Those attendance figures would have been even more humiliating if the campaign hadn't arranged travel ban waivers and flown in lots of people from outside the country. Including the man in possession of the world's most punchable face.
Greens vs Govt. Green parliamentarians will have to stand on the sidelines and applaud both sides.
The first application from Oceana Gold to turn 178 hectares of farm land into a toxic dump was refused by the Eugenie Sage, the minister of land information, but then the Cabinet took her off the case. They handed it to Robertson and Parker who rubber stamped it. Sage had considered the loss of productive land, the increase in fossil fuels, risks of toxic dam failure and a range of social and economic issues. The second Crown decision only focused on its export potential and the jobs it would maintain.
I wouldn't put it past Robertson to think like that, but if Parker did too then he's not as smart as he seems. Jobs & money is an insufficient basis for such a decision. I'd be surprised if the court doesn't decide on that rationale.
Good on Catherine for her leadership initiative – I hope her analysis is correct. Just cos there's gold in them thar hills doesn't mean anyone has the right to destroy them to get it. Authorising foreign companies to do so seems even more loopy.
Oceana Gold, a large multinational, wants to expand both within Waihi and into the coastal and conservation lands on the eastern side of the peninsula. This land includes beautiful forests, endangered species classified as taonga, and places people visit and revere.
Oceana wants to buy the food producing land at Waihi to build a huge waste dump for the toxic tailings which would come out of these new mines. The toxic waste in mine tailings includes mercury, arsenic, zinc, cadmium, lead and many other persistent heavy metals. The proposed expansion puts so much at risk for so little benefit, except to this foreign company. The tailings dams, or “impoundments” as the industry like to call them, are earth dams with some rock reinforcing and they are legendary globally for leaking or collapsing. The long list of dam failures in a range of countries over the last few decades makes interesting reading.
You bet. I've read about some of them in the past. Hard to believe these neoliberal buggers in the coalition remain determined not to learn the lessons…
It is not neo-liberalism to oppose what would have been the closure of the mine, with the loss of hundreds of jobs and the rapid decline of Waihi and Waihi beach. I recall what both these places were like before the mine.
The issues considered by the Ministers would have been considered any time in the last 100 years had the issue come up, so neoliberalism (a favourite prerogative of the far left) can't be a factor.
Well it would be good to be able to read the govt's justification, eh? I wonder if anyone ever did a poll of the locals. Similar situation as on the West Coast down south, no doubt: a majority who think jobs beat the environment and a minority with the opposite view. Perhaps there's a suitable compromise, but the court case seems evidence that it hasn't happened yet.
The issues considered by the Ministers would have been considered any time in the last 100 years had the issue come up, so neoliberalism (a favourite prerogative of the far left) can't be a factor.
The justification of these things is capitalism – how to make rich people richer. They then sell that destruction to the people by saying that it will create jobs and the people buy it because, by and large, they're living in poverty and only have one way to get an income which is to go along with the destruction.
Wayne I lived in Waihi. We had Gadabouts shoe factory, Akrad Radio and TV factory, the school of mines became a mine museum,We had a helmet factory a cheese and milk factory, A large Ministry of works Depot etc. Waihi was full of work and life, including Farming and Kiwi fruit nearby. Blueberry farms and products, a Retirement home, a Retirement Village and hospital and good local shopping.
The mine was an important employer, but not the only one. The problems started in Roger Douglas's days, and were multiplied by Ruth Richardsons' actions. Finally Waihi was made poorer by the open cast mining and royalties going to the Hauraki Council mainly, rather than to the locals initially. Waihi suffered lowered water tables dust and noise/vibrations, and a good deal of anxiety about the tailings earth dam.. growing and growing.
Now there is anxiety about this being multiplied. Some homes have fallen in holes, or been bought to avoid court cases. The Gorge is shaky now, and an increase in road traffic won't improve that. So this decision is sadly employment and overseas earnings over communities and environment.
Work needed will overide all aspects
In fact mining heritage is the only reason anyone outside of Waihi goes to Waihi. They go cycling through mining stuff, and ride the Waihi-Waikno railway – a mining railway.
Waihi is one of the founding centres of New Zealand's Labour Party and union movement.
The company contributes about $200,000 per your to local schools and preschools, and as a snapshot paid $255,000 in donations to local charities. Ain't no one replacing that if it goes.
22% of their staff identify as Maori. Probably worth having a chat with the Ngai Tuwharetoa marae if you wanted to shut it down.
So to be sure I like Minister Sage would object to mining on DoC land. I marched against it on Great Barrier under the previous government.
But stopping mining in Waihi would simply kill the town. Within five years it would be as much a ghost town as Blackball or Waiuta.
And of course in normal times you would expect the economy to absorb that. This isn't normal times, and they aren't coming back.
It's not like they're gong to bring back the Pye Television factory either.
Or Nambassa.
This isn't a government that's going to kill this mine when we're heading for 10% unemployed, economy tanking, no local job alternatives, an average population age of almost 50, and no other life known.
Hm, okay, I see their thinking. Well done. It'll be interesting to see how the court handles the case anyway. Sometimes Greenies do get rather purist on an issue where compromise makes more sense, and that could be the situation here.
Incidentally I checked out Blackball in my brand-new motorhome three years ago and was surprised to get a sense of it as developing place. Dunno why, but it was a definite impression. Maybe just folks renovating all over the place, rather than derelict…
Have you seen the streams of lycra-cyclists from Auckland coursing through the joint in summer? Mining trails the lot of them. Heritage is a weird thing.
Ah, but do the locals make money off them? If not, could be a viable alternative income stream. Wealthy Aucklanders supporting regional towns would be setting a good example to all…
But stopping mining in Waihi would simply kill the town.
The problem with basing an entire town/society on an extractive industry is that, eventually, there is no longer anything to extract and the town/society dies anyway. See Nauru:
The story of tiny Nauru, once one of the wealthiest states per capita in the world, is a tale of rapacious colonialism, epic mismanagement, and avarice.
Australia, New Zealand and Britain had nearly exhausted the viable deposits of phosphate by 1968 when Australia granted Nauru sovereignty, leaving behind one of the world’s worst environmental disasters.
It might look like a Pacific island paradise but, thanks to phosphate mining, its interior is a moonscape of jagged limestone pinnacles unfit for agriculture or even building.
We really seem to be determined not to learn the lessons of the past so as to maintain our failed socio-economic system.
It’s not like they’re gong to bring back the Pye Television factory either.
No I didn't. Ad implied that that was so through making ' the very best of its mining heritage.'
My point all along is that, once all the gold runs out, the town will die. Their little touristy thing may keep a family going afterwards but that'd be about it. It won't save the town.
So, if they want to save the town then they need to do something other than gold extraction.
When a Fox News poll paints a right-wing candidate as a loser, he ought to know he's in deep shit, right? Is Trump capable of figuring it out? And taking the next step: "Hey, I'm a real cool leopard – I can change these spots!"
In the head-to-head matchup, the poll finds Biden leads Trump by a 50-38 percent margin. That 12-point advantage is statistically significant, and up from Biden’s 8-point lead last month (48-40 percent).
He’s gonna have to pull finger to earn his second term. Winning from that far behind can't be done via complacency. Sure, it made sense to assume Biden would fail due to his innate inability, but the hotshot hasn't yet realised the same logic applies to him too – as long as he keeps misreading situations and ignoring his advisers.
Wouldn't surprise me one bit. Delusion, reality, what's the difference? The guy has a track record of assuming he can persuade others to accept his view. Trouble is, the poll conforms to the usual polsci standard, so the stats basis represents reality sufficiently to persuade informed observers. He really does need such people on board to secure a second term. Faced with a choice between two flakes, voters will go for the lesser evil. He'll get the second term only by seeming the lesser evil – sufficiently.
Blumenthal's enthusiasm for attacking those trying to actually achieve realistic progressive politics and hold Drongo Unbrained accountable is very difficult to distinguish from enthusiasm for Wussolini himself.
The point being that you have to actually get elected before you can then go on and do anything. Then when you do get elected, effective politics is a team activity – it's all about figuring out the compromises that turn a widely disparate collection of views and ideas into a workable package. Those are the points that seem to be missed or completely denied by anyone with a problem with the idea of "realistic progressive".
Sure – but undeniably that does tend to mean that tomorrow never arrives. It's maybe more productive to look at how (whether?) mass shifts in public consciousness are possible outside the domain of electoral politics, so that electoral politics is chasing to catch up, rather vainly trying to summon followers.
You really haven't got a grasp of the very simple arithmetic involved in electoral politics, have you?
Every single voter that Blumenthal and his fellow travelers persuade to not vote for Biden or Clinton or whomever is the closest to actually being progressive is effectively a vote for Donasaurus Wrecks (or whoever else is the reactionary-du-jour). And every time one of the reactionaries gets in, the possibility of achieving anything remotely progressive slips ever further away, because of the need to undo the damage done before attempting to build anything.
Sure you can whine about lesser evil voting all you want in your displays of public political masturbation. But the simple electoral arithmetic is that refusing to vote for the lesser evil is explicitly choosing to enable the greater evil.
So external pressure in politics means nothing to you…
I see it does, as you went on to bag Ralph Nader.
What a silly one dimensional puppet you are. If only politics worked like you hoped then the world would be all rainbows and unicorns.
In the real world politicians have to earn votes, not act like they deserve them. They also have to put up policy which counts.. And, here the real kicker it means nothing, unless there is ongoing pressure from the public. But baby wants to tell us political parties are the only answer – sad.
As for your strawman about lesser evil – yawn. You can lie to yourself all you like. That politics is broken, it only enables the right – that's it, now I see why you support it.
The right are enabled bacause they'll vote for anyone under the Republican ticket. The left disempower themselves by pretending that "external pressure" can change the dems, so work against the dems every chance they get.
Sanders achieved more change in his 2016 campaign than any third party candidate because he applied internal pressure. He got people to join the dems and run in 2018, and that changed the game in 2020.
Being too left to support anyone will never make anyone try to get your vote. Politicians go for votes they might actually get. They tailor their policies and statements to those voters. If you're a lost cause for them, they won't travel an inch in your direction.
I have seen this suggested before, or it may have been me, why don't we have a special post for the USA and that becomes separate and NZ politics is the default subject. It seems that there is more interest at watching the Tangerine Terror than our own peculiar brand of sweet and sour saucy.
We need to watch our own eggs to see if they are hatching, all wise birds do this. The greywarblers have never got the hang of this and often enable a wotsisname (shining cuckoo I think) to come into the world, which then boots the other eggs and babies too I think, out of the nest. Damned interloper. So let's do better than greywarblers here, and look after our own pollies, and make sure the right ones get the crackers.
Love how when you got nothing Andre it's always with the personal attacks.
Mind you when your such a parody of what constitutes a person on the left like yourself, it must be hard to go beyond you usual of spin, bullshit, gaslighting and lies.
You could actually try socialism, hell I'd even take a dose of social democracy from you – as it would actually mean improvement in people's lives.
"… it's always with the personal attacks." – who was/were the target(s) of Andre’s “personal attacks“?
you['ve] got nothing
your [sic] such a parody of what constitutes a person on the left you[r] usual of spin, bullshit, gaslighting and lies
Vehement objections to perceived personal attacks carry more weight when you don’t decend to ‘their’ level. And, for what it’s worth, I agree with Andre’s entertaining alternative labels for Trump.
The FBI are investigating the noose that was left in Bubba Wallaces locker, Nascar bans the racist confederate flag, and someone leaves a noose in a black drivers locker room. Once probably have been written off as a "joke", this shows how things have changed. Just saw footage of all the other car drivers and mechanics walking behind Wallaces car down the track, very powerful.
Things must really being changed in the South for a good ol boy like Richard Petty to be so supportive. Petty is almost certainly the greatest NASCAR Driver of all time. It is a very hard discipline to do well in, numerous Formula 1 drivers and their like have tried their luck and with the exception of a few road race wins have all come up short.
Some journalists should take a chill pill, which is a more than reasonable verdict. However, it fails to address the motivation of (some) journos to over-egg things. Still a good read though.
Wow! Now that's a journalist! And he's right, I'd go nuts stuck in a room all day, we should have more sympathy. And I thought that there obviously a crap load of people sticking to the rules, only a few breaking them. Did I hear right on the radio that there are 20,000 people currently in quarantine? If so, then wow.
It is just over 4,000 people in quarantine/isolation at present but they’re increasing capacity.
I think the 20,000 is the total number of arrivals who have gone through the quarantine/isolation process, give or take a few. I’m sure the exact number is somewhere …
Yeah, Jack is right to advise a more balanced view, and he makes the significant point that journos function as opinion leaders in the community. Thus they do have a moral responsibility to be fair in their analysis and commentary.
Ardern is brilliant at the dancing part of political management, but needs to get onto deliberating and designing ASAP, then convince us she is the best leader to discharge her new ideas and plans. If she doesn’t, she risks leaving herself and Labour open to attacks from National
I agree with this analysis. She ought to try and take time out to meditate on how to display leadership more comprehensively during the campaign. Design of the recovery plan remains the essential missing component. I suspect brainstorming of that is already happening, but a shift toward more strategic thinking is needed, then a timeline to enact implementation.
Yeah, meanwhile she's having to cope with and counter the relentless stories in the media still slamming her Covid response implementation .Less time having to be wasted on reassuring a public constantly alarmed by misleading media stories would be good
From that piece: "she still hasn’t defined what her vision for New Zealand is."
John Key won 3 elections without ever articulating anything resembling a "vision". It's something that pundits pontificate on, and ordinary voters don't care about.
Key won 3 elections without ever articulating anything resembling a "vision"
A typical view from the leftist bubble. Rightists would have taken note every time he restated the necessity for continuance of business as usual. Mainstreamers were captivated by that vision after the gfc. It worked. Even amongst centrists.
The reason corporates went global with vision statements in the early '90s was the effective social psychology outcomes they produce. I remember when TVNZ workshopped all that stuff. I was working in their newsroom, attended some. I even recall the framing: Vision 2020. Just a coincidence we're in that year now?
I recall one suggestion that got traction: video on demand. Now a reality. Never discount how futures are generated via collective envisioning…
"Key says the test of any prime minister is whether he or she leaves the country in better shape than when he or she inherited it.
It is a somewhat higher test than the one Sir Robert Muldoon invoked before his tenure – that he hoped to leave the country no worse off than he found it."
Key did have a vision and a vision is always based in the values of the visionary. So a vision can be malevolent, self-centred, or even boring. And Key's vision was a mixture of those three – to be fair, the malevolence was more the result of the unthinking insouciance of the wealthy, rather than an active desire to cause harm.
Indeed. When observer grows up he/she'll learn how collective visions create political cultures. Or fail to learn that. In the interim that person does correctly diagnose pragmatism & blokeism as the other two operational strands of Key's political praxis. So a youngster with some promise…
Yes Incognito! The essential point should be that there have been no community spreading for weeks. Every appearance of infection has been contained. What a great success – and yet there is a huge welling of denial from journalists. Piffle we say!
Last weekend the Press published several columns asking for moderation yet Bryce Edwards ignored them and collated all the worst columns and only Bowalley Road for the positives scraped in.
Jack Vowels, ianmac? Is that spelling of his name an example of the Great Vowel Shift?
Jim Flynn on RNZ yesterday said that people today don't read like they used to, and therefore opinions are affected by this paucity of knowledge and experience that reading affords.
