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.
It is all very well cutting the backrooms of public agencies but it may compromise the frontlines. One of the frustrations of the Productivity Commission’s 2017 review of universities is that while it observed that their non-academic staff were increasing faster than their academic staff, it did not bother to ...
Buzz from the Beehive Two speeches delivered by Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters at Anzac Day ceremonies in Turkey are the only new posts on the government’s official website since the PM announced his Cabinet shake-up. In one of the speeches, Peters stated the obvious: we live in a troubled ...
1. Which of these would you not expect to read in The Waikato Invader?a. Luxon is here to do business, don’t you worry about thatb. Mr KPI expects results, and you better believe itc. This decisive man of action is getting me all hot and excitedd. Melissa Lee is how ...
…it has a restricted jurisdiction which must not be abused: it is not an inquisitionNOTE – this article was published before the High Court ruled that Karen Chhour does not have to appear before the Waitangi Tribunal Gary Judd writes – The High Court ...
Lindsay Mitchell writes – One of reasons Oranga Tamariki exists is to prevent child neglect. But could the organisation itself be guilty of the same?Oranga Tamariki’s statistics show a decrease in the number and age of children in care. “There are less children ...
David Farrar writes: Graeme Edgeler wrote in 2017: In the first five years after three strikes came into effect 5248 offenders received a ‘first strike’ (that is, a “stage-1 conviction” under the three strikes sentencing regime), and 68 offenders received a ‘second strike’. In the five years prior to ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has surprised everyone with his ruthlessness in sacking two of his ministers from their crucial portfolios. Removing ministers for poor performance after only five months in the job just doesn’t normally happen in politics. That’s refreshing and will be extremely ...
TL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the two days to 6:06am on Thursday, April 25:Politics: PM Christopher Luxon has set up a dual standard for ministerial competence by demoting two National Cabinet ministers while leaving also-struggling ...
Hi,Today I mainly want to share some of your thoughts about the recent piece I wrote about success and failure, and the forces that seemingly guide our lives. But first, a quick bit of housekeeping: I am doing a Webworm popup in Los Angeles on Saturday May 11 at 2pm. ...
It is hard to see what Melissa Lee might have done to “save” the media. National went into the election with no public media policy and appears not to have developed one subsequently. Lee claimed that she had prepared a policy paper before the election but it had been decided ...
Open access notablesIce acceleration and rotation in the Greenland Ice Sheet interior in recent decades, Løkkegaard et al., Communications Earth & Environment:In the past two decades, mass loss from the Greenland ice sheet has accelerated, partly due to the speedup of glaciers. However, uncertainty in speed derived from satellite products ...
Buzz from the Beehive A statement from Children’s Minister Karen Chhour – yet to be posted on the Government’s official website – arrived in Point of Order’s email in-tray last night. It welcomes the High Court ruling on whether the Waitangi Tribunal can demand she appear before it. It does ...
Mr Bombastic:Ironically, the media the academic experts wanted is, in many ways, the media they got. In place of the tyrannical editors of yesteryear, advancing without fear or favour the interests of the ruling class; the New Zealand news media of today boasts a troop of enlightened journalists dedicated to ...
It's hard times try to make a livingYou wake up every morning in the unforgivingOut there somewhere in the cityThere's people living lives without mercy or pityI feel good, yeah I'm feeling fineI feel better then I have for the longest timeI think these pills have been good for meI ...
In 1974, the US Supreme Court issued its decision in United States v. Nixon, finding that the President was not a King, but was subject to the law and was required to turn over the evidence of his wrongdoing to the courts. It was a landmark decision for the rule ...
Every day now just seems to bring in more fresh meat for the grinder.In their relentlessly ideological drive to cut back on the “excessive bloat” (as they see it) of the previous Labour-led government, on the mountains of evidence accumulated in such a short period of time do not ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Megan Valére SosouMarket gardening site of the Itchèléré de Itagui agricultural cooperative in Dassa-Zoumè (Image credit: Megan Valère Sossou) For the residents of Dassa-Zoumè, a city in the West African country of Benin, choosing between drinking water and having enough ...
Buzz from the Beehive Melissa Lee – as may be discerned from the screenshot above – has not been demoted for doing something seriously wrong as Minister of ...
Morning in London Mother hugs beloved daughter outside the converted shoe factory in which she is living.Afternoon in London Travelling writer takes himself and his wrist down to A&E, just to be sure. Read more ...
Mike Grimshaw writes – The recent announcement of the University Advisory Group, chaired by Sir Peter Gluckman, makes very clear where the Government’s focus and priorities lie. The remit of the Advisory Group is that Group members will consider challenges and opportunities for improvement in the university sector including: ...
Eric Crampton writes – The Reserve Bank of New Zealand desperately wants to find reasons to have workstreams in climate change. It makes little sense. They’ve run another stress test on the banks looking to see if they could find a prudential regulation case. They couldn’t. They ...
