New Zealand was at the forefront of the last great economic paradigm shift – neoliberalism. Can it do it again with whatever follows the shock of coronavirus?
A recent Stuff-Massey University survey suggested a surprising number of Kiwis – more than 60 per cent of those asked – agree now is a time to be thinking differently.
Labour, thinking itself clever, is pitching its campaign to the 40% minority who are slow learners: "Because they're just like us. Identity politics works."
The big picture view of history says things always swing like a pendulum because society first course corrects, then over-corrects, and so has to start heading back the other way.
Hegel, in the 19th century, deduced his dialectic principle from this. Applying it to politics, we get a synthesis of whichever key elements of left & right remain valid.
The Millennial and Zoomer generation might all be on McWages, but they haven’t been rioting in the streets.
Not desperate yet. Plus street protests hardly ever get the desired result nowadays.
National debts, especially in the US and Europe, have blown out with programmes of quantitative easing (QE) that have proved hard to bring to an end. Analysts say that all the “stimulus” hasn’t reached the real economy because the system is stagnant.
So Labour masterminds decide more of the same is the best prescription. If it is a total failure, let's do it! Dinosaur-brain Labour.
The fixes on offer are also in fact easy enough to identify. There is plenty of talk about them. The question is just whether they are starting to form a sufficiently compelling package. The main plank of many reforms is Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) – the giddy idea that money printing isn’t actually a problem.
The logic is that capital has changed from being wealth that actually exists – physical wealth like land, resources, gold – to being an ability to draw down on a better future.
Looks like social credit updated for the new millennium, huh?
In May, New Zealand’s own Reserve Bank announced $60b in QE to carry the country through the crisis. The next day, the Government rolled out its $50b Covid-19 Response and Recovery Fund on the back of that move. So completely new possibilities are revealed once you change the conversation from viewing debt as a problem rather than a solution
So here's where a Labour apologist can say "Look, we're already doing social credit!! But we can't tell the truth to the public because nobody would vote for us! Voters are morons, right?"
To introduce MMT they first need to burst the bubble, break up the banks and deal with the resulting chaos…..no politician is willing to propose that even if enough would vote for it which is highly unlikely.
MMT is an economic theory which includes how money functions into its understanding of the economy. It describes how the economy works today.
Your probably claiming the government would need to do something before implementing Overt Monetary Financing. But in practice this is very similar to reversing the order of borrow and spend steps of QE (which its already doing today of course). Its also true that New Zealand has historically implemented OMF during the Savage era.
This strongly indicates your own economic theory doesn't fit the real world.
MMT as you well know is a description of how (some think) the political economy COULD operate as opposed to how it currently operates.
Leaving the assets with the private banks and liabilities with the debtors and retaining the private (offshore) banks with the ability to create credit does little to solve the problem aggregate spending capacity within the economy even with the availability of currency from the issuer….that simply provides the private banks with the opportunity to extract even more from the economy, and does nothing for the debtors in the short term.
QE without addressing these issues leaves exactly where we are right now….waiting for the whole house of cards to collapse and the assets to fall into the hands of the few solvent entities left standing.
This claim is incorrect. MMT purports to describe how public spending works with QE and without QE and in a lot of other circumstances such as the Eurozone.
To contrast one MMT prediction to parts of the mainstream, MMT describes why QE (e.g building bank reserves) has not caused inflation.
Of course there are some possibilities also described by MMT which are more or less untested, such as OMF. So how does MMT describe that? Well its understood to be basically similar to QE but with a slightly different order of steps, but basically ending up with the central bank owning a large part of the govt debt itself. However if thats true then we already have plenty of evidence that this is also not inflationary, contrary to mainstream claims. Such things are the testable hypotheses of macro-economics and if your paying attention then MMT is getting these things right, where the economics mainstream is getting them wrong.
As for the rest of your comment, you appear to be describing some final economic collapse, worse than both the GFC and lockdowns impacts and with govt having no ability to counteract it. I wouldn't go holding my breath waiting for this to manifest.
As I understand it, Socred advocated depriving private banks of the right to create money. That was certainly the case in Bruce Betham's day, though I'm not sure whether it still is. Their current policy seems to be to limit that right by making greater use of the reserve ratio tool.
I don't think the idea of Banks being unable to create money can be operationalised.
Initially (as in the Chicago plan) this was tied into the notion of a bank reserve constraint on bank lending. But reserve constraints don't limit bank lending unless your nation is willing to forego payment stability (which none are).
But the kind of money banks create resides on their balance sheets (its a record of owing a customer their deposit balance) and so if you need every doller created to be govt backed at the central bank (in the interbank accounts) then you are just signing the govt up to create reserve balances to back every payment. If the central bank fails to create the reserves needed to back bank lending then payment or reserve constraint failures occur. So this must be an acceptable outcome in operationalising such a policy.
Additionally bank credit and trade credit (where you pay for work, or even a meal, after its completed) doesn't look very different so I don't see much ability to legislate against banks ability to extend credit anyway.
This bit makes the RBA seem defender of the (neoliberal) faith:
the RBA has already purchased $A45,250 million worth of Australian Government bonds under its so-called – Long-dated Open Market Operations… The Government has not been saying much about this program for obvious reasons.
They don’t want the public to know that one arm of the currency-issuing government is accumulating a large proportion of the liabilities issued by another arm (Treasury) to follow the rise in the fiscal deficit.
If they explained what was going on in the real world to the public, it would become very clear that the central bank is effectively ‘funding’ a significant proportion of the increase in the fiscal deficit… It would also disabuse the public of notions that such coordination between the central bank and the treasury, which is at the heart of the understanding you get from learning about Modern Monetary Theory (MMT), is dangerously inflationary.
Conservative authorities always try to prevent progress, but adherence to a paradigm past the use-by date prevents govts adjusting to the real world. ScoMo will have to get real sometime soon & pull whatever strings are required to produce an RBA head willing to create a future-based strategy for steering the economy.
He may even be brainstorming the options as we write. I hope he initiates some kind of liaison to the RBNZ gov plus JA/GR since regional coherence would be best for future economic steering, eh?
Its possible, I don't think that is something which will necessarily occur.
Japan has been running QE for decades now. Recently MMT was discussed in their parliament and most factions denied that MMT provided a cogent description of their economy. Obviously a better description could increase the level of public discourse on economic policy and is desirable but I don't see any force actually mandating this occurs.
Its possible that discourse could continue with central banks and treasury running QE and still insisting that at some point they will have to wind it back due to building inflationary pressures. The public may or may not believe the narrative being presented to them.
For better public discourse it would help if the process was simplified with the reserve bank directly funding the treasury spending. Making this clear would help to show the public how public finance is working in practice and would make it difficult to oppose deficits and public spending programs politically with an invalid public debt narrative.
Of course in both New Zealand and Australia to a reasonable extent the shift towards fiscal policy was automatic. Across the lock-down the shift in spending from consumption to saving happened, as did the growth in deficits required to compensate for this. And it must have become obvious that the RBNZ had to fund the deficit more or less directly to the tune of $60 billion because that happened as well and in a timely fashion. If the long run outcome is that the forecast inflation never occurs and the governments self owned debt is not unwound as a result, well I don't see any important difference between that outcome and another where the inflation and public finance forecast was more realistic in the first place.
Your comment implies that the mainstream economic theory has had a period of validity, but this has never been the case. There has not been a period where a model of a barter economy was valid (which is the mainstream model, it literally attempts to model an economy with an impossible financial system). There has not been a period where there was a mandatory minimum unemployment rate (above 0) below which inflation accelerated (the NAIRU rate), so the model of unemployment is completely broken. And there has never been a period where the central bank can target the inflation rate by targeting official cash rates (and our RBNZ was never good at limiting house price increases even with the OCR about 10-12%). Monetary policy not working out as an inflation theory was as true prior to the GFC as it has been since the GFC (where its supposed to be able to increase inflation rates).
For better public discourse it would help if the process was simplified with the reserve bank directly funding the treasury spending. Making this clear would help to show the public how public finance is working in practice and would make it difficult to oppose deficits and public spending programs politically with an invalid public debt narrative.
This strikes me as helpful & sensible. I wonder if Reddell would agree. I get the impression you may be an economist by profession &/or someone with close prof experience of public finances. In the USA such people access political leverage via institutionalised think-tanks – do we have one such relevant here? If so, your suggestion ought to be examined collegially to crowd-source consensus in that context, with a view to lobbying the next govt to make the desired change.
Your comment implies that the mainstream economic theory has had a period of validity, but this has never been the case.
Maybe so – yet it was sufficiently plausible to win the adherence of both Labour and National for 35 years.
In my limited interactions with Reddell I would expect some kind of triangulation to occur. Basically when pushed MMT is all correct, nothing surprising and not any different to the present, but also we should not do away with the concept of central bank independence and should maintain the practice of needing an authority figure to tell us which kind of deficit will be inflationary rather than making it so obvious even joe public could understand it for themselves.
I think that equates to making the system "simple enough and no simpler" when your a PHD grade policy economist.
Expecting a mind to get made up is realistic in some limited contexts – as in using a recipe for baking a cake. When social & political contexts are ever-changing, a mind will view those as ever-movable feasts. 😋
The logic is that capital has changed from being wealth that actually exists – physical wealth like land, resources, gold – to being an ability to draw down on a better future.
Got that bit wrong didn't he.
MMT doesn't ignore resources. What it does is recognise that a nation's money is backed by that nation's economy and, as long as their is slack in the economy, then printing money is non-inflationary. Under such a system taxes become a form inflation control as interest rates are now (and don't which don't actually work as super-inflated house pricing shows).
So here's where a Labour apologist can say "Look, we're already doing social credit!! But we can't tell the truth to the public because nobody would vote for us! Voters are morons, right?"
The reason why Labour, National and ACT don't like MMT is because it proves that capitalists are bludgers.
Once the government becomes the sole supplier of money in the system the need for interest rates, shareholders and profits disappears. And where then would the Cullen Fund and our self-proclaimed VIP of business be?
MMT still uses a market economy – it just gets rid of capitalism.
MMT still uses a market economy – it just gets rid of capitalism
Seems like an insight worth recycling! I can't claim to comment from any perspective of expertise – my involvement with Greens economic policy development was always that of a radical heretic who had a partial grasp of establishment economics.
I suspect that others may quibble somewhat. Unless you have a design mechanism for eliminating held capital, those who hold it are alway likely to be players in the game, regardless of govt making radical rule changes.
Perhaps you are implying the incentive-structure of the game is sufficiently changed by govts using MMT that capitalist players will see no way to profit from playing?
Perhaps you are implying the incentive-structure of the game is sufficiently changed by govts using MMT that capitalist players will see no way to profit from playing?
With MMT properly put in place having money will no longer grant more money. No interest rates to charge workers for the privilege of borrowing
Existing owners will still be able to bludge but the economy will shift around them until they can’t. Its not an immediate fix but will come about over time.
With the government creating money openly the private will need to be stopped from doing so and thus will end the private banks and their bludging.
Always worthwhile to read Why we can't afford the rich to get a better understanding of how they bludge so much off of the rest of us and how getting rid of them will make the economy perform better and make the rest of us better off.
Capitalists are bludgers and they cost us billions every year. And that's just in NZ.
If the Labour Party were to suddenly grow a brain & a spine, what would they campaign on? A plan for the post-covid economy.
That's been true since Rogergnomics. But NZ politics has reached the point of decay where not releasing policies is more likely to win or retain votes. As it stands they're more like that song from How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying:
Finch: Is there anything you're against?
Twimble: Unemployment
Finch: When they want brilliant thinking from employees
Twimble: That is no concern of mine
Finch: Suppose a man of genius makes suggestions?
Twimble: Watch that genius get suggested to resign
Releasing policy would just give the floundering Gnats and their media sycophants something to focus their malice upon – better to let them stew in their febrile resentment – it doesn't resonate with voters.
It has proven infinitely safer for Labour to try to deliver some desirable outcome, like building houses, than it is to promise to do so. Pretty dysfunctional from a democratic perspective, but the media that ought long since to have pilloried and driven out epic non-performers like Brownlee and Smith is MIA on that front.
The only reason they are keeping the experts hidden must be because they are not credible. Reti's reason for not naming them was weak.
("They work for for other governments and organisations")
This epidemic is the most important issue facing the country and I think the public are entitled to know where National’s advice is coming from so we can judge the soundness of advice for ourselves. The whole thing smacks of ‘we know best’
When does Jacinda Ardern get a break? Not for her the games of golf with other Leaders or celebrities. Her few days off are spent with Clarke and Neve out of the spotlight.
I hope she is getting affirmations for her unrelenting positivity genuine mahi and care for all citizens.
I have been accused of being a Jacinda fan. Well, yes I am, as she is remarkable.
Yes, I worry about her too Patrica. She looks too thin to me. Not surprising given the huge load she is currently carrying. Yet I get the impression that if she dares to let up and have a short break she will be loudly criticised by her opponents – notwithstanding her predecessors were known to have good sized breaks from time to time.
Patricia Brenner. I heartily endorse your comment on Jacinda. She is thrown to the wolves every day but counters everything with grace, good manners, non confrontation in reply and is unfailingly unflappable. I would say the same of the frontline team. I am in awe of their ability to front up to lower level reporters who seem to be there mainly to force them into *owning up* to supposed cock ups, debacles, shambles etc and stay calm in the face of such unmitigated jackalism. New word. Just invented it. They are indeed the dream team and nobody expects them to get everything right first up. They are human. And their ability to accept and then reset immediately is in my book amazing and calming. Go the dream team. My opinion only.
Agree Patricia. There was a rumour on #hellholeNZ that Jacinda, C lark and Neve were at Oriental Bay yesterday. Hope it was true……..
I am concerned labour are in a precarious position now due to the outbreak. There is unrelentingly negative publicity about it. Donald Trump is inadvertently the only one bringing some perspective (unintended of course).
People are not commenting on the remarkable response to the outbreak and how effective it has been. Gorman etc are getting air time saying how poor the contract tracing has been which is laughable. UK got private firm doing contract tracing, rates of 50%
i read the first two sentences of what you wrote Denis “if Labour would grow a spine and a brain”………………..wow man where have you been the last six months? What the fuck do you think labour has been doing? Brain and spine more than evident in covid response, so wake the fuck up. Right now covid and it’s immediate aftermath is all that matters.
This election we either vote in a labour led govt or a National led govt. if you have bleated on here about labour and spines etc, don’t come crying when Collins is running the show
Look at this poll, shows how out of step the TV1 & Herald & Stuff & National Party etc … are, they don't represent the public mood at all, how ever much they try to rile people up. Maybe the constant attacks are making the public like the present Govt more, it seems no one expects perfection, unlike some commentators even here, the Govt are competent. I for one can't be bothered reading many journalists anymore, the disconnect with reality is getting more & more telling, I can see with my own eyes that NZ is not a hellhole, even the anti lockdown 'protest' was just pathetic, more people go watch Sat morning sport & the field up the road.
The chosen approach gets another month to rub over the electorate and now Reti has to dance on the head of a pin. How good will those dance moves be.
That internet thing means folk don't just consume the duplicity/tawdrey/hosk spin. Also kiwis abroad keep whanau in the real picture they live each day outside the pacifica zone.
aj I agree. Vote as if your life depended on it but it likely does actually. Who do you trust to lead us through Covid. That will be the task of the next Govt.