These journalists obviously haven't read the story of the boy who called wolf.
So, those of us who still read newspaper journalism might be affected by their alarms, but many of us also hear the cry of 'wolf' and dismiss their alarmist, attention-seeking shallowness as a minor form of conspiracist doom-saying.
I don't think Bwyce is very nice. My teddy bear Edward thought he's a relative (Ted for short) but now doesn't and thinks he isn't nice either. Why does he seem to only like pointing out our faults. I think we need to be told once, and then get a pat on the head for the good things. (Ted thinks so too.)
So I need to tell Ted that Bwyce is paid to find faults with Labour and everyone? That is a shame that he can't be fair and frank at the same time. Is that what they call buy-us?
Words of wisdom. But will the tabloid journos (which means most of them) take any notice? Course not. They operate like a pack of baying wolves and they have no intention of changing.
Yes great article. I am one of the people who have slammed NZders who are self isolating for not keeping to the rules of social distancing.
So an acknowledgement to all those who did the self isolating thing as they were meant too, my sincere thanks to you. It would have been very hard staying isolated for two weeks in a small room.
Yeah – good article at 6.0. if the media really wanted to help they could quit the sensationalist headline and just short form the list of complaints by hotel which would be a great help to identify those residences not performing up to standard. Set up a snitch line so that the passengers could supervise each other? Those following the rules and desperate to leave could be right into that.
Observer, LOL re the breakfast……and what about the water for the bus ride!
Naughty for me to join in this humour, but as I posted above, my sincere thanks to Kiwis and there will be many of them who did the right thing with little or no complaint
Be a little careful with those polls. Respondents are recruited off social media so all the non social media types are missed. In fact the group may be quite select – remember 20% of people don't have a phone suitable for an app and 50% have never downloaded one so the social media space may only be a little less limited.
I agree that it's less reliable than "traditional" polls. However, on this issue the results have been both internally consistent (a series since March, all 80% plus) and were also in line with the Colamr-Brunton/Reid research polls.
In general terms, I'd rank the measures of public opinion as …
1) TV1/TV3 polls, and the private polls by UMR and Curia
2) Roy Morgan
3) Horizon and Spinoff
4 – 99) daylight
100) spam non-polls for AM show, and all the other meaningless "my mates on Facebook", "brother-in-law at BBQ" etc.
The NZ initiative ie Business round table ACT party super pac now claiming almighty stuff up. 6 weeks ago were saying we should have overseas students here by July, level 1 ,3 weeks earlier open borders with Australia by July.National Winston Peter's etc were pushing the same line.
Now on a related topic. Why is the MOH still saying that risks around air crew are low? Haven't they got the public message that we expect the risk to be managed as close to zero as possible. Do they need another breakout to be convinced or are they simply idiots? Or RW sympathisers trying to make trouble.
Why is Airnz not being leaned all over to improve the crewing standards. and rosters.even if it results in extra manning on rosters and fewer hours worked. Quite frankly some extra crew costs are a great deal cheaper then either quarantine or a more widespread outbreak. Sharing crews between Australia, NZ domestic and the Pacific Islands (!) and MOH saying Australia is low risk has to be "stupid of the year". Have they not realised that passengers are coming through Australia from other destinations? Can't they read?
And why is the plague ridden Airline not implementing stricter standards than they appear to be. And I saw somewhere that they were going to use China based crew for some flights to NZ. How on earth are they going to keep them separate from local employees when they arrive? That should go well.
These gaps all appear to be so obvious but these top managers simply seem to be unable to register that actions have consequences.
So
-MOH should tighten the rules and stop going "low risk" and defending that position. Much as they defended the "distress" of the road trippers rather than focusing on the risk to the community.
– Airnz needs to get ahead of the curve and go for stronger safety. Get some of those Singapore airline Hazmat crew suits as well
A South Auckland crane driver has been denied a $100,000 payout for his gastric cancer after a government-owned finance company switched his policy….
His wife is furious that on the basis of what she says is a salesperson's garbled pitch – and despite recent official warnings to the insurance industry about its practice of "churning", or replacing old policies with new ones – her family of three children has now been pushed to financial breaking point.
"That could have helped raising my children," said Shirley Farani, 40, who kept her job in finance and accounts throughout the pandemic levels, working from home while also looking after Ailepata Ailepata, who's 43, who has been off work for four months.
"It's very distressing and very frustrating," she said, adding paying school expenses had been hard.
The family, who live in Māngere Bridge, had paid for life and trauma insurance cover from Westpac since 2013.
When, in 2018, they inquired about a mortgage with government-owned New Zealand Home Loans, an agent visited their home. He suggested changing insurers. They did, but ended up with less cover.
This should come under our laws governing not getting something fit for purpose, when relying on someone who 'holds themselves out' as having complete understanding of his or her product and recommended it as right for matching the client's requirements.
It should have been pointed out to them if there was any difference between the two products/policies and thoroughly explained.
Additionally there is the contra proferentem position. That the policies differed in very important points affecting their cover should be noted against the party that introduced the idea of the change, and who should have known that they were receiving lesser cover; this would have been ambiguous to the clients.
The Contra Proferentem Rule Explained
Contracts can be complex documents created after long periods of protracted negotiations. Each party in the contract is ostensibly looking out for its own best interests and will want the contract language to be to each party's favor. This can create scenarios in which the contract language is ambiguous or unclear, leading one party to interpret the contract differently from the other party.
I see we are going up to around 4000 immigration places. If these remain full then we are looking at some 50,000 returnees before then end of the year. plus potentially a million more if all the ones in Australia return.
The government is going to have to make some hard decisions fast otherwise there will be insufficent housing, health services etc or they will be completely overrun..
First up the visa holders who expired but were extended till sept need to be nudged on their way – they can't all leave at once on the last day so perhaps they need to start shifting expiry dates forward in groups.
Cut all inwards applications even at the higher salary levels. We will be getting back some well qualified individuals in the higher brackets.
Cease overseas work permit exemptions with "economic benefit" – only admit those who are needed for something special in the very short term.
Deprioritise permanent resident visa holders that have not been ordinarily resident here.
Trying to get some Kenyan connections in, all planned and now confused young people. So I hope that more than just NZs for numbers entering. They went away for the good times, and some could no doubt wait and work for a while and not rush home immediately to claim a place in the 'sleepy hollow'.
How lucky are we to live in NZ, we live in the only economically advanced country in the world to have eradicated Covid 19 from the community, the virus, globally, is now out of control, the WHO has warned of the impending global disaster about to happen.
The relentless negative OPINIONS from a range of news sources for the minor errors made by individuals is extremely disappointing, it really indicates their desire to put the Govt down without any relativity to reality its self. The media seem to be in a bubble of make believe, it seems their preference is to harm the very people that have introduced regulations and rules that have made NZ the safest place in the world today, something WE should all be extremely proud of.
Ex pat Kiwis are flooding back to NZ for the very same reason, we are pretty well the safest developed country in the world at this point of time, the virus is now spreading exponentially as too many countries just have not accepted the the relative harm that will occur.
All returning Kiwis should have a negative test result 24 hrs prior to boarding a plane, this doesn't mean they're clear, but at least it raises the bar, too many returnees would be prepared to return carrying the virus so they can come to a safe haven in the knowledge our Health system will take care of them.
Y'know, it's starting to stretch the limits of my willingness to believe that we really didn't have infected cases come into the country before those two women that caused the big kerfluffle.
Consider – pretty much every day since those two were detected, we've detected more new cases. But none before? I don't recall any announcements before that of cases detected in quarantine or managed isolation. The step change in detection frequency is overloading my "really?" detector.
What I really want to know is whether those in charge are also seeing that anomaly, and if they're taking steps to backcheck on those that made it through their two weeks and then released without testing. The good news is that the behavioural changes we've all made over the last few months are likely enough on their own to reduce R) below 1, so even if infectious new entrants made it out, they're still kinda unlikely to create new hotspots.
Yep I'd like to see them back checking too. Just in case – so we can get onto any community breakouts fast.
And I hate to say this but with the current flights in from highly infected places – do we need to pressure the airlines to ensure there is more PPE used on the planes – or that there is social distancing in the seating so people are not being infected in the air.And the bus trips from the airport too? And that the aircrews are kept strictly contained. And when they arrive even if it is only isolation they have to stay in the room for a number of days. Do we insist on some pre embarkation quarantine or testing? Or do we just close our borders again to some countries. Frankly if Spain is going to let in unchecked british tourists and with lockdowns easing in a number of countries the disease is starting to really take off overseas again
Plus I have real doubts about spreading quarantine too far and wide. It means any cases needing to be hospitalised will also be spread around rather then being concentrated in one hospital with the appropriate resources.
I can see plenty of local appetite for the tightest border controls possible
It would also help for the airlines to reduce the alcohol available on the flights to just one or two. Then just water, or low sweetened concentrate like lime juice. There is bound to be an ugly argument start some time with the stress that everyone is under, and particularly those that rarely are prevented from doing what they want. The entitled don't take to that.
Then when they arrive they should get their temp taken before going to isolation. A body with too much alcohol wouldn't give a good reading and could be fractious too.
Hopefully the quarantine period did its job, even if we didn't test the ones who came in with it because they were asymptomatic. But also we have increasing numbers of returnees?
Nobody random has presented to hospital yet, so after a month from the start of the dotballs that's a good sign.
edit: there was a tweet on testing the logistics of everyone at the airport, which is understandable. But a test in the first five days and another in the last few days would probably be a more achievable goal.
AFAIK the numbers are something like 20,000 returnees total gone through the system, of which 4000 are still in quarantine/isolation. So, 11 cases among the 4k still within the system, and 0 among the 16k that have passed all the way through? I struggle with that, even allowing for the idea that more of the returnees now are from places where infections are rampant and increasing (UK, India, US) and earlier returnees were biased more towards places with low infection rates (Australia).
In terms of testing numbers, lets say we get 500 returnees a day, two tests each. That means just doing the mandated testing on returnees accounts for 1000 tests a day, out of total testing capacity somewhere around 6k a day. And returnees have to be considered the highest testing priority. Looks to me like there's zero excuse for returnees to not ave been tested.
Shocking and even worse it seems true. Great rant. USA version of Jonathan Pie?
This goes with it on youtube:
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A group of fearless protesters were invited to stay in the Venezuelan Embassy the other day to protect it from US interference. The government wanted to put them in jail for a year for helping to stop the US-backed coup. The worst of their charges were recently dropped. Yay.
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National, the party of no regulations and freeeedom. All of a sudden they want it so they can swing it around and bash Labour with it. Pathetic.
Who are the sour looking journos or hangers on in the background of the pic interviewing PM Jacinda? ( I haven't watched the vid yet, have to do some useful stuff at home.)
The press gallery these days seem to behave as a pack of surly “nag bags”, living for their next leak from some duplicitous Ministerial toady, or Nat staff member.
Some of them, surely, must experience a little self loathing at what they have become. Journalists have to hold the powerful to account, but most of this rather joyless lot can’t separate that legitimate function from the Paparazzi like “gotchas” and “scalp taking”.
Just watched in full today's Bloomfield news conference. (I haven't watched any since level 3)
He was as good as usual, and journalists as bad as listening as usual. I think his answers were complex – they had to be to cover the myriad of events happening at the border – and it's clear that many at that presser just didn't understand them. His finish was superb after being asked about how events 'undermine confidence'. To paraphrase he said
….what should inspire confidence is that I'm fronting up and explaining whats going on, and what it taking place at the border and steps being taken to improve the border. What would undermine confidence is if I wasn't here talking to you
He should be savaged for this by the media but it won't happen.
I see also the Covid-Karens had another visitor when they got to Chris Bishop's house Lower Hutt. They really are the pits those two. Wanted special treatment then abused the process. No wonder someone ratted on them.
Also confused about why the media continues the line that Bloomfield and the MoH have been dishonest about the sisters' movements. Clearly Bloomfield and the MoH were getting their info from the Covid Karens, and they have been lying through their teeth since they landed!
I'm glad to see Woods hit back with a strongly worded letter. The misinformation spread by the National Party in these times must be countered, otherwise it becomes part of the narrative.
Though, it would be a massive coup for Woodhouse if he produced said homeless person…
The sixth in a series of demographically weighted polls by Stickybeak for The Spinoff conducted over recent months sees overall support for the government response fall just shy of 75%. That’s a drop of 10% from our previous poll, which was completed at the start of last week. Across five previous polls, beginning in late March, the average total backing for the government response was 84%, and this is the first time it has dropped under 80%. A week ago, we reported 74% of respondents judging the response “excellent”; today that number is 53%.
Don't you reckon it's about time Putin called in the debt and insisted Donny O Jnr and Melania have the Hydroxy Clorax Queen committed to the Tallahassee Home for the Bewildered?
If they hold out much longer, they could lose everything and its all going to look a bit too obvious – the Tangerine Turkey's disciples seem to be dropping off like flies on paper soaked in pyrethrin
Tangerine – the colour of the age. Hope it goes out of fashion soon. A very 'colourful' comment OwT. The news here aims to be factual, but it isn't boring.
Well as a parent @ Grey, I'm clutching me stolen pearls and just thinking of the children! And it's just as well I disposed of all my worldly goods to them before I actually kark it and I now live at their pleasure. I'm just a bit worried that Donny Jnr and Melania – if they don't get the timing right – they could be left with nothing! (And won't that be a sad day).
Still, no doubt Donny Jnr and Melania have devised an alternate escape hatch and I really shouldn't be tearing my hair out worrying about their future.
I'll get back to my darning socks and knitting in front of CNN, Aunty Beeb and BobJazeera
Clearly the smart move for Tweetyturd right now would be to negotiate his pardon from Pence in return for resigning while he's still got good negotiating leverage because he's giving Pence time to have a good go at making his own case for the preznitzy. Leave it too late, and there's not enough in it for Pence, unless he's so desperate the getting the title of Mr President for however briefly is enough. The only conversation that might possibly persuade him to do that would end with "don't forget to give us our pardons before actually resigning, OK daddy?".
As for Pootee, I'm struggling to see how he can leverage the situation to his own benefit out of this. Releasing any pee-pee tapes and financial juicy details he may have won't get him anything useful. Except more division and turmoil within the US (which may have been the objective all along). So maybe Genghis Con lucked into the same play with Pootee that he pulled on regulators and banks in his earlier career – make sure that those who can bring you down will also come crashing down with you if they do pull the pin.
There's certainly no way he can be involuntarily removed If he chooses to fight, the 25th Amendment is a tougher route than impeachment, in that it needs the veep, half of cabinet, 2/3 of the House and 2/3 of the Senate to remove him. As opposed to just half the House and 2/3 of the Senate for impeachment.
The S&P report underscores that the entire economy is now propped up by government policy and government cash:
"A contracting economy, rising unemployment, and weak consumer and business sentiment will affect the asset quality of banks in New Zealand, in our view," S&P said.
"However, we consider that the substantial fiscal and policy support from the New Zealand authorities and a strong economic rebound during fiscal 2021 (year ending June 2021) should help to limit the rise in credit losses."
We have a 1 in 3 chance that this is going to get really, really dark.
Curious to see the pharmaceutical industry do a full hit on pharmac this close to an election and with the Simpson health review still cooling off the printer:
We need to wake up to ourselves, The person in charge of who passes over our borders is incapable of regulating the calories that pass over their palette. Thankfully she is also looking after Trainsmash. (Kiwibuild)
Geez it must be tough to be Jacinda. She has to play lead guitar, drums and bass at the same time. Her team need to have a jolly good look at themselves.
