Nice ANZAC moment with the neighbours: we had lit candles and put them on our letterboxes, put a radio out there and we listened to the whole thing – together alone.
Was beautiful here too,we heard a bugler, a moment of silence, then someone fired measured shots on a gun and the sky turned crimson.
A respectful silence in the crisp morning air, even the animals kept the noise down, a vibrant sunrise reflected in the ocean enhanced by a sprinkling of mist levitating over the paddock. It was pretty special TBH.
Lucky you, our neighbour destroyed the peace very early by jumping on his tractor and mulching up his pruned off avocado branches in his avocado orchard. You really can,t get a noise more loud and horrible than that. I was so angry I texted the family that it was ANZAC day and educated them on what that means and what we expect in NZ on ANZAC day. They are immigrants who have been here long enough to know better but…..
For Australia-watchers out t here, this pithy little set from the Lowy Institute is worth a read. It covers forecasts on the world after Covid-19's effects for:
– The United States
– China
– South-East Asia
– The Pacific
– Developing Nations
– Globalisation,
and some more. Just a few hundred words each, nice and concise.
I don't condone threats or bullying in any form from anyone, but the second one looks more like a commentary on Simon's propensity to make a dick of himself, than a threat to his life.
Now, I'm not crying “Battleship Potempkin” here, but if the US Defence Secretary really does reinstate Captain Brett Crozier to re-command the USS Theodore Roosevelt, President Trump is going to have a PR nightmare on his hands throughout the entire military.
This is the Captain who specifically asked for help for his sailors, went public with it (perhaps too public), and was summarily dismissed.
Trump as Commander in Chief has overruled specific military disciplinary actions before, but not one associated with Covid-19.
Trump can either agree with the recommendation – in which case his armed forces can see that his chain of command failed to act on Covid-19 and endangered many military lives.
Or Trump can over-rule the recommendation – and ensure that at least the crew of that ship burn with hatred against him.
Neither will be good for President Trump's support within the military.
Having successfully silenced Julian Assange, the UK government is now trying to do the same to Craig Murray. If you feel strongly about supporting his voice then click this link.
Yeah, because someone who publishes the names of rape and sexual assault accusers, against a court order, deserves our support as an outstanding, upright citizen.
Court ordered name suppression for sexual assault and rape accusers. If you think breaching those orders is okay, based on your political opinion, put your wank ideology on the line and name the killer of grace Millane on your blog or tweet it,
The point is obviously how some people can ride roughshod over court ordered name suppression, especially those concerning rape and sexual assault accusers, but not having the conviction to do it themselves. The example I gave, which in hindsight was ill advised and one you should probably delete on my behalf, was the only one I could think of before I watched Bill Maher.
Interesting, and very ironic, is how Morrisey, through his support of Murray's actions, is posting in solidarity with the likes of Cameron Slater, who also breached orders for political purposes.
Fortunately for me, then, I wouldn't be so stupid to suggest Morrisey put his money where his mouth is and post against an illegal suppression order on this site, just as I'm sure he hasn't the cajones to back up his slanted rhetoric from here and do it on his own site either.
Fair-weather capitalists who privatise profits and socialise losses. They hold up their hand for government assistance and call for bailout. In fact, they demand it because they need the assistance to save jobs, not for personal gain or preservation.
Indeed. I don't mind having a social contract which includes the government as social insurer, but if that's the new normal, I expect better terms for the workers in this contract.
The leader of the most prominent group in the US peddling potentially lethal industrial bleach as a “miracle cure” for coronavirus wrote to Donald Trump at the White House this week.
In his letter, Mark Grenon told Trump that chlorine dioxide – a powerful bleach used in industrial processes such as textile manufacturing that can have fatal side-effects when drunk – is “a wonderful detox that can kill 99% of the pathogens in the body”. He added that it “can rid the body of Covid-19”.
A few days after Grenon dispatched his letter, Trump went on national TV at his daily coronavirus briefing at the White House on Thursday and promoted the idea that disinfectant could be used as a treatment for the virus. To the astonishment of medical experts, the US president said that disinfectant “knocks it out in a minute. One minute!”
I am pretty sure the pictures are from a holiday from 2 or so years ago. Yes, Barack Obama did go on holiday on the island. As a former president he is going to be invited to places that you and I can only imagine.
He could have done the same thing on his holidays in Hawaii, and probably does. You could also criticise him for playing golf at Kauri Cliffs in The North a couple of years ago. Although neither of these things are in the Branson league.
None of that makes him an enemy of the poor, any more than Jacinda and Clark enjoying fishing while at the family bach from Clark's boat (which from what I have seen of it on TV is well north of $100,000).
I personally think that one of the things that torpedoed CGT was the realisation it would hit things like family baches. There are apparently 250,000 of them in New Zealand, so at least 10% of New Zealand families own a bach. And they are used by many more people than the owners, either by being invited by friends who own them or by renting. Maybe 60 to 70% of New Zealanders at one time or another have had a bach experience. Of course a CGT could have exempted bachs, but then where do you stop with the exemptions?
the CGT only kicks in when the crib is sold, so I think the issue is more about the massive cultural push to use property investment to create retirement income.
Indeed. The sharemarket crash of 1987 and finance companies' collapses in the GFC rather put paid to a lot of savings for a lot of people though, so I can't blame people for going for property.
I seem to remember the government actively encouraged it because of the idea that we couldn't afford to support the Boomer generation when they retired. It was a neoliberal solution and is a big part of the reason we have a housing crisis. People kept voting in neoliberal governments, so I think holding them responsible is reasonable.
