I think a fair-minded person with a care for truth and honesty in language use has to have some concern about the grossly exaggerated headlines seen recently.
"From hero to zero" went one, more involved with bad rhyming than an engagement with truth. Bloomfield’s credibility, status, mana is now non-existent?
Now we have this. "Heads have to roll over border catastrophe, but whose head should it be?"
Catastrophe? Really? Come on, journos. I know selling news is more difficult nowadays, but now we'll have to find a new word to describe a sudden disaster because 'catastrophe' has been demeaned.
You want me to believe you? Don't exaggerate. Be truthful, factual, reasoned, honest, uncompromised. (I’d accept near catastrophe, possible catastrophe, potential catastrophe but there must be that qualifier…)
Agreed mac1….I have heard RNZ call the Covid 19 border operations a "debacle, catastrophe and shambles" while it is nothing of the sort. There appears to be an agenda here….
A few isolated incidents and one major cock-up (aided by the Nats Chris Bishop-the media should be finding out who his friend is in the UK that asked him to help the 2 UK women escape quarantine and what was actually said by Bishop to border authorities.His often-reported claim that he was "helping constituents" is obviously bollocks, and why did one of the women lie about her symptoms?) is not a shambles.
The current situation seems to be that widespread testing has revealed no outbreak at all and border checks caught a third case in a manner that showed it was working effectively.
I heard along the grapevine that she had asthma (totally unverified). My uncle who grew up in NZ hardly every comes back because coming here really screws with his asthma. Maybe she thought it was the transition to NZ that was aggravating her asthma (on top of family stress) rather than covid-19.
The only way to stop Covid-19 is to close the border and this is not going to happen for a lot of reasons due to people having rights and for economic reasons.
Perhaps the media can tell me how to prevent Covid-19 from entering the country without closing the border?
Reading the Press today Mac1, I was surprised at the mellow tone. Even the Editorial and 4 of the "journalists" had a "lets keep this in perspective" tone. Yet over the previous few days the Press "journalists" were in full "disaster/shambles/heads must roll" persuasion, and sickening.
And to think that 61,000 + NZers have been helped to return at a cost of $80million, and this slip up is the worst? Hells bells! 3,000 more are expected next week and there is always a risk.
Reports of Nurses on quarantine duty being abused and sent home in tears by rude uncooperative "inmates" makes you wonder just how ungrateful some people are.
There's a whole generation of young people who wallow in hyperbole. In the process some of the best words in the English language have been thoroughly demeaned. Awesome is a case in point. I hate to think where a lot of these youngsters are going to be with their lives when they hit their 40s and 50s.
Because they only have to run with the nut bar hard right loony lines for a few days to shift voters. Then they go go back to 'fair and balanced, then everyone forgets the mad irrational bullshit the MSM in this country spin on a all to regular basis.
This is right out of the play book of Cambridge Analytic – but who even wants to think about strategies and fear tactics at this stage of an election. Let alone having to cope with the fact the far right own the media landscape.
the linguistic impoverishment of the 'journos' involved – they are just bad writers
not enough time for them to think properly and produce something considered and original, rather than just reproduce the simplest emotional responses
many of the journos are not much more than ideological workers – labourers in the National Party's vineyard of ideas – their most urgent responsibility currently is to keep Todd in the game.
I think the quest for clicks has generated so many outrageous headlines, that it has become self defeating. like being faced with a zealot on the street carrying an end of the world sign, most normal people now ignore the outlandish headlines as being the cries for attention by fools. I do wonder if the herald is finally figuring this out. clowns like hosking and his partner, do their cause no good with stupid headlines. clear thinking people give them a wide berth, so they end up with a smaller and smaller audience of rusted on acolytes.
I think the proof-reading and headline writing for our 2 main newsprint outfits has been contracted out to Australian entities in a bid to save money, my understanding is that this happened quite some years ago. I would like someone to confirm or deny this.
This is the public posture Trump has taken since the 2016 election and through his years in the White House. He has downplayed or dismissed the Russian attack, even though the US intelligence community has concluded it occurred and was mounted by Vladimir Putin in part to help Trump win.
(A recent Senate Intelligence Committee report cited an intelligence intercept of a communication from a Russian cyber-operative who described Election Night this way:
“On November 9, 2016, a sleepless night was ahead of us. And when around 8 a.m. the most important result of our work arrived, we uncorked a tiny bottle of champagne…took one gulp each and looked into each other’s eyes…We uttered almost in unison: ‘We made America great.'”)
Still, even in the privacy of the Oval Office, Trump would not discuss with his top national security aide the Russian intervention—or, worse, the prospect of a repeat performance.
“Trump believed that acknowledging Russia’s meddling in US politics, or in that of many other countries in Europe and elsewhere, would implicitly acknowledge that he had colluded with Russia in his 2016 campaign,” Bolton writes.
Bolton may indeed be providing some interesting reading right now. But he's still among the frontrunners for the title of most odious swampthing to ever work in Washington. Even considering the strong run being made by the Mango Moronavirus.
The fucker refused to front up to testify when it might have a difference to the country late last year and earlier this year, even hiring lawyers to shield himself from doing that. It's now clear that was just a play to protect his personal potential book profits.
By all means, get the details from his book. Preferably by reading other reports of the contents, not by buying the book which might put money in his pockets. But remember, it's not evidence for rehabilitation of Bolton's reputation. Much more the opposite, in fact.
A public service by David for those of us who do not want to pay money to Bolton after he shirked his duty to profit. his is more than interesting. https://t.co/jyjKEWOzcm
After Dirty Tricks was published some National supporters refused to read it because the information was stolen. Suppose Whistle Blowers should be ignored?
The difference is that Bolton was a very highly regarded Repug in very good standing with the party and the conservative side of US politics in general. So it's kinda like if Dirty Politics had been written and published by some Nat eminence grise like say Wayne Eagleson or Peter Goodfellow
That's what they said but the truth was… they didn't want to know the truth.
They were the same people who happily ignored the fact Cameron Slater and crew got into the back end of Labour's computer system and stole membership lists which included personal details.
But not before the vile excuse for a human pissed and moaned about food-insecure children being fed during a pandemic.
Katie Hopkins has had her Twitter account permanently banned for “hateful conduct”, the social media giant has confirmed.
The former reality TV star-turned-far right commentator has a long history of pro-Trump, pro-Brexit and anti-immigration views, and had more than one million followers on the platform.
The poll, by Horizon Research, asked voters who was best placed to manage the pandemic response.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern was ahead on 66 per cent, well in front of Opposition leader Todd Muller who polled 14 per cent.
ACT leader David Seymour came next, polling 4 per cent.
Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters scored 3 per cent, while Green co-leaders James Shaw and Marama Davidson each scored 1 per cent.
…
When broken down, all demographics except those with a household income above $200,000 and those who gave their party vote to the Conservative Party in 2017 rate Ardern as the best leader to manage the response.
Montgomery City Council about to consider a mandatory mask ordinance. Mayor Steven Reed: Our ICUs are at capacity. Our hospitalizations are up. … I don’t want to see any more deaths in this city.
Jackson Hospital pulmonologist William Saliski cleared his throat as he started describing the dire situation created by the coronavirus pandemic in Montgomery to its City Council before they voted on a mandatory mask ordinance. "It's been a long day, I apologize," he said.
"The units are full with critically-ill COVID patients," Saliski said. About 90% of them are Black. He said hospitals are able to manage for now, but it's not sustainable. "This mask slows that down, 95% protection from something as easy as cloth. … If this continues the way it's going, we will be overrun."
[…]
Instead, the council killed the ordinance after it failed to pass in a 4-4 tie, mostly along racial lines, with Councilman Tracy Larkin absent. Councilman Clay McInnis voted with three Black council members — Calhoun, Oronde Mitchell and Audrey Graham — in favor of the ordinance. Lyons, Charles Jinright, Richard Bollinger and Glen Pruitt voted against it.
Testing on Day 1 might encourage less rigour in handling isolation of travellers. Too many early negative tests. Better to act as if everyone is infectious.
Some of us have been saying just that since this thing kicked off back at the end of January.
But no, no. Uncle Ashley held the line that PPE were not needed (by homecare workers and clients) unless there was a positive test. And those with no symptoms are still struggling to get tested.
I have read that the optimal day to test is day 3. Testing at the airport too early.
I suspect you have misunderstood what you have read. Positivity upon testing is related to time after infection. A test on day 1 into NZ is likely to be as useful as a test of day 3. Regardless the most important issue is ensuring those entering at the border don't infect anyone that they have travelled into NZ with and even more critically that once they have arrived they are able to infect anyone in NZ.
Testing at the border wouldn't pick up people who caught it on the plane, but it would probably pick up the folks who infected the people on the plane. So the entire plane can go into tighter quarantine than the basic isolation.
Then towards the end of iso, people can be tested again as a final confirmation.
Let's have more negative tests on day 1 or 3 so more people with the virus can go to funerals. [/sarc]
That is literally what Chris Bishop wanted, let's not forget. He assumed they had been tested and the test was negative. They should have been tested (he was right about that) but he assumed an incubation period of 5 days.
After months of being told how long the incubation period is, that does not suggest National are competent to make decisions for anyone, never mind the whole country.
That is literally what Chris Bishop wanted, let's not forget. He assumed they had been tested and the test was negative. They should have been tested (he was right about that) but he assumed an incubation period of 5 days.
Remember their recent leader leader wouldn't take Bloomfield's word about the life-cycle of this disease (epidemic committee) so don't expect too much intellect from National.
Problem with testing upon arrival in NZ is the time for processing of samples and reporting will still mean that those arriving will have already moved to a hotel by the time they have their first result back.
I dod suspect there will be significant tweaking to the system over the next 2-4 weeks to improve triaging of incoming travellers and minimise/eliminate the possibility of cross infection amongst those isolating upon entry into NZ.
It seem a no brainer that they should have between 7 and 14 different hotels for quarantine (no idea how many are arriving each day ) and only people from the same day or two go to the 1st motel then the next couple of days go to the next one etc .
It would stop the problem of day 14s mingling with day 3s
I'm not clear how moving people every couple of days reduces opportunities for contact. It would seem to increase them considerably.
Human error would multiply too ("I told the nurse in Hotel number 1, and here you are in Hotel number 4 asking the same questions, why can't we deal with the same people each day, right hand doesn't know what left hand is doing" …).
Seriously, nothing about this is a no-brainer. People trying to make it work have spent hundreds of hours on it, making thousands of decisions about practical problems large and small, and any one mistake creates a headline. We are just captains on the couch.
OK, I misunderstood "go to the next one etc". Sorry.
In the end the inescapable problem is that they are in hotels. One thing that authorities haven't communicated effectively is why the quarantine needs to be in hotels with "normal" guests. In terms of perception, that is a gift to the media. Even if the risk is tiny, the public mood is so skittish that misinformation spreads like … well, like a virus.
Wag that is exactly what Judith Collins said yesterday, new hotel for each day and sanitized between groups. Instead these fuckwits hold a wedding in the room that the people exercise in that day. It sure ain't rocket science.
So much for tightening the borders and test test test, We were lied to.
A red triangle that marked 'political prisoners' was the most common category of prisoners registered at the German Nazi #Auschwitz camp.
In August 1944, political prisoners constituted 95 percent of camp prisoners'. A letter inside the triangle could mark the nationality. pic.twitter.com/jBuNn0xmL1
— Auschwitz Memorial (@AuschwitzMuseum) June 18, 2020
The New York Times reports that Facebook took down Trump campaign advertisements that "prominently featured a symbol used by Nazis to classify political prisoners during World War II."
The symbol was a red triangle, which ran alongside ad copy that said, “Dangerous MOBS of far-left groups are running through our streets and causing absolute mayhem.”
[…]
Mark Bray, a historian at Rutgers and the author of “Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook,” said that “the origin of the symbol is universally agreed to be with the Nazis and the concentration camps.” He added that the red triangle was not part of the symbolism of antifa in the United States.
The fact that the triangle has been reclaimed by some anti-fascists, Mr. Bray said, does not give the Trump campaign license to use the same symbol to attack antifa. “This is a symbol that represented the extermination of leftists,” he said. “It is a death threat against leftists. There’s no way around what that means historically.”
Agh those subconscious buggers lurk,,but if you dont let them out and make damned sure you dont pass them on to the kids like they where handed to you , does that mean your really not racist??
I didn't think I was sexist until the day I asked the woman behind the counter if I could speak to one of the mechanics. She said perhaps she could help." To my shame I told her what my problem was with the clear intention of showing that it needed a mechanic.
She looked me straight in the eye and gave me a first rate answer to my problem. Why did I doubt her ability? Because she was a woman???
Can anybody clear some thing up for me .I've looked at immigration NZ but am really none the wiser. A permanent resident visa – can someone stay outside the country and turn up here for a brief holiday annually or every so often and then apply to have it transfered from passport to passport. So there is no way that they are habitually resident here or paying tax or anything else? And if that is so can they come back here under the current border controls ( despite maybe having not lived here for several years) and just take welfare etc. If they can I'm not sure that I am very impressed with it as a system.
Have a look at the INZ guide INZ1176 on their website. It should answer most of your questions.
It comes back to the word 'permanent' in the visa title. Once a decision is made it is 'permanent', with a few exceptions. Have look also at the conditions for granting permanent residence.
If you are suggesting we should only allow temporary residence to non-citizens, then I presume you have good plan for managing all the practical implications of that situation?
In the past I have run across people who had returned to work here after spending 6-10 years out of the country working back in their citizenship country and I was under the impression that they only had a permanent resident visa. Hence the question.
I wasn't actually suggesting anything just curious as to how this all worked. However, I have worked with a number of people with permanent resident visa's who subsequently relocated – to be near other family members- and are unlikely to return here. The guide mentioned doesn't really hel.p
There is a huge issue here that shows how foolish (or disingenuous) it is to simply assume it's all sorted for those who have residence claims, and so we can now start processing and inviting into NZ thousands of people who have none (e.g. on student visas).