The Minister of Health can't stick to the rules the 5 million of us comprehend. I can't listen to the guy without thinking 'Fuck You idiot.' His credibility is a black hole.
I'm so very sorry Jacinda, you are surrounded by people that don't live up to their handles.
Grant Robertson spent months looking at 'The Future of Work in NZ.' Superb timing. We should be all set. Unfortunately the guy calculating the future of work in NZ has never worked in the private sector in his entire life.
We love you Jacinda but you need to start placing people around you that can actually make things happen.
Wasn't it amusing to watch the politicians in the weekend Current Affairs shows ever so backhandedly drop any Covid shortfall call-outs over into Ashley's lap.
I was surprised that they could be so tone deaf. When you say Ashley did it, it's the same as saying my Mum did it. We take a knee wid da Bloom.
Always to islanders danger Is what comes over the seas ‘Landfall in Unknown Seas’ (Allen Curnow)Six economic issues external to New Zealand, which will greatly impact upon us. 1. The Diminishing Global Dominance of the US. Since 1941 America has dominated the world economically and politically. Probably it could ...
By Geoffrey Miller New Zealand should continue to champion human rights in Belarus amidst an ongoing crackdown on protests by the country’s regime, former Prime Minister Helen Clark says. Protests in the country often referred to as ‘Europe’s last dictatorship’ erupted after the country’s disputed presidential elections on August 9 ...
Jacqui Maguire, registered clinical psychologistThis podcast episode highlights how difficult it is to have effective conversations about euthanasia due to how polarised people’s views are. I’m a clinical psychologist, with a passion for science communication. In early 2020 I founded the podcast Mind Brew, with an aim to make psychological ...
In case anyone needed further convincing, there's another example today of why we need cameras on fishing boats: reported seabird bycatch doubled during a camera trial: Commercial fishers operating off Auckland's coast around vulnerable seabirds are twice as likely to report accidentally capturing them when cameras are on ...
In the leadup to the euthanasia referendum, an array of conservative Christian political organisations is running an expensive campaign to sow doubt about the safety of assisted dying. Graham Adams argues that these religious forces know that Christian arguments aren’t convincing the public, but that it is in the public ...
Dangerous Times: This will be the choice confronting those coming of age in the 2020s. Embrace Neoliberalism’s belief in racial and sexual equality; adopt its secular and scientific world view; and cultivate the technocratic, multicultural, global outlook required of those who keep the machinery of hyper-capitalism humming. Or, throw your ...
It would be a great time to reform the benefit system, according to former Deputy Chief Economic Advisor at the Treasury, Tony Burton. He argues the complexity of benefit system means that it’s failing to achieve its difficult three core objectives, which form an “iron triangle”.New Zealand’s benefit ...
Tax Justice UK, September 2020 Serious tax reform is on the political agenda for the first time in decades due to the coronavirus crisis. As this debate hots up it is important to understand what people think about public spending, wealth and tax. Tax Justice UK, along with Survation and ...
Not Mucking Around: With upwards of 800 dead from the virus’s resurgence in the Australian state of Victoria, leniency is not on Premier Daniel Andrews’ agenda. The Victorian Police are cracking down hard on the protesters the Australian press has labelled "Covidiots".IMAGES OF POLICE, some in riot gear, others on ...
Although I had the fortune of being a graduate student of some of the foremost US nuclear strategists of the day (1970s) and later rubbed shoulders with Air Force and Naval officers who were entrusted with parts of the US nuclear arsenal, I seldom get to write or speak about ...
News that Zhenhua Data, an arm of China Zhenhua Electronics Group, a subsidiary of the military-connected China Electronic Information Industry Group (CETC), maintains a list of 800 New Zealanders on a “Overseas Key Information Database” that contains personal information on more than 2.4 million foreign individuals, has caused some consternation ...
Marie BecdelievreJanuary 2020. The number of news article mentioning coronavirus exploded and anxious voices whispered about a global pandemic.Whisper? To me, it was only a whisper. I tend to learn about the world through non-fiction books, conferences, and academic research rather than news and social media, so ...
Barbados is planning to remove the queen as head of state and become a republic in time for the 55th anniversary of its independence in 2021: Barbados has announced its intention to remove the Queen as its head of state and become a republic by November 2021. [...] Reading ...
At the 2017 election, the New Zealand Labour Party promised a Fees Free Policy for tertiary students. Basically, it would make the first year of university education free in 2018, with a second year in 2021, and a third in 2024. It also promised to restore Post-Graduate access to the ...
Climate Explained is a collaboration between The Conversation, Stuff and the New Zealand Science Media Centre to answer your questions about climate change.If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, please send it to climate.change@stuff.co.nzWhat is the impact of temperature increases in the tropics? ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Daisy Simmons It felt like 100 degrees in my in-laws’ Grass Valley, California, kitchen, but at least the lights were on and for the moment we were safely “distanced” from the Jones Fire. We’d just finished dessert, after pizza and a movie ...
A key part of our electoral funding regime is a requirement for some transparency around donations, on the basis that if we can find out who has bought our politicians (typically after we have voted for them) then everything is alright. There are a lot of problems with that regime ...
On “In Defense of Looting” Matt Taibibi takes an entertaining look at this generation of woke activists and how they compare with Abbie Hoffman the iconic anti-Vietnam war counter-culture figure of the 1960s On Thursday, August 27th, the same day Donald Trump formally accepted the Republican nomination, National Public Radio ...
When Parliament introduced the Emissions Trading Scheme, it was worried that carbon prices might get too high. So it introduced a "fixed price option", allowing polluters to pay the government $25 in the place of surrendering credits. The result was predictable: after we were thrown out of international carbon markets ...
The government will finally be requiring large New Zealand companies to disclose their climate change risks: New Zealand finance companies will be made to report on climate change risk, Climate Change Minister James Shaw has announced. The policy will force around 200 large financial organisations in New Zealand to ...
By Claire Grant, Genomics Aotearoa Communications ManagerCommunity consultation is becoming an increasingly important aspect of research programmes in New Zealand, and with that comes the art of relationship building. Engagement between scientists and user-groups is certainly nothing new. But as stakeholder involvement becomes more of a requirement for science, ...
Rebels In A Wrong Cause: The truly frightening thing about Jami-Lee Ross’s and Billy Te Kahika’s success in persuading thousands of New Zealanders that Covid-19 is just another trick, just another way of stealing away their power, is realising just how many of them once marched at the Left’s side. ...
In a couple of months, the 53rd Parliament will meet in Wellington, and approximately 120 MPs will be sworn in, many of them for the first time.They will all have political goals, some aligning with their party platforms, some not, some complex, and some simple, but they will gain one ...
Media Statement For Immediate Release 10th September 2020 The income and wealth inequality lobby group, “Closing the Gap” thinks the Labour proposal a great start says Peter Malcolm, a spokesperson for the group. But they need to be aware of what many of the rich do and of what do ...
ACT is pushing a "no-nonsense climate change plan". What does it involve? Repealing the Zero Carbon Act and Emissions Trading Scheme, reversing the fossil-fuel exploration ban, and allowing mining on conservation land. In other words, repealing any policy which might actually reduce emissions. Which is the very definition of nonsensical. ...
This blog post is a follow up to my recap of Al Gore's Climate Reality Leadership Training I recently participated in. One of the exercises we were asked to complete was to write about our respective "Climate Story". This is a slightly updated version to the one I had submitted during ...
New Zealand’s media and online politics often reflect the values of liberal and progressive agendas. According to Liam Hehir, the current proposals to lower the voting age to 16 years – which the media overwhelming supports – is indicative of a wider mismatch with society, which is not good for ...
My wife and I, through a combination of good luck and good management, have managed to retire in comfortable circumstances. We celebrate our good fortune by making relatively small but regular donations to a range of good causes – to rescue services like the rescue helicopters, St John’s Ambulance and ...
Over the weekend, Labour released its welfare policy: an increase in benefit abatement thresholds. And that's it. Faced with clear evidence of ongoing hardship among beneficiaries and a call from its on Welfare Expert Advisory Group to raise core benefits by between 12 percent and 47 percent, Labour's response is ...
by Gearóid Ó Loingsigh (Bogota; 09/11/2020) The murder of Javier Ordoñez in the neighbourhood of Villa Luz in Bogotá, Colombia at the hands of two policemen brings to the fore the issue of police violence and its function in society. First of all we should be clear that we are ...
Story of the Week... La Niña Update... Toon of the Week... Quote of the Week... Coming Soon on SkS... Poster of the Week... SkS Week in Review... Story of the Week... Humans exploiting and destroying nature on unprecedented scale – reportAnimal populations have plunged an average of 68% ...
Gabrielle Po-Ching In November 1918, the cargo and passenger ship Talune travelled to Apia, Samoa from Auckland, carrying a number of passengers who had pneumonic influenza. From these passengers stemmed the biggest pandemic Samoa had ever seen. With around 8,500 deaths, over 20% of the country’s population at the ...
Prof Nick Wilson*, Prof Michael Baker In this blog the arguments for and against shifting all COVID-19 related isolation/quarantine facilities to a single air force base at Ōhakea are considered. The main advantage would be a reduction in the risk of border control failures, which can potentially involve outbreaks ...
So the Greens co-leader James Shaw recently made a mistake. In his role as Associate Finance Minister approving funding for “shovel-ready” projects, he fought hard for a private “Green school” to get funding to expand their buildings and, therefore, their student capacity. There are many problems with what he did: ...
Over the last three years there have been growing calls for the government to provide dental services under the health system – universal free dental care. This is because at the moment there’s an anomaly in which teeth are regarded as different from the rest of the body which means ...
A chronological listing of news articles linked to on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week: Sun, Sep 6, 2020 through Sat, Sep 12, 2020Editor's ChoiceWith California ablaze, Newsom blasts Trump administration for failing to fight climate change Trinity River Conservation Camp crew members drown ...
Dear Sir, As we head into the run up to the upcoming election I feel it is my duty to draw your attention to the lack of fun we are currently forced to ensure by the Adern regime. In their efforts to keep the nation’s essential workers, health compromised people, ...
It finally happened: about 13 years after first watching Al Gore’s documentary “An Inconvenient Truth” (AIT) in 2007 when it became available in Germany, I recently completed the Climate Reality Leadership Corps Training! Participating in this particular training had been on my to-do list for quite some time but it ...
Windows 95 is famous for requiring the shutting down the system by clicking ‘start, like stopping your car by turning the ignition key on. Why are so many interfaces so user-unfriendly? The Covid app to register your entering premises can be so clumsy. Sometimes I have signed in, sat down ...
Is the 2020 election result really the foregone conclusion that the polls and commentators are suggesting? Josh Van Veen suggests otherwise, pointing to some of the shortcomings of opinion polling, which could ready some politicians to say “bugger the pollsters” on election night. In November 1993, opinion polls foretold ...
Back in 2019, six select committees of the UK Parliament established a Citizen's Assembly to investigate how to respond to climate change. The Assembly's deliberations were forced online by the pandemic, but it has finally reported back, and overwhelmingly supports strong action: Taxes that increase as people fly further ...
I am feeling a bit impish today and so for no particular reason I thought I would share this thought, which I first posted over on twitter: “Hurricanes, wildfires, floods, heatwaves, street protests, armed vigilante militias, a lethal pandemic and a corrupt authoritarian using the federal government for partisan and ...
Wayne Mapp (Photo: Tsmith.nz via Wikimedia) A former Minister of Defence says the government was too slow to involve the New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) in New Zealand’s response to Covid-19. But Wayne Mapp, a National MP from 1996-2011 who served as Minister of Defence for three ...
Transport is our second biggest polluter after agriculture, making up 17% of our national emissions. Cars and trucks emit 15 million tons of CO2 every year. So, if we're serious about tackling climate change, we need to eliminate this entirely. Public transport and better urban design will be a key ...
Five things we’ve learnt 1. We know where the virus ultimately came from We know that the virus originally came from bats, and most probably a species of horseshoe bat in South East Asia. However, the spike protein in SARS-CoV-2, which allows the virus to attach to cells and infect ...
The Greens' greatest disappointment while in government this term has been the failure to implement a ban on mining on conservation land. Promised by Jacinda Ardern immediately after gaining power, it had long been assumed that the problem was NZ First (who have a long history of environmental vandalism). But ...
If they get into Parliament, everyone expects the Greens to form a coalition with Labour. But James Shaw has said that that might not be the case, and that they might instead choose to sit on the cross-benches: The Greens are prepared to forego a coalition or confidence and ...
Chantal Denise Pagel, Auckland University of Technology; Mark Orams, Auckland University of Technology, and Michael Lueck, Auckland University of TechnologyThree people were injured last month in separate humpback whale encounters off the Western Australia coast. The incidents happened during snorkelling tours on Ningaloo Reef when swimmers came too close ...
Den Of Thieves: They describe themselves, and the money-making rackets they dignify with the name of church, “Christian”, but these ravening wolves are no such thing. The essence of the Christian faith is the giving of love – not the taking of money. It is about opening oneself to the ...
David Pomeroy, University of Canterbury; Kay-Lee Jones, University of Canterbury; Mahdis Azarmandi, University of Canterbury, and Sara Tolbert, University of CanterburyAcademic streaming in New Zealand schools is still common, but according to recent reports it is also discriminatory and racist. Also known as tracking, setting and ability grouping, streaming ...
A New Holy-Day: Perhaps, by accepting this gift of Matariki from the first arrivals in Aotearoa, we late arrivals, shorn of our ancestors’ outlandish fleeces, can draw strength from the accumulated human wisdom of our adopted home. Perhaps, by celebrating Matariki, we can learn to take ownership of our colonial ...
If there was any doubt left, we can surely call it now. Time and date. End of. Finito. Perhaps you thought you saw a flickering eyelid or a finger move? You were wrong. Labour has given up on tax reform for the foreseeable future. One of the key remaining left/right ...
Will the rich get richer under Labour’s latest tax policy? Based on the analysis in reaction to yesterday’s announcement, the answer would seem to be yes. The consensus from commentators is that inequality and severe economic problems will remain unchanged or even be made worse by Labour’s new policy. Although ...
Labour has released its energy policy, and its basicly business as usual: bring forward the 100% renewable target to 2030, build pumped storage if the business case stacks up, restore the thermal ban and clean car standard (but not the feebate scheme), and spread a bit of money around to ...
What's wrong with Labour? The end of yesterday's RNZ health debate says it all: Do you have private health insurance? Reti: "I do." Hipkins: "Yes, I do." Hipkins is Minister of Health. But it turns out that he won't be waiting in the queue with the rest ...
McKayla HollowayThe helicopter carries a team of four Lakes380 scientists and me; we hug the Gneiss rock walls that tower over Lake Manapouri. It’s arguably one of New Zealand’s most well-known lakes – made famous by the ‘Save Manapouri’ campaign of the 1970s. My chest is drawn back into ...
Rainy-Day Man: Is Labour’s tax policy a disappointment? Of course it is! But it’s the best the Traditional Left is going to get. Why? because Labour’s pollsters are telling them that upwards of 200,000 women over the age of 45 years have shifted their allegiance from National to Labour. (Where else, ...