It should have been mentioned that CGT would have only hit the "family bach" if/when it left the family, was sold.
It would have slowed the beach McMansions bought as "investments". And made the "retirement beach houses" more affordable for most of us. The ones that are currently beyound our reach.
Of course it didn't suit the opponents of CGT, who wanted people to think it was Mum and Dad's modest retirement crib, that would get hit.
Some people should have two places earning more in appreciation than most do in a year. And some should have their lives dependent on the character of their landlord.
The family baches I've had experience at either stayed in the family or cost on book-a-bach. Not sure why a capital gains tax would worry anyone in either of those situations.
Lets run Wayne's story again:
A: oh no I'm living in a car or a mouldy overpriced rental.
B: oh no, I may have to pay some tax on the goldmine bach I finally conned nana into agreeing to sell.
Not much of a tricky moral dilemma for most of us.
Blame the PM and "her tricky moral dilemma". She was the one who canned CGT. I was simply speculating on one of the reasons that she did. Incidentally I don’t own a holiday home.
" I wouldn't be surprised if it was a National Government that eventually does it."
AKA Nixon to China …
Eventually a party will announce that while they certainly do not want a CGT, because that's BAD, they are however prepared to consider a "land transfer levy" or "property purchase adjustment" or whatever else they can find in the dictionary.
Thinking on Anzac Day that we need a new name for it now that Australia does not view us as an equal ally but a doormat with Welcome on it. I wonder what name we should give this day of remembrance in the 20th century? WANZ Day for World and New Zealand Day?
And can we extend that to mean being kindly connected to the world, instead of wielding war on it as hapless tools of nations behaving viciously because they can. Bring in a better Colombo Plan, first started in 1951. However not sufficient to prevent a dreadful civil war in Sri Lanka 1983-2009. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colombo_Plan
Let's hear more about the VSA – NZ Volunteer Service Abroad getting national media coverage not secondary to the latest school shooting in the USA. https://vsa.org.nz/volunteer/
Ad's perfectly correct. Not only does NZ freeload off the Aussies, we drift along in the wake of wider global US security blanket as well. And even that's sliding off the bed as we speak.
At most NZ talks up a commitment to multi-lateralism (Helen Clark's favourite word) but with the UN coming apart at the seams it's not clear what exact value lies in that direction.
Other than our FTA with China and various other bilateral trade deals there isn't much else on the table that's obvious. Essentially NZ seems to be relying on a combination of remoteness and relative obscurity to fly below everyone's radar. But all modern maps have NZ clearly mapped nowadays and it's a lazy policy that one day may well bite us in the arse.
Ad is correct, is he? But he didn't actually provide any evidence—although judging by your comments, National Party talking points are good enough, and no further debate is necessary.
there isn't much evidence of NZ having a comprehensive and visionary foreign policy.
????
Perhaps you've heard of our principled refusal to allow nuclear ships into our waters? Perhaps you've heard of our sending ships with cabinet members on board to prevent a rogue state detonating nuclear bombs in the South Pacific? Perhaps you've heard of our government leading a U.N. resolution against another rogue state in 2016?
Perhaps you've heard of our principled refusal to allow nuclear ships into our waters?
Yes it seemed a good idea at the time. The ban on nuclear power was always just virtue signalling. The ban on nuclear weapons however simply irked the nation on whom we ultimately depended on for security. The only reason why we got away with it was because the idea never looked like spreading elsewhere and ultimately the USA didn't care about us that much.
In my view NZ has from a security perspective has freeloaded on our remoteness and the fact that any potential hostile nations all have other more pressing priorities than us, for decades. But push come to shove, we're utterly helpless on our own, but we obdurately refuse to own a fact that isn't lost on either Australia nor the USA.
The ban on nuclear power was always just virtue signalling.
Enough already with the National Party talking points.
… irked the nation on whom we ultimately depended on for security.
????? You obviously don't know, but when we depended on other nations to help us counter the French regime, first in 1973, then in 1985, the United States went out of its way to side with France, and not us.
However, despite the hostility and obstructiveness of the U.S., and the uselessness of its Australian vassal, we did fine, tracking down and trying the terrorists responsible for the attack on the Rainbow Warrior.
A dated [Sept 2006], well-researched article on differences (and commonalities) between NZ and Australia. ‘Freeloading‘ gets a mention, “virtue-signalling” not so much.
From the Pacific: A New Zealand perspective on Australia's strategic role
"It is inconceivable Australia would risk rupture with the United States as New Zealand did. It was inconceivable that New Zealand could have joined the Iraq invasion without severe political ructions."
"One the commonest complaints in Canberra through that decade [the 1990s] was that New Zealand was freeloading on Australia."
"One the commonest complaints in Canberra through that decade [the 1990s] was that New Zealand was freeloading on Australia."
Drowsy, that highly partisan and dodgy statement was written by Colin James, who was notorious as a government stenographer.
That claim that Australia regarded NZ as a "freeloader" was also made, about the same time as James's article, on television by the Canterbury University academic Therese Arseneau. The host of the show, Paul Holmes, then said this: "You know, I talked to the chief of the Australian Defence Force just this week, and I put that to him. He said that nobody in the Australian top brass has ever said that. It's a myth." Arseneau, stopped in her tracks, nearly dried up with mortification.
You're probably correct, KJT. As shown all too plainly by the less than thorough investigation into the actions of NZ troops in Afghanistan, New Zealand military chiefs are not noted for their honesty.
Morrissey, to be fair to James, he was writing (in 2006) about 'Canberra complaints' made in the 1990s, a period some 10 – 20 years prior to that April 2009 Q+A panel discussion between Holmes, Arseneau, Bob Harvey and Ron Mark.
