I can't see any reasonable person agreeing with First Capital. With the council offering to top up the wages, all this Aussie company had to do was honour the conditions.
Clearly they are not good faith bargaining, more looking to trim the balance sheet so as to sell the business.
A TV series for the Labour Party, specifically Grant Robertson who believes that renters can 'just move to a different rental' when their current one gets to expensive. Tone deaf, out of touch, a one percenter if there ever was one.
Those thinking of leveraging their house to buy an investment property should watch Renters. Seeing the costs and associated risk of the landlord business may scare you off.
Everyone else, ignore it. Renters is not entertaining, it stereotypes tenants by highlighting extreme cases and it's so tone-deaf it will make you want to grab your pitchfork and start a revolution.
Also file this under 'we don't know how lucky we have been, still are' but rest assured that Government knows that it got elected by luck and luck alone.
he Ministry of Health allowed a family to remain in the community for more than two days after escaping managed isolation during last year's first level 3 lockdown.
The case was never reported publicly and was deemed low risk because they had come from a country without Covid-19.
But it had some officials in Auckland scrambling, with one person writing to the Ministry of Health to denounce their lack of direction over the incident.
Auckland Regional Isolation and Quarantine (RIQ) response manager at the time Lee Hazlewood wrote a critical email, obtained under the Official Information Act, that the ministry needed to step up.
The blunt email was sent to all agencies involved "respectfully for the record" with some of the issues he had identified.
He said the email was sent in case the breach became a public health issue and said his team contacted the Ministry of Health (MOH) first thing the morning after the breach seeking direction.
"We discussed several options with MOH during the day, [including] sending a clinical nurse to relay MOH guidance and supervise visit, [and] sending the staff member from the RIQ to relay any guidance from the MOH [National Health Coordination Centre]," the email read.
"The RIQ received no direction to act at this time or at any other time during the period that [the family] was outside of [managed isolation]."
His staff were also told conflicting stories around whether the family would return to quarantine or not.
Do you think the family was related to the Michael Woodhouse mystery homeless man in the upmarket Auckland MIQ hotel?
Maybe the 'luck alone' has to do with the luck that the National mob were dishonest, incompetent and idiotic.
Remember Michelle Boag releasing confidential information? Was that luck for Labour? Or bad luck for Hamish Walker who took one for the team while Nikki Kaye decided to quietly disappear? And Michael Woodhouse, no way would he have been in the loop of the info leak, parked himself in the background. And the good luck the 'enquiry' was a snow job.
Anyone who wants to call the government a 'sick joke from day one' is quite welcome to do it. To do it on the back of a relative handful of human stuff ups amongst the many millions of actions and interactions around covid and the border is silly.
Labour is the government and do have responsibility. National is just the opposition because they were thought to be incapable, dishonest and not trustworthy. The half pie enquiry into the Boag affair meant that National was helped to a huge 25.6% in the election and their supporters didn't have to confront the level of scumminess in the midst of the party.
I don't think they are a sick joke, but then i am well housed, well fed and clothes.
What i think they are is opportunistic and right now they make it up as they go along, and even then i don't blame them for that either as the Covid Pandemic will be the gift that keeps on giving for a few more years.
I also don't for a moment believe that we will ever go back to pre Lockdown 4 25th May 2020.
But what i do believe is that they will not tackle any of the social ills they should tackle.
Drug policies
racist drug polices, incrimination of other non violent/criminal behaviour, refusal to treat drug abuse as a health issue rather then a criminal one etc.
On that, total failure, in fact if Little could he would make the whole shebang worse.
Housing
we have currently up and down the country enough people to house a full scale mid size town and this government is going lalalalaala and keeps throwing money at it as if there is no tomorrow.
Total failure
Health and the inaction of Labour
we have new borns with cleft palates put on waiting lists, we have toddlers in need of cardiac surgery on waiting lists and we are currently crowdfunding for beds at Starships ICU
failure.
So what we have here is an inability from Labour to try anything other then the tried and trued that has not worked before. We have labour hide behind referendums in which senior Labour Politians did not state an opinion cause 'i don't want to influence the referendum" Well thanks a bunch dear.
If you ask willy nilly people on the street who boag is – and i actually had to look her up – they will not know. But ask them if they know someone who can't find a rental, or who is on a waiting list, or who is in prison due to racists and outdated criminal laws and chances are they can help you there.
So its not a sick joke, its just a bunch of worn out people that since helen clark never had to earn a day of living in the private market and who have very little ideas about how they affect the country in day to day live. Out of touch and somewhat callous, and devoid of courage. And now they can't hide behind an opposition bench, they can't hide behind coalition partners they are actually all alone responsible for what they do. So who cares about National, they can do no more then Labour could under John Key. Flap their wings and be impotent.
We have a joke for that in Germany : The operation was successful but the patient died. That to me is Labour today, and we are the patient.
We have a joke for that in Germany : The operation was successful but the patient died. That to me is Labour today, and we are the patient.
Germany (a wealthy country with competent political leadership and excellent health infrastructure) sadly has 973 COVID-19 deaths per million. NZ sadly has 5 deaths per million.
I hope that this pandemic has peaked, and reckon a 'joke' involving a patient dying might be considered a bit tasteless right now, even in Germany.
PCC, thankfully not everyone shares your opinion. Some opposition National party MPs are jokes, taking their queue from Collins' eyebrows (what a 'leader').
National party MPs are incapable of governing for all NZers – it's simply not in their DNA. Everyone understands that now – National party voters always knew it.
The Best and Worst Places to Be as Global Vaccinations Take Off A lightning-fast vaccination drive has propelled Israel toward the top of Bloomberg’s Covid Resilience Ranking, transforming everyday life to put the country alongside New Zealand [#1] and Taiwan as one of the best places to be in the coronavirus era.
national mps are jokes, and in saying that the same thing could be said about labour during the john key years, they too managed to fail to win an election till they threw J.A at the electorate. So who will be the saviour of National? Maybe it will be tax cuts, opening weed to business and recreational use, and such. And guess what people would vote for that.
And neither eyebrows nor teeth should ever be cause for a joke.
Yes, they government that promised us transparency has been anything but. Our isolation and low population alone saved us.
I doubt Ashley Bloomfield could even lie straight in bed. So many cover ups and downright lies (remember his and the governments lies about PPE?)
This Labour administration has been a joke from start to finish. Kiwibuild. Airport light rail. Fast trains to Hamilton and Tauranga. A Minister of Health that hid under the bed in Dunedin (when not out breaking lockdown). The list is endless.
A Minister of Health who hid his under his bed for months while being part of the establishing of an internationally acknowledged success in dealing with the pandemic?
Of course it wasn't perfect – you weren't involved with your knowledge and expertise. Oh, and people, human beings, were involved in complex and new situations.
Your tone smacks of sadness at missing the hole in one, the home run that would have put a smile on your face to ram home 'the government is hopeless' narrative.
Are you sad tens of thousands didn't die to give you some real bullets?
" Our isolation and low population alone saved us."
Please , there were 1000s arriving every day at the major airport.
And low population ? Ask Ireland with around the same population of 5-6 million and 4800 covid deaths.
Taking the wrong steps in Victoria after an outbreak sourced from a MIQ hotel let to 800 deaths.
Elimination wasnt the starting strategy but very quickly did become that, while National moved to a sort of minimization- open the borders, bring back the students and other useless ideas. if the National party was in power we would be having a 3rd wave of hundreds of dead as we moved in winter
Ireland, part of england? That Ireland? Or is there an Ireland in the middle of an ocean with nothing other around them then water that you could just close off to the public and be done with? lol lol lol lol
yeas and orange is a fruit, and an apple is too, and yet they are so different.
We went into lockdown to prevent our healthcare system from collapsing. Elimination was not what the public was told, we bring in daily cases from overseas, so we have eliminated nothing. We are one infected person away from disaster, considering that our health care system collapsed without Covid, but just due to past and current underfunding by respective governments.