Rob MacCullough writes – Pundits from the left and the right are arguing that National’s Fast Track Bill that is designed to speed up infrastructure decisions could end up becoming mired in a cesspool of corruption. Political commentator ...
Looking at the headlines this morning it’s hard to feel anything other than pessimistic about the future of humanity.Note that I’m not speaking about the future of mankind, but the survival of our humanity. The values that we believe in seem to be ebbing away, by the day.Perhaps every generation ...
Swabbing mixed breed baby chicks to test for avian influenzaUh oh. Bird flu – often deadly to humans – is not only being transmitted from infected birds to dairy cows, but is now travelling between dairy cows. As of last Friday, Bloomberg News reports, there were 32 American dairy herds ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
What is it with the mining industry? Its not enough for them to pillage the earth - they apparently can't even be bothered getting resource consent to do so: The proponent behind a major mine near the Clutha River had already been undertaking activity in the area without a ...
Photo # 1 I am a huge fan of Singapore’s approach to housing, as described here two years ago by copying and pasting from The ConversationWhat Singapore has that Australia does not is a public housing developer, the Housing Development Board, which puts new dwellings on public and reclaimed land, ...
Buzz from the Beehive Reactions to news of the government’s readiness to make urgent changes to “the resource management system” through a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) suggest a balanced approach is being taken. The Taxpayers’ Union says the proposed changes don’t go far enough. Greenpeace says ...
I’m starting to wonder if Anna Burns-Francis might be the best political interviewer we’ve got. That might sound unlikely to you, it came as a bit of a surprise to me.Jack Tame can be excellent, but has some pretty average days. I like Rebecca Wright on Newshub, she asks good ...
Chris Trotter writes – Willie Jackson is said to be planning a “media summit” to discuss “the state of the media and how to protect Fourth Estate Journalism”. Not only does the Editor of The Daily Blog, Martyn Bradbury, think this is a good idea, but he has also ...
Graeme Edgeler writes – This morning [April 21], the Wellington High Court is hearing a judicial review brought by Hon. Karen Chhour, the Minister for Children, against a decision of the Waitangi Tribunal. This is unusual, judicial reviews are much more likely to brought against ministers, rather than ...
Both of Parliament’s watchdogs have now ripped into the Government’s Fast-track Approvals Bill. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāMy pick of the six newsey things to know from Aotearoa’s political economy and beyond on the morning of Tuesday, April 23 are:The Lead: The Auditor General,John Ryan, has joined the ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Sarah SpengemanPeople wait to board an electric bus in Pune, India. (Image credit: courtesy of ITDP) Public transportation riders in Pune, India, love the city’s new electric buses so much they will actually skip an older diesel bus that ...
The infrastructure industry yesterday issued a “hurry up” message to the Government, telling it to get cracking on developing a pipeline of infrastructure projects.The hiatus around the change of Government has seen some major projects cancelled and others delayed, and there is uncertainty about what will happen with the new ...
Hi,Over the weekend I revisited a podcast I really adore, Dead Eyes. It’s about a guy who got fired from Band of Brothers over two decades ago because Tom Hanks said he had “dead eyes”.If you don’t recall — 2001’s Band of Brothers was part of the emerging trend of ...
Buzz from the Beehive The 180 or so recipients of letters from the Government telling them how to submit infrastructure projects for “fast track” consideration includes some whose project applications previously have been rejected by the courts. News media were quick to feature these in their reports after RMA Reform Minister Chris ...
It would not be a desirable way to start your holiday by breaking your back, your head, or your wrist, but on our first hour in Singapore I gave it a try.We were chatting, last week, before we started a meeting of Hazel’s Enviro Trust, about the things that can ...
Calling all journalists, academics, planners, lawyers, political activists, environmentalists, and other members of the public who believe that the relationships between vested interests and politicians need to be scrutinised. We need to work together to make sure that the new Fast-Track Approvals Bill – currently being pushed through by the ...
Feel worried. Shane Jones and a couple of his Cabinet colleagues are about to be granted the power to override any and all objections to projects like dams, mines, roads etc even if: said projects will harm biodiversity, increase global warming and cause other environmental harms, and even if ...
Bryce Edwards writes- The ability of the private sector to quickly establish major new projects making use of the urban and natural environment is to be supercharged by the new National-led Government. Yesterday it introduced to Parliament one of its most significant reforms, the Fast Track Approvals Bill. ...
Michael Bassett writes – If you think there is a move afoot by the radical Maori fringe of New Zealand society to create a parallel system of government to the one that we elect at our triennial elections, you aren’t wrong. Over the last few days we have ...
Without a corresponding drop in interest rates, it’s doubtful any changes to the CCCFA will unleash a massive rush of home buyers. Photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: The six things that stood out to me in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, poverty and climate on Monday, April 22 included:The Government making a ...
