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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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Depictions of Islam in Western popular culture have rarely been positive, even before 9/11. Five years on from the mosque shootings, this is one of the cultural headwinds that the Muslim community has to battle against. Whatever messages of tolerance and inclusion are offered in daylight, much of our culture ...
Last week Transport Minster Simeon Brown and Mayor Wayne Brown opened the new Auckland Rail Operations Centre. The new train control centre will see teams from KiwiRail, Auckland Transport and Auckland One Rail working more closely together to improve train services across the city. The Auckland Rail Operations Centre in ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Retiring former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson said in an exit interview with Q+A yesterday the Government can and should sustain more debt to invest in infrastructure for future generations. Elsewhere in the news in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 6:36am: Read more ...
Timing is everything. And from China’s perspective, this week’s visit by its foreign minister to New Zealand could be coming at just the right moment. The visit by Wang Yi to Wellington will be his first since 2017. Anniversaries are important to Beijing. It is more than just a happy ...
TL;DR: The key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to March 18 include:China’s Foreign Minister visiting Wellington today;A post-cabinet news conference this afternoon; the resumption of Parliament on Tuesday for two weeks before Easter;retiring former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson gives his valedictory speech in Parliament; ...
New Zealand First Leader Winston Peters’s state-of-the-nation speech on Sunday was really a state-of-Winston-First speech. He barely mentioned any of the Government’s key policies and could not even wholly endorse its signature income tax cuts. Instead, he rehearsed all of his complaints about the Ardern Government, including an extraordinary claim ...
A listing of 35 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 10, 2024 thru Sat, March 16, 2024. Story of the week This week we'll give you a little glimpse into how we collect links to share and ...
A listing of 35 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 10, 2024 thru Sat, March 16, 2024. Story of the week This week we'll give you a little glimpse into how we collect links to share and ...
“I’ve been internalising a really complicated situation in my head.”When they kept telling us we should wait until we get to know him, were they taking the piss? Was it a case of, if you think this is bad, wait till you get to know the real Christopher, after the ...
Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
.“$10 and a target that bleeds” - Bleeding Targets for Under $10!.Thanks for reading Frankly Speaking ! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.This government appears hell-bent on either scrapping life-saving legislation or reintroducing things that - frustrated critics insist - will be dangerous and likely ...
“It hardly strikes me as fair to criticise a government for doing exactly what it said it was going to do. For actually keeping its promises.”THUNDER WAS PLAYING TAG with lightning flashes amongst the distant peaks. Its rolling cadences interrupted by the here-I-come-here-I-go Doppler effect of the occasional passing car. ...
Subversive & Disruptive Technologies: Just as happened with that other great regulator of the masses, the Medieval Church, the advent of a new and hard-to-control technology – the Internet – is weakening the ties that bind. Then, and now, those who enjoy a monopoly on the dissemination of lies, cannot and will ...
Been Here Before: To find the precedents for what this Coalition Government is proposing, it is necessary to return to the “glory days” of Muldoonism.THE COALITION GOVERNMENT has celebrated its first 100 days in office by checking-off the last of its listed commitments. It remains, however, an angry government. It ...
Bob Edlin writes – And what is the world watching today…? The email newsletter from Associated Press which landed in our mailbox early this morning advised: In the news today: The father of a school shooter has been found guilty of involuntary manslaughter; prosecutors in Trump’s hush-money case ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Is another Green MP on their way out? And are the Greens severely tarnished by another integrity scandal? For the second time in three months, the Green Party has secretly suspended an MP over integrity issues. Mystery is surrounding the party’s decision to ...
For the last few years, the Green Party has been the party that has managed to avoid the plague of multiple scandals that have beleaguered other political parties. It appears that their luck has run out with a second scandal which, unfortunately for them, coincided with Golraz Ghahraman, the focus ...
TL;DR: The six newsey things that stood out to me as of 6:46am on Saturday, March 16.Andy Foster has accidentally allowed a Labour/Green amendment to cut road user chargers for plug-in hybrid vehicles, which the Government might accept; NZ HeraldThomas CoughlanSimeon Brown has rejected a plea from Westport ...
What seemed a booming success a couple of years ago has collapsed into fraud convictions.I looked at the crash of FTX (short for ‘Futures Exchange’) in November 2022 to see whether it would impact on the financial system as a whole. Fortunately there was barely a ripple, probably because it ...