Honey Ireland is part of England and the EU. Ireland could not as we did just close the door to everyone as they were not the only ones to decide. I mean yeah for some details don't matter, but that is a bit thick.
But hey, here is Vietnam, borders China, Laos, Kambodia, 90 million plus people, an 'emerging' nation.
currently we have active 32 cases – all from overseas thus imported
from todays NZ herald.
Before you accuse me of falsehoods let me confim to you that you are looking like the fool that you have shown yourself to be. I generally only speak about things i have seen / read in fairly reputable news organs. I can link to pretty much any of my ideas/opinion for support. As for insulting other posters by throwing a wee tantrum on the floor, that also says more about you then it will ever say about me.
We would never refer to as Scotland as the UK or Ireland as the UK.
But yes, consider the shitshow that was /is England then one can assume that other countries that are also in the UK who are not England have an issue. That is what i was referring to.
Eighteen people have been arrested and 15 charged after crowds of predominantly loyalist youths attacked lines of riot police officers and vehicles with bricks, fireworks and petrol bombs.
Saturday night was the first without major incident since Good Friday on 2 April, with the lack of trouble being linked to the death of the Duke of Edinburgh.
While all Northern Ireland's main parties have condemned the violence, they are divided about its causes.
We are one infected person away from disaster. We are one tremendous South Island earthquake away from disaster. We are one nuclear weapon away from disaster.
The health care system collapsed without Covid? The system isn't perfect, to say it has collapsed is total and obvious rubbish.
Fortunately it wasn't allowed to collapse. Go back a year and a bit. Don't close the borders, don't have lockdowns, don't wear masks … How would that have gone with collapsing the health system?
are you feeling safer today with the health care system of today then you felt a year ago?
we are one case that gets out away from a major fucking disaster as the current mutations are worse and we would have heard if the government would have build a hospital, trained nurses free of charge, created space for an eventual outbreak and such. We got 100 ventilators since. We are still short on nurses, beds, space, and probably ppe, as i have not heard of the breaking ground to a facility that could produce these for us here in NZ.
Peter. CHCH "Our isolation and low population alone saved us".
I am sorry Peter this is absolute bullshit. There were many decisions made in crisis mode that saved us. Closing the boarder to China, major lockdown (hard and early) other wise rates of covid would have sky rocketted. Paying the wage subsidy which has ensured many businesses have survived. Setting up in great haste MIQ for returning Kiwis and reviewing every breach and putting things in. place to prevent them, Ordering a review on contact tracing (Dr Verrall, now a member of cabinet ) and getting it up to speed, ramping up laboratory testing. Locking down when necessary and closing our boarders recently to India where rates of Covid are catastrophic. Oh yes and buying a number vaccines with the roll out underway.
This is why we have had very little covid in our community and very few deaths. Mistakes will occur, because that is life. If you think about your own life over the last week, I imagine you have made some mistakes. i have too. Impossible not too.
So your claim that isolation and small pop = good covid result is nonsence
In 1976 the Bay City Rollers played at the Auckland Town Hall. There was a rule against standing on the seats; of course a lot of the girls in the crowd proceeded to stand on the seats, until a goon from Eden Security punched one of them.
There was, naturally, great anger directed at Eden Security after that.
The Bay City Rollers and The Nolan Sisters?…I never in a million years would have thought of putting those two acts together, but as you have mentioned it I have thought about (briefly) and it sounds not quite right, what makes you think they would have been a good match .
Just relistened to 'I'm in the mood for Dancing',not too bad, but hasn't really stood the test of time too well..but I probably danced to this at some school Disco back then, so who am I too judge?
Being a consultant is one of the most lucrative jobs one can get in one’s field. All it takes is knowing the right people, having a glossy business card, a good sales pitch and loads of confidence. One doesn’t have to be particularly good at anything, just use the right jargon and say the things the ‘customer’ wants to hear. Once one is ‘in’, one’s ‘in’ for as long as one likes. That said, there are very few genuinely good ones around, at least, AFAIK, but I’ve met a few duds in my professional life, some real shockers.
Peter. CHCH "Our isolation and low population alone saved us".
I am sorry Peter this is absolute bullshit. There were many decisions made in crisis mode that saved us. Closing the boarder to China, major lockdown (hard and early) other wise rates of covid would have sky rocketted. Paying the wage subsidy which has ensured many businesses have survived. Setting up in great haste MIQ for returning Kiwis and reviewing every breach and putting things in. place to prevent them, Ordering a review on contact tracing (Dr Verrall, now a member of cabinet ) and getting it up to speed, ramping up laboratory testing. Locking down when necessary and closing our boarders recently to India where rates of Covid are catastrophic. Oh yes and buying a number vaccines with the roll out underway.
This is why we have had very little covid in our community and very few deaths. Mistakes will occur, because that is life. If you think about your own life over the last week, I imagine you have made some mistakes. i have too. Impossible not too.
So your claim that isolation and small pop = good covid result is nonsence
all the people that stayed at home, all the people that closed the shops to their businesses knowing full well tht they will not have one to come back too, all the nurses, all the doctors, all the people that donated food, all of us that did all the right things, and the many many sacrifices so many made.
the best intention of government is worth fuck all when you have say a population like the US has.
And as i posted before Vietnam with a population of 93 million and surrounded by three countries one of them china had virtually the same number of infected, recovered and death – their dead numbering at 35 while ours stand at 26, and like us all their cases are imported ones.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/441093/taranaki-aquifer-contaminated-50-times-more-than-acceptable …"They're consistent with a local concentration, a local high-level concentration as opposed to normal land use. "Previously, I've seen concentrations as high or higher, but only around facilities or factories that store such pesticides." The regional council undertook an aerial search and questioned landowners in an effort to find the source of the contamination, but drew a blank and eventually abandoned its investigation.
…Barry Prophet hoped the source could be located. "It certainly isn't good. They are going to have to find out what, where and why?" He had his suspicions."Probably drums were just thrown away back a few years ago."
It could help to provide information if a highish monetary reward was offered for information leading to location – 'no names, no pack drill'.
Week in Review [18 April; 2021] To end this complete and utter shambles, National has called for a return of the Epidemic Response Committee to ensure the Government, and its departments, are held to account for their promises, scrutinise their decisions, and help deliver better public policy and action.
Not only a complete shambles, but an "utter shambles"! Witness the breathtakingly untrustworthy Bishop and Collins parading their feeble grasp on reality for all to see.
The Best and Worst Places to Be as Global Vaccinations Take Off A lightning-fast vaccination drive has propelled Israel toward the top of Bloomberg’s Covid Resilience Ranking, transforming everyday life to put the country alongside New Zealand [#1] and Taiwan as one of the best places to be in the coronavirus era.
and Vietnam which has our numbers in cases plus 9 people more dead (grand total of 35) then us and is a country that is not an island and has 90+ million people living and working there.
I know an inconvenient truth for some, but I think they deserve a round of applaus and as far as governments go in times of a pandemic i think they deserve another round of applause cause these guys did well.
I think they deserve a round of applaus and as far as governments go in times of a pandemic i think they deserve another round of applause cause these guys did well.
Reckon all governments/populations that have done well so far deserve recognition
Maybe certain populations in Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos have developed a some immunity to the virus, if, as is supposed, the transmission from bat to human occurred in that country which is the home of the bat to which the virus is linked. I understand that in the northern part of Vietnam there is frequent interaction between humans and the bats, as the local population enter the caves in which the bats live to collect their guano for fertiliser.
The data in the figure above indirectly support the hypothesis that the SARS-CoV-2 group actually originated in mainland Southeast Asia. Indeed, human populations in Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam appear to be much less affected by the Covid-19 pandemic than other countries in the region, such as Bangladesh, Myanmar, Malaysia, the Philippines and Indonesia. This suggests that the populations of these four countries may be benefiting from a level of herd immunity to Sarbecoviruses.