Sunday was a lazy day. I started watching Jack Tame on Q&A, the interviews are usually good for something to write about. Saying the things that the politicians won’t, but are quite possibly thinking. Things that are true and need to be extracted from between the lines.As you might know ...
In our Weekly Roundup last week we covered news from Auckland Transport that the WX1 Western Express is going to get an upgrade next year with double decker electric buses. As part of the announcement, AT also said “Since we introduced the WX1 Western Express last November we have seen ...
TL;DR: The six key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to April 29 include:PM Christopher Luxon is scheduled to hold a post-Cabinet news conference at 4 pm today. Stats NZ releases its statutory report on Census 2023 tomorrow.Finance Minister Nicola Willis delivers a pre-Budget speech at ...
A listing of 29 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, April 14, 2024 thru Sat, April 20, 2024. Story of the week Our story of the week hinges on these words from the abstract of a fresh academic ...
The ability of the private sector to quickly establish major new projects making use of the urban and natural environment is to be supercharged by the new National-led Government. Yesterday it introduced to Parliament one of its most significant reforms, the Fast Track Approvals Bill. The Government says this will ...
This is a column to say thank you. So many of have been in touch since Mum died to say so many kind and thoughtful things. You’re wonderful, all of you. You’ve asked how we’re doing, how Dad’s doing. A little more realisation each day, of the irretrievable finality of ...
Identifying the engine type in your car is crucial for various reasons, including maintenance, repairs, and performance upgrades. Knowing the specific engine model allows you to access detailed technical information, locate compatible parts, and make informed decisions about modifications. This comprehensive guide will provide you with a step-by-step approach to ...
Introduction: The allure of racing is undeniable. The thrill of speed, the roar of engines, and the exhilaration of competition all contribute to the allure of this adrenaline-driven sport. For those who yearn to experience the pinnacle of racing, becoming a race car driver is the ultimate dream. However, the ...
Introduction Automobiles have become ubiquitous in modern society, serving as a primary mode of transportation and a symbol of economic growth and personal mobility. With countless vehicles traversing roads and highways worldwide, it begs the question: how many cars are there in the world? Determining the precise number is a ...
Maintaining a safe and reliable vehicle requires regular inspections. Whether it’s a routine maintenance checkup or a safety inspection, knowing how long the process will take can help you plan your day accordingly. This article delves into the factors that influence the duration of a car inspection and provides an ...
Mazda Motor Corporation, commonly known as Mazda, is a Japanese multinational automaker headquartered in Fuchu, Aki District, Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan. The company was founded in 1920 as the Toyo Cork Kogyo Co., Ltd., and began producing vehicles in 1931. Mazda is primarily known for its production of passenger cars, but ...
Your car battery is an essential component that provides power to start your engine, operate your electrical systems, and store energy. Over time, batteries can weaken and lose their ability to hold a charge, which can lead to starting problems, power failures, and other issues. Replacing your battery before it ...
In most states, you cannot register a car without a valid driver’s license. However, there are a few exceptions to this rule. Exceptions to the RuleIf you are under 18 years old: In some states, you can register a car in your name even if you do not ...
Mazda, a Japanese automotive manufacturer with a rich history of innovation and engineering excellence, has emerged as a formidable player in the global car market. Known for its reputation of producing high-quality, fuel-efficient, and driver-oriented vehicles, Mazda has consistently garnered praise from industry experts and consumers alike. In this article, ...
Struts are an essential part of a car’s suspension system. They are responsible for supporting the weight of the car and damping the oscillations of the springs. Struts are typically made of steel or aluminum and are filled with hydraulic fluid. How Do Struts Work? Struts work by transferring the ...
Car registration is a mandatory process that all vehicle owners must complete annually. This process involves registering your car with the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) and paying an associated fee. The registration process ensures that your vehicle is properly licensed and insured, and helps law enforcement and other authorities ...
Zoom is a video conferencing service that allows you to share your screen, webcam, and audio with other participants. In addition to sharing your own audio, you can also share the audio from your computer with other participants. This can be useful for playing music, sharing presentations with audio, or ...
Building your own computer can be a rewarding and cost-effective way to get a high-performance machine tailored to your specific needs. However, it also requires careful planning and execution, and one of the most important factors to consider is the time it will take. The exact time it takes to ...
Sleep mode is a power-saving state that allows your computer to quickly resume operation without having to boot up from scratch. This can be useful if you need to step away from your computer for a short period of time but don’t want to shut it down completely. There are ...
Introduction Computer-Assisted Translation (CAT) has revolutionized the field of translation by harnessing the power of technology to assist human translators in their work. This innovative approach combines specialized software with human expertise to improve the efficiency, accuracy, and consistency of translations. In this comprehensive article, we will delve into the ...