Anybody following the situation in Ukraine and Russia would probably have been amused by a recent Tweet on X NATO seems to be putting in an awful lot of effort to influence what is, at least according to them, a sham election in an autocracy.When do the Ukrainians go to ...
TL;DR:Shaun Baker on Wynyard Quarter's transformation. Magdalene Taylor on the problem with smart phones. How private equity are now all over reinsurance. Dylan Cleaver on rugby and CTE. Emily Atkin on ‘Big Meat’ looking like ‘Big Oil’.Bernard’s six-stack of substacks at 6pm on March 15Photo by Jeppe Hove Jensen ...
Buzz from the Beehive Finance Minister Nicola Willis had plenty to say when addressing the Auckland Business Chamber on the economic growth that (she tells us) is flagging more than we thought. But the government intends to put new life into it: We want our country to be a ...
The Transport and Infrastructure Committee has reported back on the Road User Charges (Light Electric RUC Vehicles) Amendment Bill, basicly rubberstamping it. While there was widespread support among submitters for the principle that EV and PHEV drivers should pay their fair share for the roads, they also overwhelmingly disagreed with ...
Peter Dunne writes – This week’s government bailout – the fifth in the last eighteen months – of the financially troubled Ruapehu Alpine Lifts company would have pleased many in the central North Island ski industry. The government’s stated rationale for the $7 million funding was that it ...
See if you can spot the difference. An Iranian born female MP from a progressive party is accused of serial shoplifting. Her name is leaked to the media, which goes into a pack frenzy even before the Police launch an … Continue reading → ...
Ele Ludemann writes – The government is omitting general Treaty references from legislation : The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last Government in a bid to get greater coherence in the public service on Treaty ...
What was that judge thinking?Peter Williams writes – That Golriz Ghahraman and District Court Judge Maria Pecotic were once lawyer colleagues is incontrovertible. There is published evidence that they took at least one case to the Court of Appeal together. There was a report on ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read:Climate Scorpion – the sting is in the tail. Introducing planetary solvency. A paper via the University of Exeter’s Institute and Faculty of Actuaries.Local scoop:Kāinga Ora starts pulling out of its Auckland projects and selling land RNZ ...
Wellington’s massively upzoned District Plan adds the opportunity for tens of thousands of new homes not just in the central city (such as these Webb St new builds) but also close to the CBD and public transport links. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Wellington gave itself the chance of ...
It’s Friday and we’re halfway through March Madness. Here’s some of the things that caught our attention this week. This Week in Greater Auckland On Monday Matt asked how we can get better event trains and an option for grade separating Morningside Dr. On Tuesday Matt looked into ...
Something you might not know about me is that I’m quite a stubborn person. No, really. I don’t much care for criticism I think’s unfair or that I disagree with. Few of us do I suppose.Back when I was a drinker I’d sometimes respond defensively, even angrily. There are things ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the last week included:PM Christopher Luxon said the reversal of interest deductibility for landlords was done to help renters, who ...
It was not so much the Labour Party but really the Chris Hipkins party yesterday at Labour’s caucus retreat in Martinborough. The former Prime Minister was more or less consistent on wealth tax, which he was at best equivocal about, and social insurance, which he was not willing to revisit. ...
Buzz from the BeehiveThe text reproduced above appears on a page which records all the media statements and speeches posted on the government’s official website by Melissa Lee as Minister of Media and Communications and/or by Jenny Marcroft, her Parliamentary Under-secretary. It can be quickly analysed ...
For forty years, Robert Muldoon has been a dirty word in our politics. His style of government was so repulsive and authoritarian that the backlash to it helped set and entrench our constitutional norms. His pig-headedness over forcing through Think Big eventually gave us the RMA, with its participation and ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Is the new government reducing tax on rental properties to benefit landlords or to cut the cost of rents? That’s the big question this week, after Associate Finance Minister David Seymour announced on Sunday that the Government would be reversing the Labour Government’s removal ...
Saudi Arabia is rarely far from the international spotlight. The war in Gaza has brought new scrutiny to Saudi plans to normalise relations with Israel, while the fifth anniversary of the controversial killing of Jamal Khashoggi was marked shortly before the war began on October 7. And as the home ...
Questions need to be asked on both sides of the worldPeter Williams writes – The NRL Judiciary hands down an eight week suspension to Sydney Roosters forward Spencer Leniu , an Auckland-born Samoan, after he calls Ezra Mam, Sydney-orn but of Aboriginal and Torres Strait ...
