Bloomfield says health authorities are meeting now to produce a list of places of interest which will be released "very shortly", possibly within the hour…He confirmed that the person visited a number of tourist sites in the capital.
Health officials says it is the first time an Australian traveller has brought Covid-19 to New Zealand and then gone home.
That's a way to wake up for the day! Wellington initiated infection webs have had since the 19th (to 21st) to spread undetected. Any change to Pandemic Alert Levels won't be until midnight, and it is unlikely that many Wellingtonians will bubble-up again without that.
VUW just had her mid-tem break starting, which means that loads of students are leaving the capital. Not good timing, if there’s ever a good time for an outbreak.
Let’s see if scanning and testing numbers show a spike in the Wellington area.
"Prediction is very difficult, especially if it's about the future."
One of the many comments by the great Danish physicist Niels Bohr. I am sure Incognito will reflect on this when he, with no doubt considerable humility, reconsiders the prediction he made last Friday evening. When responding to my complaints about the terrible slowness of New Zealand's vaccination program he assured us that we weren't going to have cases in the community for a least 100 days.
" I’ll take 11 days off my earlier offer, so it’ll be 100 days, at least "
In fact there was a case in the community about 8 hours later. I am assuming of course that the visitor from Sydney was infectious throughout his time in Wellington. From the DOH comments this morning that would seem to be the case.
Now, are you going to tell us again that everything is wonderful and we have nothing to be concerned about. Or will you agree that until they get us a decent vaccination schedule and implement it we are all at risk from a major outbreak?
Somebody should bring this to Hipkin's attention. For some peculiar reason he and Bloomfield seems to think they have to put Wellington into level 2!
I see it doesn't apply till 6 pm though. I shall await with interest the massive exodus of the Crown Limo's to the airport as soon as Question time is over.
The planes would all have headed out by 6 pm so that they can spread any possible infection they may have caught to the rest of the country. Why should we in Wellington be the only lucky ones?
The advice is that it is not a lockdown and that traveling is ok, but travellers should take the alert level with them, as always. Somebody should tell people (how) to breathe through their nose and not through any other orifice.
Did you see the dates in that link, Alwyn? Even Niels Bohr saw it, and he’s long dead.
Of course I saw the dates in the link. Obviously they aren't keeping it as up to date as they should be though.
Bloomfield, and I think Hipkins, said on Morning Report today (23rd) that they had been told on the previous evening ( the 22nd) about the Covid 19 positive person who had been in Wellington over the weekend.
Why is that not a case that occurred in the previous 24 hours as either "in the community" or "other"? They certainly didn't pick it up "at the border" did they?
Are you suggesting that they simply cease to exist if they leave the country?
"You’re a tough negotiator. I’ll take 11 days off my earlier offer, so it’ll be 100 days, at least
Jacinda will (have to) save us again from our lack of compliance and vigilance ".
I have highlighted the piece I quoted. Now how does quoting the exact words you used and missing out the bits just before and just after them somehow lead you to think that you are being misrepresented?
I was using the quote to justify my statement that "he assured us that we weren't going to have cases in the community for a least 100 days." What, after all, is an "outbreak" if not "cases in the community"?
My own opinion is that I am very unhappy about having these bubbles, when there are active cases in the other country in the bubble, until every person in New Zealand for whom a vaccine is suitable has had the chance to be vaccinated. When we have the appalling low numbers of people vaccinated that we have at the moment we should certainly not have a bubble with Australia.
We were promised that we were at the front of the queue for getting vaccines and we certainly aren't. Well get on and vaccinate people and then you can have a bubble.
Otherwise stop lying to us and tell us the truth. Don't keep talking about how well we are supposed to be doing when we are far behind all the comparable countries for vaccinations being performed.
If we can't get the vaccine doses say so. Waffling about how we are going to lead in vaccinating teenagers when we can't even vaccinate the people who are most susceptible is not an acceptable activity.
Now, what are you talking about when you mention Judith? What has the current Government's failures got to do with her?
Link needed for your repeated assertion that "we were promised we were at the front of the queue".
The relevance of Judith is that how well the government has performed cannot reasonably be completely assessed in complete isolation; what the one-and-only plausible alternative government would likely have done is also highly relevant to assessing the government's performance.
While I think allowing travel bubbles with Australia was way premature, and the handling of potential transmissions from travel bubblers has not been good, those really are small blemishes on what has been overall a very good job of handling the task of keeping our population safe and healthy. Particularly by comparison to what the opposition would likely have done judging by their frequent statements around easing restrictions for the purpose of trying to create more economic activity.
When it comes to getting vaccine doses delivered here and into local shoulders, the government really has been quite communicative about the likely schedule of shipments and vaccinations. What has actually happened has in fact tracked remarkably closely to what was mapped out very early this year, when all the factors were very uncertain and any plans made could only reasonably regarded as very tentative given the unknowns around production ramp-ups, disease progression in other countries and multitudes of other factors.
Of course, you may have missed all that if your entire focus is just finding things to whine about.
Hipkins told TVNZ1's Breakfast this morning New Zealand was "very well placed" to get its hands on successful vaccines for the virus, which has so far killed more than 1.3 million people worldwide.
"Without going into detail I think we're in a very good place to ensure that as vaccines start to come to market New Zealand will be at the front of the queue to be getting vaccines," he said.
Well, alwyn, if that one single statement in the midst of a very fluid situation a long time ago has got you all exercised, I really can't imagine how you function at all in the midst of being so consumed by ancient petty grievances.
I guess you can console yourself with getting your vaccination ahead ahead of roughly 3/4 of the world's population. Who have been living with the serious threat of actually getting covid, while you have had the luxury of only being at infinitesimal risk of getting covid. Which has evidently left you plenty of time to search for the tiniest things you could blow up into something to whine about.
edit: I kinda wonder what I would find if I pored over your past statements with the same level of detail? Say, by doing a search on alwyn thornley for instance?
You sound a bit upset that I produced so quickly Hipkins saying what I claimed he had said.
On the other hand you really don't make any sense at all with your last paragraph. Are you really claiming that I am someone called 'alwyn thornley'. I can assure you you are being about as rational with that as someone would be if they assumed you were Andre Agassi.
Who is this thornley person anyway? Someone who said you were an idiot or something and has been in your black book ever since?
Revealing, alwyn. You choose to ignore the middle paragraph, which I think a valid criticism of most of your recent contributions. Poor diddums thinks he hasn't got his jab quickly enough in a country where the disease is not raging country-wide…
Any examples of countries like NZ where there is almost no Covid, and the majority of the population has already been vaccinated?
And the 'idiot' implication in your final sentence reflects more poorly upon the writer than the target. Innocence is fine, but innocence with venom smacks of predatory intent.
What he actually said, if you read the article from the time, was that NZ was “well placed to be at the front of the queue” to access the range of vaccines coming to market. We were and we are, but govt chose a Pfizer-only strategy rather than a mish-mash of vaccines.
And that government decision to throw all of our wellbeing at the Pfizer company is what is fucking up the vaccination roll out.
Simple as that.
And that has nothing to do with Judith Collins, or John Key or any of the National Fucks. That is straight up the Government currently lead by dear Jacinda Ardern, and her Labour Party who are in Majority!
So the first location of interest after the infected person's arrival and hotel stay over night is a pharmacy… would be interesting to know why the person decided to go there first on a holiday.
Could it be that some people don't behave responsibly in a pandemic?
Isn't a complete lockdown of Wellington more expensive than the gain of some Australian tourists here?
It seems from the report of the places visited, that the infected person was not in Wellington for any particular reason, other than visiting Te Papa and going to a bar.
I mean really?
It all seems a bit of a frivolous reason to cram into to a passenger jet with dozens of strangers during an outbreak of covid-19 for an idle weekend jaunt across the Tasman.
Couldn't they get their Museum and pub fix in Sydney?
And if a visit to Te Papa was really on their bucket list, couldn't they wait just a few months
In the midst of a pandemic shouldn't people at least have some semi-serious reason to cross borders?
Excellent question satty. We're all glad you asked that. I hope some in the Min. of Health is expanding their watchful and precautionary efforts, and will graduate from their test as the Ministry of Health.
i don't know, have you got relatives that work at Te Papa, The Ryders hotel, the Pharmacy, the Pub etc?
Ask them if the cost of locking down Wellington for the next two weeks is to high?
And if you blame someone who comes here legally and with the blessing of the Government, then you also need to blame the Government for not closing down flights from Sidney to NZ after their outbreak that started at early last week. Cause if they would, the guy would have not come here late on Friday night? or is that an inconvenient truth?
They came to see the Surrealist Exhibition, which is only in Wellington for a limited time.
My point still stands.
Couldn't they wait til that exhibition was brought to Sydney?
The purpose of bringing an exhibition half way around the world is so that people from this part of the world don't have to travel to see it.
Sorta defeats the purpose.
World famous collection of Surrealism coming to Te Papa
Thu 25 Mar 2021
Surrealist Art: Masterpieces from Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen | He Toi Pohewa: He Toi Marupō o Muhiama o Boijmans Van Beuningen opens Saturday 12 June and runs until 31 October 2021 in Te Papa’s gallery, Toi Art.
The 180 fascinating pieces include major works by artists such as Salvador Dalí, Max Ernst, Leonora Carrington, René Magritte, and Marcel Duchamp.
Te Papa is the only venue in the Asia Pacific region to host the exhibition.
The fortunes of this government rises and falls on their response to the pandemic.
Which so far has been bold and world beating, with a little bit of luck thrown in.
Let us all pray that the government can be bold and lucky again.
To take whatever measures the experts reccomend and keep their fingers crossed.
Contact tracing is good.
To her credit it seems the visitor was using the QR code.
All close contacts are self isolating.
We may well nip this one in the bud.
Let's hope so.
Let us also, as we have from all past slip ups, learn from this.
Because to be fully vaccinated with the Astra Zeneca you need two shots.
And even with both shots its not said you can or can't distribute the virus. All that is said now with certainty is that you will not die if you are vaccinated and you still get infected with Covid. And yeah, the scientists are not gonna state one thing or another until they have had more tests.
Fact is that the bubble with NSW should have been closed down for a few weeks.
But maybe that too does not serve the narrative of some.
First flag will be to see how many passengers on the same flights have been infected.
On a lighter note, with a bit of perspective:
Alert level 2 is basically alert level 1 except now you have to actually do the stuff you’re supposed to do at alert level 1 because we are now in alert level 2
Alert level 2 is basically alert level 1 except now you have to actually do the stuff you’re supposed to do at alert level 1 because we are now in alert level 2.
I wish the government would stop pandering to the airlines and close down routes as soon as an outbreak is detected in an Australian city. They were slow to act on Melbourne outbreak and we got lucky, they didn't act on the Sydney outbreak and now we are all worried about the potential cost of lockdowns and the harm to people with chronic illnesses. The airlines don't pay the cost when something like this happens, everyone else does.
