Just in case your shadenfreude levels are getting low, here is part 1 of 3 parts, Andrea Vance looking at the recent train crash that was the National election campaign.
It's very personality based, and pays little attention policy impacts on the public. It misunderstands Covid too – Labour and the health officials made a credible go of the Covid crisis, which earned them some support – but National's support collapsed when they went full attack on Covid handling without any suggestion of a workable alternative policy. Bridges went full Star Chamber with his committee, and though never impressive before, he went nowhere but down after that. Tova got a bit of the same thing as the daily briefings brought a little sunshine into media behaviour and showed the country what a nasty little rabbit she is.
Yeah, she didn't tell us anything we didn't know before apart from a few tid-bits like the campaign manger working from home in the last week, etc. It was a merely summing up exercise which has become the thing to do these days championed by so called political analyst, Bryce Edwards.
She got nowhere near what people really want to know (including the Nats themselves) which is what role Bridges and his allies had in all this. She only once touched lightly on the core reason for this unravelling which was Bridges' perverse, self-promoting response to the government's handling of Covid.
Anyone looking for enlightenment from Vance will be disappointed. Hope she can do better in parts 2 and 3.
"The roots of this go back three years, when the caucus was shaken by Winston Peters’ decision to eschew the popular vote and support a Labour-led Government over National."
Winston agreed to join a coalition that was backed by a majority of the public vote. He didn't eschew anything.
(If Winston had said nice things in the campaign about the coalition partners, rather than attack them, he might still be in parliament.)
Vance's epic failure to see her own and the msm role in this.
The Covid 19 laid bare for all NZ ders to see that in fact Labour and Jacinda were highly competent governing for all NZ's interests when we really needed it. People in lockdown only had to compare our response to what was happening and any one of most countries, take your pick, UK, Italy, US or would you care for a bit of Brazil (excuse the attempt at humour here). No matter how the msm attempted to spin it with the ratty little questions at the end of the daily press conferences and Nationals absurd "Its a shambles! Open the boarders! No close them, Bubble with Oz response",
NZders could see with their own eyes, could feel it that we had highly competent people doing what govt meant to do…………
So time for the msm to look in the mirror at how they try to influence things (think the Key years, where that slimy ar…hole got a free pass every time.
Winston agreed to join a coalition that was backed by a majority of the public vote. He didn't eschew anything.
Winston/NZF could have gone either way, which is why he/they were called “the Kingmaker”. National never got over it, never mounted an effective Opposition based on agonistic & positive politics, and never put effort into a competitive policy platform that is essential to present a realistic government-in-waiting. ACT, or should I say Seymour, filled the vacuum, with a referendum even, and still National did nothing. When the numbers (polls) didn’t go their way, National lost the plot completely but the seeds were sown in 2017, IMO.
Peters was fully telegraphing what his preference was before the election in 2017. I heard him address Grey Power at its AGM and in an electorate meeting. I am no NZF voter but I was surprised by the visceral dislike of National that he evidenced in both meetings.
It was no surprise to me what he chose to do in 2017 in supporting Labour. I have written of this before in the Standard.
It's a bit revisionist of writers to believe that Peters had not clearly stated his dislike of National's corporate capitalism, and its failed social policies, to mention two areas of concern to him.
Why did he lose in 2020? He was a handbrake on social progress and both he and National wore the consequences of having poor candidates, unpopular policies and for making stupid attacks on a popular and competent government and PM.
While in the quote below, in a meme echoed across the media, is that the voters belong to National, but were voting 'tactically'.
Alternatively they were voting. Collins is reviled within National and has no great or consistent philosophy, but doesn't distance far from Trump. The National rump have had scandals, disloyalty and chaos. On covid they've zig-zagged with the day.
Looking then at Labour who have not done anything unpopular, but also didn't say- what smoke? That could have been anything! on climate change. When you start growing bananas something is happening…
It's not tactical voting to pick the team most likely to preserve your health and job, and also who acknowledge climate change. That's just voting! No one wants Sandra Goudie PM.
Watkin's quote
"RNZ's Tim Watkin wrote: "With the wisdom of the crowd, centre-right voters have seen National's internal problems, looked around for a handbrake on a Labour-Greens transformative government, and landed on a fascinating champion – Labour itself."
Or alternatively just that Labour is a better choice for health and well being. Not all of the country aspires to be NZ First. Why is a handbrake needed? The question is who’s best for the job. Jacinda has lead impressively.
"The roots of this go back three years, when the caucus was shaken by Winston Peters’ decision to eschew the popular vote and support a Labour-led Government over National."
Winston agreed to join a coalition that was backed by a majority of the public vote. He didn't eschew anything.
(If Winston had said nice things in the campaign about the coalition partners, rather than attack them, he might still be in parliament.)
Tim Watkin wrote: "With the wisdom of the crowd, centre-right voters have seen National's internal problems, looked around for a handbrake on a Labour-Greens transformative government, and landed on a fascinating champion – Labour itself
I think Watkin is talking bollocks.
The reason why? Let's reverse the situation and say the polling is Nat 46 Lab 32 Green 8 ACT 8.
How many Standardista's are going to vote National to keep ACT out of government in this situation? Precisely None.
People voted for Labour because they love Jacinda and did not see Labour policies as detrimental to the economy, farmers etc
I think the election was a vote on how j.a./labour handled the covid thing…(it doesn't take much to realise the dire situation we would currently be in..had the establishment/business toadies that are national been in power when the virus arrived…)…the election was a carry-on! message from national voters dismayed at the clown-circus national had become ..this is why they voted for j.a….this hindsight-creation of a mass act of political-nuance on the part of national voters to hobble the greens by voting labour…is a big pile of steaming horseshit I.m.h.o..
Ruining our economy for many years because of … a psychological quirk. Does anyone disagree? Climate Change, a slightly little off disaster that kills everything which is undermined because of the eccentricity of democracy for addressing immediate 'problems' over serious problems.
We need the rich talk of people who believe in their ideas rather than the thin laver of forever dealing with what focus groups tell you.
BG noted: Tim Watkin wrote: "With the wisdom of the crowd, centre-right voters have seen National's internal problems, looked around for a handbrake on a Labour-Greens transformative government, and landed on a fascinating champion – Labour itself
I no longer believe in the wisdom of the masses. I think that Labour was elected on feelings of satisfaction about controlling Covid-19.
And as for National voters making balanced, reasoned judgments about controlling government, they would have been hard-pressed to think of changing to Labour, hence ACT. The votes did go up to Labour though and I suppose someone has done the figures and posited which came from NZF, and which portion from National centrists.
someone has done the figures and posited which came from NZF, and which portion from National centrists.
NZ does not have exit polling on election day, so for that sort of detail we need to wait for the NZ Election Survey polling to be run and analysed – won't be out until next year.
Bridges confirmed their new strategy yesterday on the AM show, which is to frame the huge increase in Labour's vote as 'National voters on loan'. Watkin and others are tasked with re-enforcing this fallacy.
Voters don't belong to anyone and any politician who thinks otherwise will be punished.
Yes and the core Nats voters still voted for them – that's why they got 26%. Given their shambolic effort it shows how loyal some voters are. Just as Labour's core delivered them 25% in 2014. The soft centrist voters who backed Helen Clark then John Key clearly did not – the great majority of them did not do any tactical voting but weighed up the options, the world around them, and voted for the the most competent, safest, trustworthy, decent and forward-looking option on offer. Those voters (plus avoiding complacency amongst your own core constituencies) are the key to achieving percentages in the mid-40s plus.
If we are to believe some commentators then NZ has just seen the most massive exercise in tactical voting in any democracy in decades. That wasn’t what happened.
At this stage it is it wishful thinking and idle speculation, but the meme has to be cultivated before the facts come in. And after a while, some ex-National voters might start to believe the meme too and change their reasoning for their swing vote to something more ‘interesting’. Even more so, when they think they were not alone in this.
Tim Watkin has often been an intelligent and incisive commentator. Sadly, however, his penchant for being "nice" and "jolly" at all times means that he has sometimes allowed himself to be manipulated by very unsavoury people. Here he is back in 2011, eager to agree with the hostile and implacable right winger Michael Bassett….
MORA: Uhhhhhh. We don’t know what to believe. The Japanese government says that Greenpeace readings can’t be believed, and from this distance, uhhhhh, you don’t know who to believe.
SOPHIE WRIGHT: The authorities are being transparent.
BASSETT: People accuse the Japanese government of playing politics when in fact it is GREENPEACE that is playing politics! Greenpeace is jumping ALL OVER this. You have to weave your way between competing agendas.
WATKIN: Mmmmmm, mmmmmm.
MORA: Yes. Ahhhhh, Ten microcivets per hour. There are nearly seven THOUSAND microcivets from a chest X-ray.
BASSETT: Precisely.
MORA: Sophie Wright. She’s in Tokyo. Thank you very much for coming on The Panel! It’s 28 minutes past four. Let’s talk briefly about LIBYA! The humanitarian intervention by the United Nations—uhhhh, don’t we also have to intervene in Syria, the Ivory Coast, Zimbabwe?
WATKIN: And Rwanda. They did nothing there.
BASSETT: Zimbabwe. The international community hasn’t exactly covered itself in glory, has it?
WATKIN: There’s blood on our hands!
BASSETT: We need to remember, though, that Rwanda and Burundi were TRIBAL wars. But when there is mass slaughter, like in Libya, it’s hard to stomach from the other side of the world.
WATKIN: Mmmmmm, mmmmmm.
Note:Watkin did not have the nerve to bring it up, but during another mass slaughter of civilians, in Gaza in 2008-9, Bassett found it exceedingly EASY to stomach. In fact, he applauded and vociferously justified the slaughter. Mora, like Watkin, forbears from mentioning that. ….
The topic was Tim Watkin's credibility, or lack thereof. I pointed out that he is an intelligent journalist who has allowed himself to be misused by the likes of cynical actors such as Sophie Wright and Michael Bassett, and provided evidence that that has been happening for a considerable time.
Of course Watkin is credible. He's a serious and intelligent commentator who has unfortunately allowed himself at times to be bullied by less intelligent people on radio, such as Cameron Slater and Larry Williams.
And often that writer, i.e. toi, is the messenger who is criticised, and feels he has to fend off the intellectual headens who are attacking him personally as if they are doubting his personal integrity.
Should be someone out there countering this view. The leadership's emphasis on Key's legacy, fiscal responsibility, and governing for first time voters plays into this. It allows another version of centre to come along, flank on the left with a PR policy and then the campaign is they're all the same, get the original.
Well this does raise the question . What percentage of the never greens vote normally see national as the best way to achieve a no greens outcome.
It is very likely that the combination of the Greens campaign of calling labour "national lite" and collins campaign of "the greens will steer labour" together with the collapse of the national vote drove these people towards labour.