Ele Ludemann writes – Contrary to what many headlines and news stories are saying, residential landlords are not getting a tax break. The government is simply restoring to them the tax deductibility of interest they had until the previous government removed it. There is no logical reason ...
I can't remember when it was goodMoments of happiness in bloomMaybe I just misunderstoodAll of the love we left behindWatching our flashbacks intertwineMemories I will never findIn spite of whatever you becomeForget that reckless thing turned onI think our lives have just begunI think our lives have just begunDoes anyone ...
Michael Bassett writes – At first reading, a front-page story in the New Zealand Herald on 13 March was bizarre. A group of severely intellectually limited teenagers, with little understanding of the law, have been pleading to the Justice Select Committee not to pass a bill dealing with ram ...
How much political capital is Christopher Luxon willing to burn through in order to deliver his $2.9 billion gift to landlords? Evidently, Luxon is: (a) unable to cost the policy accurately. As Anna Burns-Francis pointed out to him on Breakfast TV, the original ”rock solid” $2.1 billion cost he was ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read:Jonathon Porritt calling bullshit in his own blog post on mainstream climate science as ‘The New Denialism’.Local scoop:The Wellington City Council’s list of proposed changes to the IHP recommendations to be debated later today was leaked this ...
TL;DR:Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said yesterday tenants should be grateful for the reinstatement of interest deductibility because landlords would pass on their lower tax costs in the form of lower rents. That would be true if landlords were regulated monopolies such as Transpower or Auckland Airport1, but they’re not, ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Tom Toro Tom Toro is a cartoonist and author. He has published over 200 cartoons in The New Yorker since 2010. His cartoons appear in Playboy, the Paris Review, the New York Times, American Bystander, and elsewhere. Related: What 10 EV lovers ...
The business section of the NZ Herald is full of opinion. Among the more opinionated of all is the ex-Minister of Transport, ex-Minister of Railways, ex MP for Auckland Central (1975-93, Labour), Wellington Central (1996-99, ACT, then list-2005), ex-leader of the ACT Party, uncle to actor Antonia, the veritable granddaddy ...
Hi,Just quickly — I’m blown away by the stories you’ve shared with me over the last week since I put out the ‘Gary’ podcast, where I told you about the time my friend’s flatmate killed the neighbour.And you keep telling me stories — in the comments section, and in my ...
The first season of Rings of Power was not awful. It was thoroughly underwhelming, yes, and left a lingering sense of disappointment, but it was more expensive mediocrity than catastrophe. I wrote at length about the series as it came out (see the Review section of the blog, and go ...
Buzz from the Beehive Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden told Auckland Business Chamber members they were the first audience to hear her priorities as a minister in a government committed to cutting red tape and regulations. She brandished her liberalising credentials, saying Flexible labour markets are the ...
Chris Trotter writes – TO UNDERSTAND WHY NEWSHUB FAILED, it is necessary to understand how TVNZ changed. Up until 1989, the state broadcaster had been funded by a broadcasting licence fee, collected from every citizen in possession of a television set, supplemented by a relatively modest (compared ...
Bob Edlin writes – The Māori Party has been busy issuing a mix of warnings and threats as its expresses its opposition to interest deductibility for landlords and the plans of seabed miners. It remains to be seen whether they follow the example of indigenous litigants in Australia, ...
The Government has accepted Labour’s change to the Road User Charge (RUC) discount for hybrid vehicles, meaning there will still be some incentive for people to buy greener vehicles. ...
Kicking the most vulnerable people out of state housing and pushing them towards homelessness will result in a proliferation of poverty and trauma across our most vulnerable communities. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader and MP for Waiariki, Rawiri Waititi has penned a letter asking MPs to support his members bill to remove GST from all food. The bill is expected to go through its first reading in parliament this Wednesday. “I’m calling on all political parties to support my ...
This year is about getting real with Kiwis and discussing the tough issues, as the National Government exacerbates inequality and divides New Zealand, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said ...
The Government adding Significant Natural Areas (SNAs) to its already roaring environmental policy bonfire is an assault on the future of wildlife that makes Aotearoa unique. ...
After 12 years of fighting to protect our moana we are finding ourselves back at square one and back at court. Today, the Environmental Protection Agency is sitting in Hawera to reconsider an application from Trans-Tasman Resources to dig up 50 million tonnes of the seabed in South Taranaki. This ...