I'm pissed off because passengers from the airport catch the bus service I use and on Monday I pulled down my mask to try and calm down a situation that was looking to become very heated (voices don't travel well through masks). It was wet and the bus was jam-packed (the previous bus had been cancelled) so it was a recipe for a super-spreader event.
Thank God for Siouxsie Wiles, Michael Baker and others. They have always been accurate with their predictions. Baker warned us 36 hours ago that the Delta variant would certainly get to NZ. We don't know yet but the case is most likely the Delta variant.
Some here have been arguing that for the last several month now. Anyone who is not fooling themselves know that we had so much luck since August last year, it ain't funny anymore.
But then i guess 'we' are negative, when trying to tell people that we are sitting ducks.
Heck i would not want to be a min wage worker at Te Papa or at a Pub in the age group of 'maybe end of year there will be a vaccination' for you.
Yep, the staff at the Pub, the toilet cleaners at Te Papa/Airport, the Pharmacy workers, etc etc etc, and chances are not a single one has recieved a vaccine, cause they are not in a "risk" group.
Anyways, i send the resident bloke to go shopping preparing for a potential lockdown.
The newspaper report said that someone catching C19 had been within a metre from the infected person. I have read a suggestion that we should keep our distance from each other for ever, a chilling idea.
“NO MORE THAN MERE SECONDS” of exposure in 10-60 centimeters where one man triggers several #DeltaVariant infections with brief “fleeting” contact. Thousands of shoppers at NSW🇦🇺 mass tested. Delta called “near & present danger”.
That's what I saw. Bit shocking. Should I be wearing mask all the time I wonder? I feel a dope when no one else is but it would be inconvenient to say the least even if I got a mild dose.
and “For example, in the UK, despite their high levels of vaccine coverage, you cannot go into a shop, supermarket or indoor mall without wearing a mask and on entering a café or restaurant you are not seated until you have either scanned the app or provided your contact details.
“We have to ‘up our game’ and keep it up. Mask wearing in indoor places where mixing with people outside our own household bubble will occur. Tracing – it is vitally important that we all increase our use of the Covid-19 tracer app – scan everywhere you go along with having Bluetooth turned on (we still need to scan, even if Bluetooth is on). https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/SC2106/S00053/covid-19-case-comes-to-wellington-expert-reaction.htm
"Baker warned us 36 hours ago that the Delta variant would certainly get to NZ."
That's pretty much stating the obvious. I think anyone could have told us we are not immune down here (but isolated) so it just takes longer to arrive, but eventually we were bound to get it.
A paywalled story in the Herald today is headlined "National MP, Parliamentary Service silent on allegations of misuse of taxpayers' money."
"A National Party MP faced allegations of inappropriate spending of taxpayer money – allegations the MP is refusing to front on and which Parliamentary Service refuses to discuss under the cone of silence that protects MPs.
Sources inside the National Party have told NZME that a staff member of the MP flagged a concern in the last term of Parliament, alleging items of furniture were bought out of the MP's taxpayer funds but did not appear in the office.
The items of furniture are understood to include a television."
If it had been a Labour MP this would be the big story of the day on Kiwiblog. The boot would be well and truly put in. Names would have been be suggested and hinted at, the more the merrier, to tear the whole lot.
I just hope this government is not contemplation to pay another few billions to corporates.
It would be the last straw in my book. I would vote 100% certain for David Seymour. Just to make sure that I contribute to the pendulum swinging back .
The best that can happen is that neither Labour nor National will receive enough votes to go it 'their' way, but that they are both forced to go into a coaltion agreement. And i hope that the Greens of NZ have a look at the Greens in Germany and realise that they need to be able to form with any party a government if they want to be in government and not just a water carrier for labour. Time to grow up for MMP in NZ.
That would be like cutting off your nose to spite your face.
Be rest assured, if ACT became the government they would be wholly owned by the big corporates and the rest of us would become their vassals… dependent upon their non existent largesse.
There would be no state run services for education, health, transport and other essential services. They would be owned and run by corporates purely for corporate profit.
Considering the awesome choice that we have in regards to our beige suits in parliament we truly need a God to help us. But then maybe God is just bored and this is just a unpleasant God having a bit of fun with us?
Are we not already sold out in a different form? I mean look at all the indicators, whether hospitals or education, poverty or housing (1 million to hoteliers per day!). Transport ??? What transport ? Transport is already private as it is contracted out and the news is that services are reduced to practically nothing. Meanwhile, the infrastructure is falling apart and the 1 billion allocated will take years to get where it should be and on that way the money being whittled down by inflation and "fees" for the endless reviews. We need a different approach, less dishonesty and trickery and more performance.
Not sure what is better but I doubt that ACT would become the government. It sure would put the pressure on to perform and not feed us political correctness at ad nauseam. So strategic voting is a must in this environment.
This is a great story and shows what prisoners could do if they were encouraged to think of an idea that would be good and practical, and work out plans and get materials and do it. Goal and vision-centred habilitation not hours of boredom and attempts to break their spirit.
Note the recurring phrase – ‘I can do this’. The can-do spirit will save NZ;s living people (who haven’t turned into zombie money-blotting paper).
I put the offender in Pre-Moderation yesterday. They chose to ignore it and be stupid about it too. They’re still in Pre-Moderation, where they belong, for now, obviously.
Are they a friend of yours? Or just bored today? In any case, you don’t need to concern yourself with it 😊
Whole comments are deleted, occasionally, for various reasons. We currently have one commenter who failed to respond to moderation and who has recently been moved from Pre-Moderation to the Black list and IIRC, some of their comments were deleted to catch their attention, to no avail. Much happens in the back-end, out of your sight.
An important lesson: don’t waste Moderator time and pay heed to their notes.
The I can do it spirit was here in our early colonial days. I'm just looking at a book of pen portraits of parts of Dunedin with bits of their history. It was done by Shona McFarlane, talented artist, journalist and broadcaster and vivacious wife of an MP finer than most others today, particularly in the National Party.
In her book 'Dunedin – Portrait of a City' she has a vignette on the Woodhaugh Paper Mill which illustrates the pattern of NZ development from go to whoa at present. (In the Nelson Mail of 21 June a tech business CE Alex Fala talks about our need for exports to bring growth – remember hearing this for decades already)!
Shona wrote in 1970: Brown paper was made from grass at the Woodhaugh Paper Mill in 1877. It was taken over by New Zealand Paper Mills in 1905 and paper was manufactured here until the plant was shifted to Mataura in 1935. The mill building now belongs to the Argent Packaging Company.
Wikipedia says about Mataura Paper Mills: In late 1904 as a means of ending an unprofitable price war between Mataura Falls Paper Mill, Otago Paper Mills at Woodhaugh near Dunedin and Riverhead Paper Mills at Auckland these companies amalgamated into a new company called the New Zealand Paper Mills. ..
In 1960 Fletchers Ltd bought an interest in the company. As a result of their injection of new capital the mill was completely modernised.
In 1964 NZ Forest Products took a 30% share in the company with Fletchers having 30%. On 8 July 1970 NZ Forest Products took complete ownership of New Zealand Paper Mills.[26] In 1976 the mill celebrated its centennial year….
Between 1984 and 1991, due to upgrades and efficiency gains, productively had increased by 25% with 216 staff…
By 1990 the mill, owned by NZ Forest Products, had become a division of Elder Resources, until it was taken over by Carter Holt Harvey in 1991…
By the late 20th century the mill was coming under intense pressure from Asian competitors which had depressed the world price for paper, and as a result the mill was losing NZ$1 million a year. Faced with these losses and forecasts that they would continue, and with the mill contributing only 3% of Carter Harvey Holt [sic] output by volume, the company closed the mill on 18 August 2000 with 155 staff being made redundant.
So there goes a good working mill producing adequately, and able to supply NZ but with free market open-borders Asian competitors could white-ant the country, and 155 staff, and probably at least 100 homes lost their income.
Now the same thing is happening at Kawerau.* Can some of the vestiges of intelligent and practical people in NZ plot their way to obtaining the plant at knock-down prices and keep local business going, and some export where possible. But f..k the export-first and put NZ people first. Growth is no longer the magic word, you blind dupes out there in business land. We hardly make anything for ourselves. We are forced to import because that sector has killed our small businesses and the large underclass under middle class fancies, cannot afford to pay for NZ made on the low wages received.
The economy is out of kilter, and it's killing us and our attempt at civilisation here in post-Eden. Let's try for balance, look after what's left of Eden, and keep strong commitment to practicality not style-first, not fashion, not appearance before durability. and enable those companies concentrating on the domestic market to continue profitably with effectiveness as well as efficiency, perhaps with special tax rates based on number of employees. Keep NZ alive.
The Tasman Mill site is a pulp and paper mill located on Fletcher Avenue just outside the town of Kawerau in New Zealand. The Tasman Mill site is the largest single employer in the Eastern Bay of Plenty region. Wikipedia
News print – I thought that papers were looking for supplies. I would suggest that the glossy inserts be printed on it also. And that glossy magazines also change over, they are fashion icons, costly, very heavy, and a great lot of ink and extra processing to get that finish.
Coarse wool carpet – with oil getting more expensive it should be back in demand. It is lower fire risk and also insulates and quietens the house – wood floors as at present being used often come with heating underneath which unless it arises from static heat-soakers means energy required. Get sheep station owners to pay into a fund with government topping up – can be done if they wanted to have a real economy that provides a base for people who want basic lives with money saved for special treats. That would be heaven to many.
The thumbs down on everything because there isn't an immediate market is poor thinking. The items can be sold with an environmental message – the thinking you give sounds 20th century type.
They have been trying with wool carpets to get them more popular for 20 years. We used to have a whole marketing board for that kind of thing, and nzwool.co.nz is still around. Just hasn't worked. Almost all the mills are gone from NZ. You want to find value-add you have to look at tiny batches of cottage dyers and weavers who do it for a hobby.
Kawerau is being shut down as a paper mill for the same reason. Newspapers are in freefall, printed stationery is dead, packaging is its last stand.
We don't need to be a mass producer of bulk, high-mass, heavy, low-value products that the world just doesn't want.
So nor do we need to keep the factories open that make them.
I can see us using a lot more wool for insulation with plastics (which is what a lot of it is ) on the way out.
As to kawerau – if we factored in the green cost of transport etc and maybe had a border levy to cover the lower health and OSh standards that are in places offshore – this mill might look a whole lot better – plus used the local multiplier effects similar to those we should use when letting contracts.
Plus remember this is a lesser profit entity than others for the owners. Doesn’t mean that it is totally unprofitable and maybe with some automation upgrades it would help our national resilience, There are huge risks in everything being done overseas and if it is all in one or two countries there is an overall strategic risk
In New Zealand,there weren't any sheep (or sheep-like creatures) at all until 150-ish years ago.
Over the rest of the world, we humans have vastly increased the numbers of burping sheep (and other ruminants) over the last couple hundred years compared to the small numbers that used to exist before then.
This huge increase in burping ruminants is a significant part of why methane concentrations in the atmosphere are now around 1900ppb compared to around 800ppb two or three hundred years ago. That extra 1100ppb is responsible for somewhere around 1/4 to 1/3 of the warming we have experienced.