This election we either vote in a labour led govt or a National led govt – Whilst National is lacking Labour still IMO still be subjected to critical review of what they are proposing. Otherwise we have what the USA had in their last election – Voting for the 2nd worst option
If the boarder issues regarding testing had not been questioned, would the current testing regime of frontline staff have been ramped up and so promptly ?
Herodotus, I don't see Labour as the 2nd worst option and I don't believe they are. They are the best option.
The Govt had understood from the MoH that border staff were being tested. They ramped it up when they found out it wasn't. Turns out the tardiness of implementing the border checks hasn't lead to wide spread community outbreak. It has lead to one matanance man getting Covid and I fully sympathize with him………
We still don't know the origin of the Auckland cluster………its possible that a returnee tested negative on 12th day and took it into the community as the virus is tricky and the tests not 100% reliable.
Perhaps I poorly constructed the comment. With a poor opposition all the current govt has to do is out perform a crap performing National party. There is no challenge to have a coherent and well planned out implementation of policy. Need I detail The Kiwi Build, and Labour decided to increase the build from 50k to 100k ??
"Turns out the tardiness of implementing the border checks hasn't lead to wide spread community outbreak" – How many fortunate outcomes can we hope for ? We shouldn't he hoping for chance to help us out. We should expect mistakes and see modification/evolving of policy to reduce the risk.
Herodotus our Govt has outperformed nearly every govt in the world. Just in terms of Covid nos everyday I check the figures and NZ has just gone down the order we are now 140.
We have to hope for all the lucky breaks we can get with this virus while doing absolutely everything to the highest standard possible. To date Labour have had an inquiry into contract tracing sometime in April? and found it wanting and so ramped it up. This has clearly paid dividends in this latest outbreak. Outstanding response. Then there were the issues around testing returnees uncovered in June and since then testing regime up and running….then the idiot people absconding from quarantine, they fixed it. And now they have ramped up the testing of staff..
We also have to hope for chance or good luck because despite all our best effort we can get unlucky e.g. the worker who tested positive likely after touching a lift button.
Grow a spine, what a line,
From some Trumped up fellow,
Do you mean like NAT cold blue,
Or perhaps like ACT of yellow.
Red is a warm and friendly colour,
Green is quite soothing too,
But to grow a spine, a stupid line,
Is just a pile of poo.
I usually don't bother to read Denis. Too long and so gave him a shot this morning and he opened with the brain/spine comment, which I thought was ignorant beyond belief and that sort of commentary both angers and scares me (in Covid times). I am not too bothered where Denis sits on the left/right continuum slating a govt that has managed the hardest crisis NZ has had in lifetimes when they have done an outstanding job is a plain ignorant. They have saved 100s/1000s of lives by exercising their brain and spine.
why? It is because he is left to labour that he raises some questions that are fair imo.
Raising question about the long term planning is fair. It is election time, so please Labour talk. I read the speech at the campaing release, and to be honest i am underwhelmed in the parts that i expect to be the big issues in the next years. Unemployment, future investment into employment and the current issue of women losing their jobs at a higher rate then men, older more then younger, etc. IF labour thinks that promising to double the flexi scheme invented by Paula Benefit will get me or others hot n bothered, they need to think again. Promising a few dollars to those that have lost their jobs to maybe start their own business? Lol, and then they get a phone call and they are in Level 3 and can't work. lol.
The government's existing Flexi-wage scheme – a wage subsidy to help employers hire those on a benefit at risk of long-term unemployment – would be revamped and expanded under a re-elected Labour Party, with the average amount a business can access to hire a worker more than doubling.
The party believes scaling up the scheme could enable 40,000 people to be employed.
Jacinda Ardern, speaking at the launch today, said $30 million will also be ring-fenced to help unemployed people start a business through an expanded Flexi-wage self employment programme, which will provide the equivalent of the minimum wage for up to 30 hours a week.
not wanting to say anything, but that undermines the min wage like big time if you only offer wages for 30 hours while someone ends up working double or more. Nevermind tho, its the thought that counts? Right? Also anyone not being able to work from home and or in roading/heavy infrastructure/shovel ready government investment is at risk of long term unemployment in the current global situation. Any government that fools itself in believing that 7500 $ is an attractive amount to hire people is deluding themselves, but then maybe earning several thousand of dollars per week might just have an impact on that thinking when it comes the poor.
he main elements of the scheme:
Business subsidy of on average $7500, and up to $22,000, to hire unemployed New Zealanders
Up to 40,000 jobs to be supported by $311 million investment in keeping people off the unemployment benefit
Ring-fenced fund to help unemployed people start their own business
The scheme would be paid for out of the underspend from the targeted wage subsidy extension.
Just take the 'underspend' and distribute it fairly among the unemployed so that they can eat and have a roof, and chances are that would help the community and create employment….but then we don't actually want to increase unemployment and social welfare. And i don't count the extra 25 per covid level week an increase, even tho its tacked to the main benefit, as it is temporary and can be cancelled at any moment.
She said the wage subsidy scheme – due to finish on 1 September – had prevented a spike in unemployment.
"We need to keep moving with our plan. The Flexi-wage is just the latest addition to the raft of jobs initiatives and business support we have already put in place to drive our economic recovery," Ardern said.
The wage subsidy did effectively that, flatten the curve of unemployment, and the Covid unemployement rate (cause unequal is us (TM) ) will expire 12 weeks after that.
Mind this article was from 8.8. and thus before the new outbreak showed up, but i do hope that they consider what they actually expect from people ….to start up a business, to rehire people, while at the same time not being able to have any stability at all. All it takes is a bullhorn at 8 am in the morning and you are in Level 2 – 4 and can't work.
Yes, Labour needs to do better, personally i would rather see some ideas of early retirement, a proper increase in base benefits to the level of the wage subsidy as this is now a proven amount in regards to let people have a roof and eat.
Not all questions are put downs, and it is jarring that there seems to be a reflex reaction to shout down those that dare ask.
The government's existing Flexi-wage scheme – a wage subsidy to help employers hire those on a benefit at risk of long-term unemployment – would be revamped and expanded under a re-elected Labour Party, with the average amount a business can access to hire a worker more than doubling.
Which is fully against the standard economic theory (or any market based theory really). If the business could afford to employ more people to expand then they would already be doing it. They're not which means that that business has already reached its limits and throwing money at it probably won't help.
Better for the government to help create some new businesses and actually develop our economy. That would probably employ more people and the businesses would be more likely to be sustainable.
She said the wage subsidy scheme – due to finish on 1 September – had prevented a spike in unemployment.
Yep, that worked well but it's not a viable long term plan. Short term and even mid term to allow businesses to adjust to the new paradigm but we're going to need something beyond that and that is mean developing new businesses and it can't be left to the bludging rich. They just don't get it nor do they care.
The government needs to look at what needs to be done to develop the economy across a range of industries that presently aren't here. Then, and only then, will we have a viable plan.
personally i would rather see some ideas of early retirement
Yeah, that's going to happen. Too many people retiring and not enough workers to support them. That's why governments have been raising the retirement age for the last few decades and importing lots and lots of people.
Well, the other option is to increase unemployment level and instruct the Winz drones that part of kinder and gentler means to not harrass people into applying for jobs that don't exist and will need to be created first.
And i have total confidence that new businesses will be created, people are good like that. But unless we have a hang on the covid crisis, and are no longer a phone alert away from a total lockdownm it is cynical in my books to expect people to actually do that.
Sabine have you read the budget? There is a long term plan along with short term covid beating ideas.
I note how scathingly you write. Do you think the Government has not done enough? Covid is our present danger and our poor are not being left to fend for themselves, neither are they being blamed or vilified by their leaders as has happened elsewhere.
The actual election has not started yet. Those things you want are fine in normal times, but life has changed, it will never be what it was, as we are running to dodge this evil but still may be overtaken by the larger problem of climate change.
By putting wellbeing at the centre of planning we have a new social contract with this Government. People again see the Public Service as being there for their good. All of this takes time and clever balanced planning.
In spite of the naysayers, much has been achieved, and we are doing an exceptional job in containing this virus once again. There will be great struggle to overcome the effects of the virus on the world. We are lucky to be doing that without the ongoing deaths associated with that.
I am fearful that those who want "instant solutions to complex problems" may whittle support 'till we end up with the "bullying parent". That would be grim.
I have read the budget, i have linked to the the article outlining the budget and used Jacindas words. Nothing scathingly about, unless now the only opinion that is allowed is that of flowery positive humbug. Sorry, but i find that hard to believe, and again, some of us have a different perspective about certain things.
No the government has not done enough just yet – not because i say so, but because they know that they have not done enough yet, themselves. Hence the increase in the flexi wage system and the rolling out of a few dollars to some hapless unemployed people now so that they can start their business so as to not clutter the unemployemnt queues more then that. Hence the extra 2 weeks wage subsidy. Without it Labour by now would be dead in the water and way more people would be unemployed. So Labour looks good because it did the easiest and fastest things, re-fund us some of the taxes we pay via the wage subsidy. The shovel ready jobs, nice, helped get men of the unemployment queue, now do something for the women for whom unemployment has increased.
The actuall election started on 08.08 with the start of the election campaign, and the roll out of the budget and the promises of things to come. I personally am happy that it got extended and if only for the Government – which btw is more then just Labour, as it is also Green and NZF, to revisit some of their ideas and maybe adjust them to the new reality of Covid in the community from a as of now unknown source.
And no a well being app is nothing worse to be proud of. So far no societal contract has been established that looks after the poorest, the homeless, the beneficiaires etc, they are still on their starvation rations via Winz and no changes in the air. (that much vounted $ 25 per week is a Covid benefits – mind any day they would like to they could just make that permanent – after all they will claw it back with the decrease of fringe benefits to the same amount).
And if you state that much has been achieved as a Yes sayer, please link to all the things that have been achieved for those that need it the most. That is my litmus test. Will the changes benefit those that have it the hardest in our society and frankly no they have done the bare minimum as of yet.
I don't want instant solutions nor have i ever asked for them, i have been for years now very much asking for the same things. Better housing, better benefits for those that need it, better public transport and cheaper, less cutting down of trees to build garages and such.
As of the election, it is Labours and the Coalitions to lose, it always was. And for those that want to see Labor go it alone or only with the Greens, well it is your job to give reasons to those that a. sit on the sidelines, b. can't be arsed to vote because non of the party cares for them (1 million last time around, and c. might actually have to live with the fact that again they need NZfirst. The supporters of the No mates party will do what they want, and personally i don't care, as i will never in my life time consider voting for them.
And personally i would very much enjoy a good write about by some of our less scathingly writing peeps, detailing us all the good things Labour has in place for us, specially the unemployed.
it is used commonly against others. And Ardern may be the leader of the Labour Party and the PM of the country but she is not 'alone' labour. There are other members in this party that are in government and some could benefit from a brain and a spine.
Not everything is about Jacinda Ardern. Some is literally just about the Party and like Aunty Helen, we will have to live with the Party longer then with Aunty Jancinda.
Fair enough – in my experience "grow a brain & a spine" jibes are unhelpful, but maybe now is the hour as NZ fumbles & bumbles along. Still, could be worse, eh?
So if things are looking really bad
you're thinking of givin' it away
Remember New Zealand's a cracker
and I reckon come what may
If things get appallingly bad
and we all get atrociously poor
If we stand in the queue with our hats on
we can borrow a few million more.
We don't know how lucky we are, mate
We don't know how lucky we are.
It can always be worse, but that is not the matter at hand , the matter is can we ask more from the Labour Party without being accused of being negative, bitter, or against the current leader of the party.
And yes, most people don't know how lucky they are or they know it and want to do their best to keep it that way often at the expense of others. We already have quite a few people in the country for whom things are appallingly bad and who are atrociously poor. It might just not be you or me atm, but these things can change fast.
Sabine of course you can ask for more. People are entitled to post whatever (within moderator reason) they want.
One of the many reasons I like the Standard is because right now since the outbreak it gets me away from the unrelenting negativity of the msm. No perspective, only blame. F..k if I was Ashleigh Bloomfield fielding what are mostly ridiculous gotcha type questions from the media, I would be very tempted to say "Right that's it. I have f..king had enough, the job is hard enough without you pack of wankers with your gotcha ill informed questions. None of you do a job that is worth much, unlike my poor staff who actually do something useful for a living and may earn nowhere near as much as you. I suspect most of you couldn't organise a piss up in a brewery, but too bad, if you think you could do better, f…king take over"
Agreed anker. 'Shock jock' jibes along the lines of "grow a brain & a spine" are unpleasant, unnecessary and, most importantly, detract from otherwise constructive criticism. Just my opinion (and choice of reaction), of course.
If some feel they are "accused of being negative, bitter, or against the current leader of the [Labour] party" to the extent that it is inhibiting their commenting, then that would be cause for concern. Otoh, instances of negatively and bitterness occasionally come across as purely vindictive – intent is so easy to misread, depending on one's perspective.
"Right that's it. I have f..king had enough, the job is hard enough without you pack of wankers with your gotcha ill informed questions. None of you do a job that is worth much, unlike my poor staff who actually do something useful for a living and may earn nowhere near as much as you. I suspect most of you couldn't organise a piss up in a brewery, but too bad, if you think you could do better, f…king take over"
I suggest that you stay away from the telly, radio and news print for a while, as you seem to not be managing the vitriol coming from it, i know i could not and thus did so years ago.
As for you having 'fucking had enough'? the same counts for the people that have lost their jobs, their homes, and those that will in the near future.
There are a lot of people in this country and elsewhere who have had fucking had enough. And you know what? It seems that no one cares. Go figure.
When you write "It seems that no one cares.", are you referring to politicians and bureaucrats, or to NZers in general?
"The first thing we did was scale up school and community programmes with an additional 100,000 fruit and vegetable boxes to children over 10 weeks. We also met the cost of processing and distributing surplus pork meat to families in need to help resolve an oversupply of New Zealand pork, while providing high-quality nutrition. The Government also provided $32 million for funding foodbanks and food rescue."
"We are the envy of the world. We seem to want to beat ourselves up for every infringement, and as a citizen I find that surprising," Roche told Newstalk ZB's Mike H*****g.
Asked by H*****g. why tests on border workers hadn't been happening, as expected, Roche said that was the "very elusive" question.
"Everyone's acknowledged that what they thought was happening, didn't. So there has to be an intervention to remedy that and I'm part of the intervention."
He urged perspective. "A mistake was made, there's a lot of moving parts, a lot of risk. No one goes to work to make a mistake; we shouldn't overstate it. There have been mistakes made. There have been some mis-communications – let's just simplify it, sort it out and move on."
Asked if there were far too many people and departments involved, Roche said: "I think that sums up the public sector but at one level it's a cheap shot. They all work together very well. This is a cross Government thing – it's led by health, the health voice is very loud but it requires a collective effort. Not everybody works as easily in that environment as you would hope."
Leadership was important at a political and administrative level. "I have had the privilege of lifting the hood at public health units. I was humbled by what I saw. The work they are doing on our behalf is unbelievable – and we have lost just a sense of perspective. Yes, this has come back, we have deployed hundreds and hundreds of people to safeguard the community. They have done it in an incredibly professional and sensitive way."
So pleased Sir Brian Roche took ignorant Hosking on regarding what is really happening. A decent sensible man talking to a jumped up self-opinionated unpleasant person.
Q and A this morning had a short story on Taiwans experience with Sars and Covid, they already had a dedicated organization for dealing with pandemics after Sars had taken so many lives, they developed a system to eradicate the virus.