It is also possible that Ardern can hold these votes thru 2023
no actually i dont believe the green framing of labour. rather I accept Jacindas position that for real change we need to take the people with us. …… but dont for one minute think i forgive rogernomics or the failure of labour to reverse. I just dont believe the Greens have a fricking clue how to move forward!
Right now Masha Gesson is pointing out that the Russian interference in the election was unsophisticated, and she's impatient with the ridiculous obsession with it by the Democratic leadership and media—including the likes of True Believer Hill.
Hill is clearly uncomfortable. Right now Masha Gesson is pointing out how incompetent Robert Mueller was. How she must wish she had on someone amenable to her cosy conspiracy theories instead of an intelligent journalist like Gesson, who has just corrected Hill in the most embarrassing manner: "You know, I wouldn't call Trump benign."
Could you explain what you mean, please, Shark? Are you offended by my failure to endorse the Russiagate conspiracy theory peddled by the DNC? Then you must also have been offended by Masha Gessen this morning as she pointed out to Kim Hill how exaggerated and foolish the whole campaign was.
Kinda hard to look past the factors of russian intelligence honey-trapping trump when he was in moscow.. and that he was bailed out by russia(ns) when he was going down the financial gurgler in the 80's…plus his laundering of russian oligarch/mob money by flogging them his properties since then…would have to make him the nearest to a manchurian candidate america has seen…you'd think..?
You were doing well until you got to the batshit "Manchurian candidate" nonsense. Unless you’ve smoked too much of that Hokianga Hydroponic, you don't actually believe that hogwash, so why make out like you're some hapless staffer in Nancy Pelosi's office?
Staffers in Nancy Pelosi's office at least have the excuse of having to do it as a condition of their employment; they fall in line or they don't have a job. You have no such excuse for indulging in such foolishness.
Is Hokianga Hydroponic the sort of stuff which would have me listening to someone say hundreds of thousands of words, find a couple from the flow of a busy morning like 'their book' and subject it to forensic analysis?
Ms. Hill's foolish exercise in language abuse occurred in a brief (five seconds max) promo for her show. Where do you get the idea I listened to "hundreds of thousands of words" to find that example of foolishness?
Ms. Hill's ridiculous exercise in language abuse occurred in a brief (five seconds max) promo for her show. Where do you get the idea I listened to "hundreds of thousands of words" to find that example of foolishness?
Getting one word wrong hardly is an “exercise in language abuse” and your ‘suffering’ cannot have been longer than the five seconds the promo lasted although it may felt like eternity to you. I’m quite sure that Kim Hill did not embark on her ‘abusive tirade’ to hurt you personally. You could send her another e-mail to confirm. Please get over this and move on.
Trump has long held ambitions to be president…back in the 1980's he was a regular on the late-nite talks show's .(letterman et.al…). .and back then he often beat the presidential-ambitions drum..he was laughed at/humoured…but that is also what 'the apprentice' was all about ..him showing the american people/his future base that he was a strong leader ..and him becoming a household name..it was all part of the plan..
The other thread to trump is his connections to/long record of working with the mafia/mob..back in the 80's again he built skyscrapers in Manhatten…using undocumented/illegal workers..now you don't get to do such things in Manhatten unless you are in tight with the teamsters union..who control the building and garbage collection industries in Manhatten..and the teamsters are the union wing of the mob..and of course casinos in Atlantic City were a major means of money-laundering…trump is so bent ..he is like a human paperclip…
Just to pour some oil of pedantry upon the fires of controversy, 'their' is not a pronoun. It is a possessive adjective. The pronoun is 'theirs', as in, "Our book is better than theirs," 'Theirs' can stand by itself, as a pronoun should be able to.
'Their' is only a possessive adjective, and needs the noun 'book' with it.
Anyone who's ever done blow knows it usually makes you poop soon after those first fat rails. Over time, just hearing the word 'cocaine' or thinking about it can trigger you into a bm. The more you know.🌈
— GenXresists🆘️😷👊🏼👊🏿🗽⚖🇺🇸🏳️🌈☮♀️🌐🌊 (@jenxliberty) October 23, 2020
I think I have figured out what biden is good at…gape-mouthed goldfish impersonations..he has it nailed..I’d also like to see his take on kermit the frog .
Anxiety outside the USA. I have wondered whether music might offer us a road out of our mind-prison under fascist neoliberal rule. Maybe this guy can advise us.
Anxiety inside the USA – the flow of money to rich men's pockets is being strangled. This from Gordon Campbell on Scoop featuring the famous Koch Brothers. Dah dah. They recently featured in something else being done along with some other rich person. Funny how some names keep coming up, like yesterday's dinner.
Herd immunity has recently bounced back into the headlines as a tool for managing Covid-19, and as a supposed alternative to lockdowns. In the US, a group of scientists was recently brought together in the town of Great Barrington, Massachusetts by a think tank funded by the Koch brothers. The assembled scientists signed the so called Barrington Declaration, which promotes herd immunity as a rational means of re-opening US public schools and the economy at large..
…The Declaration has found a receptive ear at the White House where Dr Scott Atlas has become Donald Trump’s most trusted health advisor on the pandemic, and Trump’s main scientific advocate against lockdowns.
Atlas is a neurologist, and has no expertise in infectious diseases.
(If he is a neurologist, then he might be able to keep an eye on Mr T-rump's condition, and prevent his prime excesses.)
In the US the death toll has reached 224,000. By the end of the year this figure could double. Daily infections are nearly at the same rate as in March with the first wave. Aljazeera reported this today. It would be hard to be a health worker in the heavily infected countries. The pace would be exhausting and time out is required to recharge. With the flu season approaching there is going to be a shortage of beds and staff.
The waiting list is growing for other health related matters.
Is herd immunity the answer in the US and how would the care of those infected be managed?
I think the President adopts the 'don't look at it and it might go away' response. As for herd immunity I have read professionals that sound informed saying that there isn't going to be any such thing with this virus. We will have to try and preserve our system as long as we can and try and become a fairer society, and look after our front line staff in particular. I don't know if we can get fixes for things now, new problems will keep rolling along and people switch off or get stuck on one point and get obsessed; just do our best and be resigned to change.
As suspected, right wing white supremacists exploited legitimate protest. But BLM bad.
/
In the wake of protests following the May 25 killing of George Floyd, a member of the “Boogaloo Bois” opened fire on Minneapolis Police Third Precinct with an AK-47-style gun and screamed “Justice for Floyd” as he ran away, according to a federal complaint made public Friday.
A sworn affidavit by the FBI underlying the complaint reveals new details about a far-right anti-government group’s coordinated role in the violence that roiled through civil unrest over Floyd’s death while in police custody.
Ivan Harrison Hunter, a 26-year-old from Boerne, Texas, is charged with one count of interstate travel to incite a riot for his alleged role in ramping up violence during the protests in Minneapolis on May 27 and 28. According to charges, Hunter, wearing a skull mask and tactical gear, shot 13 rounds at the south Minneapolis police headquarters while people were inside. He also looted and helped set the building ablaze, according to the complaint, which was filed Monday under seal.
[…]
Two hours after the police precinct was set on fire, Hunter texted with another Boogaloo member in California, a man named Steven Carrillo.
“Go for police buildings,” Hunter told Carrillo, according to charging documents.
“I did better lol,” he replied. A few hours earlier, Carrillo had killed a Federal Protective Services Officer in Oakland, Calif., according to criminal charges filed against him in California.
Off topic here. Have just come in from a 2 hour trip- – out with a friend op shopping and generally looking in different shops and timeout for lunch. This is Auckland North Shore and I can tell you the attitude of our residents here is total apathy towards masks, using tracer apps and using the hand sanitiser left out by shop owners. Young and old just ignoring common sense. It was so mind boggling we ended up quite pissed off excuse the language.
I even asked one retailer if he could move his stand with the hand sanitiser, app icon and board for entering your name etc with a pen further out into the doorway so patrons couldn't miss the darned thing. We are such an ungrateful ignorant lot we don't deserve to be virus almost-free as we are right now.
We both have loved ones overseas in hot spots – South America and US and both are trapped in their homes and have people dying everywhere around them and its heartbreaking that we are using and abusing our privileged status here with so many pig-ignorant people ignoring what they need to do. Sorry folks but this incoming Government and poor St. Ashley have their jobs cut out. Enough kindness. We outlawed non-belt wearing in cars and we now need emergency powers brought in for the duration of this virus outbreak and have it mandated that mask wearing, hand sanitising and app using is to be applied. We obviously are simple minded and need to be trained like children.
… its heartbreaking that we are using and abusing our privileged status here with so many pig-ignorant people ignoring what they need to do.
I don't know where on the Shore you live but in the Devonport/Belmont area the wearing of masks and hand sanitising has been excellent. Yes, people are not wearing masks to the same extent since we dropped to level 1, but I think most people wash their hands and sanitise before leaving home and then do it again when they return. I also carry antiseptic wet cloths in my car as I suspect many other people do. In our local supermarket people are using the apps all the time or signing in, but I have noticed some retailers are no longer leaving forms for people to sign.
I think you are being a bit unfair to many "simple minded" adults. When we dropped to level 1 we were no longer expected to wear masks all the time when away from home. I've stopped wearing them because I don't go anywhere that might be considered unsafe and the same probably goes for most older people anyway.
What community outbreaks we have experienced were confined to specific circumstances and small groups which did not affect the vast majority of the population. If another community outbreak does occur, mask wearing will immediately become mandatory at all times again – at least in the region or regions that are affected.
Whispering Kate I agree that people will have to be forced by regulation, we just aren't a concerned society, except for a short time, or on special occasions. I have to force myself to comply, forget so often. But I keep trying to get into the habit – I see the numbers overseas shooting up. And the effect on the people, the strain on the funeral/burial system, and on the culture generally is not reported much here.
The point I'm making greywarshark : it is unfair to claim the attitude in my part of the country (the North Shore) is one of total apathy. And the NS would be typical of any other place.
It is precisely because the vast majority of NZers complied with the rules at each level that we are in a superior position now than most of the rest of the world.
We're at level 1 now. To assume people are not taking precautions by washing their hands and using sanitiser etc. is a step too far imo. If you're going direct to a store or supermarket and you have already 'washed and sanitised' then you don't have to do it again. Sure, some people need to be reminded every now and then but the government and MoH have already got that well in hand.
Sorry didn't get back to this. It is easy to generalise but as I sanitise my hands at the supermarket I don't see others, not the men going past. And yet sometimes i think I have just washed mine so don't do it. But I do like the freedom to get out and about and I think too many are taking it for granted. I haven't got an ap but if I did it prob wouldn't work on my phone. What's best to do. .. I must practice wearing my mask though.
I'm in two minds about this. None of those things are compulsory under L1. It doesn't make sense for the whole country to be doing all those things all of the time. Down south people certainly aren't (there was no social distancing and no-one seemed to be using the handsanitiser, and def no masks when I voted on election day).