The United States is home to approximately 94.4 million cattle and calves as of 2020, a decrease from 94.8 million cattle and calves in 2019. There are over three times more beef cows than milk cows living in the United States.
KPMG found bank profits had also been swelled as they scaled back projections for losses on loans as the expected Covid-19 economic crisis has proved less grim than originally expected, with unemployment remaining low.
…
Sixty per cent of new lending was to people who already owned homes.
…
Six of the largest nine retail banks had increased the amount they earned from every dollar lent (after their borrowing costs were deducted) in the year to March 30, KPMG found.
Good business model they have – create new money, lend it at interest, then vaporise the principal when the loan is paid back. Rinse and repeat. A magic money tree.
That was to be expected tho? Seriously the idea that the banks will lend to closed businesses during a global pandemic during lockdowns? Who really did believe that.
So the money went were the banks like it, to people that already have money, or at least equity. Bingo! Why, it almost seems as if some people will make great bank out of this pandemic.
And rabobank has stopped having transaction only customers. Issuing a banking licence should come with a lot of conditions of service to the public and the Reserve Bank needs to get onto this before it is too late. If banks only want to take customers who have loans or use the internet then where does it leave the rest of the community. And I strongly suspect that is end game for most of the banks not that they would say so.
Aussie goverment tells UNESCO, bugger off cobber. It's ours we can do what we like with it.
Blames China.
It was China wot did it
United Nations recommends Great Barrier Reef be added to World Heritage list, angering Australia
46 minutes ago
….Speaking on condition of anonymity, a government official told Reuters that China had been responsible for the committee's stance.
"We will appeal, but China is in control," the source said.
China rejected the assertion that it was behind the move, however.
"What you mentioned is a groundless smear against China," foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian, told a daily briefing in Beijing, adding that the accusation was similar to others made against China, regarding its "ulterior political motives"…
….Environmental groups gave short shrift to the notion that politics played a part in the adverse recommendation, saying it was clear Australia was not doing enough to protect the reef.
“There is no avenue for any government to have any input. This recommendation is reached by world renowned scientists,” said Richard Leck, Head of Oceans for the World Wide Fund for Nature, Australia.
According to the Australian government it's China's fault for bringing this to the world's attention.
Yeah right. Like we wouldn't notice this by ourselves.
The Great Barrier Reef Has Now Lost 50% of its Coral
A new study published has found a loss accross all coral populations. We now known that since 1995, coral populations in the Great Barrier Reef has declined by at least 50 percent. Sadly, this applies to every coral species within the reef, no matter the size, depth or species of the coral. It is a horrible, but very real testament to the power and impact of climate change.
NSW has banned non-essential travel outside of Sydney and made mask-wearing mandatory everywhere after the state today recorded 16 new locally acquired Covid cases.
Did I see and hear that right? David Seymour in the House trying to pin blame on the Government, Chris Hipkins, that people weren't using the Covid tracing app?
The party which has individual responsibility and being left alone to do the right thing as its core belief, blaming the Government when people don't make the 'right' decision?
Not sure why the Hologram would ask about that particular thing, when the questions should have simply be : Why did the government not shut down quarantine free travel with Sidney once their outbreak started last week.
This is from 5 days ago, and surely our government had the same information. Since then, new cases emerged daily, and it is only today that the NSW Gov banned 'non essential' travel out of Sidney. (as per my earlier post above)
Because of the likely reaction which would have been hysterical (again) about the an "over-reaction." Because of the over-the-top reaction about how the government was intent on destroying businesses?
Of course you wouldn't have been on those sorts of wagons would you?
One man's "overabundance of caution" is another's "Nazi dictatorship." That's the movie we've been experiencing since February/March last year.
there would have been no more calls then the other time we closed the border to Indians, or with Melbourne.
the government openeth the bubble, the government closeth the bubble. Unless the opposition is now so fearsome that the government is somewhere hiding under desks doing what Judith Collins is demanding them to do. In that case we need a new government.
He was on TV1 this evening complaining about the fact that the government learnt last night about the circumstances surrounding the latest Covid case but didn't tell us until this morning.
The health experts worked their pants off until midnight collating the information but we weren’t told… wa wa wa! The fact 90% of us were tucked up our beds by then (no doubt including himself) seems to have escaped the little turd.
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A couple of weeks ago, after NCEA results came out, my son’s enrolment at Auckland Uni for this year was confirmed - he is doing a BSc majoring in Statistics. Well that is the plan now, who knows what will take his interest once he starts.I spent a bit of ...
Kia ora. What a week! We hope you’ve all come through last weekend’s extreme weather event relatively dry and safe. Header image: stormwater ponds at Hobsonville Point. Image via Twitter. The week in Greater Auckland There’s been a storm of information and debate since the worst of the flooding ...
Hi,At 4.43pm yesterday it arrived — a cease and desist letter from the guy I mentioned in my last newsletter. I’d written an article about “WEWE”, a global multi-level marketing scam making in-roads into New Zealand. MLMs are terrible for many of the same reasons megachurches are terrible, and I ...
Time To Call A Halt: Chris Hipkins knows that iwi leaders possess the means to make life very difficult for his government. Notwithstanding their objections, however, the Prime Minister’s direction of travel – already clearly signalled by his very public demotion of Nanaia Mahuta – must be confirmed by an emphatic ...
Open access notables Via PNAS, Ceylan, Anderson & Wood present a paper squarely in the center of the Skeptical Science wheelhouse: Sharing of misinformation is habitual, not just lazy or biased. The signficance statement is obvious catnip: Misinformation is a worldwide concern carrying socioeconomic and political consequences. What drives ...
Mark White from the Left free speech organisation Plebity looks at the disturbing trend of ‘book burning’ on US campuses In the abstract, people mostly agree that book banning is a bad thing. The Nazis did us the favor of being very clear about it and literally burning books, but ...
Prime Minister Chris Hipkins has undergone a stern baptisim of fire in his first week in his new job, but it doesn’t get any easier. Next week, he has a vital meeting in Canberra with his Australian counterpart Anthony Albanese, where he has to establish ...
As PM Chris Hipkins says, it’s a “no brainer” to extend the fuel tax cut, half price public subsidy and the cut to the road user levy until mid-year. A no braoner if the prime purpose is to ease the burden on people struggling to cope with the cost of ...
Buzz from the Beehive Cost-of-living pressures loomed large in Beehive announcements over the past 24 hours. The PM was obviously keen to announce further measures to keep those costs in check and demonstrate he means business when he talks of focusing his government on bread-and-butter issues. His statement was headed ...
Poor Mike Hosking. He has revealed himself in his most recent diatribe to be one of those public figures who is defined, not by who he is, but by who he isn’t, or at least not by what he is for, but by what he is against. Jacinda’s departure has ...
New Zealand is the second least corrupt country on earth according to the latest Corruption Perception Index published yesterday by Transparency International. But how much does this reflect reality? The problem with being continually feted for world-leading political integrity – which the Beehive and government departments love to boast about ...
TLDR: Including my pick of the news and other links in my checks around the news sites since 4am. Paying subscribers can see them all below the fold.In Aotearoa’s political economyBrown vs Fish Read more ...
TLDR: Including my pick of the news and other links in my checks around the news sites since 4am. Paying subscribers can see them all below the fold.In Aotearoa’s political economyBrown vs Fish Read more ...
In other countries, the target-rich cohorts of swinging voters are given labels such as ‘Mondeo Man’, ‘White Van Man,’ ‘Soccer Moms’ and ‘Little Aussie Battlers.’ Here, the easiest shorthand is ‘Ford Ranger Man’ – as seen here parked outside a Herne Bay restaurant, inbetween two SUVs. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / ...
In other countries, the target-rich cohorts of swinging voters are given labels such as ‘Mondeo Man’, ‘White Van Man,’ ‘Soccer Moms’ and ‘Little Aussie Battlers.’ Here, the easiest shorthand is ‘Ford Ranger Man’ – as seen here parked outside a Herne Bay restaurant, inbetween two SUVs. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / ...
Transport Minister and now also Minister for Auckland, Michael Wood has confirmed that the light rail project is part of the government’s policy refocus. Wood said the light rail project was under review as part of a ministerial refocus on key Government projects. “We are undertaking a stocktake about how ...
Sometime before the new Prime Minister Chris Hipkins announced that this year would be about “bread and butter issues”, National’s finance spokesperson Nicola Willis decided to move from Wellington Central and stand for Ohariu, which spreads across north Wellington from the central city to Johnsonville and Tawa. It’s an ...
They say a week is a long time in politics. For Mayor Wayne Brown, turns out 24 hours was long enough for many of us to see, quite obviously, “something isn’t right here…”. That in fact, a lot was going wrong. Very wrong indeed.Mainly because it turns ...
One of the most effective, and successful, graphics developed by Skeptical Science is the escalator. The escalator shows how global surface temperature anomalies vary with time, and illustrates how "contrarians" tend to cherry-pick short time intervals so as to argue that there has been no recent warming, while "realists" recognise ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTLDR: Here’s a quick roundup of the news today for paying subscribers on a slightly frantic, very wet, and then very warm day. In Aotearoa’s political economy today Read more ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTLDR: Here’s a quick roundup of the news today for paying subscribers on a slightly frantic, very wet, and then very warm day. In Aotearoa’s political economy today Read more ...
Tomorrow we have a funeral, and thank you all of you for your very kind words and thoughts — flowers, even.Our friend Michèle messaged: we never get to feel one thing at a time, us grownups, and oh boy is that ever the truth. Tomorrow we have the funeral, and ...
Lynn and I have just returned from a news conference where Hipkins, fresh from visiting a relief centre in Mangere, was repeatedly challenged to justify the extension of subsidies to create more climate emissions when the effects of climate change had just proved so disastrous. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The ...
Lynn and I have just returned from a news conference where Hipkins, fresh from visiting a relief centre in Mangere, was repeatedly challenged to justify the extension of subsidies to create more climate emissions when the effects of climate change had just proved so disastrous. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The ...
A new Prime Minister, a revitalised Cabinet, and possibly revised priorities – but is the political and, importantly, economic landscape much different? Certainly some within the news media were excited by the changes which Chris Hipkins announced yesterday or – before the announcement – by the prospect of changes in ...
Currently the government's strategy for reducing transport emissions hinges on boosting vehicle fuel-efficiency, via the clean car standard and clean car discount, and some improvements to public transport. The former has been hugely successful, and has clearly set us on the right path, but its also not enough, and will ...
Buzz from the Beehive Before he announced his Cabinet yesterday, Prime Minister Chris Hipkins announced he would be flying to Australia next week to meet that country’s Prime Minister. And before Kieran McAnulty had time to say “Three Waters” after his promotion to the Local Government portfolio, he was dishing ...
The quarterly labour market statistics were released this morning, showing that unemployment has risen slightly to 3.4%. There are now 99,000 people unemployed - 24,000 fewer than when Labour took office. So, I guess the Reserve Bank's plan to throw people out of work to stop wage rises "inflation", and ...