When we last left our intrepid Drow Rogue, he was sitting in a tavern with his companions, only for a crazy Paladin to burst in, and start screaming about the Naga. It soon turned out that ...
Slight tweak to New Research Articles in NR are categorized by domain, roughly. This introduces the problem of items that don't neatly fit in one slot, or that have significance in more than one discipline (happily becoming more frequent as the powerful multiplier of interdisciplinary cooperation is tapped more frequently). ...
Today AstraZeneca pushed the pause button on its late-stage trials of a COVID-19 vaccine. A clinical trial participant has experienced a serious health event and an investigation is underway to determine the cause. What does it mean? A cautious approach – trials can halt to assess safety data With over ...
Kaya Klop-Toker, University of Newcastle; Alex Callen, University of Newcastle; Andrea Griffin, University of Newcastle; Matt Hayward, University of Newcastle, and Robert Scanlon, University of NewcastleOn an island off the Queensland coast, a battle is brewing over the fate of a small population of goats. The battle positions the ...
Dr Ben Gray* This blog discusses what will be needed to operationalise the End of Life Choice Act in the event that it is approved at referendum. It argues that this will take significant resources. Judging by the experience in Oregon it is likely that this may only benefit ...
Nau mai, haere mai – welcome to our newest addition to Sciblogs: Tuhia ki te rangi. Over the eleven years Sciblogs has been operating, the face of science communication has changed dramatically. Where a decade ago there was a burgeoning number of scientists and other experts looking to stretch their ...
I'm grappling with my sheer fucking anger over Labour's pathetic tax policy. Yes, it utterly contradicts their pretence of being a "centre-left" party and shows that they have no interest whatsoever in fixing any of the problems facing New Zealand. Yes, its self-inflicted helplessness, which will allow them to cry ...
Ariadna Matamoros-Fernández, Queensland University of Technology and D. Bondy Valdovinos Kaye, Queensland University of TechnologyA disturbing video purporting to show a suicide is reportedly doing the rounds on the popular short video app TikTok, reigniting debate about what social media platforms are doing to limit circulation of troubling material. ...
Labour announced its tax policy today: a new top tax rate of 39% on income over $180,000. And that's it. No intermediate rate between the current top rate of 33% at $70,000 and the new one. No land tax. No wealth tax. Nothing (in fact worse than nothing, because they ...
Climate Explained is a collaboration between The Conversation, Stuff and the New Zealand Science Media Centre to answer your questions about climate change.If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, please send it to climate.change@stuff.co.nzMethane is a shorter-lived greenhouse gas – why do we ...
Most mornings, when we’re at home, my wife and I will have coffee on our deck. I am the barista of the household and I make the coffee, the way we like it, on our espresso machine. This winter we have sat with our coffee, day after day, in glorious ...
Guest post by Gleb TsipurskyHow do we get politicians to stop lying? How do we get private citizens to stop sharing fake news on social media? A new book, Pro Truth: A Pragmatic Plan to Put Truth Back Into Politics, provides an answer, documenting a new Pro Truth movement centered ...
Back in February, Stuff revealed that the government was planning to review industrial allocations under the Emissions Trading Scheme, due to concerns it was over-subsidising pollution and causing windfall gains for polluters. Now, it looks like that work is finally going ahead. Late last month, the government issued calls for ...
National’s ‘alternative budget’ that includes huge cuts to the government’s operating allowance would risk gutting critical public services, and put health, education and nature at dire risk. ...
Data released this week shows that, while New Zealand is not immune to the economic impacts of the global pandemic, our strong health response has meant we’ve been able to get our economy going faster than many other countries. ...
This year’s election is on 17 October - and it’s coming up fast! With one month to go until Election Day, we’ve come up with 17 ways you, your friends and family can get involved in our campaign and help Labour keep New Zealand moving. ...
PREFU has given a good insight into what was required to ensure New Zealanders were largely supported to continue work and remain healthy during COVID-19, but it is clear we need additional revenue raising measures ongoing, Green Party Co-leader James Shaw said today. ...
The Green Party is disappointed with the Labour Party’s decision to reverse their three free years education policy and back down on their commitment to postgraduate student allowances. ...
In the first two years of our term in Government, we gave teachers record pay rises as a way of recognising the lack of adequate adjustments over the previous decade and the significant role they play in the lives of children and young people. We also increased the number of ...
Labour has a proud history of supporting working New Zealanders, whether through the implementation of the 40hr work week or the introduction of the Working for Families package. ...
The Green Party welcome Labour’s commitment to extend the living wage to Government contractors, but will push for Fair Pay Agreements across industries in the next Government so more New Zealanders can earn a dignified income. ...
The Green Party is urging the Government to act on its commitment to te reo Māori, by making it a core subject up to year 10, and including te reo courses in the Targeted Training and Apprenticeships scheme. ...
We're officially back to the campaign for the 2020 General Election. The campaign may look a little different this year, but our candidates are still getting out and about in their communities and spreading the word about how another term of Labour will keep New Zealand moving in the right ...
You might have heard a bit of discussion about Government debt lately, as experts weigh in on the COVID-19 economic recovery. If you’re wondering why it’s such a contested topic, or even if you’re unsure of what Government debt actually is, then read on - we’ve got you covered! ...
The Green Party has released its Farming for the Future Plan, including a $297m fund to support farmers and growers to transition to climate-friendly practices. ...
We believe every New Zealander deserves the chance to make an informed decision on Election Day. We’ve answered some of the most common questions on our 2020 tax policy, including how much money will be raised from our new top tax rate, and how this will be used to control ...
The Green Party says Labour’s energy policy is a step in the right direction, but the Greens would go further and faster to meaningfully tackle the climate crisis. ...
All this tax talk leaving you a bit dazed and confused? Read below to find out more about our progressive tax system and what Labour's policy means for you. ...
We’re committed to managing the Government’s books responsibly and keeping debt under control while supporting our people and our economy through the 1-in-100 year shock caused by COVID-19. ...
The Labour Party has moved towards more progressive income tax, but is not addressing the growing wealth gap and inequality in Aotearoa. Labour’s new revenue policy also doesn’t help pay for the necessary response to the COVID-19 crisis, Green Party Co-leader James Shaw said today. ...
As New Zealanders we are proud of who we are, what we stand for, and the way we weave together different worlds and cultures to create our unique national identity. ...
It is appalling and negligent that landlords are being encouraged to keep their properties cold and damp until after the election, as advised by the NZ Property Investors Federation, Green Party Co-leader Marama Davidson said today. ...
People planning to head outdoors now have a resource that lets them know how accessible an area is for people with varying levels of mobility, Minister of Conservation Eugenie Sage announced today. The Halberg Foundation, Sensibel, and the Department of Conservation (DOC) have launched Accessibel, a new tool which helps ...
One of the most significant battle sites of the 1860s Land Wars will receive $2.96 million from the Provincial Growth Fund to improve the site and help tell the New Zealand story to visitors, Māori Development Minister Nanaia Mahuta and Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones have announced. Nanaia Mahuta ...
The journey towards recognising Māori as an official language and taonga has been captured as a web series and launched today during Te Wiki o te Reo Māori, announced Associate Arts, Culture and Heritage Minister Carmel Sepuloni. “Te reo Māori is a living language, and understanding its significance, and pathways to ...
Today’s better-than-forecast GDP figures show the expected impact of the decision to act quickly to protect New Zealanders from the global COVID-19 pandemic. GDP fell 12.2% in the June quarter from March, reflecting decisions to close New Zealand’s borders and enter Alert Level 4. “This result was better than the ...
The Government is investing $39.7 Million over four years to support the educational needs of Pacific learners and families in the regions hardest hit by COVID-19, with Auckland getting an immediate boost, Associate Minister of Education Jenny Salesa says. “Like all New Zealanders Pacific families want learners to do well ...
New Zealand’s goal of 100,000 kiwi by 2030 is being helped by an extra $19.7 million in funding to accelerate iwi and community efforts to protect kiwi, Minister of Conservation Eugenie Sage announced. “$19.7 million of Jobs for Nature funding is being invested in kiwi conservation activities including increased predator ...
Ensuring New Zealanders can get the best deal on their electricity takes a step in the right direction today with the South Island launch of the EnergyMate pilot run by the Electricity Retailers’ Association, says Minister of Energy and Resources, Dr Megan Woods. EnergyMate is an industry-led programme providing coaching ...
Minister for Women Julie Anne Genter announced today that the Government has reached its target of 50 percent on women on state sector board and committees – setting a new record level of women on state sector boards. “This Government is committed to having more women in leadership roles - ...
Transport Minister Phil Twyford released today the final Government Policy Statement on land transport (GPS) 2021 which outlines the planned $48 billion investment in services and infrastructure over the next decade. “The final GPS supports our Government’s five-point plan for economic recovery by confirming our record investments in transport infrastructure ...
Three ambitious and cutting-edge research programmes that will lift New Zealand’s advanced energy technology research capability over seven years, have been supported by Government today, says Research, Science and Innovation Minister Megan Woods. The projects will each receive a share of $40.7 million investment from the Strategic Science Investment Fund. ...
The critical area for forensic examination known as Pit Bottom in Stone has been reached in what is a major milestone for the Pike River re-entry project, Minister Responsible for Pike River Re-entry Andrew Little announced. “The infrastructure located in Pit Bottom in Stone is of very significant interest in ...
The Government is working on how New Zealand’s retirement income policies and settings can best support Kiwis in light of the COVID-19 economic recovery, with the help of the Retirement Commissioner’s latest review, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Kris Faafoi said. “The Retirement Commissioner’s three-yearly review into New Zealand’s retirement ...
A new digital hub and development centre in Murupara will be instrumental in growing the region’s productivity, said Under-Secretary for Regional Economic Development Fletcher Tabuteau at the official opening of two community initiatives today. “I’m pleased to be here celebrating a significant milestone for two projects set to make a ...
PREFU shows economy doing better than forecast Unemployment to peak at 7.8%, down from 9.8% forecast in the Budget Year-to-June accounts show tax revenue, debt and OBEGAL better than forecast Global forecast downgraded as COVID-19 second waves and uncertainty grows Balanced plan to support critical public services, manage debt and ...
The Kāpiti Coast town of Ōtaki will receive $1.4 million in Government funding for two projects providing scores of jobs for locals while improving community facilities, Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones has announced. The Māoriland Charitable Trust will receive a $900,000 Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) grant to upgrade the ...
The Provincial Growth Fund will provide $11.88 million to fund fencing and waterway projects nationwide that will improve the environment and create jobs in their communities, Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones has announced. “These projects will create more than 100 jobs nationwide with work starting within the next couple ...
As part of the COVID-19 recovery, the Government has strengthened its procurement rules to ensure its annual $42 billion spend creates more jobs, uses more sustainable construction practices and results in better outcomes for Māori and Pasifika, Government Ministers announced today. Economic Development Minister Phil Twyford says the $42 ...
The Government is supporting a major upgrade of Timaru’s iconic Theatre Royal and the construction of a new connected Heritage Facility museum and exhibition space with $11.6 million from the Government’s Infrastructure Fund, Jacinda Ardern announced today. “We heard the call from the community and the council. The Theatre Royal ...
Chrissy Montague (formerly Armstrong), barrister of Auckland has been appointed as a District Court Judge with Family Court jurisdiction to be based in Wellington, Attorney-General David Parker announced today. Ms Montague commenced practice in Auckland in 1987 and went into general practice dealing with Wills, Estates, Trusts, Conveyancing, Relationship Property ...
A Proposal to provide for the development and operation of commercial film and video production facilities in areas of Christchurch has been given the go ahead. Hon Poto Williams, Associate Minister for Greater Christchurch Regeneration, has approved the Proposal, which was prepared and submitted by Regenerate Christchurch. Minister Williams ...
As part of the Government’s focus on building closer partnerships with Māori and enhancing the quality of, and access to, Māori medium education, a payment of $8 million will be made to Te Wānanga o Raukawa in partial recognition of its Waitangi Tribunal claim (WAI 2698), Associate Education Minister Kelvin ...
The Minister of Conservation Eugenie Sage has announced a $19 million investment over four years in an important forest restoration project involving a partnership between the Department of Conservation, iwi/hapū, the Bay of Plenty and Waikato Regional Councils, community conservation groups and organisations such as Forest and Bird across the ...
New Zealand will be the first country in the world to require the financial sector to report on climate risks, the Minister for Climate Change James Shaw announced today. The changes build on the huge progress this Government has made to tackle the climate crisis. “Today is another step on ...
Economic activity across the Auckland region and the country bounced back to levels experienced under Alert Level 1 following Auckland’s move out of Alert Level 3, analysis in the Treasury’s latest Weekly Economic Update shows. The analysis of economic data since Auckland’s move out of Level 3 shows: Auckland card ...
Takiri mai te ata, ka ao, ka ao, ka awatea, tihei mauriora! Tātou katoa ngā iwi o Aotearoa, tēnā koutou! Tēnā tātou e whakanuia ana i te wiki nei, te wiki o te reo Māori Greeting to you all from Otepoti, Dunedin. This week is the Māori Language week and ...
More mental health and addiction services are available for young New Zealanders in Rotorua and Taupō, Wairarapa, South Canterbury, Dunedin and Southland from next month, Health Minister Chris Hipkins and Associate Health Minister Julie Anne Genter say. “The Government is serious about making sure New Zealanders struggling with mental health ...
The Manuherekia catchment in Central Otago is the third exemplar catchment to be targeted as part of the Government’s plan to clean up waterways by supporting community-led programmes. Environment Minister David Parker said the Manuherekia catchment is vitally important to the people of Central Otago. “The Manuherekia rises in the ...
The Government has agreed on a preferred design for the new Dunedin Hospital featuring two separate buildings, and has provided funding for the next stages of work. Minister of Health Chris Hipkins says Cabinet has approved in principle the detailed business case for the new hospital, giving people in ...
New Zealanders across the country are set to mark history as part of the Māori Language Week commemorations led by Te Taura Whiri i te reo Māori this year. Māori Development Minister, Nanaia Mahuta says the initiative will mark history for all the right reasons including making te reo Māori ...
More than 1000 teachers, support staff and school leaders have graduated from a programme designed to grow their capability to use te reo Māori in their teaching practice, as part of the Government’s plan to integrate te reo Māori into education, Associate Education Minister Kelvin Davis announced today. Being trialled ...
The Minister for Pacific Peoples, Aupito William Sio, says the Toloa Tertiary Scholarships which aims to encourage more Pacific student numbers participating and pursuing STEM-related studies in 2021, are now open. “These tertiary scholarships are administrated by the Ministry for Pacific Peoples (MPP), and are part of MPP’s overall Toloa ...
Four Bay of Plenty timber businesses will receive investments totalling nearly $22 million through the Provincial Growth Fund to boost the local economy and create jobs, Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones has announced. Rotorua-based sawmill Red Stag Wood Solutions will receive a $15 million loan to develop an engineered ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters has announced that New Zealand is exploring the viability of working with partners to conduct a search for the black box on the Gulf Livestock 1. “We know how much it would mean to the families of those on the ship to understand more about ...
Infrastructure Minister Shane Jones has today announced the Government is supporting the creation of new marine infrastructure in northern Te Tairāwhiti on the North Island’s East Coast. The Government has approved in principle an allocation of up to $45 million to support the construction of a marine transport facility at ...