While I can see the case for being more careful the closer one is to a hot spot (and during public holidays where people travel a lot), there is also the issue of maintaining such behaviour for the long haul and indefinitely (bearing in mind we don't know if/when a vaccine will be available). It's hard to get compliance when people perceive the risk as small, and it's better that we are socialised in to acting when the situation is more urgent so that if we have widespread community transmission again people will do the right thing more quickly and more thoroughly.
Mostly it's an odds game rather than a black and white one.
The govt already has the power to mandate actions during a pandemic. I for one and glad they are not using those unless necessary, all sorts of good reasons for the govt to not over use those powers.
One thing I'd like to see is more limits in travel between areas when there is potential community transmission. But I'm not sure it's warranted yet, and there are the same compliance and fatigue issues. I'm also not sure if it is fair to places like Auckland which will have a higher risk because of population.
Not wearing masks gets us thinking we are on our own planet. Then we start complaining because precautions still have to be taken, then the government becomes a whipping boy. We take so many things for granted in NZ – the complacency towards others with problems is amazing, and particularly to the needy in NZ.
However the government can keep the mask thing in their back pocket and when someone is putting pressure on to open our borders for this or that, they can say well everyone will have to start wearing masks. It is so easy for the transmission to occur – they will have to become mandatory when travelling, in groups etc.
mask wearing seems reasonable with increased population density, and prolonged contact. On a bus that will take 20 mins to get to its destination for instance.
People walking down Queens St at lunch time vs the main street of Gore mid afternoon.
If we don't take things like into account people will get intolerant and less willing.
Right. So we can see the droplet spread there, but the odds game is whether any of those mannequins have covd, what the viral load is, whether they cough into their arm or not and so on. Is it reasonable to expect 5m people to wear a mask when around other humans because there is one case of community transmission in NZ? I don't think so. The public health approach to containment is working with the odds, not the absolutes, and the various strategies are designed to catch and limit spread as quickly as possible without crashing the economy or driving people crazy.
Newton Central School stopped its walking bus three years ago after several near misses and after abuse was hurled at children by some cyclists on the northwestern cycleway.
"We've actually had one or two children being hit. We've had members of our community that have had serious injuries. It's a really dangerous place – children and bicycles don't mix," he said.
"No one wants to have a child get hurt or injured. This is an accident waiting to happen…
A parent at the school, Phoebe Greenbrook-Held, said Auckland Transport tried to educate cyclists about using their bell and giving children a wide berth, but this was not treating the root problem….
“Unfortunately all those fixes are just short term – within a few months cyclist behaviour reverts. We really need the cycleway to be broadened, so children are safe to walk, cycle and scoot while adults do their commute to work.”
She said adult cyclists are the main culprits."
Obvious – the two modes of mobility are incompatible, and it's a 'loss of commons' to put cycles on footpaths, without a fence or something physical separating and providing safety for pedestrians and clear pathway for the others – and not just a line on the path!
'unlike me, most beneficiaries can't be trusted. also, we can totally trust parents to use taxpayer money on private schools, as intended' pic.twitter.com/ydeD4hrtG8
That 'lifestyle choice' is the grind the right came out with in the 1980s – haven't they thought of anything since then? They must show the acolytes and newbies a propaganda video, and teach them some phrases to utter like parrots. When certain words come on they’ll have a Pavlovian reaction. Woof woof the tui (see on google) looked bright and beady-eyed and handsome and had a better vocabulary. Use him or her as a mascot for a young left movement!
(The Baillie mentioned is a teacher of sorts in Nelson, by the way.)
I was just doing my job that morning and the interview did not happen in a vacuum. Journalists all over the world have been calling out lies relating to Covid-19, especially when they’re adopted by powerful figures attempting to legitimise falsehoods.
They are the journalists who have inspired me my entire career – journalists who know that sometimes balanced reporting isn’t just about providing both sides of the story. It is simply about the facts – the truth.
Ross came into the studio for the interview, sat down and said to me: “You’re going to be nice to me aren’t you Tova? You have to be nice to losers.” I was familiar with this entitled, cloying tone from Ross.
No, I replied. I largely tore up the prepared questions.
A wahine Maori politician links Kellie-Jay Keen, or Posie Parker, and the Labor Party’s upset victory in an Australian by-election. No, not Marama Davidson. We speak of Moira Deeming, who is mentioned in – An article which Posie Parker has written for The Spectator; and Media analyses of the ...
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..By now, Kelly-Jay Keen-Minshull (aka, Posie Parker) has come and gone. Her mission - to amplify a particularly pernicious form of transphobia (under the cloak of “women’s rights”) - an abject failure. As a marketing exercise to peddle her wares, it went well.A self-style "woman’s rights activist" Keen-Minshull/Parker has strident ...
Buzz from the Beehive We haven’t exhaustively put this proposition to the test, but we suspect there’s just one thing Nanaia Mahuta has mentioned more often than “sanctions” in her press statements. That would be “three waters”. Mahuta has popped up in the latest batch of Beehive press statements to ...
The UK activist has changed the election-year dynamic. Graham Adams writes – Chris Hipkins’ initial success as Labour’s fresh Messiah after Jacinda Ardern’s resignation in January has largely rested on the promise that his party’s focus henceforth would be on “bread-and-butter” issues such as the cost of ...
As the Stuart Nash email brouhaha has unfolded this week, and we’ve learnt more about how an email to donors was withheld from public view, I’ve kept being reminded of the classic example of faulty logic. You know the one: "All dogs have four legs, all dogs are animals, therefore ...
This week Simplicity CEO Sam Stubbs joined us to talk about Simplicity Living’s big house building plans, starting in Auckland, and banks receiving billions of subsidies from the Government. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTLDR: This week’s news in geopolitics and Aotearoa’s political economy covered on The Kākā for paying ...
The NZ Herald reports: Leaked emails between senior officials at Auckland Light Rail, Waka Kotahi and Auckland Transport have revealed a surprising twist in the long-running saga of the Auckland Light Rail project. A stack of emails between Auckland Light Rail and an unnamed senior official at Waka Kotahi, who ...
Hi,I go between excitement about AI — and absolute terror. I’m terrified it will take our jobs — and also kill us. Not kill us on purpose… more in a gray-goo kinda way.And as I wrote about over two years ago, I’m excited it might be the only thing to ...
Completed reads for March: The Monk, by Matthew Lewis Till We Have Faces, by C.S. Lewis The Golden Ass, by Lucius Apuleius The Castle, by Franz Kafka A Slip of the Tongue in Salutation, by Lucian of Samosata The Necrophiliac, by Gabrielle Wittkop The Song of Hiawatha (poem), ...
Photo by Aziz Acharki on UnsplashIt’s that time of the week again when and I co-host our ‘hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kākā for an hour at 5 pm. Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream for our chat about the week’s news with special guests: from ...
Image Credit: Nord Stream operator decries ‘unprecedented’ damage to three pipelines The recent vote on the draft Security Council resolution seeking to establish an independent UN inquiry into the sabotage of the Russian-European-owned natural gas line, Nord Stream I and II, disappointed many observers. ...
Buzz from the Beehive The big bread-and-butter issue of pay packets and weekly incomes was at the core of three ministerial statements since Point of Order’s previous monitoring of the Beehive website. Andrew Little was earning his keep, meanwhile, by delivering a speech in which he discussed co-governance. He was ...
After yesterday's news that Stuart Nash deliberately and knowingly breached the OIA to cover up his corrupt disclosure of Cabinet information to his donors, the media now is focusing on the wider point: Nash's behaviour isn't isolated, but a symptom of the rot which has eaten away at transparency under ...
There was great disappointment following the just released poverty figures for the year ended to June 2022. Whatever your take, we are not facing up to the real child poverty problems.Some say the poverty figures show no significant change, some say there was a small improvement. Some say that the ...
Quiz1. Which is the most pleasing comment so far regarding this man’s indictment?a. He finally won a popular vote! b. “You can’t indicate me, I quit”c. Is this joy? It’s been so long since I’ve felt anything.2. “The boxset scandal that is Stuart Nash.”Who wrote this fine description? a. ...
It’s truly astonishing the way that the Government has been able to suppress evidence of business donors gaining special access to Cabinet information. Now that Stuart Nash has been fired from Cabinet for leaking sensitive information to individuals who funded his election campaign, the focus has shifted to why this ...
Ele Ludemann writes – Have you noticed the media’s propensity to label people and groups in a way that shows negative bias? People speaking up for women’s right to their own spaces and fairness in sport aren’t feminists or women’s rights activists, they’re anti-trans or transphobic. The Taxpayers’ Union is often prefaced with the label right ...
Photo by Magdalena Kula Manchee on UnsplashIt’s that time of the week for an ‘Ask Me Anything’ session for paying subscribers about the week that was for an hour (I’ll be online for an hour from 12.30 so pile them up), including:The Government’s latest climate back-tracks on diesel cars and ...
All of the Government’s five options for improving Auckland’s links include or prioritise tunnels and bridges for cars, double-cab utes and trucks ahead of walking, cycling and rail. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The Labour Government has brought forward plans to start building and/or drilling a second Waitematā harbour ...
Lindsay Mitchell writes: Green’s co-leader Marama Davidson just keeps digging the hole she is in deeper. First she showed her bitter antipathy towards white CIS (same gender as birth) men. Then she walked it back to all men. On Tuesday night on TV1 News she said, “…overwhelmingly it ...
as Auckland’s cantankerous mayor stumbles from one crisis to the next, the hope is not that Wayne Brown will learn on the job – that’s almost certainly a lost cause – but that Aucklanders will manage to come together and limit the damage that he threatens to inflict on the ...
Wow, it’s the end of March already. Here are a few of the smaller items that caught our attention over the last week. We need better trucks Newsroom reported on a Ministry of Transport report showing just how dirty our current truck fleet is. A heavy diesel truck costs ...
Listening to RNZ yesterday, I heard that the government was making a major announcement about a second crossing of the Waitematā. I was fairly surprised.I’d have thought with it being election year the last thing the government would want to be talking about was a massive Auckland transport project. Especially ...
I cracked open a fortune cookie with a family group after dinner. My loved ones got warm, inspiring messages such as my son’s: ‘You will be successful in business and society’. Nice. I got this one: “Friends come and go, but enemies accumulate.” By coincidence, I had already drafted a ...
THOMAS CRANWELL: When ideology turns violent – the political and media backing behind the Posie Parker mob Thomas Cranwell writes – ——————————– Similar to other countries, the transgender movement in New Zealand is not a grassroots organisation but instead is an increasingly ...
It is a lovely autumn morning.The sun is shining. The birds in Kōwhai park are twittering.There is music playing on Today FM.You can hardly tell that the children at Kia Kaha primary school are being greenhouse gassed.It is not just happening at Kia Kaha Primary School.It is happening to all ...