Another night of heavy rain, flooding, damage to homes, and people worried about where the hell all this water is going to go as we enter day twenty two of rain this year.Honestly if the government can’t sell Three Waters on the back of what has happened with storm water ...
* Dr Bryce Edwards writes – Prime Minister Chris Hipkins continues to be the new broom in Government, re-setting his Government away from its problem areas in his Cabinet reshuffle yesterday, and trying to convince voters that Labour is focused on “bread and butter” issues. The ministers responsible for unpopular ...
Prime Minister Chris Hipkins continues to be the new broom in Government, re-setting his Government away from its problem areas in his Cabinet reshuffle yesterday, and trying to convince voters that Labour is focused on “bread and butter” issues. The ministers responsible for unpopular reforms in water and DHB centralisation ...
Hi,It’s weird to me that in 2023 we still have people falling for multi-level marketing schemes (MLMs for short). There are Netflix documentaries about them, countless articles, and last year we did an Armchaired and Dangerous episode on them.Then you check a ticketing website like EventBrite and see this shit ...
Nanaia Mahuta fell the furthest in the Cabinet reshuffle. Photo: Lynn Grieveson/Getty ImagesTLDR: PM Chris Hipkins unveiled a Cabinet this afternoon he hopes will show wavering voters that a refreshed Labour Government is focused on ‘bread and butter cost of living’ issues, rather than the unpopular, unwieldy and massively centralising ...
Nanaia Mahuta fell the furthest in the Cabinet reshuffle. Photo: Lynn Grieveson/Getty ImagesTLDR: PM Chris Hipkins unveiled a Cabinet this afternoon he hopes will show wavering voters that a refreshed Labour Government is focused on ‘bread and butter cost of living’ issues, rather than the unpopular, unwieldy and massively centralising ...
Shortly, the absolute state of Wayne Brown. But before that, something I wrote four years ago for the council’s own media machine. It was a day-in-the-life profile of their many and varied and quite possibly unnoticed vital services. We went all over Auckland in 48 hours for the story, the ...
Completed reads for January Lilith, by George MacDonald The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (poem), by Samuel Taylor Coleridge Christabel (poem), by Samuel Taylor Coleridge The Saga of Ragnar Lodbrok, by Anonymous The Lay of Kraka (poem), by Anonymous 1066 and All That, by W.C. Sellar and R.J. ...
Pity the poor Brits. They just can’t catch a break. After years of reporting of lying Boris Johnson, a change to a less colourful PM in Rishi Sunak has resulted in a smooth media pivot to an end-of-empire narrative. The New York Times, no less, amplifies suggestions that Blighty ...
On that day all the springs of the great deep burst forth, and the floodgates of the heavens were opened. And rain fell on the earth.Genesis 6:11-12THE TORRENTIAL DOWNPOURS that dumped a record-breaking amount of rain on Auckland this anniversary weekend will reoccur with ever-increasing frequency. The planet’s atmosphere is ...
Buzz from the Beehive There has been plenty to keep the relevant Ministers busy in flood-stricken Auckland over the past day or two. But New Zealand, last time we looked, extends north of Auckland into Northland and south of the Bombay Hills all the way to the bottom of the ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Jeff Masters When early settlers came to the confluence of the Sacramento and American Rivers before the California Gold Rush, Indigenous people warned them that the Sacramento Valley could become an inland sea when great winter rains came. The storytellers described water filling the ...
Wayne Brown managed a smile when meeting with Remuera residents, but he was grumpy about having to deal with “media drongos”. Photo: Lynn Grieveson/Getty ImagesTLDR: In my pick of the news links found in my rounds since 4am for paying subscribers below the paywall:Wayne Brown moans about the media and ...
Wayne Brown managed a smile when meeting with Remuera residents, but he was grumpy about having to deal with “media drongos”. Photo: Lynn Grieveson/Getty ImagesTLDR: In my pick of the news links found in my rounds since 4am for paying subscribers below the paywall:Wayne Brown moans about the media and ...
Dr Bryce Edwards writes – Last night’s opinion polls answered the big question of whether a switch of prime minister would really be a gamechanger for election year. The 1News and Newshub polls released at 6pm gave the same response: the shift from Jacinda Ardern to Chris Hipkins ...
Hipkins’ aim this year will be to present a ‘low target’ for those seeking to attack Labour’s policies and spending. Photo: Lynn Grieveson/Getty ImagesTLDR: Anyone dealing with Government departments and councils who wants some sort of big or long-term decision out of officials or politicians this year should brace for ...
Hipkins’ aim this year will be to present a ‘low target’ for those seeking to attack Labour’s policies and spending. Photo: Lynn Grieveson/Getty ImagesTLDR: Anyone dealing with Government departments and councils who wants some sort of big or long-term decision out of officials or politicians this year should brace for ...
Last night’s opinion polls answered the big question of whether a switch of prime minister would really be a gamechanger for election year. The 1News and Newshub polls released at 6pm gave the same response: the shift from Jacinda Ardern to Chris Hipkins has changed everything, and Labour is back ...
Over the last few years, it’s seemed like city after city around the world has become subject to extreme flooding events that have been made worse by impacts from climate change. We’ve highlighted many of them in our Weekly Roundup series. Sadly, over the last few days it’s been Auckland’s ...
And so the first month of the year draws to a close. It rained in Auckland on 21 out of the 31 days in January. Feels like summer never really happened this year. It’s actually hard to believe there were 10 days that it didn’t rain. Was it any better where ...
A ‘small target’ strategy is not going to cut it anymore if National want to win the upcoming election. The game has changed and the game plan needs to change as well. Jacinda Ardern’s abrupt departure from the 9th floor has the potential to derail what looked to be an ...
When Grant Robertson talks about how the economy might change post-covid, one of the things he talks about is what he calls an unsung but interesting white paper on science. “It’s really important,” he says. The Minister in charge of the White Paper — Te Ara Paerangi, Future Pathways ...
The clean up has begun but more rain is on the way. Photo: Lynn Grieveson/Getty ImagesTLDR: Auckland’s floods over the last three days are turning into a macroeconomic event, with losses from Aotearoa’s biggest-ever climate event estimated at around $500 million and Auckland’s schools all closed for a week until ...
The clean up has begun but more rain is on the way. Photo: Lynn Grieveson/Getty ImagesTLDR: Auckland’s floods over the last three days are turning into a macroeconomic event, with losses from Aotearoa’s biggest-ever climate event estimated at around $500 million and Auckland’s schools all closed for a week until ...
The news media were at one ceremony by the looks of things. The Governor-General, the Prime Minister and his deputy were at another. The news media were at a swearing-in ceremony. The country’s leaders were at an appointment ceremony. The New Zealand Gazette record of what transpired says: Appointment of ...
I n some alternative universe, Auckland mayor Efeso Collins readily grasped the scale of Friday’s deluge, and quickly made the emergency declaration that enabled central government to immediately throw its resources behind the rescue and remediation effort. As Friday evening became night, Mayor Collins seemed to be everywhere: talking with ...
They called it an “atmospheric river”, the weather bombardment which hit NZ’s northern region at the weekend. It exacted a terrible toll on metropolitan Auckland and the rest of the region. Few living there may have noted a statement from electricity generator Mercury Energy labelled “WET, WET, WET!” This was ...
I know, that is a pretty corny title but given the circumstances here in the Auckland region, I just had to say it. The more oblique reference embedded in the title is to the leadership failures exhibited by Mayor Wayne Brown and his so-called leadership team when confronted by the ...
How much confidence should the public have in authorities managing natural disasters? Not much, judging by the farcical way in which the civil defence emergence in Auckland has played out. The way authorities dealt with Auckland’s extreme weather on Friday illustrated how hit-and-miss our civil defence emergency system is. In ...
TLDR: Here’s the key news links and useful longer reads I’ve spotted since 4 am this morning, including:calls for a more ‘spongey’ urban infrastructure after Auckland’s floods;demands for an inquiry into Auckland Council’s communications failure;the latest on Chris Hipkins’ plans for Three Waters; inside the PR trainwreck that is Wayne ...
TLDR: Here’s the key news links and useful longer reads I’ve spotted since 4 am this morning, including:calls for a more ‘spongey’ urban infrastructure after Auckland’s floods;demands for an inquiry into Auckland Council’s communications failure;the latest on Chris Hipkins’ plans for Three Waters; inside the PR trainwreck that is Wayne ...
Mayor Wayne Brown, under fire for his communication failures, quietly visited the scene of the fatal Remuera slip on Sunday, with his staff taking photos for social media updates. Photo: Lynn Grieveson/Getty ImagesTLDR: The cleanup and the post-mortem have begun, even though the rain just keeps falling in Auckland after ...
Mayor Wayne Brown, under fire for his communication failures, quietly visited the scene of the fatal Remuera slip on Sunday, with his staff taking photos for social media updates. Photo: Lynn Grieveson/Getty ImagesTLDR: The cleanup and the post-mortem have begun, even though the rain just keeps falling in Auckland after ...
Thanks for reading Frankly Speaking ! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.The recent leadership change in the governing Labour party resulted in a very strange response from National’s (current) leader, Christopher Luxon. Mr Luxon berated Labour for it’s change of leader, citing no actual change.As ...
A chronological listing of news articles posted on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week: Sun, Jan 22, 2023 thru Sat, Jan 28, 2023. Story of the Week New Study Reveals Arctic Ice, Tracked Both Above and Below, Is Freezing LaterClimate change is affecting the timing of both ...
We’ve just announced a massive infrastructure investment to kick-start new housing developments across New Zealand. Through our Infrastructure Acceleration Fund, we’re making sure that critical infrastructure - like pipes, roads and wastewater connections - is in place, so thousands more homes can be built. ...
The Green Party is joining more than 20 community organisations to call for an immediate rent freeze in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland, after reports of landlords intending to hike rents after flooding. ...
When Chris Hipkins took on the job of Prime Minister, he said bread and butter issues like the cost of living would be the Government’s top priority – and this week, we’ve set out extra support for families and businesses. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to provide direct support to low-income households and to stop subsidising fossil fuels during a climate crisis. ...
The tools exist to help families with surging costs – and as costs continue to rise it is more urgent than ever that we use them, the Green Party says. ...
Over $10 million infrastructure funding to unlock housing in Whangārei The purchase of a 3.279 hectare site in Kerikeri to enable 56 new homes Northland becomes eligible for $100 million scheme for affordable rentals Multiple Northland communities will benefit from multiple Government housing investments, delivering thousands of new homes for ...
A memorial event at a key battle site in the New Zealand land wars is an important event to mark the progress in relations between Māori and the Crown as we head towards Waitangi Day, Minister for Te Arawhiti Kelvin Davis said. The Battle of Ohaeawai in June 1845 saw ...
More Police officers are being deployed to the frontline with the graduation of 54 new constables from the Royal New Zealand Police College today. The graduation ceremony for Recruit Wing 362 at Te Rauparaha Arena in Porirua was the first official event for Stuart Nash since his reappointment as Police ...