Minister Shane Jones’ decision to step away from a seabed mining project is evidence of the murky waters surrounding the Government’s fast-track legislation. ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The Coalition Government’s miscalculation saga continues as it has forgotten an eyewatering $90 million gap in its interest deductibility cost figures, say Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds and Revenue Spokesperson Deborah Russell. ...
He Pou a Rangi Climate Change Commission has today released advice that says if the Government doesn’t act now New Zealand is at risk of not meeting its climate goals. ...
The Coalition Government has today confirmed it is abandoning first home buyers who are struggling to get ahead, says Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds. ...
The New Zealand public voted for a change in direction at the 2023 general election and that is exactly what this coalition government has been delivering in its first 100 days. There was an immediate focus on the economy, easing the cost of living, cracking down on law and order ...
The Government has left the health system as an afterthought, announcing half-baked targets at the last minute of their 100-day plan, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
Kiwis are still waiting for their promised cost of living support after 100 days of a National Government that is taking us backwards, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The National Government has spent its first 100 days stopping, cutting and reversing. They have scrapped stuff for stuff for the sake of it, without putting up any solutions of their own – and it’s hardworking New Zealanders who will pay for it. ...
100 days of National taking NZ backwardsThe National Government has spent its first 100 days stopping, cutting and reversing. They have scrapped stuff for stuff for the sake of it, without putting up any solutions of their own – and it’s hardworking New Zealanders who will pay for it. ...
The Government must commit to funding free and healthy school lunches, as thousands of people sign the petition to keep them, education spokesperson Jan Tinetti says. ...
If the Government was serious about moving families into public housing, they would build more houses so there is actually somewhere for people to go. ...
The free and healthy school lunches programme feeds our kids, helps them to learn, and saves families money – but it is at risk under this Government, education spokesperson Jan Tinetti said. ...
The Government’s proposed changes to Firearms Prohibition Orders (FPO) add almost nothing new and are merely an attempt to distract from its plans to loosen gun laws, police spokesperson Ginny Andersen and justice spokesperson Dr Duncan Webb said. ...
The great Victorian era English politician Lord Macauley stood in the British House of Parliament and said, "The gallery in which the reporters sit has become a fourth estate of the realm".He understood and outlined even way back then, the significant role and influence media have in a democracy. ...
The government’s attack on Māori health this week is committing tangata-whenua to a premature death, says Te Pāti Māori. “The government have begun their onslaught on Māori health with the abolishment of the Māori Health Authority and smokefree laws in the same day” said health spokesperson and co-leader, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. ...
"The Government is moving quickly to realise an additional $46 million in tariff savings in the EU market this season for Kiwi exporters,” Minister for Trade and Agriculture, Todd McClay says. Parliament is set, this week, to complete the final legislative processes required to bring the New Zealand – European ...
New Zealand’s social workers are qualified, experienced, and more representative of the communities they serve, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “I want to acknowledge and applaud New Zealand’s social workers for the hard work they do, providing invaluable support for our most vulnerable. “To coincide with World ...
Cabinet has agreed to a reduced road user charge (RUC) rate for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. Owners of PHEVs will be eligible for a reduced rate of $38 per 1,000km once all light electric vehicles (EVs) move into the RUC system from 1 April. ...
Minister of Agriculture and Trade, Todd McClay, says that today’s opening of Riverland Foods manufacturing plant in Christchurch is a great example of how trade access to overseas markets creates jobs in New Zealand. Speaking at the official opening of this state-of-the-art pet food factory the Minister noted that exports ...
Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Wellington today. “It was a pleasure to host Foreign Minister Wang Yi during his first official visit to New Zealand since 2017. Our discussions were wide-ranging and enabled engagement on many facets of New Zealand’s relationship with China, including trade, ...
Kāinga Ora – Homes & Communities has been instructed to end the Sustaining Tenancies Framework and take stronger measures against persistent antisocial behaviour by tenants, says Housing Minister Chris Bishop. “Earlier today Finance Minister Nicola Willis and I sent an interim Letter of Expectations to the Board of Kāinga Ora. ...
Tēna koutou katoa. Greetings everyone. Thank you to the Auckland Chamber of Commerce and the Honourable Simon Bridges for hosting this address today. I acknowledge the business leaders in this room, the leaders and governors, the employers, the entrepreneurs, the investors, and the wealth creators. The coalition Government shares your ...
