing safety plans? ...
This story was originally published by Grist and is part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story. This story is part of a collaboration with Grist and WABE to demystify the Georgia Public Service Commission, the small but powerful state-elected board that makes critical decisions about everything from raising ...
This is a guest post from Robert McLachlan Global warming is accelerating; 2023 was off the charts. We need to stop burning fossil fuels. In New Zealand, transport accounts for half of all fossil fuels burnt. In the Emissions Reduction Plan, transport emissions fall 41% by 2035. As the ...
Labour productivity has been receding rapidly over the past two years, reversing a post-lockdown rise. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My six things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy as at 6:26am on Tuesday, March 26 include:Workers have been treading water in output per hour worked for 12 years, ...
TL;DR: The key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to April 2 include:Today, Parliament resumes sitting at 2pm for the second week of a two-week session. Officials for SIS and GCSB report their annual reviews in public to the Intelligence and Security Select Committee from 5.10pm.Tomorrow, ...
Faced with a barrage of criticism over the promised tax cuts from usually supportive commentators, Finance Minister Nicola Willis yesterday reaffirmed her intention to include them in this year’s Budget. The Government is up against it over the cuts just about every way it turns. Commentators like Fran O’Sullivan, Matthew ...
Here’s my pick of today’s substack posts as of 6:26pm on Monday, March 25: writes via his substack that Market-rate housing will make your city cheaper writes via his substack about the problems talking to double-cab ute (truck) drivers about their vehicles. today about moments of radicalisation in ...
Buzz from the Beehive Just before Christmas, Finance Minister Nicola Willis delivered something that was pitched as a mini-budget and brayed about the decisive action being taken to repair the Government books and support income tax relief in Budget 2024. In a statement headed Fiscal repair job underway. she introduced ...
My sister Belinda asked Dad yesterday what one word would describe Mum best. He said: vivacious.If you only knew her from the photos on the slideshow we've made for today,you might wonder about that, because the camera tended to lie with Mum.If ever she saw a camera pointed at her, she ...
There are two major public consultations closing in the next week, Auckland Council’s Long Term Plan (LTP), and the draft Government Policy Statement on Land Transport (GPS). Closing dates and times: LTP closes Thursday 28 February, at 11.59pm – a minute to midnight! GPS closes Tuesday 2 April, at 12pm noon – note that’s ...
From Kiwiblog’s David Farrar – Bryce Wilkinson writes: Senior Fellow Bryce Wilkinson’s analysis reveals that since March 2009, New Zealand has spent $158 billion more overseas than it has earned, but its NIIP has only fallen by $32 billion.Statistics New Zealand shows that receipts from overseas reinsurers have ...
Is she hinting that the Coalition Government will have to back down on key promises it made in Opposition? Brian Easton writes – The Minister of Finance, Nicola Willis, is telling an evolving story about her fiscal challenges. In Opposition she was confident that she could ...
Dear Nicola Willis,Right now you’ve probably got lots of competing demands coming at you. Ministers who’ve inherited quite a mess, or so you’ve told us, looking for money in the budget to improve things. I imagine that’s why they came to parliament - to make things better.You’ll have to make ...
The Local Government, Transport and Auckland Minister hasthreatened councils with intervention if they don’t merge water assets to take them off balance sheet, just as the now-repealed Three Waters plan directed. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My six things of note this morning for Monday, March 25 include:Simeon ...
A listing of 36 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 17, 2024 thru Sat, March 23, 2024. Story of the week Thanks to John Mason having the stamina to sit down to watch "Climate - the Movie" ...
This morning the Q&A programme had Simeon Brown on to talk about National’s replacement for Three Waters. In case anyone’s forgotten the three are - drinking water, waste water, and sewerage. It’s quite important not to get them mixed up. In much the same way that you wouldn’t want to ...
Today’s newsletter comes with a mini-podcast conversation between me and my buddy Liv Tennet, talking about her time as a child actor in Lord of the Rings. It’s a conversation with a lot of giggles as she talks about falling off a horse, and becoming a meme. Read ...
The Desmog Climate Disinformation Database documents, "individuals and organisations that have helped to delay and distract the public and our elected leaders from taking needed action to reduce greenhouse gas pollution and fight global warming." It's a who's who of the organised climate change denial movement, in other words. In ...
Bob Edlin writes – A High Court judge has decided miscreants who have mana – or who claim to have mana – should be treated differently from miscreants who have none. It’s a ruling that suggests indigenous law-breakers have a better chance of securing a discharge without conviction ...
Welcome to the first, and possibly last, edition of Brickbats, Bouquets and Bull’s Wool. In which I’ll take a look at the events of the last week or so, and rate them.In such ratings the numbers usually have more to do with the opinions of the reviewer, than the actual ...
Roger Partridge writes – My earlier column this month, New Zealand’s highest court could be facing a turning point, prompted a flood of feedback from business readers and lawyers alike. A common query was what Parliament can do to restrain an overreaching judiciary. This week I discuss two steps Parliament ...
TL;DR: In today’s ‘six-stack’ of substacks at 6.16pm on Friday, March 22: writes about New Zealand's Building Boom—And What the World Must Learn From It over at his substack. challenges the Auckland Council’s use of a 3.8 degrees of warming forecast to oppose a wave-park and data centre project ...
Is she hinting that the Coalition Government will have to back down on key promises it made in Opposition?The Minister of Finance, Nicola Willis, is telling an evolving story about her fiscal challenges. In Opposition she was confident that she could deliver her promised income tax cuts. Appointed minister, she ...
Buzz from the Beehive Ministers of the Crown have drawn attention to one sector of the science sector which is unlikely to be subjected to heavy spending cuts, a state-funded broadcaster which is doing nicely, thank you, and a sporting event that had $5.4 million from the public purse puffed ...
Abbott’s Freestyle Libre sensors allow continuous glucose monitoring (CGM). The sensor is applied to the back of the patient’s arm, with a thin filament under the skin measuring glucose levels constantly. But it costs around $100 per sensor and must be replaced once every 14 days. Photo by BSIP/Universal Images ...
The Inspector General of Intelligence and Security (IGIS) recently released a report in which he exposes the existence of a foreign intelligence partner-controlled technological “capability” inside the headquarters of the GCSB, NZ’s 5 Eyes-affiliated signals intelligence collection and analysis agency. … Continue reading → ...
Peter Dunne writes – Nearly three decades after the introduction of MMP and multiparty governments there should be a greater level of understanding about their finer points than often appears to be the case. The reaction to the despicable outburst from the Deputy Prime Minister at the weekend highlights ...
The sweet kisses from fruit of summerHave slowly been turning dullerYou say, "those times"And "remember the daysWhen we went outside and there still was the shade?"Taking no reason into play…Autumn. Clear, blue days shortening to longer nights, growing colder. Aotearoa.That’s us. The temperature dropping, the looming car crash - so ...
Bryce Edwards writes – “It is often said that behind every great man is a great woman”. This is the pitch by the National Party Botany electorate branch to attend their “Ladies Afternoon Tea with Amanda Luxon”. For $110 including GST, you can turn up on Saturday 20 April ...