Then again Vietnam have developed over the recent past a response to pandemics very similar to that which our Govt initiated in March last year.
As of December 31, 2020, Vietnam had reported 1,465 laboratory confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 35 deaths.2 This success has been attributed to several key factors, including a well-developed public health system, a decisive central government, and a proactive containment strategy based on comprehensive testing, tracing, and quarantining.
One of the reasons Vietnam was able to act so quickly and keep the case count so low is that the country experienced a severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) epidemic in 2003 and human cases of avian influenza between 2004 and 2010. As a result, Vietnam had both the experience and infrastructure to take appropriate action. Vietnam makes many key containment decisions in a matter of days, which may take weeks for governments in other countries to make. Although Vietnam is a highly centralized country, a number of key decisions were made at the local level, which also contributed to the swift response.
Unless someone can link to a credible study that shows natural immunity i would say that is a far fetched idea.
The reason i point to Vietnam as a success rather then us or Taiwan is simply the physical location.
Like we had it easiest among the many, for us to close the border was no issue as we literally just had to prevent airplanes from landing/same with boats. We don't have to worry about landborders that can be porous and hard to manage and controll.
I also point to Vietnam as a bigger success story as they actually continued to work as normally as possible inclusive building production facilities for PPE and such, while we here are still crowd funding ICU beds for Starship Hospital.
I don't consider NZ a success in the 'combat' against Covid, i consider us to be some of the luckiest people to have been physically where we are, and since then we have continued to be lucky. And i hope that we get lucky over and over again, cause we need it .
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Ele Ludemann writes – The government is omitting general Treaty references from legislation : The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last Government in a bid to get greater coherence in the public service on Treaty ...
What was that judge thinking?Peter Williams writes – That Golriz Ghahraman and District Court Judge Maria Pecotic were once lawyer colleagues is incontrovertible. There is published evidence that they took at least one case to the Court of Appeal together. There was a report on ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read:Climate Scorpion – the sting is in the tail. Introducing planetary solvency. A paper via the University of Exeter’s Institute and Faculty of Actuaries.Local scoop:Kāinga Ora starts pulling out of its Auckland projects and selling land RNZ ...
Wellington’s massively upzoned District Plan adds the opportunity for tens of thousands of new homes not just in the central city (such as these Webb St new builds) but also close to the CBD and public transport links. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Wellington gave itself the chance of ...
It’s Friday and we’re halfway through March Madness. Here’s some of the things that caught our attention this week. This Week in Greater Auckland On Monday Matt asked how we can get better event trains and an option for grade separating Morningside Dr. On Tuesday Matt looked into ...
Something you might not know about me is that I’m quite a stubborn person. No, really. I don’t much care for criticism I think’s unfair or that I disagree with. Few of us do I suppose.Back when I was a drinker I’d sometimes respond defensively, even angrily. There are things ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the last week included:PM Christopher Luxon said the reversal of interest deductibility for landlords was done to help renters, who ...
It was not so much the Labour Party but really the Chris Hipkins party yesterday at Labour’s caucus retreat in Martinborough. The former Prime Minister was more or less consistent on wealth tax, which he was at best equivocal about, and social insurance, which he was not willing to revisit. ...
Buzz from the BeehiveThe text reproduced above appears on a page which records all the media statements and speeches posted on the government’s official website by Melissa Lee as Minister of Media and Communications and/or by Jenny Marcroft, her Parliamentary Under-secretary. It can be quickly analysed ...
For forty years, Robert Muldoon has been a dirty word in our politics. His style of government was so repulsive and authoritarian that the backlash to it helped set and entrench our constitutional norms. His pig-headedness over forcing through Think Big eventually gave us the RMA, with its participation and ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Is the new government reducing tax on rental properties to benefit landlords or to cut the cost of rents? That’s the big question this week, after Associate Finance Minister David Seymour announced on Sunday that the Government would be reversing the Labour Government’s removal ...
Saudi Arabia is rarely far from the international spotlight. The war in Gaza has brought new scrutiny to Saudi plans to normalise relations with Israel, while the fifth anniversary of the controversial killing of Jamal Khashoggi was marked shortly before the war began on October 7. And as the home ...
Questions need to be asked on both sides of the worldPeter Williams writes – The NRL Judiciary hands down an eight week suspension to Sydney Roosters forward Spencer Leniu , an Auckland-born Samoan, after he calls Ezra Mam, Sydney-orn but of Aboriginal and Torres Strait ...
Ele Ludemann writes – Contrary to what many headlines and news stories are saying, residential landlords are not getting a tax break. The government is simply restoring to them the tax deductibility of interest they had until the previous government removed it. There is no logical reason ...
I can't remember when it was goodMoments of happiness in bloomMaybe I just misunderstoodAll of the love we left behindWatching our flashbacks intertwineMemories I will never findIn spite of whatever you becomeForget that reckless thing turned onI think our lives have just begunI think our lives have just begunDoes anyone ...
Michael Bassett writes – At first reading, a front-page story in the New Zealand Herald on 13 March was bizarre. A group of severely intellectually limited teenagers, with little understanding of the law, have been pleading to the Justice Select Committee not to pass a bill dealing with ram ...
How much political capital is Christopher Luxon willing to burn through in order to deliver his $2.9 billion gift to landlords? Evidently, Luxon is: (a) unable to cost the policy accurately. As Anna Burns-Francis pointed out to him on Breakfast TV, the original ”rock solid” $2.1 billion cost he was ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read:Jonathon Porritt calling bullshit in his own blog post on mainstream climate science as ‘The New Denialism’.Local scoop:The Wellington City Council’s list of proposed changes to the IHP recommendations to be debated later today was leaked this ...
TL;DR:Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said yesterday tenants should be grateful for the reinstatement of interest deductibility because landlords would pass on their lower tax costs in the form of lower rents. That would be true if landlords were regulated monopolies such as Transpower or Auckland Airport1, but they’re not, ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Tom Toro Tom Toro is a cartoonist and author. He has published over 200 cartoons in The New Yorker since 2010. His cartoons appear in Playboy, the Paris Review, the New York Times, American Bystander, and elsewhere. Related: What 10 EV lovers ...
The business section of the NZ Herald is full of opinion. Among the more opinionated of all is the ex-Minister of Transport, ex-Minister of Railways, ex MP for Auckland Central (1975-93, Labour), Wellington Central (1996-99, ACT, then list-2005), ex-leader of the ACT Party, uncle to actor Antonia, the veritable granddaddy ...
Hi,Just quickly — I’m blown away by the stories you’ve shared with me over the last week since I put out the ‘Gary’ podcast, where I told you about the time my friend’s flatmate killed the neighbour.And you keep telling me stories — in the comments section, and in my ...
The first season of Rings of Power was not awful. It was thoroughly underwhelming, yes, and left a lingering sense of disappointment, but it was more expensive mediocrity than catastrophe. I wrote at length about the series as it came out (see the Review section of the blog, and go ...
Buzz from the Beehive Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden told Auckland Business Chamber members they were the first audience to hear her priorities as a minister in a government committed to cutting red tape and regulations. She brandished her liberalising credentials, saying Flexible labour markets are the ...
Chris Trotter writes – TO UNDERSTAND WHY NEWSHUB FAILED, it is necessary to understand how TVNZ changed. Up until 1989, the state broadcaster had been funded by a broadcasting licence fee, collected from every citizen in possession of a television set, supplemented by a relatively modest (compared ...
Bob Edlin writes – The Māori Party has been busy issuing a mix of warnings and threats as its expresses its opposition to interest deductibility for landlords and the plans of seabed miners. It remains to be seen whether they follow the example of indigenous litigants in Australia, ...
Every year, in the Budget, Parliament forks out money to government agencies to do certain things. And every year, as part of the annual review cycle, those agencies are meant to report on whether they have done the things Parliament gave them that money for. Agencies which consistently fail to ...