"You know, I talked to the chief of the Australian Defence Force just this week, and I put that to him. He said that nobody in the Australian top brass has ever said that."
Have you got a link for your quote (above), because this is all I could find – not quite the same, and hardly surprising
PAUL "Actually you know [NZ] Air Vice Marshal Bruce Fergusson when he stepped aside – he said it's nonsense that we've taken the bludgers option he said no Defence personnel from Canada the United States Britain or Australia have ever said anything like that to him." https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO0904/S00242.htm
Thanks so much, Drowsy! I've been looking for that episode and never tracked it down! It appears my memory was faulty—it was a New Zealand military man cited by Paul Holmes, and not an Australian one as I thought. Sadly, the transcript doesn't capture Therese Arseneau's embarrassment.
Wars waged basically by adventurous youth, are supposed to be winners under the command of competent Generals and Senior Officers. Complete with maps and routes and Good Artillery.
But the ANZAC youth didn't have any idea of that. They did not know even which steep hills to clamber. Which ridges.
And so our ANZAC Youth scrambled this way and that way, and got slaughtered up and down Gallipolli. So Sickening.
All because the enemy turned out to be a sloppy British Military Mob. Who knew nothing.
Whilst the clean cut Turks Military Command with its Extensive regional knowledge carried out their deadly efficient Duties. Hundreds of Kiwis Slaughtered. Many injured.
Sometimes I wonder about the English. The Great Imperial Britain had everything. It still Struts and puffs. It slops around about Brexit. It doesn't worry about its' numerous Poor. It's Health is under Funded.
Britain should try harder. It has done nothing for all its Colonies. And very little for the Common man.
I'm also not inclined to click through without an introduction. I suspect you were trying to post a youtube vid but your URL got caught in FB's outgoing link mess. You're welcome to try again, but even youtubes that display some content in a post are better with an explanation of why they're a must watch.
Japan’s northern island of Hokkaido offers a grim lesson in the next phase of the battle against COVID-19. It acted quickly and contained an early outbreak of the coronavirus with a 3-week lockdown. But, when the governor lifted restrictions, a second wave of infections hit even harder. Twenty-six days later, the island was forced back into lockdown.
A doctor who helped coordinate the government response says he wishes they’d done things differently. “Now I regret it, we should not have lifted the first state of emergency,” Dr. Kiyoshi Nagase, chairman of the Hokkaido Medical Association, tells TIME.
Hokkaido’s story is a sobering reality check for leaders across the world as they consider easing coronavirus lockdowns: Experts say restrictions were lifted too quickly and too soon because of pressure from local businesses, coupled with a false sense of security in its declining infection rate.
Testing and contact tracing aside…we're told that asymptomatic people can infect others.
But is that term being used to denote a person who hasn't yet exhibited symptoms, or a person who will not exhibit symptoms?
Or are there pre-symptomatic carriers of infection as well as asymptomatic carriers of infection?
If there are asymptomatic carriers of infection, are we looking at anything along the lines of herpes that can flare up in an infected person years from now? Given that a person with a herpes outbreak obviously exhibits symptoms and is only contagious while symptoms persist….
But maybe 'asymptomatic' is just a lax use of terminology where pre-symptomatic would be more accurate?
There is indeed distinction between asymptomatic and pre-symptomatic.
Fears of asymptomatic carriers transmitting the disease appear to be receding.
There are few reports of laboratory-confirmed cases who are truly asymptomatic, and to date, there has been no documented asymptomatic transmission. This does not exclude the possibility that it may occur. Asymptomatic cases have been reported as part of contact tracing efforts in some countries.
However, pre-symptomatic transmission appears to have happened in a significant number of cases.
In a small number of case reports and studies, pre-symptomatic transmission has been documented through contact tracing efforts and enhanced investigation of clusters of confirmed cases.12-17 This is supported by datasuggestingthat some people can test positive for COVID-19 from 1-3 days before they develop symptoms. (from WHO link above)
It's unclear how many asymptomatic are in fact presymptomatic. There's the study linked below saying many of those initially classed as asymptomatic in a rest home study were actually presymptomatic. I've got tickling in the back of my head that I read something similar for the sailors aboard the USS Roosevelt
There's also the question of those testing positive for the virus some time after they have nominally recovered. It's unclear whether those test results indicate the presence of live virus that could still re-infect and/or transmit to someone else, or if the test is just detecting the remains of virus corpses that have been dealt to by the immune system.
I have yet to see any reports of someone that has been considered recovered, with several days symptom free and two or more negative tests, falling ill with COVID a second time.
edit: here’s a fairly recent piece from Siouxsie Wiles on the asymptomatic/presymptomatic question.
Thanks Andre. The USS Roosevelt stuff is mentioned in the Spinoff link.
From a further link running off the Spin-off piece, it seems NZ is testing for the virus but not anti-bodies…which just raises further questions vis a vis eventual total mapping of where the virus is and has been.
At least (as far as I can figure) testing for the virus rather than for anti-bodies should pick up all pre-symptomatic cases.
Sunshine and cigarettes are 'the go' apparently. (Vit D and nicotine 'they' say) I'm hoping for the tri-fecta, and so on the lookout for anything on the medicinal properties of top shelf alcohol so as to be passing me some purposefully lazy 'n hazy days 🙂
Yes, in NZ we are testing for the virus (strictly speaking we are testing for bits of viral RNA that are unique to SARS-CoV-2). That's because we're still in the mode of finding people who actually have the disease and might transmit it to others.