David Farrar writes – The Electoral Commission has published the expense returns for political parties for the 2023 election. I’ve put them in a table with how many votes a party got so we can see the spend per vote. National only spent $3.34 for every vote they got, almost ...
Winston Peters’ headline-making actions over the past week may have been a show of political power intended to strengthen his hand in Budget negotiations. It was no accident that his State of the Nation speech was as it was. He made it as New Zealand First Leader, not as Deputy ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the last week included:Former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson bowed out of politics this week, giving a series of exit ...
Graham Adams writes — If you love the law or sausages, as the saying goes, best not to look too closely at how they are made. And after watching the orgy of self-pity when Newshub’s closure was announced on February 28, television journalism should definitely be added to the list of those ...
Venerable New Zealand political commentator, Chris Trotter (https://bowalleyroad.blogspot.com/), is a sad creature these days. Once one of the most reliable Leftist writers out there – Economic Left at that – Trotter seems to have absorbed the worldview of Auckland culture-war obsessives. It is not for me to categorise what he ...
The cruelty of short-term memory loss is that each time you ask where she is, you get the fresh shock and grief of the news. That was Dad's day yesterday.Comfortingly, it seems to be less so today. Last night he looked crumpled, today he seems more settled. There's a card ...
Photo by Alvan Nee on UnsplashIt’s that new day of the week (Thursday rather than Friday) when and I co-host our ‘hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kākā for an hour at 5 pm. Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream for our chat about the week’s news ...
Buzz from the Beehive One minister is talking tough while a colleague – whose ministry had acted tough and drawn a barrage of flak – has shown an official softening. Some ministers are doing what Labour was good at, which is distributing public funds to causes regarded as worthy or ...
The Coalition Government’s plan to ‘get Auckland moving’ is a cuts cover-up that will ultimately cost Aucklanders more to move around the city, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Slashing the Ministry of Pacific Peoples by 40% will have a devastating impact on pacific communities and further highlights how little this government cares about anything other than cutting taxes for the wealthiest few. ...
Labour has proposed an urgent inquiry to investigate the ever-increasing profits of supermarkets, aiming to lower costs for shoppers and food producers alike, says Labour Spokesperson for Commerce and Consumer Affairs Arena Williams and Primary Production Spokesperson Cushla Tangaere-Manuel. ...
With 14% of jobs on the line at the Ministry for Ethnic Communities, the responsible Minister Melissa Lee is failing to stand up for the very communities she’s meant to be representing. ...
COURT OF APPEAL: TRIFECTA OF VICTORY FOR NZ FIRST, TRIFECTA OF FAILURE FOR OPPONENTS For the third time since April 2020, New Zealand First has defeated the Serious Fraud Office and all those complicit in a malicious attack against a political party going about its lawful business in a lawful ...
The Green Party stands with people who live in public housing, people in dire housing need, experts and advocates in demanding better than the Government’s archaic approach to housing those who need our support the most. ...
New Zealand has recently lost the hosting rights of some major international sporting events including the America’s Cup, the Rugby Championship, Netball World Cup, and the Wellington Sevens. We are now at a huge risk of losing SailGP as well. And it won’t stop there. The recent issues with SailGP ...
A Member’s Bill drawn this week would modernise insurance law and make things fairer and more transparent for consumers, Christchurch Central MP Duncan Webb said. ...
The Minister for Disability Issues has confirmed she was aware of funding issues in mid-December and did nothing to stop it. On 14 March, she signed off on changes that were announced and implemented on 18 March without any consultation with disability communities. ...
Green Party MP Julie Anne Genter says her members' bill is an opportunity for the coalition government to plug the gap in electric vehicle incentives. ...
The National Government continues to talk about irresponsible tax cuts that will only drive up inflation, despite the country entering a technical recession. ...
The Minister for Disability Issues must act urgently to reinstate flexibility around the funding for disability support and apologise to disabled carers. ...
This story has been initiated by a leftie shill reporter who proactively sought to call a member of a former band, which disbanded twelve years ago, give their biased appraisal of what was said in my speech, and concocted a ham-fisted attempt at a story that does nothing but show ...
The Government has accepted Labour’s change to the Road User Charge (RUC) discount for hybrid vehicles, meaning there will still be some incentive for people to buy greener vehicles. ...
Many in the mainstream media have taken what was said in New Zealand First’s State of the Nation Speech in Palmerston North on Sunday and deliberately, deceitfully, and ignorantly misrepresented what I said and why I said it. The headlines and commentary on the news stated that I compared ‘co-governance ...
Kicking the most vulnerable people out of state housing and pushing them towards homelessness will result in a proliferation of poverty and trauma across our most vulnerable communities. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader and MP for Waiariki, Rawiri Waititi has penned a letter asking MPs to support his members bill to remove GST from all food. The bill is expected to go through its first reading in parliament this Wednesday. “I’m calling on all political parties to support my ...
Good afternoon. Thank you for, in your very busy lives, turning up to this meeting today. On October 14th last year New Zealanders overwhelmingly voted for change. That is exactly what this new government is bringing. New Zealand First campaigned to ‘take back our country’ and stop the disastrous economic ...
This year is about getting real with Kiwis and discussing the tough issues, as the National Government exacerbates inequality and divides New Zealand, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said ...
The Government adding Significant Natural Areas (SNAs) to its already roaring environmental policy bonfire is an assault on the future of wildlife that makes Aotearoa unique. ...
After 12 years of fighting to protect our moana we are finding ourselves back at square one and back at court. Today, the Environmental Protection Agency is sitting in Hawera to reconsider an application from Trans-Tasman Resources to dig up 50 million tonnes of the seabed in South Taranaki. This ...
Minister Shane Jones’ decision to step away from a seabed mining project is evidence of the murky waters surrounding the Government’s fast-track legislation. ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The Coalition Government’s miscalculation saga continues as it has forgotten an eyewatering $90 million gap in its interest deductibility cost figures, say Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds and Revenue Spokesperson Deborah Russell. ...
He Pou a Rangi Climate Change Commission has today released advice that says if the Government doesn’t act now New Zealand is at risk of not meeting its climate goals. ...
The Coalition Government has today confirmed it is abandoning first home buyers who are struggling to get ahead, says Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds. ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed the passing of legislation to move light electric vehicles (EVs) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) into the road user charges system from 1 April. “It was always intended that EVs and PHEVs would be exempt from road user charges until they reached two ...
New Zealand is strengthening its ability to combat illegal fishing outside its domestic waters and beef up regulation for its own commercial fishers in international waters through a Bill which had its first reading in Parliament today. The Fisheries (International Fishing and Other Matters) Amendment Bill 2023 sets out stronger ...
Economists Carl Hansen and Professor Prasanna Gai have been appointed to the Reserve Bank Monetary Policy Committee, Finance Minister Nicola Willis announced today. The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) is the independent decision-making body that sets the Official Cash Rate which determines interest rates. Carl Hansen, the executive director of Capital ...