Poor old Mike Hosking! In today’s Herald, such is his visceral antipathy to our current government, that he is reduced to wrestling with himself in trying to understand how it is that despite its many failings – in his eyes at least – the Labour government is somehow ahead in ...
Air pollution kills, and dirty diesel vehicles are a major source of it. Cleaning them up has enormous social benefits in avoided deaths and hospitalisations. How much? Billions of dollars: A report quietly released by the Ministry of Transport in July shows tighter regulation of vehicle imports for air ...
Via one of my lovely Twitter sources, the sardonic and interesting @johubris … the following ‘poll question’ has been recently distributed: “Thinking about your life and your country now, what is the most important issue that you want to see the New Zealand Government addressing?” This qualifies as push-polling, which ...
On Tuesday night, former Forestry Minister Stuart Nash was sacked for corruption, after the Prime Minister discovered he had disclosed confidential cabinet discussions to his donors. Its since emerged that Jacinda Ardern's office knew of this disclosure, but didn't act on the obvious breach of the Cabinet manual, and didn't ...
Buzz from the Beehive Whoa, there – we can’t keep up! Suddenly, the PM’s ministerial team has unleashed a slew of press statements. Sixteen announcements have been posted on the Beehive website since our last check. This burst of activity (we wondered) might be the result of them responding positively ...
Big transport news today with the government beginning public engagement on options for the Waitemata Harbour Connections project. This project has had an incredibly long history, with previous versions somehow managing to be incredibly expensive, detrimental to most of the transport outcomes we are trying to achieve in Auckland, and ...
If ever there was an example of complacency about corruption and integrity in New Zealand politics it’s the fact that the Prime Minister’s Office knew back in 2021 that Cabinet Minister Stuart Nash was feeding privileged Cabinet information to business donors but did nothing about it. This is one of ...
Open access notables "Despite the potential for positive methane–climate feedbacks from global wetlands, most Earth System Models (ESMs) and Integrated Assessment Models (IAMs) that informed the last Assessment Report of the IPCC do not directly incorporate this process."Publishing in Nature Climate Change, Zheng et al. unpack the implications of this ...
Among its ‘go slow’ on climate measures, the Government chose to delay tighter regulation of vehicle imports for air pollution for six years because it would have increased vehicle purchase costs. Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The Government continues to backtrack on moves to reduce emissions, with three news items ...
Stuart Nash’s downfall appears to have had its beginnings with one of the players from the “Dirty Politics” scandals of 2014. Simon Lusk, a close associate of Cameron “Whaleoil” Slater, one of the key figures in Nicky Hagar’s “Dirty Politics” expose, has been associated with Stuart Nash. Lusk has ...
Worried if this election will be shellacked by “the culture war”? That arrived ages ago. And, one side is definitely in panic mode, even if that’s not being admitted right now. Because of that, they’re reverting yet again to straight up… culture wars. Yes, fellow traveler, the Party who ...
All About Climate is a Youtube channel dedicated to communicating climate science and combating misinformation about global warming. It is run by Roshan Salgado D'Arcy - or 'Rosh' for short. He is a geology graduate with an MSc in climate change and is currently reading for a PhD in the communication of ...
ChatGPT is an interesting little beastie. I have only really started experimenting with it recently – not because I have any interest in using it for my own writing projects, but because I enjoy pushing and prodding the AI in strange directions. I have spent an inordinate amount of ...
The science of climate change is clear: we need to stop burning fossil fuels as quickly as possible, and we cannot burn even a fraction of those already discovered. So naturally, Labour is offering oil companies more exploration permits: The Government is offering companies another opportunity to search for ...
There are two keyboards in my office. I hammer at one a lot more than the other.But some days — today, for instance, after a few days of steeping myself in toxicity —that other keyboard can really come into its own.I learned to play the piano as a kid, went ...
Is the government imploding? Prime Minister Chris Hipkins has had to sack one of his more effective (and likeable) ministers, while another (from the Green Party) has insulted many of the adult population. For his part, Hipkins had appeared to be shaping up well since he took over the ...
Mobbed! As Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull’s (Posie Parker’s) opponents surged forward, her only protecters were a handful of burly security guards who surrounded their client and began forcing a path through what was now a howling mob. At least one video recording shows the diminutive Keen-Minshull, a terrified rag-doll, eyes dulled by ...
Buzz from the Beehive It looks like Marama Davidson must revile white sis males – or some other group of our population – three more times before she gets the heave-ho as one of Chris Hipkins’ ministers. That’s the conclusion to be drawn from the PM’s treatment of Stuart Nash, ...
For a serial offender like Stuart Nash, it was inevitable that another skeleton would emerge from his closet, and end his ministerial career. This one though, was a whopper. Previously, Nash had tried to tell the Police how to do their job. He had also tried to tell the courts ...
Cabinet Minister Stuart Nash was sacked last night for violating Cabinet Collective Responsibility rules, when it was revealed he disclosed sensitive Government information to business supporters who had donated money to him. The breach of the Cabinet Manual was enough to land him in trouble, but the fact that it ...
Some good news last week with the Council confirming that Te Hā Noa – Victoria St Linear Park will go ahead and with construction starting on 11 April – though with a few fishhooks. Te Hā Noa, a renewed Victoria Street, is the next big project in Auckland Council’s Midtown ...
Stuart Nash’s assurances to Prime Minister Chris Hipkins that there were no further examples of him breaching the Cabinet Manual became meaningless with the release of emails from Nash sharing Cabinet discussions with business people. The Prime Minister had no choice but to sack Nash as a Minister with immediate ...
Hi,Just a quick online-only update after yesterday’s newsletter, How Michael Organ Weaponised the Family Court... and Sean Plunket. First up — wow. Thanks for all the support, and to all those who shared their own personal stories in the comments. And welcome to any new Webworm readers.I just wanted ...
Let that sink in for a moment - Christopher Luxon, who has spent the last year demonising Māori, wants Marama Davidson to apologise to white men.You will likely have seen the video, or read about it. Marama Davidson rushing along Princes St on Saturday evening, the road that runs between ...
Stuart Nash, the great-grandson of former Prime Minister Sir Walter Nash, has lost his political career. File Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Stuart Nash was sacked for telling donors what happened in Cabinet. Wellington’s City and Regional Councils are going cold on light rail plans. Wayne Brown is under ...
NZ First Leader Winston Peters is sympathising with Stuart Nash and defending him but dodging questions on whether he would be welcome in New Zealand First. Prime Minister Chris Hipkins last night sacked Nash from the Cabinet after an email he had sent to two of his campaign donors ...
So, after interfering with the police, and then interfering with immigration decisions, Stuart Nash has finally been sacked: Stuart Nash has been sacked as a minister, after Stuff revealed he had emailed business figures, including donors, detailing private Cabinet discussions. Prime Minister Chris Hipkins confirmed the people Nash emailed ...
Nearly 25% of mortgages in Auckland are deemed at risk in a 1-in-100 year flood event. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Once a year, every year, from now on, in our not-so-slow-cooking climate crisis, there will be a moment when the most important number in Aotearoa’s own personal, national ...
Item One: About a confected crisis Please bear with me for a moment, readers outside Auckland, I wish to sound the klaxon. Auckland, we have until 11pm today to have our say. About what? About this, as copied and pasted from Pippa Coom’s Facebook page:The "austerity" budget is built on ...
Buzz from the Beehive Yet again, the statement we were looking for could not be found on the Beehive website. Nor was it on the Scoop or Green Party websites. But – come to think of it – we are probably wasting our time by searching. Our quest is for the ...
The following is from a speech given by Arundhati Roy at the Swedish Academy on March 22, 2023, at a conference called Thought and Truth Under Pressure and reprinted from Literary Hub. I thank the Swedish Academy for inviting me to speak at this conference and for affording me the privilege ...
After almost two decades of racism, Australia is finally getting off its "stop the boats" bullshit. But don't worry, racists - Michael Wood has your back!The Government wants to increase the time it can detain without a warrant people seeking asylum en masse from four days to 28 ...
Last year, the Education and Workforce Committee recommended that the government legislate for pay transparency to prevent employers from secretly discriminating. This ought to be a bread and butter issue for Labour - discrimination sees women (and particularly Māori and Pasifika women) paid significantly less than men. But since then ...
Thomas Cranmer writes – ———— An unruly mob in Albert Park has catapulted New Zealand into the global headlines with ugly images that may become iconic in the debate about the dangers of transgenderism. ———— Bravo Kellie-Jay Keen. She did the job that needed to be done. For all the ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections Global warming is melting the Arctic ice cap, and that’s having unforeseen effects on the world’s weather — even thousands of miles away from the North Pole. Some climate scientists have begun to link increasingly common heat waves in Europe to what is ...
Hot on the heels of the demotion of former police Minister Stuart Nash for breaching the Cabinet Manual, Radio New Zealand has revealed the close links between lobbyists and politicians- an area of New Zealand politics that is completely unregulated. The evidence in Guyon Espiner’s series Mate, Comrade, Brother, the ...
Over a million New Zealanders will receive a little extra to help with the cost of living as a result of our 1 April changes. Around the world, inflation is causing costs to rise and we’re feeling it here at home. In tough times, we need to support those who ...
With benefit changes coming into effect tomorrow, the Green Party is calling on the Government to lift benefits to liveable levels to make sure everyone has what they need to thrive. ...
Following decades of work by the Green Party alongside the organics sector, people will finally be able to be confident that products labelled organic have met standards. ...
The Green Party supports immediate Government action to close the pay gap as called for in an open letter released today by the Human Rights Commission and 50 other organisations. ...
The Green Party is today welcoming the release of the Government’s waste strategy, but says it has a big gap without action on the container return scheme for beverage containers. ...
The Government’s decision to introduce ‘mass arrivals’ legislation goes against the values we all share of Aotearoa as a place where all people are treated fairly, the Green Party says. ...
MINISTER DAVIDSON MUST RESIGN AFTER 'VIOLENCE' COMMENTS Marama Davidson should stand down as ‘Minister for the Prevention of Family and Sexual Violence’ for the clear and outrageous statement she made at the Posie Parker protest that ‘white straight men’ are the cause of violence. Her offensive, racist, and sexist remarks ...
In response to Newshub and Amelia Wade’s obvious and ham-fisted attempt at a typical and predicted political hit job. As any politically aware reporter would know, any Cabinet subcommittee has a duty and obligation as a part of any government to respond to any UN declaration, in this case ...
Good afternoon. Thank you for the invitation to speak with you today and in your busy lives turning up to this meeting. Forty five years ago, in Howick, often described as racist, and where few Maori lived because it had been a ‘Fencible’ settlement at the time of the Anglo-Maori ...
The Green Party has marked the National Party’s new education policy and given it a fail, especially for its failure to address the underlying drivers of school performance. ...