When it comes to antibody testing, that's useful to find people that have had it. Well, it would be if we could have confidence in the tests. At the moment, there seems to be a lot of doubt over whether any of the tests are any good. Questions have been raised whether the antibodies being detected by at least some tests are cold coronavirus antibodies, not COVID coronavirus antibodies. Antibody tests are not much good for detecting people who currently have the infection, early in the course of the disease you'll have a high viral load but bugger-all or zero detectable antibodies.
When it comes to the effects of alcohol on COVID, go ahead and choose who you want to believe. The World Health Organisation or Trump Golf?
At least (as far as I can figure) testing for the virus rather than for anti-bodies should pick up all pre-symptomatic cases.
Nope. Everyone kind of have to be pedantic about this type of stuff because otherwise you have boneheads like Trump getting gullible people pouring bleach down their throats, or fools smoking or drinking themselves to death based on probabilities that they can’t assess for risk.
It depends if the swab picks up viruses where the swab is, in the throat or nasal cavity. Generally what they’re after if the people who are shedding newly manufactured covid-19 viruses in the upper of lower respiratory tract.
There are multiple causes of false positive and negatives with that. I’ll ignore the false positives because most of them aren’t relevant.
It takes between 1 and about 5 days before people start shedding viruses after being infected. So tests would need to be repeated regularly to say definitively that someone wasn’t infected after possible exposure at the respiratory system.
People seem to be able to be infected in the digestive tract as well. This appears to be the cause of diarrhea symptoms. No one really seems to know what is happening with that. As far as I’m aware there is no evidence that this always results in a respiratory infection that could be picked up by a upper respiratory system swab.
There is some evidence that indicates people can get blood stream infections as well (evidenced by blot clots). As far as I’m aware there is no evidence that this always results in a respiratory infection that could be picked up by a upper respiratory system swab.
etc..
Generally biological infection systems are pretty hard to pin down to definites. Mostly you just have to define them with statistical probabilities of a particular type of event happening, and when you look at medical literature you’ll find the probabilistic and tight definitions are the norm. That is because probabilities are the basic way of all biological life and damn near everything else. Determinism is more of an artifact of people wanting simplifications than any kind of reality.
Finished of The Crucible of Time last night. Engaging and thoughtful, good read. I just couldn't make up my mind of the 'folk's' biology was derived from an insect or plant model … both seemed possible.
I still have to re-read it. The last memory was from well before I got rid of my paper books in 2012. But I brought it last night along with “The Sheep Look Up” and “The Jagged Orbit” in a set.
Fine. Limited by the test's efficacy. Quite unlike an antibody one that's looking for an indicator that won't necessarily be there at the time of testing.
Yup, the test result is limited by where and when the sample was taken, as explained by Lynne, and also how. Taking a sample takes a certain level of skill and experience, and then the sample is handled and transported, and processed. The actual PCR test is the final step in the process.
To detect past infections, which is important for understanding the development and spread of the virus, real time RT-PCR cannot be used as viruses are only present in the body for a specific window of time. Other methods are necessary to detect, track and study past infections, particularly those that may have developed and spread without symptoms.
That is because probabilities are the basic way of all biological life
Which is always problematic (almost surely) eg Monod.(chance and necessity)
“Among all the occurrences possible in the universe the a priori probability of any particular one of them verges upon zero. Yet the universe exists; particular events must take place in it, the probability of which (before the event) was infinitesimal. At the present time we have no legitimate grounds for either asserting or denying that life got off to but a single start on earth, and that, as a consequence, before it appeared its chances of occurring were next to nil. … Destiny is written concurrently with the event, not prior to it… The universe was not pregnant with life nor the biosphere with man. Our number came up in the Monte Carlo game. Is it surprising that, like the person who has just made a million at the casino, we should feel strange and a little unreal?”
“It necessarily follows that chance alone is at the source of every innovation, and of all creation in the biosphere. Pure chance, absolutely free but blind, at the very root of the stupendous edifice of evolution: this central concept of modern biology is no longer one among many other possible or even conceivable hypotheses. It is today the sole conceivable hypothesis, the only one that squares with observed and tested fact. And nothing warrants the supposition – or the hope – that on this score our position is ever likely to be revised. There is no scientific concept, in any of the sciences, more destructive of anthropocentrism than this one.”
Indeed. Of course there is the multiverse probabilities as well. Move the forces of physics a tweak and the universe doesn't suffer some of those outside probabilities like long-life stars, or chemical reactions.
In an article in sciencemag.org, frontline clinicians caring for the five per cent who become critically ill are forming a “fast-evolving” snapshot of how it attacks different organs in different coronavirus patients.
“(The disease) can attack almost anything in the body with devastating consequences,” Yale University cardiologist Harlan Krumholz told ScienceMag. “Its ferocity is breathtaking and humbling.”
Clinicians and pathologists are only just coming to grips with the damage coronavirus causes as it tears through the human body.
Although the lungs “are ground zero” doctors are realising the disease’s reach can extend to many organs including the brain, heart and blood vessels, kidneys and gut.
Understanding the rampage it wreaks will help doctors in COVID-19 wards treat the small number who become desperately ill and sometimes die.
On reading this I can't help but wonder if all those asymptomatic or trivial cases aren't being set up for a much more serious sequel episode some months or years down the track.
Yes the science seems to be all over the place, the virus a very cheeky little monkey. Once a respiratory ailment and now creating stroke inducing blood clots.
The storyteller in me wants to start a yarn that places the virus in the hands of the CCP 20 years ago and they've spent the last 2 decades creating an effective remedy.