In today’s digital age, mobile devices have become an indispensable part of our daily lives. Among the vast array of portable computing options available, iPads and tablet computers stand out as two prominent contenders. While both offer similar functionalities, there are subtle yet significant differences between these two devices. This ...
A computer is an electronic device that can be programmed to carry out a set of instructions. The basic components of a computer are the processor, memory, storage, input devices, and output devices. The Processor The processor, also known as the central processing unit (CPU), is the brain of the ...
Voice Memos is a convenient app on your iPhone that allows you to quickly record and store audio snippets. These recordings can be useful for a variety of purposes, such as taking notes, capturing ideas, or recording interviews. While you can listen to your voice memos on your iPhone, you ...
Laptop screens are essential for interacting with our devices and accessing information. However, when lines appear on the screen, it can be frustrating and disrupt productivity. Understanding the underlying causes of these lines is crucial for finding effective solutions. Types of Screen Lines Horizontal lines: Also known as scan ...
Right-clicking is a common and essential computer operation that allows users to access additional options and settings. While most desktop computers have dedicated right-click buttons on their mice, laptops often do not have these buttons due to space limitations. This article will provide a comprehensive guide on how to right-click ...
Powering up and shutting down your ASUS laptop is an essential task for any laptop user. Locating the power button can sometimes be a hassle, especially if you’re new to ASUS laptops. This article will provide a comprehensive guide on where to find the power button on different ASUS laptop ...
Dell laptops are renowned for their reliability, performance, and versatility. Whether you’re a student, a professional, or just someone who needs a reliable computing device, a Dell laptop can meet your needs. However, if you’re new to Dell laptops, you may be wondering how to get started. In this comprehensive ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
Te Pāti Māori is disgusted at the confirmation that hundreds are set to lose their jobs at Oranga Tamariki, and the disestablishment of the Treaty Response Unit. “This act of absolute carelessness and out of touch decision making is committing tamariki to state abuse.” Said Te Pāti Māori Oranga Tamariki ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi, and Mema Paremata mō Tāmaki-Makaurau, Takutai Tarsh Kemp, will travel to the Gold Coast to strengthen ties with Māori in Australia next week (15-21 April). The visit, in the lead-up to the 9th Australian National Kapa haka Festival, will be an opportunity for both ...
The Green Party has today launched a step-by-step guide to help New Zealanders make their voice heard on the Government’s democracy dodging and anti-environment fast track legislation. ...
The National Government’s proposed changes to the Residential Tenancies Act will mean tenants can be turfed from their homes by landlords with little notice, Labour housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty said. ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson is calling on all parties to support a common-sense change that’s great for the planet and great for consumers after her member’s bill was drawn from the ballot today. ...
A significant milestone has been reached in the fight to strike an anti-Pasifika and unfair law from the country’s books after Teanau Tuiono’s members’ bill passed its first reading. ...
New Zealand has today missed the opportunity to uphold the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment, says James Shaw after his member’s bill was voted down in its first reading. ...
Today’s advice from the Climate Change Commission paints a sobering reality of the challenge we face in combating climate change, especially in light of recent Government policy announcements. ...
Minister for Disability Issues Penny Simmonds appears to have delayed a report back to Cabinet on the progress New Zealand is making against international obligations for disabled New Zealanders. ...
Ambassador Millar, Burgemeester, Vandepitte, Excellencies, military representatives, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen – good morning and welcome to this sacred Anzac Day dawn service. It is an honour to be here on behalf of the Government and people of New Zealand at Buttes New British Cemetery, Polygon Wood – a deeply ...
Distinguished guests - It is an honour to return once again to this site which, as the resting place for so many of our war-dead, has become a sacred place for generations of New Zealanders. Our presence here and at the other special spaces of Gallipoli is made ...
Mai ia tawhiti pamamao, te moana nui a Kiwa, kua tae whakaiti mai matou, ki to koutou papa whenua. No koutou te tapuwae, no matou te tapuwae, kua honoa pumautia. Ko nga toa kua hinga nei, o te Waipounamu, o te Ika a Maui, he okioki tahi me o ...
Paul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. “Our Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...
Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...
Overseas models for regulating the oil and gas sector, including their decommissioning regimes, are being carefully scrutinised as a potential template for New Zealand’s own sector, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. The Coalition Government is focused on rebuilding investor confidence in New Zealand’s energy sector as it looks to strengthen ...
Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell has today released the Report of the Government Inquiry into the response to the North Island Severe Weather Events. “The report shows that New Zealand’s emergency management system is not fit-for-purpose and there are some significant gaps we need to address,” Mr Mitchell ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith is today travelling to Europe where he’ll update the United Nations Human Rights Council on the Government’s work to restore law and order. “Attending the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva provides us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while ...