Mike Grimshaw writes – Recent events in American universities point to an underlying crisis of coherent thinking, an issue that increasingly affects the progressive left across the Western world. This of course is nothing new as anyone who can either remember or has read of the late ...
The Government has accepted Labour’s change to the Road User Charge (RUC) discount for hybrid vehicles, meaning there will still be some incentive for people to buy greener vehicles. ...
Kicking the most vulnerable people out of state housing and pushing them towards homelessness will result in a proliferation of poverty and trauma across our most vulnerable communities. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader and MP for Waiariki, Rawiri Waititi has penned a letter asking MPs to support his members bill to remove GST from all food. The bill is expected to go through its first reading in parliament this Wednesday. “I’m calling on all political parties to support my ...
This year is about getting real with Kiwis and discussing the tough issues, as the National Government exacerbates inequality and divides New Zealand, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said ...
The Government adding Significant Natural Areas (SNAs) to its already roaring environmental policy bonfire is an assault on the future of wildlife that makes Aotearoa unique. ...
After 12 years of fighting to protect our moana we are finding ourselves back at square one and back at court. Today, the Environmental Protection Agency is sitting in Hawera to reconsider an application from Trans-Tasman Resources to dig up 50 million tonnes of the seabed in South Taranaki. This ...
Minister Shane Jones’ decision to step away from a seabed mining project is evidence of the murky waters surrounding the Government’s fast-track legislation. ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The Coalition Government’s miscalculation saga continues as it has forgotten an eyewatering $90 million gap in its interest deductibility cost figures, say Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds and Revenue Spokesperson Deborah Russell. ...
He Pou a Rangi Climate Change Commission has today released advice that says if the Government doesn’t act now New Zealand is at risk of not meeting its climate goals. ...
The Coalition Government has today confirmed it is abandoning first home buyers who are struggling to get ahead, says Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds. ...
The New Zealand public voted for a change in direction at the 2023 general election and that is exactly what this coalition government has been delivering in its first 100 days. There was an immediate focus on the economy, easing the cost of living, cracking down on law and order ...
The Government has left the health system as an afterthought, announcing half-baked targets at the last minute of their 100-day plan, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
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. ...
New Zealand’s social workers are qualified, experienced, and more representative of the communities they serve, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “I want to acknowledge and applaud New Zealand’s social workers for the hard work they do, providing invaluable support for our most vulnerable. “To coincide with World ...
Cabinet has agreed to a reduced road user charge (RUC) rate for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. Owners of PHEVs will be eligible for a reduced rate of $38 per 1,000km once all light electric vehicles (EVs) move into the RUC system from 1 April. ...
Minister of Agriculture and Trade, Todd McClay, says that today’s opening of Riverland Foods manufacturing plant in Christchurch is a great example of how trade access to overseas markets creates jobs in New Zealand. Speaking at the official opening of this state-of-the-art pet food factory the Minister noted that exports ...
Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Wellington today. “It was a pleasure to host Foreign Minister Wang Yi during his first official visit to New Zealand since 2017. Our discussions were wide-ranging and enabled engagement on many facets of New Zealand’s relationship with China, including trade, ...
Kāinga Ora – Homes & Communities has been instructed to end the Sustaining Tenancies Framework and take stronger measures against persistent antisocial behaviour by tenants, says Housing Minister Chris Bishop. “Earlier today Finance Minister Nicola Willis and I sent an interim Letter of Expectations to the Board of Kāinga Ora. ...
Tēna koutou katoa. Greetings everyone. Thank you to the Auckland Chamber of Commerce and the Honourable Simon Bridges for hosting this address today. I acknowledge the business leaders in this room, the leaders and governors, the employers, the entrepreneurs, the investors, and the wealth creators. The coalition Government shares your ...
Minister Winston Peters completed the final leg of his visit to South and South East Asia in Singapore today, where he focused on enhancing one of New Zealand’s indispensable strategic partnerships. “Singapore is our most important defence partner in South East Asia, our fourth-largest trading partner and a ...
Minister of Internal Affairs and Workplace Relations and Safety, Hon. Brooke van Velden, will travel to the Republic of Korea to represent New Zealand at the Third Summit for Democracy on 18 March. The summit, hosted by the Republic of Korea, was first convened by the United States in 2021, ...
ICNZ Speech 7 March 2024, Auckland Acknowledgements and opening Mōrena, ngā mihi nui. Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho. Good morning, it’s a privilege to be here to open the ICNZ annual conference, thank you to Mark for the Mihi Whakatau My thanks to Tim Grafton for inviting me ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Lead Coordination Minister Judith Collins have expressed their deepest sympathy on the five-year anniversary of the Christchurch terror attacks. “March 15, 2019, was a day when families, communities and the country came together both in sorrow and solidarity,” Mr Luxon says. “Today we pay our respects to the 51 shuhada ...
Speech for Financial Advice NZ Conference 5 March 2024 Acknowledgements and opening Morena, Nga Mihi Nui. Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho. Thanks Nate for your Mihi Whakatau Good morning. It’s a pleasure to formally open your conference this morning. What a lovely day in Wellington, What a great ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters held discussions in Jakarta today about the future of relations between New Zealand and South East Asia’s most populous country. “We are in Jakarta so early in our new government’s term to reflect the huge importance we place on our relationship with Indonesia and South ...
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters has announced that the Foreign Minister of China, Wang Yi, will visit New Zealand next week. “We look forward to re-engaging with Foreign Minister Wang Yi and discussing the full breadth of the bilateral relationship, which is one of New Zealand’s ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has today opened the new Auckland Rail Operations Centre, which will bring together KiwiRail, Auckland Transport, and Auckland One Rail to improve service reliability for Aucklanders. “The recent train disruptions in Auckland have highlighted how important it is KiwiRail and Auckland’s rail agencies work together to ...
The Government is proud to support the 10th edition of Crankworx Rotorua as the Crankworx World Tour returns to Rotorua from 16-24 March 2024, says Minister for Economic Development Melissa Lee. “Over the past 10 years as Crankworx Rotorua has grown, so too have the economic and social benefits that ...
Legislation implementing coalition Government tax commitments and addressing long-standing tax anomalies will be progressed in Parliament next week, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The legislation is contained in an Amendment Paper to the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill issued today. “The Amendment Paper represents ...
Associate Environment Minister Andrew Hoggard has today announced that the Government has agreed to suspend the requirement for councils to comply with the Significant Natural Areas (SNA) provisions of the National Policy Statement for Indigenous Biodiversity for three years, while it replaces the Resource Management Act (RMA).“As it stands, SNAs ...
Agriculture Minister Todd McClay has classified the drought conditions in the Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts as a medium-scale adverse event, acknowledging the challenging conditions facing farmers and growers in the district. “Parts of Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts are in the grip of an intense dry spell. I know ...
The Government is helping farmers eradicate the significant impact of facial eczema (FE) in pastoral animals, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced. “A $20 million partnership jointly funded by Beef + Lamb NZ, the Government, and the primary sector will save farmers an estimated NZD$332 million per year, and aims to ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has completed a successful visit to India, saying it was an important step in taking the relationship between the two countries to the next level. “We have laid a strong foundation for the Coalition Government’s priority of enhancing New Zealand-India relations to generate significant future benefit for both countries,” says Mr Peters, ...
Cabinet has agreed to provide $7 million to ensure the 2024 ski season can go ahead on the Whakapapa ski field in the central North Island but has told the operator Ruapehu Alpine Lifts it is the last financial support it will receive from taxpayers. Cabinet also agreed to provide ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says the launch of a new mobile breast screening unit in Counties Manukau reinforces the coalition Government’s commitment to drive better cancer services for all New Zealanders. Speaking at the launch of the new mobile clinic, Dr Reti says it’s a great example of taking ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says the launch of a new mobile breast screening unit in Counties Manukau reinforces the coalition Government’s commitment to drive better cancer services for all New Zealanders. Speaking at the launch of the new mobile clinic, Dr Reti says it’s a great example of taking ...