Moving down from Level 4 to 3 should not be seen as the end of the effort to beat this bastard bug, but as a transition to the next phase in the fight.
Lockdown is not the most efficient tool in our arsenal, but it was the one that was immediately to hand when the crisis hit. It essentially bought us time to get a reliable test and trace capacity in place.
The only reason why National/ACT and their supporters oppose "helicopter cash" is because poor people would get it, and they would be able to pay their bills.
(Then they proceed to complain that their tenants dont pay their rent).
“We believe we should be moving as quickly as we safely can to open up the border,” Goldsmith told interest.co.nz; also criticising the Government for being too slow to close to the border in the first place.
Goldsmith pointed to the restrictiveness of Level 3, but wouldn’t explicitly say what alert level he believed the country should be at right now, or when the alert levels should change."
I despise and detest the National Party and its inept, immoral "leaders"—but I'll bet a large amount of money that they're in better shape than the disgusting, discredited, demoralized rabble that the British Labour Party has been reduced to.
The discussion was about a party in disarray. I pointed to an example of a party in even worse—far worse—disarray than National. I concede that the two parties are separated by 12,000 miles or so, but surely there are some parallels to be noted.
[The discussion was about a specific party, the National Party of NZ. If you wanted to draw parallels and play whataboutery, you should have started your own thread. When comparing apples with oranges, there are parallels too, so this is a red herring trying to divert from your diversion – Incognito]
How does NZ realign its financial market with the real economy (in a world that is intent on increasing the disconnect) without destroying its currency value….especially when it has lost (for the foreseeable) 20% of its export receipts and its other main foreign exchange source is at output capacity?
'some' drop in the dollar is inflationary, especially when your export receipt capacity has just been decimated and you had an already negative trade balance…it is a recipe for stagflation.
Granted there will be a deflationary impact from reduced demand worldwide but that reduced demand also impacts our exports…. and substitute industries dont appear overnight.
We need to realign asset values with the economy and that requires someone taking a hit….and a good proportion of those someones are offshore who may decide NZD is more trouble than its worth, especially when other players are bending over backwards (or more honestly, frontwards) to ensure they do not…that 'some' drop could easily become very large.
Ultimately its going to end very badly but we are almost trapped into playing along….unless we decide its better to take the hit now rather than later.
No it wont be pretty, either way…but there are added risks in rowing against the tide, at least in the short term….and short term thinking predominates.
Granted there will be a deflationary impact from reduced demand worldwide but that reduced demand also impacts our exports…. and substitute industries dont appear overnight.
In NZ companies are often small enough,with a mixed client base to be able to switch markets,they have better flexibility.
the larger processors also switched from supplying fast food to exporting supermarket product (in large quantities)
This was also seen in toilet paper demand with large monoculture commercial production lines in the US and europe being idled, whilst capacity constraints were observed in the retail market.
yes there can be advantages in being small and nimble….and we will need to be all of that regardless.
My main concern is we will make the same mistake as the US and bail out investors maintaining the disconnect. With the exception of Air NZ which the gov (we) currently own 52% of we havnt made that decision but the pressure to do so mounts daily.
I have no problem maintaining a strategic asset such as AirNZ especially as we are likely to increase our holding and its vital to maintain trade links, the same dosnt apply to all assets.
I agree,if we are required to bail out the investors,through wage substitution etc,we also should have a say on how that (nz taxpayers) money should be used.One example would be through the prohibition of dividends for a fixed period as the RBNZ has used with the Banks.
This would essentially maintain liquidity with companies,by increasing capital.Companies that were able such as COVID 19 proof organisations such as telecoms and utilities could use that to repay debt,or fund capital projects.
Yes the dividend halt a good move..as was requiring the underwritten loans being determined on the basis of viability (though courageous)…but as noted the pressure for more mounts.
Requiring the same for bailed out companies is reasonable but still needs to be on a basis of expected viability…no point in flogging a dead horse.
Then there is the property market…theyve been staunch to date but again the pressure mounts…the same possibly going to appear in the rural sector, especially if commodity prices come under extended pressure (as I expect they will)
I could foresee a substantial increase in HNZ stock
In New Haven, meanwhile, Dr. Joseph Vinetz, an infectious disease doctor at Yale School of Medicine, is seeking to launch a clinical study of the drug camostat mesylate, a generic medication approved in Japan to treat chronic pancreatitis that he hopes can be approved and marketed to treat COVID-19. If the trial succeeds, he said, this could be ”a total game changer.” But the process is proving fraught. Within hours of registering his trial on a National Institutes of Health website on April 20, he received an email from a large U.S. pharmaceutical company. “They are trying to take my project and engulf it for their proprietary [financial] gain,” Vinetz told me. “I take that email as a threat.”
It is going to take a lot of PR to polish the turd that is this current coalition. The kingmaker Peters about to be finally nailed by the Serious Fraud Squad,the greens out building electric railways and the minister of unemployment Willie Jackson and his mates Dr Clark and Tywford rattling on about things they know nothing about. Smell the roses guys . It will be the economy that wakes up NZ from their Stockholm syndrome from where I am sitting.
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
Good clip Bruce, Bill's talk left me with little argument against what he had to say. My animal intake continues to decline. My T-Bone derived pleasure is waning.
I watched Tiger King, they outlawed touring freak-shows, it's a human thing.
Jacinda is toast for the reasons you mention and Bridges is tarred with the same brush. The labour caucus does not have the talent to even help to fix the mess Ardern has inficted on NZ. She has fucked the economy and hasn't a clue on how to fix it.Fasten your seatbelt folks,the approaching turbulence will be tooth chattering.