TV1 had a story on this tonight (not online yet), I think 80,000 was the number quoted – will check. That is, people who are entitled to come to NZ, under existing (pre-Covid) rules.
Here's an example of the problems, reported today:
The dairy industry employs around 30,000 people – 4500 are migrants.
Federated Farmers dairy industry group chair Chris Lewis estimates 100 of those migrants are stuck overseas due to Covid-19. …
"The problem we've got is Mother Nature doesn't wait for politicians and in the next few weeks calving starts.
"If the Government do allow them to come back in then they have to quarantine for two weeks, we need a clear cut decision from our Government saying yes or no if this is going to happen."
So should those 100 be allowed in, immediately? Yes, because they are needed? Or No, because they pose a risk? We could make a case for either, but if "Yes", then multiply that number many times over, and then find them all a place in a secure quarantine location.
Then multiply it many times more, for the extra people the Opposition want to bring in.
There are quite a number of 3 month jobs around the first part of the season. Why not advertise and fill the jobs locally and pay decent wages. 100 is a tiny number out of the workforce total.
Once someone gets a permanent resident visa, there is no expiry date, and no requirement to actually reside here. To answer your initial question, yes.
Hard to express my joy and gratitude right now as I completed my Philosophy, Politics and Economics degree at Oxford. I don’t know what’s ahead. For now, it will be Netflix, reading and sleep. 😴 pic.twitter.com/AUxN55cUAf
I actually thought we might try to employ our own citizens first – in particular those returning from Australia – but apparently not. Income levels have been waived also. Bit of a kick in the guts for the unemployed.
The move is part of a suite of changes to the Arms Legislation Bill, which saw the Labour Party give in to most of NZ First’s demands.
…
But this backdown wasn't necessary. Gun control is a hugely popular issue in urban New Zealand. Labour could have simply publicly blamed NZ First for the delay, then campaigned on passing the law without their amendments. Instead, they chose to chicken out, and grovel to a coalition partner who is actively sabotaging a core part of their agenda, when they had no real need to.
Not so. What the coalition govt have actually done is what they said they would do. The fact they are going to do it in a different way over a longer time frame than some would like the reality of MMP. The real world of a coalition govt is not a case of 'black and white' decisions, it is about negotiating agreement on legislation that wasn't settled in the coalition agreement. To suggest that a disagreement should be halted and left to the election to decide is not to take MMP seriously (and to assume that future election would necessarily provide a stronger position from which to negotiate).
We voted for MMP precisely to avoid single parties being able to dominate the parliamentary and legislative process. It seems rather odd to now criticise an MMP government for managing the electoral cards it was dealt under a system we voted for.
The post is out of date, the reforms (including a register) were passed on Thursday night.
If we ever needed an example of the vagaries of media attention spans, it is before us right now. A year ago gun reform was THE issue and everybody was talking about. Now we have the legislative response (part 2) and nobody is talking about it.
The clown from nrt has got himself a bit excited . Why is every farmer going to suddenly by an ar15 because they are allowed a semi auto for pest control?
Not many would have had them pre the buy back and I cant see them all rushing out to get one even if it becomes possible.
Yeah, he would have helped his case if he’d actually looked up what’s required to get an endorsement to have a semiauto, they’re still a prohibited weapon. It isn’t that easy, and you really need one to get one.
A .22 or shotgun for rabbits, probably fairly easy if you’re in Otago. Can’t see this being too much of a problem. Get caught with the shotgun down the maimai and it could be tricky. I note that parries aren’t on the list of pest species, we have to do work on them here and you’re not getting anywhere with just two shots (even with 5 you’ve got to control your shots)
An AR15 for goats, well you’d need a pretty bad goat problem and then you’d be getting the pros in and probably a chopper as well. The number of farms that would fall into that category would be pretty small, and large properties that would be well controlled.
DOC and the chopper people, well that’s effectively the same as it was up to the mid 80’s when it all got a bit loose and we ended up where we are now.
I did goat control work for the Forest Service in early 80’s and the dept had an AR, mainly for chopper work, but we could use it if we didn’t have a rifle. Everyone hated the thing, guys would pay for, and cart around heavier calibre ammo for their heavier sporting rifle rather than put up with the AR, it was so unsuited to what we were doing on the ground. Different story out of the chopper, but we did very little of that.
Most people muster the gaots where possible, best hourly rate I've ever had by a long way .
Had a mate get all worked up about the banning of semis for culling ,he calmed down when I pointed out that the deer cullers of yore used crappy old 303s with 5 shot mags and where deadly with them .
Best demonstrators stand back while tens of thousands of tRump cultists pack themselves into a hot arena yelling and coughing all over each other, sans masks or distancing because they ain't no soy boys, and fuel the spike .
U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday threatened unspecified action against any protesters at his weekend re-election rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in a warning that his campaign said was not directed at peaceful demonstrators.
“Any protesters, anarchists, agitators, looters or lowlifes who are going to Oklahoma please understand, you will not be treated like you have been in New York, Seattle, or Minneapolis. It will be a much different scene!” Trump wrote on Twitter.
Looking at the stereotypical Trump rally attendee, they appear to be mostly old, fat and prime candidates for immune deficient diseases.
Given covid's attachment to these sort of people, one would hope the campaign team aren't planning on holding too many shindigs in marginal states. After all, all votes matter in swing states.
If the Prophet of Pestilence wishes to hold his rallies, and his MADAmorons wish to attend them with the entirely predictable infectious results, why would one hope against that happening in marginal states? Votes do indeed matter – if that specific segment self-selects out of the voting pool, how is that a bad thing?
Obviously peoples lives, even if they are republicans, are something to cherish and not wish over for something like politics.
But just supposing in the soup of infection those convention halls will be, it will be something to watch for, to see if those marginals are affected by attendees contracting and/or dying from it.
Fucker and his enablers don't give a rats about lives.
A big reason why this rally is happening tomorrow: Trump aides want to get him out of the funk he's been in for weeks. "I guarantee you after Saturday, if everything goes well, he's going to be in a much better mood," a Trump political adviser told mehttps://t.co/COTznUWidg
The Tulsa curfew is going be lifted and the Oklahoma Supreme Court has knocked back a request for the rally venue to enforce safety measures.
Ahead of President Trump's rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, medical professionals have written to the city's mayor about their fears over coronavirus transmission.
I’ve been to four of these things what happens is you go in about 3 o’clock and you were sealed in there you can’t leave until 10 so you’re there for 7 hours with 19,000 people. It’s a death trap
There was no social distancing. We were sat in the middle of a row of four people – we had people right up against us," she said.
"Masks were not compulsory, the flight attendants were only wearing a mask and no other PPE … and the flight itself seemed to be very crammed, very busy."
On Air NZ's website it says that under alert level 1 social distancing is no longer a requirement.
Masks now have to be worn on flights. But surely this alert level 1 only applies within New Zealand after quarantine has been completed? Why would Airnz ever imagine it applies on an inward bound from overseas flight? Or that they could put people straight onto a domestic flight before quarantine?
She reports that the quarantine at her hotel was very strict. Good.
But I wish the media would stop promoting the notion that Ashley Bloomfield is personally responsible for the world. Does he have to issue orders to every airline now, even outside NZ? How is he supposed to enforce that?
Just a bit concerned over the numbers of returning NZers.
But why?
Have they all been trapped as tourists while visiting? Or all living in Australia?
Or, as I fear, have they found out the places they have called home for the last few years do not have the level of welfare support that NZ is giving its NZ-based citizens who have lost their NZ-based jobs.
I know that for access to super you have had to have been resident in NZ for the XXX of YYY years.
Do we have any restrictions for these incoming citizens who have been permanently resident overseas, before they are able to claim the $$$$ especially the $490 per week. If my skepticism is correct then expect to see these people returning back overseas to their homes there once they get back on their feet here at the expense of resident NZers.
Does anyone know if returning NZers can just step out their quarantine and straight into claiming a benefit, housing support etc despite not contributing here for what may be a few years.
Sounds mean-spirited I know. Some of the behaviour reported on and the moaning about quarantine by our returning NZers makes me wonder though.
I would guess that some will try to leave England and somehow i can't blame them. Trying to live trhough the mess that is Brexit is one thing, but trying to survive Bojo's covid 19 response is something else altogether. . i have a friend who has huge issues getting her visa renewed, and she has a job and has lived there now for a few years with her partner.
Chances are that anyone returning now will still have a 12 week stand down as they will not have worked in NZ as is required to actually receive unemployment benefits . They might be able to get a hardship grant if they have no income to support themselves. In saying that it could very well be that they are asked to 'use all alternative options' first before they actually get a penny. I also took the Covid – 19 unemployment benefit to be applied to NZ based citizen/resident.
So maybe its a bit of both, legal issues that force them home (Brexit is hell on migrants in the UK), maybe some pressure from the family too, and maybe a return as suddenly any savings might be actually good enough to buy a house in NZ – which is one of the reasons my friends went overseas. Make good money, save, return and start something of their own. People i know in OZ have no intention of coming here.
Possible stand down if the 13 weeks applies, otherwise no. To get the special $490, have to have lost a job in NZ due to Covid-19, so they probably won't be eligible for that.
You wouldn't get a 13 week stand-down for leaving your job if returning from overseas. The hardest aspect of advocacy work to some extent was trying to dispel myths that prevailed in the community such as when you got a 13 week stand-down, that you had to spend all your money/redundancy before getting a benefit, you could spend 3 nights a week together before it was considered a relationship – and in some small defence of the staff that they got paid bonuses for declining food grants.
It was difficult enough fighting WINZ for not following their own policies without the community saying many of the same things. The actual policy manuals have been on-line for years now.
Clients returning to New Zealand from overseas
A non-entitlement period is not considered when a client returns to New Zealand after working overseas. Clients returning to New Zealand after working overseas do not receive a voluntary unemployment stand-down.
Chatter around Queenstown is that a lot of expat New Zealanders are getting out of Europe, Asia and US as quickly as they can, buying here, and maybe selling up there. Realestate agents are busy and builders have a sudden urgency in their step.
The bit they’ve got wrong is that the top (the Shania Twains) drive the market here, they don’t, it’s driven by New Zealanders and Australians wanting a bit of the ‘Queenstown Lifestyle’ for a few years.
Like I said, they waffled around it. To spruik you need some small truth to spruik and try to turn into a boom. Unfortunately that’s the way markets, politics, and forums like this work. I’m just saying what appears to be going on
MONDAY JULY 6Washington (History, Sky 073, 7.30pm). The brilliant Doris Kearns Goodwin is the executive producer of this six-part series about America's first president. It combines interviews with live action and is narrated by Jeff Daniels. It's engaging, said Salon.TUESDAY JULY 7The ABC Murders (Prime, 8.30pm). Sarah Phelps has done incredible things with ...
I think we can all agree that the mainstream media in New Zealand has a very different set of rules for the right wing compared to the left. While Labour and Green Party politicians don’t seem to be able to fart without it becoming a sackable offence, National and Act ...
A chronological listing of news articles linked to on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week: Sun, June 28 through Sat, July 4, 2020Editor's Choice'2040': A funny, entertaining, upbeat climate documentaryA timely Australian documentary takes a 'solutions' approach, with the filmmaker inspired by visions of ...
Racist National MP Hamish WalkerEven before Todd Muller's coup ousted Simon Bridges by a single vote, it was patently obvious that the National Party promotes and stands for white privilege. In fact they’ve always worked to ensure the discriminatory status quo in New Zealand doesn’t change.So it’s no surprise that ...
Dave HeatleyZero community transmission. Just a handful of active cases, all in quarantine. New Zealand is in an attractive situation, at least compared to much of the world. The situation could be robust and enduring – or it might be fragile, just one border incursion away from a “second ...
Is the consequence of the Simpson Report proposals for restructuring the health system poorer accountability to people? When in doubt, centralise‘ has been a persistent theme in New Zealand public policy throughout our history. The current government is no exception. Here are some examples. - The regional polytechs have been ...
I wrote earlier in the week about the Scientology front organisations Drug Free World and Drug Free Ambassadors and their quite prominent role in anti-cannabis reform "coalition" assembled by Family First and a newloca branch of the American prohibitionist organisation SAM.It turns out Family First aren't the only ones helping ...
Nik GreenMuch of the public debate about the response to the COVID-19 pandemic has focused on the extent to which government regulations have restricted personal and business activity.Oxford University Blavatnik School of Government Here in New Zealand, the question of when to change Alert Levels dominated the ...
Raising The Bar: Would that the Prime Minister and her colleagues would listen as intently to what the people – as opposed to the power elites – are saying as the Greens. Were they so disposed, the popular clamour for a transformational post-Covid reset would be loud in their ears. ...
Climate Explained is a collaboration between The Conversation, Stuff and the New Zealand Science Media Centre to answer your questions about climate change.If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, please send it to climate.change@stuff.co.nzDo you think the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown will slow or ...
A bit like a letter home. I have now been full-time at the University of Melbourne since 2019. Before that, I was 20 years at the University of Otago, Wellington. Indeed, I set up this very Public Health Expert Blog with Nick Wilson ten years ago. Now I am your ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections House Democrats have released a comprehensive report showing how – if they control the White House and both the Senate and the House of Representatives – they might move forward on climate change. Their “Climate Crisis Action Plan,” released June 30 by the ...
Not Ready: Todd Muller’s lack-lustre and self-contradictory performances offer conclusive proof that a political leader cannot be managed into competence. National’s new boss has Janet Wilson handling his media and Matthew Hooton writing his speeches. Both are highly professional political and public relations specialists, and Muller is lucky to have ...
Unfortunately, due to a medical emergency, I have landed in hospital so am not able to do a current update on the NZ blog statistics. Let’s hope I can get back to this in good time. ...