Unlocking economic growth and land for housing are critical elements of the Government’s plan for our transport network, and planned upgrades to State Highway 29 (SH29) near Tauriko will deliver strongly on those priorities, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The SH29 upgrades near Tauriko will improve safety at the intersections ...
Unlocking economic growth and land for housing are critical elements of the Government’s plan for our transport network, and planned upgrades to State Highway 29 (SH29) near Tauriko will deliver strongly on those priorities, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The SH29 upgrades near Tauriko will improve safety at the intersections ...
Lower fruit and vegetable prices are welcome news for New Zealanders who have been doing it tough at the supermarket, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. Stats NZ reported today the price of fruit and vegetables has dropped 9.3 percent in the 12 months to February 2024. “Lower fruit and vege ...
Tēnā koutou katoa and greetings to you all. Chair, I am honoured to address the sixty-eighth session of the Commission on the Status of Women. I acknowledge the many crises impacting the rights of women and girls. Heightened global tensions, war, climate related and humanitarian disasters, and price inflation all ...
Tēnā koutou katoa and greetings to you all. Chair, I am honoured to address the 68th session of the Commission on the Status of Women. I acknowledge the many crises impacting the rights of women and girls. Heightened global tensions, war, climate related and humanitarian disasters, and price inflation all ...
The coalition Government is supporting farmers to enhance land management practices by investing $3.3 million in locally led catchment groups, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced. “Farmers and growers deliver significant prosperity for New Zealand and it’s vital their ongoing efforts to improve land management practices and water quality are supported,” ...
Good evening everyone and thank you for that lovely introduction. Thank you also to the Honourable Simon Bridges for the invitation to address your members. Since being sworn in, this coalition Government has hit the ground running with our 100-day plan, delivering the changes that New Zealanders expect of us. ...
Recommendations from the Climate Change Commission for New Zealand on the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) auction and unit limit settings for the next five years have been tabled in Parliament, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “The Commission provides advice on the ETS annually. This is the third time the ...
The coalition Government is beginning its fight to lower building costs and reduce red tape by exempting minor building work from paying the building levy, says Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk. “Currently, any building project worth $20,444 including GST or more is subject to the building levy which is ...
Proposed changes to tax legislation to prevent the over-taxation of low-earning trusts are welcome, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The changes have been recommended by Parliament’s Finance and Expenditure Committee following consideration of submissions on the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill. “One of the ...
Assalaamu alaikum. السَّلَام عليكم In light of the holy month of Ramadan, I want to extend my warmest wishes to our Muslim community in New Zealand. Ramadan is a time for spiritual reflection, renewed devotion, perseverance, generosity, and forgiveness. It’s a time to strengthen our bonds and appreciate the diversity ...
Former Transport Minister and CEO of the Auckland Business Chamber Hon Simon Bridges has been appointed as the new Board Chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) for a three-year term, Transport Minister Simeon Brown announced today. “Simon brings extensive experience and knowledge in transport policy and governance to the role. He will ...
Good morning all, it is a pleasure to be here as Minister of Science, Innovation and Technology. It is fantastic to see how connected and collaborative the life science and biotechnology industry is here in New Zealand. I would like to thank BioTechNZ and NZTech for the invitation to address ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says he is looking forward to the day when three key water projects in Northland are up and running, unlocking the full potential of land in the region. Mr Jones attended a community event at the site of the Otawere reservoir near Kerikeri on Friday. ...
Associate Finance Minister David Seymour has today announced that the Government has agreed to restore deductibility for mortgage interest on residential investment properties. “Help is on the way for landlords and renters alike. The Government’s restoration of interest deductibility will ease pressure on rents and simplify the tax code,” says ...
Sport and Recreation Minister Chris Bishop will travel to Switzerland today to attend an Executive Committee meeting and Symposium of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). Mr Bishop will then travel on to London where he will attend a series of meetings in his capacity as Infrastructure Minister. “New Zealanders believe ...
This year’s Pacific Language Weeks celebrate regional unity and the contribution of Pacific communities to New Zealand culture, says Minister for Pacific Peoples Dr Shane Reti. Dr Reti announced dates for the 2024 Pacific Language Weeks during a visit to the Pasifika festival in Auckland today and says there’s so ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tim Curran, Associate Professor of Ecology, Lincoln University, New Zealand Getty Images/Gerald Corsi In the latest move to reform environmental laws in New Zealand, the coalition government has introduced a bill to fast-track consenting processes for projects deemed to ...
Uber has argued it does not have as much control over drivers as the unions suggest, and wants a judgment ruling that drivers are employees and not contractors set aside and sent back to the Employment Court. The 2022 ruling followed a three-week hearing in which four drivers sought to ...
What can and can’t be purchased by disabled people or their carers has been slashed in an effort by the Ministry of Disabled People Whaikaha to save money. The purchasing guidelines, a set of rules that sets out what can be purchased using the various streams of Government disability funding, ...
The Treasury has published today a new Analytical Note by Tod Wright and Hien Nguyen, Fiscal incidence in New Zealand: The effects of taxes and benefits on household incomes in tax year 2018/19 . Analyses of the distributional impact of taxation and government ...
The Treasury has published today a new Analytical Note by Cory Davis, Boston Hart and Benjamin Stubbing, Household cost-of-living impacts from the Emissions Trading Scheme and using transfers to mitigate regressive outcomes . This Analytical Note ...
A coalition of public transport and climate organisations, united as ‘Transport for All’, is actively opposing the government’s transport proposals. The draft Government Policy Statement (GPS) includes plans for higher fares for public transport, ...
Greater Wellington is inviting feedback on proposed changes to its Revenue and Financing Policy. The Revenue and Financing Policy covers the Council’s various sources of funding, and how the cost of services is shared across the region. This includes ...
Labour has conceded it could have done more to deal with disruptive state housing tenants while in government but says the current coalition is going too far. ...
The band has asked their record label to issue a cease and desist to stop the NZ First leader using their 1997 hit to support his ‘misguided political views’. “I get knocked down, but I get up again,” blared through the speakers on Sunday as Winston Peters took the stage ...
By Lydia Lewis, RNZ Pacific journalist Food rationing is underway in remote areas in Papua New Guinea’s Highlands following torrential rain and flash flooding. More than 20 people have been reported dead in Chimbu Province. In nearby Enga Province, the centre of last month’s massacre, a 15-year-old boy has been ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Hughes, Lecturer, Research School of Management, Australian National University After months of debate and intrigue, the AFL’s 19th and newest team, the Tasmania Devils, finally launched its jumper, logo and colours in Devonport this week. The Devils will wear green, ...
Brannavan Gnanalingam reviews the debut novel by Saraid de Silva.One of the most baffling things for children who move to a new country is what their parents’ (or grandparents’) lives were like prior to moving – for kids in particular, they’re too busy trying to fit in in their ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stephen Gaunson, Associate Professor in Cinema Studies, RMIT University Narelle Portanier/Binge “If you don’t know who your mob are, you don’t know who you are,” Detective Andrea “Andie” Whitford (played by Leah Purcell) is told early into the new crime ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Elise Klein, Associate professor, Australian National University It’s commonly accepted that women do the vast majority of caregiving in Australian society. But less appreciated is that Indigenous women do larger amounts of unpaid care than any other group. Working with the Aboriginal ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne Joe Biden and Donald Trump have both secured their parties’ nominations for the November 5 United States general election by winning a ...
Comment: There has been a striking contrast in trans-Tasman interest about Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi’s visit to New Zealand and Australia. While the Australian press has been full of articles about the visit – including his curious decision to meet with former prime minister and China booster Paul Keating ...