E Epineha. Ka tangi te iwi, ki a koe e ngaro nei i te kitenga kanohi. Kua mokemoke to whānau, to iwi, te motu whanui. Haere ki o matua, tipuna. Haere ki te okiokinga tuturu mo te tangata. Haere i runga i te aroha o ngā reanga kei muri i ...
Catch limits will be increased for 26 fisheries and reduced for three fisheries as part of a regular round of reviews designed to ensure ongoing sustainability of fisheries resources. Fisheries Minister Stuart Nash has announced decisions following a review of catch limits and management controls for 29 fish stocks. The ...
The Sport and Recreation Minister Grant Robertson says while it is disappointing the Rugby Championship will not be held in New Zealand, the country will host two Bledisloe Cup games in October and has the capacity in managed isolation facilities to host other international sporting events. “We offered flexible quarantine ...
Up to 350 more people in regional New Zealand will gain a pathway to trades training through a $14 million government investment in apprenticeships, Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones announced today. The apprenticeships are part of the $40 million Regional Apprenticeship Initiative (RAI) announced in June. The funding comes ...
A Government brokered solution to the parking woes at Christchurch Hospital will deliver more than 1000 new car parks near the Hospital for staff and visitors while also ensuring the completion of the Metro Sports Facility, say Minister for Christchurch Regeneration, Dr Megan Woods. The new parking package is made ...
The Minister of Immigration has announced adjustments to immigration instructions to provide more clarity to the assessment criteria for employers wanting to request a border exception for their workers under the ‘other critical worker’ category. “As New Zealand continues on the path to recovery from COVID-19, it is important that ...
By RNZ News New Zealand reported no new cases of covid-19 today – for the first time since early August. There was no media conference today. In a statement, the Health Ministry said the number of active cases had dropped to 70, with seven more people now recovered from the ...
By RNZ Pacific Pro-independence advocates in New Caledonia say a vote for full sovereignty next month would allow the country to step up onto the international stage. The next referendum on independence from France will be held on October 4 and determine whether New Caledonia will obtain the powers still ...
With the Māori Party and the Advance Party both vying to push out Labour's Kelvin Davis from the northern-most Māori seat, RNZ asked Te Tai Tokerau voters who they would vote for. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Marcus Carter, Senior Lecturer in Digital Cultures, SOAR Fellow., University of Sydney Facebook has announced the latest version of its successful standalone virtual reality (VR) headset, the Oculus Quest 2. The new device packs more computing power and a sharper screen than ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Hayen, Professor of Biostatistics, University of Technology Sydney A preliminary study, posted online this week by researchers at the Australian National University and elsewhere, estimates 71,000 Australians had COVID-19 by mid-July — 60,000 more than official number of cases diagnosed by ...
Analysis by Keith Rankin. Israel, Czechia, and French Polynesia. Chart by Keith Rankin. In mid-September, new cases of Covid19 are higher than they have ever been. (See here for previous weekly charts, which included the ‘little’ countries.) While this still-rising incidence is partly due to more testing, ...
News about the Provincial Growth Fund, which often features in our daily Latest from the Beehive reports, typically involve announcements of the latest grants or loans. Today Māori Development Minister Nanaia Mahuta and Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones announced a battle site of the 1860s Land Wars will receive ...
Labour’s attack on National’s prudent plan to grow the economy, pay down debt faster, and put more money in Kiwis’ pockets shows how clueless they are when it comes to plotting a roadmap out of this economic crisis, National’s Finance spokesperson ...
Netflix drama Ratched aims to rehabilitate the villain from One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, but would do better in the electric chair.Nurse Ratched is, quite rightly, one of the most famous movie villains of all time. The source of all of McMurphy’s despair and angst in One Flew Over ...
Board chair Simon Gutschlag in a statement said they would contribute "vast, real-world experience to steering New Zealand out of the trouble it's in". ...
Learning Māori is first and foremost about having fun, according to Precious Clark, director of Maurea Consulting LTD, in a Newshub report on learning te reo Maori and embracing tikanga. “It’s about giving people the tools so they can pronounce our words correctly and it’s about giving them the confidence ...
The Fold host Duncan Greive speaks to NZ On Air’s new chief executive Cameron Harland about his first six months in the job and the findings of the recent Where Are the Audiences? report.Cameron Harland started his new job as the chief executive of NZ On Air in March, the ...
New Conservative is incredibly proud to announce its 24-strong party list for the 2020 General Election, and to confirm that the party is standing a candidate in every electorate. This includes candidates in every Maori electorate, at the request of ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra University of Canberra Professorial Fellow Michelle Grattan and University of Canberra Assistant Professor Caroline Fisher discuss the week in politics. This week the pair discuss the numerous energy announcements made by the government, including a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Catherine Speck, Professor, Art History, University of Adelaide Review: If the future is to be worth anything, curated by Patrice Sharkey and Rayleen Forester, ACE Open “If the future is to be worth anything” rings true as a question for many in ...
The Forest Owners Association says taxpayers are likely to have to pay billions of dollars for imported carbon credits, if planting production forests is to be restricted with the idea of protecting farming. The Environment Minister, David Parker has said ...
The Electoral Commission has said 2564 voting places will be available for the 17 October general election, though more are being finalised in hopes to get that number above 2800. ...
Analysis: The recession draws strong criticism from opposition parties, Labour dumps its fees-free policy, Jami-Lee Ross decides to try to slip into Parliament as a list MP and National delivers its health policy. ...
Tara Ward chats to Farmer Harry, one of the Australian bachelors looking for love on reality series The Farmer Wants a Wife. All Farmer Harry wants is a woman as reliable as his John Deere tractor, and Farmer Wants a Wife might be the answer to his farmy prayers. A chaotic ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Larisa Labzin, Research Fellow, Institute for Molecular Bioscience, The University of Queensland People infected with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, can spread the virus when they speak, sing, cough, sneeze or even just breathe. Scientists think face masks help limit virus ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alexandra Louise Uitdenbogerd, Senior Lecturer in Computer Science, RMIT University You might have seen a recent article from The Guardian written by “a robot”. Here’s a sample: I know that my brain is not a “feeling brain”. But it is capable ...
The Taxpayers’ Union is calling out RNZ for not having a single right wing voice amidst its chorus of left wing political commentators announced for its election night coverage . The panellists include: Tau Henare (Independent Maori Statutory ...
Some party leaders are adjusting better than others on a campaign trail troubled by Covid-19 restrictions. RNZ political reporters give a perspective from the campaign trail. ...
Covid-19 and its economic impacts have wreaked havoc on New Zealanders’ mental health – especially in the workplace. But amid all the chaos and noise, there are small ways to keep yourself present and calm.It’s been nearly a year since Covid-19 first emerged into our lives, and the devastating mental ...
By RNZ Pacific Bougainville’s retiring president says some candidates are bullying or offering inducements to buy their way into the new parliament. John Momis first raised his concerns while speaking during Papua New Guinea’s 45th anniversary celebrations on Wednesday. Momis praised the success of PNG’s constitution, and contrasted this with ...
In the first of a weekly column on the campaign trail, James Elliott looks at the art of the slogan during a Covid election, and warns not to count political chickens before they've hatched There’s an election campaign on. Apparently. It’s an election campaign unlike any other. Shopping malls are not ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle O’Shea, Senior Lecturer Management, Western Sydney University The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has long tried to insulate itself from politics in society, but wider issues have always been a part of sport – including the Olympics. Sometimes political statements have been ...
More than 2,800 voting places locations have been reconfirmed for the 2020 General Election and referendums. Voting Services National Manager Graeme Astle says reconfirmation of election plans has gone well since the election date was changed and preparations ...
The Ministry of Health’s notification that disability support providers will receive a paltry 1% contract price increase after 3 years of nil increases shows the need for political parties to step up with increased disability funding this election. ...
The former wetland of Cranford Basin was all set to create 400 new properties as part of an exciting, and much needed, regeneration plan in Christchurch. Three years on, the land remains empty. What went wrong?Picture this: it’s the year 2020. In the north of Christchurch, the first of over ...
Temporary tax breaks will put more money back into the economy if people can afford to spend and use the opportunity to invest in their own futures, says Auckland Business Chamber CEO, Michael Barnett, commenting on National’s alternative budget plans. ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND 1 Hope in Hell: A Decade to Confront the Climate Emergency by Jonathon Porritt (Simon & Schuster, ...
Responding to the tax cuts in the National Party’s alternative budget , New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union spokesman Jordan Williams says: “These income tax cuts are big and bold. It’s a welcome and appropriate response to what is likely to be the worst ...
Rural road users are in for a continued bumpy ride with no extra money for local road improvements in the final Government Policy Statement on Land Transport 2021. "The final GPS released this week has investment in local road improvements ...
It defeated US Presidents Jimmy Carter and Barack Obama but this week Donald Trump did the almost-impossible: bringing two Arab states together with Israel. Since taking office in January 2017, Trump’s foreign policy achievements had counted for zero. Not since the Camp David accords of 1978 and 2000 or the ...
Dr Efraim Zuroff has joined the Holocaust and Antisemitism Foundation, Aotearoa New Zealand, as a member of its International Council. Zuroff’s recent comments on the “local hero” status of Mt Hutt’s former Waffen-SS soldier Willi Huber ...
New Zealand’s civil contractors welcome increased investment in transport funding, announced in today’s Government Policy Statement on Land Transport (GPS) 2021 . CCNZ Chief Executive Peter Silcock said the GPS rebalanced priorities so the country’s ...
National has returned to its tried and trusted policy of tax cuts, offering up short-term relief for middle-income Kiwis - but its ambitious debt target has been scrapped, while it will have less money up its sleeve for future spending The National Party has unveiled its fiscal plan for the 2020 ...
The government have announced they will be investing $39.7 million over four years to support the education needs of Pacific learners and families, hit hardest by Covid-19. ...
The challenges of postnatal discussion are increasingly part of our conversations around birth. But too often the mental distresses encountered while pregnant are misunderstood or unspoken.I didn’t know about antenatal anxiety until I had it. I’d been concerned about postnatal depression, and prepared to handle it as best I could. But ...
A new poem from Dunedin poet Emer Lyons.Elegy for God’s Own Countryi too remember the sea of my insides waving at my face but why would anyone want to tame a magpie?it was during the gorse burn the intimacy of your hands as delicate as with new born lambsi’m afraid ...
Analysis by Keith Rankin. DefinitionKeith Rankin. ‘Balance sheet recession’ is an innocuous name for a very big economic event. It represents a particular kind of contraction of a country’s economy – or of the global economy – in which one of the most important laws of ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nicole Curato, Associate Professor, Centre for Deliberative Democracy and Global Governance, University of Canberra Developments in gene editing are often met with moral panic. Every new announcement raises outrage over the audacity of scientists “playing God”. The existence of mutant mosquitoes and ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mehmet Ozalp, Associate Professor in Islamic Studies, Director of The Centre for Islamic Studies and Civilisation and Executive Member of Public and Contextual Theology, Charles Sturt University Syrian President Bashar al-Assad may have successfully warded off a nine-year rebellion against his government, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Suresh Mahalingam, Principal Research Leader, Emerging Viruses, Inflammation and Therapeutics Group, Menzies Health Institute Queensland, Griffith University The World Health Organisation lists about 180 COVID-19 vaccines being developed around the world. Each vaccine aims to use a slightly different approach to prepare ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Yeshe Colliver, Lecturer in early childhood, Macquarie University Archie! Don’t run away… you should be in bed already and we still need to brush your tee-eeeth! Your four year old runs down the hallway without his pants on, knocking over ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Richard Holden, Professor of Economics, UNSW The point is, ladies and gentleman, that greed – for lack of a better word – is good. Greed is right. Greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit. Greed, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emily van der Nagel, Lecturer in Social Media, Monash University Sex is fascinating, important, and sometimes scary. Sex is a normal part of life. Yet, the multiplicity and richness of sexual practices on social media rarely make it into everyday conversations. Nudes, ...
Welcome to The Spinoff’s Election Live for September 18, bringing you the latest on election 2020 and other NZ news. The essential campaign dates are here. For all you need to know about the cannabis referendum click here. For the assisted dying referendum click here. Explore the parties’ pledges at Policy. I’m ...
Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Long forecast recession finally arrives, NZ First releases list for election, and scramble to come up with gathering guidelines for Auckland tertiary institutes.It almost doesn’t make sense to call this news, but the country has officially tipped over into recession. The reason ...
Supply Chain Policy Statement While family and I have been stuck here in Florida, waiting for travel to be safer to New Zealand, there has been a lot to learn. I experienced this pandemic where there’s over 3,000 new cases every day. From here, I watch ...
ACT would borrow $76 billion less than Labour this decade, new numbers released this morning show. “Every other political party is in a race to spend more money. But every extra dollar government borrows today means higher taxes or fewer services ...
While Māori and Pākehā use cannabis at the same rate, Māori are four times more likely to do time in prison. This alone justifies a ‘yes’ vote in the referendum, writes Shane Te Pou COMMENT: Helen Clark has left nothing on the paddock when it comes to cannabis law reform. Just as the ...
Dylan Asafo asks why the NZ Government is doing nothing in the face of major human rights crises in the Pacific In April 2018, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern addressed the Paris Institute of Political Studies to talk about the impacts of climate change in the Pacific Islands and said: “We are a ...
As millions of posts and images violating Facebook's rules against hate speech have been found in Facebook groups, the company is seeking to make small changes to the way the feature works. ...
Why was a Hector’s dolphin death publicly notified five months after it happened? David Williams reports The Department of Conservation is being accused of hiding an endangered dolphin’s death for political purposes. On March 4, Fisheries staff within the Ministry for Primary Industries notified DoC of a Hector’s dolphin caught ...
In the immediate coronavirus battle, we cannot afford to sacrifice long-term health priorities like obesity, heart and respiratory disease, and mental wellbeing, argues Jonathan Milne At just 25, Meletonga Talakai was clinically obese, with type 2 diabetes. Then, stuck in Level 4 lockdown in April, she began doing online workouts. ...
*Watch the full video in the player below*This year's pandemic has been a lesson in isolation. Melanie Reid and Jo Galer took a trip back in time to visit the relics of another infectious and isolating disease - a tuberculosis sanatorium tucked away in Central Otago back country. Under the big ...
Something strange is happening in NZ. The economy has experienced a devastating contraction and everything is still uncertain - but the house market is booming. ...
Cristo Tofa is already making a difference in the lives of many young people, but she knows she can inspire them even more by playing at next year's Rugby World Cup. On this day in exactly a year's time, Auckland Storm front rower Cristo Tofa could be lining up on her home ...
Dylan Asafo asks why the NZ Government is doing nothing in the face of major human rights crises in the Pacific In April 2018, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern addressed the Paris Institute of Political Studies to talk about the impacts of climate change in the Pacific Islands and said: “We are a ...
Winning an electorate seat might be more important than the party vote for TOP, but if they don't make it there a future tilt at council elections could be on the cards The Opportunities Party is eagerly hunting its "worm moment" in the former electorate of the man who tamed ...
They might agree on a lot, but the minor party scene is being roiled by conflict around the emergence of Advance NZ. And as Alex Braae reports, the Outdoors Party has suffered many casualties. With the election rapidly approaching, the Outdoors Party has been hit by a wave of candidate defections. ...