The Government is unlocking an additional $700,000 in support for regions that have been badly hit by the recent flooding and storm damage in the upper North Island. “We’re supporting the response and recovery of Auckland, Waikato, Coromandel, Northland, and Bay of Plenty regions, through activating Enhanced Taskforce Green to ...
Prime Minister Chris Hipkins has welcomed the announcement that Her Royal Highness The Princess Royal, Princess Anne, will visit New Zealand this month. “Princess Anne is travelling to Aotearoa at the request of the NZ Army’s Royal New Zealand Corps of Signals, of which she is Colonel in Chief, to ...
A new Government and industry strategy launched today has its sights on growing the value of New Zealand’s horticultural production to $12 billion by 2035, Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor said. “Our food and fibre exports are vital to New Zealand’s economic security. We’re focussed on long-term strategies that build on ...
25 cents per litre petrol excise duty cut extended to 30 June 2023 – reducing an average 60 litre tank of petrol by $17.25 Road User Charge discount will be re-introduced and continue through until 30 June Half price public transport fares extended to the end of June 2023 saving ...
The strong economy has attracted more people into the workforce, with a record number of New Zealanders in paid work and wages rising to help with cost of living pressures. “The Government’s economic plan is delivering on more better-paid jobs, growing wages and creating more opportunities for more New Zealanders,” ...
The Government is providing a further $1 million to the Mayoral Relief Fund to help communities in Auckland following flooding, Minister for Emergency Management Kieran McAnulty announced today. “Cabinet today agreed that, given the severity of the event, a further $1 million contribution be made. Cabinet wishes to be proactive ...
The new Cabinet will be focused on core bread and butter issues like the cost of living, education, health, housing and keeping communities and businesses safe, Prime Minister Chris Hipkins has announced. “We need a greater focus on what’s in front of New Zealanders right now. The new Cabinet line ...
Prime Minister Chris Hipkins will travel to Canberra next week for an in person meeting with Australian Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese. “The trans-Tasman relationship is New Zealand’s closest and most important, and it was crucial to me that my first overseas trip as Prime Minister was to Australia,” Chris Hipkins ...
The Government is providing establishment funding of $100,000 to the Mayoral Relief Fund to help communities in Auckland following flooding, Minister for Emergency Management Kieran McAnulty announced. “We moved quickly to make available this funding to support Aucklanders while the full extent of the damage is being assessed,” Kieran McAnulty ...
As the Mayor of Auckland has announced a state of emergency, the Government, through NEMA, is able to step up support for those affected by flooding in Auckland. “I’d urge people to follow the advice of authorities and check Auckland Emergency Management for the latest information. As always, the Government ...
Ka papā te whatitiri, Hikohiko ana te uira, wāhi rua mai ana rā runga mai o Huruiki maunga Kua hinga te māreikura o te Nota, a Titewhai Harawira Nā reira, e te kahurangi, takoto, e moe Ka mōwai koa a Whakapara, kua uhia te Tai Tokerau e te kapua pōuri ...
Carmel Sepuloni, Minister for Social Development and Employment, has activated Enhanced Taskforce Green (ETFG) in response to flooding and damaged caused by Cyclone Hale in the Tairāwhiti region. Up to $500,000 will be made available to employ job seekers to support the clean-up. We are still investigating whether other parts ...
The 2023 General Election will be held on Saturday 14 October 2023, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced today. “Announcing the election date early in the year provides New Zealanders with certainty and has become the practice of this Government and the previous one, and I believe is best practice,” Jacinda ...
Jacinda Ardern has announced she will step down as Prime Minister and Leader of the Labour Party. Her resignation will take effect on the appointment of a new Prime Minister. A caucus vote to elect a new Party Leader will occur in 3 days’ time on Sunday the 22nd of ...
The Government is maintaining its strong trade focus in 2023 with Trade and Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor visiting Europe this week to discuss the role of agricultural trade in climate change and food security, WTO reform and New Zealand agricultural innovation. Damien O’Connor will travel tomorrow to Switzerland to attend the ...
The Government has extended its medium-scale classification of Cyclone Hale to the Wairarapa after assessing storm damage to the eastern coastline of the region. “We’re making up to $80,000 available to the East Coast Rural Support Trust to help farmers and growers recover from the significant damage in the region,” ...
COMMENTARY:By Kayt Davies in Perth I wasn’t good at French in my final year of high school. My classmates had five years of language studies behind them. I had three. As a result of my woeful grip on the language, I wrote a terribly bad essay in my final ...
RNZ Pacific Journalist Victor Mambor, who is the chief editor of the West Papuan newspaper and websiteJubi, has received the Oktovianus Pogau Award from the Indonesian-based Pantau Foundation for courage in journalism. The foundation’s Andreas Harsono said Mambor’s decision to return to his father’s homeland and defend the rights ...
RNZ News Green Party MP Chlöe Swarbrick is brushing off concerns a temporary rent freeze in flood-hit Auckland would just see landlords hike rents even more when the controls were lifted — arguing they should stay permanently. More than 20 organisations have signed a letter urging Minister for Auckland Michael ...
Iwi leaders have accused National and ACT of "fanning the flames of racism", urging the prime minister to be brave and not walk away from partnership on three waters. ...
About this time last week it had become apparent that Auckland was in for a bit more than just a wet Friday. While the state of emergency remains in place for another seven days, it appears the worst should now be behind us. Last night, Niwa shared a fascinating thread ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Hawkins, Senior Lecturer, Canberra School of Politics, Economics and Society, University of Canberra ShutterstockIndigenous Australians are respectfully advised that the following includes the names and images of some people who are now deceased. The Reserve Bank of Australia ...
The government has confirmed the money will be spent in Northland, including unlocking greenfields land and transport upgrades like a new bridge in Kamo. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gabrielle Appleby, Professor, UNSW Law School, UNSW Sydney Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has confirmed that sometime between August and November this year, the Australian people will go to a referendum for the first time since 1999. We’ll be asked whether we support ...
Viewers across the United States were today shown a slice of New Zealand, with a reporter for Good Morning America broadcasting live from Rotorua. Robin Roberts, a co-anchor for the popular morning TV show, has been touring the country this week. During her visit to Rotorua’s Te Puia centre, she ...
They can be environmentally unsound and are a symbol used to shame millennials, but everyone still loves an avo. I love avocados, always have, always will. The buttery golden-green flesh from a perfectly ripe avocado is a culinary blessing. Today I’d love to simply wax poetic about twisting open a ...
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.AUCKLAND1The Creative Act: A Way of Being by Rick Rubin (Penguin Press, $50) The beautiful ...
A new poem by Robin Peace. To the kahikatea I see from my bed Thinking inside the square, the ellipse, the round of what life is, I only see the trees. Not only as if that were the only thing I see, but only as if the tree matters more. ...
A week ago, Elton John’s first Auckland show was called off at the last minute. What was it like getting there, being there, and trying to return home afterwards?Elton John has long been a blessing for our ears, but in recent years his Auckland shows have been cursed. His ...
For Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown, sorry seems to be the hardest word to say The mayoral chains must have been heavy this week for Auckland’s Wayne Brown, as his response to last week’s flood garnered its own veritable torrent of scandals and media scrutiny. Almost exactly one week on from ...
For Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown, sorry seems to be the hardest word to say The mayoral chains must have been heavy this week for Auckland’s Wayne Brown, as his response to last week’s flood garnered its own veritable torrent of scandals and media scrutiny. Almost exactly one week on from ...
Ours Not Mines is cautiously excited about reporting that the Government is drafting legislation to ban new mines on conservation land. The anti-mining group's spokesperson, Morgan Donoghue says: "The Government has been promising us some action for ...
People who enjoy the outdoors for recreation, fishing and hunting will lose rights under the Natural and Built Environments Bill. Fish & Game New Zealand chief executive Corina Jordan says the proposed replacement for the Resource Management ...
Auckland mayor Wayne Brown has conceded he “dropped the ball” during last Friday’s major flooding event. The state of emergency in the super city has today been extended for a further seven days, though Brown said he expects it will be lifted early. After a week of defensiveness over his ...
As the reality TV juggernaut returns for a new season, Tara Ward steps into the minds of the show’s relationship experts to assess the compatibility of this year’s brides and grooms. Married at First Sight: Australia returns on Monday night, and by season ten, you’d think the show’s relationship experts ...
Auckland’s state of emergency is expected to be extended for another seven days, according to the Herald. It was due to expire overnight after being declared a week ago, the day of the worst flooding in the super city. While weather conditions have improved, the city is continuing to experience ...
Proposed pay equity claim settlements for school librarians and science technicians have been reached between the Ministry of Education and NZEI Te Riu Roa, Secretary for Education, Iona Holsted and NZEI Te Riu Roa president, Mark Potter, announced ...
Members of NZEI Te Riu Roa negotiating on behalf of school librarians, library assistants and science technicians are excited to announce that proposed pay equity settlements are ready to be voted on by their colleagues. They include pay increases of up to ...
The Public Transport Users Association (PTUA) is calling for Michael Wood, the Minister of Transport, and now Auckland, to cancel the light rail project immediately. Auckland Light Rail was never going to happen, as our group has repeatedly said dozens of ...
Prime Minister Chris Hipkins has been asked to intervene following confirmation today that the Government plans to implement a ban on all extractive sector activities on the conservation estate. Wayne Scott, CEO of the Aggregate and Quarry Association, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alexander Gillespie, Professor of Law, University of Waikato Getty Images The heated (and often confused) debate about “co-governance” in Aotearoa New Zealand inevitably leads back to its source, Te Tiriti o Waitangi. But, as its long-contested meanings demonstrate, very little ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kate Hunter, Lecturer in Art and Performance, Deakin University Jodie Hutchinson/Red StitchReview: Wittenoom, directed by Susie Dee, Red Stitch Deep in the remote Pilbara region of Western Australia, the town of Wittenoom lies empty, desolate … and contaminated. Wittenoom ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Oliver Bown, Postdoctoral fellow, UNSW Sydney Shutterstock The past few years have seen an explosion in applications of artificial intelligence to creative fields. A new generation of image and text generators is delivering impressiveresults. Now AI has also found ...
New Zealand’s egg shortage is hitting cruise ships too – forcing the crew of one vessel to hatch a poaching plan. This story was first published on Stuff. On the hunt for eggs, a crew from a luxury cruise ship got cracking and hatched a cunning plan. Earlier this week, Stuff ...
Now demolished, the First Church of Christ Scientist was a masterclass of architectural imagination. Kate Linzey visits the site on which it once stood, to learn more. The object is delicate and small. Small enough to sit in the palm of my hand and weighing less than 300 grams. It ...
When your food parcel arrives before the emergency alert, you know something’s not working properly.This is an excerpt from our weekly food newsletter, The Boil Up. I’ve spent the last week desperately and at times fruitlessly attempting to drain and then sweep my whānau home of knee-deep water, pull up ...