It started as a family story, about a step-father who went out one night to break into an embassy in Wadestown, Wellington. John Daniell wanted to understand what his family had been part of when his mother and then step-father work for New Zealand’s Security Intelligence. He wanted to know ...
The Greens have shaken up the election campaign with the announcement of their radical poverty and action plan to reform welfare provision and introduce a new wealth tax for millionaires. It’s a big-thinking, controversial policy and has generated a lot of disagreement over how radical it is, whether it could ...
My house is currently supplied electricity by Meridian. As soon as I can change I will because Meridian spilled water to hike electricity prices. They got consumers to spend an extra $80 million on power unnecessarily. Clever them. The Electricity Authority has called their behaviour an “undesirable trading situation”, or ...
When Jacinda Ardern unexpectedly became the Labour Party leader shortly before the 2017 general election, she promised to lead a government of transformation. After nearly three years occupying the Treasury benches, health professionals working in public hospitals have been keenly waiting for transformational progress, including in the capacity and quality ...
Last night, One News ran a follow-up story to its Colmar Brunton poll results on the cannabis referendum, headed here as Government accuses big American anti-cannabis group of interfering in NZ politics.In truth it wasn't just the government: Justice minister Andrew Little, National's Shane Reti and the Greens' Chloe Swarbrick ...
When the government refused to put cameras on fishing boats to ensure fishers obeyed the law, Fisheries Minister Stuart Nash claimed that coalition partner NZ First (which has received large donations from the fishing industry) was not responsible for the decision. He has repeated that claim repeatedly since then. But ...
Heroic Evasions: Labour needs to be unequivocal in its communications with the electorate. Either it has a plan to prevent their fellow New Zealanders from falling off the economic cliff, or it doesn’t. Either it has a fiscal policy equal to the task of funding that plan, or it hasn’t. ...
Prof John Potter*Elimination has been an effective strategy for New Zealand in the management of the COVID-19 pandemic virus (SARS-CoV-2). Most other countries have not pursued this goal and are ignoring the opportunity even now. SARS-CoV-2 is not manageable by the influenza playbook; its longer incubation period makes tracing ...
This is a re-post from Weather Underground by Bob HensonAbove: This rainbow appears unusually low in the sky because it has formed early in the afternoon, rather than toward sunset. For a rainbow to form, water droplets must be present in the air in front of an observer ...
On Monday, Todd Muller gave an important speech to the Wellington Chamber of Commerce, He spoke firmly about his belief in the need for foreign investment, for the public sector to partner with the private sector rather than boss it around and, crucially, demanded the government deliver a clear strategy ...
Todd Muller's first act on become party leader was to appoint an all-white front bench. This understandably raised eyebrows, so he is now apparently reconsidering caucus and list rankings. Which is obviously necessary, but there's still the underlying problem: National doesn't have a lot of Māori MP's. And the reason ...
Meridian energy has been caught manipulating the electricity market for fun and profit: Meridian Energy pushed up power prices by unnecessary spilling water from its south dams in December that could have been used for generation, the Electricity Authority has ruled in a preliminary decision. The authority said the ...
When the Christchurch murderer pleaded guilty to 51 counts of murder and a number of other violent assault charges a few months ago, he effectively closed the door on what the public will know about the lead up to and commission of the event. His plea means that no evidence ...
Daphna Whitmore The Philippines is enduring one of the longest lockdowns in the world. For President Duterte the lockdown provides an opportunity to garner more powers and to push through a brazen assault on human rights. A new law called the Anti-Terror Bill has been passed under urgency and it ...
Hearing the Prime Minister castigate the Warehouse for laying off 1,000 workers after receiving $52 million in wage subsidies reminds me of the fabled frog who agreed to carry a scorpion across a river. The scorpion stings the frog halfway across, dooming both to drown. The frog cries “Why on ...
Prof Nick Wilson, Dr Amanda Kvalsvig, Prof Michael BakerCompared with other OECD countries NZ is a stand-out success story by ending community transmission of COVID-19. While there have been some well-publicised recent deficiencies (eg, quarantine organisation), there has still been no evidence of community transmission for many weeks. Nevertheless, ...
It’s June 30th, marked as Asteroid Day by many people of an astronomical bent around the globe. On this date in 1908, early in the morning in a remote part of central Siberia, the sky fell in. Well, not literally. What happened is a substantially-sized lump of cosmic detritus ...
There really is not much about Paula Bennett concerning her career trajectory, the policies she promoted, and most importantly, the socio-economic effect this had upon New Zealand (and particularly the most vulnerable in this, our oft-cited “egalitarian” society of this country) that can be said now that hasn’t already been ...
Don Franks Poverty, inequality – really – aren’t politicians paid to sort that stuff ? Why can’t they just get it together and come up with something fair and sensible? A cold rainy 2020 morning, a headline showed promise. “Green Party’s $8b plan would guarantee an income of $325 a ...
A guest repost by Climate Science Legal Defense Fund (CSLDF) staff attorney Augusta Wilson. Fundraising is not the objective of this article but readers may wish to know that CSLDF is currently conducting a summer fundraiser to support defense of research scientists and research integrity from anti-science interference by politicians and industrial interests. The COVID-19 pandemic ...
Helloy… My name is Todd Muller and I am the leader of the National Party of New Zealand. Many people come up to me on the street and ask me who I am. I’m often walking through Tauranga, or in a mall in suburban Auckland, or maybe even a farmers’ ...
The US state of Mississippi has finally voted to remove the Confederate emblem from its state flag. Good. Its appalling that it was put there in the first place, but even more appalling that it took so long to remove it. Its basicly as if a German Länder still had ...
No one could have predicted when David Seymour’s End of Life Choice Bill was passed by Parliament last November that the referendum required to bring the legislation into force would be held against the backdrop of a deadly global pandemic. Since then, the mounting tally of casualties around the world ...
Paul GoldsmithYou can often tell just how effective a progressive policy proposal will be by how much the right wing criticise it. The more socially beneficial, the more vitriolic and unhinged they seem to become.That was the case when the Green Party announced their Poverty Action Plan yesterday. The response ...
Back at the beginning of April, when we had much else on our minds, I wrote this post urging some caution in interpreting the results of the latest Horizon poll, conducted in February, on voting intentions in this year's cannabis referendum, which was paid for by Helius Therapeutics.I wrote that ...
Over the weekend the Greens made their first election policy announcement, and promised transformational change: a more progressive tax system, with new rates applying to incomes of $100,000 and $150,000; a new wealth tax on net wealth over $1 million; and a guaranteed minimum income to eliminate poverty. Its bold, ...
Story of the Week... El Niño/La Niña Update... Toon of the Week... Coming Soon on SkS... Poster of the Week... SkS Week in Review... Story of the Week... Global Warming Is Melting Our Sense of Time Satellite image of smoke from active fires burning near the ...
. . Plague town? There are two things right now in Aotearoa New Zealand that are guaranteed to piss people off. Firstly, it’s National playing silly-bugger politics with the covid-19 pandemic. This cost Simon Bridges his job as National’s Leader. Lately, Michael Woodhouse has been playing fast and loose with ...
Tertiary fees in New Zealand versus Australia: Fees Are Important, but not as Important as Financing In Australia, the Education Minister Dan Tehan has proposed an overhaul of the existing higher education funding system to offer 39,000 additional study places by 2023 and 100,000 by 2030. The proposal has been ...
The latest opinion poll forecasts a landslide win by Jacinda Ardern’s Labour Party, but when taken alongside other polling, it illustrates New Zealand politics remains volatile and the contest is still very open. According to the Colmar Brunton poll published by TVNZ last night, Labour would easily romp back ...
A chronological listing of news articles linked to on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week: Sun, June 21 through Sat, June 27, 2020Editor's ChoiceFacebook creates fact-checking exemption for climate deniers Facebook is "aiding and abetting the spread of climate misinformation,” said Robert Brulle, an ...
The images and reports delivered to us by the world’s media leave us in no doubt that the rest of the world is still in the grip of a coronavirus pandemic that shows no signs of slackening, but is actually uncontrolled and picking up pace in many countries; and even ...
Minister of Health - David ClarkIf you follow politics at all in New Zealand, David Clark is likely a name you’re a bit familiar with. The current Minister of Health is perhaps the most disliked Member of Parliament at the moment, which amongst very stiff competition is really saying something. ...
SUNDAY JUNE 28Beat the Chasers (TVNZ 1, 8.30pm). Judging by the tweets, which is probably a bad idea, over lockdown, all of New Zealand found itself in front of The Chase every night at 5pm. It is a brilliant fomat: hardly anyone wins any money ...
SATURDAY JUNE 27Banksy and the Rise of Outlaw Art (Sky Arts, Sky 017, 8.00pm). There was graffiti before Banksy, but perhaps his pungent political messages hit home a bit harder. Anyways, a doco about his influence on street art featuring a bunch of cool people.SUNDAY JUNE 28Beat the Chasers (TVNZ 1, ...
We have been assailed by Fox News-style headlines, lurid stories of “a breach!”. An almost nuclear level disaster on the horizon scream, “Fiasco!” here, “Hero to Zero!” there… Oh quick, panic everyone!This has fueled an unbelievably stupid environment of panic among some, and spurred useless, counterproductive political ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Jeff Masters A massive dust storm formed over the Sahara Desert last week and invaded the Caribbean over the June 20-21 weekend, bringing dangerous levels of air pollution and low visibility to the islands. The dust is accompanied by a large amount ...
Will the Covid Crisis lead to a dramatic redirection for New Zealand and the World? A hinge in history occurs where the past and present are connected but they point in different directions. Big hinges are rare but crucial in the development of humankind. Not in Narrow Seas identifies six. ...
RNZ reports that Refining NZ is considering shutting down Marsden Point and effectively turning itself into a fuel distribution service. The problem they're immediately trying to address is that running a refinery is expensive, and it is cheaper just to import processed fuel. But there's a longer-term problem too: climate ...
We all know that the COVID-19 virus is a terrible infectious disease that has already caused untold misery and numerous deaths around the world. Nearly half a million people have already died, and those are just the cases we know about.But how bad could things actually get exactly?Today, the NZ ...
This essay by Alex Hochuli examines the global phenomena of BLM protests . He is a freelance writer and research consultant based in São Paulo, Brazil. He is the co-host of the global politics podcast, Aufhebunga Bunga, and co-author of the forthcoming Politics at the End of the End of History (Zero ...
Are You Still Here? Just like his colleague, Phil Twyford – of KiwiBuild fame – David Clark juts out his chin and shamelessly apportions blame to everybody but himself. Even worse, he has turned viciously on Ashley Bloomfield, the nearest approximation to a competent, decent, humble and accountable public servant ...
. . 20 June The bad news: Aotearoa New Zealand has two new cases of covid-19. The good news: the two cases were picked up at an Auckland quarantine facility. The terrifying news: had the story of the two women leaving quarantine without testing not broken four days ...
Willing Victims: What would all those Americans in MAGA hats be left with if they abandoned Trump? Just the sick feeling of having been cheated. Just the knowledge that the man in the White House is nothing more than a shape-shifting New York grifter; and that they have always been ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections Like an earthquake rumbling down the San Andreas Fault, Jeff Gibbs’ and Michael Moore’s controversial film “Planet of the Humans” tore a rift through the environmental movement, a rift its leaders would not yearn for in an election year. After activists have spent ...
There have been a number of articles written about the voting in the final statges of the Electoral (Registration of Sentenced Prisoners) Amendment Bill, during which National MPs voted alongside the Green Party to force a change that would prevent the removal of sentenced prisoners from the Electoral Roll. You can ...
Last night should have been a cause for muted celebration in Parliament. The Electoral (Registration of Sentenced Prisoners) Bill’s final passage through the House partially erases a stain on New Zealand’s democratic system. It’s a drum I’ve been beatingfor thepast decade, but denying all sentenced prisoners the right to vote is a ...
Jordan WilliamsIt’s pretty obvious to all and sundry that the Taxpayers Union, run by Jordan Williams, isn’t really a union at all. Instead it’s a small lobby group for privileged white folk, namely the old fools behind the scenes of the corrupt and largely defunct Act Party.With an incorrectly attributed ...
Last year, I highlighted a secrecy problem with the government's Infrastructure Funding and Financing Bill. The Bill would establish a new class of public entity, "special purpose vehicles", to hide debt from local government balance sheets fund infrastructure such as roads and sewers in "high-growth" councils. The SPVs would collect ...
Both the leader of the opposition Todd Muller and University of Auckland Professor Des Gorman have gone on the record as saying they suspect Covid-19 is spreading in the community in New Zealand once again. Let me explain why I don’t agree with them. As best I can tell there ...
By Geoffrey Miller A former MP and Associate Minister of Defence says that New Zealand’s Covid-19 border and quarantine issues illustrate why a new dedicated national security agency is needed. Heather Roy, a former deputy leader of the Act Party who held the associate defence portfolio from 2008-10, told the ...
Annual fishing report It's been about a year since we swapped out the Research News deckhand. It seems longer— particularly the past 4 months— and not because of this particular work. Over the course of the year somewhere in the neighborhood of 17,500 articles have been caught in our net, ...
New Zealanders deserve healthy rivers and lakes that are safe to swim in - but they have been getting worse for decades. That's why, with our latest announcement, we're investing in projects that will help clean up our rivers and lakes and restore them to health, within a generation. ...
This week we moved into the second half of 2020 - and our Government delivered another week of big changes and major progress for New Zealanders. Read below for a wrap of the key things moments from the week - from extending paid parental leave, to making major investments in ...
The Green Party has opposed the COVID-19 Recovery Fast-track Consenting Bill which shortcuts normal consenting processes under the Resource Management Act (RMA), reduces public participation and narrows environmental considerations. ...