Sharon Brettkelly's sister Jody is living a drama-filled life in California where battling wildfires has been added to a year of pandemic lockdown, protests, riots, a heatwave and a fraught election. Will 2020 ever end? Wildfires, soaring temperatures, a summer of protests, a rogue leader and a pandemic. That's life ...
Open mike 23/06/2020 
Always to islanders danger Is what comes over the seas ‘Landfall in Unknown Seas’ (Allen Curnow)Six economic issues external to New Zealand, which will greatly impact upon us. 1. The Diminishing Global Dominance of the US. Since 1941 America has dominated the world economically and politically. Probably it could ...8 hours ago
By Geoffrey Miller New Zealand should continue to champion human rights in Belarus amidst an ongoing crackdown on protests by the country’s regime, former Prime Minister Helen Clark says. Protests in the country often referred to as ‘Europe’s last dictatorship’ erupted after the country’s disputed presidential elections on August 9 ...9 hours ago
Jacqui Maguire, registered clinical psychologist This podcast episode highlights how difficult it is to have effective conversations about euthanasia due to how polarised people’s views are. I’m a clinical psychologist, with a passion for science communication. In early 2020 I founded the podcast Mind Brew, with an aim to make psychological ...12 hours ago
In case anyone needed further convincing, there's another example today of why we need cameras on fishing boats: reported seabird bycatch doubled during a camera trial: Commercial fishers operating off Auckland's coast around vulnerable seabirds are twice as likely to report accidentally capturing them when cameras are on ...12 hours ago
Dangerous Times: This will be the choice confronting those coming of age in the 2020s. Embrace Neoliberalism’s belief in racial and sexual equality; adopt its secular and scientific world view; and cultivate the technocratic, multicultural, global outlook required of those who keep the machinery of hyper-capitalism humming. Or, throw your ...15 hours ago
Tax Justice UK, September 2020 Serious tax reform is on the political agenda for the first time in decades due to the coronavirus crisis. As this debate hots up it is important to understand what people think about public spending, wealth and tax. Tax Justice UK, along with Survation and ...17 hours ago
Although I had the fortune of being a graduate student of some of the foremost US nuclear strategists of the day (1970s) and later rubbed shoulders with Air Force and Naval officers who were entrusted with parts of the US nuclear arsenal, I seldom get to write or speak about ...1 day ago
2,082,476,000,000,000 Viability of greenhouse gas removal via the artificial addition of volcanic ash to the ocean (not open access, unfortunately) walks us through the numbers on a particular means of CO2 removal, addition of volcanic tephra to the ocean. The mechanism is straight chemistry and the cost is fully an order of ...2 days ago
At the 2017 election, the New Zealand Labour Party promised a Fees Free Policy for tertiary students. Basically, it would make the first year of university education free in 2018, with a second year in 2021, and a third in 2024. It also promised to restore Post-Graduate access to the ...3 days ago
On “In Defense of Looting” Matt Taibibi takes an entertaining look at this generation of woke activists and how they compare with Abbie Hoffman the iconic anti-Vietnam war counter-culture figure of the 1960s On Thursday, August 27th, the same day Donald Trump formally accepted the Republican nomination, National Public Radio ...4 days ago
In a couple of months, the 53rd Parliament will meet in Wellington, and approximately 120 MPs will be sworn in, many of them for the first time.They will all have political goals, some aligning with their party platforms, some not, some complex, and some simple, but they will gain one ...4 days ago
My wife and I, through a combination of good luck and good management, have managed to retire in comfortable circumstances. We celebrate our good fortune by making relatively small but regular donations to a range of good causes – to rescue services like the rescue helicopters, St John’s Ambulance and ...5 days ago
by Gearóid Ó Loingsigh (Bogota; 09/11/2020) The murder of Javier Ordoñez in the neighbourhood of Villa Luz in Bogotá, Colombia at the hands of two policemen brings to the fore the issue of police violence and its function in society. First of all we should be clear that we are ...5 days ago
So the Greens co-leader James Shaw recently made a mistake. In his role as Associate Finance Minister approving funding for “shovel-ready” projects, he fought hard for a private “Green school” to get funding to expand their buildings and, therefore, their student capacity. There are many problems with what he did: ...5 days ago
Dear Sir, As we head into the run up to the upcoming election I feel it is my duty to draw your attention to the lack of fun we are currently forced to ensure by the Adern regime. In their efforts to keep the nation’s essential workers, health compromised people, ...6 days ago-1f82146fa0d95608c5d921931b8dd46e7f0c9b1b/537110292.jpg?format=1500w)
Windows 95 is famous for requiring the shutting down the system by clicking ‘start, like stopping your car by turning the ignition key on. Why are so many interfaces so user-unfriendly? The Covid app to register your entering premises can be so clumsy. Sometimes I have signed in, sat down ...1 week ago
If there was any doubt left, we can surely call it now. Time and date. End of. Finito. Perhaps you thought you saw a flickering eyelid or a finger move? You were wrong. Labour has given up on tax reform for the foreseeable future. One of the key remaining left/right ...1 week ago
When we last left our intrepid Drow Rogue, he was sitting in a tavern with his companions, only for a crazy Paladin to burst in, and start screaming about the Naga. It soon turned out that ... 1 week ago
National’s ‘alternative budget’ that includes huge cuts to the government’s operating allowance would risk gutting critical public services, and put health, education and nature at dire risk. ...14 hours ago
Data released this week shows that, while New Zealand is not immune to the economic impacts of the global pandemic, our strong health response has meant we’ve been able to get our economy going faster than many other countries. ...1 day ago
People planning to head outdoors now have a resource that lets them know how accessible an area is for people with varying levels of mobility, Minister of Conservation Eugenie Sage announced today. The Halberg Foundation, Sensibel, and the Department of Conservation (DOC) have launched Accessibel, a new tool which helps ...11 hours ago
By RNZ News New Zealand reported no new cases of covid-19 today – for the first time since early August. There was no media conference today. In a statement, the Health Ministry said the number of active cases had dropped to 70, with seven more people now recovered from the ...3 hours ago
With the Māori Party and the Advance Party both vying to push out Labour's Kelvin Davis from the northern-most Māori seat, RNZ asked Te Tai Tokerau voters who they would vote for. ...6 hours ago
News about the Provincial Growth Fund, which often features in our daily Latest from the Beehive reports, typically involve announcements of the latest grants or loans. Today Māori Development Minister Nanaia Mahuta and Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones announced a battle site of the 1860s Land Wars will receive ...8 hours ago
Labour’s attack on National’s prudent plan to grow the economy, pay down debt faster, and put more money in Kiwis’ pockets shows how clueless they are when it comes to plotting a roadmap out of this economic crisis, National’s Finance spokesperson ...9 hours ago
Netflix drama Ratched aims to rehabilitate the villain from One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, but would do better in the electric chair.Nurse Ratched is, quite rightly, one of the most famous movie villains of all time. The source of all of McMurphy’s despair and angst in One Flew Over ...10 hours ago
Learning Māori is first and foremost about having fun, according to Precious Clark, director of Maurea Consulting LTD, in a Newshub report on learning te reo Maori and embracing tikanga. “It’s about giving people the tools so they can pronounce our words correctly and it’s about giving them the confidence ...10 hours ago
In the first of a weekly column on the campaign trail, James Elliott looks at the art of the slogan during a Covid election, and warns not to count political chickens before they've hatched There’s an election campaign on. Apparently. It’s an election campaign unlike any other. Shopping malls are not ...13 hours ago
National has returned to its tried and trusted policy of tax cuts, offering up short-term relief for middle-income Kiwis - but its ambitious debt target has been scrapped, while it will have less money up its sleeve for future spending The National Party has unveiled its fiscal plan for the 2020 ...16 hours ago
Issues of fairness and inclusion plagues minor parties in NZ's crowded political landscape. ...20 hours ago
Two banks picked the scale of NZ's fall in GDP but the Treasury was way out, plus Heartland bank tells the sharemarket it is being undervalued ...20 hours ago
While Māori and Pākehā use cannabis at the same rate, Māori are four times more likely to do time in prison. This alone justifies a ‘yes’ vote in the referendum, writes Shane Te Pou COMMENT: Helen Clark has left nothing on the paddock when it comes to cannabis law reform. Just as the ...21 hours ago
Dylan Asafo asks why the NZ Government is doing nothing in the face of major human rights crises in the Pacific In April 2018, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern addressed the Paris Institute of Political Studies to talk about the impacts of climate change in the Pacific Islands and said: “We are a ...21 hours ago
As millions of posts and images violating Facebook's rules against hate speech have been found in Facebook groups, the company is seeking to make small changes to the way the feature works. ...21 hours ago
Why was a Hector’s dolphin death publicly notified five months after it happened? David Williams reports The Department of Conservation is being accused of hiding an endangered dolphin’s death for political purposes. On March 4, Fisheries staff within the Ministry for Primary Industries notified DoC of a Hector’s dolphin caught ...21 hours ago
In the immediate coronavirus battle, we cannot afford to sacrifice long-term health priorities like obesity, heart and respiratory disease, and mental wellbeing, argues Jonathan Milne At just 25, Meletonga Talakai was clinically obese, with type 2 diabetes. Then, stuck in Level 4 lockdown in April, she began doing online workouts. ...21 hours ago
*Watch the full video in the player below* This year's pandemic has been a lesson in isolation. Melanie Reid and Jo Galer took a trip back in time to visit the relics of another infectious and isolating disease - a tuberculosis sanatorium tucked away in Central Otago back country. Under the big ...21 hours ago
Something strange is happening in NZ. The economy has experienced a devastating contraction and everything is still uncertain - but the house market is booming. ...21 hours ago
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Absolutely savage 🔥
You ain't seen savage..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7DKYML2MRs
The Dotard of Doltistan thinks he's running against Pelosi? Or are you, as our apparent resident deplorable Dotard enthusiast, under that delusion?
Either, good luck with that strategy.
What a difference a day makes
Sarah Cooper
say's the narrator. That cracked me up, no doubt all the women who he has taken advantage of have uttered the same words.
Isn't she great
I'm kinda disappointed nobody has done a "Hitler in his bunker" version of his return to the White House. Yet.
I found a caption generator and had some time to kill.
edit buggered if I can embed it though
https://captiongenerator.com/1888802/BOK-Centre-Downfall
Not bad. Several actual lolz. Needs a bunkerbaby and the caption to say Stalin when he does.
Guess it has to go on youtube for any chance of going viral.
lol typos and all.
😆
Oh wow.
Those attendance figures would have been even more humiliating if the campaign hadn't arranged travel ban waivers and flown in lots of people from outside the country. Including the man in possession of the world's most punchable face.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-farage-private-jets_n_5ef12513c5b6b30610066938
Best of luck to Coromandel Watchdog: https://thespinoff.co.nz/politics/22-06-2020/why-were-taking-the-government-to-court-over-mining-in-the-coromandel/
Greens vs Govt. Green parliamentarians will have to stand on the sidelines and applaud both sides.
I wouldn't put it past Robertson to think like that, but if Parker did too then he's not as smart as he seems. Jobs & money is an insufficient basis for such a decision. I'd be surprised if the court doesn't decide on that rationale.
Good on Catherine for her leadership initiative – I hope her analysis is correct. Just cos there's gold in them thar hills doesn't mean anyone has the right to destroy them to get it. Authorising foreign companies to do so seems even more loopy.
You bet. I've read about some of them in the past. Hard to believe these neoliberal buggers in the coalition remain determined not to learn the lessons…
It is not neo-liberalism to oppose what would have been the closure of the mine, with the loss of hundreds of jobs and the rapid decline of Waihi and Waihi beach. I recall what both these places were like before the mine.
The issues considered by the Ministers would have been considered any time in the last 100 years had the issue come up, so neoliberalism (a favourite prerogative of the far left) can't be a factor.
Well it would be good to be able to read the govt's justification, eh? I wonder if anyone ever did a poll of the locals. Similar situation as on the West Coast down south, no doubt: a majority who think jobs beat the environment and a minority with the opposite view. Perhaps there's a suitable compromise, but the court case seems evidence that it hasn't happened yet.
The justification of these things is capitalism – how to make rich people richer. They then sell that destruction to the people by saying that it will create jobs and the people buy it because, by and large, they're living in poverty and only have one way to get an income which is to go along with the destruction.
Wayne I lived in Waihi. We had Gadabouts shoe factory, Akrad Radio and TV factory, the school of mines became a mine museum,We had a helmet factory a cheese and milk factory, A large Ministry of works Depot etc. Waihi was full of work and life, including Farming and Kiwi fruit nearby. Blueberry farms and products, a Retirement home, a Retirement Village and hospital and good local shopping.
The mine was an important employer, but not the only one. The problems started in Roger Douglas's days, and were multiplied by Ruth Richardsons' actions. Finally Waihi was made poorer by the open cast mining and royalties going to the Hauraki Council mainly, rather than to the locals initially. Waihi suffered lowered water tables dust and noise/vibrations, and a good deal of anxiety about the tailings earth dam.. growing and growing.
Now there is anxiety about this being multiplied. Some homes have fallen in holes, or been bought to avoid court cases. The Gorge is shaky now, and an increase in road traffic won't improve that. So this decision is sadly employment and overseas earnings over communities and environment.
Work needed will overide all aspects
That mine employs about 400 direct Waihi people, and about another 400 local subcontractors.
That's in a town with a total population of 4,500 people.
Coromandel tourism features the mine as a place to tour through, like all the other mines that have featured in Waihi's past:
https://www.thecoromandel.com/towns/waihi/activities/culture-and-heritage/
In fact mining heritage is the only reason anyone outside of Waihi goes to Waihi. They go cycling through mining stuff, and ride the Waihi-Waikno railway – a mining railway.
Waihi is one of the founding centres of New Zealand's Labour Party and union movement.
https://nzhistory.govt.nz/politics/black-tuesday/the-1912-waihi-strike
The company contributes about $200,000 per your to local schools and preschools, and as a snapshot paid $255,000 in donations to local charities. Ain't no one replacing that if it goes.
22% of their staff identify as Maori. Probably worth having a chat with the Ngai Tuwharetoa marae if you wanted to shut it down.
So to be sure I like Minister Sage would object to mining on DoC land. I marched against it on Great Barrier under the previous government.
But stopping mining in Waihi would simply kill the town. Within five years it would be as much a ghost town as Blackball or Waiuta.
And of course in normal times you would expect the economy to absorb that. This isn't normal times, and they aren't coming back.
It's not like they're gong to bring back the Pye Television factory either.
Or Nambassa.
This isn't a government that's going to kill this mine when we're heading for 10% unemployed, economy tanking, no local job alternatives, an average population age of almost 50, and no other life known.
Hm, okay, I see their thinking. Well done. It'll be interesting to see how the court handles the case anyway. Sometimes Greenies do get rather purist on an issue where compromise makes more sense, and that could be the situation here.
Incidentally I checked out Blackball in my brand-new motorhome three years ago and was surprised to get a sense of it as developing place. Dunno why, but it was a definite impression. Maybe just folks renovating all over the place, rather than derelict…
Have you seen the streams of lycra-cyclists from Auckland coursing through the joint in summer? Mining trails the lot of them. Heritage is a weird thing.
Ah, but do the locals make money off them? If not, could be a viable alternative income stream. Wealthy Aucklanders supporting regional towns would be setting a good example to all…
The problem with basing an entire town/society on an extractive industry is that, eventually, there is no longer anything to extract and the town/society dies anyway. See Nauru:
We really seem to be determined not to learn the lessons of the past so as to maintain our failed socio-economic system.