Apartment owners and buyers will soon have greater protections as further changes to the law on unit titles come into effect, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “The Unit Titles (Strengthening Body Corporate Governance and Other Matters) Amendment Act had already introduced some changes in December 2022 and May 2023, and ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters will travel to Egypt and Europe from this weekend. “This travel will focus on a range of New Zealand’s traditional diplomatic and security partnerships while enabling broad engagement on the urgent situation in Gaza,” Mr Peters says. Mr Peters will attend the NATO Foreign ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown is encouraging all road users to stay safe, plan their journeys ahead of time, and be patient with other drivers while travelling around this Easter long weekend. “Road safety is a responsibility we all share, and with increased traffic on our roads expected this Easter we ...
About 1.4 million New Zealanders will receive cost of living relief through increased government assistance from April 1 909,000 pensioners get a boost to Superannuation, including 5000 veterans 371,000 working-age beneficiaries will get higher payments 45,000 students will see an increase in their allowance Over a quarter of New Zealanders ...
Ensuring social housing is being provided to those with the greatest needs is front of mind as the Government restarts social housing tenancy reviews, Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka says. “Our relentless focus on building a strong economy is to ensure we can deliver better public services such as social ...
The Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary will not go ahead, with Cabinet deciding to stop work on the proposed reserve and remove the Bill that would have established it from Parliament’s order paper. “The Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary Bill would have created a 620,000 sq km economic no-go zone,” Oceans and Fisheries Minister ...
Dam safety regulations are being amended so that smaller dams won’t be subject to excessive compliance costs, Minister for Building and Construction Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on reducing costs and removing unnecessary red tape so we can get the economy back on track. “Dam safety regulations ...
The coalition Government is expanding the medium-scale adverse event classification to parts of the North Island as dry weather conditions persist, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced today. “I have made the decision to expand the medium-scale adverse event classification already in place for parts of the South Island to also cover the ...
The passing of legislation giving effect to coalition Government tax commitments has been welcomed by Finance Minister Nicola Willis. “The Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill will help place New Zealand on a more secure economic footing, improve outcomes for New Zealanders, and make our tax system ...
Science, Innovation and Technology Minister Judith Collins and Tertiary Education and Skills Minister Penny Simmonds today announced plans to transform our science and university sectors to boost the economy. Two advisory groups, chaired by Professor Sir Peter Gluckman, will advise the Government on how these sectors can play a greater ...
The Budget will deliver urgently-needed tax relief to hard-working New Zealanders while putting the government’s finances back on a sustainable track, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The Finance Minister made the comments at the release of the Budget Policy Statement setting out the Government’s Budget objectives. “The coalition Government intends ...
The coalition Government will look at options to address a zoning issue that limits how much financial support Queenstown residents can get for accommodation. Cabinet has agreed on a response to the Petitions Committee, which had recommended the geographic information MSD uses to determine how much accommodation supplement can be ...
Cabinet has agreed to a short extension to the final reporting timeframe for the Royal Commission into Abuse in Care from 28 March 2024 to 26 June 2024, Internal Affairs Minister Brooke van Velden says. “The Royal Commission wrote to me on 16 February 2024, requesting that I consider an ...
The coalition Government is delivering an $18 million boost to New Zealanders needing to travel for specialist health treatment, Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says. “These changes are long overdue – the National Travel Assistance (NTA) scheme saw its last increase to mileage and accommodation rates way back in 2009. ...
The Government is recognising the innovative and rising talent in New Zealand’s growing space sector, with the Prime Minister and Space Minister Judith Collins announcing the new Prime Minister’s Prizes for Space today. “New Zealand has a growing reputation as a high-value partner for space missions and research. I am ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has confirmed New Zealand’s concerns about cyber activity have been conveyed directly to the Chinese Government. “The Prime Minister and Minister Collins have expressed concerns today about malicious cyber activity, attributed to groups sponsored by the Chinese Government, targeting democratic institutions in both New ...
Independent Reviewers appointed for School Property Inquiry Education Minister Erica Stanford today announced the appointment of three independent reviewers to lead the Ministerial Inquiry into the Ministry of Education’s School Property Function. The Inquiry will be led by former Minister of Foreign Affairs Murray McCully. “There is a clear need ...
State Highway 1 across the Brynderwyns will be open for Easter weekend, with work currently underway to ensure the resilience of this critical route being paused for Easter Weekend to allow holiday makers to travel north, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Today I visited the Brynderwyn Hills construction site, where ...
Introduction Good morning to you all, and thanks for having me bright and early today. I am absolutely delighted to be the Minister for Infrastructure alongside the Minister of Housing and Resource Management Reform. I know the Prime Minister sees the three roles as closely connected and he wants me ...
New Zealand stands with the United Kingdom in its condemnation of People’s Republic of China (PRC) state-backed malicious cyber activity impacting its Electoral Commission and targeting Members of the UK Parliament. “The use of cyber-enabled espionage operations to interfere with democratic institutions and processes anywhere is unacceptable,” Minister Responsible for ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Defence Minister Judith Collins today announced New Zealand will provide logistics support for the upcoming Solomon Islands election. “We’re sending a team of New Zealand Defence Force personnel and two NH90 helicopters to provide logistics support for the election on 17 April, at the request ...
The European Union Free Trade Agreement Legislation Amendment Bill received Royal Assent today, completing the process for New Zealand’s ratification of its free trade agreement with the European Union. “I am pleased to announce that today, in a small ceremony at the Beehive, New Zealand notified the European Union ...
Public consultation on the terms of reference for the Royal Commission into COVID-19 Lessons has concluded, Internal Affairs Minister Hon Brooke van Velden says. “I have been advised that there were over 11,000 submissions made through the Royal Commission’s online consultation portal.” Expanding the scope of the Royal Commission of ...
Hardworking families are set to benefit from a new credit to help them meet their early childcare education (ECE) costs, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. From 1 July, parents and caregivers of young children will be supported to manage the rising cost of living with a partial reimbursement of their ...
A specialised Independent Technical Advisory Group (ITAG) tasked with preparing and publishing independent non-binding advice on the design of a "green" (sustainable finance) taxonomy rulebook is being established, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “Comprising experts and market participants, the ITAG's primary goal is to deliver comprehensive recommendations to the ...
Defence Minister Judith Collins has thanked the Chief of Army, Major General John Boswell, DSD, for his service as he leaves the Army after 40 years. “I would like to thank Major General Boswell for his contribution to the Army and the wider New Zealand Defence Force, undertaking many different ...
25 March 2024 Minister to meet Australian counterparts and Manufacturing Industry Leaders Small Business, Manufacturing, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly will travel to Australia for a series of bi-lateral meetings and manufacturing visits. During the visit, Minister Bayly will meet with his Australian counterparts, Senator Tim Ayres, Ed ...
Government commits almost $3 million for period products in schools The Coalition Government has committed $2.9 million to ensure intermediate and secondary schools continue providing period products to those who need them, Minister of Education Erica Stanford announced today. “This is an issue of dignity and ensuring young women don’t ...
Good morning, it’s great to be here. First, I would like to acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of Building Surveyors and thank you for the opportunity to be here this morning. I would like to use this opportunity to outline the Government’s ambitious plan and what we hope to ...