“This is it; 2023 will be the last opportunity New Zealand has to get a government that will confront the climate emergency with the urgency it demands,” says the Green Party’s co-leader and climate change spokesperson, James Shaw. ...
Political parties that want to negotiate with the Green Party after the election must come to the table with much faster, bolder climate action, co-leaders James Shaw and Marama Davidson emphasised today. ...
You will never truly understand, from the pictures you’ve seen in the newspapers or on the six o-clock news, the sheer scale of the devastation wrought by Cyclone Gabrielle. ...
Political parties that want to negotiate with the Green Party must come to the table with much faster, bolder climate action, co-leaders James Shaw and Marama Davidson emphasised in their State of the Planet speech today. ...
We’re boosting incomes and helping ease cost of living pressures on Kiwis through a range of bread and butter support measures that will see pensioners, students, families, and those on main benefits better off from the start of next month. ...
The error Labour Ministers made by stopping work on a beverage container return scheme will be reversed by the Greens at the earliest opportunity as part of the next Government. ...
Minister of Foreign Affairs, Nanaia Mahuta, departs for Europe today, where she will attend a session of the NATO Foreign Ministers Meeting in Brussels and make a short bilateral visit to Sweden. “NATO is a long-standing and likeminded partner for Aotearoa New Zealand. It is valuable to join a session of ...
A secure facility that will house protected information for a broad range of government agencies is being constructed at RNZAF Base Auckland (Whenuapai), Public Service, Defence and GCSB Minister Andrew Little says. The facility will consolidate and expand the government’s current secure storage capacity and capability for at least another ...
From today, 1.8 million flu vaccines are available to help protect New Zealanders from winter illness, Minister of Health Ayesha Verrall has announced. “Vaccination against flu is safe and will be a first line of defence against severe illness this winter,” Dr Verrall said. “We can all play a part ...
Associate Minister of Arts, Culture and Heritage Willow-Jean Prime has congratulated Professor Rangi Mātāmua (Ngāi Tūhoe) who was last night named the prestigious Te Pou Whakarae o Aotearoa New Zealander of the Year. Professor Mātāmua, who is the government's Chief Adviser Mātauranga Matariki, was the winner of the New Zealander ...
The Minister of Foreign Affairs Nanaia Mahuta has announced further sanctions on political and military figures from Russia and Belarus as part of the ongoing response to the war in Ukraine. The International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued an arrest warrant for Russia’s Commissioner for Children’s Rights Maria Alekseevna Lvova-Belova ...
A new public housing development planned for Whangārei will provide 95 warm and dry, modern homes for people in need, Housing Minister Megan Woods says. The Kauika Road development will replace a motel complex in the Avenues with 89 three-level walk up apartments, alongside six homes. “Whangārei has a rapidly ...
New Zealand welcomes the substantial conclusion of negotiations on the United Kingdom’s accession to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), Trade and Export Growth Minister Damien O’Connor announced today. “Continuing to grow our export returns is a priority for the Government and part of our plan to ...
Ngā Iwi o Taranaki and the Crown initial Taranaki Maunga collective redress deed Ngā Iwi o Taranaki and the Crown have today initialled the Taranaki Maunga Collective Redress Deed, named Te Ruruku Pūtakerongo, Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations Andrew Little says. “I am pleased to be here for this ...
Minister for Pacific Peoples Barbara Edmonds has announced the 2023 Pacific Language week series, highlighting the need to revitalise and sustain languages for future generations. “Pacific languages are a cornerstone of our health, wellbeing and identity as Pacific peoples. When our languages are spoken, heard and celebrated, our communities thrive,” ...
880,000 pensioners to get a boost to Super, including 5000 veterans 52,000 students to see a bump in allowance or loan living costs Approximately 223,000 workers to receive a wage rise as a result of the minimum wage increasing to $22.70 8,000 community nurses to receive pay increase of up ...
Over 8000 community nurses will start receiving well-deserved pay rises of up to 15 percent over the next month as a Government initiative worth $200 million a year kicks in, says Minister of Health Dr Ayesha Verrall. “The Government is committed to ensuring nurses are paid fairly and will receive ...
Tākiri mai ana te ata Ki runga o ngākau mārohirohi Kōrihi ana te manu kaupapa Ka ao, ka ao, ka awatea Tihei mauri ora Let the dawn break On the hearts and minds of those who stand resolute As the bird of action sings, it welcomes the dawn of a ...
The Government is introducing a scheme which will lift incomes for artists, support them beyond the current spike in cost of living and ensure they are properly recognised for their contribution to New Zealand’s economy and culture. “In line with New Zealand’s Free Trade Agreement with the UK, last ...
New Zealand is welcoming a decision by the United Nations General Assembly to ask the International Court of Justice to consider countries’ international legal obligations on climate change. The United Nations has voted unanimously to adopt a resolution led by Vanuatu to ask the ICJ for an advisory opinion on ...
More Police officers are being deployed to the frontline with the graduation of 59 new constables from the Royal New Zealand Police College today. “The graduation for recruit wing 364 was my first since becoming Police Minister last week,” Ginny Andersen said. “It was a real honour. I want to ...
Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta met with Vanuatu Foreign Minister Jotham Napat in Port Vila, today, signing a new Statement of Partnership — Aotearoa New Zealand’s first with Vanuatu. “The Mauri Statement of Partnership is a joint expression of the values, priorities and principles that will guide the Aotearoa New Zealand–Vanuatu relationship into ...
The Government has passed new legislation amending the Fire and Emergency New Zealand (FENZ) levy regime, ensuring the best balance between a fair and cost effective funding model. The Fire and Emergency New Zealand (Levy) Amendment Bill makes changes to the existing law to: charge the levy on contracts of ...
The Government has passed the Organic Products and Production Bill through its third reading today in Parliament helping New Zealand’s organic sector to grow and lift export revenue. “The Organic Products and Production Bill will introduce robust and practical regulation to give businesses the certainty they need to continue to ...
The Digital Identity Services Trust Framework Bill, which will make it easier for New Zealanders to safely prove who they are digitally has passed its third and final reading today. “We know New Zealanders want control over their identity information and how it’s used by the companies and services they ...
The full Cyclone Gabrielle Recovery Taskforce has met formally for the first time as work continues to help the regions recover and rebuild from Cyclone Gabrielle. The Taskforce, which includes representatives from business, local government, iwi and unions, covers all regions affected by the January and February floods and cyclone. ...
Changes have been made to legislation to give subcontractors the confidence they will be paid the retention money they are owed should the head contractor’s business fail, Minister for Building and Construction Megan Woods announced today. “These changes passed in the Construction Contracts (Retention Money) Amendment Act safeguard subcontractors who ...
Transport Minister Michael Wood has unveiled five scenarios for one of the most significant city-shaping projects for Tāmaki Makaurau in coming decades, the additional Waitematā Harbour crossing. “Aucklanders and businesses have made it clear that the biggest barriers to the success of Auckland is persistent congestion and after years of ...
The Government has passed new legislation that ensures New Zealand’s civil aviation rules are fit for purpose in the 21st century, Associate Transport Minister Kiri Allan says. The Civil Aviation Bill repeals and replaces the Civil Aviation Act 1990 and the Airport Authorities Act 1966 with a single modern law ...
A Bill aimed at helping to reduce delays in the coronial jurisdiction passed its third reading today. The Coroners Amendment Bill, amongst other things, will establish new coronial positions, known as Associate Coroners, who will be able to perform most of the functions, powers, and duties of Coroners. The new ...
The Prime Minister has asked the Cabinet Secretary to conduct a review into communications between Stuart Nash and his donors. The review will take place over the next two months. The review will look at whether there have been any other breaches of cabinet collective responsibility or confidentiality, or whether ...
The new Recovery Visa to help bring in additional migrant workers to support cyclone and flooding recovery has attracted over 600 successful applicants within its first month. “The Government is moving quickly to support businesses bring in the workers needed to recover from Cyclone Gabrielle and the Auckland floods,” Michael ...
Bills to ensure non-teaching employees and contractors at schools, and unlicensed childcare services like mall crèches are vetted by police, and provide safeguards for school board appointments have passed their first reading today. The Education and Training Amendment Bill (No. 3) and the Regulatory Systems (Education) Amendment Bill have now ...
Wānanga will gain increased flexibility and autonomy that recognises the unique role they fill in the tertiary education sector, Associate Minister of Education Kelvin Davis has announced. The Education and Training Amendment Bill (No.3), that had its first reading today, proposes a new Wānanga enabling framework for the three current ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Nanaia Mahuta will travel to Vanuatu today, announcing that Aotearoa New Zealand will provide further relief and recovery assistance there, following the recent destruction caused by Cyclones Judy and Kevin. While in Vanuatu, Minister Mahuta will meet with Vanuatu Acting Prime Minister Sato Kilman, Foreign Minister Jotham ...
The Government is backing Police and making communities safer with the roll-out of state-of-the-art tools and training to frontline staff, Police Minister Ginny Andersen said today. “Frontline staff face high-risk situations daily as they increasingly respond to sophisticated organised crime, gang-violence and the availability of illegal firearms,” Ginny Andersen said. ...
The Government has provided Police with more tools to crack down on gang offending with the passing of new legislation today which will further improve public safety, Justice Minister Kiri Allan says. The Criminal Activity Intervention Legislation Bill amends existing law to: create new targeted warrant and additional search powers ...
The Government today announced far-reaching changes to the way we make, use, recycle and dispose of waste, ushering in a new era for New Zealand’s waste system. The changes will ensure that where waste is recycled, for instance by households at the kerbside, it is less likely to be contaminated ...
New legislation passed by the Government today will make it harder for gangs and their leaders to benefit financially from crime that causes considerable harm in our communities, Minister of Justice Kiri Allan says. Since the Criminal Proceeds (Recovery) Act 2009 came into effect police have been highly successful in ...
This evening I have advised the Governor-General to dismiss Stuart Nash from all his ministerial portfolios. Late this afternoon I was made aware by a news outlet of an email Stuart Nash sent in March 2020 to two contacts regarding a commercial rent relief package that Cabinet had considered. In ...
Legislation to enable more build-to-rent developments has passed its third reading in Parliament, so this type of rental will be able to claim interest deductibility in perpetuity where it meets the requirements. Housing Minister Dr Megan Woods, says the changes will help unlock the potential of the build-to-rent sector and ...
A law passed by Parliament today exempts employers from paying fringe benefit tax on certain low emission commuting options they provide or subsidise for their staff. “Many employers already subsidise the commuting costs of their staff, for instance by providing car parks,” Environment Minister David Parker said. “This move supports ...
Today marks the 40th anniversary of Closer Economic Relations (CER), our gold standard free trade agreement between New Zealand and Australia. “CER was a world-leading agreement in 1983, is still world-renowned today and is emblematic of both our countries’ commitment to free trade. The WTO has called it the world’s ...