Hon Shane Jones, Minister of Regional Economic Development A regional freight hub for the lower North Island will be built just northeast of Palmerston North, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones has announced. The Government is investing $40 million through the Provincial Growth Fund to designate and buy land and design ...
Green Party Co-leader Marama Davidson is calling for the introduction of a Guaranteed Minimum Income to lift hundreds of thousands of people out of poverty and prevent more families entering into further debt with the Ministry of Social Development. ...
There has been renewed focus on New Zealand First acting as a handbrake on the Government after our decision to not support Auckland light rail. We are a handbrake for bad ideas, that istrue, but our track record since 2017 has seen New Zealand First constructively also serve as an ...
Mark Patterson MP, New Zealand First List MP New Zealand First’s Fair Residency for Superannuation Bill passed its First Reading in Parliament today. The Bill makes a significant change to NZ Super by raising the minimum residency requirement from 10 to 20 years, after age 20. “Currently, a migrant of ...
Darroch Ball MP, Spokesperson for Law and Order A New Zealand First member’s bill in the name of Darroch Ball introducing a six-month minimum prison sentence for assaults on first responders has passed its second reading in Parliament. The new offence of "injuring a first responder or corrections officer with ...
Fletcher Tabuteau MP, Deputy Leader of New Zealand First New Zealand First welcomes the launch of the new Criminal Cases Review Commission, gifted with the name from Waikato-Tainui - Te Kāhui Tātari Ture, announced in Hamilton today by Justice Minister Andrew Little. “New Zealand First has long believed in and ...
The Green Party is celebrating over $800m in new funding for green projects, which will get people into jobs while solving New Zealand’s long-term challenges. ...
Mark Patterson MP, Spokesperson for Primary Industries New Zealand First is appalled that Meridian seems to have been unnecessarily spilling water from its dams to drive up its profits."While New Zealanders have been coming together in some of our darkest hours, we don’t expect power gentailers to waste water and ...
We wrapped up the first half of 2020 with a busy month, taking additional steps to support New Zealanders as we continue with our economic recovery. We rolled out targeted packages to support key industries like tourism and construction, helped create jobs in the environmental and agriculture sectors, and set ...
Hon Shane Jones, Minister for Infrastructure Infrastructure Minister Shane Jones has welcomed the appointment of Maurice Davis and his deep infrastructure and construction experience to the board of the Infrastructure Commission. Mr Davis (Ngāti Maniapoto), is the seventh and final appointment to the board led by former Reserve Bank Governor ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters, Leader of New Zealand First New Zealand’s click bait journalism is taking a turn for the worse, with yet another example of sensationalist, wilful-misrepresentation of the facts. “New Zealand First has worked constructively with its Coalition partner on hundreds of pieces of legislation and policy, and ...
The Green Party is today unveiling its Poverty Action Plan, which includes a Guaranteed Minimum Income to ensure people have enough to live with dignity. ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters, Deputy Prime Minister Fletcher Tabuteau MP, Under-Secretary for Regional Economic Development The Rotorua Museum redevelopment and Whakarewarewa and Tokorangi Forest projects will be accelerated thanks to a $2.09 million Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) boost, Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters and Under-Secretary for Regional Economic Development Fletcher ...
This week, we rolled out the next steps of our recovery plan, with new infrastructure investment, extra support for tourism operators, and a new programme to get Kiwis into agriculture careers. The global economic consequences of COVID-19 will continue to be a challenge, but we have a detailed plan to ...
Jenny Marcroft MP, Spokesperson for Health New Zealand First welcomes the passage of the Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission Bill through its final reading in Parliament today fulfilling a coalition agreement commitment. “This is an important step in saving the lives of New Zealanders and delivers a key coalition commitment ...
Whakatāne has been given a $2.5 million boost to speed up previously funded projects and create more than 450 jobs in the next decade. Of those, the equivalent of 160 full-time jobs could be delivered in the next six weeks. Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters is in town to make ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters, Deputy Prime Minister Fletcher Tabuteau MP, Under-Secretary for Regional Economic Development The Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) is investing $2.5 million to accelerate three infrastructure projects in Whakatāne, Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters and Under-Secretary for Regional Economic Development Fletcher Tabuteau announced today. “This package is about ...
Infrastructure Minister Shane Jones is throwing his weight behind a bid by the Auckland Council to fast-track the more than doubling of the city's water allowance from the Waikato River. And he's coming out strongly against anyone who plans on getting in the way of this campaign. "It is my ...
The Green Party is thrilled to see changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that mean consents for large projects can be declined if they will have significant climate change implications that are inconsistent with the Zero Carbon Act and Aotearoa New Zealand’s Paris Agreement obligations. ...
Hon Ron Mark, Minister of Defence The Royal New Zealand Navy’s new ship, Aotearoa, set sail for New Zealand on 10 June from the Republic of Korea, and is due to arrive in Auckland tomorrow, announced Minister of Defence Ron Mark. “Aotearoa is the Royal New Zealand Navy’s new fleet ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister for Racing Racing Minister Winston Peters has today welcomed the Racing Industry Bill passing its third reading, creating the legislative framework for revitalising the racing industry while limiting the need for future government intervention. “For too long our domestic racing industry has ...
The Green Party has today put forward an amendment to the Electoral (Registration of Sentenced Prisoners) Amendment Bill to ensure all people in prisons can vote in general elections. ...
The Green Party welcomes the decision to not proceed with Public Public Investment (PPI) delivery of Auckland’s light rail project and to instead run the process through the public service. ...
Hon Ron Mark, New Zealand First List MP based in the Wairarapa New Zealand First List MP Hon Ron Mark welcomes the announcement of Provincial Growth Funding investment of $1.4 million to help secure the Wairarapa’s water supply. The funding boost will allow the Greater Wellington Regional Council (GWRC), and ...
New Zealand First list MP Mark Patterson has been selected to represent the party in the newly formed Taieri electorate at the upcoming election. Mr Patterson, his wife Jude and two daughters farm sheep and beef at Lawrence and Waitahuna. He previously stood in the Clutha-Southland electorate however boundary changes ...
Hon Shane Jones, Associate Minister for State Owned Enterprises A new ‘super depot’ to be built for NZ Post in Wellington will create around 350 jobs during construction, Associate Minister for State Owned Enterprises Shane Jones says. Shane Jones today attended a ground-breaking and blessing ceremony for the parcel-processing depot ...
Our strong economic management prior to COVID-19 - with surpluses, low debt and near-record-low unemployment - put us in a good position to weather the impact of the virus and start to rebuild our economy much earlier than many other countries.Now we're putting our plan to recover and rebuild ...
Darroch Ball MP, New Zealand First Spokesperson for Law and Order Recently released Police fleeing driver statistics have shown yet another increase in incidents with another record-high in the latest quarter. “This new quarterly record-high is the latest in a string of record-high numbers since 2014. The data shows incidents ...
New Zealand First MP Fletcher Tabuteau is pleased to be confirmed today as the party’s candidate for the Rotorua electorate. Speaking at the Rotorua AGM for New Zealand First, Mr Tabuteau said this is an election that is incredibly important for the people of Rotorua. “The founding principles of New ...
The Human Rights Commission’s PRISM report on the issues impacting people based on their sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, and sex characteristics (SOGIESC) provides an excellent programme of work for future governments to follow, say the Greens. ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters said the trans-Tasman bubble had not been jeopardised after aborder botch-upresulted in New Zealand having two active cases of COVID-19. On Friday, Mr Peters told RNZ's Morning Report he had heard from Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison that borders for trans-Tasman travel would open by ...
Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters said today he was pleased the army was now running the quarantine and isolation process - up until now it has been the Ministry of Health. Peters told Newstalk ZB's Mike Hosking that the army knew how to introduce and follow protocols and instil discipline. ...
Hon Ron Mark, New Zealand First List MP based in the Wairarapa New Zealand First MP and Minister for Defence and Veteran’s Affairs Ron Mark has confirmed his bid for the Wairarapa seat.“The Coalition Government has done a lot of good work throughout the Wairarapa, but many constituents have told ...
New Zealand First is pleased to release the names of its next tranche of candidates for the 2020 election. We’re proud to announce these hardworking New Zealanders that have put their hand up to fight for a commonsense and resilient future.Jamie Arbuckle – Kaikoura Mark Arneil – Christchurch Central Jackie ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Foreign Affairs Hon Ron Mark, Minister of Defence A massive joint effort between New Zealand Government agencies, employers, and the Vanuatu Government is underway to repatriate over 1000 Vanuatu nationals stranded in New Zealand, Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters and Defence Minister Ron ...
Small businesses are getting greater certainty about access to finance with an extension to the interest-free cashflow loan scheme to the end of the year. The Small Business Cashflow Loan Scheme has already been extended once, to 24 July. Revenue and Small Business Minister Stuart Nash says it will be ...
A package of 23 projects across the country will clean up waterways and deliver over 2000 jobs Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Environment Minister David Parker announced today. The $162 million dollar package will see 22 water clean-up projects put forward by local councils receiving $62 million and the Kaipara ...
Tena koutou katoa Nga tangata whenua o tenei rohe o Pōneke, tena koutou Nau mai, haere mai ki te hui a tau mo te roopu reipa Ko tatou! Ko to tatou mana! Ko to tatou kaupapa kei te kokiri whakamua Tena koutou, tena koutou, tena tatou katoa Welcome. I ...
A new programme, which sets a firm course for the Building and Construction sector to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions, has been announced by the Minister for Building and Construction Jenny Salesa. “A significant amount of New Zealand’s carbon emissions come from the building and construction sector. If we’re serious ...
The Provincial Growth Fund is investing more than $7.5 million in Northland ventures to combat the economic impact of the COVID-19 virus, Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters and Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones have announced. The Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) investment is going to the Northern Adventure Experience and ...
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Education Minister Chris Hipkins today announced significant funding for Auckland’s Northcote College as part of the first wave of a new nationwide school redevelopment programme to upgrade schools over the next 10 years. The $48.5 million project brings the total investment in Northcote College to ...
The Government has opened an urgent response fund to support schools and early learning services to get children and young people back on track after the Covid-19 lockdown. “While we are seeing improvements in attendance under Alert Level 1 Ministry of Education data shows that attendance rates in our schools ...
The law to boost the economic recovery from the impact of COVID-19 by speeding up resource consenting on selected projects has passed its second and third readings in the House today. “Accelerating nationwide projects and activities by government, iwi and the private sector will help deliver faster economic recovery and ...
Five port-related projects in Whanganui will receive a $26.75 million Provincial Growth Fund investment to support local economic recovery and create new opportunities for growth, Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones announced today. “This is a significant investment that will support the redevelopment of the Whanganui Port, a project governed ...
Whanganui’s Sarjeant Gallery will receive an investment of up to $12 million administered by the Provincial Growth Fund to support its redevelopment, Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones announced today. The project is included in a $3 billion infrastructure pipeline announced by Finance Minister Grant Robertson and Shane Jones yesterday. ...
The Provincial Growth Fund is investing nearly $2.5 million into three Te Ara Mahi programmes to support Manawatū-Whanganui jobseekers and employees to quickly train and upskill, Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones announced today. “Up to 154 local people will be supported into employment within the first year by these ...
This morning I have formally tendered my resignation as Minister of Health, which was accepted by the Prime Minister. Serving as Minister of Health has been an absolute privilege – particularly through these extraordinary last few months. It’s no secret that Health is a challenging portfolio. I have given ...
Scholarships for 57 early-career agricultural emissions scientists from 20 developing countries is another example of New Zealand’s international leadership in primary sector sustainability, says Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor. Mr O’Connor, announcing the scholarships today, says hundreds of applications were received for this fourth round of the CLIFF-GRADS programme (Climate, Food ...
A project to help rejuvenate the Horowhenua town of Foxton will receive a Provincial Growth Fund investment of $3.86 million, Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones announced today. “This funding for the Foxton Regeneration project will be used to make the well-known holiday town even more attractive for visitors and ...
Moa bones and other sub-fossil remains of extinct species are set to have improved protection with proposals to prevent the trade in extinct species announced the Minister of Conservation Eugenie Sage today. “We have lost too many of our native species, but these lost species, such as moa, remain an ...
The Government’s free and healthy school lunches programme moves south for the first time creating jobs for around 30 people in Otago and Southland. “Eighteen schools with 3000 students are joining the programme – 11 have already begun serving lunches, and seven are preparing to start during Term 3. This is ...
Thousands of Kiwi jobs and investment in New Zealand productions will be protected through a screen sector support package announced today by Associate Minister for Arts Culture and Heritage Carmel Sepuloni, Minister for Economic Development Phil Twyford and Minister for Broadcasting Kris Faafoi. The package also includes investment in broadcasting ...
The Government has established a new $10 million fund for the domestic events sector to help save jobs and protect incomes as it recovers from the impacts of COVID-19, Minister of Economic Development Phil Twyford announced today. This funding from Budget 2020 follows talks with the event sector designed to ...
The Government has taken another step in its commitment to making sure New Zealanders get a fairer deal at the petrol pump with the introduction of legislation to improve competition in the retail fuel market, says Energy and Resources Minister Megan Woods. “The fuel market study that this Government ordered ...
New Zealand has joined a global initiative that aims to enable all countries to access a safe and effective Covid-19 vaccine, Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters announced today. The COVAX Facility was recently launched by Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. The Alliance includes the World Health Organization, UNICEF, the World Bank ...
From today new legislation takes effect to both restore the right to legal representation at the start of a Care of Children (CoCA) dispute in the Family Court, and allow parties to those proceedings to access legal aid where eligible. During a visit to the Family Court in Auckland today, ...
Home-based early childhood education (ECE) subsidised by the government will transition to a fully qualified workforce by 2025 to ensure better and more consistent quality, Education Minister Chris Hipkins announced today. “Quality early learning helps provide children with a strong foundation for their future,” Chris Hipkins said. From 1 January ...