Minister for Pacific Peoples Dr Shane Reti has announced the Government’s commitment to the Auckland Secondary Schools Māori and Pacific Islands Cultural Festival, more commonly known as Polyfest. “The Ministry for Pacific Peoples is a longtime supporter of Polyfest and, as it celebrates 49 years in 2024, I’m proud to ...
Before moving onto the substance of today’s address, I want to recognise the very significant and ongoing contribution the Breast Cancer Foundation makes to support the lives of New Zealand women and their families living with breast cancer. I very much enjoy working with you. I also want to recognise ...
New Zealand has notched up a first with the launch of University of Canterbury research to the International Space Station, Science, Innovation and Technology and Space Minister Judith Collins says. The hardware, developed by Dr Sarah Kessans, is designed to operate autonomously in orbit, allowing scientists on Earth to study ...
Introduction Thank you for inviting me to speak with you today and I’m sorry I can’t be there in person. Yesterday I started in Wellington for Breakfast TV, spoke to a property conference in Auckland, and finished the day speaking to local government in Christchurch, so it would have been ...
The Coalition Government is contributing more than $1 million to support the establishment of an emergency multi-agency coordination centre in Northland. Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell announced the contribution today during a visit of the Whangārei site where the facility will be constructed. “Northland has faced a number ...
New Zealanders have enjoyed a broader range of voices telling the story of Aotearoa thanks to the creation of Whakaata Māori 20 years ago, says Māori Development Minister Tama Potaka. The minister spoke at a celebration marking the national indigenous media organisation’s 20th anniversary at their studio in Auckland on ...
Commercial catch limits for some fisheries have been increased following a review showing stocks are healthy and abundant, Ocean and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The changes, along with some other catch limit changes and management settings, begin coming into effect from 1 April 2024. "Regular biannual reviews of fish ...
Analysis by Keith Rankin. Keith Rankin, trained as an economic historian, is a retired lecturer in Economics and Statistics. He lives in Auckland, New Zealand. My earlier article – Can ‘Good’ be the Greater Evil? – looked at the issue of how wars should end, and how Good versus Evil ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 AMMA by Saraid de Silva (Moa Press, $38)A stunning debut novel reviewed by Brannavan ...
From Steve Martin to Ricky Stanicky, a pick’n’mix of things worth watching and listening to this long weekend. This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. If you’re at a loss for something to occupy yourself with this Easter, don’t panic: The Spinoff’s got ...
Jesus had dinner with his 12 disciples right before he died. Noted historian Madeleine Chapman finds out who really deserved to be there.First published in 2018 but let’s be honest, the subject is timeless. As you sit on your couch this Easter Sunday, eating a chocolate egg you know ...
The newly-promoted Northern League club is on a mission to return to the National League for the first time in two decades. Plenty about domestic football in New Zealand has changed in that time – but the sense that this amateur competition is not an entirely level playing field remains. ...
Comment: Every year on February 2, a dozen men in tuxedos and top hats approach the burrow of a groundhog in Gobbler’s Knob, Pennsylvania and entice the beaver-like rodent to emerge and predict the weather. If the groundhog, named Punxsutawney Phil, sees its own shadow when it is summoned, legend ...
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Auckland Council has put a deadline on new weather-impacted property owners applying for categorisation as government funding looks set to run out. Councillors have voted to support a deadline of September 30 for property owners who haven’t accessed support to come forward and engage with the council’s recovery office. It ...
NONFICTION 1 BBQ Economics by Liam Dann (Penguin Random House, $40) “It’s official,” wrote Dann nine days ago in the Herald, where he works as business editor at large, “we’re in recession.” Yeah, great. He delivered the bad stats: “GDP fell 0.1 percent in the December 2023 quarter, compared with ...
By Anneke Smith, RNZ News political reporter A petition urging the New Zealand government to provide urgent humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian people has been tabled in the House. More than 200 people gathered on Parliament’s forecourt today and they were met by MPs from Labour, the Greens and Te ...
Pacific Media Watch The Paris-based global media freedom watchdog RSF (Reporters Without Borders) has appealed for information about the “disappearance” of Palestinian journalist Bayan Abusultan. She was reportedly last seen on March 19 among people “sequestered” in this week’s raid and siege of Al Shifa hospital by Israeli troops in ...
EDITORIAL:The Jakarta Post It happens again and again; indigenous Papuans fall victim to Indonesian soldiers. This time, we have photographic evidence for the brutality, with videos on social media showing a Papuan man being tortured by a group of plainclothes men alleged to be the Indonesian Military (TNI) members. ...
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Somebody here yesterday asked whether there were even any family members left to receive compensation for the US's wrongful drone strike on an innocent family in Kabul.
Afghan survivors of US drone strike: Sorry 'is not enough'
"Sorry is not enough for the Afghan survivors of an errant US drone strike that killed 10 members of their family, including seven children.
Emal Ahmadi, whose 3-year-old daughter Malika was killed on August 29, when the US hellfire missile struck his elder brother's car, told The Associated Presson Saturday that the family demands Washington investigate who fired the drone and punish the military personnel responsible for the strike."
“That is not enough for us to say sorry,” said Ahmadi. “The USA should find the person who did this."
"Ahmadi said the family is also seeking financial compensation for their losses and demanded that several members of the family be relocated to a third country, without specifying which country.
…
Even as evidence mounted to the contrary, Pentagon officials asserted that the strike had been conducted correctly, to protect the US troops remaining at Kabul's airport ahead of the final pullout the following day, on August 30.
…
Zemerai was the family's breadwinner had looked after his three brothers, including Emal, and their children."
"'Now I am the one who is responsible for all my family and I am jobless,' said Emal Ahmadi. The situation “is not good”, said Ahmadi of life under the Taliban. International aid groups and the United Nations have warned of a looming humanitarian crisis that could drive most Afghans below the poverty level.
…
Ahmadi wondered how the family's home could have been mistaken for an Islamic State hideout."
“The USA can see from everywhere," he said of US drone capabilities. “They can see that there were innocent children near the car and in the car. Whoever did this should be punished.”
https://www.stuff.co.nz/world/asia/300410616/afghan-survivors-of-us-drone-strike-sorry-is-not-enough
Couple of items of interest on Afghanistan reported on Aljazeera tv news:
“Taliban leaders have turned the Kabul building that housed Afghanistan’s Ministry of Women’s Affairs into the offices for the religious police, an ominous portent for women’s rights.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/17/world/asia/taliban-women-ministry-religious-police.html
And, according to Aljaz tv reporting, the Taliban have announced that all BOYS should return to their secondary schools from today. Creating fears that girls are not going to be permitted to attend secondary schools.
Aljaz further reports that co-ed schools in Afghanistan (or it might just be Kabul) have been strictly segregated, & the Taliban have previously recently said that young women may return to Universities (but in segregated classes, & to bectaught only by women – which several female academics there have said will end up being impractical & unaffordable for many, so that it’s likely a tactic to ultimately achieve the goal of sending women back into their homes, while initially avoiding world condemnation). So this has created general confusion.