The interesting thing was that the strategy was predominantly around prevention through having systems in place to to prevent and trace infections.
Taiwan has a population of around 25million, their Rate of Testing is way below ours, testing only catches infections after the fact, where as prevention prevents the infection in the first place.
The main prevention tools are Masks, Social Distancing and an excellent tracing process.
Today Taiwan has six new cases of Covid, the same number as NZ.
Testing after the fact is TOO LATE, the prevention is Far more important.
The NZs srtategy by any standard is Gold Plated, any politician critising it should be held to account, as do some members of the media that harped on about the testing regime that existed, yet, Not a Single Case was detected due to the "Failed Testing Regime".
That is the evidence that proves that testing is Not the Primary response, it's simply a backstop to prove the existing preventitive sytems are working.
Testing of boarder workers for the Covid Virus alone is a waste of time, that will only show an individual currently infectuous, we need to also be blood sampling for antibodies to see who has previously been infected, that may show the cause of current infections.This may have been happening but who would know ?.
I'm just repeating what the Taiwanese Pandemic Expert had indicated given they had a specicialised Pandemic Response Organisation all ready set up.
Taiwan was hammered by the SARS virus and learnt a lot about how to minimise the Human and Financial costs of a Pandemic, they have already gone through the "Learning Curve", and one of those lessons was that Prevention is where the majority of effort should be focused.
Focusing on just one aspect, which, thus far hasn't been proven to be a contributing factor in the current outbreak (or any other issue) is time wasting and an unnecessary use of resources.
In Manufacturing the same applies, there is an old saying, "you cannot inspect quality into a product, no matter how much time you spend inspecting it", it has to made to a standard through a process that ensures the required outcome.
I've been looking at our tax system in NZ for ordinary folks. Not terribly much info from IRD specifying percentages of tax charged for each code, and they are many. Their main message is you need to pay tax and then give a few chosen examples. I found what I wanted to know eventually looking at all the sites, public and private. Not straightforward, need more figures less generalisation and explanation.
Accommodation supplement is murky. Yet just about everyone can get it if you are ordinary people, probably the wealthy have their own channels. This was written in June 2019 and quoted this from Treasury in 2017:
In 2017, even Treasury agreed "AS [accommodation supplement] does not adequately alleviate housing stress" and New Zealand's existing housing subsidy structure is "not fit-for-purpose".
That doesn't mean they want something better for the citizen, it may be that there is a hole in its efficiency that they want to stop up. When we are finally allowed to have our election and the party that tries to be good is returned to the bouncy castle, from each office in the Beehive there will be such a buzz and rush they will turn up the cool air conditioning. Please, please vote and see if anyone around you needs a lift to a polling booth, provided of course it's not a lockdown area.
For all these reasons, the Child Poverty Action Group's just released report, The Accommodation Supplement: the wrong tool to fix the house, calls for the Government to remove the AS for most recipients while significantly raising incomes of all benefit recipients and low-wage workers. We authored this report with Alan Johnson, co-convenor of the CPAG.
Bad design of the Accommodation Supplement fuels NZ's housing crisis
– This story was originally published on Newsroom.co.nz and is republished with permission.
The Q&A this morning had the best summary of how Taiwan manages so well. Having a health system set up to operate well. ($10 doctors visit.) Having an understood/trusted pandemic process already in place. (I don't think masks are mandatory? but widely worn.) Absence of public undermining. Can't find the Taiwan on Q&A but worth a look.
Fortunately, we're not heading toward a brutal winter.
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea is banning large gatherings, closing beaches, shutting nightspots and churches and removing fans from professional sports in strict new measures announced Saturday as it battles the spread of the coronavirus.
Health Minister Park Neung-hoo announced the steps shortly after the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported 332 new cases — the ninth straight day of triple-digit increases. The national caseload is now at 17,002, including 309 deaths.
While most of the new cases came from the densely populated Seoul metropolitan area, which has been at the center of the viral surge in recent weeks, infections were also reported in practically every major city and town, raising concerns that transmissions are slipping out of control.
[…]
As of Saturday afternoon, nearly 800 infections have been linked to a Seoul church led by a vocal critic of the country’s president. Sarang Jeil Church pastor Jun Kwang-hun was hospitalized with COVID-19 on Monday after participating in an anti-government protest last week where he shared a microphone on stage with other activists. More than 100 infections have been tied to protesters.
Police raided the church late Friday while trying to secure a more comprehensive list of its members who remain out of contact. Health workers have used cellphone location data to identify some 50,000 people who spent more than 30 minutes on the street during the protest last Saturday and have been alerting them to get tested. Around 18,000 of them have been tested, said Kwon Jun-wook, director of South Korea’s National Health Institute.
Morrah on Mediawatch, 'we aren't here to make friends' regarding the way he's treating Bloomfield, my memory goes back to when that is exactly how he treated Peter fucking Whittall https://www.newshub.co.nz/nznews/peter-whittall-it-is-personal-2010120217 or maybe Morrah has learned since then. I just remember the media back then wanting to Knight Peter fucking Whittall, so Morrah, I don't believe your weasel words.
Siouxie Wiles, the biochemist who has contributed a lot of easy to understand material throughout the pandemic so far, has written another useful and cogent article in the Spinoff on how to improve the Covid response, including an analysis of National's proposals. Worth a read.
The Wiles piece in discussing the National’s Border Protection Agency misses the main point. "It seems to me this policy runs the very real risk of stranding New Zealanders overseas while doing nothing to actually increase the security of our border."
The policy is not about actually increasing the security of our border, t's about the election and making out you have somehow come up with a magic formula. Will people understand or realise the logistical stuff, the reality that Wiles mentions?
"It will certainly stop some people who may be infectious from being able to travel. But given how far some New Zealanders have to travel to get home, it won’t stop people getting infected on the way."
You get a test, it comes back negative and somehow, before you get on a plane, however long that is, in whichever part of the world you're in with all the local circumstances, you know, we know, Judith Collins knows, you haven't got Covid-19 when you board your plane?
I'd like to hear how those who think that Collins is Wonder Woman can be certain no-one getting on a plane has the virus given the way the world works.
He's right out of view as is Tiffany! – when I posted I tied a width of 500 thinking that would shrink the image enough but it seems that that wasn't enough. I tried to edit it but the process was beyond my capabilities 🙁
They just don't get no respect, those two. Even dumb algorithms diss them.
(I haven't yet found a way to get the image size right on first go, but what works for me with the images is posting it without trying to change anything the image button does, then immediately go back in and edit the comment and add width="500" just before the /> )
Yes I have done that too in the past. Now Lynn has given us an image qualities button/option that lets you define the width before submitting; but it didn't seem to work in this case – and when I went back to edit, it came up with a lot of html script I wasn't confident in playing with.
As for the line up at the RNC – obviously they are scraping the bottom of the barrel.
BTW if you missed Michelle Obama's speech at the DNC – no worries – you can hear it again when Melania gives her speech.
Maryanne Trump Barry was serving as a federal judge when she heard her brother, President Trump, suggest on Fox News, “maybe I’ll have to put her at the border” amid a wave of refugees entering the United States. At the time, children were being separated from their parents and put in cramped quarters while court hearings dragged on.
“All he wants to do is appeal to his base,” Barry said in a conversation secretly recorded by her niece, Mary L. Trump. “He has no principles. None. None. And his base, I mean my God, if you were a religious person, you want to help people. Not do this.”
Barry, 83, was aghast at how her 74-year-old brother operated as president. “His goddamned tweet and lying, oh my God,” she said. “I’m talking too freely, but you know. The change of stories. The lack of preparation. The lying. Holy shit.”
The Standard isn't working using my Android Smartphone.
The mobile version won't start/load sometimes today and the reply function hasn't worked for me since Friday evening. The desktop version will open, but when the reply function is clicked, I then can't type anything in the comment box.
Everything worked earlier last week, so maybe The Standard IT gurus can investigate.
There’s no denying we live in deeply partisan times and a new poll out of New Hampshire exemplifies this divide. Its results say a majority of New Hampshire Democrats said they’d rather “a giant meteor strikes the earth, extinguishing all human life” than President Donald Trump win re-election. Yikes.
Every now and then I get a blissful moment when I forget that Kim Jong Orange possesses a tremendous bigly and more powerfully button that actually works. If he feels too much that nobody likes him, he might just choose to show us all. That would indeed be a pretty close facsimile of SMoD.
Do you really want the White House, or are you actually more interested in the grossly swollen head (housing a remarkably small brain) of the current occupant? The latter is a somewhat larger target with correspondingly larger chances.
Thousands of Aucklanders are desperately turning to food banks as increasing job losses wipe out family incomes.
There are now 29 registered food banks serving the city. Prior to Covid-19 there were fewer than five, and one long-standing emergency food provider believes too many food banks could be counterproductive.
In Takanini yesterday, cars formed queues kilometres long for food parcels from the local Sikh temple, Takanini Gurdwara Sri Kalgidhar Sahib.
Benny was among them, having lost his job with Air New Zealand during the last lockdown.
"Tons of people have been laid off. You know, we've gone through a hard time finding a job … but because of this kind of charity's donations it's really helped."
Bradley Taylor works as a landscaper, but the work has dried up so he and his young family have turned to the food bank.
"At the moment we're not getting a lot of jobs due to the second wave – people are really taking a step back now and trying to save their money," he said.
“If we think this is just Covid-related, we’re missing the point.”
Before the pandemic, research by the Mission estimated that 10 per cent of Kiwis were living in food poverty.
That group has now doubled, Farrelly said.
The upside is that the pandemic has shone a light on food insecurity. There is growing awareness of the scale of the problem and the Mission is receiving proactive offers of help from the Government, Auckland Council and community groups, he said.
As well as distributing food parcels to families, the Mission has been handing out 250 takeaway bags of food daily to homeless and vulnerably housed people who do not have access to cooking facilities.
Not shits and giggles for all in #NZHellhole. #PrettyfuckingshitbeforeCovid
It's a worry 9 are in hospital but hasn't New Zealand done stunningly well? Middle of winter, second outbreak, zero deaths so far, and community cases coming back to zero.
New Zealand is again having to reconcile conflicting pressures from its military and its trade interests. Should we join Pillar Two of AUKUS and risk compromising our markets in China? For a century after New Zealand was founded in 1840, its external security arrangements and external economics arrangements were aligned. ...
The ‘50 Shades of Green’ farmers’ protest in 2019 was heavy on climate change denial, but five years on, scepticism and criticism about the idea that pine forests can save us is growing across the board. File photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: Here’s the top six news items of note in climate ...
This morning the sky was bright.The birds, in their usual joyous bliss. Nature doesn’t seem to feel the heat of what might angst humans.Their calls are clear and beautiful.Just some random thoughts:MāoriPaul Goldsmith has announced his government will roll back the judiciary’s rulings on Māori Customary Marine Title, which recognises ...
In 2003, the Court of Appeal delivered its decision in Ngati Apa v Attorney-General, ruling that Māori customary title over the foreshore and seabed had not been universally extinguished, and that the Māori Land Court could determine claims and confirm title if the facts supported it. This kicked off the ...
Earlier this week at Parliament, Labour leader Chris Hipkins was applauded for saying that the response to the final report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care had to be “bigger than politics.” True, but the fine words, apologies and “we hear you” messages will soon ring ...
TL;DR: In news breaking this morning:The Ministry of Education is cutting $2 billion from its school building programme so the National-ACT-NZ First Coalition Government has enough money to deliver tax cuts; The Government has quietly lowered its child poverty reduction targets to make them easier to achieve;Te Whatu Ora-Health NZ’s ...
Kia ora. These are some stories that caught our eye this week – as always, feel free to share yours in the comments. Our header image this week (via Eke Panuku) shows the planned upgrade for the Karanga Plaza Tidal Swimming Steps. The week in Greater Auckland On ...
1. What's not to love about the way the Harris campaign is turning things around?a. Nothingb. Love all of itc. God what a reliefd. Not that it will be by any means easye. All of the above 2. Documents released by the Ministry of Health show Associate Health Minister Casey ...
Trust in me in all you doHave the faith I have in youLove will see us through, if only you trust in meWhy don't you, you trust me?In a week that saw the release of the 3,000 page Abuse in Care report Christopher Luxon was being asked about Boot Camps. ...
TL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers last night features co-hosts and talking about the Royal Commission Inquiry into Abuse in Carereport released this week, and with:The Kākā’s climate correspondent on a UN push to not recognise carbon offset markets and ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Friday, July 26, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Transport: Simeon Brown announced$802.9 million in funding for 18 new trains on the Wairarapa and Manawatū rail lines, which ...
The northern expressway extension from Warkworth to Whangarei is likely to require radical changes to legislation if it is going to be built within the foreseeable future. The Government’s powers to purchase land, the planning process and current restrictions on road tolling are all going to need to be changed ...
Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedFirst they came for the doctors But I was confused by the numbers and costs So I didn't speak up Then they came for our police and nurses And I didn't think we could afford those costs anyway So I ...
Photo by Joshua J. Cotten on UnsplashWe’re back again after our mid-winter break. We’re still with the ‘new’ day of the week (Thursday rather than Friday) when we have our ‘hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kākā for an hour at 5 pm.Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream ...
Notes: This is a free article. Abuse in Care themes are mentioned. Video is at the bottom.BackgroundYesterday’s report into Abuse in Care revealed that at least 1 in 3 of all who went through state and faith based care were abused - often horrifically. At least, because not all survivors ...
Luxon speaks in Parliament yesterday about the Abuse in Care report. Photo: Hagen Hopkins/Getty ImagesTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:PM Christopher Luxon said yesterday in tabling the Abuse in Carereport in Parliament he wanted to ‘do the ...
About a decade ago I worked with a bloke called Steve. He was the grizzled veteran coder, a few years older than me, who knew where the bodies were buried - code wise. Despite his best efforts to be approachable and friendly he could be kind of gruff, through to ...
Some of the recent announcements from the government have reminded us of posts we’ve written in the past. Here’s one from early 2020. There were plenty of reactions to the government’s infrastructure announcement a few weeks ago which saw them fund a bunch of big roading projects. One of ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Thursday, July 25 are:News: Why Electric Kiwi is closing to new customers - and why it matters RNZ’s Susan EdmundsScoop: Government drops ...
Hi,I felt a small wet tongue snaking through one of the holes in my Crocs. It explored my big toe, darting down one side, then the other. “He’s looking for some toe cheese,” said the woman next to me, words that still haunt me to this day.Growing up in New ...
Yesterday I happily quoted the Prime Minister without fact-checking him and sure enough, it turns out his numbers were all to hell. It’s not four kg of Royal Commission report, it’s fourteen.My friend and one-time colleague-in-comms Hazel Phillips gently alerted me to my error almost as soon as I’d hit ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Thursday, July 25, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day were:The Abuse in Care Royal Commission of Inquirypublished its final report yesterday.PM Christopher Luxon and The Minister responsible for ...
The Official Information Act has always been a battle between requesters seeking information, and governments seeking to control it. Information is power, so Ministers and government agencies want to manage what is released and when, for their own convenience, and legality and democracy be damned. Their most recent tactic for ...
TL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:Transport and Energy Minister Simeon Brown is accelerating plans to spend at least $10 billion through Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) to extend State Highway One as a four-lane ‘Expressway’ from Warkworth to Whangarei ...