Associate Agriculture Minister, Mark Patterson, formally reopened the world’s largest wool processing facility today in Awatoto, Napier, following a $50 million rebuild and refurbishment project. “The reopening of this facility will significantly lift the economic opportunities available to New Zealand’s wool sector, which already accounts for 20 per cent of ...
Hon Andrew Bayly, Minister for Small Business and Manufacturing At the Southland Otago Regional Engineering Collective (SOREC) Summit, 18 April, Dunedin Ngā mihi nui, Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Ko Whanganui aho Good Afternoon and thank you for inviting me to open your summit today. I am delighted ...
The Government is delivering on its commitment to bring back the Three Strikes legislation, Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee announced today. “Our Government is committed to restoring law and order and enforcing appropriate consequences on criminals. We are making it clear that repeat serious violent or sexual offending is not ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has today announced four new diplomatic appointments for New Zealand’s overseas missions. “Our diplomats have a vital role in maintaining and protecting New Zealand’s interests around the world,” Mr Peters says. “I am pleased to announce the appointment of these senior diplomats from the ...
New Zealand is contributing NZ$7 million to support communities affected by severe food insecurity and other urgent humanitarian needs in Ethiopia and Somalia, Foreign Minister Rt Hon Winston Peters announced today. “Over 21 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance across Ethiopia, with a further 6.9 million people ...
Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Paul Goldsmith is congratulating Mataaho Collective for winning the Golden Lion for best participant in the main exhibition at the Venice Biennale. "Congratulations to the Mataaho Collective for winning one of the world's most prestigious art prizes at the Venice Biennale. “It is good ...
The Government is reforming financial services to improve access to home loans and other lending, and strengthen customer protections, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly and Housing Minister Chris Bishop announced today. “Our coalition Government is committed to rebuilding the economy and making life simpler by cutting red tape. We are ...
“China remains a strong commercial opportunity for Kiwi exporters as Chinese businesses and consumers continue to value our high-quality safe produce,” Trade and Agriculture Minister Todd McClay says. Mr McClay has returned to New Zealand following visits to Beijing, Harbin and Shanghai where he met ministers, governors and mayors and engaged in trade and agricultural events with the New ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has completed a successful trip to Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines, deepening relationships and capitalising on opportunities. Mr Luxon was accompanied by a business delegation and says the choice of countries represents the priority the New Zealand Government places on South East Asia, and our relationships in ...
New Zealand is demonstrating its commitment to reducing global greenhouse emissions, and supporting clean energy transition in South East Asia, through a contribution of NZ$41 million (US$25 million) in climate finance to the Asian Development Bank (ADB)-led Energy Transition Mechanism (ETM). Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Climate Change Minister Simon Watts announced ...
The Government is today releasing a list of organisations who received letters about the Fast-track applications process, says RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop. “Recently Ministers and agencies have received a series of OIA requests for a list of organisations to whom I wrote with information on applying to have a ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today announced the appointment of Wellington Barrister David Jonathan Boldt as a Judge of the High Court, and the Honourable Justice Matthew Palmer as a Judge of the Court of Appeal. Justice Boldt graduated with an LLB from Victoria University of Wellington in 1990, and also holds ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford will lead the New Zealand delegation at the 2024 International Summit on the Teaching Profession (ISTP) held in Singapore. The delegation includes representatives from the Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) Te Wehengarua and the New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) Te Riu Roa. The summit is co-hosted ...
A stopbank upgrade project in Tairawhiti partly funded by the Government has increased flood resilience for around 7000ha of residential and horticultural land so far, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones today attended a dawn service in Gisborne to mark the end of the first stage of the ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters will represent the Government at Anzac Day commemorations on the Gallipoli Peninsula next week and engage with senior representatives of the Turkish government in Istanbul. “The Gallipoli campaign is a defining event in our history. It will be a privilege to share the occasion ...
Science, Innovation and Technology and Defence Minister Judith Collins will next week attend the OECD Science and Technology Ministerial conference in Paris and Anzac Day commemorations in Belgium. “Science, innovation and technology have a major role to play in rebuilding our economy and achieving better health, environmental and social outcomes ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with the President of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The Prime Minister was accompanied by MP Paulo Garcia, the first Filipino to be elected to a legislature outside the Philippines. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon and President Marcos Jr discussed opportunities to ...
The Government has announced that $20 million in funding will be made available to Westport to fund much needed flood protection around the town. This measure will significantly improve the resilience of the community, says Local Government Minister Simeon Brown. “The Westport community has already been allocated almost $3 million ...
The Government is proud to support the first ever Repco Supercars Championship event in Taupō as up to 70,000 motorsport fans attend the Taupō International Motorsport Park this weekend, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. “Anticipation for the ITM Taupō Super400 is huge, with tickets and accommodation selling out weeks ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced an increase to the Rates Rebate Scheme, putting money back into the pockets of low-income homeowners. “The coalition Government is committed to bringing down the cost of living for New Zealanders. That includes targeted support for those Kiwis who are doing things tough, such ...