It would be better if they did.
As you can see however Waihi is a town that has made the very best of its mining heritage. You should try those trails.
New Zealand isn't Nauru. Nauru decided to turn itself into Australia's jail, and is one of the most corrupt nations on earth.
Whereas Blackball learnt to make locally-sourced gourmet sausages.
https://www.blackballsalami.co.nz/sausages.php
Really?
Hmmm…. But, you said:
So, which is it?
If they've made the most of their mining heritage then stopping the mining won't kill the town.
That’s a pretty dumb comment. You’ve assumed that Waihi makes as much money from presenting its mining heritage as it does from the mining itself.
No I didn't. Ad implied that that was so through making ' the very best of its mining heritage.'
My point all along is that, once all the gold runs out, the town will die. Their little touristy thing may keep a family going afterwards but that'd be about it. It won't save the town.
So, if they want to save the town then they need to do something other than gold extraction.
No not really, many who worked there died of cancer caused by the work conditions of the day.
When a Fox News poll paints a right-wing candidate as a loser, he ought to know he's in deep shit, right? Is Trump capable of figuring it out? And taking the next step: "Hey, I'm a real cool leopard – I can change these spots!"
He’s gonna have to pull finger to earn his second term. Winning from that far behind can't be done via complacency. Sure, it made sense to assume Biden would fail due to his innate inability, but the hotshot hasn't yet realised the same logic applies to him too – as long as he keeps misreading situations and ignoring his advisers.
Trump is capable of working it out. He's worked out it's a fake poll. He doesn't need advisers to tell him that.
Wouldn't surprise me one bit. Delusion, reality, what's the difference? The guy has a track record of assuming he can persuade others to accept his view. Trouble is, the poll conforms to the usual polsci standard, so the stats basis represents reality sufficiently to persuade informed observers. He really does need such people on board to secure a second term. Faced with a choice between two flakes, voters will go for the lesser evil. He'll get the second term only by seeming the lesser evil – sufficiently.
Any advisor that tells him the truth he fires
Sleazy, racist, nutty old Biden, or Sleazy, racist, misogynist old Trump?
How great must it be to be a US voter.
Choices choices
So funny, trump retweets Max Blumenthal.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EdOhUGlEhGc&ab_channel=TheJimmyDoreShow
Easy mistake to make.
Blumenthal's enthusiasm for attacking those trying to actually achieve realistic progressive politics and hold Drongo Unbrained accountable is very difficult to distinguish from enthusiasm for Wussolini himself.
"realistic progressive"
A lifetime of disagreement and conflict is bound up in that little phrase….
The point being that you have to actually get elected before you can then go on and do anything. Then when you do get elected, effective politics is a team activity – it's all about figuring out the compromises that turn a widely disparate collection of views and ideas into a workable package. Those are the points that seem to be missed or completely denied by anyone with a problem with the idea of "realistic progressive".
Sure – but undeniably that does tend to mean that tomorrow never arrives. It's maybe more productive to look at how (whether?) mass shifts in public consciousness are possible outside the domain of electoral politics, so that electoral politics is chasing to catch up, rather vainly trying to summon followers.
It may be that there is an effective path to progressive change outside electoral politics.
But the path followed by Blumenthal and his ilk certainly isn't it – they are much more acting as enablers of anti-progressive politics and action.
More lies and bs from you andre.
No proof of course, that the best thing about your approach – you just make up any old bullshit about anyone you disagree with.
You really haven't got a grasp of the very simple arithmetic involved in electoral politics, have you?
Every single voter that Blumenthal and his fellow travelers persuade to not vote for Biden or Clinton or whomever is the closest to actually being progressive is effectively a vote for Donasaurus Wrecks (or whoever else is the reactionary-du-jour). And every time one of the reactionaries gets in, the possibility of achieving anything remotely progressive slips ever further away, because of the need to undo the damage done before attempting to build anything.
Sure you can whine about lesser evil voting all you want in your displays of public political masturbation. But the simple electoral arithmetic is that refusing to vote for the lesser evil is explicitly choosing to enable the greater evil.
Jill Stein 2016
Ralph fucking Nader 2000
Horse shit Ad, a fucking conspiracy theory at best. At worst a bad joke.
So external pressure in politics means nothing to you…
I see it does, as you went on to bag Ralph Nader.
What a silly one dimensional puppet you are. If only politics worked like you hoped then the world would be all rainbows and unicorns.
In the real world politicians have to earn votes, not act like they deserve them. They also have to put up policy which counts.. And, here the real kicker it means nothing, unless there is ongoing pressure from the public. But baby wants to tell us political parties are the only answer – sad.
As for your strawman about lesser evil – yawn. You can lie to yourself all you like. That politics is broken, it only enables the right – that's it, now I see why you support it.
The right are enabled bacause they'll vote for anyone under the Republican ticket. The left disempower themselves by pretending that "external pressure" can change the dems, so work against the dems every chance they get.
Sanders achieved more change in his 2016 campaign than any third party candidate because he applied internal pressure. He got people to join the dems and run in 2018, and that changed the game in 2020.
Being too left to support anyone will never make anyone try to get your vote. Politicians go for votes they might actually get. They tailor their policies and statements to those voters. If you're a lost cause for them, they won't travel an inch in your direction.
I have seen this suggested before, or it may have been me, why don't we have a special post for the USA and that becomes separate and NZ politics is the default subject. It seems that there is more interest at watching the Tangerine Terror than our own peculiar brand of sweet and sour saucy.
We need to watch our own eggs to see if they are hatching, all wise birds do this. The greywarblers have never got the hang of this and often enable a wotsisname (shining cuckoo I think) to come into the world, which then boots the other eggs and babies too I think, out of the nest. Damned interloper. So let's do better than greywarblers here, and look after our own pollies, and make sure the right ones get the crackers.
Love how when you got nothing Andre it's always with the personal attacks.
Mind you when your such a parody of what constitutes a person on the left like yourself, it must be hard to go beyond you usual of spin, bullshit, gaslighting and lies.
You could actually try socialism, hell I'd even take a dose of social democracy from you – as it would actually mean improvement in people's lives.
But alas no, just more centrist bs gaslighting.
"… it's always with the personal attacks." – who was/were the target(s) of Andre’s “personal attacks“?
Vehement objections to perceived personal attacks carry more weight when you don’t decend to ‘their’ level. And, for what it’s worth, I agree with Andre’s entertaining alternative labels for Trump.
who was/were the target(s) of Andre’s “personal attacks
Max Blumenthal I thought that was clear – sorry if was not.
The FBI are investigating the noose that was left in Bubba Wallaces locker, Nascar bans the racist confederate flag, and someone leaves a noose in a black drivers locker room. Once probably have been written off as a "joke", this shows how things have changed. Just saw footage of all the other car drivers and mechanics walking behind Wallaces car down the track, very powerful.
They've redone the graphics on his car. Giving up all that advertising space to send a message is quite powerful, too.
https://www.driven.co.nz/motorsport/nascar-driver-to-run-black-lives-matter-livery-in-upcoming-race/
Stunning.
Things must really being changed in the South for a good ol boy like Richard Petty to be so supportive. Petty is almost certainly the greatest NASCAR Driver of all time. It is a very hard discipline to do well in, numerous Formula 1 drivers and their like have tried their luck and with the exception of a few road race wins have all come up short.
Some journalists should take a chill pill, which is a more than reasonable verdict. However, it fails to address the motivation of (some) journos to over-egg things. Still a good read though.
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/ideasroom/2020/06/23/1243845/the-media-needs-to-calm-down
Wow! Now that's a journalist! And he's right, I'd go nuts stuck in a room all day, we should have more sympathy. And I thought that there obviously a crap load of people sticking to the rules, only a few breaking them. Did I hear right on the radio that there are 20,000 people currently in quarantine? If so, then wow.
It is just over 4,000 people in quarantine/isolation at present but they’re increasing capacity.
I think the 20,000 is the total number of arrivals who have gone through the quarantine/isolation process, give or take a few. I’m sure the exact number is somewhere …
4k is a big number of ppl.
Yeah, Jack is right to advise a more balanced view, and he makes the significant point that journos function as opinion leaders in the community. Thus they do have a moral responsibility to be fair in their analysis and commentary.
I noticed there's also a worthwhile appraisal of the PM on Newsroom, from a marketing expert: https://www.newsroom.co.nz/ideasroom/2020/06/19/1238761/can-ardern-dance-her-way-to-a-second-term
I agree with this analysis. She ought to try and take time out to meditate on how to display leadership more comprehensively during the campaign. Design of the recovery plan remains the essential missing component. I suspect brainstorming of that is already happening, but a shift toward more strategic thinking is needed, then a timeline to enact implementation.
Yeah, meanwhile she's having to cope with and counter the relentless stories in the media still slamming her Covid response implementation .Less time having to be wasted on reassuring a public constantly alarmed by misleading media stories would be good
Good opposition tactic, that. Expect months of it.
From that piece: "she still hasn’t defined what her vision for New Zealand is."
John Key won 3 elections without ever articulating anything resembling a "vision". It's something that pundits pontificate on, and ordinary voters don't care about.
Key won 3 elections without ever articulating anything resembling a "vision"
A typical view from the leftist bubble. Rightists would have taken note every time he restated the necessity for continuance of business as usual. Mainstreamers were captivated by that vision after the gfc. It worked. Even amongst centrists.
The reason corporates went global with vision statements in the early '90s was the effective social psychology outcomes they produce. I remember when TVNZ workshopped all that stuff. I was working in their newsroom, attended some. I even recall the framing: Vision 2020. Just a coincidence we're in that year now?
I recall one suggestion that got traction: video on demand. Now a reality. Never discount how futures are generated via collective envisioning…
If you think "business as usual" is a vision then you need a better dictionary. Key's whole shtick was pragmatism, management and being a good bloke.
John Armstrong (a fan) summed it up:
John Key, Holyoake and Muldoon
"Key says the test of any prime minister is whether he or she leaves the country in better shape than when he or she inherited it.
It is a somewhat higher test than the one Sir Robert Muldoon invoked before his tenure – that he hoped to leave the country no worse off than he found it."
Keys vision was "a brighter future", wtf that meant.
He was "ambitious for New Zealand" as well. Vision!
Oh, and
"A typical view from the leftist bubble."
Bubble? From the guy who has been in a bubble so long, he thinks "chink" is just fine. Your lack of self-awareness is breathtaking.
"Chink" was just a joke, like a noose in a black mans locker, us bubble leftists just have no sense of humour.
Zealots are noted for their humourless disposition as a rule.
And those making racist jokes are?
Sneering and humour aren't really the same thing.
Religious zealots included – interesting origins.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zealots
Key did have a vision and a vision is always based in the values of the visionary. So a vision can be malevolent, self-centred, or even boring. And Key's vision was a mixture of those three – to be fair, the malevolence was more the result of the unthinking insouciance of the wealthy, rather than an active desire to cause harm.
Indeed. When observer grows up he/she'll learn how collective visions create political cultures. Or fail to learn that. In the interim that person does correctly diagnose pragmatism & blokeism as the other two operational strands of Key's political praxis. So a youngster with some promise…
And the contest for Most Condescending Comment of the month has now been won.
Aw, I thought I was patronising. Bother! Must try to get it right next time. 😉
You could aim to be both – such a small step in praxis
Another walk & chew gum thing? Well-spotted! 😀
Yes Incognito! The essential point should be that there have been no community spreading for weeks. Every appearance of infection has been contained. What a great success – and yet there is a huge welling of denial from journalists. Piffle we say!
Last weekend the Press published several columns asking for moderation yet Bryce Edwards ignored them and collated all the worst columns and only Bowalley Road for the positives scraped in.
So hooray for Jack Vowels!
Jack Vowels, ianmac? Is that spelling of his name an example of the Great Vowel Shift?
Jim Flynn on RNZ yesterday said that people today don't read like they used to, and therefore opinions are affected by this paucity of knowledge and experience that reading affords.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/afternoons/audio/2018751710/understanding-intelligence-professor-james-flynn
These journalists obviously haven't read the story of the boy who called wolf.
So, those of us who still read newspaper journalism might be affected by their alarms, but many of us also hear the cry of 'wolf' and dismiss their alarmist, attention-seeking shallowness as a minor form of conspiracist doom-saying.
Piffle indeed.
I don't think Bwyce is very nice. My teddy bear Edward thought he's a relative (Ted for short) but now doesn't and thinks he isn't nice either. Why does he seem to only like pointing out our faults. I think we need to be told once, and then get a pat on the head for the good things. (Ted thinks so too.)
The boy will keep calling wolf as long as he is rewarded for it.
So I need to tell Ted that Bwyce is paid to find faults with Labour and everyone? That is a shame that he can't be fair and frank at the same time. Is that what they call buy-us?
Very sorry Jack for misspelling Vowles. Respect for your realistic comments deserve better.
Words of wisdom. But will the tabloid journos (which means most of them) take any notice? Course not. They operate like a pack of baying wolves and they have no intention of changing.
Yes great article. I am one of the people who have slammed NZders who are self isolating for not keeping to the rules of social distancing.
So an acknowledgement to all those who did the self isolating thing as they were meant too, my sincere thanks to you. It would have been very hard staying isolated for two weeks in a small room.
anker Yes indeed.
That is sensible and balanced. Thanks incognito.
Yeah – good article at 6.0. if the media really wanted to help they could quit the sensationalist headline and just short form the list of complaints by hotel which would be a great help to identify those residences not performing up to standard. Set up a snitch line so that the passengers could supervise each other? Those following the rules and desperate to leave could be right into that.
It's 9.45 a.m.
Has the breakfast arrived? We NEED to know …
Lolz!
Observer, LOL re the breakfast……and what about the water for the bus ride!
Naughty for me to join in this humour, but as I posted above, my sincere thanks to Kiwis and there will be many of them who did the right thing with little or no complaint
A late breakfast is far worse than the tacit geronticide being practiced in many of the countries these people have returned from. It's unacceptable.
Cheers observer
Commentators: The public will totally turn against the government!
Public: Well, 13% of us will …
So it's as any reasonable person would have expected. People annoyed with quarantine stuff-ups? Yes. And fair enough too.
People losing the plot and demanding Ardern's head? No. Not even close.
Be a little careful with those polls. Respondents are recruited off social media so all the non social media types are missed. In fact the group may be quite select – remember 20% of people don't have a phone suitable for an app and 50% have never downloaded one so the social media space may only be a little less limited.
I agree that it's less reliable than "traditional" polls. However, on this issue the results have been both internally consistent (a series since March, all 80% plus) and were also in line with the Colamr-Brunton/Reid research polls.
In general terms, I'd rank the measures of public opinion as …
1) TV1/TV3 polls, and the private polls by UMR and Curia
2) Roy Morgan
3) Horizon and Spinoff
4 – 99) daylight
100) spam non-polls for AM show, and all the other meaningless "my mates on Facebook", "brother-in-law at BBQ" etc.
Only 7.5% think dealing with the virus "Terrible." Is that all? Some would say terrible regardless of anything at all.
The NZ initiative ie Business round table ACT party super pac now claiming almighty stuff up. 6 weeks ago were saying we should have overseas students here by July, level 1 ,3 weeks earlier open borders with Australia by July.National Winston Peter's etc were pushing the same line.