The new Criminal Cases Review Commission | Te Kāhui Tātari Ture (CCRC) has started work and can now independently investigate claimed miscarriages of justice. “Even though we have appeal rights and safeguards against unsafe convictions, from time to time our justice system does get things wrong. The design of the ...
E ngā mana, e ngā reo, e ngā karangatanga maha, tēnā koutou Ki a koutou Te Āti Awa, Taranaki Whānui, Ngāti Toa Rangatira, ngā mana whenua o te rohe nei, tēnā koutou Ko Te Whare Wānanga o Aotearoa ki ngā take o te Ao (NZIIA), Ko te Rōpū Tohu Tono ...
The Government’s increase to paid parental leave kicks in today with another 4 weeks taking New Zealand up to a full 6 months (26 weeks, up from 22 weeks) leave for new parents, and the maximum weekly payment will increase by $20pw, Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Iain Lees-Galloway says. ...
A new package of infrastructure investments will help kick-start the post-COVID rebuild by creating more than 20,000 jobs and unlocking more than $5 billion of projects up and down New Zealand. Finance Minister Grant Robertson and Infrastructure Minister Shane Jones today outlined how the $3 billion infrastructure fund in the ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters today expressed the New Zealand Government’s deep disappointment at the passage by China’s National People’s Congress Standing Committee of a national security law for Hong Kong. “New Zealand has consistently emphasised its serious concern about the imposition of this legislation on Hong Kong without inclusive ...
More jobs and more family time with newborns are the centrepiece of a suite of Government initiatives coming into effect today. July 1 is a milestone day for the Government as a host of key policies take effect, demonstrating the critical areas where progress has been made. “The Coalition Government ...
Environment Minister David Parker has today “called in” Auckland’s application to the Waikato Regional Council to take an extra 200 million litres of water a day from the lower reaches of the Waikato River for Auckland drinking water and other municipal uses. The call-in means the application has been referred ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters and Trade and Export Growth Minister David Parker announced today that New Zealand’s hosting of APEC in 2021 will go ahead using virtual digital platforms. Mr Peters said the global disruption caused by COVID-19, including resultant border restrictions, had been the major factor in the ...
The start of construction on a new link road between Matakana Road and State Highway 1 will create jobs and support the significant population growth expected in the Warkworth area, Transport Minister Phil Twyford and Mayor Phil Goff announced today. Transport Minister Phil Twyford said construction of the Matakana Link ...
The Government is prioritising its latest investment in PPE for frontline health workers, including staff at managed isolation and quarantine facilities, Health Minister David Clark says. “With no community transmission of COVID-19 our response now has a firm focus on keeping our border safe and secure. “We must ensure that ...
The Parihaka Papakāinga Trust in Taranaki will receive up to $14 million for a new visitor centre and other improvements at the historic settlement that will boost the local economy and provide much-needed jobs, Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones and Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations Andrew Little have ...
Protections for workers who are employees of one employer but working under the direction of another business or organisation have come into force, closing a gap in legislation that made the personal grievance process inaccessible for some workers, says Workplace Relations Minister Iain Lees-Galloway. “This Government is working hard to ...
A range of improvements are already underway to address issues identified in the rapid review of the Managed Isolation and Quarantine system released today, Housing Minister Megan Woods said. The review was commissioned just over a week ago to identify and understand current and emerging risks to ensure the end-to-end ...
The important brown kiwi habitat around Whakatāne will receive added protection through an Iwi-led predator free project announced by Minister of Conservation Eugenie Sage and Under Secretary for Regional Economic Development Fletcher Tabuteau. “The Government is investing nearly $5 million into Te Rūnanga o Ngāti Awa’s environmental projects with $2.5 ...
An extra 4,000 tonnes of offcuts and scraps of untreated wood per year will soon be able to be recycled into useful products such as horticultural and garden mulch, playground safety surfacing and animal bedding as a result of a $660,000 investment from the Waste Minimisation Fund, Associate Environment Minister ...
The Governor-General has referred Scott Watson’s convictions for murder back to the Court of Appeal, Justice Minister Andrew Little announced today. Mr Watson was convicted in 1999 of the murders of Ben Smart and Olivia Hope. His appeal to the Court of Appeal in 2000 was unsuccessful, as was his ...
A new five-year funding agreement for the Reserve Bank will mean it can boost its work to protect New Zealanders’ finances, Finance Minister Grant Robertson says. “New Zealand has a strong and stable financial system. Financial stability is an area that we are not prepared to cut corners for, particularly ...
A law change has been introduced to make it easier for forgotten funds in institutional accounts to be returned more easily to their rightful owners. Revenue Minister Stuart Nash has introduced an amendment to the Unclaimed Money Act 1971. It will update the rules controlling forgotten sums of money held ...
Pacific Media Centre Newsdesk Days after President Rodrigo Duterte signed the Philippines Anti-Terrorism Law, Vice-President Leni Robredo has pushed for safeguards so that the controversial measure would not be abused, reports Rappler. In her weekly radio show with co-host Ely Saludar, Robredo noted that she does not oppose the law ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Developments in Melbourne on Saturday are more important, and certainly of more interest to the public, than what has happened in Eden-Monaro. Anthony Albanese is set to struggle over the line in the Labor seat, ...
The campaign to stop the Department of Conservation exterminating tahr in national parks is gathering increasing public support, with nearly 40,000 people signing the petition calling for a halt to DOC’s plans. The Change.org petition was started ...
DATE: Sunday, 5th July 2020 TIME: 15:00 LOCATION: Taylor Preston's, Centennial Highway, Wellington On Sunday, Wellington Animal Save will be bearing witness to animals on their way to slaughter, outside Taylor Preston's slaughterhouse. ...
Local Government’s Regional Sector are welcoming an announcement today of over $162 million in central government funding for 22 regional and unitary council Jobs for Nature projects, saying the strong support is an endorsement of the return on ...
Political editor Justin Giovannatti reports from Te Papa, where the prime minister today addressed Labour’s 2020 Congress.Jacinda Ardern looked to slap a Labour sticker on the team of five million with the launch today of the party’s Covid-19 recovery plan, at an event which serves as the unofficial kickoff to ...
Kelvin Davis stole the show at Labour’s 2019 conference with a hilarious speech about the formation of the coalition government. The party’s oft-underestimated deputy leader was again in the spotlight this year, but with a more solemn yet at times impassioned address outlining the country’s Covid-19 sacrifices. Here is the text: Anne Guenole. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Philip Russo, Associate Professor, Director Cabrini Monash University Department of Nursing Research, Monash University The Victorian government’s decision to “close and contain” nine public housing towers in Flemington and North Melbourne represents a significant escalation in the fight against COVID-19. Under the ...
By Grace Auka-Salmang in Port Moresby Key findings from the 2016 to 2018 Papua New Guinea Demographic and Health Survey reveals that 56 percent of women aged 15 to 49 in PNG have experienced physical violence around the age of 15. And 28 percent have experienced sexual violence. Also 18 ...
The New Zealand Herald recently published a column which criticises its own record on race. Teuila Fuatai explains why she felt she had to call out the paper that commissioned her. In the column, freelance journalist Teuila Fuatai detailed her concerns about the Herald’s record on race and her efforts to ...
Dunedin writer Victor Billot farewells retiring National MP Paula Bennett.Working Class Hero I came up the hard way in Taupo, you see, surviving off Weetbix (just occasionally.) I waited tables then knocked off a degree, perhaps with the help of a state subsidy. Then a man with a ...
Three of the country's biggest seafood companies have broken ranks with the rest of the sector and declared their support for cameras on fishing boats. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Melbourne This article was updated July 5. With 77% of enrolled voters counted at Saturday’s Eden-Monaro byelection, Labor’s Kristy McBain currently leads the Liberals’ Fiona Kotvojs by a 50.8-49.2 projected ...
The family of pioneering New Zealand suffragist Kate Sheppard kept an important secret – one that possibly explains a lot about her life, her beliefs and her motivation.Kate Sheppard’s secret involved her father, Andrew Wilson Malcolm, and what happened to him after she was born. An extensive and painstaking quest ...
Covid-19 or not, renewable energy is the future. That’s why one grassroots business is taking a leap of faith and trusting that the current downturn will eventually yield to an ecotourism boom.To launch an ecotourism business in rural Otago right now, you’d need to be either a visionary or just ...
Sam Brooks reviews Auckland writer Lil O’Brien’s memoir Not That I’d Kiss A Girl, and finds it a valuable yet unclear story of the author’s struggle with her own acceptance.As queer people, we can be unnecessarily harsh on media that is about us, and by us. I think of the ...
For all The Spinoff’s latest coverage of Covid-19 see here. Read Siouxsie Wiles’s work here. New Zealand is currently in alert level one – read about what that means here. For official government advice, see here.The Spinoff’s coverage of the Covid-19 outbreak is made possible thanks to donations from Spinoff Members. To support this ...
In the wake of lockdown, Volunteering New Zealand is calling on people to reshape the way they think about volunteering. To unite with whānau, friends and workmates to make a group commitment to a community or cause that matters to them. Covid-19 ...
Mahesh Bindra has been a loyal member of NZ First for almost 15 years. But as an Indian-New Zealander, what does he make of members of his party attacking his community? Multicultural Times editor Gaurav Sharma reports.Winston Peters, deputy prime minister and leader of New Zealand First, likes to say ...
As Auckland suffers its worst drought in 27 years, many of the city’s self-service car washes are doing a roaring trade. Michael Andrew finds out how these businesses are getting around the strict water restrictions.Car washing may seem like a wasteful luxury in the middle of a drought, but take ...
Call it last, call it the foundation: Georgie Dansey is 84th on the Labour Party list for the 2020 election. Here she explains how she got there.What does it take to come last on the Labour list? It’s a bit of a story, so if you’re feeling tl;dr then just ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Melbourne At Saturday’s Eden-Monaro byelection, Labor’s Kristy McBain currently leads the Liberals’ Fiona Kotvojs by a 50.7-49.3 projected margin in The Poll Bludger’s Eden-Monaro election page. This page has all the ...
The controversial MP says his former party put a target on the minister’s back, but Melissa Lee insists there was no concerted campaign.The MP who exited the National Party in a tailspin attack on former leader Simon Bridges has publicly apologised to Clare Curran for his role in the treatment ...
By Jane Patterson, political editor of RNZ News The State Services Minister says the government will do everything it can to track down who is responsible for a massive privacy breach relating to New Zealand’s active covid cases, and is not ruling out pursuing criminal charges. An investigation has been ...
The National editorial Hundreds walked the Sir John Guise drive on Thursday calling for justice for the brutal death of 19-year-old mother-of-two – Jenelyn Kennedy last week. Jenelyn’s battered lifeless body was taken into the Port Moresby General Hospital last Tuesday by four men (one believed to be the father ...
*Watch the full video in the player below*In the first 48 hours of life, blood from newborn New Zealand babies is taken and tested. Most parents will never hear back. For others, it’s life-changing, and life-saving. Frank Film investigates. Performed 48 hours after birth, it’s a medical procedure ...
Latest from the Beehive Shane Jones, the Minister of Munificence, in a joint statement with fellow Northlander and Deputy PM Winston Peters, wrapped up a week of handout investment announcements with news of more millions for the people of his patch in the Far North. This time it was a ...
By Rebecca Kuku in Port Moresby A passionate plea by men, women and children has echoed around the Papua New Guinean capital of Port Moresby – that it is time to turn the corner on addressing gender-based violence in the country. Gatherings, a peaceful march and a vigil were staged ...
Former Race Relations Commissioner Gregory Fortuin has called out National MP Hamish Walker for his racist comments towards people of colour. This follows Walker's press release objecting to people from Pakistan, India and Korea potentially being quarantined ...
Khruangbin have established their live reputation with spacious instrumentals, but the band’s third album, Mordechai, features prominent vocals and disco-funk jams. Andrew Drever interviews the Texas-based trio upon its release.While the Covid-19 pandemic continues to rage in the US, the situation has actually been a blessing in disguise for Khruangbin ...
The State Services Minister says the government will do everything it can to track down who is responsible for a massive privacy breach relating to New Zealand's active Covid cases, and is not ruling out pursuing criminal charges. ...
For all The Spinoff’s latest coverage of Covid-19 see here. Read Siouxsie Wiles’s work here. New Zealand is currently in alert level one – read about what that means here. For official government advice, see here.The Spinoff’s coverage of the Covid-19 outbreak is made possible thanks to donations from Spinoff Members. To support this ...
With the collapse of Bauer NZ resulting in Australian magazines flooding our shelves, Wendyl Nissen looks back at her battle to get homegrown content given the star billing it deserved.Thanks to some hard-fought battles 30 years ago, New Zealand women have been enjoying their own version of Woman’s Day and ...
Extending the franchise to prisoners is the latest in a series of contentious electoral reforms enacted by this government, but history suggests the ‘convention’ for consensual election reform is more imagined than real.The Electoral (Registration of Sentenced Prisoners) Amendment Act, passed last week and corrected this week, extends the franchise ...
Since publication of Newsroom’s extensive investigation into serious issues at Oranga Tamariki, our inbox has been flooded with stories from more current and former employees. In less than 48 hours after Newsroom’s in-depth inquiry into the children's ministry was published we received a high volume of correspondence from current and former ...
“She’d come into town on the bus. The photographer, so her mother had told her, was famous”: a short story by Wellington writer Elspeth Sandys. It was to be a present for her father who was dying. A photograph of her in her first ball gown. When she reached for ...
Those who can’t afford to travel will “attend” the terror sentencing via video link, the Immigration Minister says. David Williams reports The Immigration Minister is demanding officials give urgent help to overseas victims of the Christchurch terror attack and their families. Yesterday, High Court Justice Cameron Mander announced the terrorist, ...