PS: The Taliban leadership has apparently just said it will be making an announcement about when girls can return to secondary schools at some point soon.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/coronavirus/300410641/covid19-pair-arrested-in-wellington-after-allegedly-travelling-from-auckland
I’m losing count of the number of Auckland L4 lockdown breachers being arrested by the police all over the motu. Some folk up there are starting to go stir-crazy, it seems.
They have been released on bail to travel back to a court appearance in Auckland.
Should have been held until they have shown no covid infection
Although I noticed that masks and social distance had suddenly become quite universal around Queenstown locals, including a couple of gentlemen who were prominent at the howl a month or so back. The sense of security from isolation, 'covid's just in South Auckland, none down here', gone and replaced by a quiet concern.
Pleasing to see but last week very few were masking or distancing, and if you did you got shit. Retail staff were scared and very thankful to those that were masking. Retailers Assn has done a lot of good work educating employers and staff of the requirements and reasons for masking and staff feel vulnerable. It's pleasing to see some responsibility from the public, even if it is motivated by personal fear.
Yes, I'm in Welly. Just got back from my supermarket shopping. Everyone's masked up, including yours truly, & shoppers are all trying to keep a reasonable amount of distance from other shoppers at Level 2.
I get a bit hacked off with the mask fogging up me specs, but until we get everyone possible vaccinated, I'm quite happy to keep wearing a mask when out in public.
There is a two-sided 'body" tape that chemists sell that give a better air seal around the nose than the wire used in some masks.
Thanks Ed, might check that out when next in the chemists.
I’ve got a couple of rolls of 1/2 inch micropore tape at home. Might experiment with that.
I find I can prevent my glasses fogging with stillsuit breathing (if you know Herbert's Dune); in through the mouth, and out through the nose. Though it does take a couple of minutes to switch back to more regular patterns when the mask comes off. Also, the bridge of the glasses helps hold the mask on too – but I am using washable cloth ones rather than wired disposables.
I bought 3 cloth masks, made in India, sold to me off my Dentist’s counter. He & his missus are both Kiwi Indians with still-strong connections to whanau back in the old country which, until Covid, they visit regularly. They’re both practising Christians & were selling them for an orphanage charity in India that they support.
The only thing is they seemed to be a single layer cloth – but nope, I’ve just gone & checked them carefully & they’re lined: 2 layers.
I’ve got a biggish box of surgical masks, so I’m using a few of them up first. They’re supposed to be one-use-only, but I go out from my home base relatively infrequently & often for only about 30 mins or so, so most the time I take it off in the car & re-use it a few times in Level 2, where there’s less risk of Covid being in the air & getting on the mask.
In Level 4 lockdowns – when Welly’s had cases in the community – they get trashed after one use.
There's this dude making nose clips that allegedly help prevent fogging.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/300410247/covid19-champions-one-mans-3d-printing-hobby-provides-solution-to-common-mask-problem
I just tend to wear my mask high, so that the glasses actualy hold the mask down on the bit by the nose that usually seems to be responsible.
In the process of making some extra large masks to stop me bristles poking out the bottom though.
I notice on Aljazeera tv-shown Press Conferences that the Taliban & the Iranian leadership have the same problem, McFlock. 😀 I’ve just got a mo. Not so much of a problem.
Good to see the 'evil doers' taking their civic responsibilities seriously.
It seems that these terrible inhuman monsters, that we have to slaughter hundreds of innocent civilians. just to get to one of them, shares some very human frailties with the rest of us.
Top US General Kenneth F. McKenzie Jr. said, 10 civilians, including children, killed in a drone strike was "a mistake"
Bull-Sh cough it
When you deploy a weapon that you know kills civilians 90% of the time, and it kills civilians, it is not a mistake.
There are lots of good video tips on line on how to fix this problem.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQ9dhkG-Dgs
Kia ora for this, Jenny
She actually doesn't have much success!
However it's a sunny, quite warm day today & I noticed when trying on my mask outside, there wasn't that much of a problem today.
It may well diminish or disappear as the weather gets warmer – though no doubt we'll get a real "Polar Blast" barreling up the whole country sometime before the end of September. Happens every year.
"Covid's just in South Auckland, none down here…"
Went for a bush walk here on Auckland's North Shore yesterday. Close to our home about 2km away. A bit hesistant as the track narrows in a lot of places and it was a nice day – but stuck our masks on and assumed others would too. Only about 20% masked – people puffing their way back uphill unmasked and right past others who were also unmasked and taking a breather. Completed our walk – albeit with a fair bit of backing into the bushes and keeping clear of others when we hit the beach at the bottom. Regretted the decision to go. Looked a bit like a case of "Covid's just in South Auckland, none up here…"
Mask compliance here in Whanganui is nearly universal. Late last week I saw a kuia bawling out a group of school kids over their not wearing masks in a crowded main street. The whole lot donned the masks they were carrying.
Retailers have been excellent, too.
Good on her. From my observations, they allow a fair bit of latitude to young kids & don’t always bawl out their tamariki for misdemeanors. When they do, I bet the kidz listen up !
Nah they were escaping last time. Family on the Coromandel commented on how many Aucklanders were flying in by helicopter during lock down and/or arriving in the middle of the night.
I think it is more that people have lost tolerance for the behaviour this time.
But it's my body, my choice….fucking filth
St. Luke’s reported that 92-94% of its COVID-19 patients in the past week have been unvaccinated. And 95-98% of its COVID-19 patients taking up ICU beds were unvaccinated.
Here’s an even scarier statement, from the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare’s strategies during crisis standards of care:
“Universal DNR Order: Adult patients hospitalized during a public health emergency, when crisis standards of care have been declared, should receive aggressive interventions; however, they should receive NO attempts at resuscitation (compressions, shocks or intubation if not yet intubated) in the event of cardiac arrest. The likelihood of survival after a cardiac arrest is extremely low for adult patients. As well, resuscitation poses significant risk to healthcare workers due to aerosolization of body fluids and uses large quantities of scarce resources such as staff time, personal protective equipment, and lifesaving medications, with minimal opportunity for benefit.”
In other words, whether we’ve signed a “do not resuscitate” directive or not, everyone single one of us is now under a DNR directive in Idaho because we’ve reached crisis standards of care due to a deadly and overwhelming surge of unvaccinated COVID-19 patients in our hospitals.
And it’s all entirely preventable.
https://www.idahostatesman.com/opinion/editorials/article254287998.html
(my bold)
If it were up to me, I would now be setting up tents in the far corner of hospital carparks as the Unvaccinated Covid wards. And giving the directive that unvaccinated (but eligible for vaccination) covid patients are first on the list for triaging.
Conventional triaging and medical ethics is built around events out of the control of those injured. But what we've got coming at us is very much foreseeable, and there is a very safe, very effective, and free precaution (almost) all of us can take against being a part of the coming problem (that unfortunately isn't quite 100% effective). However, some will refuse to do their very minimal bit for their community and help themselves at the same time.
Responding to this problem is a society-wide values and ethics and resource-allocation issue, not a conventional medical ethics and triaging situation. Therefore conventional medical ethicists are not the right people for setting the response guidelines.