Drongo-gate continues for another day with the Herald reporting that Auckland’s mayor has been caught out using the slang term for a second time. It comes this time from a former minor mayoral candidate, Mike Kampkes, who said he received a message from Brown in response to a media release ...
How does Aotearoa stop relying so heavily on agriculture to prop up our economy? Online tax and accounting service Hnry just raised $35m to grow its software on-demand service across the globe. Bernard Hickey talks with AirTree partner Jackie Vullinghs about how venture capitalists are funding Aotearoa’s fastest growing, least-polluting ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adam Guastella, Professor and Clinical Psychologist, Michael Crouch Chair in Child and Youth Mental Health, University of Sydney Shutterstock With childcare and schools starting the new year, parents might be anxiously wondering how their child will adapt in a new ...
I am delighted to announce the appointment of John Price ONZM as the new Director Civil Defence Emergency Management and Deputy Chief Executive Emergency Management for the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA). John has been a member of the ...
Coromandel Watchdog of Hauraki are calling on the new Prime Minister and new Minister of Conservation Willow Jean Prime to immediately implement the 2017 promise to ban new mining activity on conservation lands. “ The mining industry group Straterra ...
How does Aotearoa stop relying so heavily on agriculture to prop up our economy? Online tax and accounting service Hnry just raised $35m to grow its software on-demand service across the globe. In the latest episode of When the Facts Change, Bernard Hickey talks with AirTree partner Jackie Vullinghs about how ...
There’s a fear that highlighting menopause will undermine women, especially at work. But what have centuries of secrecy achieved for us? Are you sick of hearing about menopause? Kim Hill is. The living legend of Aotearoa broadcasting told actor Robyn Malcolm (also a legend) on her Saturday Morning show on RNZ ...
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This is a good news story to start the day! There are good people out there.
From sleeping in a bus shelter to 'walking into a new light' after finding a place to call home | Stuff.co.nz
Yes Jester, my first read of the day. Her smile said it all.
We should give the budget for the care and housing of homeless to the Salvation Army, they seem to be better suited to help our homeless whanau.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/445344/live-updates-on-sydney-covid-19-case-possible-lockdown-in-capital-being-considered-bloomfield
That's a way to wake up for the day! Wellington initiated infection webs have had since the 19th (to 21st) to spread undetected. Any change to Pandemic Alert Levels won't be until midnight, and it is unlikely that many Wellingtonians will bubble-up again without that.
Can't think of a pithy summation for this.
I would expect all domestic flights in and out of wellington to be suspended as a precautionary measure.
VUW just had her mid-tem break starting, which means that loads of students are leaving the capital. Not good timing, if there’s ever a good time for an outbreak.
Let’s see if scanning and testing numbers show a spike in the Wellington area.
Aotearoa-Tai Wan?
"Prediction is very difficult, especially if it's about the future."
One of the many comments by the great Danish physicist Niels Bohr. I am sure Incognito will reflect on this when he, with no doubt considerable humility, reconsiders the prediction he made last Friday evening. When responding to my complaints about the terrible slowness of New Zealand's vaccination program he assured us that we weren't going to have cases in the community for a least 100 days.
" I’ll take 11 days off my earlier offer, so it’ll be 100 days, at least
"
In fact there was a case in the community about 8 hours later. I am assuming of course that the visitor from Sydney was infectious throughout his time in Wellington. From the DOH comments this morning that would seem to be the case.
Now, are you going to tell us again that everything is wonderful and we have nothing to be concerned about. Or will you agree that until they get us a decent vaccination schedule and implement it we are all at risk from a major outbreak?
Now imagine if we really were at the front of that queue.
Bit like $1.9bn for five beds.
Spin is easy. Action, meh.
https://www.health.govt.nz/our-work/diseases-and-conditions/covid-19-novel-coronavirus/covid-19-data-and-statistics/covid-19-current-cases#current-situation
Somebody should bring this to Hipkin's attention. For some peculiar reason he and Bloomfield seems to think they have to put Wellington into level 2!
I see it doesn't apply till 6 pm though. I shall await with interest the massive exodus of the Crown Limo's to the airport as soon as Question time is over.
The planes would all have headed out by 6 pm so that they can spread any possible infection they may have caught to the rest of the country. Why should we in Wellington be the only lucky ones?
The advice is that it is not a lockdown and that traveling is ok, but travellers should take the alert level with them, as always. Somebody should tell people (how) to breathe through their nose and not through any other orifice.
Did you see the dates in that link, Alwyn? Even Niels Bohr saw it, and he’s long dead.
Of course I saw the dates in the link. Obviously they aren't keeping it as up to date as they should be though.
Bloomfield, and I think Hipkins, said on Morning Report today (23rd) that they had been told on the previous evening ( the 22nd) about the Covid 19 positive person who had been in Wellington over the weekend.
Why is that not a case that occurred in the previous 24 hours as either "in the community" or "other"? They certainly didn't pick it up "at the border" did they?
Are you suggesting that they simply cease to exist if they leave the country?
Your reading comprehension is failing, again.
First, you badly misrepresented by comment from OM 18/06/2021. You may wish to read it again; it was quite short and simple.
Second, you fail to understand the info on the pivotal MoH information site.
Third, you ask (or is it suggest?) if I’m suggesting something. Clearly, I’m pointing you to facts and information, for your perusal and convenience.
I cannot do the thinking for you.
HTH
Well I have read it again and it says exactly the same thing as last time.
Perhaps you would care to explain in what way you claim that I have misrepresented you? Just claiming "I was misrepresented" really doesn't cut it.
Sure. In OM 18/06/2021 I wrote this:
In the follow-up comment, I took 11 days off.
This is just the first point. Have we dealt with this and can we tick it off now?
Your entire comment was
"You’re a tough negotiator. I’ll take 11 days off my earlier offer, so it’ll be 100 days, at least
Jacinda will (have to) save us again from our lack of compliance and vigilance
".
I have highlighted the piece I quoted. Now how does quoting the exact words you used and missing out the bits just before and just after them somehow lead you to think that you are being misrepresented?
I was using the quote to justify my statement that "he assured us that we weren't going to have cases in the community for a least 100 days." What, after all, is an "outbreak" if not "cases in the community"?
So close and yet so far.
alwyn, I'm guessing you're spewing filthy irate about the way Judith has been regularly calling for travel bubbles?
Or not?
they're too busy masturbating about the prospect of an outbreak to notice.
@Andre
I have no idea what you are talking about.
My own opinion is that I am very unhappy about having these bubbles, when there are active cases in the other country in the bubble, until every person in New Zealand for whom a vaccine is suitable has had the chance to be vaccinated. When we have the appalling low numbers of people vaccinated that we have at the moment we should certainly not have a bubble with Australia.
We were promised that we were at the front of the queue for getting vaccines and we certainly aren't. Well get on and vaccinate people and then you can have a bubble.
Otherwise stop lying to us and tell us the truth. Don't keep talking about how well we are supposed to be doing when we are far behind all the comparable countries for vaccinations being performed.
If we can't get the vaccine doses say so. Waffling about how we are going to lead in vaccinating teenagers when we can't even vaccinate the people who are most susceptible is not an acceptable activity.
Now, what are you talking about when you mention Judith? What has the current Government's failures got to do with her?
Link needed for your repeated assertion that "we were promised we were at the front of the queue".
The relevance of Judith is that how well the government has performed cannot reasonably be completely assessed in complete isolation; what the one-and-only plausible alternative government would likely have done is also highly relevant to assessing the government's performance.
While I think allowing travel bubbles with Australia was way premature, and the handling of potential transmissions from travel bubblers has not been good, those really are small blemishes on what has been overall a very good job of handling the task of keeping our population safe and healthy. Particularly by comparison to what the opposition would likely have done judging by their frequent statements around easing restrictions for the purpose of trying to create more economic activity.
When it comes to getting vaccine doses delivered here and into local shoulders, the government really has been quite communicative about the likely schedule of shipments and vaccinations. What has actually happened has in fact tracked remarkably closely to what was mapped out very early this year, when all the factors were very uncertain and any plans made could only reasonably regarded as very tentative given the unknowns around production ramp-ups, disease progression in other countries and multitudes of other factors.
Of course, you may have missed all that if your entire focus is just finding things to whine about.
Hipkins.
Hipkins told TVNZ1's Breakfast this morning New Zealand was "very well placed" to get its hands on successful vaccines for the virus, which has so far killed more than 1.3 million people worldwide.
"Without going into detail I think we're in a very good place to ensure that as vaccines start to come to market New Zealand will be at the front of the queue to be getting vaccines," he said.
https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/new-zealand-front-queue-chris-hipkins-says-nation-well-placed-covid-19-vaccine-roll
November 17 last year.
Well, alwyn, if that one single statement in the midst of a very fluid situation a long time ago has got you all exercised, I really can't imagine how you function at all in the midst of being so consumed by ancient petty grievances.
I guess you can console yourself with getting your vaccination ahead ahead of roughly 3/4 of the world's population. Who have been living with the serious threat of actually getting covid, while you have had the luxury of only being at infinitesimal risk of getting covid. Which has evidently left you plenty of time to search for the tiniest things you could blow up into something to whine about.
edit: I kinda wonder what I would find if I pored over your past statements with the same level of detail? Say, by doing a search on alwyn thornley for instance?
You sound a bit upset that I produced so quickly Hipkins saying what I claimed he had said.
On the other hand you really don't make any sense at all with your last paragraph. Are you really claiming that I am someone called 'alwyn thornley'. I can assure you you are being about as rational with that as someone would be if they assumed you were Andre Agassi.
Who is this thornley person anyway? Someone who said you were an idiot or something and has been in your black book ever since?
Alwyn, don’t play dumb with us please or do you have selective amnesia just as John Key had?
https://thestandard.org.nz/depression-looms-as-rapidly-as-covid-spreads/#comment-1699179
Revealing, alwyn. You choose to ignore the middle paragraph, which I think a valid criticism of most of your recent contributions. Poor diddums thinks he hasn't got his jab quickly enough in a country where the disease is not raging country-wide…
Any examples of countries like NZ where there is almost no Covid, and the majority of the population has already been vaccinated?
And the 'idiot' implication in your final sentence reflects more poorly upon the writer than the target. Innocence is fine, but innocence with venom smacks of predatory intent.
And that government decision to throw all of our wellbeing at the Pfizer company is what is fucking up the vaccination roll out.
Simple as that.
And that has nothing to do with Judith Collins, or John Key or any of the National Fucks. That is straight up the Government currently lead by dear Jacinda Ardern, and her Labour Party who are in Majority!
Nothing is simple, unless you’re a simpleton.
That's a load of rubbish Sabine. Given the issues with other vaccines, sure looks like the govt you love to hate, made the right call. Even Australia is following New Zealand’s lead
https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/australia-review-eu-findings-astrazeneca-vaccine-blood-clots-2021-04-07/
Uh-oh!
So the first location of interest after the infected person's arrival and hotel stay over night is a pharmacy… would be interesting to know why the person decided to go there first on a holiday.