Controversy over Wellington's Shelly Bay has ensnared iwi, the council and politicians for years. Investigative journalist Nicky Hager uses official documents to lay out the roles of money, power and wheels-within-wheels on this most contentious of developments. Any time I am asked whether we have corruption in New Zealand, I ...
Is the answer to saving New Zealand's professional sports teams creating super-franchises? The Extra Time podcast asks sports leaders. Professional sport is slowly emerging from the grip of the pandemic but its financial future is far from certain. Covid-19 highlighted a weakness in the structure of professional sport in New ...
Before Covid-19, it’d take a long flight and half a grand to see Hamilton in the flesh. Now, the biggest musical of the past two decades is available to watch on Disney+. Sam Brooks takes stock of this extraordinary move. Right now, Broadway is a sleeping dragon. New York theatres ...
Sacked cabinet minister Clare Curran speaks for the first time about the brutal end to her political career – and what she calls the toxicity and bullying that marked her years in parliament. By Donna Chisholm.Of all the humiliations – often self-inflicted – that Clare Curran endured during her 12-year ...
On 03 July Children’s Commissioner was given additional responsibility by the Minister of Justice which extended its role as the independent monitor of the conditions and treatment of children and young people in secure detention centres. The Children’s ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sarah Perkins-Kirkpatrick, ARC Future Fellow, UNSW The term “heatwave” is no stranger to Australians. Defined as when conditions are excessively hot for at least three days in a row, these extreme temperature events have always punctuated our climate. With many of us ...
Pacific Media Watch A senior Indonesian government official and a New Zealand journalism professor have clashed over differing perspectives on access for journalists and media to the West Papua region. Speaking on a webinar organised by the Jubi newspaper in Jayapura, Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ director of the European affairs ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Barbara Mintzes, Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Sydney To beat the coronavirus pandemic, countries need to collaborate. We need the best possible science to develop vaccines and drugs, and to test, track and contain the virus. If we’ve learned anything ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Russell Dean Christopher Bicknell, Post-doctoral researcher in Palaeobiology , University of New England Let’s turn back the hands of time. Before extinction knocked dinosaurs off their pillar, before the “Great Dying” extinction wiped out 95% of all organisms – we had the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jane Williams, Researcher at the Centre for Values, Ethics and the Law in Medicine (VELiM), University of Sydney Last week, outgoing chief medical officer Brendan Murphy announced all returned travellers would be tested for COVID-19 before and after quarantine. Some were surprised ...
A new package to help foreign nationals stuck in New Zealand due to Covid-19 is inadequate and needs to be supplemented with the emergency benefit, say Community Law Centres O Aotearoa (CLCA) and the Human Rights Commission (HRC). The assistance ...
With Shortland Street’s 7,000th episode screening tonight, Tara Ward salutes the soap for keeping calm and carrying on through level three lockdown. It’s been one heck of a week on Shortland Street. Leanne lost her winning $8 million Lotto ticket, Louis slipped over in a pile of vomit, and Desi tried ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brendan Clift, Teaching Fellow and PhD candidate, University of Melbourne In recent days, the prime ministers of the UK and Australia each declared they are working toward providing safe haven visas for Hong Kong residents. In the US, lawmakers passed a bill ...
How two multi-millionaires, two pandemic futurists, Air NZ’s former boss, a dairy executive on a break, a retired anaesthetist (and a few others) nearly saved NZ. ...
A commitment from Labour to protect productive farmland from blanket afforestation if re-elected is a step in the right direction, Federated Farmers Meat & Wool Chairperson William Beetham says. "We’re really pleased there is now ...
Tomorrow, 4 July, will see protests in at least nine centres around New Zealand against Israeli plans to steal more Palestinian land (Details are at the end of this media release) “Virtually the entire international community is standing together ...
Pacific Media Watch Australia’s ABC has revealed the Australian Federal Police (AFP) recommendation regarding the Afghan Files investigative journalism report is for the Commonwealth DPP to consider charging journalist Dan Oakes for his role in the leak. The revelation has prompted a renewed call by the Alliance for Journalists’ Freedom ...
While we’re growing in confidence that we are in the enviable position of basically eliminating Covid-19, our trading nation at the bottom of the world is also in the unenviable position of locking off our economy to the world. “No is not an answer ...
Netflix’s new adaptations of The Baby-Sitters Club makes long-time fan Tara Ward fall in love with the series all over again. When I was 12 years old, my class had to write a letter to a famous person. Some of my classmates wrote to an All Black, Tom Cruise or ...
The New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union is questioning the scale and value of the Government’s $230m screen industry recovery package. Union spokesperson Jordan Williams says: “The official justification for this ‘recovery package’ is the impact of COVID-19 ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Kemish, Former Ambassador and Adjunct Professor, School of Historical and Philosophical Inquiry, The University of Queensland Chinese activity in Papua New Guinea was not the only factor behind Australia’s Pacific “Step-Up”. As a former high commissioner to PNG, I know it ...
Pacific Media Centre Newsdesk A Papuan church leader and advocate for social justice has penned an open letter to the Indonesian government calling for justice and an end to racism to enable a genuine self-determination process for the Melanesian region. “The problem of Papua has become increasingly complex and severe ...
Latest from the Beehive – Nine press releases (when we checked this morning) had flowed from the Beehive since we last reported. Eight of them brayed about the money Ministers have been spending and (as they prefer to put it) investing. The sole exception came from Environment Minister David ...
CEAC pre-election review of National Party ‘climate change policy’, is lacking in substance without any clear policy, that will leave voters with no idea of what National Party plans for saving our climate, and glancing at their ‘Transport plans’, ...
Film crews can get exemptions to enter New Zealand, so why not the families and supporters of terror victims, David Williams asks. OPINION: If the public needs a sign last year’s terrorist attack has slipped off the Government’s radar, this is it. A sentencing date has been set for the ...
A new poem by Michaela Keeble.Only the ocean only the oceanturns me overlike this only the oceanturns meon like this only the oceangives warning: what will changeand when so it doesn’t comeacrosslike violence white capsdrift inon the rising tide i feel likeopening my legs i don’t wantto do anything elsetoday i don’t wantto goto work i want to lie downwith ...
As the Covid-19 pandemic rages round the world, New Zealanders are re-discovering food production is the fundamental engine of the economy. And farming is not a sunset industry. Instead of being rubbished by lobby groups for so-called “dirty dairying”, the country’s core export industry has the chance to transform itself ...
Open mike 20/06/2020 
MONDAY JULY 6Washington (History, Sky 073, 7.30pm). The brilliant Doris Kearns Goodwin is the executive producer of this six-part series about America's first president. It combines interviews with live action and is narrated by Jeff Daniels. It's engaging, said Salon.TUESDAY JULY 7The ABC Murders (Prime, 8.30pm). Sarah Phelps has done incredible things with ...12 hours ago
15 hours ago
A chronological listing of news articles linked to on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week: Sun, June 28 through Sat, July 4, 2020 Editor's Choice '2040': A funny, entertaining, upbeat climate documentary A timely Australian documentary takes a 'solutions' approach, with the filmmaker inspired by visions of ...24 hours ago
Dave Heatley Zero community transmission. Just a handful of active cases, all in quarantine. New Zealand is in an attractive situation, at least compared to much of the world. The situation could be robust and enduring – or it might be fragile, just one border incursion away from a “second ...2 days ago
Is the consequence of the Simpson Report proposals for restructuring the health system poorer accountability to people? When in doubt, centralise‘ has been a persistent theme in New Zealand public policy throughout our history. The current government is no exception. Here are some examples. - The regional polytechs have been ...2 days ago
Three years ago the ABC used leaked information to expose war crimes by Australian troops in Afghanistan. Since then the chief of Australia's special forces has admitted that his troops committed war crimes. But guess who the Australian government is prosecuting? Police have referred allegations against an ABC journalist relating ...3 days ago
3 days ago
Unfortunately, due to a medical emergency, I have landed in hospital so am not able to do a current update on the NZ blog statistics. Let’s hope I can get back to this in good time. ...4 days ago
The Greens have shaken up the election campaign with the announcement of their radical poverty and action plan to reform welfare provision and introduce a new wealth tax for millionaires. It’s a big-thinking, controversial policy and has generated a lot of disagreement over how radical it is, whether it could ...5 days ago
When the Christchurch murderer pleaded guilty to 51 counts of murder and a number of other violent assault charges a few months ago, he effectively closed the door on what the public will know about the lead up to and commission of the event. His plea means that no evidence ...6 days ago
Daphna Whitmore The Philippines is enduring one of the longest lockdowns in the world. For President Duterte the lockdown provides an opportunity to garner more powers and to push through a brazen assault on human rights. A new law called the Anti-Terror Bill has been passed under urgency and it ...6 days ago
There really is not much about Paula Bennett concerning her career trajectory, the policies she promoted, and most importantly, the socio-economic effect this had upon New Zealand (and particularly the most vulnerable in this, our oft-cited “egalitarian” society of this country) that can be said now that hasn’t already been ...6 days ago
Helloy… My name is Todd Muller and I am the leader of the National Party of New Zealand. Many people come up to me on the street and ask me who I am. I’m often walking through Tauranga, or in a mall in suburban Auckland, or maybe even a farmers’ ...7 days ago
. . Plague town? There are two things right now in Aotearoa New Zealand that are guaranteed to piss people off. Firstly, it’s National playing silly-bugger politics with the covid-19 pandemic. This cost Simon Bridges his job as National’s Leader. Lately, Michael Woodhouse has been playing fast and loose with ...7 days ago
Tertiary fees in New Zealand versus Australia: Fees Are Important, but not as Important as Financing In Australia, the Education Minister Dan Tehan has proposed an overhaul of the existing higher education funding system to offer 39,000 additional study places by 2023 and 100,000 by 2030. The proposal has been ...7 days ago
The images and reports delivered to us by the world’s media leave us in no doubt that the rest of the world is still in the grip of a coronavirus pandemic that shows no signs of slackening, but is actually uncontrolled and picking up pace in many countries; and even ...1 week ago
We have been assailed by Fox News-style headlines, lurid stories of “a breach!”. An almost nuclear level disaster on the horizon scream, “Fiasco!” here, “Hero to Zero!” there… Oh quick, panic everyone! This has fueled an unbelievably stupid environment of panic among some, and spurred useless, counterproductive political ...1 week ago
New Zealanders deserve healthy rivers and lakes that are safe to swim in - but they have been getting worse for decades. That's why, with our latest announcement, we're investing in projects that will help clean up our rivers and lakes and restore them to health, within a generation. ...14 hours ago
The Green Party has opposed the COVID-19 Recovery Fast-track Consenting Bill which shortcuts normal consenting processes under the Resource Management Act (RMA), reduces public participation and narrows environmental considerations. ...3 days ago
Hon Shane Jones, Minister of Regional Economic Development A regional freight hub for the lower North Island will be built just northeast of Palmerston North, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones has announced. The Government is investing $40 million through the Provincial Growth Fund to designate and buy land and design ...4 days ago
Small businesses are getting greater certainty about access to finance with an extension to the interest-free cashflow loan scheme to the end of the year. The Small Business Cashflow Loan Scheme has already been extended once, to 24 July. Revenue and Small Business Minister Stuart Nash says it will be ...12 hours ago
Pacific Media Centre Newsdesk Days after President Rodrigo Duterte signed the Philippines Anti-Terrorism Law, Vice-President Leni Robredo has pushed for safeguards so that the controversial measure would not be abused, reports Rappler. In her weekly radio show with co-host Ely Saludar, Robredo noted that she does not oppose the law ...4 hours ago
Justice Minister Andrew Little is committed to reviewing the legal aid threshold in the Family Court if re-elected. ...7 hours ago
The campaign to stop the Department of Conservation exterminating tahr in national parks is gathering increasing public support, with nearly 40,000 people signing the petition calling for a halt to DOC’s plans. The Change.org petition was started ...9 hours ago
Political editor Justin Giovannatti reports from Te Papa, where the prime minister today addressed Labour’s 2020 Congress.Jacinda Ardern looked to slap a Labour sticker on the team of five million with the launch today of the party’s Covid-19 recovery plan, at an event which serves as the unofficial kickoff to ...11 hours ago
Kelvin Davis stole the show at Labour’s 2019 conference with a hilarious speech about the formation of the coalition government. The party’s oft-underestimated deputy leader was again in the spotlight this year, but with a more solemn yet at times impassioned address outlining the country’s Covid-19 sacrifices. Here is the text: Anne Guenole. ...12 hours ago
Dunedin writer Victor Billot farewells retiring National MP Paula Bennett. Working Class Hero I came up the hard way in Taupo, you see, surviving off Weetbix (just occasionally.) I waited tables then knocked off a degree, perhaps with the help of a state subsidy. Then a man with a ...16 hours ago
*Watch the full video in the player below* In the first 48 hours of life, blood from newborn New Zealand babies is taken and tested. Most parents will never hear back. For others, it’s life-changing, and life-saving. Frank Film investigates. Performed 48 hours after birth, it’s a medical procedure ...2 days ago
Latest from the Beehive Shane Jones, the Minister of Munificence, in a joint statement with fellow Northlander and Deputy PM Winston Peters, wrapped up a week of handout investment announcements with news of more millions for the people of his patch in the Far North. This time it was a ...2 days ago
Since publication of Newsroom’s extensive investigation into serious issues at Oranga Tamariki, our inbox has been flooded with stories from more current and former employees. In less than 48 hours after Newsroom’s in-depth inquiry into the children's ministry was published we received a high volume of correspondence from current and former ...2 days ago
“She’d come into town on the bus. The photographer, so her mother had told her, was famous”: a short story by Wellington writer Elspeth Sandys. It was to be a present for her father who was dying. A photograph of her in her first ball gown. When she reached for ...2 days ago
Those who can’t afford to travel will “attend” the terror sentencing via video link, the Immigration Minister says. David Williams reports The Immigration Minister is demanding officials give urgent help to overseas victims of the Christchurch terror attack and their families. Yesterday, High Court Justice Cameron Mander announced the terrorist, ...2 days ago
Controversy over Wellington's Shelly Bay has ensnared iwi, the council and politicians for years. Investigative journalist Nicky Hager uses official documents to lay out the roles of money, power and wheels-within-wheels on this most contentious of developments. Any time I am asked whether we have corruption in New Zealand, I ...2 days ago
Is the answer to saving New Zealand's professional sports teams creating super-franchises? The Extra Time podcast asks sports leaders. Professional sport is slowly emerging from the grip of the pandemic but its financial future is far from certain. Covid-19 highlighted a weakness in the structure of professional sport in New ...2 days ago
How two multi-millionaires, two pandemic futurists, Air NZ’s former boss, a dairy executive on a break, a retired anaesthetist (and a few others) nearly saved NZ. ...3 days ago
Latest from the Beehive – Nine press releases (when we checked this morning) had flowed from the Beehive since we last reported. Eight of them brayed about the money Ministers have been spending and (as they prefer to put it) investing. The sole exception came from Environment Minister David ...3 days ago
Film crews can get exemptions to enter New Zealand, so why not the families and supporters of terror victims, David Williams asks. OPINION: If the public needs a sign last year’s terrorist attack has slipped off the Government’s radar, this is it. A sentencing date has been set for the ...3 days ago
As the Covid-19 pandemic rages round the world, New Zealanders are re-discovering food production is the fundamental engine of the economy. And farming is not a sunset industry. Instead of being rubbished by lobby groups for so-called “dirty dairying”, the country’s core export industry has the chance to transform itself ...3 days ago
World refugee day
I think a fair-minded person with a care for truth and honesty in language use has to have some concern about the grossly exaggerated headlines seen recently.