The Government is making procedural changes to the Immigration Act to ensure that 2013 amendments operate as Parliament intended. The Government is also introducing a new community management approach for asylum seekers. “While it’s unlikely we’ll experience a mass arrival due to our remote positioning, there is no doubt New ...
The Government welcomes progress on public sector pay adjustment (PSPA) agreements, and the release of the updated public service pay guidance by the Public Service Commission today, Minister for the Public Service Andrew Little says. “More than a dozen collective agreements are now settled in the public service, Crown Agents, ...
The Government has introduced the Severe Weather Emergency Recovery Legislation Bill to further support the recovery and rebuild from the recent severe weather events in the North Island. “We know from our experiences following the Canterbury and Kaikōura earthquakes that it will take some time before we completely understand the ...
By Sri Krishnamurthi Highly respected and convivial Koroi Hawkins has become RNZ Pacific’s first Melanesian editor after arriving in New Zealand in 2010 and says he is “truly humbled” after nearly a decade at RNZ. “It is a great honour. I am a Pacific journalist from the school of hardknocks ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Joey Moloney, Senior Associate, Grattan Institute Shutterstock Australia’s A$3.3 trillion superannuation system is supposed to boost people’s retirement incomes. The government says as much in its proposed leglislated objective for superannuation. The system is supported by billions of dollars of ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Peter Dutton and his demoralised team, shocked beyond belief by their Aston drubbing, say the party has to “rebuild”. But there are no obvious foundation stones for this mammoth task. Ideally, the party ...
Tea drinkers of Aotearoa, your new favourite dunking bikkie is here. There are several things I love about this recipe. The first is that they make a delicious dunking biscuit, the perfect accompaniment to a cup of tea shared with friends. The second is that the recipe is ...
Part two of writer Marty Smith’s reporting from her flood-damaged home.Read part one here. Sunday 12 March, 21 days after the floods.Google Maps shows a pale blue line for the flat-lined bridge between Taradale and Waiohiki and sends you instead over the Expressway to Merge Like A Zip, ...
Bard Billot on the booted out broadcasterSpartans, prepare for glory! The hardy army of Today FM Spartans Camps out on the harsh lands of talk radio. The long months of the campaign Have worn down their resolve, For though they have loyally broadcast Their snappy banter and hot ...
The danger of National's policy is that it undoes much of an informal pact with Labour to depoliticise education at a time of real struggleOpinion: The National Party’s recently released education policy narrowly channels nearly every tired and cliched right-wing approach to schooling. If you have been in education for ...
A refurbished, expanded and more earthquake-proof building is a still few years away. Can it live up to the impeccable postmodernist vibes of its predecessor?A long time ago, my non-Wellington then-boyfriend was visiting the windy city and asked the barber what he recommended in town. “Dunno mate,” the barber ...
Doing the cryptic crossword isn’t simply a hobby. It’s a way of life, a love affair – even a full-blown obsession. The Sunday Essay is made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand.Illustrations by Asia Martusia King. Clue: Mafia boss consumed first dish free of ...
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Just in case your shadenfreude levels are getting low, here is part 1 of 3 parts, Andrea Vance looking at the recent train crash that was the National election campaign.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/300137917/election-2020-the-complete-disarray-of-nationals-campaign-that-led-to-electoral-slaughter
It's very personality based, and pays little attention policy impacts on the public. It misunderstands Covid too – Labour and the health officials made a credible go of the Covid crisis, which earned them some support – but National's support collapsed when they went full attack on Covid handling without any suggestion of a workable alternative policy. Bridges went full Star Chamber with his committee, and though never impressive before, he went nowhere but down after that. Tova got a bit of the same thing as the daily briefings brought a little sunshine into media behaviour and showed the country what a nasty little rabbit she is.
Worth a read but yes, Vance can only focus on people and what they said. Other writers will apply the missing analysis.
Yeah, she didn't tell us anything we didn't know before apart from a few tid-bits like the campaign manger working from home in the last week, etc. It was a merely summing up exercise which has become the thing to do these days championed by so called political analyst, Bryce Edwards.
She got nowhere near what people really want to know (including the Nats themselves) which is what role Bridges and his allies had in all this. She only once touched lightly on the core reason for this unravelling which was Bridges' perverse, self-promoting response to the government's handling of Covid.
Anyone looking for enlightenment from Vance will be disappointed. Hope she can do better in parts 2 and 3.
Vance's epic failure to understand MMP.
"The roots of this go back three years, when the caucus was shaken by Winston Peters’ decision to eschew the popular vote and support a Labour-led Government over National."
Winston agreed to join a coalition that was backed by a majority of the public vote. He didn't eschew anything.
(If Winston had said nice things in the campaign about the coalition partners, rather than attack them, he might still be in parliament.)
Vance's epic failure to see her own and the msm role in this.
The Covid 19 laid bare for all NZ ders to see that in fact Labour and Jacinda were highly competent governing for all NZ's interests when we really needed it. People in lockdown only had to compare our response to what was happening and any one of most countries, take your pick, UK, Italy, US or would you care for a bit of Brazil (excuse the attempt at humour here). No matter how the msm attempted to spin it with the ratty little questions at the end of the daily press conferences and Nationals absurd "Its a shambles! Open the boarders! No close them, Bubble with Oz response",
NZders could see with their own eyes, could feel it that we had highly competent people doing what govt meant to do…………
So time for the msm to look in the mirror at how they try to influence things (think the Key years, where that slimy ar…hole got a free pass every time.
Ah, she's still parroting National's lie that the biggest party needs to be in government.
Winston/NZF could have gone either way, which is why he/they were called “the Kingmaker”. National never got over it, never mounted an effective Opposition based on agonistic & positive politics, and never put effort into a competitive policy platform that is essential to present a realistic government-in-waiting. ACT, or should I say Seymour, filled the vacuum, with a referendum even, and still National did nothing. When the numbers (polls) didn’t go their way, National lost the plot completely but the seeds were sown in 2017, IMO.
Peters was fully telegraphing what his preference was before the election in 2017. I heard him address Grey Power at its AGM and in an electorate meeting. I am no NZF voter but I was surprised by the visceral dislike of National that he evidenced in both meetings.
It was no surprise to me what he chose to do in 2017 in supporting Labour. I have written of this before in the Standard.
It's a bit revisionist of writers to believe that Peters had not clearly stated his dislike of National's corporate capitalism, and its failed social policies, to mention two areas of concern to him.
Why did he lose in 2020? He was a handbrake on social progress and both he and National wore the consequences of having poor candidates, unpopular policies and for making stupid attacks on a popular and competent government and PM.
Plus of course..shane jones…
He is included in the category of poor candidates………
Tim Watkin likes baiting us huh?
While in the quote below, in a meme echoed across the media, is that the voters belong to National, but were voting 'tactically'.
Alternatively they were voting. Collins is reviled within National and has no great or consistent philosophy, but doesn't distance far from Trump. The National rump have had scandals, disloyalty and chaos. On covid they've zig-zagged with the day.
Looking then at Labour who have not done anything unpopular, but also didn't say- what smoke? That could have been anything! on climate change. When you start growing bananas something is happening…
It's not tactical voting to pick the team most likely to preserve your health and job, and also who acknowledge climate change. That's just voting! No one wants Sandra Goudie PM.
Watkin's quote
"RNZ's Tim Watkin wrote: "With the wisdom of the crowd, centre-right voters have seen National's internal problems, looked around for a handbrake on a Labour-Greens transformative government, and landed on a fascinating champion – Labour itself."
Or alternatively just that Labour is a better choice for health and well being. Not all of the country aspires to be NZ First. Why is a handbrake needed? The question is who’s best for the job. Jacinda has lead impressively.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/on-the-inside/429050/week-in-politics-tactical-voting-could-have-helped-labour-s-landslide-win
[link added. If you’re going to cut and paste a quote then please cut and post the URL as well, thanks – weka]
Link please.
mod note for you newsense.
Vance's epic failure to understand MMP.
"The roots of this go back three years, when the caucus was shaken by Winston Peters’ decision to eschew the popular vote and support a Labour-led Government over National."
Winston agreed to join a coalition that was backed by a majority of the public vote. He didn't eschew anything.
(If Winston had said nice things in the campaign about the coalition partners, rather than attack them, he might still be in parliament.)
Tim Watkin wrote: "With the wisdom of the crowd, centre-right voters have seen National's internal problems, looked around for a handbrake on a Labour-Greens transformative government, and landed on a fascinating champion – Labour itself
I think Watkin is talking bollocks.
The reason why? Let's reverse the situation and say the polling is Nat 46 Lab 32 Green 8 ACT 8.
How many Standardista's are going to vote National to keep ACT out of government in this situation? Precisely None.
People voted for Labour because they love Jacinda and did not see Labour policies as detrimental to the economy, farmers etc
I think the election was a vote on how j.a./labour handled the covid thing…(it doesn't take much to realise the dire situation we would currently be in..had the establishment/business toadies that are national been in power when the virus arrived…)…the election was a carry-on! message from national voters dismayed at the clown-circus national had become ..this is why they voted for j.a….this hindsight-creation of a mass act of political-nuance on the part of national voters to hobble the greens by voting labour…is a big pile of steaming horseshit I.m.h.o..
100% Phillip
Ruining our economy for many years because of … a psychological quirk. Does anyone disagree? Climate Change, a slightly little off disaster that kills everything which is undermined because of the eccentricity of democracy for addressing immediate 'problems' over serious problems.
We need the rich talk of people who believe in their ideas rather than the thin laver of forever dealing with what focus groups tell you.
BG noted: Tim Watkin wrote: "With the wisdom of the crowd, centre-right voters have seen National's internal problems, looked around for a handbrake on a Labour-Greens transformative government, and landed on a fascinating champion – Labour itself
I no longer believe in the wisdom of the masses. I think that Labour was elected on feelings of satisfaction about controlling Covid-19.
And as for National voters making balanced, reasoned judgments about controlling government, they would have been hard-pressed to think of changing to Labour, hence ACT. The votes did go up to Labour though and I suppose someone has done the figures and posited which came from NZF, and which portion from National centrists.
NZ does not have exit polling on election day, so for that sort of detail we need to wait for the NZ Election Survey polling to be run and analysed – won't be out until next year.
Bridges confirmed their new strategy yesterday on the AM show, which is to frame the huge increase in Labour's vote as 'National voters on loan'. Watkin and others are tasked with re-enforcing this fallacy.
Voters don't belong to anyone and any politician who thinks otherwise will be punished.
Voters don't belong to anyone and any politician who thinks otherwise will be punished. I think we have observed that this is not absolute truth.
Yep.
Some National voters really do belong to National. That's how National gets to tell their Epsom voters to vote ACT and have it work.