After years of pressuring banks and other institutions to stop investing in fossil fuels, climate campaigners are making some progress. So how does divestment work?For years, climate activists have been pushing banks and other big institutions to divest from fossil fuels. New research from climate advocacy group 350 Aotearoa ...
For Boba, Ethan and Ashley, K-pop is a place to belong, a way to express themselves, and a bridge to connect with others. The three young Polynesians are part of a K-pop fan community in Tāmaki Makaurau. It’s one of many that have sprung up worldwide as K-pop has gone ...
For Boba, Ethan and Ashley, K-pop is a place to belong, a way to express themselves, and a bridge to connect with others. This one-off documentary presents three intimate portraits of young Polynesians who are pulled into a Korean cultural phenomenon. K-POLYS is directed by Litia Tuiburelevu, Produced by Hex ...
There’s ample evidence demonstrating free school lunch programmes provide wide benefits across schools, households and communities according to public health researchers. ACT Minister David Seymour wants to reduce the spending on Aotearoa New Zealand’s ...
By Wata Shaw in Suva Fiji is facing an exodus of Fijians as many are leaving for overseas seeking employment and education and others are migrating, says Opposition MP Viliame Naupoto. Speaking in Parliament, he said: “His Excellency’s speech (Ratu Wiliame Katonivere) comes after a little over one year of ...
The Taxpayers’ Union is welcoming comments from Christopher Luxon this morning recommitting to ‘no new taxes’ as part of Budget 2024. “Mr Luxon’s refusal at the Post-Cabinet press conference yesterday to repeat the ‘no new taxes’ promise ...
SAFE is urgently calling on the Environment Committee to reject the Government’s Fast-Track Approvals Bill, and is urging New Zealanders to rally behind the call. The proposed Bill, currently under consideration with the Environment select committee, ...
Teammates who spend all their time picking fights with spectators are only helpful for the other team, writes Madeleine Chapman. Anyone who has ever played a team sport competitively, particularly as a child and particularly, for some reason, basketball, will know that there’s a lot of politics involved. While there ...
The long-running Wellington music festival is too focused on the Jim Beam-ness and not enough on the Homegrown-ness.There is something about Homegrown that’s difficult to place. A barely perceptible-ness. Like feeling a ghost is watching you from the corner of the room but when you look, there’s nothing there. ...
The latest Ipsos New Zealand Issues Monitor reveals that fewer New Zealanders believe crime / law and order is one of the top issues facing our country. In 2018, Ipsos New Zealand started tracking the key issues facing New Zealand. In this wave ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kate Griffiths, Deputy Program Director, Budgets and Government, Grattan Institute Australia’s political donations rules are woefully inadequate, but donations reform is finally on the agenda. The federal government has signalled its interest in reform and will soon begin briefing MPs on its ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Patrick Taylor, Chief Environmental Scientist, EPA Victoria; Honorary Professor, School of Natural Sciences, Macquarie University Naiyana Somchitkaeo/Shutterstock A recent study published in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine has linked microplastics with risk to human health. The study ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Albert Van Dijk, Professor, Water and Landscape Dynamics, Fenner School of Environment & Society, Australian National University Global climate records were shattered in 2023, from air and sea temperatures to sea-level rise and sea-ice extent. Scores of countries recorded their hottest year ...
As part of our series exploring how New Zealanders live and our relationship with money, a teacher explains why he and his partner are in frugal mode – and how they’re making it work. Gender: Male Age: 35Ethnicity: Pākehā Role: I am an intermediate school teacher and my partner is ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sarah Bendall, Senior Lecturer, Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences, Australian Catholic University Binge Mary & George, the new British television drama series, depicts the real-life story of Mary Villiers and her son George, and their social climbing at the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jason Nassios, Associate Professor, Centre of Policy Studies, Victoria University This article is part of The Conversation’s series examining the housing crisis. Read the other articles in the series here. Australian state and federal governments spend money in many ways to ...
The finance minister is denying that there’s a $5.6b shortfall in paying for the government’s campaign promises, including tax cuts. At his post-cabinet press conference yesterday, the PM refused to rule out new taxes to pay for the cuts, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s ...
Kāinga Ora tenants abused by their neighbours are doubting the government's crackdown on disruptive tenants will make a difference on their behaviour. ...
Kāinga Ora is New Zealand’s biggest residential landlord, housing more than 180,000 vulnerable people in more than 67,000 properties. Yesterday the government announced a crackdown on its tenants who fall behind on rent. One longtime Kāinga Ora tenant shares her experience.For 18 years I lived in a 1960s standalone ...
Why does this myth persist, and what’s the real reason our skin is suffering?It’s one of the biggest international grievances New Zealanders hold, up there with the sinking of the Rainbow Warrior and 1981’s underarm incident. We’re quick to tell international travellers that the world’s pollution led to the ...
Opinion: We are fast approaching a fundamental change in prisons. As the number of people on custodial remand looks set to overtake the number of sentenced prisoners, the main function of prisons in New Zealand may become incarcerating un-sentenced people who may not be guilty of offending. We have already ...
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He Lives!
As I was consuming my morning repast, this emerged from my toaster. What can it mean?
https://markdoran.files.wordpress.com/2021/04/prince-ph-toast.jpg
You need a different horse.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/wellington/300284386/thousands-sign-petition-in-support-of-striking-wellington-bus-drivers
please consider signing this petition
Done.
I can't see any reasonable person agreeing with First Capital. With the council offering to top up the wages, all this Aussie company had to do was honour the conditions.
Clearly they are not good faith bargaining, more looking to trim the balance sheet so as to sell the business.
A TV series for the Labour Party, specifically Grant Robertson who believes that renters can 'just move to a different rental' when their current one gets to expensive. Tone deaf, out of touch, a one percenter if there ever was one.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/entertainment/karl-puschmann-tvnzs-renters-is-everything-wrong-with-nz/DN4ALYS5VVT3PRXZAQYTHDAPXI/
I have watched it a couple times. Some property managers seem to go over to the property when it is too late to help the landlord or the tenant.
Those who smash up their home have issues and intervention is required.
as do the ones that think you can rent a burned out property while its being renovated. 🙂
the whole serious is fucked up lowest common denominator television.
Also file this under 'we don't know how lucky we have been, still are' but rest assured that Government knows that it got elected by luck and luck alone.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/covid-19-coronavirus-how-a-family-fled-and-returned-to-miq-facility-in-auckland/CBDHTOHBHO3I5YLCA324OIKUCE/
Do you think the family was related to the Michael Woodhouse mystery homeless man in the upmarket Auckland MIQ hotel?
Maybe the 'luck alone' has to do with the luck that the National mob were dishonest, incompetent and idiotic.
Remember Michelle Boag releasing confidential information? Was that luck for Labour? Or bad luck for Hamish Walker who took one for the team while Nikki Kaye decided to quietly disappear? And Michael Woodhouse, no way would he have been in the loop of the info leak, parked himself in the background. And the good luck the 'enquiry' was a snow job.
Peter, how does trotting out the Labour party line about National excuse the fact that this government has been a sick joke from day one?
Labour is actually the government, and thus they and they alone have the responsibility. National is just the opposition (and Boag not even that).
Transparency and honesty, I think Ardern promised. Yeah, right.
Anyone who wants to call the government a 'sick joke from day one' is quite welcome to do it. To do it on the back of a relative handful of human stuff ups amongst the many millions of actions and interactions around covid and the border is silly.
Labour is the government and do have responsibility. National is just the opposition because they were thought to be incapable, dishonest and not trustworthy. The half pie enquiry into the Boag affair meant that National was helped to a huge 25.6% in the election and their supporters didn't have to confront the level of scumminess in the midst of the party.
The sick joke is that House prices, Rents and the number if people in slum hotels are rising at record rates…
Labour governing for the land owning classes…
I don't think they are a sick joke, but then i am well housed, well fed and clothes.