I live my life (woo-ooh-ooh)With no control in my destinyYea-yeah, yea-yeah (woo-ooh-ooh)I can bleed when I want to bleedSo come on, come on (woo-ooh-ooh)You can bleed when you want to bleedYea-yeah, come on (woo-ooh-ooh)Everybody bleed when they want to bleedCome on and bleedGovernments face tough challenges. Selling unpopular decisions to ...
Please note:To skip directly to the- parliamentary footage in the video, scroll to 1:21 To skip to audio please click on the headphone iconon the left hand side of the screenThis video / audio section is under development. ...
Given the crackdown on wasteful government spending, it behooves me to point to a high profile example of spending by the Luxon government that looks like a big, fat waste of time and money. I’m talking about the deployment of NZDF personnel to support the US-led coalition in the Red ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:40 am on Wednesday, July 24 are:Deep Dive: Chipping away at the housing crisis, including my comments RNZ/Newsroom’s The DetailNews: Government softens on asset sales, ...
As I reported about the city centre, Auckland’s rail network is also going through a difficult and disruptive period which is rapidly approaching a culmination, this will result in a significant upgrade to the whole network. Hallelujah. Also like the city centre this is an upgrade predicated on the City ...
Today, a 4 kilogram report will be delivered to Parliament. We know this is what the report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care weighs, because our Prime Minister told us so.Some reporter had blindsided him by asking a question about something done by ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Wednesday, July 24, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Beehive:Transport Minister Simeon Brownannounced plans to use PPPs to fund, build and run a four-lane expressway between Auckland ...
NewstalkZB host Mike Hosking, who can usually be relied on to give Prime Minister Christopher Luxon an easy run, did not do so yesterday when he interviewed him about the HealthNZ deficit. Luxon is trying to use a deficit reported last year by HealthNZ as yet another example of the ...
Back in January a StatsNZ employee gave a speech at Rātana on behalf of tangata whenua in which he insulted and criticised the government. The speech clearly violated the principle of a neutral public service, and StatsNZ started an investigation. Part of that was getting an external consultant to examine ...
Renting for life: Shared ownership initiatives are unlikely to slow the slide in home ownership by much. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:A Deloittereport for Westpac has projected Aotearoa’s home-ownership rate will ...
You're broken down and tiredOf living life on a merry go roundAnd you can't find the fighterBut I see it in you so we gonna walk it outAnd move mountainsWe gonna walk it outAnd move mountainsAnd I'll rise upI'll rise like the dayI'll rise upI'll rise unafraidI'll rise upAnd I'll ...
There’s been a change in Myers Park. Down the steps from St. Kevin’s Arcade, past the grassy slopes, the children’s playground, the benches and that goat statue, there has been a transformation. The underpass for Mayoral Drive has gone from a barren, grey, concrete tunnel, to a place that thrums ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections Global society may have finally slammed on the brakes for climate-warming pollution released by human fossil fuel combustion. According to the Carbon Monitor Project, the total global climate pollution released between February and May 2024 declined slightly from the amount released during the same ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Tuesday, July 23 are:Deep Dive: Penlink: where tolling rhetoric meets reality BusinessDesk-$$$’sOliver LewisScoop:Te Pūkenga plans for regional polytechs leak out ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Tuesday, July 23, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Health: Shane Reti announcedthe Board of Te Whatu Ora-Health New Zealand was being replaced with Commissioner Lester Levy ...
Health NZ warned the Government at the end of March that it was running over Budget. But the reasons it gave were very different to those offered by the Prime Minister yesterday. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon blamed the “botched merger” of the 20 District Health Boards (DHBs) to create Health ...
Long ReadKey Summary: Although National increased the health budget by $1.4 billion in May, they used an old funding model to project health system costs, and never bothered to update their pre-election numbers. They were told during the Health Select Committees earlier in the year their budget amount was deficient, ...
As a momentous, historic weekend in US politics unfolded, analysts and commentators grasped for precedents and comparisons to help explain the significance and power of the choice Joe Biden had made. The 46th president had swept the Democratic party’s primaries but just over 100 days from the election had chosen ...
TL;DR: I’m casting around for new ideas and ways of thinking about Aotearoa’s political economy to find a few solutions to our cascading and self-reinforcing housing, poverty and climate crises.Associate Professor runs an online masters degree in the economics of sustainability at Torrens University in Australia and is organising ...
The Finance and Expenditure Committee has reported back on National's Local Government (Water Services Preliminary Arrangements) Bill. The bill sets up water for privatisation, and was introduced under urgency, then rammed through select committee with no time even for local councils to make a proper submission. Naturally, national's select committee ...
Some years ago, I bought a book at Dunedin’s Regent Booksale for $1.50. As one does. Vandrad the Viking (1898), by J. Storer Clouston, is an obscure book these days – I cannot find a proper online review – but soon it was sitting on my shelf, gathering dust alongside ...
History is not on the side of the centre-left, when Democratic presidents fall behind in the polls and choose not to run for re-election. On both previous occasions in the past 75 years (Harry Truman in 1952, Lyndon Johnson in 1968) the Democrats proceeded to then lose the White House ...
This is a free articleCoverageThis morning, US President Joe Biden announced his withdrawal from the Presidential race. And that is genuinely newsworthy. Thanks for your service, President Biden, and all the best to you and yours.However, the media in New Zealand, particularly the 1News nightly bulletin, has been breathlessly covering ...
A homeless person’s camp beside a blocked-off slipped damage walkway in Freeman’s Bay: we are chasing our tail on our worsening and inter-related housing, poverty and climate crises. Photo: Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy ...
What has happened to it all?Crazy, some'd sayWhere is the life that I recognise?(Gone away)But I won't cry for yesterdayThere's an ordinary worldSomehow I have to findAnd as I try to make my wayTo the ordinary worldYesterday morning began as many others - what to write about today? I began ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Monday, July 22 are:Today’s Must Read: Father and son live in a tent, and have done for four years, in a million ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Monday, July 22, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:US President Joe Biden announced via X this morning he would not stand for a second term.Multinational professional services firm ...
A listing of 32 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, July 14, 2024 thru Sat, July 20, 2024. Story of the week As reflected by preponderance of coverage, our Story of the Week is Project 2025. Until now traveling ...
This weekend, a friend pointed out someone who said they’d like to read my posts, but didn’t want to pay. And my first reaction was sympathy.I’ve already told folks that if they can’t comfortably subscribe, and would like to read, I’d be happy to offer free subscriptions. I don’t want ...
National: The Party of ‘Law and Order’ IntroductionThis weekend, the Government formally kicked off one of their flagship policy programs: a military style boot camp that New Zealand has experimented with over the past 50 years. Cartoon credit: Guy BodyIt’s very popular with the National Party’s Law and Orderimage, ...
Day one of the solo leg of my long journey home begins with my favourite sound: footfalls in an empty street. 5.00 am and it’s already light and already too warm, almost.If I can make the train that leaves Budapest later this hour I could be in Belgrade by nightfall; ...
Do you remember Y2K, the threat that hung over humanity in the closing days of the twentieth century? Horror scenarios of planes falling from the sky, electronic payments failing and ATMs refusing to dispense cash. As for your VCR following instructions and recording your favourite show - forget about it.All ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts being questioned by The Kākā’s Bernard Hickey.TL;DR: My top six things to note around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the week to July 20 were:1. A strategy that fails Zero Carbon Act & Paris targetsThe National-ACT-NZ First Coalition Government finally unveiled ...
Summary:As New Zealand loses at least 12 leaders in the public service space of health, climate, and pharmaceuticals, this month alone, directly in response to the Government’s policies and budget choices, what lies ahead may be darker than it appears. Tui examines some of those departures and draws a long ...
The Minister of Housing’s ambition is to reduce markedly the ratio of house prices to household incomes. If his strategy works it would transform the housing market, dramatically changing the prospects of housing as an investment.Leaving aside the Minister’s metaphor of ‘flooding the market’ I do not see how the ...
As previously noted, my historical fantasy piece, set in the fifth-century Mediterranean, was accepted for a Pirate Horror anthology, only for the anthology to later fall through. But in a good bit of news, it turned out that the story could indeed be re-marketed as sword and sorcery. As of ...
An employee of tobacco company Philip Morris International demonstrates a heated tobacco device. Photo: Getty ImagesTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy on Friday, July 19 are:At a time when the Coalition Government is cutting spending on health, infrastructure, education, housing ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 8:30 am on Friday, July 19 are:Scoop: NZ First Minister Casey Costello orders 50% cut to excise tax on heated tobacco products. The minister has ...
Kia ora, it’s time for another Friday roundup, in which we pull together some of the links and stories that caught our eye this week. Feel free to add more in the comments! Our header image this week shows a foggy day in Auckland town, captured by Patrick Reynolds. ...
TL;DR : Here’s the top six items climate news for Aotearoa this week, as selected by Bernard Hickey and The Kākā’s climate correspondent Cathrine Dyer. A discussion recorded yesterday is in the video above and the audio of that sent onto the podcast feed.The Government released its draft Emissions Reduction ...
Save some money, get rich and old, bring it back to Tobacco Road.Bring that dynamite and a crane, blow it up, start all over again.Roll up. Roll up. Or tailor made, if you prefer...Whether you’re selling ciggies, digging for gold, catching dolphins in your nets, or encouraging folks to flutter ...
Waiting In The Wings:For truly, if Trump is America’s un-assassinated Caesar, then J.D. Vance is America’s Octavian, the Republic’s youthful undertaker – and its first Emperor.DONALD TRUMP’S SELECTION of James D. Vance as his running-mate bodes ill for the American republic. A fervent supporter of Viktor Orban, the “illiberal” prime ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Friday, July 19, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:The PSAannounced the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) had ruled in the PSA’s favour in its case against the Ministry ...
TL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers last night features co-hosts and talking with:The Kākā’s climate correspondent talking about the National-ACT-NZ First Government’s release of its first Emissions Reduction Plan;University of Otago Foreign Relations Professor and special guest Dr Karin von ...
Open access notablesImproving global temperature datasets to better account for non-uniform warming, Calvert, Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society:To better account for spatial non-uniform trends in warming, a new GITD [global instrumental temperature dataset] was created that used maximum likelihood estimation (MLE) to combine the land surface ...
A late change to charter school legislation will cheat educators out of fair pay and negotiating power proving charter schools are just a vehicle to make profit out of our education system. ...
In 2004 te iwi Māori rallied against the Crown’s attempt to confiscate our coastlines and moana with the Foreshore and Seabed Act. This led to the largest hīkoi of a generation and the birth of Te Pāti Māori. 20 years later, history is repeating itself. Today the government has announced ...
It has been five and a half years since the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care was established to investigate the abuse of children, young people, and vulnerable adults within state and faith-based institutions. Yesterday, the final report - Whanaketia through pain and trauma, from darkness to light ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to take action off the back of the International Court of Justice ruling on Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine. ...
On Friday the International Court of Justice reaffirmed what Palestinian’s have been telling us for decades: that the occupation and colonisation of Palestinian lands by Israel is illegal and must end immediately. They also called for reparations for Palestinian’s who have lived under Israeli occupation since it began in 1967. ...
Labour calls on the Government to act after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian Territories is illegal. ...
The 53.7 percent rise in benefit sanctions over the last year is more proof of this Government’s disdain for our communities most in need of support. ...
Aotearoa could be a country where every child grows up feeling safe, loved and with a sense of belonging in their whānau and community. But for some of our children, this is far from reality. Instead, they are trapped in a maze of intergenerational harm that they can’t escape on ...
Te Pāti Māori are calling for David Seymour to resign as Associate Health Minister in response to his call for Pharmac to ignore the Treaty of Waitangi. “This announcement is just another example of the government’s anti-Tiriti, anti-Māori agenda.” Said Co-leader and spokesperson for health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. “Seymour thinks it ...
The soaring price of renting is driving the rise of inflation in this country - with latest figures from Stats NZ showing rents are up 4.8 per cent on average while annual inflation is at 3.3 per cent. ...
National’s Emissions Reduction Plan will take New Zealand further from the economy we need to ensure the next generation has a stable climate and secure livelihoods. ...
Following consultation with named parties and thorough consideration of privacy interests, the Green Party is in a position to release the Executive Summary of the final report from the independent investigation into Darleen Tana. ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon should be asking serious questions of his Minister for Resources Shane Jones now it’s been revealed he misled the public about a dinner with mining companies that he didn’t declare and said wasn’t pre-arranged. ...
Te Pāti Māori have submitted to the Justice Select Committee against the Sentencing (Reinstating Three Strikes) Amendment Bill. The bill will further entrench racism in our justice system and fails to focus on rehabilitation. “Reinstating Three Strikes will empower a systematically racist system and exacerbate the overrepresentation of Māori in ...
The Transport and Infrastructure Committee is set to make a determination on the Residential Tenancies Amendment (RTA) Bill in the coming weeks. “This legislation will give landlords the power to kick our whānau out onto the street for no reason” said Housing spokesperson, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “Their solution to the housing ...
“National’s campaign was about tackling crime and the best they can do is a two-year long Ministerial Advisory Group,” Labour justice spokesperson Duncan Webb said. ...
“There are more examples of charter schools failing their students than there are success stories. The coalition Government is driving to dismantle our public school system and instead promote a privatised, competitive structure that puts profits before kids,” Jan Tinetti said. ...
“This government is choosing to deliberately mislead and withhold information, keeping our people in the dark about this government’s agenda and the future of our mokopuna,” said co-leader and spokesperson for Health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. The call comes after the demand from the Chief Ombudsman that Associate Minister of Health, Casey ...
“Today’s climate announcement by Simon Watts makes clear the National Government is simply paying lip service to meeting its climate change targets,” Megan Woods said. ...
National is choosing to make life harder for workers by taking away the rights our communities have fought hard for. Here's how they’re taking workers backwards. ...
Australia, Canada and New Zealand today issued the following statement on the need for an urgent ceasefire in Gaza and the risk of expanded conflict between Hizballah and Israel. The situation in Gaza is catastrophic. The human suffering is unacceptable. It cannot continue. We remain unequivocal in our condemnation of ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today reminded all State and faith-based institutions of their legal obligation to preserve records relevant to the safety and wellbeing of those in its care. “The Abuse in Care Inquiry’s report has found cases where records of the most vulnerable people in State and faith‑based institutions were ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says the Government’s online safety website for children and young people has reached one million page views. “It is great to see so many young people and their families accessing the site Keep It Real Online to learn how to stay safe online, and manage ...
Tēnā tātou katoa, Ngā mihi te rangi, ngā mihi te whenua, ngā mihi ki a koutou, kia ora mai koutou. Thank you for the opportunity to be here and the invitation to speak at this 50th anniversary conference. I acknowledge all those who have gone before us and paved the ...
New Zealand’s payroll providers have successfully prepared to ensure 3.5 million individuals will, from Wednesday next week, be able to keep more of what they earn each pay, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis and Revenue Minister Simon Watts. “The Government's tax policy changes are legally effective from Wednesday. Delivering this tax ...
An experimental vineyard which will help futureproof the wine sector has been opened in Blenheim by Associate Regional Development Minister Mark Patterson. The covered vineyard, based at the New Zealand Wine Centre – Te Pokapū Wāina o Aotearoa, enables controlled environmental conditions. “The research that will be produced at the Experimental ...