Minister Winston Peters completed the final leg of his visit to South and South East Asia in Singapore today, where he focused on enhancing one of New Zealand’s indispensable strategic partnerships. “Singapore is our most important defence partner in South East Asia, our fourth-largest trading partner and a ...
Minister of Internal Affairs and Workplace Relations and Safety, Hon. Brooke van Velden, will travel to the Republic of Korea to represent New Zealand at the Third Summit for Democracy on 18 March. The summit, hosted by the Republic of Korea, was first convened by the United States in 2021, ...
ICNZ Speech 7 March 2024, Auckland Acknowledgements and opening Mōrena, ngā mihi nui. Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho. Good morning, it’s a privilege to be here to open the ICNZ annual conference, thank you to Mark for the Mihi Whakatau My thanks to Tim Grafton for inviting me ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Lead Coordination Minister Judith Collins have expressed their deepest sympathy on the five-year anniversary of the Christchurch terror attacks. “March 15, 2019, was a day when families, communities and the country came together both in sorrow and solidarity,” Mr Luxon says. “Today we pay our respects to the 51 shuhada ...
Speech for Financial Advice NZ Conference 5 March 2024 Acknowledgements and opening Morena, Nga Mihi Nui. Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho. Thanks Nate for your Mihi Whakatau Good morning. It’s a pleasure to formally open your conference this morning. What a lovely day in Wellington, What a great ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters held discussions in Jakarta today about the future of relations between New Zealand and South East Asia’s most populous country. “We are in Jakarta so early in our new government’s term to reflect the huge importance we place on our relationship with Indonesia and South ...
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters has announced that the Foreign Minister of China, Wang Yi, will visit New Zealand next week. “We look forward to re-engaging with Foreign Minister Wang Yi and discussing the full breadth of the bilateral relationship, which is one of New Zealand’s ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has today opened the new Auckland Rail Operations Centre, which will bring together KiwiRail, Auckland Transport, and Auckland One Rail to improve service reliability for Aucklanders. “The recent train disruptions in Auckland have highlighted how important it is KiwiRail and Auckland’s rail agencies work together to ...
The Government is proud to support the 10th edition of Crankworx Rotorua as the Crankworx World Tour returns to Rotorua from 16-24 March 2024, says Minister for Economic Development Melissa Lee. “Over the past 10 years as Crankworx Rotorua has grown, so too have the economic and social benefits that ...
Legislation implementing coalition Government tax commitments and addressing long-standing tax anomalies will be progressed in Parliament next week, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The legislation is contained in an Amendment Paper to the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill issued today. “The Amendment Paper represents ...
Associate Environment Minister Andrew Hoggard has today announced that the Government has agreed to suspend the requirement for councils to comply with the Significant Natural Areas (SNA) provisions of the National Policy Statement for Indigenous Biodiversity for three years, while it replaces the Resource Management Act (RMA).“As it stands, SNAs ...
Agriculture Minister Todd McClay has classified the drought conditions in the Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts as a medium-scale adverse event, acknowledging the challenging conditions facing farmers and growers in the district. “Parts of Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts are in the grip of an intense dry spell. I know ...
The Government is helping farmers eradicate the significant impact of facial eczema (FE) in pastoral animals, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced. “A $20 million partnership jointly funded by Beef + Lamb NZ, the Government, and the primary sector will save farmers an estimated NZD$332 million per year, and aims to ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has completed a successful visit to India, saying it was an important step in taking the relationship between the two countries to the next level. “We have laid a strong foundation for the Coalition Government’s priority of enhancing New Zealand-India relations to generate significant future benefit for both countries,” says Mr Peters, ...
Cabinet has agreed to provide $7 million to ensure the 2024 ski season can go ahead on the Whakapapa ski field in the central North Island but has told the operator Ruapehu Alpine Lifts it is the last financial support it will receive from taxpayers. Cabinet also agreed to provide ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says the launch of a new mobile breast screening unit in Counties Manukau reinforces the coalition Government’s commitment to drive better cancer services for all New Zealanders. Speaking at the launch of the new mobile clinic, Dr Reti says it’s a great example of taking ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says the launch of a new mobile breast screening unit in Counties Manukau reinforces the coalition Government’s commitment to drive better cancer services for all New Zealanders. Speaking at the launch of the new mobile clinic, Dr Reti says it’s a great example of taking ...