What i think they are is opportunistic and right now they make it up as they go along, and even then i don't blame them for that either as the Covid Pandemic will be the gift that keeps on giving for a few more years.
I also don't for a moment believe that we will ever go back to pre Lockdown 4 25th May 2020.
But what i do believe is that they will not tackle any of the social ills they should tackle.
Drug policies
racist drug polices, incrimination of other non violent/criminal behaviour, refusal to treat drug abuse as a health issue rather then a criminal one etc.
On that, total failure, in fact if Little could he would make the whole shebang worse.
Housing
we have currently up and down the country enough people to house a full scale mid size town and this government is going lalalalaala and keeps throwing money at it as if there is no tomorrow.
Total failure
Health and the inaction of Labour
we have new borns with cleft palates put on waiting lists, we have toddlers in need of cardiac surgery on waiting lists and we are currently crowdfunding for beds at Starships ICU
failure.
So what we have here is an inability from Labour to try anything other then the tried and trued that has not worked before. We have labour hide behind referendums in which senior Labour Politians did not state an opinion cause 'i don't want to influence the referendum" Well thanks a bunch dear.
If you ask willy nilly people on the street who boag is – and i actually had to look her up – they will not know. But ask them if they know someone who can't find a rental, or who is on a waiting list, or who is in prison due to racists and outdated criminal laws and chances are they can help you there.
So its not a sick joke, its just a bunch of worn out people that since helen clark never had to earn a day of living in the private market and who have very little ideas about how they affect the country in day to day live. Out of touch and somewhat callous, and devoid of courage. And now they can't hide behind an opposition bench, they can't hide behind coalition partners they are actually all alone responsible for what they do. So who cares about National, they can do no more then Labour could under John Key. Flap their wings and be impotent.
We have a joke for that in Germany : The operation was successful but the patient died. That to me is Labour today, and we are the patient.
Germany (a wealthy country with competent political leadership and excellent health infrastructure) sadly has 973 COVID-19 deaths per million. NZ sadly has 5 deaths per million.
I hope that this pandemic has peaked, and reckon a 'joke' involving a patient dying might be considered a bit tasteless right now, even in Germany.
Germany is also a country in the middle of europe and nz is an island in a vast empty ocean.
all those apples and oranges….all fruit.
Comparisons may be fruitless, and yet there's no place I'd rather be.
Funny that.
PCC, thankfully not everyone shares your opinion. Some opposition National party MPs are jokes, taking their queue from Collins' eyebrows (what a 'leader').
National party MPs are incapable of governing for all NZers – it's simply not in their DNA. Everyone understands that now – National party voters always knew it.
Drowsy, we agree on one thing at least: some National mps are jokes. And yes, those eyebrows….
national mps are jokes, and in saying that the same thing could be said about labour during the john key years, they too managed to fail to win an election till they threw J.A at the electorate. So who will be the saviour of National? Maybe it will be tax cuts, opening weed to business and recreational use, and such. And guess what people would vote for that.
And neither eyebrows nor teeth should ever be cause for a joke.
Yes, they government that promised us transparency has been anything but. Our isolation and low population alone saved us.
I doubt Ashley Bloomfield could even lie straight in bed. So many cover ups and downright lies (remember his and the governments lies about PPE?)
This Labour administration has been a joke from start to finish. Kiwibuild. Airport light rail. Fast trains to Hamilton and Tauranga. A Minister of Health that hid under the bed in Dunedin (when not out breaking lockdown). The list is endless.
A Minister of Health who hid his under his bed for months while being part of the establishing of an internationally acknowledged success in dealing with the pandemic?
Of course it wasn't perfect – you weren't involved with your knowledge and expertise. Oh, and people, human beings, were involved in complex and new situations.
Your tone smacks of sadness at missing the hole in one, the home run that would have put a smile on your face to ram home 'the government is hopeless' narrative.
Are you sad tens of thousands didn't die to give you some real bullets?
" Our isolation and low population alone saved us."
Please , there were 1000s arriving every day at the major airport.
And low population ? Ask Ireland with around the same population of 5-6 million and 4800 covid deaths.
Taking the wrong steps in Victoria after an outbreak sourced from a MIQ hotel let to 800 deaths.
Elimination wasnt the starting strategy but very quickly did become that, while National moved to a sort of minimization- open the borders, bring back the students and other useless ideas. if the National party was in power we would be having a 3rd wave of hundreds of dead as we moved in winter
Ireland, part of england? That Ireland? Or is there an Ireland in the middle of an ocean with nothing other around them then water that you could just close off to the public and be done with? lol lol lol lol
yeas and orange is a fruit, and an apple is too, and yet they are so different.
We went into lockdown to prevent our healthcare system from collapsing. Elimination was not what the public was told, we bring in daily cases from overseas, so we have eliminated nothing. We are one infected person away from disaster, considering that our health care system collapsed without Covid, but just due to past and current underfunding by respective governments.
Which part of Ireland 5-6 million people.
I wondered before but now you have a tirade of falsehoods. Its pointless engaging with with a fact less froth
Im convinced as you get older the more to the right you will move so that by Hoskings age you could be his alter ego
Honey Ireland is part of England and the EU. Ireland could not as we did just close the door to everyone as they were not the only ones to decide. I mean yeah for some details don't matter, but that is a bit thick.
But hey, here is Vietnam, borders China, Laos, Kambodia, 90 million plus people, an 'emerging' nation.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-australia-lowy-idUSKBN29W311
flattening the curve
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2020/06/coronavirus-a-timeline-of-how-new-zealand-flattened-the-curve-and-beat-covid-19.html
suddenly flattening the curve not good enough anymore – elimination is now the goalpost.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/300185880/flattening-curve-was-not-enough-jacinda-ardern-talks-about-new-zealands-covid-response-us-elections-in-ap-interview
currently we have active 32 cases – all from overseas thus imported
from todays NZ herald.
Before you accuse me of falsehoods let me confim to you that you are looking like the fool that you have shown yourself to be. I generally only speak about things i have seen / read in fairly reputable news organs. I can link to pretty much any of my ideas/opinion for support. As for insulting other posters by throwing a wee tantrum on the floor, that also says more about you then it will ever say about me.
now i am bored with you. bye.
No Ireland is not part of England.
The island of Ireland is home to Northern Ireland, and the Republic of Ireland which is completely independent of the UK.
United Kingdom is made up of England Scotland Wales (the island of Great Britain) and Northern Ireland.
The island of Ireland comprises the Republic of Ireland, which is a sovereign country, and Northern Ireland, which is part of the United Kingdom.
Indeed sometimes people from not english countries take "English" as synonimous with "UK" the government, like for me. "England" is the UK much to the chagrin of Scotland. https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-56806107
We would never refer to as Scotland as the UK or Ireland as the UK.
But yes, consider the shitshow that was /is England then one can assume that other countries that are also in the UK who are not England have an issue. That is what i was referring to.
also Ireland and the EU
https://europa.eu/european-union/about-eu/countries/member-countries/ireland_en
lol Great way to piss off republicans and unionists at the same time, that.
didn't they. And one still is in the EU and the other isnt, and the it seems that history will repeat itself again, cause 'england'.
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-56664378
We are one infected person away from disaster. We are one tremendous South Island earthquake away from disaster. We are one nuclear weapon away from disaster.
The health care system collapsed without Covid? The system isn't perfect, to say it has collapsed is total and obvious rubbish.
Fortunately it wasn't allowed to collapse. Go back a year and a bit. Don't close the borders, don't have lockdowns, don't wear masks … How would that have gone with collapsing the health system?
are you feeling safer today with the health care system of today then you felt a year ago?
we are one case that gets out away from a major fucking disaster as the current mutations are worse and we would have heard if the government would have build a hospital, trained nurses free of charge, created space for an eventual outbreak and such. We got 100 ventilators since. We are still short on nurses, beds, space, and probably ppe, as i have not heard of the breaking ground to a facility that could produce these for us here in NZ.