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
Most of us were asking for an empathetic guiding leader that relied heavily on science. We got Cindy and Ash and an awful lot of us are very pleased we did.
The future, yep, it's unknown but given what's happened so far, I think most of us are happy to stick with this horse midstream.
I think Ashley B makes about 500k a year. At last, someone on mega bucks that's worth the spend.
…wonder what he spends it on? Nice house, yeah, but he's not a Ferrari kinda guy. I think he'd like a nice gourmet cheese and Florence. I guess Italy is going to be off the menu for a while. Come and see us up in Northland in the spring Dr B, we'll get you onto the snapper sweet-spots.
No relation to policts, but here is a Bluegrass cover of Thunderstruck by AC/DC. Steve'n'Seagulls are based in Finland. It's just a bit of fun, but they are clearly talented musicians with a sense of humour.
Where can I forward your fresh turds- to replace the ones you gobbled up last night and the night before ?
Do your children enjoy Turds too ? I guess you ram them down their young throats –
Just as you ram your pitiful obscenities down our five senses. Grow up !
[Grow up yourself! We don’t need this turd-slinging BS competition but you tend to take that one step further, crossing the line again, and make personal insults. I don’t know if Ian has any children but your comment about his children was unacceptable IMO. Take a week off – Incognito]
Graham Adams writes about the $55m media fund — When Patrick Gower was asked by Mike Hosking last week what he would say to the many Newstalk ZB callers who allege the Labour government bribed media with $55 million of taxpayers’ money via the Public Interest Journalism Fund — and ...
Note: this blog post has been put together over the course of the week I followed the happenings at the conference virtually. Should recordings of the Great Debates and possibly Union Symposia mentioned below, be released sometime after the conference ends, I'll include links to the ones I participated in. ...
The following was my submission made on the “Fast Track Approvals Bill”. This potential law will give three Ministers unchecked powers, un-paralled since the days of Robert Muldoon’s “Think Big” projects.The submission is written a bit tongue-in-cheek. But it’s irreverent because the FTAB is in itself not worthy of respect. ...
One Could Reduce Child Poverty At No Fiscal CostFollowing the Richardson/Shipley 1990 ‘redesign of the welfare state’ – which eliminated the universal Family Benefit and doubled the rate of child poverty – various income supplements for families have been added, the best known being ‘Working for Families’, introduced in 2005. ...
Buzz from the Beehive A few days ago, Point of Order suggested the media must be musing “on why Melissa is mute”. Our article reported that people working in the beleaguered media industry have cause to yearn for a minister as busy as Melissa Lee’s ministerial colleagues and we drew ...
1. What was The Curse of Jim Bolger?a. Winston Peters b. Soon after shaking his hand, world leaders would mysteriously lose office or shuffle off this mortal coilc. Could never shake off the Mother of All Budgetsd. Dandruff2. True or false? The Chairman of a Kiwi export business has asked the ...
Jack Vowles writes – New Zealand is said to be suffering from ‘serious populist discontent’. An IPSOS MORI survey has reported that we have an increasing preference for strong leaders, think that the economy is rigged toward the rich and powerful, and political elites are ignoring ‘hard-working people’. ...
Chris Trotter writes – MELISSA LEE should be deprived of her ministerial warrant. Her handling – or non-handling – of the crisis engulfing the New Zealand news media has been woeful. The fate of New Zealand’s two linear television networks, a question which the Minister of Broadcasting, Communications ...
TL;DR: The podcast above features co-hosts and , along with regular guests Robert Patman on Gaza and AUKUS II, and on climate change.The six things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the ...
Policymakers rarely wish to make plain or visible their desire to dismantle environmental policy, least of all to the young. Photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: Here’s the top five news items of note in climate news for Aotearoa-NZ this week, and a discussion above between Bernard Hickey and The Kākā’s climate correspondent ...
I like to keep an eye on what’s happening in places like the UK, the US, and over the ditch with our good mates the Aussies. Let’s call them AUKUS, for want of a better collective term. More on that in a bit.It used to be, not long ago, that ...
TL;DR: The global economy will be one fifth smaller than it would have otherwise been in 2050 as a result of climate damage, according to a new study by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) and published in the journal Nature. (See more detail and analysis below, and ...
New Zealand is said to be suffering from ‘serious populist discontent’. An IPSOS MORI survey has reported that we have an increasing preference for strong leaders, think that the economy is rigged toward the rich and powerful, and political elites are ignoring ‘hard-working people’. The data is from February this ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters is understood to be planning a major speech within the next fortnight to clear up the confusion over whether or not New Zealand might join the AUKUS submarine project. So far, there have been conflicting signals from the Government. RNZ reported the Prime Minister yesterday in ...
Life throws curveballs, and sometimes, those curveballs necessitate wiping your iPhone clean and starting anew. Whether you’re facing persistent software glitches, preparing to sell your device, or simply wanting a fresh start, knowing how to factory reset iPhone without a computer is a valuable skill. While using a computer with ...
Gone are the days when communication was limited to landline phones and physical proximity. Today, computers have become powerful tools for connecting with people across the globe through voice and video calls. But with a plethora of applications and methods available, how to call someone on a computer might seem ...
Open access notables Glacial isostatic adjustment reduces past and future Arctic subsea permafrost, Creel et al., Nature Communications:Sea-level rise submerges terrestrial permafrost in the Arctic, turning it into subsea permafrost. Subsea permafrost underlies ~ 1.8 million km2 of Arctic continental shelf, with thicknesses in places exceeding 700 m. Sea-level variations over glacial-interglacial cycles control ...