Unlocking economic growth and land for housing are critical elements of the Government’s plan for our transport network, and planned upgrades to State Highway 29 (SH29) near Tauriko will deliver strongly on those priorities, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The SH29 upgrades near Tauriko will improve safety at the intersections ...
Unlocking economic growth and land for housing are critical elements of the Government’s plan for our transport network, and planned upgrades to State Highway 29 (SH29) near Tauriko will deliver strongly on those priorities, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The SH29 upgrades near Tauriko will improve safety at the intersections ...
Lower fruit and vegetable prices are welcome news for New Zealanders who have been doing it tough at the supermarket, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. Stats NZ reported today the price of fruit and vegetables has dropped 9.3 percent in the 12 months to February 2024. “Lower fruit and vege ...
Tēnā koutou katoa and greetings to you all. Chair, I am honoured to address the sixty-eighth session of the Commission on the Status of Women. I acknowledge the many crises impacting the rights of women and girls. Heightened global tensions, war, climate related and humanitarian disasters, and price inflation all ...
Tēnā koutou katoa and greetings to you all. Chair, I am honoured to address the 68th session of the Commission on the Status of Women. I acknowledge the many crises impacting the rights of women and girls. Heightened global tensions, war, climate related and humanitarian disasters, and price inflation all ...
The coalition Government is supporting farmers to enhance land management practices by investing $3.3 million in locally led catchment groups, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced. “Farmers and growers deliver significant prosperity for New Zealand and it’s vital their ongoing efforts to improve land management practices and water quality are supported,” ...
Good evening everyone and thank you for that lovely introduction. Thank you also to the Honourable Simon Bridges for the invitation to address your members. Since being sworn in, this coalition Government has hit the ground running with our 100-day plan, delivering the changes that New Zealanders expect of us. ...
Recommendations from the Climate Change Commission for New Zealand on the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) auction and unit limit settings for the next five years have been tabled in Parliament, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “The Commission provides advice on the ETS annually. This is the third time the ...
The coalition Government is beginning its fight to lower building costs and reduce red tape by exempting minor building work from paying the building levy, says Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk. “Currently, any building project worth $20,444 including GST or more is subject to the building levy which is ...
Proposed changes to tax legislation to prevent the over-taxation of low-earning trusts are welcome, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The changes have been recommended by Parliament’s Finance and Expenditure Committee following consideration of submissions on the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill. “One of the ...
Assalaamu alaikum. السَّلَام عليكم In light of the holy month of Ramadan, I want to extend my warmest wishes to our Muslim community in New Zealand. Ramadan is a time for spiritual reflection, renewed devotion, perseverance, generosity, and forgiveness. It’s a time to strengthen our bonds and appreciate the diversity ...
Former Transport Minister and CEO of the Auckland Business Chamber Hon Simon Bridges has been appointed as the new Board Chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) for a three-year term, Transport Minister Simeon Brown announced today. “Simon brings extensive experience and knowledge in transport policy and governance to the role. He will ...
Good morning all, it is a pleasure to be here as Minister of Science, Innovation and Technology. It is fantastic to see how connected and collaborative the life science and biotechnology industry is here in New Zealand. I would like to thank BioTechNZ and NZTech for the invitation to address ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says he is looking forward to the day when three key water projects in Northland are up and running, unlocking the full potential of land in the region. Mr Jones attended a community event at the site of the Otawere reservoir near Kerikeri on Friday. ...
Associate Finance Minister David Seymour has today announced that the Government has agreed to restore deductibility for mortgage interest on residential investment properties. “Help is on the way for landlords and renters alike. The Government’s restoration of interest deductibility will ease pressure on rents and simplify the tax code,” says ...
Sport and Recreation Minister Chris Bishop will travel to Switzerland today to attend an Executive Committee meeting and Symposium of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). Mr Bishop will then travel on to London where he will attend a series of meetings in his capacity as Infrastructure Minister. “New Zealanders believe ...
Chumbawamba have reportedly issued the deputy PM a cease-and-desist notice after he used their song 'Tubthumping' before his state of the nation speech. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Deborah Lupton, SHARP Professor, Vitalities Lab, Centre for Social Research in Health and Social Policy Centre, and the ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society, UNSW Sydney kitzcorner/Shutterstock The assertion from Queensland’s chief health officer John Gerrard that ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Martin, Visiting Fellow, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University Shutterstock Why are musicians so keen to get played on the radio? It can’t be because of the money. In Australia they are paid at rates so low they ...