The Coalition Government has confirmed the indicative regional breakdown of North Island Weather Event (NIWE) funding for state highway recovery projects funded through Budget 2024, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Regions in the North Island suffered extensive and devastating damage from Cyclone Gabrielle and the 2023 Auckland Anniversary Floods, and ...
Indonesia’s Foreign Minister, Retno Marsudi, will visit New Zealand next week, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “Indonesia is important to New Zealand’s security and economic interests and is our closest South East Asian neighbour,” says Mr Peters, who is currently in Laos to engage with South East Asian partners. ...
He aha te kai a te rangatira? He kōrero, he kōrero, he kōrero. The government has reaffirmed its commitment to supporting the aspirations of Ngāti Maniapoto, Minister for Māori Development Tama Potaka says. “My thanks to Te Nehenehenui Trust – Ngāti Maniapoto for bringing their important kōrero to a ministerial ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has thanked outgoing Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority, Janice Fredric, for her service to the board.“I have received Ms Fredric’s resignation from the role of Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority,” Mr Brown says.“On behalf of the Government, I want to thank Ms Fredric for ...
The Government is proposing legislation to overturn a Court of Appeal decision and amend the Marine and Coastal Area Act in order to restore Parliament’s test for Customary Marine Title, Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “Section 58 required an applicant group to prove they have exclusively used and occupied ...
Regulation Minister David Seymour says that opposition parties have united in bad faith, opposing what they claim are ‘dangerous changes’ to the Early Childhood Education sector, despite no changes even being proposed yet. “Issues with affordability and availability of early childhood education, and the complexity of its regulation, has led ...
After receiving more than 740 submissions in the first 20 days, Regulation Minister David Seymour is asking the Ministry for Regulation to extend engagement on the early childhood education regulation review by an extra two weeks. “The level of interest has been very high, and from the conversations I’ve been ...
The Coalition Government is investing $802.9 million into the Wairarapa and Manawatū rail lines as part of a funding agreement with the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA), KiwiRail, and the Greater Wellington and Horizons Regional Councils to deliver more reliable services for commuters in the lower North Island, Transport Minister Simeon ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced his intention to appoint a Crown Manager to both Hawke’s Bay Regional and Wairoa District Councils to speed up the delivery of flood protection work in Wairoa."Recent severe weather events in Wairoa this year, combined with damage from Cyclone Gabrielle in 2023 have ...
Mr Speaker, this is a day that many New Zealanders who were abused in State care never thought would come. It’s the day that this Parliament accepts, with deep sorrow and regret, the Report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care. At the heart of this report are the ...
For the first time, the Government is formally acknowledging some children and young people at Lake Alice Psychiatric Hospital experienced torture. The final report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care “Whanaketia – through pain and trauma, from darkness to light,” was tabled in Parliament ...
The Government has acknowledged the nearly 2,400 courageous survivors who shared their experiences during the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Historical Abuse in State and Faith-Based Care. The final report from the largest and most complex public inquiry ever held in New Zealand, the Royal Commission Inquiry “Whanaketia – through ...
With a week to go before hard-working New Zealanders see personal income tax relief for the first time in fourteen years, 513,000 people have used the Budget tax calculator to see how much they will benefit, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis. “Tax relief is long overdue. From next Wednesday, personal income ...
Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden says a bill that has passed its first reading will improve parental leave settings and give non-biological parents more flexibility as primary carer for their child. The Regulatory Systems Amendment Bill (No3), passed its first reading this morning. “It includes a change ...
Two Bills designed to improve regulation and make it easier to do business have passed their first reading in Parliament, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. The Regulatory Systems (Economic Development) Amendment Bill and Regulatory Systems (Immigration and Workforce) Amendment Bill make key changes to legislation administered by the Ministry ...
New legislation paves the way for greater competition in sectors such as banking and electricity, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly says. “Competitive markets boost productivity, create employment opportunities and lift living standards. To support competition, we need good quality regulation but, unfortunately, a recent OECD report ranked New ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says lotteries for charitable purposes, such as those run by the Heart Foundation, Coastguard NZ, and local hospices, will soon be allowed to operate online permanently. “Under current laws, these fundraising lotteries are only allowed to operate online until October 2024, after which ...
The Coalition Government is accelerating work on the new four-lane expressway between Auckland and Whangārei as part of its Roads of National Significance programme, with an accelerated delivery model to deliver this project faster and more efficiently, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “For too long, the lack of resilient transport connections ...
Sir Don McKinnon will travel to Viet Nam this week as a Special Envoy of the Government, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “It is important that the Government give due recognition to the significant contributions that General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong made to New Zealand-Viet Nam relations,” Mr ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says newly appointed Commissioner, Grant Illingworth KC, will help deliver the report for the first phase of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into COVID-19 Lessons, due on 28 November 2024. “I am pleased to announce that Mr Illingworth will commence his appointment as ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters travels to Laos this week to participate in a series of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)-led Ministerial meetings in Vientiane. “ASEAN plays an important role in supporting a peaceful, stable and prosperous Indo-Pacific,” Mr Peters says. “This will be our third visit to ...
Construction of a new mental health facility at Te Nikau Grey Hospital in Greymouth is today one step closer, Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey says. “This $27 million facility shows this Government is delivering on its promise to boost mental health care and improve front line services,” Mr Doocey says. ...
New Zealand is committing nearly $50 million to a package supporting sustainable Pacific fisheries development over the next four years, Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones announced today. “This support consisting of a range of initiatives demonstrates New Zealand’s commitment to assisting our Pacific partners ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour says proposed changes to the Education and Training Amendment Bill will ensure charter schools have more flexibility to negotiate employment agreements and are equipped with the right teaching resources. “Cabinet has agreed to progress an amendment which means unions will not be able to initiate ...
In response to serious concerns around oversight, overspend and a significant deterioration in financial outlook, the Board of Health New Zealand will be replaced with a Commissioner, Health Minister Dr Shane Reti announced today. “The previous government’s botched health reforms have created significant financial challenges at Health NZ that, without ...
Minister for Space and Science, Innovation and Technology Judith Collins will travel to Adelaide tomorrow for space and science engagements, including speaking at the Australian Space Forum. While there she will also have meetings and visits with a focus on space, biotechnology and innovation. “New Zealand has a thriving space ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts will travel to China on Saturday to attend the Ministerial on Climate Action meeting held in Wuhan. “Attending the Ministerial on Climate Action is an opportunity to advocate for New Zealand climate priorities and engage with our key partners on climate action,” Mr Watts says. ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is travelling to the Solomon Islands tomorrow for meetings with his counterparts from around the Pacific supporting collective management of the region’s fisheries. The 23rd Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Committee and the 5th Regional Fisheries Ministers’ Meeting in Honiara from 23 to 26 July ...
The Government today launched the Military Style Academy Pilot at Te Au rere a te Tonga Youth Justice residence in Palmerston North, an important part of the Government’s plan to crackdown on youth crime and getting youth offenders back on track, Minister for Children, Karen Chhour said today. “On the ...
The Government has welcomed news the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) has begun work to replace nine priority bridges across the country to ensure our state highway network remains resilient, reliable, and efficient for road users, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says.“Increasing productivity and economic growth is a key priority for the ...
Acting Prime Minister David Seymour has been in contact throughout the evening with senior officials who have coordinated a whole of government response to the global IT outage and can provide an update. The Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet has designated the National Emergency Management Agency as the ...
New Zealand and Japan will continue to step up their shared engagement with the Pacific, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “New Zealand and Japan have a strong, shared interest in a free, open and stable Pacific Islands region,” Mr Peters says. “We are pleased to be finding more ways ...
New developments in the heart of North Island forestry country will reinvigorate their communities and boost economic development, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones visited Kaingaroa and Kawerau in Bay of Plenty today to open a landmark community centre in the former and a new connecting road in ...
President Adeang, fellow Ministers, honourable Diet Member Horii, Ambassadors, distinguished guests. Minasama, konnichiwa, and good afternoon, everyone. Distinguished guests, it’s a pleasure to be here with you today to talk about New Zealand’s foreign policy reset, the reasons for it, the values that underpin it, and how it ...
Comment: It was a good two hours into the conversation when Tyrone Marks raised the most basic of questions when I first spoke to him in 2017. “They didn’t explain the things they did to me. They never told me why. And they still haven’t. There’s no explanation for it. ...
Last summer when Matairangi burned, Ginny and Tom stood at the window of their lounge, watching kākā shoot skyward from the burning trees. From the distance, they looked to Ginny like pages torn from books and thrown into a bonfire. It was Tom, voice tight, who told her it was ...
Opinion: The Canadian short story writer Alice Munro – winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2013 – died in May at the age of 92. Her work was about “the damage people inflict on one another in the name of love”, Deborah Treisman wrote in the New Yorker. ...
This month marks two years since the most powerful telescope ever built sent its first pictures back to earth. From its lofty vantage point, beyond the moon in orbit around the sun, the James Webb Space Telescope was tuned to observe the first stars and galaxies being born soon after ...
Comment: After Climate Change Minister Simon Watts’ preview several weeks ago, I had some optimism about the Government’s emissions reduction plan. Now I’ve read the discussion document, that hope has been dashed. How can the Government propose a plan that wants to take New Zealand taxpayers’ hard-earned money, and spend ...
Christopher Luxon: hurdles The little man from National jumps hurdles in his sleep. He’s quite good at it in his dreams and even though the reality doesn’t quite match up you have to give him credit for getting up every morning and crashing into the very first hurdle of the ...
Madeleine Chapman rounds out Death Week on The Spinoff with a final recommendation. You can read all of our Death Week coverage here. Nothing forces you to reflect on your life and relationships quite like proximity to death. For those whose nearest and dearest have died, there are reasonably obvious ...
Whitney Greene takes us through her life in television, including the TV character she’d like to plan a funeral for and her cow lung catastrophe on The Traitors NZ. “If the phone rings, I have to answer it,” Whitney Greene from The Traitors NZ warns as we begin our My ...
Maddie Ballard reviews the debut essay collection of Pōneke writer Flora Feltham.In ‘The Raw Material’, the longest essay in Flora Feltham’s dazzling debut collection, the author heads out for a run after hours of weaving and sees the world turn to textile. “Pounding along the Parade, I saw the ...
Andy Christiansen, one half of the experimental rock-pop duo TRiPS, shares the tunes inspiring the band’s perfect weekend and new release. “Good speakers, good food, good music, no distractions”: that’s all you need to enjoy the psychedelic stylings of TRiPS, a new band formed by Fly My Pretties’ Barnaby Weir ...
Celebrating our quadrennial opportunity to become experts in a bunch of sports we never normally watch.The games of the XXXIII Olympiad are upon us. Paris will host this year’s showcase of sporting and athletic prowess, which means some late-night and early-morning viewing for us in Aotearoa.But what sports ...
The photograph is striking and beautiful, but also disturbing – a reminder that my love for John was often entangled in shame.The Sunday Essay is made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand.In the spring of 1980, in Dunedin, shortly before his death, someone took a photograph ...
Get to know Babushka, our latest Dog of the Month. This feature was offered as a reward during our What’s Eating Aotearoa PledgeMe campaign. Thank you to Babu’s humans, Jo and Isabel, for their support. Dog name: Babushka (Babu for short) Age: 2Breed: Border Collie X poodleIf rescued, ...
Pacific Media Watch A Lebanese photojournalist who was severely wounded during an Israeli air strike in south Lebanon carried the Olympic torch in Paris this week in honour of her peers who have been wounded and killed in the field — especially in Gaza and Lebanon. Christina Assi of Agence ...
The first report in a five-part web series focused on the 15th Triennial Conference of Pacific Women taking place in the Marshall Islands this week.SPECIAL REPORT:By Netani Rika in Majuro Women continue to fight for justice 70 years after the first nuclear tests by the United States caused ...
Christopher Luxon has joined with Australia and Canada's leaders in voicing support for US President Joe Biden's ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The 2022 election brought the “teal wave” into parliament. The next election will test whether teals, who occupy what were Liberal seats, and other independents can maintain their momentum. Joining us on the Podcast ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Musgrave, Senior lecturer in Pharmacology, University of Adelaide Pixavri/Shutterstock A major Federal Court class action has been dismissed this week after Justice Michael Lee ruled there was not enough evidence to prove the weedkiller Roundup causes cancer. Plaintiff Kelvin ...
In The Week in Politics: politicians have to decide what to do about child abuse, Health NZ is booked in for major surgery and Darleen Tana returns. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clare Corbould, Associate Professor, Contemporary Histories Research Group, Deakin University Mainstream media are surprisingly muted at the prospect of the world’s most powerful nation being led for the first time by a woman – specifically a woman of colour, Vice President Kamala ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rebecca Bennett, PhD Student, Associate Research Fellow, Deakin University Last week, a drone delivery company called Wing (owned by Google’s parent company, Alphabet) started operating in Melbourne. Some 250,000 residents in parts of the city’s eastern suburbs can now order food from ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jonathan Foo, Lecturer, Physiotherapy, Monash University pikselstock/Shutterstock In the next 40 years in Australia, it’s predicted the number of Australians aged 65 and over will more than double, while the number of people aged 85 and over will more than triple. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Katrina Grant, Research Associate, Power Institute for Arts and Visual Culture, University of Sydney Jonas Åkerström’s 1790 work, Session of the Accademia dell’Arcadia on August 17 1788.Nationalmuseum/Cecilia Heisser Ever wondered whether you’d have a better chance at winning an Olympic gold ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alexandra Jones, Program Lead, Food Governance, George Institute for Global Health wavebreakmedia/Shutterstock On Thursday, Australian and New Zealand food ministers at state, federal and national levels met to thrash out what’s next for health star ratings on packaged foods. Now, after ...
The Abuse in Care report found many Pacific survivors lost their connections to their culture and language, resulting in trauma that has been carried from generation to generation. ...
In the regulatory review, ECC intends to suggest that ERO focus on curriculum delivery reviews rather than the Ministry, because it’s not efficient or effective to have two agencies with radically different approaches climbing over each other. ...
Te Rūnanga Nui o Ngā Kura Kaupapa Māori invites the current government to work in partnership with them to develop a pathway forward, including the development of a parallel pathway and meaningful policy and strategy for Kura Kaupapa Māori ...
If you haven’t started watching yet, Tara Ward begs you to reconsider. This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. In the world of New Zealand reality television, we have many gems in our crown. There’s the delicious second season of the Celebrity Treasure ...
A new poem by Fiona Kidman. The clothes of the dead I did not keep my mother’s furry red beret for long nor the stringy scarves that adorned the necks of my aunts, although I have kept tag ends of gold, the rings and trinkets they wore, the brooches no ...
The government’s announcement that it will re-open the foreshore and seabed controversy by changing the rules on recognising centuries-old Māori customary title for a third time goes against the rule of law and New Zealand values,” Mr Tipa says. ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 Lioness by Emily Perkins (Bloomsbury, $25) Roarrrr! Perkins’ brilliant, award-winning, Marian-Keyes anointed, darkly funny, long ...
The 2004 Act vested ownership of the foreshore and seabed in the Crown, extinguishing any Māori claims to ownership and causing widespread outrage and protests among Māori communities. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Antje Deckert, Associate Professor (Criminology), Auckland University of Technology Getty Images Despite the connection between institutional harm and gang membership made clear in this week’s mammoth royal commission abuse-in care report, the government seems unlikely to soften its “get tough on ...