The Coalition Government is investing in a project to boost survival rates of New Zealand mussels and grow the industry, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones has announced. “This project seeks to increase the resilience of our mussels and significantly boost the sector’s productivity,” Mr Jones says. “The project - ...
Benefit figures released today underscore the importance of the Government’s plan to rebuild the economy and have 50,000 fewer people on Jobseeker Support, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “Benefit numbers are still significantly higher than when National was last in government, when there was about 70,000 fewer ...
The Government’s commitment to doubling New Zealand’s renewable energy capacity is backed by new data showing that clean energy has helped the country reach its lowest annual gross emissions since 1999, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand’s latest Greenhouse Gas Inventory (1990-2022) published today, shows gross emissions fell ...
The Government is bringing the earthquake-prone building review forward, with work to start immediately, and extending the deadline for remediations by four years, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “Our Government is focused on rebuilding the economy. A key part of our plan is to cut red tape that ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and his Thai counterpart, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, have today agreed that New Zealand and the Kingdom of Thailand will upgrade the bilateral relationship to a Strategic Partnership by 2026. “New Zealand and Thailand have a lot to offer each other. We have a strong mutual desire to build ...
RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop and Transport Minister Simeon Brown have today announced the Coalition Government’s intention to extend port coastal permits for a further 20 years, providing port operators with certainty to continue their operations. “The introduction of the Resource Management Act in 1991 required ports to obtain coastal ...
Today’s announcement that inflation is down to 4 per cent is encouraging news for Kiwis, but there is more work to be done - underlining the importance of the Government’s plan to get the economy back on track, acting Finance Minister Chris Bishop says. “Inflation is now at 4 per ...
Refreshed health guidance released today will help parents and schools make informed decisions about whether their child needs to be in school, addressing one of the key issues affecting school attendance, says Associate Education Minister David Seymour. In recent years, consistently across all school terms, short-term illness or medical reasons ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is streamlining high-level oceans management while maintaining a focus on supporting the sector’s role in the export-led recovery of the economy. “I am working to realise the untapped potential of our fishing and aquaculture sector. To achieve that we need to be smarter with ...
I was initially resistant to the idea often suggested to me that the Government should deliver an arts strategy. The whole point of the arts and creativity is that people should do whatever the hell they want, unbound by the dictates of politicians in Wellington. Peter Jackson, Kiri Te Kanawa, Eleanor ...
Pacific Media Watch Palestine solidarity protesters today demonstrated at the Auckland headquarters of Television New Zealand, accusing the country’s major TV network of broadcasting “propaganda” backing Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza. About 50 protesters targeted the main entrance to the TVNZ building near Sky Tower and also picketed a side ...
Opinion by Lynley Hood. Forty years on from my 1985 Fulbright Grant, my disquiet over the war in Gaza evoked some troubling questions. The answer to my first question – What is the primary purpose of the Fulbright Programme? – was on the Fulbright NZ website. It says: US Senator, ...
The ministers responsible for green-lighting major projects need to be open about potential conflicts of interest, says Transparency International. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anastasia Powell, Professor, Family and Sexual Violence, RMIT University It has been a particularly distressing start to the year. There is little that can ease the current grief of individuals, families and communities who have needlessly lost a loved one to men’s ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gregory Moore, Senior Research Associate, School of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences, The University of Melbourne Lichen, the first described example of symbiosis.AdeJ Artventure/Shutterstock Once known only to those studying biology, the word symbiosis is now widely used. Symbiosis is the intimate ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kim Hemsley, Head, Childhood Dementia Research Group, Flinders Health and Medical Research Institute, College of Medicine and Public Health, Flinders University Olena Ivanova/Shutterstock “Childhood” and “dementia” are two words we wish we didn’t have to use together. But sadly, around 1,400 ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Whiteford, Professor, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University The government’s Economic Inclusion Advisory Committee has just published its second report. It was set up by Treasurer Jim Chalmers and Minister for Social Services Amanda Rishworth in 2022 to provide: ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne The Queensland state election will be held in October. A YouGov poll for The Courier Mail, conducted April 9–17 from a sample ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Amin Naeni, PhD candidate at Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation, Deakin University There’s been much talk in recent months about what a possible second Donald Trump presidency in the United States could mean for Europe, Russia’s war in Ukraine, the ...
A brief round-up of submissions on the controversial proposed law. This is an excerpt from our weekly environmental newsletter Future Proof. Sign up here. Last week, submissions on the controversial Fast-track Approvals Bill closed just hours after the government released a list of stakeholder organisations who were sent letters advising how they could ...