"From hero to zero" went one, more involved with bad rhyming than an engagement with truth. Bloomfield’s credibility, status, mana is now non-existent?
Now we have this. "Heads have to roll over border catastrophe, but whose head should it be?"
Catastrophe? Really? Come on, journos. I know selling news is more difficult nowadays, but now we'll have to find a new word to describe a sudden disaster because 'catastrophe' has been demeaned.
You want me to believe you? Don't exaggerate. Be truthful, factual, reasoned, honest, uncompromised. (I’d accept near catastrophe, possible catastrophe, potential catastrophe but there must be that qualifier…)
Please. We need you to be so.
Agreed mac1….I have heard RNZ call the Covid 19 border operations a "debacle, catastrophe and shambles" while it is nothing of the sort. There appears to be an agenda here….
A few isolated incidents and one major cock-up (aided by the Nats Chris Bishop-the media should be finding out who his friend is in the UK that asked him to help the 2 UK women escape quarantine and what was actually said by Bishop to border authorities.His often-reported claim that he was "helping constituents" is obviously bollocks, and why did one of the women lie about her symptoms?) is not a shambles.
The current situation seems to be that widespread testing has revealed no outbreak at all and border checks caught a third case in a manner that showed it was working effectively.
RNZ meant to say
THE REPORTING BY THE MEDIA
of Covid 19 border operations is a "debacle, catastrophe and shambles
Are they all reading from the same thesaurus?
I heard along the grapevine that she had asthma (totally unverified). My uncle who grew up in NZ hardly every comes back because coming here really screws with his asthma. Maybe she thought it was the transition to NZ that was aggravating her asthma (on top of family stress) rather than covid-19.
The only way to stop Covid-19 is to close the border and this is not going to happen for a lot of reasons due to people having rights and for economic reasons.
Perhaps the media can tell me how to prevent Covid-19 from entering the country without closing the border?
Reading the Press today Mac1, I was surprised at the mellow tone. Even the Editorial and 4 of the "journalists" had a "lets keep this in perspective" tone. Yet over the previous few days the Press "journalists" were in full "disaster/shambles/heads must roll" persuasion, and sickening.
And to think that 61,000 + NZers have been helped to return at a cost of $80million, and this slip up is the worst? Hells bells! 3,000 more are expected next week and there is always a risk.
Reports of Nurses on quarantine duty being abused and sent home in tears by rude uncooperative "inmates" makes you wonder just how ungrateful some people are.
Yes, Ian, I read the Press editorial after I wrote my piece above, and noted the backing off in the editorial as it wrote of the hero to zero meme.
But use of catastrophe continued in the article, not just in the headline. It was not only the headline-hunting sub-editor; it was there in the text.
We had a word at school for this- 'piffle', said with a puff of the breath and a flick of the hand.
The same reaction as these ingrate ‘inmates’ deserve in quarantine. Pfffft!
Decades since I heard "piffle" being used. But some "journalists" do write piffle.
We can add devastated to the list of over-used hyperbole.
There's a whole generation of young people who wallow in hyperbole. In the process some of the best words in the English language have been thoroughly demeaned. Awesome is a case in point. I hate to think where a lot of these youngsters are going to be with their lives when they hit their 40s and 50s.
A right emotional mess methinks.
Because they only have to run with the nut bar hard right loony lines for a few days to shift voters. Then they go go back to 'fair and balanced, then everyone forgets the mad irrational bullshit the MSM in this country spin on a all to regular basis.
This is right out of the play book of Cambridge Analytic – but who even wants to think about strategies and fear tactics at this stage of an election. Let alone having to cope with the fact the far right own the media landscape.
Probably a mishmash of reasons for this:
I think the quest for clicks has generated so many outrageous headlines, that it has become self defeating. like being faced with a zealot on the street carrying an end of the world sign, most normal people now ignore the outlandish headlines as being the cries for attention by fools. I do wonder if the herald is finally figuring this out. clowns like hosking and his partner, do their cause no good with stupid headlines. clear thinking people give them a wide berth, so they end up with a smaller and smaller audience of rusted on acolytes.
I agree, when I saw the "Hero to Zero" headline I just assumed "beat up" & couldn't be bothered reading.
Oddly the article headed "Hero to Zero" was reasonably fair. This makes one wonder who in the organisation ordered the beat-up headline.
I think the proof-reading and headline writing for our 2 main newsprint outfits has been contracted out to Australian entities in a bid to save money, my understanding is that this happened quite some years ago. I would like someone to confirm or deny this.
Catnip. Bolton's new book describes Chump's behaviour around Russian election interference. https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2020/06/john-bolton-provides-a-harrowing-portrait-of-trumps-surrender-to-putin/
Bolton may indeed be providing some interesting reading right now. But he's still among the frontrunners for the title of most odious swampthing to ever work in Washington. Even considering the strong run being made by the Mango Moronavirus.
The fucker refused to front up to testify when it might have a difference to the country late last year and earlier this year, even hiring lawyers to shield himself from doing that. It's now clear that was just a play to protect his personal potential book profits.
By all means, get the details from his book. Preferably by reading other reports of the contents, not by buying the book which might put money in his pockets. But remember, it's not evidence for rehabilitation of Bolton's reputation. Much more the opposite, in fact.
That's the idea, yes.
After Dirty Tricks was published some National supporters refused to read it because the information was stolen. Suppose Whistle Blowers should be ignored?
I doubt anyone is calling Bolton that.
Just think that Trump supporters would do the same. "If I don't read it then it didn't happen."
The difference is that Bolton was a very highly regarded Repug in very good standing with the party and the conservative side of US politics in general. So it's kinda like if Dirty Politics had been written and published by some Nat eminence grise like say Wayne Eagleson or Peter Goodfellow
That's what they said but the truth was… they didn't want to know the truth.
They were the same people who happily ignored the fact Cameron Slater and crew got into the back end of Labour's computer system and stole membership lists which included personal details.
Bolton is a war criminal who should be rotting in a jail deep in the swamps of Alabama.
Gitmo. With Kissinger in the next hole.
But not before the vile excuse for a human pissed and moaned about food-insecure children being fed during a pandemic.
Katie Hopkins has had her Twitter account permanently banned for “hateful conduct”, the social media giant has confirmed.
The former reality TV star-turned-far right commentator has a long history of pro-Trump, pro-Brexit and anti-immigration views, and had more than one million followers on the platform.
https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/katie-hopkins-account-permanently-suspended_uk_5eece139c5b6e9623c8179bf?
What is ironic is that she retweets Trump, and yet Trump is not banned.
In other news
Reported in stuff, not Herald that i can see.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/300038718/kiwis-feeling-jacindamania-in-new-poll-while-national-faces-mullermehtum
Horizon Research poll asked voters who was best placed to manage the pandemic response.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern was ahead on 66 per cent, well in front of Opposition leader Todd Muller who polled 14 per cent.
When asked who the best leader for the economic recovery, 53 per cent of respondents picked Ardern, compared to 24 per cent who backed Muller.
muller will go down as an answer to a future trivial pursuit question. most people will get his name wrong….
Already do 🙂
Tudd Moller as Tom Sainsbury calls him.
Oops. Snap.
Good to add more info Sasha
Taken before this week's facial egging: https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/300038718/kiwis-feeling-jacindamania-in-new-poll-while-national-faces-mullermehtum
'Murica.
Jackson Hospital pulmonologist William Saliski cleared his throat as he started describing the dire situation created by the coronavirus pandemic in Montgomery to its City Council before they voted on a mandatory mask ordinance. "It's been a long day, I apologize," he said.
"The units are full with critically-ill COVID patients," Saliski said. About 90% of them are Black. He said hospitals are able to manage for now, but it's not sustainable. "This mask slows that down, 95% protection from something as easy as cloth. … If this continues the way it's going, we will be overrun."
[…]
Instead, the council killed the ordinance after it failed to pass in a 4-4 tie, mostly along racial lines, with Councilman Tracy Larkin absent. Councilman Clay McInnis voted with three Black council members — Calhoun, Oronde Mitchell and Audrey Graham — in favor of the ordinance. Lyons, Charles Jinright, Richard Bollinger and Glen Pruitt voted against it.
https://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/story/news/2020/06/16/montgomery-council-votes-down-mask-ordinance-doctors-disgust/3203300001/
Two more positive tests. Couple from India. Asymptomatic. Day 12 test. All others at the isolation facility to be tested.
Hmmm…how long before we test arrivals at the airport and process accordingly?
Testing on Day 1 might encourage less rigour in handling isolation of travellers. Too many early negative tests. Better to act as if everyone is infectious.
Better to act as if everyone is infectious.
Some of us have been saying just that since this thing kicked off back at the end of January.
But no, no. Uncle Ashley held the line that PPE were not needed (by homecare workers and clients) unless there was a positive test. And those with no symptoms are still struggling to get tested.
FFS. Are we taking this virus seriously or not?
I have read that the optimal day to test is day 3. Testing at the airport too early.
Social distancing all the way through the 14 day isolation is essential. Tests a good backup
I have read that the optimal day to test is day 3. Testing at the airport too early.
I suspect you have misunderstood what you have read. Positivity upon testing is related to time after infection. A test on day 1 into NZ is likely to be as useful as a test of day 3. Regardless the most important issue is ensuring those entering at the border don't infect anyone that they have travelled into NZ with and even more critically that once they have arrived they are able to infect anyone in NZ.
Testing at the border wouldn't pick up people who caught it on the plane, but it would probably pick up the folks who infected the people on the plane. So the entire plane can go into tighter quarantine than the basic isolation.
Then towards the end of iso, people can be tested again as a final confirmation.
Are they all reading from the same thesaurus?
Let's have more negative tests on day 1 or 3 so more people with the virus can go to funerals. [/sarc]
That is literally what Chris Bishop wanted, let's not forget. He assumed they had been tested and the test was negative. They should have been tested (he was right about that) but he assumed an incubation period of 5 days.
After months of being told how long the incubation period is, that does not suggest National are competent to make decisions for anyone, never mind the whole country.
Remember their recent leader leader wouldn't take Bloomfield's word about the life-cycle of this disease (epidemic committee) so don't expect too much intellect from National.
Problem with testing upon arrival in NZ is the time for processing of samples and reporting will still mean that those arriving will have already moved to a hotel by the time they have their first result back.
I dod suspect there will be significant tweaking to the system over the next 2-4 weeks to improve triaging of incoming travellers and minimise/eliminate the possibility of cross infection amongst those isolating upon entry into NZ.
I have read that the optimal day to test is day 3. Testing at the airport too early.
Social distancing all the way through the 14 day isolation is essential. Tests a good backup
It seem a no brainer that they should have between 7 and 14 different hotels for quarantine (no idea how many are arriving each day ) and only people from the same day or two go to the 1st motel then the next couple of days go to the next one etc .
It would stop the problem of day 14s mingling with day 3s
I'm not clear how moving people every couple of days reduces opportunities for contact. It would seem to increase them considerably.
Human error would multiply too ("I told the nurse in Hotel number 1, and here you are in Hotel number 4 asking the same questions, why can't we deal with the same people each day, right hand doesn't know what left hand is doing" …).
Seriously, nothing about this is a no-brainer. People trying to make it work have spent hundreds of hours on it, making thousands of decisions about practical problems large and small, and any one mistake creates a headline. We are just captains on the couch.
You dont move the people . You change motels every two days for new arrivals.
OK, I misunderstood "go to the next one etc". Sorry.
In the end the inescapable problem is that they are in hotels. One thing that authorities haven't communicated effectively is why the quarantine needs to be in hotels with "normal" guests. In terms of perception, that is a gift to the media. Even if the risk is tiny, the public mood is so skittish that misinformation spreads like … well, like a virus.
T'is a pity it too cold for tents. Could put them in paddocks in batches with paddocks as buffers.
80% of public opinion would probably support that. Government tough!
Then a sick child in a tent would be on the TV news and 80% of public opinion would be against. Government heartless!
Wag that is exactly what Judith Collins said yesterday, new hotel for each day and sanitized between groups. Instead these fuckwits hold a wedding in the room that the people exercise in that day. It sure ain't rocket science.