Could it be that some people don't behave responsibly in a pandemic?
Isn't a complete lockdown of Wellington more expensive than the gain of some Australian tourists here?
It seems from the report of the places visited, that the infected person was not in Wellington for any particular reason, other than visiting Te Papa and going to a bar.
I mean really?
It all seems a bit of a frivolous reason to cram into to a passenger jet with dozens of strangers during an outbreak of covid-19 for an idle weekend jaunt across the Tasman.
Couldn't they get their Museum and pub fix in Sydney?
And if a visit to Te Papa was really on their bucket list, couldn't they wait just a few months
In the midst of a pandemic shouldn't people at least have some semi-serious reason to cross borders?
Excellent question satty. We're all glad you asked that. I hope some in the Min. of Health is expanding their watchful and precautionary efforts, and will graduate from their test as the Ministry of Health.
i don't know, have you got relatives that work at Te Papa, The Ryders hotel, the Pharmacy, the Pub etc?
Ask them if the cost of locking down Wellington for the next two weeks is to high?
And if you blame someone who comes here legally and with the blessing of the Government, then you also need to blame the Government for not closing down flights from Sidney to NZ after their outbreak that started at early last week. Cause if they would, the guy would have not come here late on Friday night? or is that an inconvenient truth?
https://www.9news.com.au/videos/health/sydney-coronavirus-cluster-grows/ckq0natwv000q0ilk87zdmorz
A Surreal situation suddenly seems so real?
A hat salutes an antelope.
I finally get surrealism
A Surreal situation suddenly seems so real
I get it.
They came to see the Surrealist Exhibition, which is only in Wellington for a limited time.
My point still stands.
Couldn't they wait til that exhibition was brought to Sydney?
The purpose of bringing an exhibition half way around the world is so that people from this part of the world don't have to travel to see it.
Sorta defeats the purpose.
I can understand someone getting excited about this.
Especially if they are an art afficionado with a special appreciation of surrealism.
It's just a shame that their local museum or art gallery didn't have the wit to organise something like this.
Surreal alright.
We have not been told why they visited – seems just as likely to be to see friends or family.
As the saying goes, luck favours the bold.
The fortunes of this government rises and falls on their response to the pandemic.
Which so far has been bold and world beating, with a little bit of luck thrown in.
Let us all pray that the government can be bold and lucky again.
To take whatever measures the experts reccomend and keep their fingers crossed.
Contact tracing is good.
To her credit it seems the visitor was using the QR code.
All close contacts are self isolating.
We may well nip this one in the bud.
Let's hope so.
Let us also, as we have from all past slip ups, learn from this.
She was a he, apparently.
He had received one shot of the AstraZeneca vaccine.
Why has nobody mentioned that this case was vaccinated?
A: because it doesn’t suit the narrative.
Because to be fully vaccinated with the Astra Zeneca you need two shots.
And even with both shots its not said you can or can't distribute the virus. All that is said now with certainty is that you will not die if you are vaccinated and you still get infected with Covid. And yeah, the scientists are not gonna state one thing or another until they have had more tests.
Fact is that the bubble with NSW should have been closed down for a few weeks.
But maybe that too does not serve the narrative of some.
https://theconversation.com/can-people-vaccinated-against-covid-19-still-spread-the-coronavirus-161166
One shot is better than none, as it gives some protection. Do you know the facts (or do you prefer data?) about how much protection? Didn’t think so.
Where do you get your info from? Please provide a link that shows the death rate of fully vaccinated people is zero, thanks.
Fact is that your factoids are mostly your opinions and your narrative shows it.
First flag will be to see how many passengers on the same flights have been infected.
On a lighter note, with a bit of perspective:
I wish the government would stop pandering to the airlines and close down routes as soon as an outbreak is detected in an Australian city. They were slow to act on Melbourne outbreak and we got lucky, they didn't act on the Sydney outbreak and now we are all worried about the potential cost of lockdowns and the harm to people with chronic illnesses. The airlines don't pay the cost when something like this happens, everyone else does.
I'm pissed off because passengers from the airport catch the bus service I use and on Monday I pulled down my mask to try and calm down a situation that was looking to become very heated (voices don't travel well through masks). It was wet and the bus was jam-packed (the previous bus had been cancelled) so it was a recipe for a super-spreader event.
The government can pander to the air company or others that want open borders for business, or it can continue to shovel money to these businesses.
It choose to open the borders. Now lets hope just again that we get lucky.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/covid-19-coronavirus-expert-siouxsie-wiles-warns-kiwis-to-brace-themselves-for-cases-after-infectious-mans-wellington-visit/WERDQ5XTCJYBMKWVXR5ZBHVIO4/
Thank God for Siouxsie Wiles, Michael Baker and others. They have always been accurate with their predictions. Baker warned us 36 hours ago that the Delta variant would certainly get to NZ. We don't know yet but the case is most likely the Delta variant.
Some here have been arguing that for the last several month now. Anyone who is not fooling themselves know that we had so much luck since August last year, it ain't funny anymore.
But then i guess 'we' are negative, when trying to tell people that we are sitting ducks.
Heck i would not want to be a min wage worker at Te Papa or at a Pub in the age group of 'maybe end of year there will be a vaccination' for you.
Just imagine all the cleaners at the airport. I am sure the execs isolate already.
Yep, the staff at the Pub, the toilet cleaners at Te Papa/Airport, the Pharmacy workers, etc etc etc, and chances are not a single one has recieved a vaccine, cause they are not in a "risk" group.
Anyways, i send the resident bloke to go shopping preparing for a potential lockdown.
I know, i am being negative and pessimistic. 🙂
The newspaper report said that someone catching C19 had been within a metre from the infected person. I have read a suggestion that we should keep our distance from each other for ever, a chilling idea.
If you look at history most plagues have run the course in a bout 5 years. So we still have another 3.5 years to go – if the past is an indicator.
So i don't think it will be forever, but for now, it is a good idea.
Fleeting contact seconds.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-06-22/covid19-cctv-footage-worrying-nsw-health-authorities/100231832
That's what I saw. Bit shocking. Should I be wearing mask all the time I wonder? I feel a dope when no one else is but it would be inconvenient to say the least even if I got a mild dose.
and
“For example, in the UK, despite their high levels of vaccine coverage, you cannot go into a shop, supermarket or indoor mall without wearing a mask and on entering a café or restaurant you are not seated until you have either scanned the app or provided your contact details.
“We have to ‘up our game’ and keep it up. Mask wearing in indoor places where mixing with people outside our own household bubble will occur. Tracing – it is vitally important that we all increase our use of the Covid-19 tracer app – scan everywhere you go along with having Bluetooth turned on (we still need to scan, even if Bluetooth is on).
https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/SC2106/S00053/covid-19-case-comes-to-wellington-expert-reaction.htm
LATEST Wed. 23/6 1pm – Level 2 Wellington from – The Wellington region will move to level 2 from 6pm tonight ~
until 11.59pm Sunday.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/coronavirus/125529986/covid19-nz-wellington-moving-into-alert-level-2-tonight
All info on this link including requirements for what to do, places the infected person has been and times etc.
6p.m. might be a bit late. Town was pretty much emptied out by about 12.45pm.
"Baker warned us 36 hours ago that the Delta variant would certainly get to NZ."
That's pretty much stating the obvious. I think anyone could have told us we are not immune down here (but isolated) so it just takes longer to arrive, but eventually we were bound to get it.
A paywalled story in the Herald today is headlined "National MP, Parliamentary Service silent on allegations of misuse of taxpayers' money."
"A National Party MP faced allegations of inappropriate spending of taxpayer money – allegations the MP is refusing to front on and which Parliamentary Service refuses to discuss under the cone of silence that protects MPs.
Sources inside the National Party have told NZME that a staff member of the MP flagged a concern in the last term of Parliament, alleging items of furniture were bought out of the MP's taxpayer funds but did not appear in the office.
The items of furniture are understood to include a television."
If it had been a Labour MP this would be the big story of the day on Kiwiblog. The boot would be well and truly put in. Names would have been be suggested and hinted at, the more the merrier, to tear the whole lot.
Funnily enough, the keen righteous eyes on there haven't mentioned it yet. There's no comment from the good knights of the Taxpayers' Union either.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/national-mp-parliamentary-service-silent-on-allegations-of-misuse-of-taxpayers-money/XUGZTP6FCZ5MYCBC6PBLJZ6U34/
Is that a service run by National?
I just hope this government is not contemplation to pay another few billions to corporates.
It would be the last straw in my book. I would vote 100% certain for David Seymour. Just to make sure that I contribute to the pendulum swinging back .
The best that can happen is that neither Labour nor National will receive enough votes to go it 'their' way, but that they are both forced to go into a coaltion agreement. And i hope that the Greens of NZ have a look at the Greens in Germany and realise that they need to be able to form with any party a government if they want to be in government and not just a water carrier for labour. Time to grow up for MMP in NZ.
I would vote 100% certain for David Seymour.
That would be like cutting off your nose to spite your face.
Be rest assured, if ACT became the government they would be wholly owned by the big corporates and the rest of us would become their vassals… dependent upon their non existent largesse.
There would be no state run services for education, health, transport and other essential services. They would be owned and run by corporates purely for corporate profit.
God Help us.
Considering the awesome choice that we have in regards to our beige suits in parliament we truly need a God to help us. But then maybe God is just bored and this is just a unpleasant God having a bit of fun with us?
Are we not already sold out in a different form? I mean look at all the indicators, whether hospitals or education, poverty or housing (1 million to hoteliers per day!). Transport ??? What transport ? Transport is already private as it is contracted out and the news is that services are reduced to practically nothing. Meanwhile, the infrastructure is falling apart and the 1 billion allocated will take years to get where it should be and on that way the money being whittled down by inflation and "fees" for the endless reviews. We need a different approach, less dishonesty and trickery and more performance.
Not sure what is better but I doubt that ACT would become the government. It sure would put the pressure on to perform and not feed us political correctness at ad nauseam. So strategic voting is a must in this environment.
Give your vote to Winnie FW – he is not so toxic.
If he runs I might just do that. 🙂
This is a great story and shows what prisoners could do if they were encouraged to think of an idea that would be good and practical, and work out plans and get materials and do it. Goal and vision-centred habilitation not hours of boredom and attempts to break their spirit.
Note the recurring phrase – ‘I can do this’. The can-do spirit will save NZ;s living people (who haven’t turned into zombie money-blotting paper).
https://www.rnz.co.nz/programmes/in-depth-special-projects/story/2018800662/the-yoghurt-mafia
[Text deleted.
None of your quotes could be found through a search. Your reference is obscure too. You have not provided a decent link, as requested.
You’re wasting Moderator time and are heading for a permanent ban – Incognito]
See my Moderation note @ 11:22 am.
Censoring Open Mike?
Or was it a comment that put the site at risk…
[If you cannot tell the difference between censoring and moderating then I’m happy to show you – Incognito]
I can't tell when the offending post is deleted… do get it when its under an authors post not so much open mike…
I put the offender in Pre-Moderation yesterday. They chose to ignore it and be stupid about it too. They’re still in Pre-Moderation, where they belong, for now, obviously.