A poem from Robin Peace’s new collection Detritus of Empire: feather / grass / rock. Cereal giving I see a woman’s hands, see her curious hands break a stalk as she walks through the tall prairie, the savannah, the steppe, wherever it was. See her idly bite the grass that ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 Hemingway’s Goblet by Dermot Ross (Mary Egan Publishing, $38)A handsomely produced (debossed cover, lovely ...
The Commissioner's decision validates the longstanding efforts of the local community and ensures that Awataha Marae will be managed to serve the needs of the local community, particularly for hosting tangihanga. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tristan Salles, Associate professor, University of Sydney Examples of Australian landscapes.Unsplash Seventy thousand years ago, the sea level was much lower than today. Australia, along with New Guinea and Tasmania, formed a connected landmass known as Sahul. Around this time – ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Felicity Castagna, Lecturer, Creative Writing, Western Sydney University Day Day Market, ParramattaPhoto: Garry Trinh I live on the edge of Parramatta, Australia’s fastest-growing city, on the kind of old-fashioned suburban street that has 1950s fibros constructed in the post-war housing boom, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michael Ryan, Teaching Fellow in Economics, University of Waikato GettyImagesfatido/Getty Images There is an ongoing global debate over whether the high inflation seen in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic can be lowered without a recession. New Zealand is not ...
The ‘Wicked Game’ heartthrob is in his late 60s now. That didn’t stop him putting on a lively, goofy and very sparkly show. Apart from ‘Wicked Game’, which graces a sultry playlist of mine simply called 💋, my last sustained Chris Isaak listening session took place when I was about ...
Analysis - Two ministers were stripped of portfolios in a warning to Cabinet, drama broke out at the Waitangi Tribunal, and the gang patch ban bill ran into opposition. ...
Tara Ward makes an impassioned plea for some vital pop culture merch. In April 1999, I became obsessed with a new reality television show called Popstars. Every Tuesday night, five strangers transformed into music royalty before my very eyes as Joe, Keri, Carly, Erika and Megan were chosen to form ...
PNG Post-Courier In the early hours of ANZAC Day, aerial photographs captured an impressive gathering of Australians and Papua New Guineans at Isurava in the Northern (Oro) Province. The solemn dawn service yesterday was held at a site steeped in history, where some of the fiercest battles of World War ...
The PSA is shocked that Oranga Tamariki has used the cost cutting drive to downgrade its commitment to Te Ao Māori and remove many specialist Māori roles. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Kemish, Adjunct Professor, School of Historical and Philosophical Inquiry, The University of Queensland There can be no more powerful symbol of the relationship between Australia and Papua New Guinea than the prime ministers of these neighbouring countries walking together on the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sharon Robinson, Distinguished Professor and Deputy Director of ARC Securing Antarctica’s Environmental Future (SAEF), University of Wollongong, University of Wollongong Andrew Netherwood Over the last 25 years, the ozone hole which forming over Antarctica each spring has started to shrink. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Viktoria Kahui, Senior Lecturer in Environmental Economics, University of Otago Getty Images/Amy Toensing Biodiversity is declining at rates unprecedented in human history. This suggests the ways we currently use to manage our natural environment are failing. One emerging concept focuses on ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Timothy Colin Bednall, Associate Professor in Management, Swinburne University of Technology marvent/Shutterstock Finding the best person to fill a position can be tough, from drafting a job ad to producing a shortlist of top interview candidates. Employers typically consider information from ...
Wondering where to host your next BYO? Whether its a small gathering or a massive party, we’ve got some recommendations. I was first introduced to the concept of BYOs at Dunedin’s India Gardens, a legendary but sadly defunct establishment, which purveyed enormous quantities of mango chicken to Aotearoa’s drunkest future ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Julien Cooper, Honorary Lecturer, Department of History and Archaeology, Macquarie University Julien Cooper The hyper-arid desert of Eastern Sudan, the Atbai Desert, seems like an unlikely place to find evidence of ancient cattle herders. But in this dry environment, my new ...
The sector says it’s hopeful her replacement Paul Goldsmith will be able to throw it a lifeline, after six months with a minister deemed missing in action, writes Catherine McGregor in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign ...
The government can't just rely on axing public sector jobs and has to do more to cut spending, says the chief economist at a free market think tank. ...
Rock The Vote NZ, known for its advocacy for minor party unity and its role within the Freedoms NZ Coalition during the 2023 General Election, celebrates this merger as a strategic enhancement of its operational strength and outreach. ...
Nearly everyone has experienced the frustration of something you use breaking and being difficult or expensive to fix. Proposed legislation could change that. It’s been raining on and off all Sunday afternoon but people are lining up outside a building in a corner of Gribblehirst Park in Sandringham, Auckland. In ...
What does a forever relationship look like when you don’t believe in marriage? And how do you celebrate it? This essay is part of our Sunday Essay series, made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand.I’m going to do it, right now. I’m going to say ...