Yes and the core Nats voters still voted for them – that's why they got 26%. Given their shambolic effort it shows how loyal some voters are. Just as Labour's core delivered them 25% in 2014. The soft centrist voters who backed Helen Clark then John Key clearly did not – the great majority of them did not do any tactical voting but weighed up the options, the world around them, and voted for the the most competent, safest, trustworthy, decent and forward-looking option on offer. Those voters (plus avoiding complacency amongst your own core constituencies) are the key to achieving percentages in the mid-40s plus.
If we are to believe some commentators then NZ has just seen the most massive exercise in tactical voting in any democracy in decades. That wasn’t what happened.
At this stage it's all opinion
Here's another from a more credible source(in my view anyway)
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/300138283/election-2020-there-is-no-evidence-national-voters-backed-labour-to-keep-the-greens-out
At this stage it is it wishful thinking and idle speculation, but the meme has to be cultivated before the facts come in. And after a while, some ex-National voters might start to believe the meme too and change their reasoning for their swing vote to something more ‘interesting’. Even more so, when they think they were not alone in this.
And useful idiots like Mr Watkin are.. useful in that process.
Tim Watkin has often been an intelligent and incisive commentator. Sadly, however, his penchant for being "nice" and "jolly" at all times means that he has sometimes allowed himself to be manipulated by very unsavoury people. Here he is back in 2011, eager to agree with the hostile and implacable right winger Michael Bassett….
Please stay on the present topic, thanks.
The topic was Tim Watkin's credibility, or lack thereof. I pointed out that he is an intelligent journalist who has allowed himself to be misused by the likes of cynical actors such as Sophie Wright and Michael Bassett, and provided evidence that that has been happening for a considerable time.
I did not see anyone claiming Watkin was credible. The word 'like' may help you understand what I was saying.
Of course Watkin is credible. He's a serious and intelligent commentator who has unfortunately allowed himself at times to be bullied by less intelligent people on radio, such as Cameron Slater and Larry Williams.
Agreed Morrissey…you are on-topic….and Watkin is a little too Jose Pagani-like for my taste.
Morrissey is either attacking or defending the messenger. It’s so tedious.
And sometimes this writer, i.e. moi, is the messenger who is attacked, or defended.
And often that writer, i.e. toi, is the messenger who is criticised, and feels he has to fend off the intellectual headens who are attacking him personally as if they are doubting his personal integrity.
Can we now go back to the topic, again?
Also applies to Vance: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/eleanor_roosevelt_385439
Excellent rebuttal and now we can go back to the topic at hand, yes?
Fair enough, my friend.
http://gif-free.com/uploads/posts/2018-02/1519648251_kissing-rabbits.gif
He's a good commentator and producer, who does a fair bit of trolling standardists.
Should be someone out there countering this view. The leadership's emphasis on Key's legacy, fiscal responsibility, and governing for first time voters plays into this. It allows another version of centre to come along, flank on the left with a PR policy and then the campaign is they're all the same, get the original.
Yep, can't let the facts get in the way of what National wants.
Well this does raise the question . What percentage of the never greens vote normally see national as the best way to achieve a no greens outcome.
It is very likely that the combination of the Greens campaign of calling labour "national lite" and collins campaign of "the greens will steer labour" together with the collapse of the national vote drove these people towards labour.
It is also possible that Ardern can hold these votes thru 2023
So Xanthe, in the scenario I describe above, if National were being labelled "Labour light" would you vote for National? I think not.
no actually i dont believe the green framing of labour. rather I accept Jacindas position that for real change we need to take the people with us. …… but dont for one minute think i forgive rogernomics or the failure of labour to reverse. I just dont believe the Greens have a fricking clue how to move forward!
Agree, Flower.
James Shaw needs to shine this term and take environmentalism to those red/blue electorates.
and replace marama with a person who has integrity ,charisma and is Green!
Could you give some examples of how Marama lacks integrity and is not Green? No, thought not.
can't see the wood for the trees.
so you are not disputing that she has no charisma?
I think such a judgement is more subjective. To me she does. Now, can you answer my question? No, thought not.
Russiagate True Believer Kim Hill delivers the absurd P.C. moment of the week
RNZ, Friday 23 Oct. 2020, 4:10 p.m. (station promo between news and weather)
KIM HILL: Tomorrow morning I'm talking to Russian author Masha Gesson on their book Surviving Autocracy.
????!!!??? Their book?
Well, we have to allow for the case of Masha being schizophrenic…
Well, we have to allow for the case of Masha being schizophrenic…
Ha ha ha! She has just said, perhaps in jest, that Trump was possibly foisted on the American people by Russia. Poor old Kim Hill didn't even demur.
She lives in Dumbo—Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass. Another nice place name along with Soweto, Tribeca, and SoHo.
Right now Masha Gesson is pointing out that the Russian interference in the election was unsophisticated, and she's impatient with the ridiculous obsession with it by the Democratic leadership and media—including the likes of True Believer Hill.
Hill is clearly uncomfortable. Right now Masha Gesson is pointing out how incompetent Robert Mueller was. How she must wish she had on someone amenable to her cosy conspiracy theories instead of an intelligent journalist like Gesson, who has just corrected Hill in the most embarrassing manner: "You know, I wouldn't call Trump benign."
please fix your name with your next comment.
Thanks weka!
Morrisseye' – take your pills now.
Could you explain what you mean, please, Shark? Are you offended by my failure to endorse the Russiagate conspiracy theory peddled by the DNC? Then you must also have been offended by Masha Gessen this morning as she pointed out to Kim Hill how exaggerated and foolish the whole campaign was.
Kinda hard to look past the factors of russian intelligence honey-trapping trump when he was in moscow.. and that he was bailed out by russia(ns) when he was going down the financial gurgler in the 80's…plus his laundering of russian oligarch/mob money by flogging them his properties since then…would have to make him the nearest to a manchurian candidate america has seen…you'd think..?
You were doing well until you got to the batshit "Manchurian candidate" nonsense. Unless you’ve smoked too much of that Hokianga Hydroponic, you don't actually believe that hogwash, so why make out like you're some hapless staffer in Nancy Pelosi's office?
I can hear an ad homming bee buzzing around
Do I believe that Putin has a firm grip on trumps' gonads..?..yes..I do…(heh..!..if that makes me a 'staffer in Nancy pelosis' office’.?..so be it..)
Staffers in Nancy Pelosi's office at least have the excuse of having to do it as a condition of their employment; they fall in line or they don't have a job. You have no such excuse for indulging in such foolishness.
Sure, he just owes some foreign oligarchs some favours, no harm in that.
Big difference between that, which is no doubt true, and the insane and evidence-free theory that he is a Russian asset.
Well, he's no liability to them. If they got him cheap, bully for them.
As has been said of Mitch McConnell, Trump is not an asset to anyone.
The suggestion that Putin would scruple to exploit a vulnerable person like Trump to further his nefarious ends however, is laughable.
Is Hokianga Hydroponic the sort of stuff which would have me listening to someone say hundreds of thousands of words, find a couple from the flow of a busy morning like 'their book' and subject it to forensic analysis?
P is a terrible thing.
Ms. Hill's foolish exercise in language abuse occurred in a brief (five seconds max) promo for her show. Where do you get the idea I listened to "hundreds of thousands of words" to find that example of foolishness?
Ms. Hill's ridiculous exercise in language abuse occurred in a brief (five seconds max) promo for her show. Where do you get the idea I listened to "hundreds of thousands of words" to find that example of foolishness?
Getting one word wrong hardly is an “exercise in language abuse” and your ‘suffering’ cannot have been longer than the five seconds the promo lasted although it may felt like eternity to you. I’m quite sure that Kim Hill did not embark on her ‘abusive tirade’ to hurt you personally. You could send her another e-mail to confirm. Please get over this and move on.
Kim was a great hero during the many dark years of rich-rule after our social democracy. Why RNZ had to admit Richard whatisname.
Hill did not get the word wrong. Quite deliberate, ruffling some who are set in their ways.
Sinking lid approach does work best when done in subtle ways.
Trump has long held ambitions to be president…back in the 1980's he was a regular on the late-nite talks show's .(letterman et.al…). .and back then he often beat the presidential-ambitions drum..he was laughed at/humoured…but that is also what 'the apprentice' was all about ..him showing the american people/his future base that he was a strong leader ..and him becoming a household name..it was all part of the plan..
The other thread to trump is his connections to/long record of working with the mafia/mob..back in the 80's again he built skyscrapers in Manhatten…using undocumented/illegal workers..now you don't get to do such things in Manhatten unless you are in tight with the teamsters union..who control the building and garbage collection industries in Manhatten..and the teamsters are the union wing of the mob..and of course casinos in Atlantic City were a major means of money-laundering…trump is so bent ..he is like a human paperclip…
Pronouns, Breen. Not a hard concept.
their comment suggests it might be for them.
Was Kim Hill confused, you think? Did she think Masha Gesson was possibly a male?
There is only one confused person here.
You're quite right there, Sacha. Every one of yous.
Well, there’s Masha Gesson and there’s Masha Gessen so I can see why one would be confused. Perhaps you could ask Professor Longhair.
Thanks for the correction, Mr. Cognito. You're on to as usual.
https://media1.tenor.com/images/2b6138c8abd50d00965e784d948a88df/tenor.gif?itemid=4733491
Just to pour some oil of pedantry upon the fires of controversy, 'their' is not a pronoun. It is a possessive adjective. The pronoun is 'theirs', as in, "Our book is better than theirs," 'Theirs' can stand by itself, as a pronoun should be able to.
'Their' is only a possessive adjective, and needs the noun 'book' with it.
So
theirthere.Careful, In Vino: although of course you are correct, there are some around here who are unhappy with using simple words like his or her.
Things have moved on beyond Northcote's sepia bounds.
You're welcome to slip within Northcote Point's sepia bounds at any time, Sacha.
https://media1.tenor.com/images/aedf0a83eba45622947b6c988131ded1/tenor.gif?itemid=4731328
Lest We Forget: R.I.P. Journalism in the United States and Britain
Ten years since WikiLeaks and Julian Assange published the Iraq War Logs…
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2020/10/23/pers-o23.html
A dog and a scraped plate…
Did you like the follow-up explanation?
The better the blow, the greater the urge, apparently.
That is very funny…that clip..
I think I have figured out what biden is good at…gape-mouthed goldfish impersonations..he has it nailed..I’d also like to see his take on kermit the frog .
Anxiety outside the USA. I have wondered whether music might offer us a road out of our mind-prison under fascist neoliberal rule. Maybe this guy can advise us.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/429085/i-am-how-music-helped-a-young-tongan-lawyer-with-anxiety
Anxiety inside the USA – the flow of money to rich men's pockets is being strangled. This from Gordon Campbell on Scoop featuring the famous Koch Brothers. Dah dah. They recently featured in something else being done along with some other rich person. Funny how some names keep coming up, like yesterday's dinner.