Are they a friend of yours? Or just bored today? In any case, you don’t need to concern yourself with it 😊
Just curious dont remember the last time I saw a whole comment sctrached… usually it stands with a scathing piece of moderation under it
Too much curiosity can be dangerous 😉 For your convenience: https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-22-06-2021/#comment-1799337.
Whole comments are deleted, occasionally, for various reasons. We currently have one commenter who failed to respond to moderation and who has recently been moved from Pre-Moderation to the Black list and IIRC, some of their comments were deleted to catch their attention, to no avail. Much happens in the back-end, out of your sight.
An important lesson: don’t waste Moderator time and pay heed to their notes.
The I can do it spirit was here in our early colonial days. I'm just looking at a book of pen portraits of parts of Dunedin with bits of their history. It was done by Shona McFarlane, talented artist, journalist and broadcaster and vivacious wife of an MP finer than most others today, particularly in the National Party.
McFarlane was married to National Arts Minister Allan Highet from 1976 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shona_McFarlane
In her book 'Dunedin – Portrait of a City' she has a vignette on the Woodhaugh Paper Mill which illustrates the pattern of NZ development from go to whoa at present. (In the Nelson Mail of 21 June a tech business CE Alex Fala talks about our need for exports to bring growth – remember hearing this for decades already)!
Shona wrote in 1970: Brown paper was made from grass at the Woodhaugh Paper Mill in 1877. It was taken over by New Zealand Paper Mills in 1905 and paper was manufactured here until the plant was shifted to Mataura in 1935. The mill building now belongs to the Argent Packaging Company.
Wikipedia says about Mataura Paper Mills: In late 1904 as a means of ending an unprofitable price war between Mataura Falls Paper Mill, Otago Paper Mills at Woodhaugh near Dunedin and Riverhead Paper Mills at Auckland these companies amalgamated into a new company called the New Zealand Paper Mills. ..
In 1960 Fletchers Ltd bought an interest in the company. As a result of their injection of new capital the mill was completely modernised.
In 1964 NZ Forest Products took a 30% share in the company with Fletchers having 30%. On 8 July 1970 NZ Forest Products took complete ownership of New Zealand Paper Mills.[26] In 1976 the mill celebrated its centennial year….
Between 1984 and 1991, due to upgrades and efficiency gains, productively had increased by 25% with 216 staff…
By 1990 the mill, owned by NZ Forest Products, had become a division of Elder Resources, until it was taken over by Carter Holt Harvey in 1991…
By the late 20th century the mill was coming under intense pressure from Asian competitors which had depressed the world price for paper, and as a result the mill was losing NZ$1 million a year. Faced with these losses and forecasts that they would continue, and with the mill contributing only 3% of Carter Harvey Holt [sic] output by volume, the company closed the mill on 18 August 2000 with 155 staff being made redundant.
So there goes a good working mill producing adequately, and able to supply NZ but with free market open-borders Asian competitors could white-ant the country, and 155 staff, and probably at least 100 homes lost their income.
Now the same thing is happening at Kawerau.* Can some of the vestiges of intelligent and practical people in NZ plot their way to obtaining the plant at knock-down prices and keep local business going, and some export where possible. But f..k the export-first and put NZ people first. Growth is no longer the magic word, you blind dupes out there in business land. We hardly make anything for ourselves. We are forced to import because that sector has killed our small businesses and the large underclass under middle class fancies, cannot afford to pay for NZ made on the low wages received.
The economy is out of kilter, and it's killing us and our attempt at civilisation here in post-Eden. Let's try for balance, look after what's left of Eden, and keep strong commitment to practicality not style-first, not fashion, not appearance before durability. and enable those companies concentrating on the domestic market to continue profitably with effectiveness as well as efficiency, perhaps with special tax rates based on number of employees. Keep NZ alive.
No point subsidizing low quality paper since no one wants it.
Fast going the way of coarse wool sheep for carpet: uneconomic and near dead.
Agreed. If they can repurpose the mill to make furniture or something, it may have a future.
News print – I thought that papers were looking for supplies. I would suggest that the glossy inserts be printed on it also. And that glossy magazines also change over, they are fashion icons, costly, very heavy, and a great lot of ink and extra processing to get that finish.
Coarse wool carpet – with oil getting more expensive it should be back in demand. It is lower fire risk and also insulates and quietens the house – wood floors as at present being used often come with heating underneath which unless it arises from static heat-soakers means energy required. Get sheep station owners to pay into a fund with government topping up – can be done if they wanted to have a real economy that provides a base for people who want basic lives with money saved for special treats. That would be heaven to many.
The thumbs down on everything because there isn't an immediate market is poor thinking. The items can be sold with an environmental message – the thinking you give sounds 20th century type.
They have been trying with wool carpets to get them more popular for 20 years. We used to have a whole marketing board for that kind of thing, and nzwool.co.nz is still around. Just hasn't worked. Almost all the mills are gone from NZ. You want to find value-add you have to look at tiny batches of cottage dyers and weavers who do it for a hobby.
Kawerau is being shut down as a paper mill for the same reason. Newspapers are in freefall, printed stationery is dead, packaging is its last stand.
We don't need to be a mass producer of bulk, high-mass, heavy, low-value products that the world just doesn't want.
So nor do we need to keep the factories open that make them.
On the subject of marketing wool, the awareness of microplastics appearing in fish, our diet and in water should make that job a lot easier.
Sometimes I think the same folk are moonlighting at NZNO.
I can see us using a lot more wool for insulation with plastics (which is what a lot of it is ) on the way out.
As to kawerau – if we factored in the green cost of transport etc and maybe had a border levy to cover the lower health and OSh standards that are in places offshore – this mill might look a whole lot better – plus used the local multiplier effects similar to those we should use when letting contracts.
Plus remember this is a lesser profit entity than others for the owners. Doesn’t mean that it is totally unprofitable and maybe with some automation upgrades it would help our national resilience, There are huge risks in everything being done overseas and if it is all in one or two countries there is an overall strategic risk
With sheep burping 1kg of methane for every kg of wool they produce, that insulation is going to be needed against heat, not cold.
smile! but sheep do eat wilding pines seedlings.
Are these the same sheep that have been burping and farting for millennia?.
No.
In New Zealand,there weren't any sheep (or sheep-like creatures) at all until 150-ish years ago.
Over the rest of the world, we humans have vastly increased the numbers of burping sheep (and other ruminants) over the last couple hundred years compared to the small numbers that used to exist before then.
This huge increase in burping ruminants is a significant part of why methane concentrations in the atmosphere are now around 1900ppb compared to around 800ppb two or three hundred years ago. That extra 1100ppb is responsible for somewhere around 1/4 to 1/3 of the warming we have experienced.
… and just how many burping Buffalo were wandering the American Plains – before they were wiped out in the 19th Century?
50,000,000 to 60,000,000 are the most common numbers cited as total buffalo population in the early 1800s.
from memory about half the number of cattle currently farmed in the US
The United States is home to approximately 94.4 million cattle and calves as of 2020, a decrease from 94.8 million cattle and calves in 2019. There are over three times more beef cows than milk cows living in the United States.
Record bank profits on back of housing bubble. https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/125517523/banks-made-record-164-billion-profits-in-first-three-months-of-the-year-kpmg-says
Good business model they have – create new money, lend it at interest, then vaporise the principal when the loan is paid back. Rinse and repeat. A magic money tree.
Well buggar me why doesn't the gummint set up a few banks around the place and do the same?
Someone tell Robertson. I bet he doesn't know banks do this.
That was to be expected tho? Seriously the idea that the banks will lend to closed businesses during a global pandemic during lockdowns? Who really did believe that.
So the money went were the banks like it, to people that already have money, or at least equity. Bingo! Why, it almost seems as if some people will make great bank out of this pandemic.
And rabobank has stopped having transaction only customers. Issuing a banking licence should come with a lot of conditions of service to the public and the Reserve Bank needs to get onto this before it is too late. If banks only want to take customers who have loans or use the internet then where does it leave the rest of the community. And I strongly suspect that is end game for most of the banks not that they would say so.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/farming/agribusiness/125447657/rabobank-is-getting-rid-of-customers-who-arent-taking-out-loans
Aussie goverment tells UNESCO, bugger off cobber. It's ours we can do what we like with it.
Blames China.
It was China wot did it
50% of the Great Barrier Reef is dead
According to the Australian government it's China's fault for bringing this to the world's attention.
Yeah right. Like we wouldn't notice this by ourselves.
Australia is enhancing the name it got for itself in the 60's-70's as being common, uncultured, posturing.
Well at least they are now 'tightening' the restrictions. Thanks a bunch, you should have done that last week.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/covid-19-coronavirus-sydney-records-16-new-community-cases-restrictions-tightened/LJBD5EUVN6VNHS7GUXVM3ICLK4/
Did I see and hear that right? David Seymour in the House trying to pin blame on the Government, Chris Hipkins, that people weren't using the Covid tracing app?
The party which has individual responsibility and being left alone to do the right thing as its core belief, blaming the Government when people don't make the 'right' decision?
Self proclaimed"Libertarians" don't get irony.
Not sure why the Hologram would ask about that particular thing, when the questions should have simply be : Why did the government not shut down quarantine free travel with Sidney once their outbreak started last week.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-06-17/what-is-the-delta-variant-sydney-covid-outbreak-explained/100223048
This is from 5 days ago, and surely our government had the same information. Since then, new cases emerged daily, and it is only today that the NSW Gov banned 'non essential' travel out of Sidney. (as per my earlier post above)
But then, once a hologram, always a hologram.
Didn't ask that question because the answer was obvious?
What is so obvious about it? Mind elaborating on that?
As for the scanning in, in the same sense as you can't make people get a vaccine, you can't force them to scan in.
Now why did they not shut down border, and even only out of an overabundance of caution?
Yes, but Seymour, the "libertarian" is hardly going to call for more Govt control, unless he's a hypocrite? Surely not.
Because of the likely reaction which would have been hysterical (again) about the an "over-reaction." Because of the over-the-top reaction about how the government was intent on destroying businesses?
Of course you wouldn't have been on those sorts of wagons would you?
One man's "overabundance of caution" is another's "Nazi dictatorship." That's the movie we've been experiencing since February/March last year.
there would have been no more calls then the other time we closed the border to Indians, or with Melbourne.
the government openeth the bubble, the government closeth the bubble. Unless the opposition is now so fearsome that the government is somewhere hiding under desks doing what Judith Collins is demanding them to do. In that case we need a new government.
In this case, we need better commenters.
He was on TV1 this evening complaining about the fact that the government learnt last night about the circumstances surrounding the latest Covid case but didn't tell us until this morning.
The health experts worked their pants off until midnight collating the information but we weren’t told… wa wa wa! The fact 90% of us were tucked up our beds by then (no doubt including himself) seems to have escaped the little turd.