The operating system (OS) is the heart and soul of a computer, orchestrating every action and interaction between hardware and software. But have you ever wondered where on a computer is the operating system generally stored? The answer lies in the intricate dance between hardware and software components, particularly within ...
Laptops have become essential tools for work, entertainment, and communication, offering portability and functionality. However, with rising energy costs and growing environmental concerns, understanding a laptop’s power consumption is more important than ever. So, how many watts does a laptop use? The answer, unfortunately, isn’t straightforward. It depends on several ...
Screen recording has become an essential tool for various purposes, such as creating tutorials, capturing gameplay footage, recording online meetings, or sharing information with others. Fortunately, Dell laptops offer several built-in and external options for screen recording, catering to different needs and preferences. This guide will explore various methods on ...
A cracked or damaged laptop screen can be a frustrating experience, impacting productivity and enjoyment. Fortunately, laptop screen repair is a common service offered by various repair shops and technicians. However, the cost of fixing a laptop screen can vary significantly depending on several factors. This article delves into the ...
Gaming laptops represent a significant investment for passionate gamers, offering portability and powerful performance for immersive gaming experiences. However, a common concern among potential buyers is their lifespan. Unlike desktop PCs, which allow for easier component upgrades, gaming laptops have inherent limitations due to their compact and integrated design. This ...
The annual inventory report of New Zealand's greenhouse gas emissions has been released, showing that gross emissions have dropped for the third year in a row, to 78.4 million tons: All-told gross emissions have decreased by over 6 million tons since the Zero Carbon Act was passed in 2019. ...
Experiencing a locked computer can be frustrating, especially when you need access to your files and applications urgently. The methods to unlock your computer will vary depending on the specific situation and the type of lock you encounter. This guide will explore various scenarios and provide step-by-step instructions on how ...
While the world has largely transitioned to digital communication, faxing still holds relevance in certain industries and situations. Fortunately, gone are the days of bulky fax machines and dedicated phone lines. Today, you can easily send and receive faxes directly from your computer, offering a convenient and efficient way to ...
In our increasingly digital world, home computers have become essential tools for work, communication, entertainment, and more. However, this increased reliance on technology also exposes us to various cyber threats. Understanding these threats and taking proactive steps to protect your home computer is crucial for safeguarding your personal information, finances, ...
In the ever-evolving world of technology, server-based computing has emerged as a cornerstone of modern digital infrastructure. This article delves into the concept of server-based computing, exploring its various forms, benefits, challenges, and its impact on the way we work and interact with technology. Understanding Server-Based Computing: At its core, ...
The absolute brass neck of this guy.We want more medical doctors, not more spin doctors, Luxon was saying a couple of weeks ago, and now we’re told the guy has seven salaried adults on TikTok duty. Sorry, doing social media. The absolute brass neck of it. The irony that the ...
Buzz from the Beehive Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones relishes spatting and eagerly takes issue with environmentalists who criticise his enthusiasm for resource development. He relishes helping the fishing industry too. And so today, while the media are making much of the latest culling in the public service to ...
Having written, taught and worked for the US government on issues involving unconventional warfare and terrorism for 30-odd years, two things irritate me the most when the subject is discussed in public. The first is the Johnny-come-lately academics-turned-media commentators who … Continue reading → ...
Eric Crampton writes – Kainga Ora is the government’s house building agency. It’s been building a lot of social housing. Kainga Ora has its own (but independent) consenting authority, Consentium. It’s a neat idea. Rather than have to deal with building consents across each different territorial authority, Kainga Ora ...
Muriel Newman writes – The Coalition Government says it is moving with speed to deliver campaign promises and reverse the damage done by Labour. One of their key commitments is to “defend the principle that New Zealanders are equal before the law.” To achieve this, they have pledged they “will not advance ...
Chris Trotter writes – The absence of anything resembling a fightback from the public servants currently losing their jobs is interesting. State-sector workers’ collective fatalism in the face of Coalition cutbacks indicates a surprisingly broad acceptance of impermanence in the workplace. Fifty years ago, lay-offs in the thousands ...
Mariupol, on the Azov Sea coast, was one of the first cities to suffer almost complete destruction after the start of the Ukraine War started in late February 2022. We remember the scenes of absolute destruction of the houses and city structures. The deaths of innocent civilians – many of ...
Lindsay Mitchell writes – Ten years ago, I wrote the following in a Listener column: Every year around one in five new-born babies will be reliant on their caregivers benefit by Christmas. This pattern has persisted from at least 1993. For Maori the number jumps to over one in three. ...
Climate change is expected to generate more and more extreme events, delivering a sort of structural shock to inflation that central banks will have to react to as if they were short-term cyclical issues. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāMy pick of the six newsey things to know from Aotearoa’s ...
It’s a simple deal. We pay taxes in order to finance the social services we want and need. The carnage now occurring across the public sector though, is breaking that contract. Over 3,000 jobs have been lost so far. Many are in crucial areas like Education where the impact of ...
Hi,A friend had their 40th over the weekend and decided to theme it after Curb Your Enthusiasm fashion icon Susie Greene. Captured in my tiny kitchen before I left the house, I ending up evoking a mix of old lesbian and Hillary Clinton — both unintentional.Me vs Hillary ClintonIf you’re ...
This is a re-post from Andrew Dessler at the Climate Brink blogIn 2023, the Earth reached temperature levels unprecedented in modern times. Given that, it’s reasonable to ask: What’s going on? There’s been lots of discussions by scientists about whether this is just the normal progression of global warming or if something ...