Our government needs to be the ones to step up and give the hard word.
A solution that doesn't require vaccination.
https://twitter.com/kaitlancollins/status/1438913472385912848
That way works, but it creates a lot of collateral damage among the staff and among patients that haven't chosen to be the problem.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/healthcare-workers-feeling-burnout-vaccine-deniers_l_6132806ce4b0aac9c016f0b9
Indeed. The anxiety of one of my sister's kid's over the safety of their mother working in CCU is becoming problematic.
If it were up to me, I would now be setting up tents in the far corner of hospital carparks as the Unvaccinated Covid wards. And giving the directive that unvaccinated (but eligible for vaccination) covid patients are first on the list for triaging.
You could sell tickets – the morally superior vaccinated people could come and watch the spectacle of the 'filth' choking to death. Seems it would be popular.
Nah.
But I would set up another tent in a different corner of the carpark as a vaccination centre. So those that need the shock of seeing how nasty it is to nudge them into protecting themselves can get it done then and there.
We won't discuss the morality of kids needing care after a car accident, for example, not getting admitted to hospital, because it is full of idiots who didn't get vaccinated, when it is easily available.
Already happening in New York State, from a first hand description.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/world/451823/us-hospitals-ration-care-amid-shortages-and-covid-19-surge
And isn't 'Rationing of Care' the canard deployed against socialised healthcare in the US?
When do we get a non binary suffrage day?
Quite likely that somebody’s already beavering away trying to organise that.
Yes Gezza, apparently therre was a protest on women's suffrage day in Dunedin calling for trans rights. I am informed the protesters countering the women's celebrations seem to have no idea what women's suffrage was about. That women had to fight hard for their right to cast a vote.
Was there Anker? I haven't heard anything about that myself (but then the last time I bothered marching in protest was against the TPPA, so people know better than to ask me along), and I am familiar with a few takatāpui kaiwhakahē o Ōtepoti. Do you have a link?
This is the closest I could find (from yesterday), but then again – I don't use Twitter or suchlike:
https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO2109/S00093/wellington-and-dunedin-feminists-rally-for-disappearing-rights.htm
Didn't realize it was a protest by women about the bills.
It makes more sense as to why others would counter protest. I don't have a link.
I agree about prisoners being able to vote.
Mixed feelings about kids below the age of 18.
Duke Ell you are joking right?
Sufferage became universal for males for all males in 1879 (as opposed to male land owners only being able to vote)
In 1867 the Maori seats were established so Maori males could vote.
Then women got the vote in 1893, the first country in the world that allowed women to vote. Women fought hard for this in NZ and in other countries. In some countries like Switzerland women didn't get the vote till the 1970's.
Voting rights were restricted biological sex. That's why suffrage is celebrated by women.
Suffrage celebrations need to be more inclusive then to avoid problems.
Universal perhaps….
No I think it is good as it is DukeEll.
Women have always celebrated suffrage on our day 19th September. It was then that we were included. We are remembering how hard our sisters fought to be included.
The protests were against SUFW hijacking the Suffrage Day celebration (there were posters saying the Octagon even was organised by the SUFW to oppose self ID thing), not against the Suffrage Movement.
Oh I think describing it as a high jijacking is a bit extreme.
We are women. Its our day, we can use it to highlight issues some of us are concerned about.
Afaik, it wasn't SUFW, it was Women's Liberation Aotearoa and Mana Wāhine Kōrero. And they didn't hijack a Suffrage Day celebration, they organised it. They have a FB page if you want to look it up.
https://twitter.com/wlaotearoa/status/1438511995184025606?s=20
The universal in "universal suffrage" refers more to the right to both; vote for, and stand for, elected office. Universal suffrage in NZ was deemed to have been achieved even before women and Māori got the right to vote. Māori votes were problematic from 1867 (when they were worth about a quarter as much as Pākehā by population, and weren't permitted to use secret ballots, or electoral rolls) all the way up until 1992 with the adoption of MMP that finally gave (those who chose to risk discrimination for identifying as) Māori a proportionate voice in parliament.
https://nzhistory.govt.nz/politics/maori-and-the-vote/twentieth-century
However, I would argue that we have not yet reached true universal suffrage due to age restrictions (particularly in the 16-17 age group; which I think is currently before the courts based on the HRA, but even younger might be feasible through proxy). Also the removal of voting rights for prisoners, and preventing those convicted of a crime punishable for more than 2 years imprisonment (even if the actual sentence is less than that). Plus NZ citizens losing the right to vote if they have been out of the country for too long (3 years, I think – that's going to be an live issue come 2023).
"Suffrage celebrations need to be more inclusive then to avoid problems."
What problems?
The Brexit shambles continues.
Exclusive: The government is bracing itself for supplies of beer, fizzy drinks and meat to be hit by a severe shortage of CO2, with supermarkets and restaurants expected to be affected in the coming days.
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) was warned on Thursday that shortages of CO2, caused by the closure this week of two major fertilizer plants, would affect manufacturers across food and drink industry, PoliticsHome understands.
[…]
The CO2 shortage is set to compound ongoing disruption to food and drink supplies caused by chronic shortages of lorry drivers, processors, and other workers in the UK's supply chains.
The labour shortages, which have been exacerbated by the coronavirus and Brexit, have resulted in household names like McDonald's, Gregg's, and the Co-op running out of certain items in recent weeks, with the disruption expected to worsen in the coming weeks in the run-up to Christmas.
https://www.politicshome.com/news/article/beer-and-fizzy-drink-supplies-at-risk-from-co2-shortages
But there is still adequate food.
And surely the NHS is going gangbusters from getting the 350 million quid a week that used to go to the EU.
"The Brexit shambles continues."
Or you could look to a slightly more nuanced response.
The final outcome of Brexit is uncertain. In my view the EU is a bloated bureaucratic that has long ago lost it's way. The sooner it returns to a simple trade pact the better.
And beer drinkers' response to any shortages of their favourite tipple will be slightly nuanced, too.
Well if some of those beer drinkers want to become lorry drivers, they can be part of the solution.
Gotcha. UK was doing fine for fizzy drinks, but their labour laws only caught up on them now… because brexit.
Bojo basically crashed out of the EU, and none of the predicted failures were mitigated in any way.
Some people would rather rule over peasants in muck than live in a developed and equitable society.
"but their labour laws only caught up on them now… because brexit."
On the contrary. The article states "Decades of anti-union legislation has tilted what was always an unequal relationship between workers and capital even further in the latter’s favour. "
"Some people would rather rule over peasants in muck than live in a developed and equitable society."
Well based on voting trends at the last election, those peasants must be voting for muck. In the 2019 British election, the Conservatives won more working class votes than labour. "Boris Johnson's party out-polled Labour by double-digit figures among both manual workers and households with incomes below £20,000".
On the back of 300mil quid a week, and other bullshit.
The basic problem with that article is that unionisation wouldn't stop EU drivers making cross-channel deliveries. So unions or not, crashing out of the EU was still a predictably stupid thing to do.