So much for tightening the borders and test test test, We were lied to.
Oh god I think like collins, I feel so dirty now .
They're on a roll.
/
The New York Times reports that Facebook took down Trump campaign advertisements that "prominently featured a symbol used by Nazis to classify political prisoners during World War II."
The symbol was a red triangle, which ran alongside ad copy that said, “Dangerous MOBS of far-left groups are running through our streets and causing absolute mayhem.”
[…]
Mark Bray, a historian at Rutgers and the author of “Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook,” said that “the origin of the symbol is universally agreed to be with the Nazis and the concentration camps.” He added that the red triangle was not part of the symbolism of antifa in the United States.
The fact that the triangle has been reclaimed by some anti-fascists, Mr. Bray said, does not give the Trump campaign license to use the same symbol to attack antifa. “This is a symbol that represented the extermination of leftists,” he said. “It is a death threat against leftists. There’s no way around what that means historically.”
https://boingboing.net/2020/06/18/trump-ad-uses-nazi-symbol-to-a.html
.
.
I'm really not a racist! But I had better check those subconscious thoughts….mmmm?
Agh those subconscious buggers lurk,,but if you dont let them out and make damned sure you dont pass them on to the kids like they where handed to you , does that mean your really not racist??
I didn't think I was sexist until the day I asked the woman behind the counter if I could speak to one of the mechanics. She said perhaps she could help." To my shame I told her what my problem was with the clear intention of showing that it needed a mechanic.
She looked me straight in the eye and gave me a first rate answer to my problem. Why did I doubt her ability? Because she was a woman???
Na because she was the receptionist.
Can anybody clear some thing up for me .I've looked at immigration NZ but am really none the wiser. A permanent resident visa – can someone stay outside the country and turn up here for a brief holiday annually or every so often and then apply to have it transfered from passport to passport. So there is no way that they are habitually resident here or paying tax or anything else? And if that is so can they come back here under the current border controls ( despite maybe having not lived here for several years) and just take welfare etc. If they can I'm not sure that I am very impressed with it as a system.
Have a look at the INZ guide INZ1176 on their website. It should answer most of your questions.
It comes back to the word 'permanent' in the visa title. Once a decision is made it is 'permanent', with a few exceptions. Have look also at the conditions for granting permanent residence.
If you are suggesting we should only allow temporary residence to non-citizens, then I presume you have good plan for managing all the practical implications of that situation?
In the past I have run across people who had returned to work here after spending 6-10 years out of the country working back in their citizenship country and I was under the impression that they only had a permanent resident visa. Hence the question.
I wasn't actually suggesting anything just curious as to how this all worked. However, I have worked with a number of people with permanent resident visa's who subsequently relocated – to be near other family members- and are unlikely to return here. The guide mentioned doesn't really hel.p
There is a huge issue here that shows how foolish (or disingenuous) it is to simply assume it's all sorted for those who have residence claims, and so we can now start processing and inviting into NZ thousands of people who have none (e.g. on student visas).
TV1 had a story on this tonight (not online yet), I think 80,000 was the number quoted – will check. That is, people who are entitled to come to NZ, under existing (pre-Covid) rules.
There are many stories about divided families, some terribly unfortunate people who are caught betwixt and between. Some examples reported here, a week ago.
Casually declaring that we should let others jump the queue (for cash, of course) is not only bad health policy, it is borderline corrupt.
TV3, not TV1.
Here's an example of the problems, reported today:
The dairy industry employs around 30,000 people – 4500 are migrants.
Federated Farmers dairy industry group chair Chris Lewis estimates 100 of those migrants are stuck overseas due to Covid-19. …
"The problem we've got is Mother Nature doesn't wait for politicians and in the next few weeks calving starts.
"If the Government do allow them to come back in then they have to quarantine for two weeks, we need a clear cut decision from our Government saying yes or no if this is going to happen."
So should those 100 be allowed in, immediately? Yes, because they are needed? Or No, because they pose a risk? We could make a case for either, but if "Yes", then multiply that number many times over, and then find them all a place in a secure quarantine location.
Then multiply it many times more, for the extra people the Opposition want to bring in.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/coronavirus/121844329/cant-afford-to-stay-here-cant-afford-to-go-home–the-struggles-migrants-are-facing-due-to-covid19
There are quite a number of 3 month jobs around the first part of the season. Why not advertise and fill the jobs locally and pay decent wages. 100 is a tiny number out of the workforce total.
http://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/2009/0051/latest/DLM1440688.html
Once someone gets a permanent resident visa, there is no expiry date, and no requirement to actually reside here. To answer your initial question, yes.
Congrats, Malala.
An amazing young woman.
I actually thought we might try to employ our own citizens first – in particular those returning from Australia – but apparently not. Income levels have been waived also. Bit of a kick in the guts for the unemployed.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/300038780/border-restrictions-eased-for-sportspeople-infrastructure-project-workers
I'm sure any local unemployed professional sportspeople can already try out for the team, if they are good enough.
The infrastructure workers actually
Someone may have already picked this up over recent days: http://norightturn.blogspot.com/2020/06/labour-chickenshits-out-on-gun-control.html
Not so. What the coalition govt have actually done is what they said they would do. The fact they are going to do it in a different way over a longer time frame than some would like the reality of MMP. The real world of a coalition govt is not a case of 'black and white' decisions, it is about negotiating agreement on legislation that wasn't settled in the coalition agreement. To suggest that a disagreement should be halted and left to the election to decide is not to take MMP seriously (and to assume that future election would necessarily provide a stronger position from which to negotiate).
We voted for MMP precisely to avoid single parties being able to dominate the parliamentary and legislative process. It seems rather odd to now criticise an MMP government for managing the electoral cards it was dealt under a system we voted for.
The post is out of date, the reforms (including a register) were passed on Thursday night.
If we ever needed an example of the vagaries of media attention spans, it is before us right now. A year ago gun reform was THE issue and everybody was talking about. Now we have the legislative response (part 2) and nobody is talking about it.
The clown from nrt has got himself a bit excited . Why is every farmer going to suddenly by an ar15 because they are allowed a semi auto for pest control?
Not many would have had them pre the buy back and I cant see them all rushing out to get one even if it becomes possible.
Lefties truly hate farmers is all I can think.
Yeah, he would have helped his case if he’d actually looked up what’s required to get an endorsement to have a semiauto, they’re still a prohibited weapon. It isn’t that easy, and you really need one to get one.
https://www.police.govt.nz/advice-services/firearms-and-safety/apply-endorsement-and-permit-possess-prohibited-items
A .22 or shotgun for rabbits, probably fairly easy if you’re in Otago. Can’t see this being too much of a problem. Get caught with the shotgun down the maimai and it could be tricky. I note that parries aren’t on the list of pest species, we have to do work on them here and you’re not getting anywhere with just two shots (even with 5 you’ve got to control your shots)
An AR15 for goats, well you’d need a pretty bad goat problem and then you’d be getting the pros in and probably a chopper as well. The number of farms that would fall into that category would be pretty small, and large properties that would be well controlled.
DOC and the chopper people, well that’s effectively the same as it was up to the mid 80’s when it all got a bit loose and we ended up where we are now.
I did goat control work for the Forest Service in early 80’s and the dept had an AR, mainly for chopper work, but we could use it if we didn’t have a rifle. Everyone hated the thing, guys would pay for, and cart around heavier calibre ammo for their heavier sporting rifle rather than put up with the AR, it was so unsuited to what we were doing on the ground. Different story out of the chopper, but we did very little of that.
Most people muster the gaots where possible, best hourly rate I've ever had by a long way .
Had a mate get all worked up about the banning of semis for culling ,he calmed down when I pointed out that the deer cullers of yore used crappy old 303s with 5 shot mags and where deadly with them .
Told him to learn to shoot straight!!
25 new cases in Victoria today. They’ve moved to tighten up restrictions again.
https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/five-guests-in-your-home-victorian-restrictions-tightened-20200620-p554j5.html
Best demonstrators stand back while tens of thousands of tRump cultists pack themselves into a hot arena yelling and coughing all over each other, sans masks or distancing because they ain't no soy boys, and fuel the spike .
U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday threatened unspecified action against any protesters at his weekend re-election rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in a warning that his campaign said was not directed at peaceful demonstrators.
“Any protesters, anarchists, agitators, looters or lowlifes who are going to Oklahoma please understand, you will not be treated like you have been in New York, Seattle, or Minneapolis. It will be a much different scene!” Trump wrote on Twitter.
https://globalnews.ca/news/7088139/donald-trump-tulsa-rally-protesters/
Looking at the stereotypical Trump rally attendee, they appear to be mostly old, fat and prime candidates for immune deficient diseases.
Given covid's attachment to these sort of people, one would hope the campaign team aren't planning on holding too many shindigs in marginal states. After all, all votes matter in swing states.
If the Prophet of Pestilence wishes to hold his rallies, and his MADAmorons wish to attend them with the entirely predictable infectious results, why would one hope against that happening in marginal states? Votes do indeed matter – if that specific segment self-selects out of the voting pool, how is that a bad thing?
Obviously peoples lives, even if they are republicans, are something to cherish and not wish over for something like politics.
But just supposing in the soup of infection those convention halls will be, it will be something to watch for, to see if those marginals are affected by attendees contracting and/or dying from it.
Fucker and his enablers don't give a rats about lives.
If they're trying to put him in a good mood they better not make him gingerly shuffle his way down any ramps.
They may not care, but then we're not republican loonies, are we?
The Tulsa curfew is going be lifted and the Oklahoma Supreme Court has knocked back a request for the rally venue to enforce safety measures.
Jonestown gone large.
Masks now have to be worn on flights. But surely this alert level 1 only applies within New Zealand after quarantine has been completed? Why would Airnz ever imagine it applies on an inward bound from overseas flight? Or that they could put people straight onto a domestic flight before quarantine?
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/419359/flight-with-latest-covid-19-case-crammed-we-had-people-right-up-against-us
She reports that the quarantine at her hotel was very strict. Good.
But I wish the media would stop promoting the notion that Ashley Bloomfield is personally responsible for the world. Does he have to issue orders to every airline now, even outside NZ? How is he supposed to enforce that?
Me too. Lazy journos. Unthinking/ill-educated readers who believe this tosh.
Just a bit concerned over the numbers of returning NZers.
But why?
Have they all been trapped as tourists while visiting? Or all living in Australia?
Or, as I fear, have they found out the places they have called home for the last few years do not have the level of welfare support that NZ is giving its NZ-based citizens who have lost their NZ-based jobs.
I know that for access to super you have had to have been resident in NZ for the XXX of YYY years.
Do we have any restrictions for these incoming citizens who have been permanently resident overseas, before they are able to claim the $$$$ especially the $490 per week. If my skepticism is correct then expect to see these people returning back overseas to their homes there once they get back on their feet here at the expense of resident NZers.
Does anyone know if returning NZers can just step out their quarantine and straight into claiming a benefit, housing support etc despite not contributing here for what may be a few years.
Sounds mean-spirited I know. Some of the behaviour reported on and the moaning about quarantine by our returning NZers makes me wonder though.
I would guess that some will try to leave England and somehow i can't blame them. Trying to live trhough the mess that is Brexit is one thing, but trying to survive Bojo's covid 19 response is something else altogether. . i have a friend who has huge issues getting her visa renewed, and she has a job and has lived there now for a few years with her partner.
Chances are that anyone returning now will still have a 12 week stand down as they will not have worked in NZ as is required to actually receive unemployment benefits . They might be able to get a hardship grant if they have no income to support themselves. In saying that it could very well be that they are asked to 'use all alternative options' first before they actually get a penny. I also took the Covid – 19 unemployment benefit to be applied to NZ based citizen/resident.
So maybe its a bit of both, legal issues that force them home (Brexit is hell on migrants in the UK), maybe some pressure from the family too, and maybe a return as suddenly any savings might be actually good enough to buy a house in NZ – which is one of the reasons my friends went overseas. Make good money, save, return and start something of their own. People i know in OZ have no intention of coming here.
Possible stand down if the 13 weeks applies, otherwise no. To get the special $490, have to have lost a job in NZ due to Covid-19, so they probably won't be eligible for that.
You wouldn't get a 13 week stand-down for leaving your job if returning from overseas. The hardest aspect of advocacy work to some extent was trying to dispel myths that prevailed in the community such as when you got a 13 week stand-down, that you had to spend all your money/redundancy before getting a benefit, you could spend 3 nights a week together before it was considered a relationship – and in some small defence of the staff that they got paid bonuses for declining food grants.
It was difficult enough fighting WINZ for not following their own policies without the community saying many of the same things. The actual policy manuals have been on-line for years now.
Clients returning to New Zealand from overseas
A non-entitlement period is not considered when a client returns to New Zealand after working overseas. Clients returning to New Zealand after working overseas do not receive a voluntary unemployment stand-down.
https://www.workandincome.govt.nz/map/income-support/main-benefits/jobseeker-support/non-entitlement-period-should-not-be-imposed-01.html
Good to know, thanks!
Chatter around Queenstown is that a lot of expat New Zealanders are getting out of Europe, Asia and US as quickly as they can, buying here, and maybe selling up there. Realestate agents are busy and builders have a sudden urgency in their step.
This piece https://www.oneroof.co.nz/news/38047 waffles around it but confirms most of what is happening here.
The bit they’ve got wrong is that the top (the Shania Twains) drive the market here, they don’t, it’s driven by New Zealanders and Australians wanting a bit of the ‘Queenstown Lifestyle’ for a few years.
Worth noting that Oneroof are industry spruikers….much salt needed
Like I said, they waffled around it. To spruik you need some small truth to spruik and try to turn into a boom. Unfortunately that’s the way markets, politics, and forums like this work. I’m just saying what appears to be going on