From Lewis Clareburt in the swimming to the start of the rowing – the first seven days of Paris 2024 promise to be big for New Zealand. There are few events that bring the country together quite like an Olympic Games. Nothing quite matches the excitement of getting up in ...
Groundbreaking local science just showed up in the most surprising of places: the season finale of The Kardashians. In the season five finale of The Kardashians last night, several members of the family gathered together in one of their signature empty, cream-coloured rooms to hear test results that had been ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Amin Saikal, Emeritus professor of Middle Eastern and Central Asian Studies, Australian National University The Middle East is on the brink of a possibly devastating regional war, with hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah reaching an extremely dangerous level. Washington has engaged in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Laura Elizabeth Eades, Rheumatologist, Monash University Lupus is an inflammatory autoimmune illness, where the body’s immune system mistakenly attacks itself. Lupus can affect virtually any part of the body, although it most commonly affects the skin, joints and kidneys. The symptoms ...
A law firm that specialises in working with survivors of abuse in State care is disappointed that the Government fails to recognise that its boot camps can be directly compared to previous boot camps from the 1990s and 2000s. ...
Dying is a natural part of life, like updating your Wof or seeing your hairdresser, but without the word-of-mouth recs that help guarantee a good service. What if we changed that? Dying Reviews received by The Spinoff have had the names of organisations redacted while Hospice NZ collects further data. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jonti Horner, Professor (Astrophysics), University of Southern Queensland Mike Lewinski/Flickr, CC BY On any clear night, if you gaze skywards long enough, chances are you’ll see a meteor streaking through the sky. Some nights, however, are better than others. At ...
Despite having no bars or other designated spaces for lesbians, Auckland boasts a small but mighty lesbian museum. So how did it get here? The past 18 months has brought increasing hostility towards the queer community across Aotearoa. Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull’s anti-trans rally in Tamaki Makaurau last March led to a ...
Poneke Antifascist Coalition has invited Wellingtonians to stand in solidarity with the Kanak people at 12pm today outside the French Embassy in Wellington. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Layton, Visiting Fellow, Strategic Studies, Griffith University Drones are the signature technology of the Ukraine war. A few miniature aircraft designs were used in the war’s early days, but an incredible array of drones have now evolved. There are different types, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Slee, Associate Professor, Clinical Academic Neurologist, Flinders University Francisco Gonzelez/Unsplash Migraine is many things, but one thing it’s not is “just a headache”. “Migraine” comes from the Greek word “hemicrania”, referring to the common experience of migraine being predominantly ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lee White, Senior Lecturer and Horizon Fellow, School of Social and Political Sciences, University of Sydney Australia was slow to introduce minimum building standards for energy efficiency. The Nationwide House Energy Rating Scheme (NatHERS) only came into force in 2003. Older homes ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Steven Sherwood, Professor of Atmospheric Sciences, Climate Change Research Centre, UNSW Sydney The past century of human-induced warming has increased rainfall variability over 75% of the Earth’s land area – particularly over Australia, Europe and eastern North America, new research shows. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tony Heynen, Program Coordinator, Sustainable Energy, The University of Queensland A temporary stadium in the Champ-de-Mars, ParisEkaterina Pokrovsky/Shutterstock As Paris prepares to host the Olympic and Paralympic Games, the sustainability of the event is coming under scrutiny. The organisers have promoted ...
A night of karaoke and community in a pub that feels like a memory. You’d barely even notice it, unless you knew to look. Tucked away behind a liquor store on busy Constable Street is the capital’s last great pub. Newtown Sports Bar is an emblem of the pub culture ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Wright, Professor in Marine Geology, University of Canterbury Louise Corcoran/Getty Images The decline in the number of doctoral candidates at New Zealand universities is a worrying sign for the country’s effort to build a knowledge-based economy. Aotearoa New Zealand’s ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Laurie Berg, Associate Professor, University of Technology Sydney defotoberg/Shutterstock Migrant worker exploitation is entrenched in workplaces across Australia. Tragically, a deep fear of immigration consequences means most unlawful employer conduct goes unreported. On Wednesday, however, the government officially launched a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Vaughan Cruickshank, Senior Lecturer in Health and Physical Education, University of Tasmania Paris is about to host its third summer Olympics. While we don’t yet know what the legacy of this year’s games will be, let’s take the opportunity to reflect on ...
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If the Labour Party were to suddenly grow a brain & a spine, what would they campaign on? A plan for the post-covid economy.
John McCrone compiles an overview: https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/122379921/a-kinder-greener-fairer-economics-to-replace-neoliberalism-questioning-new-zealands-chances-of-making-the-move
Labour, thinking itself clever, is pitching its campaign to the 40% minority who are slow learners: "Because they're just like us. Identity politics works."
Hegel, in the 19th century, deduced his dialectic principle from this. Applying it to politics, we get a synthesis of whichever key elements of left & right remain valid.
Not desperate yet. Plus street protests hardly ever get the desired result nowadays.
So Labour masterminds decide more of the same is the best prescription. If it is a total failure, let's do it! Dinosaur-brain Labour.
Looks like social credit updated for the new millennium, huh?
So here's where a Labour apologist can say "Look, we're already doing social credit!! But we can't tell the truth to the public because nobody would vote for us! Voters are morons, right?"
To introduce MMT they first need to burst the bubble, break up the banks and deal with the resulting chaos…..no politician is willing to propose that even if enough would vote for it which is highly unlikely.
MMT is an economic theory which includes how money functions into its understanding of the economy. It describes how the economy works today.
Your probably claiming the government would need to do something before implementing Overt Monetary Financing. But in practice this is very similar to reversing the order of borrow and spend steps of QE (which its already doing today of course). Its also true that New Zealand has historically implemented OMF during the Savage era.
This strongly indicates your own economic theory doesn't fit the real world.
MMT as you well know is a description of how (some think) the political economy COULD operate as opposed to how it currently operates.
Leaving the assets with the private banks and liabilities with the debtors and retaining the private (offshore) banks with the ability to create credit does little to solve the problem aggregate spending capacity within the economy even with the availability of currency from the issuer….that simply provides the private banks with the opportunity to extract even more from the economy, and does nothing for the debtors in the short term.
QE without addressing these issues leaves exactly where we are right now….waiting for the whole house of cards to collapse and the assets to fall into the hands of the few solvent entities left standing.
This claim is incorrect. MMT purports to describe how public spending works with QE and without QE and in a lot of other circumstances such as the Eurozone.
To contrast one MMT prediction to parts of the mainstream, MMT describes why QE (e.g building bank reserves) has not caused inflation.
Of course there are some possibilities also described by MMT which are more or less untested, such as OMF. So how does MMT describe that? Well its understood to be basically similar to QE but with a slightly different order of steps, but basically ending up with the central bank owning a large part of the govt debt itself. However if thats true then we already have plenty of evidence that this is also not inflationary, contrary to mainstream claims. Such things are the testable hypotheses of macro-economics and if your paying attention then MMT is getting these things right, where the economics mainstream is getting them wrong.
As for the rest of your comment, you appear to be describing some final economic collapse, worse than both the GFC and lockdowns impacts and with govt having no ability to counteract it. I wouldn't go holding my breath waiting for this to manifest.
As I understand it, Socred advocated depriving private banks of the right to create money. That was certainly the case in Bruce Betham's day, though I'm not sure whether it still is. Their current policy seems to be to limit that right by making greater use of the reserve ratio tool.
I don't think the idea of Banks being unable to create money can be operationalised.
Initially (as in the Chicago plan) this was tied into the notion of a bank reserve constraint on bank lending. But reserve constraints don't limit bank lending unless your nation is willing to forego payment stability (which none are).
But the kind of money banks create resides on their balance sheets (its a record of owing a customer their deposit balance) and so if you need every doller created to be govt backed at the central bank (in the interbank accounts) then you are just signing the govt up to create reserve balances to back every payment. If the central bank fails to create the reserves needed to back bank lending then payment or reserve constraint failures occur. So this must be an acceptable outcome in operationalising such a policy.
Additionally bank credit and trade credit (where you pay for work, or even a meal, after its completed) doesn't look very different so I don't see much ability to legislate against banks ability to extend credit anyway.
McCrone undermined himself unfortunately by not knowing what an Overton Window is. Interesting read otherwise.
There is a similar discussion going on in Australia at present.
http://bilbo.economicoutlook.net/blog/?p=45630
The public seems to think the whole national debt malarky is getting tiresome, but the government economists are pretty attached to it.
This bit makes the RBA seem defender of the (neoliberal) faith:
Conservative authorities always try to prevent progress, but adherence to a paradigm past the use-by date prevents govts adjusting to the real world. ScoMo will have to get real sometime soon & pull whatever strings are required to produce an RBA head willing to create a future-based strategy for steering the economy.
He may even be brainstorming the options as we write. I hope he initiates some kind of liaison to the RBNZ gov plus JA/GR since regional coherence would be best for future economic steering, eh?
Its possible, I don't think that is something which will necessarily occur.
Japan has been running QE for decades now. Recently MMT was discussed in their parliament and most factions denied that MMT provided a cogent description of their economy. Obviously a better description could increase the level of public discourse on economic policy and is desirable but I don't see any force actually mandating this occurs.
Its possible that discourse could continue with central banks and treasury running QE and still insisting that at some point they will have to wind it back due to building inflationary pressures. The public may or may not believe the narrative being presented to them.
For better public discourse it would help if the process was simplified with the reserve bank directly funding the treasury spending. Making this clear would help to show the public how public finance is working in practice and would make it difficult to oppose deficits and public spending programs politically with an invalid public debt narrative.
Of course in both New Zealand and Australia to a reasonable extent the shift towards fiscal policy was automatic. Across the lock-down the shift in spending from consumption to saving happened, as did the growth in deficits required to compensate for this. And it must have become obvious that the RBNZ had to fund the deficit more or less directly to the tune of $60 billion because that happened as well and in a timely fashion. If the long run outcome is that the forecast inflation never occurs and the governments self owned debt is not unwound as a result, well I don't see any important difference between that outcome and another where the inflation and public finance forecast was more realistic in the first place.
Your comment implies that the mainstream economic theory has had a period of validity, but this has never been the case. There has not been a period where a model of a barter economy was valid (which is the mainstream model, it literally attempts to model an economy with an impossible financial system). There has not been a period where there was a mandatory minimum unemployment rate (above 0) below which inflation accelerated (the NAIRU rate), so the model of unemployment is completely broken. And there has never been a period where the central bank can target the inflation rate by targeting official cash rates (and our RBNZ was never good at limiting house price increases even with the OCR about 10-12%). Monetary policy not working out as an inflation theory was as true prior to the GFC as it has been since the GFC (where its supposed to be able to increase inflation rates).
For better public discourse it would help if the process was simplified with the reserve bank directly funding the treasury spending. Making this clear would help to show the public how public finance is working in practice and would make it difficult to oppose deficits and public spending programs politically with an invalid public debt narrative.
This strikes me as helpful & sensible. I wonder if Reddell would agree. I get the impression you may be an economist by profession &/or someone with close prof experience of public finances. In the USA such people access political leverage via institutionalised think-tanks – do we have one such relevant here? If so, your suggestion ought to be examined collegially to crowd-source consensus in that context, with a view to lobbying the next govt to make the desired change.
Your comment implies that the mainstream economic theory has had a period of validity, but this has never been the case.
Maybe so – yet it was sufficiently plausible to win the adherence of both Labour and National for 35 years.
In my limited interactions with Reddell I would expect some kind of triangulation to occur. Basically when pushed MMT is all correct, nothing surprising and not any different to the present, but also we should not do away with the concept of central bank independence and should maintain the practice of needing an authority figure to tell us which kind of deficit will be inflationary rather than making it so obvious even joe public could understand it for themselves.
I think that equates to making the system "simple enough and no simpler" when your a PHD grade policy economist.
jfc, make up your mind.
Expecting a mind to get made up is realistic in some limited contexts – as in using a recipe for baking a cake. When social & political contexts are ever-changing, a mind will view those as ever-movable feasts. 😋
Got that bit wrong didn't he.
MMT doesn't ignore resources. What it does is recognise that a nation's money is backed by that nation's economy and, as long as their is slack in the economy, then printing money is non-inflationary. Under such a system taxes become a form inflation control as interest rates are now (and don't which don't actually work as super-inflated house pricing shows).
The reason why Labour, National and ACT don't like MMT is because it proves that capitalists are bludgers.
Once the government becomes the sole supplier of money in the system the need for interest rates, shareholders and profits disappears. And where then would the Cullen Fund and our self-proclaimed VIP of business be?
MMT still uses a market economy – it just gets rid of capitalism.
MMT still uses a market economy – it just gets rid of capitalism
Seems like an insight worth recycling! I can't claim to comment from any perspective of expertise – my involvement with Greens economic policy development was always that of a radical heretic who had a partial grasp of establishment economics.
I suspect that others may quibble somewhat. Unless you have a design mechanism for eliminating held capital, those who hold it are alway likely to be players in the game, regardless of govt making radical rule changes.
Perhaps you are implying the incentive-structure of the game is sufficiently changed by govts using MMT that capitalist players will see no way to profit from playing?
With MMT properly put in place having money will no longer grant more money. No interest rates to charge workers for the privilege of borrowing
Existing owners will still be able to bludge but the economy will shift around them until they can’t. Its not an immediate fix but will come about over time.
With the government creating money openly the private will need to be stopped from doing so and thus will end the private banks and their bludging.
Always worthwhile to read Why we can't afford the rich to get a better understanding of how they bludge so much off of the rest of us and how getting rid of them will make the economy perform better and make the rest of us better off.
Capitalists are bludgers and they cost us billions every year. And that's just in NZ.
Hegel is the reason why Marx wrote a shit prescription even though he was a brilliant diagnostician.
Haven't they got enough on their plate right now?
If the Labour Party were to suddenly grow a brain & a spine, what would they campaign on? A plan for the post-covid economy.
That's been true since Rogergnomics. But NZ politics has reached the point of decay where not releasing policies is more likely to win or retain votes. As it stands they're more like that song from How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying:
Finch: Is there anything you're against?
Twimble: Unemployment
Finch: When they want brilliant thinking from employees
Twimble: That is no concern of mine
Finch: Suppose a man of genius makes suggestions?
Twimble: Watch that genius get suggested to resign
Releasing policy would just give the floundering Gnats and their media sycophants something to focus their malice upon – better to let them stew in their febrile resentment – it doesn't resonate with voters.
It has proven infinitely safer for Labour to try to deliver some desirable outcome, like building houses, than it is to promise to do so. Pretty dysfunctional from a democratic perspective, but the media that ought long since to have pilloried and driven out epic non-performers like Brownlee and Smith is MIA on that front.
Reti, Q&A: Sunlight on our policies, but we'll keep our experts secret.
Way more lucid than his 'leader' though, eh.
The only reason they are keeping the experts hidden must be because they are not credible. Reti's reason for not naming them was weak.
("They work for for other governments and organisations")
This epidemic is the most important issue facing the country and I think the public are entitled to know where National’s advice is coming from so we can judge the soundness of advice for ourselves. The whole thing smacks of ‘we know best’
Yesterday, Reti invited his experts to present themselves if they wished.
So far, tumbleweeds.
Following National's devastation in October, it will be time for that hapless "Health spokesman" to RETIre, methinks.
.
.
.
Geddit?
Ah, National getting its instructions from their foreign owners.