Aus are shutting up, rest of year they reckon.
Now on a related topic. Why is the MOH still saying that risks around air crew are low? Haven't they got the public message that we expect the risk to be managed as close to zero as possible. Do they need another breakout to be convinced or are they simply idiots? Or RW sympathisers trying to make trouble.
Why is Airnz not being leaned all over to improve the crewing standards. and rosters.even if it results in extra manning on rosters and fewer hours worked. Quite frankly some extra crew costs are a great deal cheaper then either quarantine or a more widespread outbreak. Sharing crews between Australia, NZ domestic and the Pacific Islands (!) and MOH saying Australia is low risk has to be "stupid of the year". Have they not realised that passengers are coming through Australia from other destinations? Can't they read?
And why is the plague ridden Airline not implementing stricter standards than they appear to be. And I saw somewhere that they were going to use China based crew for some flights to NZ. How on earth are they going to keep them separate from local employees when they arrive? That should go well.
These gaps all appear to be so obvious but these top managers simply seem to be unable to register that actions have consequences.
So
-MOH should tighten the rules and stop going "low risk" and defending that position. Much as they defended the "distress" of the road trippers rather than focusing on the risk to the community.
– Airnz needs to get ahead of the curve and go for stronger safety. Get some of those Singapore airline Hazmat crew suits as well
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/121902230/health-ministry-defends-covid-rules-for-air-crew-saying-australia-low-risk
RedBCV +100
Yet the latter costs fall on the public, not airline execs and shareholders. Need to fix those misaligned incentives.
The market will deal with it.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/419617/family-feels-betrayed-after-insurance-switch-leaves-them-short
A South Auckland crane driver has been denied a $100,000 payout for his gastric cancer after a government-owned finance company switched his policy….
His wife is furious that on the basis of what she says is a salesperson's garbled pitch – and despite recent official warnings to the insurance industry about its practice of "churning", or replacing old policies with new ones – her family of three children has now been pushed to financial breaking point.
"That could have helped raising my children," said Shirley Farani, 40, who kept her job in finance and accounts throughout the pandemic levels, working from home while also looking after Ailepata Ailepata, who's 43, who has been off work for four months.
"It's very distressing and very frustrating," she said, adding paying school expenses had been hard.
The family, who live in Māngere Bridge, had paid for life and trauma insurance cover from Westpac since 2013.
When, in 2018, they inquired about a mortgage with government-owned New Zealand Home Loans, an agent visited their home. He suggested changing insurers. They did, but ended up with less cover.
This should come under our laws governing not getting something fit for purpose, when relying on someone who 'holds themselves out' as having complete understanding of his or her product and recommended it as right for matching the client's requirements.
It should have been pointed out to them if there was any difference between the two products/policies and thoroughly explained.
Additionally there is the contra proferentem position. That the policies differed in very important points affecting their cover should be noted against the party that introduced the idea of the change, and who should have known that they were receiving lesser cover; this would have been ambiguous to the clients.
The Contra Proferentem Rule Explained
Contracts can be complex documents created after long periods of protracted negotiations. Each party in the contract is ostensibly looking out for its own best interests and will want the contract language to be to each party's favor. This can create scenarios in which the contract language is ambiguous or unclear, leading one party to interpret the contract differently from the other party.
I see we are going up to around 4000 immigration places. If these remain full then we are looking at some 50,000 returnees before then end of the year. plus potentially a million more if all the ones in Australia return.
The government is going to have to make some hard decisions fast otherwise there will be insufficent housing, health services etc or they will be completely overrun..
First up the visa holders who expired but were extended till sept need to be nudged on their way – they can't all leave at once on the last day so perhaps they need to start shifting expiry dates forward in groups.
Cut all inwards applications even at the higher salary levels. We will be getting back some well qualified individuals in the higher brackets.
Cease overseas work permit exemptions with "economic benefit" – only admit those who are needed for something special in the very short term.
Deprioritise permanent resident visa holders that have not been ordinarily resident here.
Maybe let NZ First front foot this ?
Trying to get some Kenyan connections in, all planned and now confused young people. So I hope that more than just NZs for numbers entering. They went away for the good times, and some could no doubt wait and work for a while and not rush home immediately to claim a place in the 'sleepy hollow'.
How lucky are we to live in NZ, we live in the only economically advanced country in the world to have eradicated Covid 19 from the community, the virus, globally, is now out of control, the WHO has warned of the impending global disaster about to happen.
The relentless negative OPINIONS from a range of news sources for the minor errors made by individuals is extremely disappointing, it really indicates their desire to put the Govt down without any relativity to reality its self. The media seem to be in a bubble of make believe, it seems their preference is to harm the very people that have introduced regulations and rules that have made NZ the safest place in the world today, something WE should all be extremely proud of.
Ex pat Kiwis are flooding back to NZ for the very same reason, we are pretty well the safest developed country in the world at this point of time, the virus is now spreading exponentially as too many countries just have not accepted the the relative harm that will occur.
All returning Kiwis should have a negative test result 24 hrs prior to boarding a plane, this doesn't mean they're clear, but at least it raises the bar, too many returnees would be prepared to return carrying the virus so they can come to a safe haven in the knowledge our Health system will take care of them.
Y'know, it's starting to stretch the limits of my willingness to believe that we really didn't have infected cases come into the country before those two women that caused the big kerfluffle.
Consider – pretty much every day since those two were detected, we've detected more new cases. But none before? I don't recall any announcements before that of cases detected in quarantine or managed isolation. The step change in detection frequency is overloading my "really?" detector.
What I really want to know is whether those in charge are also seeing that anomaly, and if they're taking steps to backcheck on those that made it through their two weeks and then released without testing. The good news is that the behavioural changes we've all made over the last few months are likely enough on their own to reduce R) below 1, so even if infectious new entrants made it out, they're still kinda unlikely to create new hotspots.
Yep I'd like to see them back checking too. Just in case – so we can get onto any community breakouts fast.
And I hate to say this but with the current flights in from highly infected places – do we need to pressure the airlines to ensure there is more PPE used on the planes – or that there is social distancing in the seating so people are not being infected in the air.And the bus trips from the airport too? And that the aircrews are kept strictly contained. And when they arrive even if it is only isolation they have to stay in the room for a number of days. Do we insist on some pre embarkation quarantine or testing? Or do we just close our borders again to some countries. Frankly if Spain is going to let in unchecked british tourists and with lockdowns easing in a number of countries the disease is starting to really take off overseas again
Plus I have real doubts about spreading quarantine too far and wide. It means any cases needing to be hospitalised will also be spread around rather then being concentrated in one hospital with the appropriate resources.
I can see plenty of local appetite for the tightest border controls possible
It would also help for the airlines to reduce the alcohol available on the flights to just one or two. Then just water, or low sweetened concentrate like lime juice. There is bound to be an ugly argument start some time with the stress that everyone is under, and particularly those that rarely are prevented from doing what they want. The entitled don't take to that.
Then when they arrive they should get their temp taken before going to isolation. A body with too much alcohol wouldn't give a good reading and could be fractious too.
Hopefully the quarantine period did its job, even if we didn't test the ones who came in with it because they were asymptomatic. But also we have increasing numbers of returnees?
Nobody random has presented to hospital yet, so after a month from the start of the dotballs that's a good sign.
edit: there was a tweet on testing the logistics of everyone at the airport, which is understandable. But a test in the first five days and another in the last few days would probably be a more achievable goal.
AFAIK the numbers are something like 20,000 returnees total gone through the system, of which 4000 are still in quarantine/isolation. So, 11 cases among the 4k still within the system, and 0 among the 16k that have passed all the way through? I struggle with that, even allowing for the idea that more of the returnees now are from places where infections are rampant and increasing (UK, India, US) and earlier returnees were biased more towards places with low infection rates (Australia).
In terms of testing numbers, lets say we get 500 returnees a day, two tests each. That means just doing the mandated testing on returnees accounts for 1000 tests a day, out of total testing capacity somewhere around 6k a day. And returnees have to be considered the highest testing priority. Looks to me like there's zero excuse for returnees to not ave been tested.
"Stupid Awesome People"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MiacGullMHM&feature=em-uploademail&ab_channel=RedactedTonight
Shocking and even worse it seems true. Great rant. USA version of Jonathan Pie?
This goes with it on youtube:
Redacted Tonight
227K subscribers
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Full episodes will still be available at RT.com.
A group of fearless protesters were invited to stay in the Venezuelan Embassy the other day to protect it from US interference. The government wanted to put them in jail for a year for helping to stop the US-backed coup. The worst of their charges were recently dropped. Yay.
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https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/419646/covid-19-national-party-demands-answers-on-covid-19-testing-in-isolation
National, the party of no regulations and freeeedom. All of a sudden they want it so they can swing it around and bash Labour with it. Pathetic.
Who are the sour looking journos or hangers on in the background of the pic interviewing PM Jacinda? ( I haven't watched the vid yet, have to do some useful stuff at home.)
The press gallery these days seem to behave as a pack of surly “nag bags”, living for their next leak from some duplicitous Ministerial toady, or Nat staff member.
Some of them, surely, must experience a little self loathing at what they have become. Journalists have to hold the powerful to account, but most of this rather joyless lot can’t separate that legitimate function from the Paparazzi like “gotchas” and “scalp taking”.
Just watched in full today's Bloomfield news conference. (I haven't watched any since level 3)
He was as good as usual, and journalists as bad as listening as usual. I think his answers were complex – they had to be to cover the myriad of events happening at the border – and it's clear that many at that presser just didn't understand them. His finish was superb after being asked about how events 'undermine confidence'. To paraphrase he said
Woodhouse spreading fake news. I suspected this might be the case.
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2020/06/coronavirus-homeless-man-who-allegedly-stayed-in-auckland-quarantine-facility-cannot-be-verified.html
He should be savaged for this by the media but it won't happen.
I see also the Covid-Karens had another visitor when they got to
Chris Bishop's houseLower Hutt. They really are the pits those two. Wanted special treatment then abused the process. No wonder someone ratted on them.Also confused about why the media continues the line that Bloomfield and the MoH have been dishonest about the sisters' movements. Clearly Bloomfield and the MoH were getting their info from the Covid Karens, and they have been lying through their teeth since they landed!
Bugger. Oh well, I s'pose the idea of a homeless dude blagging a two week stay in a luxury hotel was always too funny to be true.
AND what is the proof that he was homeless any way.
oh it was an "unverified", it came from a "reliable source"
GEEZ
Woodlouse thinks his arse is reliable so it's all ok.
I'm glad to see Woods hit back with a strongly worded letter. The misinformation spread by the National Party in these times must be countered, otherwise it becomes part of the narrative.
Though, it would be a massive coup for Woodhouse if he produced said homeless person…
Spinoff polling covers a variety of issues to assess the public mood re govt handling of the pandemic, and the latest report puts it in context with the trend over recent months. One of the essay writers here ought to post a comprehensive analysis, perhaps with a look at the election campaign relevance: https://thespinoff.co.nz/politics/23-06-2020/exclusive-poll-reveals-public-impact-of-failures-in-nz-covid-quarantine-system/
A question for @Andre
Don't you reckon it's about time Putin called in the debt and insisted Donny O Jnr and Melania have the Hydroxy Clorax Queen committed to the Tallahassee Home for the Bewildered?
If they hold out much longer, they could lose everything and its all going to look a bit too obvious – the Tangerine Turkey's disciples seem to be dropping off like flies on paper soaked in pyrethrin
Tangerine – the colour of the age. Hope it goes out of fashion soon. A very 'colourful' comment OwT. The news here aims to be factual, but it isn't boring.
Well as a parent @ Grey, I'm clutching me stolen pearls and just thinking of the children! And it's just as well I disposed of all my worldly goods to them before I actually kark it and I now live at their pleasure. I'm just a bit worried that Donny Jnr and Melania – if they don't get the timing right – they could be left with nothing! (And won't that be a sad day).
Still, no doubt Donny Jnr and Melania have devised an alternate escape hatch and I really shouldn't be tearing my hair out worrying about their future.
I'll get back to my darning socks and knitting in front of CNN, Aunty Beeb and BobJazeera
I dunno.
Clearly the smart move for Tweetyturd right now would be to negotiate his pardon from Pence in return for resigning while he's still got good negotiating leverage because he's giving Pence time to have a good go at making his own case for the preznitzy. Leave it too late, and there's not enough in it for Pence, unless he's so desperate the getting the title of Mr President for however briefly is enough. The only conversation that might possibly persuade him to do that would end with "don't forget to give us our pardons before actually resigning, OK daddy?".
As for Pootee, I'm struggling to see how he can leverage the situation to his own benefit out of this. Releasing any pee-pee tapes and financial juicy details he may have won't get him anything useful. Except more division and turmoil within the US (which may have been the objective all along). So maybe Genghis Con lucked into the same play with Pootee that he pulled on regulators and banks in his earlier career – make sure that those who can bring you down will also come crashing down with you if they do pull the pin.
There's certainly no way he can be involuntarily removed If he chooses to fight, the 25th Amendment is a tougher route than impeachment, in that it needs the veep, half of cabinet, 2/3 of the House and 2/3 of the Senate to remove him. As opposed to just half the House and 2/3 of the Senate for impeachment.
OK, yes I see the logic in all that.
We are in a serious property market correction, which is happening now, of 10-12% down:
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=12342272
The S&P report underscores that the entire economy is now propped up by government policy and government cash:
"A contracting economy, rising unemployment, and weak consumer and business sentiment will affect the asset quality of banks in New Zealand, in our view," S&P said.
"However, we consider that the substantial fiscal and policy support from the New Zealand authorities and a strong economic rebound during fiscal 2021 (year ending June 2021) should help to limit the rise in credit losses."
We have a 1 in 3 chance that this is going to get really, really dark.
Curious to see the pharmaceutical industry do a full hit on pharmac this close to an election and with the Simpson health review still cooling off the printer:
https://www.fairnessinfocus.co.nz/
A big Youtube launch, new website, substantial backers.
Let's see how National responds to this entreaty.
National need to sack Hooton looks like Woodhouse may be in the outhouse.
Looks like Hooton channeling Trump.
The Media wolf pack will hunt down Woodhouse and blow his house down and expose his lying ass.
We need to wake up to ourselves, The person in charge of who passes over our borders is incapable of regulating the calories that pass over their palette. Thankfully she is also looking after Trainsmash. (Kiwibuild)
Geez it must be tough to be Jacinda. She has to play lead guitar, drums and bass at the same time. Her team need to have a jolly good look at themselves.
The Minister of Health can't stick to the rules the 5 million of us comprehend. I can't listen to the guy without thinking 'Fuck You idiot.' His credibility is a black hole.
I'm so very sorry Jacinda, you are surrounded by people that don't live up to their handles.
Grant Robertson spent months looking at 'The Future of Work in NZ.' Superb timing. We should be all set. Unfortunately the guy calculating the future of work in NZ has never worked in the private sector in his entire life.
We love you Jacinda but you need to start placing people around you that can actually make things happen.
It's an ideal time to seize the day and we ain't.
PM Ardern could poach some opposition National party 'talent' – building Bridges
Wasn't it amusing to watch the politicians in the weekend Current Affairs shows ever so backhandedly drop any Covid shortfall call-outs over into Ashley's lap.
I was surprised that they could be so tone deaf. When you say Ashley did it, it's the same as saying my Mum did it. We take a knee wid da Bloom.