"The basic problem with that article is that unionisation wouldn't stop EU drivers making cross-channel deliveries."
There is a shortage of lorry drivers. To deliver product INSIDE the UK.
Brexit was the best thing to happen to the UK in decades. The working class have well and truly spoken.
So the "nuanced" view is that if Brexit hadn't happened, there'd still be the same shortages now?
Because it seems to me that if they had enough drivers before Brexit, and not enough drivers after, then maybe that's an issue they should have fucking considered and solved before crashing out of the EU.
Just like the fisheries, just like the NHS workforce, just like the NI problem, just like their role as a European financial centre.
Even if the destination is worthwile (doubtful), the incompetent way they left is beyond Thatcher.
"Because it seems to me that if they had enough drivers before Brexit,"
But they didn't. The point of the article is that the shortages have been building up for years.
"just like the NHS workforce"
That article was written in 2019, and includes this "This article demonstrates why the NHS is currently suffering from a staffing crisis…". So the staffing crisis existed BEFORE Brexit came into effect.
" like their role as a European financial centre."
From that link "London still has a towering lead over rivals Frankfurt, Milan and Paris when it comes to trading stocks, currencies and derivatives and playing host to asset managers." You're quoting from an article written less than 2 months after Brexit came into effect, that is extolling London's virtues! Look I can give you more.
The people of the UK overwhelmingly backed pro-Brexit policies of the Conservatives in the last election. They will have a far better country as a result.
Well, the kingdom wasn't quite united on that one.
But it's funny how the driver shortages really hit home when they can't just get some Baltic drivers in at the last minute, innit. Pure coincidence, according to the nuanced view?
"But it's funny how the driver shortages really hit home when they can't just get some Baltic drivers in at the last minute, innit. "
The driver shortage has been 'decades in the making'. Not months. Oh and as for those Baltic drivers…
"Recruiters are now finding their new cheap HGV drivers not in Poland, Hungary or Romania, but in the former Soviet Central Asian states of Uzbekistan and Tajikistan."
They have had shortages of carbonated beverages in the UK for decades?
The Brexit shambles continues.
More the energy crunch due to large increases in natural gas prices.
With the large fertilizer manufacturers shutting production of Nitrogen and ammonia urea,there will be large increases in food costs,and the cost of building materials such as waste pipes,guttering etc.
Electricity has also (like NZ) skyrocketed in Europe.
https://twitter.com/JavierBlas/status/1438772827755253761?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1438776189343211520%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es2_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fpublish.twitter.com%2F%3Fquery%3Dhttps3A2F2Ftwitter.com2FJavierBlas2Fstatus2F1438776189343211520widget%3DTweet
24.
No Kentucky Fried for several more weeks.
Well now, that sucks great hairy months-unwashed balls.
When do we admit that lockdowns aren’t working?
why not move to level 3 and make mask wearing mandatory outside of the house at all times. We have to open up at some point
Working fine for everyone outside of Auckland.
My guess is with the NZHerald at 90% double-hit before reopening.
So never, if we listen to the experts in the same publication.
can’t keep the most concentrated part of the country and economy cooped up for ever
Not forever, no. Everyone in the country agrees with that.
It may be that more aggressive measures are required.
Great clip Stuart!
They are flat out on the 9th floor of the Beehive trying to come up with a story that lets them scrap the lockdowns without either
1. Saying that the original estimates of the deaths expected were greatly exaggerated or
2. having to say that there will be some deaths from Covid 19.
That sounds quite a feat.
Meamwhile Collins and co are trying to find a way of saying we should, open up immediately, and accept however many deaths and disabilities, as well as the economic loss to businesses and workers, that were largely able to carry on business as usual, due to the success of comprehensive but short lockdowns, without actually saying it.
without giving a firm number on how many dead they'll exchange for a latte.
Oh dear, we have a Plan B parrot that tripped over a few logical fallacies and fell in a rabbit hole. Please enlighten us, in your own words, as to why you claim that lockdowns in NZ are not working.
Cases are constant as are the mystery numbers. Shows covid is in the community and getting aroind
I never said plan B. I said level 3 with more mandatory restrictions to enjoy it. Open up just enough to give Aucklanders some relief but keep it safe.
You didn’t have to, it was crystal clear; in fact, no link required or desired, this time, as it would show you as the Plan B parrot that you are.
That comment shows a profound misunderstanding of lockdown, which is exactly because of spread in the community. In all reality, the peak has passed, but the tail is long (and hard), and most if not all news cases are linked to existing clusters within 24 hours and occur in households of known positive cases. Lockdown is definitely working, even against the much tougher Delta variant.
So how’s your profound misunderstanding of lockdown and the level system going?
Very well, thanks.
I hope you enjoyed the briefing at 4 pm by Ardern and Bloomfield and found it informative and educational. Lockdowns do work indeed!
In fact, it works so well that they have decided to use it again:
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/relief-for-auckland-more-rules-for-mangatangi
It's tough, but it is working. Sydney and Melbourne show that if you ease off this sucker even a little bit, Auckland will be counting deaths by the day. Maybe when damned near everyone is double-jabbed, but not before.
I'd like to see some analysis on how onward transmission is still occurring at L4. The inference given at the 1PM today was that it isn't through the consumption of essential services, i.e. it's not unrelated people using the same dairy, laundromat, etc. Rather it's due to inter-household contact, either due to outright bubble-breaking, or to special circumstances where someone from one household has to provide support to another household. And if that's the case, I don't see how you stop it without tightening controls even further and/or throwing more resources and people at it.
From the live feed at about 1:21 pm today: https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/coronavirus/300410256/covid19-nz-live-24-new-cases-discovered-all-in-auckland
The weasel wording of "for the most part" and "haven't tended" suggests to me that some is indeed happening. Which would have an easy solution: instead of them having to go out on their essential trips, deliver their essential supplies instead. The government can easily stump up the delivery fee.
Most if not all new cases can be linked to known existing cases within 24 hours.
Most if not all transmission takes place within households.
Most of the activities of people who are deemed infectious in the community are (for) essential visits.
One possibility is to provide extra assistance to those identified households, e.g., using some kind of personalised chaperone system with experienced health care professionals from within the local community. This might help break the so-called long hard tail of this Delta outbreak in Auckland and allow the rules to be somewhat relaxed for the rest of the greater Auckland region that is in lockdown and the rest of the whole country sooner rather than later. In other words, more tailored and targeted measures with more flexibility and nuance reflecting the specific and local circumstances rather than the current crude blanket measures that seem to obey the rule (mantra) that one size fits all. How hard can that be?
Yes, maybe something new needs to be done, even if it is hard. Throwing 'wrap-around' care at households where someone is identified as a close contact – so they literally don't go anywhere until negative Day12 tests are returned, or into MIQ if tests are positive. Low numbers of such households presumably make it feasible.
But I guess everyone is scared of scenes like we saw in the early days in Wuhan with full PPE-wearing cops positioned outside people's front doors and physically shoving them back inside.
Thanks for being constructive, much appreciated.
Yes, it would have its own set of difficulties and would indeed require some finesse for want of a better word.