When does Jacinda Ardern get a break? Not for her the games of golf with other Leaders or celebrities. Her few days off are spent with Clarke and Neve out of the spotlight.
I hope she is getting affirmations for her unrelenting positivity genuine mahi and care for all citizens.
I have been accused of being a Jacinda fan. Well, yes I am, as she is remarkable.
Yes, I worry about her too Patrica. She looks too thin to me. Not surprising given the huge load she is currently carrying. Yet I get the impression that if she dares to let up and have a short break she will be loudly criticised by her opponents – notwithstanding her predecessors were known to have good sized breaks from time to time.
She's the Churchill of the war on Covid.
Just keep on PM Jacinda and the time will fly. Then get a few things going and a quiet break in Cook Islands?
Think she had family connections in Nuie – though there are plenty of quiet local places who'd be glad to have her come to that.
I imagine such breaks depend on having talent holding the fort – Megan & Chippie seem to be growing into that role.
The first bloke might like a bit of time to hone his artistic response to the best fishing program of all time too.
Patricia Brenner. I heartily endorse your comment on Jacinda. She is thrown to the wolves every day but counters everything with grace, good manners, non confrontation in reply and is unfailingly unflappable. I would say the same of the frontline team. I am in awe of their ability to front up to lower level reporters who seem to be there mainly to force them into *owning up* to supposed cock ups, debacles, shambles etc and stay calm in the face of such unmitigated jackalism. New word. Just invented it. They are indeed the dream team and nobody expects them to get everything right first up. They are human. And their ability to accept and then reset immediately is in my book amazing and calming. Go the dream team. My opinion only.
" My opinion only."
A good opinion though.
Agree Patricia. There was a rumour on #hellholeNZ that Jacinda, C lark and Neve were at Oriental Bay yesterday. Hope it was true……..
I am concerned labour are in a precarious position now due to the outbreak. There is unrelentingly negative publicity about it. Donald Trump is inadvertently the only one bringing some perspective (unintended of course).
People are not commenting on the remarkable response to the outbreak and how effective it has been. Gorman etc are getting air time saying how poor the contract tracing has been which is laughable. UK got private firm doing contract tracing, rates of 50%
i read the first two sentences of what you wrote Denis “if Labour would grow a spine and a brain”………………..wow man where have you been the last six months? What the fuck do you think labour has been doing? Brain and spine more than evident in covid response, so wake the fuck up. Right now covid and it’s immediate aftermath is all that matters.
This election we either vote in a labour led govt or a National led govt. if you have bleated on here about labour and spines etc, don’t come crying when Collins is running the show
https://thespinoff.co.nz/politics/23-08-2020/exclusive-new-poll-how-have-testing-issues-and-the-new-outbreak-affected-public-confidence/
Look at this poll, shows how out of step the TV1 & Herald & Stuff & National Party etc … are, they don't represent the public mood at all, how ever much they try to rile people up. Maybe the constant attacks are making the public like the present Govt more, it seems no one expects perfection, unlike some commentators even here, the Govt are competent. I for one can't be bothered reading many journalists anymore, the disconnect with reality is getting more & more telling, I can see with my own eyes that NZ is not a hellhole, even the anti lockdown 'protest' was just pathetic, more people go watch Sat morning sport & the field up the road.
The chosen approach gets another month to rub over the electorate and now Reti has to dance on the head of a pin. How good will those dance moves be.
That internet thing means folk don't just consume the duplicity/tawdrey/hosk spin. Also kiwis abroad keep whanau in the real picture they live each day outside the pacifica zone.
Are we a miserable whining lot with a fair number only thinking of me, me.
I'm suggesting people vote as if their lives depend on it. Because it just might be that.
aj I agree. Vote as if your life depended on it but it likely does actually. Who do you trust to lead us through Covid. That will be the task of the next Govt.
This election we either vote in a labour led govt or a National led govt – Whilst National is lacking Labour still IMO still be subjected to critical review of what they are proposing. Otherwise we have what the USA had in their last election – Voting for the 2nd worst option
If the boarder issues regarding testing had not been questioned, would the current testing regime of frontline staff have been ramped up and so promptly ?
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2020/08/covid-19-testing-for-border-workers-ramped-up-after-government-pulled-big-lever-to-make-it-compulsory-chris-hipkins.html
Herodotus, I don't see Labour as the 2nd worst option and I don't believe they are. They are the best option.
The Govt had understood from the MoH that border staff were being tested. They ramped it up when they found out it wasn't. Turns out the tardiness of implementing the border checks hasn't lead to wide spread community outbreak. It has lead to one matanance man getting Covid and I fully sympathize with him………
We still don't know the origin of the Auckland cluster………its possible that a returnee tested negative on 12th day and took it into the community as the virus is tricky and the tests not 100% reliable.
Perhaps I poorly constructed the comment. With a poor opposition all the current govt has to do is out perform a crap performing National party. There is no challenge to have a coherent and well planned out implementation of policy. Need I detail The Kiwi Build, and Labour decided to increase the build from 50k to 100k ??
"Turns out the tardiness of implementing the border checks hasn't lead to wide spread community outbreak" – How many fortunate outcomes can we hope for ? We shouldn't he hoping for chance to help us out. We should expect mistakes and see modification/evolving of policy to reduce the risk.
Herodotus our Govt has outperformed nearly every govt in the world. Just in terms of Covid nos everyday I check the figures and NZ has just gone down the order we are now 140.
We have to hope for all the lucky breaks we can get with this virus while doing absolutely everything to the highest standard possible. To date Labour have had an inquiry into contract tracing sometime in April? and found it wanting and so ramped it up. This has clearly paid dividends in this latest outbreak. Outstanding response. Then there were the issues around testing returnees uncovered in June and since then testing regime up and running….then the idiot people absconding from quarantine, they fixed it. And now they have ramped up the testing of staff..
We also have to hope for chance or good luck because despite all our best effort we can get unlucky e.g. the worker who tested positive likely after touching a lift button.
Grow a spine, what a line,
From some Trumped up fellow,
Do you mean like NAT cold blue,
Or perhaps like ACT of yellow.
Red is a warm and friendly colour,
Green is quite soothing too,
But to grow a spine, a stupid line,
Is just a pile of poo.
funny.
Dennis is left of Labour in case that matters.
it's a commenting style that doesn't suit everyone.
I usually don't bother to read Denis. Too long and so gave him a shot this morning and he opened with the brain/spine comment, which I thought was ignorant beyond belief and that sort of commentary both angers and scares me (in Covid times). I am not too bothered where Denis sits on the left/right continuum slating a govt that has managed the hardest crisis NZ has had in lifetimes when they have done an outstanding job is a plain ignorant. They have saved 100s/1000s of lives by exercising their brain and spine.
why? It is because he is left to labour that he raises some questions that are fair imo.
Raising question about the long term planning is fair. It is election time, so please Labour talk. I read the speech at the campaing release, and to be honest i am underwhelmed in the parts that i expect to be the big issues in the next years. Unemployment, future investment into employment and the current issue of women losing their jobs at a higher rate then men, older more then younger, etc. IF labour thinks that promising to double the flexi scheme invented by Paula Benefit will get me or others hot n bothered, they need to think again. Promising a few dollars to those that have lost their jobs to maybe start their own business? Lol, and then they get a phone call and they are in Level 3 and can't work. lol.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/423061/labour-launches-re-election-campaign-with-300m-plan-to-create-thousands-of-new-jobs
not wanting to say anything, but that undermines the min wage like big time if you only offer wages for 30 hours while someone ends up working double or more. Nevermind tho, its the thought that counts? Right? Also anyone not being able to work from home and or in roading/heavy infrastructure/shovel ready government investment is at risk of long term unemployment in the current global situation. Any government that fools itself in believing that 7500 $ is an attractive amount to hire people is deluding themselves, but then maybe earning several thousand of dollars per week might just have an impact on that thinking when it comes the poor.
Just take the 'underspend' and distribute it fairly among the unemployed so that they can eat and have a roof, and chances are that would help the community and create employment….but then we don't actually want to increase unemployment and social welfare. And i don't count the extra 25 per covid level week an increase, even tho its tacked to the main benefit, as it is temporary and can be cancelled at any moment.
The wage subsidy did effectively that, flatten the curve of unemployment, and the Covid unemployement rate (cause unequal is us (TM) ) will expire 12 weeks after that.
Mind this article was from 8.8. and thus before the new outbreak showed up, but i do hope that they consider what they actually expect from people ….to start up a business, to rehire people, while at the same time not being able to have any stability at all. All it takes is a bullhorn at 8 am in the morning and you are in Level 2 – 4 and can't work.
Yes, Labour needs to do better, personally i would rather see some ideas of early retirement, a proper increase in base benefits to the level of the wage subsidy as this is now a proven amount in regards to let people have a roof and eat.
Not all questions are put downs, and it is jarring that there seems to be a reflex reaction to shout down those that dare ask.
Which is fully against the standard economic theory (or any market based theory really). If the business could afford to employ more people to expand then they would already be doing it. They're not which means that that business has already reached its limits and throwing money at it probably won't help.
Better for the government to help create some new businesses and actually develop our economy. That would probably employ more people and the businesses would be more likely to be sustainable.
Yep, that worked well but it's not a viable long term plan. Short term and even mid term to allow businesses to adjust to the new paradigm but we're going to need something beyond that and that is mean developing new businesses and it can't be left to the bludging rich. They just don't get it nor do they care.
The government needs to look at what needs to be done to develop the economy across a range of industries that presently aren't here. Then, and only then, will we have a viable plan.
Yeah, that's going to happen. Too many people retiring and not enough workers to support them. That's why governments have been raising the retirement age for the last few decades and importing lots and lots of people.
Well, the other option is to increase unemployment level and instruct the Winz drones that part of kinder and gentler means to not harrass people into applying for jobs that don't exist and will need to be created first.
And i have total confidence that new businesses will be created, people are good like that. But unless we have a hang on the covid crisis, and are no longer a phone alert away from a total lockdownm it is cynical in my books to expect people to actually do that.
Sabine have you read the budget? There is a long term plan along with short term covid beating ideas.
I note how scathingly you write. Do you think the Government has not done enough? Covid is our present danger and our poor are not being left to fend for themselves, neither are they being blamed or vilified by their leaders as has happened elsewhere.
The actual election has not started yet. Those things you want are fine in normal times, but life has changed, it will never be what it was, as we are running to dodge this evil but still may be overtaken by the larger problem of climate change.
By putting wellbeing at the centre of planning we have a new social contract with this Government. People again see the Public Service as being there for their good. All of this takes time and clever balanced planning.
In spite of the naysayers, much has been achieved, and we are doing an exceptional job in containing this virus once again. There will be great struggle to overcome the effects of the virus on the world. We are lucky to be doing that without the ongoing deaths associated with that.
I am fearful that those who want "instant solutions to complex problems" may whittle support 'till we end up with the "bullying parent". That would be grim.
Well said Patricia
I have read the budget, i have linked to the the article outlining the budget and used Jacindas words. Nothing scathingly about, unless now the only opinion that is allowed is that of flowery positive humbug. Sorry, but i find that hard to believe, and again, some of us have a different perspective about certain things.
No the government has not done enough just yet – not because i say so, but because they know that they have not done enough yet, themselves. Hence the increase in the flexi wage system and the rolling out of a few dollars to some hapless unemployed people now so that they can start their business so as to not clutter the unemployemnt queues more then that. Hence the extra 2 weeks wage subsidy. Without it Labour by now would be dead in the water and way more people would be unemployed. So Labour looks good because it did the easiest and fastest things, re-fund us some of the taxes we pay via the wage subsidy. The shovel ready jobs, nice, helped get men of the unemployment queue, now do something for the women for whom unemployment has increased.
The actuall election started on 08.08 with the start of the election campaign, and the roll out of the budget and the promises of things to come. I personally am happy that it got extended and if only for the Government – which btw is more then just Labour, as it is also Green and NZF, to revisit some of their ideas and maybe adjust them to the new reality of Covid in the community from a as of now unknown source.
And no a well being app is nothing worse to be proud of. So far no societal contract has been established that looks after the poorest, the homeless, the beneficiaires etc, they are still on their starvation rations via Winz and no changes in the air. (that much vounted $ 25 per week is a Covid benefits – mind any day they would like to they could just make that permanent – after all they will claw it back with the decrease of fringe benefits to the same amount).
And if you state that much has been achieved as a Yes sayer, please link to all the things that have been achieved for those that need it the most. That is my litmus test. Will the changes benefit those that have it the hardest in our society and frankly no they have done the bare minimum as of yet.
I don't want instant solutions nor have i ever asked for them, i have been for years now very much asking for the same things. Better housing, better benefits for those that need it, better public transport and cheaper, less cutting down of trees to build garages and such.
As of the election, it is Labours and the Coalitions to lose, it always was. And for those that want to see Labor go it alone or only with the Greens, well it is your job to give reasons to those that a. sit on the sidelines, b. can't be arsed to vote because non of the party cares for them (1 million last time around, and c. might actually have to live with the fact that again they need NZfirst. The supporters of the No mates party will do what they want, and personally i don't care, as i will never in my life time consider voting for them.
And personally i would very much enjoy a good write about by some of our less scathingly writing peeps, detailing us all the good things Labour has in place for us, specially the unemployed.
And far above, clearly.
I saw the "grow a brain & a spine" line and read no further, so thanks to Dennis I guess for having the 'courage' to lead with it.
Ardern has brain, heart and courage in spades, IMHO, but she’s a hard road finding the perfect PM.
drowsy couldn't have put it better myself
it is used commonly against others. And Ardern may be the leader of the Labour Party and the PM of the country but she is not 'alone' labour. There are other members in this party that are in government and some could benefit from a brain and a spine.
Not everything is about Jacinda Ardern. Some is literally just about the Party and like Aunty Helen, we will have to live with the Party longer then with Aunty Jancinda.
Fair enough – in my experience "grow a brain & a spine" jibes are unhelpful, but maybe now is the hour as NZ fumbles & bumbles along. Still, could be worse, eh?
It can always be worse, but that is not the matter at hand , the matter is can we ask more from the Labour Party without being accused of being negative, bitter, or against the current leader of the party.
And yes, most people don't know how lucky they are or they know it and want to do their best to keep it that way often at the expense of others. We already have quite a few people in the country for whom things are appallingly bad and who are atrociously poor. It might just not be you or me atm, but these things can change fast.
Sabine of course you can ask for more. People are entitled to post whatever (within moderator reason) they want.
One of the many reasons I like the Standard is because right now since the outbreak it gets me away from the unrelenting negativity of the msm. No perspective, only blame. F..k if I was Ashleigh Bloomfield fielding what are mostly ridiculous gotcha type questions from the media, I would be very tempted to say "Right that's it. I have f..king had enough, the job is hard enough without you pack of wankers with your gotcha ill informed questions. None of you do a job that is worth much, unlike my poor staff who actually do something useful for a living and may earn nowhere near as much as you. I suspect most of you couldn't organise a piss up in a brewery, but too bad, if you think you could do better, f…king take over"
[Fixed typo in user name]
Agreed anker. 'Shock jock' jibes along the lines of "grow a brain & a spine" are unpleasant, unnecessary and, most importantly, detract from otherwise constructive criticism. Just my opinion (and choice of reaction), of course.
If some feel they are "accused of being negative, bitter, or against the current leader of the [Labour] party" to the extent that it is inhibiting their commenting, then that would be cause for concern. Otoh, instances of negatively and bitterness occasionally come across as purely vindictive – intent is so easy to misread, depending on one's perspective.