"Farmers make a point not to tell our urban cousins how to live, yet Chlöe from central Auckland is hell-bent on having her say about farmers," says ACT Rural Communities spokesman Mark Cameron. “On her first day in the House as Green ...
Analysis by Dr Bryce Edwards – Democracy Project (https://democracyproject.nz)Political scientist, Dr Bryce Edwards. It’s been a tumultuous time in politics in recent months, as the new National-led Government has driven through its “First 100 Day programme”. During this period there’s been a handful of opinion polls, which overall just ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tim Curran, Associate Professor of Ecology, Lincoln University, New Zealand Getty Images/Gerald Corsi In the latest move to reform environmental laws in New Zealand, the coalition government has introduced a bill to fast-track consenting processes for projects deemed to ...
Uber has argued it does not have as much control over drivers as the unions suggest, and wants a judgment ruling that drivers are employees and not contractors set aside and sent back to the Employment Court. The 2022 ruling followed a three-week hearing in which four drivers sought to ...
What can and can’t be purchased by disabled people or their carers has been slashed in an effort by the Ministry of Disabled People Whaikaha to save money. The purchasing guidelines, a set of rules that sets out what can be purchased using the various streams of Government disability funding, ...
The Treasury has published today a new Analytical Note by Tod Wright and Hien Nguyen, Fiscal incidence in New Zealand: The effects of taxes and benefits on household incomes in tax year 2018/19 . Analyses of the distributional impact of taxation and government ...
The Treasury has published today a new Analytical Note by Cory Davis, Boston Hart and Benjamin Stubbing, Household cost-of-living impacts from the Emissions Trading Scheme and using transfers to mitigate regressive outcomes . This Analytical Note ...
A coalition of public transport and climate organisations, united as ‘Transport for All’, is actively opposing the government’s transport proposals. The draft Government Policy Statement (GPS) includes plans for higher fares for public transport, ...
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After years of pressuring banks and other institutions to stop investing in fossil fuels, climate campaigners are making some progress. So how does divestment work?For years, climate activists have been pushing banks and other big institutions to divest from fossil fuels. New research from climate advocacy group 350 Aotearoa ...
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The Taxpayers’ Union is welcoming comments from Christopher Luxon this morning recommitting to ‘no new taxes’ as part of Budget 2024. “Mr Luxon’s refusal at the Post-Cabinet press conference yesterday to repeat the ‘no new taxes’ promise ...
SAFE is urgently calling on the Environment Committee to reject the Government’s Fast-Track Approvals Bill, and is urging New Zealanders to rally behind the call. The proposed Bill, currently under consideration with the Environment select committee, ...
Teammates who spend all their time picking fights with spectators are only helpful for the other team, writes Madeleine Chapman. Anyone who has ever played a team sport competitively, particularly as a child and particularly, for some reason, basketball, will know that there’s a lot of politics involved. While there ...
The long-running Wellington music festival is too focused on the Jim Beam-ness and not enough on the Homegrown-ness.There is something about Homegrown that’s difficult to place. A barely perceptible-ness. Like feeling a ghost is watching you from the corner of the room but when you look, there’s nothing there. ...
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Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kate Griffiths, Deputy Program Director, Budgets and Government, Grattan Institute Australia’s political donations rules are woefully inadequate, but donations reform is finally on the agenda. The federal government has signalled its interest in reform and will soon begin briefing MPs on its ...
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World refugee day
https://twitter.com/SonnyBWilliams/status/1274021268627603462
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.
https://twitter.com/AlBernstein/status/1273879266858426368
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.
https://twitter.com/BradMGM/status/1273015801168171013
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.
/
https://twitter.com/AuschwitzMuseum/status/1273668340729499650
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
.
.
https://twitter.com/RexChapman/status/1273794431704076289
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.
https://twitter.com/Malala/status/1273775945917378562
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 .
https://twitter.com/kurteichenwald/status/1274036213184413696
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.
https://twitter.com/JDiamond1/status/1274056424558075912
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.
https://twitter.com/nbcnews/status/1273696413898153987
Jonestown gone large.
https://twitter.com/sandibachom/status/1274125540316905478
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