Herd immunity has recently bounced back into the headlines as a tool for managing Covid-19, and as a supposed alternative to lockdowns. In the US, a group of scientists was recently brought together in the town of Great Barrington, Massachusetts by a think tank funded by the Koch brothers. The assembled scientists signed the so called Barrington Declaration, which promotes herd immunity as a rational means of re-opening US public schools and the economy at large..
https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL2010/S00134/on-why-herd-immunity-isnt-a-valid-option-and-whats-with-our-reluctance-to-wear-masks.htm
…The Declaration has found a receptive ear at the White House where Dr Scott Atlas has become Donald Trump’s most trusted health advisor on the pandemic, and Trump’s main scientific advocate against lockdowns.
Atlas is a neurologist, and has no expertise in infectious diseases.
(If he is a neurologist, then he might be able to keep an eye on Mr T-rump's condition, and prevent his prime excesses.)
In the US the death toll has reached 224,000. By the end of the year this figure could double. Daily infections are nearly at the same rate as in March with the first wave. Aljazeera reported this today. It would be hard to be a health worker in the heavily infected countries. The pace would be exhausting and time out is required to recharge. With the flu season approaching there is going to be a shortage of beds and staff.
The waiting list is growing for other health related matters.
Is herd immunity the answer in the US and how would the care of those infected be managed?
There is no quick fix.
I think the President adopts the 'don't look at it and it might go away' response. As for herd immunity I have read professionals that sound informed saying that there isn't going to be any such thing with this virus. We will have to try and preserve our system as long as we can and try and become a fairer society, and look after our front line staff in particular. I don't know if we can get fixes for things now, new problems will keep rolling along and people switch off or get stuck on one point and get obsessed; just do our best and be resigned to change.
Today just after 7am on RNZ a Professor McClean an expert microbiologist on Covid.
Mc Lean a molecular immunologist.
As suspected, right wing white supremacists exploited legitimate protest. But BLM bad.
/
In the wake of protests following the May 25 killing of George Floyd, a member of the “Boogaloo Bois” opened fire on Minneapolis Police Third Precinct with an AK-47-style gun and screamed “Justice for Floyd” as he ran away, according to a federal complaint made public Friday.
A sworn affidavit by the FBI underlying the complaint reveals new details about a far-right anti-government group’s coordinated role in the violence that roiled through civil unrest over Floyd’s death while in police custody.
Ivan Harrison Hunter, a 26-year-old from Boerne, Texas, is charged with one count of interstate travel to incite a riot for his alleged role in ramping up violence during the protests in Minneapolis on May 27 and 28. According to charges, Hunter, wearing a skull mask and tactical gear, shot 13 rounds at the south Minneapolis police headquarters while people were inside. He also looted and helped set the building ablaze, according to the complaint, which was filed Monday under seal.
[…]
Two hours after the police precinct was set on fire, Hunter texted with another Boogaloo member in California, a man named Steven Carrillo.
“Go for police buildings,” Hunter told Carrillo, according to charging documents.
“I did better lol,” he replied. A few hours earlier, Carrillo had killed a Federal Protective Services Officer in Oakland, Calif., according to criminal charges filed against him in California.
https://www.startribune.com/charges-boogaloo-bois-fired-on-mpls-precinct-shouted-justice-for-floyd/572843802/
Off topic here. Have just come in from a 2 hour trip- – out with a friend op shopping and generally looking in different shops and timeout for lunch. This is Auckland North Shore and I can tell you the attitude of our residents here is total apathy towards masks, using tracer apps and using the hand sanitiser left out by shop owners. Young and old just ignoring common sense. It was so mind boggling we ended up quite pissed off excuse the language.
I even asked one retailer if he could move his stand with the hand sanitiser, app icon and board for entering your name etc with a pen further out into the doorway so patrons couldn't miss the darned thing. We are such an ungrateful ignorant lot we don't deserve to be virus almost-free as we are right now.
We both have loved ones overseas in hot spots – South America and US and both are trapped in their homes and have people dying everywhere around them and its heartbreaking that we are using and abusing our privileged status here with so many pig-ignorant people ignoring what they need to do. Sorry folks but this incoming Government and poor St. Ashley have their jobs cut out. Enough kindness. We outlawed non-belt wearing in cars and we now need emergency powers brought in for the duration of this virus outbreak and have it mandated that mask wearing, hand sanitising and app using is to be applied. We obviously are simple minded and need to be trained like children.
Here endeth the lesson.
Not off-topic at all and +1000. Clearly the lesson hasn't sunk in yet 🙁
I don't know where on the Shore you live but in the Devonport/Belmont area the wearing of masks and hand sanitising has been excellent. Yes, people are not wearing masks to the same extent since we dropped to level 1, but I think most people wash their hands and sanitise before leaving home and then do it again when they return. I also carry antiseptic wet cloths in my car as I suspect many other people do. In our local supermarket people are using the apps all the time or signing in, but I have noticed some retailers are no longer leaving forms for people to sign.
I think you are being a bit unfair to many "simple minded" adults. When we dropped to level 1 we were no longer expected to wear masks all the time when away from home. I've stopped wearing them because I don't go anywhere that might be considered unsafe and the same probably goes for most older people anyway.
What community outbreaks we have experienced were confined to specific circumstances and small groups which did not affect the vast majority of the population. If another community outbreak does occur, mask wearing will immediately become mandatory at all times again – at least in the region or regions that are affected.
Whispering Kate I agree that people will have to be forced by regulation, we just aren't a concerned society, except for a short time, or on special occasions. I have to force myself to comply, forget so often. But I keep trying to get into the habit – I see the numbers overseas shooting up. And the effect on the people, the strain on the funeral/burial system, and on the culture generally is not reported much here.
The point I'm making greywarshark : it is unfair to claim the attitude in my part of the country (the North Shore) is one of total apathy. And the NS would be typical of any other place.
It is precisely because the vast majority of NZers complied with the rules at each level that we are in a superior position now than most of the rest of the world.
We're at level 1 now. To assume people are not taking precautions by washing their hands and using sanitiser etc. is a step too far imo. If you're going direct to a store or supermarket and you have already 'washed and sanitised' then you don't have to do it again. Sure, some people need to be reminded every now and then but the government and MoH have already got that well in hand.
Sorry didn't get back to this. It is easy to generalise but as I sanitise my hands at the supermarket I don't see others, not the men going past. And yet sometimes i think I have just washed mine so don't do it. But I do like the freedom to get out and about and I think too many are taking it for granted. I haven't got an ap but if I did it prob wouldn't work on my phone. What's best to do. .. I must practice wearing my mask though.
I'm in two minds about this. None of those things are compulsory under L1. It doesn't make sense for the whole country to be doing all those things all of the time. Down south people certainly aren't (there was no social distancing and no-one seemed to be using the handsanitiser, and def no masks when I voted on election day).
While I can see the case for being more careful the closer one is to a hot spot (and during public holidays where people travel a lot), there is also the issue of maintaining such behaviour for the long haul and indefinitely (bearing in mind we don't know if/when a vaccine will be available). It's hard to get compliance when people perceive the risk as small, and it's better that we are socialised in to acting when the situation is more urgent so that if we have widespread community transmission again people will do the right thing more quickly and more thoroughly.
Mostly it's an odds game rather than a black and white one.
The govt already has the power to mandate actions during a pandemic. I for one and glad they are not using those unless necessary, all sorts of good reasons for the govt to not over use those powers.
One thing I'd like to see is more limits in travel between areas when there is potential community transmission. But I'm not sure it's warranted yet, and there are the same compliance and fatigue issues. I'm also not sure if it is fair to places like Auckland which will have a higher risk because of population.
Not wearing masks gets us thinking we are on our own planet. Then we start complaining because precautions still have to be taken, then the government becomes a whipping boy. We take so many things for granted in NZ – the complacency towards others with problems is amazing, and particularly to the needy in NZ.
However the government can keep the mask thing in their back pocket and when someone is putting pressure on to open our borders for this or that, they can say well everyone will have to start wearing masks. It is so easy for the transmission to occur – they will have to become mandatory when travelling, in groups etc.
mask wearing seems reasonable with increased population density, and prolonged contact. On a bus that will take 20 mins to get to its destination for instance.
People walking down Queens St at lunch time vs the main street of Gore mid afternoon.
If we don't take things like into account people will get intolerant and less willing.
Helluva game.
what are the different colour droplets?
"Helluva game."
Right. So we can see the droplet spread there, but the odds game is whether any of those mannequins have covd, what the viral load is, whether they cough into their arm or not and so on. Is it reasonable to expect 5m people to wear a mask when around other humans because there is one case of community transmission in NZ? I don't think so. The public health approach to containment is working with the odds, not the absolutes, and the various strategies are designed to catch and limit spread as quickly as possible without crashing the economy or driving people crazy.
Excellent response @10.3 and 10.3.2.2. Thank-you weka.
100% Whispering Kate.
Newton Central School stopped its walking bus three years ago after several near misses and after abuse was hurled at children by some cyclists on the northwestern cycleway.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/429096/it-s-a-really-dangerous-place-school-s-plea-for-cycleway-upgrade
"We've actually had one or two children being hit. We've had members of our community that have had serious injuries. It's a really dangerous place – children and bicycles don't mix," he said.
"No one wants to have a child get hurt or injured. This is an accident waiting to happen…
A parent at the school, Phoebe Greenbrook-Held, said Auckland Transport tried to educate cyclists about using their bell and giving children a wide berth, but this was not treating the root problem….
“Unfortunately all those fixes are just short term – within a few months cyclist behaviour reverts. We really need the cycleway to be broadened, so children are safe to walk, cycle and scoot while adults do their commute to work.”
She said adult cyclists are the main culprits."
Obvious – the two modes of mobility are incompatible, and it's a 'loss of commons' to put cycles on footpaths, without a fence or something physical separating and providing safety for pedestrians and clear pathway for the others – and not just a line on the path!
ACT's an arsehole magnet #eleventy seven.
That 'lifestyle choice' is the grind the right came out with in the 1980s – haven't they thought of anything since then? They must show the acolytes and newbies a propaganda video, and teach them some phrases to utter like parrots. When certain words come on they’ll have a Pavlovian reaction. Woof woof the tui (see on google) looked bright and beady-eyed and handsome and had a better vocabulary. Use him or her as a mascot for a young left movement!
(The Baillie mentioned is a teacher of sorts in Nelson, by the way.)
People can not be trusted with a benefit, but will be trusted with an Education Grant?
Wow!! some disconnect there!!
How Tova sees her famed JLR encounter: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/oct/24/tova-obrien-my-feral-interview-with-covid-19-denier-jami-lee-ross
boom
that was a super interesting read. Perhaps TO and other journos should explain what they do more often.