Quote for the month. 😀
I suggest that you stay away from the telly, radio and news print for a while, as you seem to not be managing the vitriol coming from it, i know i could not and thus did so years ago.
As for you having 'fucking had enough'? the same counts for the people that have lost their jobs, their homes, and those that will in the near future.
There are a lot of people in this country and elsewhere who have had fucking had enough. And you know what? It seems that no one cares. Go figure.
When you write "It seems that no one cares.", are you referring to politicians and bureaucrats, or to NZers in general?
A drop in the bucket for sure, but better than nothing.
Sabine it is hard to defeat billionaires, they have marked the cards.
So now we have a chance to change aspects of the game. Hear the squawks
Got their colours sorted.
A diamond in the shit pile.
H*****gs and Sir Brian Roche
https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/mike-h*****g-breakfast/audio/sir-brian-roche-on-nzs-covid-response-we-are-the-envy-of-the-world/
"We are the envy of the world. We seem to want to beat ourselves up for every infringement, and as a citizen I find that surprising," Roche told Newstalk ZB's Mike H*****g.
Asked by H*****g. why tests on border workers hadn't been happening, as expected, Roche said that was the "very elusive" question.
"Everyone's acknowledged that what they thought was happening, didn't. So there has to be an intervention to remedy that and I'm part of the intervention."
He urged perspective. "A mistake was made, there's a lot of moving parts, a lot of risk. No one goes to work to make a mistake; we shouldn't overstate it. There have been mistakes made. There have been some mis-communications – let's just simplify it, sort it out and move on."
Asked if there were far too many people and departments involved, Roche said: "I think that sums up the public sector but at one level it's a cheap shot. They all work together very well. This is a cross Government thing – it's led by health, the health voice is very loud but it requires a collective effort. Not everybody works as easily in that environment as you would hope."
Leadership was important at a political and administrative level. "I have had the privilege of lifting the hood at public health units. I was humbled by what I saw. The work they are doing on our behalf is unbelievable – and we have lost just a sense of perspective. Yes, this has come back, we have deployed hundreds and hundreds of people to safeguard the community. They have done it in an incredibly professional and sensitive way."
So pleased Sir Brian Roche took ignorant Hosking on regarding what is really happening. A decent sensible man talking to a jumped up self-opinionated unpleasant person.
Q and A this morning had a short story on Taiwans experience with Sars and Covid, they already had a dedicated organization for dealing with pandemics after Sars had taken so many lives, they developed a system to eradicate the virus.
The interesting thing was that the strategy was predominantly around prevention through having systems in place to to prevent and trace infections.
Taiwan has a population of around 25million, their Rate of Testing is way below ours, testing only catches infections after the fact, where as prevention prevents the infection in the first place.
The main prevention tools are Masks, Social Distancing and an excellent tracing process.
Today Taiwan has six new cases of Covid, the same number as NZ.
Testing after the fact is TOO LATE, the prevention is Far more important.
The NZs srtategy by any standard is Gold Plated, any politician critising it should be held to account, as do some members of the media that harped on about the testing regime that existed, yet, Not a Single Case was detected due to the "Failed Testing Regime".
That is the evidence that proves that testing is Not the Primary response, it's simply a backstop to prove the existing preventitive sytems are working.
Testing of boarder workers for the Covid Virus alone is a waste of time, that will only show an individual currently infectuous, we need to also be blood sampling for antibodies to see who has previously been infected, that may show the cause of current infections.This may have been happening but who would know ?.
Just is justice is about finding the Truth so you are claiming to be a health expert.
Its very easy to criticize but without the full array of facts it just helps fuel hysteria.
Trickledown
I'm just repeating what the Taiwanese Pandemic Expert had indicated given they had a specicialised Pandemic Response Organisation all ready set up.
Taiwan was hammered by the SARS virus and learnt a lot about how to minimise the Human and Financial costs of a Pandemic, they have already gone through the "Learning Curve", and one of those lessons was that Prevention is where the majority of effort should be focused.
Focusing on just one aspect, which, thus far hasn't been proven to be a contributing factor in the current outbreak (or any other issue) is time wasting and an unnecessary use of resources.
In Manufacturing the same applies, there is an old saying, "you cannot inspect quality into a product, no matter how much time you spend inspecting it", it has to made to a standard through a process that ensures the required outcome.
Inspection is the backup system
So if you don't know where or the size of the outbreak it doesn't matter.
Every country is different.
This disease can outsmart the best efforts.
I've been looking at our tax system in NZ for ordinary folks. Not terribly much info from IRD specifying percentages of tax charged for each code, and they are many. Their main message is you need to pay tax and then give a few chosen examples. I found what I wanted to know eventually looking at all the sites, public and private. Not straightforward, need more figures less generalisation and explanation.
Accommodation supplement is murky. Yet just about everyone can get it if you are ordinary people, probably the wealthy have their own channels. This was written in June 2019 and quoted this from Treasury in 2017:
In 2017, even Treasury agreed "AS [accommodation supplement] does not adequately alleviate housing stress" and New Zealand's existing housing subsidy structure is "not fit-for-purpose".
That doesn't mean they want something better for the citizen, it may be that there is a hole in its efficiency that they want to stop up. When we are finally allowed to have our election and the party that tries to be good is returned to the bouncy castle, from each office in the Beehive there will be such a buzz and rush they will turn up the cool air conditioning. Please, please vote and see if anyone around you needs a lift to a polling booth, provided of course it's not a lockdown area.
For all these reasons, the Child Poverty Action Group's just released report, The Accommodation Supplement: the wrong tool to fix the house, calls for the Government to remove the AS for most recipients while significantly raising incomes of all benefit recipients and low-wage workers. We authored this report with Alan Johnson, co-convenor of the CPAG.
Bad design of the Accommodation Supplement fuels NZ's housing crisis
– This story was originally published on Newsroom.co.nz and is republished with permission.
Susan St John and Janet McAllister 13:01, Jun 03 2019
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/opinion-analysis/113200606/bad-design-of-the-accommodation-supplement-fuels-nzs-housing-crisis
Agreed Just is.
The Q&A this morning had the best summary of how Taiwan manages so well. Having a health system set up to operate well. ($10 doctors visit.) Having an understood/trusted pandemic process already in place. (I don't think masks are mandatory? but widely worn.) Absence of public undermining. Can't find the Taiwan on Q&A but worth a look.
ETTD
https://twitter.com/BeschlossDC/status/1297174218552102918
https://twitter.com/RockyMountViews/status/1297184406277197830
Oh help -looks like the front garden of a good many Hernia Bay villas nowadays – boring!!!!!!!
Fortunately, we're not heading toward a brutal winter.
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea is banning large gatherings, closing beaches, shutting nightspots and churches and removing fans from professional sports in strict new measures announced Saturday as it battles the spread of the coronavirus.
Health Minister Park Neung-hoo announced the steps shortly after the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported 332 new cases — the ninth straight day of triple-digit increases. The national caseload is now at 17,002, including 309 deaths.
While most of the new cases came from the densely populated Seoul metropolitan area, which has been at the center of the viral surge in recent weeks, infections were also reported in practically every major city and town, raising concerns that transmissions are slipping out of control.
[…]
As of Saturday afternoon, nearly 800 infections have been linked to a Seoul church led by a vocal critic of the country’s president. Sarang Jeil Church pastor Jun Kwang-hun was hospitalized with COVID-19 on Monday after participating in an anti-government protest last week where he shared a microphone on stage with other activists. More than 100 infections have been tied to protesters.
Police raided the church late Friday while trying to secure a more comprehensive list of its members who remain out of contact. Health workers have used cellphone location data to identify some 50,000 people who spent more than 30 minutes on the street during the protest last Saturday and have been alerting them to get tested. Around 18,000 of them have been tested, said Kwon Jun-wook, director of South Korea’s National Health Institute.
https://apnews.com/489bac2e4af8ddc0ea1a745dbf3529db?
Morrah on Mediawatch, 'we aren't here to make friends' regarding the way he's treating Bloomfield, my memory goes back to when that is exactly how he treated Peter fucking Whittall https://www.newshub.co.nz/nznews/peter-whittall-it-is-personal-2010120217 or maybe Morrah has learned since then. I just remember the media back then wanting to Knight Peter fucking Whittall, so Morrah, I don't believe your weasel words.
I’m starting to wonder if there’s anyone left in the media to take potshots at the government this weekend?
Siouxie Wiles, the biochemist who has contributed a lot of easy to understand material throughout the pandemic so far, has written another useful and cogent article in the Spinoff on how to improve the Covid response, including an analysis of National's proposals. Worth a read.
https://thespinoff.co.nz/society/23-08-2020/siouxsie-wiles-what-does-a-robust-covid-response-look-like-for-new-zealand/
(Posted in yesterday's Open Mike by mistake!)
You ate right Koff. Wellworth a read.
The Wiles piece in discussing the National’s Border Protection Agency misses the main point. "It seems to me this policy runs the very real risk of stranding New Zealanders overseas while doing nothing to actually increase the security of our border."
The policy is not about actually increasing the security of our border, t's about the election and making out you have somehow come up with a magic formula. Will people understand or realise the logistical stuff, the reality that Wiles mentions?
"It will certainly stop some people who may be infectious from being able to travel. But given how far some New Zealanders have to travel to get home, it won’t stop people getting infected on the way."
You get a test, it comes back negative and somehow, before you get on a plane, however long that is, in whichever part of the world you're in with all the local circumstances, you know, we know, Judith Collins knows, you haven't got Covid-19 when you board your plane?
I'd like to hear how those who think that Collins is Wonder Woman can be certain no-one getting on a plane has the virus given the way the world works.
Thanks Koff. Siouxie is a gem.
50% of the speakers at the RNC are named Trump!!! 🙄
[Add width=”100%” before /> and she’ll be right – Incognito]
Where's Eric?
He's right out of view as is Tiffany! – when I posted I tied a width of 500 thinking that would shrink the image enough but it seems that that wasn't enough. I tried to edit it but the process was beyond my capabilities 🙁
They just don't get no respect, those two. Even dumb algorithms diss them.
(I haven't yet found a way to get the image size right on first go, but what works for me with the images is posting it without trying to change anything the image button does, then immediately go back in and edit the comment and add width="500" just before the /> )
Yes I have done that too in the past. Now Lynn has given us an image qualities button/option that lets you define the width before submitting; but it didn't seem to work in this case – and when I went back to edit, it came up with a lot of html script I wasn't confident in playing with.
As for the line up at the RNC – obviously they are scraping the bottom of the barrel.
BTW if you missed Michelle Obama's speech at the DNC – no worries – you can hear it again when Melania gives her speech.
Just the one new community case today. Well done, team Auckland.
Nobody likes me…
https://twitter.com/KaivanShroff/status/1297334117676261377
Maryanne Trump Barry was serving as a federal judge when she heard her brother, President Trump, suggest on Fox News, “maybe I’ll have to put her at the border” amid a wave of refugees entering the United States. At the time, children were being separated from their parents and put in cramped quarters while court hearings dragged on.
“All he wants to do is appeal to his base,” Barry said in a conversation secretly recorded by her niece, Mary L. Trump. “He has no principles. None. None. And his base, I mean my God, if you were a religious person, you want to help people. Not do this.”
Barry, 83, was aghast at how her 74-year-old brother operated as president. “His goddamned tweet and lying, oh my God,” she said. “I’m talking too freely, but you know. The change of stories. The lack of preparation. The lying. Holy shit.”
http://archive.li/SX2EB (wapo)
Ever day – a new WTF moment.
If there's only one … it counts as a peaceful low-stress day.
The Standard isn't working using my Android Smartphone.
The mobile version won't start/load sometimes today and the reply function hasn't worked for me since Friday evening. The desktop version will open, but when the reply function is clicked, I then can't type anything in the comment box.
Everything worked earlier last week, so maybe The Standard IT gurus can investigate.
SMoD 2020!
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/08/22/us/asteroid-earth-november-2020-scn-trnd/index.html
It's going to be a sucky disappointment though, like everything else about 2020. It's only about 2m diameter and only has a 0.41% chance of hitting.
Be careful about what you wish for..
There’s no denying we live in deeply partisan times and a new poll out of New Hampshire exemplifies this divide. Its results say a majority of New Hampshire Democrats said they’d rather “a giant meteor strikes the earth, extinguishing all human life” than President Donald Trump win re-election. Yikes.
https://time.com/5780556/meteor-poll-trump-new-hampshire/
True dat.
Every now and then I get a blissful moment when I forget that Kim Jong Orange possesses a tremendous bigly and more powerfully button that actually works. If he feels too much that nobody likes him, he might just choose to show us all. That would indeed be a pretty close facsimile of SMoD.
What are the chances of a direct hit on the White House? Show your working.
Do you really want the White House, or are you actually more interested in the grossly swollen head (housing a remarkably small brain) of the current occupant? The latter is a somewhat larger target with correspondingly larger chances.
went to the shops today to buy some trousers. I do that every six odd years, buy three pairs, be done with it.
No one wearing masks, literally no one. Felt a bit 'outstanding' but i needed new trousers for work.
Where are you Sabine? I went to my local supermarket today. Countdown Mt Eden and mask compliance would have been well north of 85-90%.
Rotorua. I think i saw maybe two people wearing them and they were security guys. The partner and I felt like aliens.
We really need some public education about wearing of masks, keeping distance and such.
Lmfao !!! #NZHellhole
https://twitter.com/MsMassage1/status/1297310871320842240
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12358058
Thousands of Aucklanders are desperately turning to food banks as increasing job losses wipe out family incomes.
There are now 29 registered food banks serving the city. Prior to Covid-19 there were fewer than five, and one long-standing emergency food provider believes too many food banks could be counterproductive.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/covid-19/423952/thousands-of-aucklanders-turning-to-food-banks
In Takanini yesterday, cars formed queues kilometres long for food parcels from the local Sikh temple, Takanini Gurdwara Sri Kalgidhar Sahib.
Benny was among them, having lost his job with Air New Zealand during the last lockdown.
"Tons of people have been laid off. You know, we've gone through a hard time finding a job … but because of this kind of charity's donations it's really helped."
Bradley Taylor works as a landscaper, but the work has dried up so he and his young family have turned to the food bank.
"At the moment we're not getting a lot of jobs due to the second wave – people are really taking a step back now and trying to save their money," he said.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/coronavirus/122525430/coronavirus-food-bank-demand-triples-as-auckland-returns-to-alert-level-3
“If we think this is just Covid-related, we’re missing the point.”
Before the pandemic, research by the Mission estimated that 10 per cent of Kiwis were living in food poverty.
That group has now doubled, Farrelly said.
The upside is that the pandemic has shone a light on food insecurity. There is growing awareness of the scale of the problem and the Mission is receiving proactive offers of help from the Government, Auckland Council and community groups, he said.
As well as distributing food parcels to families, the Mission has been handing out 250 takeaway bags of food daily to homeless and vulnerably housed people who do not have access to cooking facilities.
Not shits and giggles for all in #NZHellhole. #PrettyfuckingshitbeforeCovid
#ActionWEAGrecommendations #Vote4atrueleftwinggovernment
It's a worry 9 are in hospital but hasn't New Zealand done stunningly well? Middle of winter, second outbreak, zero deaths so far, and community cases coming back to zero.
Well done team of 3.5 million.
test