The Prime Minister has committed to resuming direct flights to Thailand. But it’s not a promise he will be able to deliver on anytime soon. The post Prime Minister jumps the gun in Thailand appeared first on Newsroom. ...
It’s not that long ago Eliza McCartney was seriously wondering if the Paris Olympics would be her pole vaulting swansong. After years of being hounded by injury after injury, the Rio Olympics bronze medallist was still confident she would compete at her second Olympics in Paris in July, unless something ...
FICTION 1 Take Two by Danielle Hawkins (Allen & Unwin, $36.99) There’s commercial fiction, like this book, and then there’s quality fiction, quality writers, quality literature; the forthcoming Auckland Writers Festival is full of quality, and ReadingRoom has two tickets to give away to the following events: Paul Lynch (Dublin ...
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You can’t have missed the Gallipoli story as the movies, documentaries, essays and books capture what it was like for New Zealand troops in their eight-month campaign on the Peninsula. But this Anzac Day the Auckland War Memorial Museum has published a book that sheds light on a little-known aspect of the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra In the free-for-all between the Australian government and Big Tech boss Elon Musk this week, the government had to be on a winner. Most people would have little sympathy with Musk’s vociferous opposition to ...
Asia Pacific Report Chief Mandla Mandela, a member of the National Assembly of South Africa and Nelson Mandela’s grandson, has joined the Freedom Flotilla in istanbul as the ships prepare to sail for Gaza, reports Kia Ora Gaza. Mandela is also the ambassador for the Global Campaign to Return to ...
Pacific Media Watch Journalists who report on environmental issues are encountering growing difficulties in many parts of the world, reports Reporters Without Borders. According to the tally kept by RSF, 200 journalists have been subjected to threats and physical violence, including murder, in the past 10 years because they were ...
Analysis by Dr Bryce Edwards, Democracy Project (https://democracyproject.nz)Political scientist, Dr Bryce Edwards. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has surprised everyone with his ruthlessness in sacking two of his ministers from their crucial portfolios. Removing ministers for poor performance after only five months in the job just doesn’t normally happen in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Hawkins, Senior Lecturer, Canberra School of Politics, Economics and Society, University of Canberra BagzhanSadvakassov/Upsplash, CC BY-SA Australia’s inflation rate has fallen for the fifth successive quarter, and it’s now less than half of what it was back in late 2022. ...
ACT's Rural Communities and Veterans spokesman Mark Cameron responds to cancellations and protests of ANZAC Day commemorations in Wellington. He says, "These pitiful attempts to detract from ANZAC Day are not at all indicative of the feelings of mainstream ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Meighen McCrae, Associate Professor of Strategic & Defence Studies, Australian National University American and Australian stretcher bearers working together near the front line during the Battle of Hamel in 1918.Australian War Memorial While the AUKUS alliance is new, the Australian-American partnership ...
Pōneke based peace activists staged a silent protest at the ANZAC day service to highlight New Zealand’s complicity in war and genocide, and urge the government to take concrete steps to stop the genocide in Palestine. ...
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Amanda Thompson doesn’t really do Anzac Day. But what she does do is remember the people she knew who had a lifetime to remember stuff they didn’t really want to, because of a war they didn’t ask for. And she does make Anzac biscuits.First published in 2021.All my ...
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With our collective remembrance, and steadfast belief in our common humanity, we strengthen our hope and resolve to do what we can to foster dialogue and understanding, and to heal divisions in our pursuit of peace. ...
Principal reasons for the opposition is the loss of the public’s democratic right to have “a fair say” and the vital need for a government free from corruption, said Casey Cravens of Dunedin, president of the New Zealand Federation of Freshwater ...
Never mind the scoreboard – in the 2000 Bledisloe Cup decider, the real trans-Tasman battle was won before kickoff.First published in 2016. The dawn of the new millennium was a dark time for the All Blacks. Their final game pre-Y2K was a 22-18 loss to South Africa in the ...
I’m on the wrong side of 40, I never pursued creative work and now my job is killing my soul. Help! Want Hera’s help? Email your problem to helpme@thespinoff.co.nzDear Hera,May I start with the least original conversation opener you’re likely to hear around the motu at the moment, particularly in Wellington: ...
“Never again - No AUKUS” was the message of the wreath laid at this morning’s national ANZAC Day commemorative service at Pukeahu National War Memorial Park this morning by the Stop AUKUS group. ...
Absolutely savage 🔥
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOI3ycbaCaE
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
https://twitter.com/sarahcpr/status/1275160183598186496
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.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSYk8ofhYFY
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.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qmVnr7rsWrE&ab_channel=Dvdmitch
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
Starting next month (July, 2020) full episodes of Redacted Tonight will no longer be available on YouTube. They will be on the free video streaming platform “Portable TV.” All segments of Redacted Tonight will STILL be on YouTube but for the full episodes download the free app at https://www.portable.tv/download.
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.