Definitely. A year ago NZers were dying daily from COVID-19 and that was causing much anxiety. In the last 7 months there's been 1 COVID-19 death.
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/new-zealand/
During and after gearing up for COVID-19, my GP and local public hospital continue provide excellent service – can't praise/thank them enough.
By a fluke (!), we’ve also almost eliminated the flu.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/nz-is-virtually-flu-free-but-heres-why-you-still-need-your-jab/3XPHU662SGQDVELGQIELXCS2AM/
Peter. CHCH "Our isolation and low population alone saved us".
I am sorry Peter this is absolute bullshit. There were many decisions made in crisis mode that saved us. Closing the boarder to China, major lockdown (hard and early) other wise rates of covid would have sky rocketted. Paying the wage subsidy which has ensured many businesses have survived. Setting up in great haste MIQ for returning Kiwis and reviewing every breach and putting things in. place to prevent them, Ordering a review on contact tracing (Dr Verrall, now a member of cabinet ) and getting it up to speed, ramping up laboratory testing. Locking down when necessary and closing our boarders recently to India where rates of Covid are catastrophic. Oh yes and buying a number vaccines with the roll out underway.
This is why we have had very little covid in our community and very few deaths. Mistakes will occur, because that is life. If you think about your own life over the last week, I imagine you have made some mistakes. i have too. Impossible not too.
So your claim that isolation and small pop = good covid result is nonsence
Endless? Go on, give us another four or five……
It was back in May last year. hardly anyone knew what we know now.
A single family here or there wasnt going to change much, it was the science driven 4.5 week level 4 lockdown and the measures that followed.
But you do have your fairytale stories of the big bad wolf coming to get us
lol
and guess what you would not know today where it not for someone asking.
Lucky, we are so lucky, and some are really happy that they are never told just how lucky they are lest they suddenly felt less lucky. lol
I should be so lucky, lucky lucky lucky – lol
R.I.P. Kevin McKeown from the Bay City Rollers.
A weird piece of Scottish pop culture, and a wee breakthrough here.
Always thought they should match up with The Nolans.
In 1976 the Bay City Rollers played at the Auckland Town Hall. There was a rule against standing on the seats; of course a lot of the girls in the crowd proceeded to stand on the seats, until a goon from Eden Security punched one of them.
There was, naturally, great anger directed at Eden Security after that.
The Bay City Rollers and The Nolan Sisters?…I never in a million years would have thought of putting those two acts together, but as you have mentioned it I have thought about (briefly) and it sounds not quite right, what makes you think they would have been a good match .
Just relistened to 'I'm in the mood for Dancing',not too bad, but hasn't really stood the test of time too well..but I probably danced to this at some school Disco back then, so who am I too judge?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XbAM2_6jKY0
I believe the quantity, quality and efficacy of reviews needs to be reviewed
Do they provide value for money? Who will review the reviewers?
Why the re re reviewers …..and im sure they can ascertain whether its all been value for money, subject to review of course.
Being a consultant is one of the most lucrative jobs one can get in one’s field. All it takes is knowing the right people, having a glossy business card, a good sales pitch and loads of confidence. One doesn’t have to be particularly good at anything, just use the right jargon and say the things the ‘customer’ wants to hear. Once one is ‘in’, one’s ‘in’ for as long as one likes. That said, there are very few genuinely good ones around, at least, AFAIK, but I’ve met a few duds in my professional life, some real shockers.
Good or bad, purpose served.
Peter. CHCH "Our isolation and low population alone saved us".
I am sorry Peter this is absolute bullshit. There were many decisions made in crisis mode that saved us. Closing the boarder to China, major lockdown (hard and early) other wise rates of covid would have sky rocketted. Paying the wage subsidy which has ensured many businesses have survived. Setting up in great haste MIQ for returning Kiwis and reviewing every breach and putting things in. place to prevent them, Ordering a review on contact tracing (Dr Verrall, now a member of cabinet ) and getting it up to speed, ramping up laboratory testing. Locking down when necessary and closing our boarders recently to India where rates of Covid are catastrophic. Oh yes and buying a number vaccines with the roll out underway.
This is why we have had very little covid in our community and very few deaths. Mistakes will occur, because that is life. If you think about your own life over the last week, I imagine you have made some mistakes. i have too. Impossible not too.
So your claim that isolation and small pop = good covid result is nonsence
and last but least….
all the people that stayed at home, all the people that closed the shops to their businesses knowing full well tht they will not have one to come back too, all the nurses, all the doctors, all the people that donated food, all of us that did all the right things, and the many many sacrifices so many made.
the best intention of government is worth fuck all when you have say a population like the US has.
And as i posted before Vietnam with a population of 93 million and surrounded by three countries one of them china had virtually the same number of infected, recovered and death – their dead numbering at 35 while ours stand at 26, and like us all their cases are imported ones.
good.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/man-sentenced-to-jail-for-rape-after-removing-condom-without-consent/NVRGH4GJNZLIEKSENRIDUHZJMI/
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/441093/taranaki-aquifer-contaminated-50-times-more-than-acceptable
…"They're consistent with a local concentration, a local high-level concentration as opposed to normal land use.
"Previously, I've seen concentrations as high or higher, but only around facilities or factories that store such pesticides."
The regional council undertook an aerial search and questioned landowners in an effort to find the source of the contamination, but drew a blank and eventually abandoned its investigation.
…Barry Prophet hoped the source could be located.
"It certainly isn't good. They are going to have to find out what, where and why?"
He had his suspicions. "Probably drums were just thrown away back a few years ago."
It could help to provide information if a highish monetary reward was offered for information leading to location – 'no names, no pack drill'.
Back a bit in 2016, this was published. It's timely to look again at the NZsituation.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/306913/land-of-sludge-and-money
As a matter of interest have a look at the long list various chemicals that might be present in the soil where there has been a factory making chemical/agricultural products:
https://www.trc.govt.nz/assets/Documents/Environment/Monitoring-Industry/MR2015-DowAgroSciences.pdf (search/find – difenoconazole)
Not only a complete shambles, but an "utter shambles"! Witness the breathtakingly untrustworthy Bishop and Collins parading their feeble grasp on reality for all to see.
and Vietnam which has our numbers in cases plus 9 people more dead (grand total of 35) then us and is a country that is not an island and has 90+ million people living and working there.
I know an inconvenient truth for some, but I think they deserve a round of applaus and as far as governments go in times of a pandemic i think they deserve another round of applause cause these guys did well.
🙂
Reckon all governments/populations that have done well so far deserve recognition
Maybe certain populations in Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos have developed a some immunity to the virus, if, as is supposed, the transmission from bat to human occurred in that country which is the home of the bat to which the virus is linked. I understand that in the northern part of Vietnam there is frequent interaction between humans and the bats, as the local population enter the caves in which the bats live to collect their guano for fertiliser.
https://scroll.in/article/986077/viruses-similar-to-sars-cov-2-have-been-circulating-for-decades-we-found-one-in-cambodia
Then again Vietnam have developed over the recent past a response to pandemics very similar to that which our Govt initiated in March last year.
https://ourworldindata.org/covid-exemplar-vietnam
[image resized]
Unless someone can link to a credible study that shows natural immunity i would say that is a far fetched idea.
The reason i point to Vietnam as a success rather then us or Taiwan is simply the physical location.
Like we had it easiest among the many, for us to close the border was no issue as we literally just had to prevent airplanes from landing/same with boats. We don't have to worry about landborders that can be porous and hard to manage and controll.
I also point to Vietnam as a bigger success story as they actually continued to work as normally as possible inclusive building production facilities for PPE and such, while we here are still crowd funding ICU beds for Starship Hospital.
I don't consider NZ a success in the 'combat' against Covid, i consider us to be some of the luckiest people to have been physically where we are, and since then we have continued to be lucky. And i hope that we get lucky over and over again, cause we need it .