I was thinking of allowing members of those households to continue to go about their ways under lockdown rather than give them full house arrest and without extra limitations and restrictions that could stigmatise them in their (local) communities.
A fully vaccinated professional could show them the do’s & don’ts, including mask-wearing and hand-washing, for example, and also chaperone them safely from a discrete distance without looking like a bodyguard in full armour, so to speak. Maybe appoint one member of the household as gatekeeper and observer of QC and adherence to good practice, but this may not gel well with certain socio-cultural norms within those households.
Things need to be tailored or they won’t work at all and possibly even backfire; intra-household wedges are not desired outcomes.
We need more lateral thinking and solutions after more than 18 months of dealing with this pandemic. We also need boldness combined with kind firmness.
Edit: give them kits for daily saliva testing
I had a friend in Wuhan Province during their initial lock-down. They used a lot of workers to man intersections and then building entrances – eventually taking orders for shopping and delivering them for residents. It minimised contact between households and enabled a successful and orderly lockdown. there may have been police involved, and they were quick to use full body covering including masks. I did not hear of any widespread unrest; most of the population readily complied with requests. Whether that would have worked here is a moot point; they have a much higher density of population in cities than we do – and China is one of the few countries that has better Covid statistics then we do.
I don’t follow your logic here.
Is that so? Is that a fact or your opinion?
Its a no-brainer. Lets be honest for once about the problem in Auckland:
This outbreak appears pretty much confined to one ethnicity and in large part is caused by too many people in one household and the tendency to socially meet in large numbers eg. church functions. Setting aside the reason for this scenario which I know is not entirely their fault, it would be absurd if the whole of the Auckland region should continue to suffer the consequences of a L4 lockdown.
It was pertinent to the recovery process up until now, but any continuation would be harmful to Auckland and the rest of the country. Instead concentrate resources into the group who are currently topping the 'cases chart' and assist them to overcome the plight so many are currently in.
As an aside, to be really effective, public health measures need to be taken and tailored to the people who need it, i.e., know your audience. This means great(er) involvement of local community medical centres and GPs. This is one major reason why I’m quite wary of the abolishing of the DHBs, which are indeed a shambles, and replacing them with a more centralised structure and system. Public health happens at grassroots and patient level, not in boardrooms on top floors of tall buildings by managers in suits with bonus payments based on meeting KPIs. Same could be said about many societal issues, for that matter.
I think most community health centres and GPs are involved now. What I suspect happened is the government did not have sufficient vaccine to go too hard out and that is why they delayed bringing in the bulk of the medical clinics. Whether that was an error of judgement or they were constrained by sticking to one brand or for some other reason I don't know. Whatever, the situation has now changed.
We'll have to wait and see the fine print re-the proposed new Health Boards but there is little argument the country has way too many DHBs. I trust Andrew Little to set them up in such a way they will not turn into big corporate-type conglomerates. We had a good health system prior to neoliberalism. In fact it was regarded as one of the best in the world.
I still think it will be KFC from Wednesday morning.
I am not sure.
This news is not encouraging.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/451839/auckland-prisoner-tests-positive-for-covid-19
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/covid-19-delta-outbreak-prisoner-went-to-court-later-tested-positive-at-mt-eden-jail/L562FPDQROPFLTL6JF7F52LG7Q/
Yes and this too! Covid in Waikato!
Covid-19 live: Waikato cases linked to existing cluster, decision on alert levels today | Stuff.co.nz
https://twitter.com/thebabylonbee/status/1438238693869957122?s=21
Obviously The Onion for RWNJ's has a certain crossover value.
What's next, their lib owning anti-vaxx schtick?
the irony there is that no-one on the left with a job they care about would dare satirise the impact of individiualising pronouns on people's jobs. Or the English language.
Or how contradictory gender identity theory is,
This animation is just a weaker copy of another parody, from Abbott and Costello in 1945:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sShMA85pv8M
For those unaware of this kind of history, it’s called “Who’s On First?”
Easy to understand progress graphic of NZ, NSW and Victoria cases since first delta case in community.
https://public.flourish.studio/visualisation/7264270/
https://twitter.com/Gary_Boyd_NZ/status/1439414896135847936?s=20
At 34 days NZ's and VIC's graphs are identical. If it's L4 keeping us there, any lifting of it will see our graph follow VIC's.
I can tell you now, Auckland isn't happy. Five more weeks at L4 to try suppress that graph when just a few people are not following the rules and ruining it for everyone else is going to result in some serious social division.
It used to be that naming and shaming rule breakers worked a treat. The government seems to have gone gun-shy yet again…
Putting ankle tags on some of the lockdown violators might help, especially the ones most likely to whine about it to the media.
Clear and transparent deterrents need to be imposed on rule breakers. These are serious criminal acts and must be treated as such.
Taiwan and Vietnam do not tolerate such antisocial behaviour.
What are you trying to say there? That NZ does “tolerate” such behaviour and/or that NZ should become more like those countries and change the law to hand out tougher penalties and punishments? It sounds like a comment that could have come from a dog-whistling virtue-signalling two-faced politician talking from both sides of their mouth, if you asked me.
Of course Vietnam excites him.
/
https://vietnamnet.vn/en/society/should-violators-who-illegally-take-covid-19-infected-people-into-vietnam-receive-the-death-penalty-666998.html
Clear and transparent deterrents
"Twenty years in the isocubes, creep." – Karl Urban is Dredd.
The moment Russiagate took the person I love most by Serena Sopwith-Fotherington, Daisycutter Sports News, Dec. 18, 2021
[deleted]
[I have no idea what the hell that was, but deleted because at least some of it was a cut and paste from a BBC website. Morrissey, you haveto make clear what are your words, and what are someone else’s and you have to do so in a manner that other people, including the mods, can understand. Use the blockquote tag, or some other way of making it clear – weka]
mod note.
I will not utter profanities, but 🤬. And leave any other reactive comments to myself and go online and order a bottle of Whisky or 2. By the time they are finished Auckland maybe at level 3 🙁
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/three-new-covid-cases-in-waikato-including-two-school-students/J5A3QM6T4QSFKCFL7IYUVJPZQA/
Bugger.
Forgot to get a 4 pack of Tip Top Boysenberry Trumpets when I shopped at the supermarket today. No treats in the house at all today. I blame the guvermint.
(It’s not their fault, I just often blame all guvermints so I can move on from my trauma.)
ISRAEL CAPTURES LAST TWO PRISONERS WHO TUNNELLED OUT OF HIGH SECURITY PRISON
Aljazeera tv is reporting that Israeli police have just recaptured the remaining two Palestinian escapees from an Israeli high security prison.
The Israelis might now be able to stand down the thousands of police, security & other IDF personnel who have been deployed in the Palestinian occupied territories during the hunt for the fugitives, fearful that they might have been planning to stage attacks in Israel.
A Palestinian Rights Group says the Israelis have arrested over 100 Palestinians since those 6 prisoners escaped a few weeks ago. Their troops, a female Palestinian representative of the Group says, have also been roughing up & harassing & detaining hundreds of Palestinians while searching for the escapees.