The schools are on holiday and the sun is shining in the seaside village and all day long I have been seeing bunches of bikes; Mums, Dads, teens and toddlers chattering, laughing, happy, having a bloody great time together. Cheers, AT, for the bits of lane you’ve added lately around the ...
Today in our National-led authoritarian nightmare: Shane Jones thinks Ministers should be above the law: New Zealand First MP Shane Jones is accusing the Waitangi Tribunal of over-stepping its mandate by subpoenaing a minister for its urgent hearing on the Oranga Tamariki claim. The tribunal is looking into the ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Politicians across the political spectrum are implicated in the New Zealand media’s failing health. Either through neglect or incompetent interventions, successive governments have failed to regulate, foster, and allow a healthy Fourth Estate that can adequately hold politicians and the powerful to account. ...
Citizen Science writes – Last week saw two significant developments in the debate over the treatment of trans-identifying children and young people – the release in Britain of the final report of Dr Hilary Cass’s review into gender healthcare, and here in New Zealand, the news that the ...
One night while sleeping in my bed I had a beautiful dreamThat all the people of the world got together on the same wavelengthAnd began helping one anotherNow in this dream, universal love was the theme of the dayPeace and understanding and it happened this wayAfter such an eventful day ...
This is a guest post by Oscar Simms who is a housing activist, volunteer for the Coalition for More Homes, and was the Labour Party candidate for Auckland Central at the last election. ...
Turning what Labour called the “holiday highway” into a four-lane expressway from Auckland to Whangarei could bring at least an economic benefit of nearly two billion a year for Northland each year. And it could help bring an end to poverty in one of New Zealand’s most deprived regions. The ...
Tonight’s six-stack includes: launching his substack with a bunch of his previous documentaries, including this 1992 interview with Dame Whina Cooper. and here crew give climate activists plenty to do, including this call to submit against the Fast Track Approvals bill. writes brilliantly here on his substack ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
You're in the mall when you hear it: some kind of popping sound in the distance, kids with fireworks, maybe. But then a moment of eerie stillness is followed by more of the fireworks sound and there’s also screaming and shrieking and now here come people running for their lives.Does ...
Karl du Fresne writes – There’s a crisis in the news media and the media are blaming it on everyone except themselves. Culpability is being deflected elsewhere – mainly to the hapless Minister of Communications, Melissa Lee, and the big social media platforms that are accused of hoovering ...
I don’t normally send out two newsletters in a day but I figured I’d say something about… the news. If two newsletters is a bit much then maybe just skip one, I don’t want to overload people. Alternatively if you’d be interested in sometimes receiving multiple, smaller updates from me, ...
Buzz from the Beehive David Seymour and Winston Peters today signalled that at least two ministers of the Crown might be in Wellington today. Seymour (as Associate Minister of Education) announced the removal of more red tape, this time to make it easier for new early learning services to be ...
Politicians across the political spectrum are implicated in the New Zealand media’s failing health. Either through neglect or incompetent interventions, successive governments have failed to regulate, foster, and allow a healthy Fourth Estate that can adequately hold politicians and the powerful to account. Our political system is suffering from the ...
David Farrar writes – The Broadcasting Standards Authority ruled: Comments by radio host Kate Hawkesby suggesting Māori and Pacific patients were being prioritised for surgery due to their ethnicity were misleading and discriminatory, the Broadcasting Standards Authority has found. It is a fact such patients are prioritised. ...
PRC and its proxies in Solomons have been preparing for these elections for a long time.A lot of money, effort and intelligence have gone into ensuring an outcome that won’t compromise Beijing’s plans. Cleo Paskall writes – On April 17th the Solomon Islands, a country of ...
Is speeding up the trip to and from Wellington airport by 12 minutes worth spending up more than $10 billion? Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The six news items that stood out to me in the last day to 8:26 am today are:The Lead: Transport Minister Simeon Brownannounced ...
You're a fraud, and you know itBut it's too good to throw it all awayAnyone would do the sameYou've got 'em goingAnd you're careful not to show itSometimes you even fool yourself a bitIt's like magicBut it's always been a smoke and mirrors gameAnyone would do the sameForty six billion ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections The June general election in Mexico could mark a turning point in ensuring that the country’s climate policies better reflect the desire of its citizens to address the climate crisis, with both leading presidential candidates expressing support for renewable energy. Mexico is the ...
2024, it feels, keeps presenting us with ever more challenges, ever more dismay.Do you give up yet? It seems to ask.No? How about this? Or this?How about this?When I say 2024 I really mean the state of humanity in 2024.Saturday night, we watched Civil War because that is one terrifying cliff we've ...
Buzz from the Beehive A pet project and governmental tunnel vision jump out from the latest batch of ministerial announcements. The government is keen to assure us of its concern for the wellbeing of our pets. It will be introducing pet bonds in a change to the Residential Tenancies Act ...
A recent report generated from a Growing Up in New Zealand (GUiNZ) survey of 1,224 rangatahi Māori aged 11-12 found: Cultural connectedness was associated with fewer depression symptoms, anxiety symptoms and better quality of life. That sounds cut and dry. But further into the report the following appears: Cultural connectedness is ...
David Farrar writes – The Herald reports: From the gory details of job-cuts news, you’d think the public service was being eviscerated. While the media’s view of the cuts is incomplete, it’s also true that departments have been leaking the particulars faster than a Wellington ...
Remember the good old days, back when New Zealand had a PM who could think and speak calmly and intelligently in whole sentences without blustering? Even while Iran’s drones and missiles were still being launched, Helen Clark was live on TVNZ expertly summing up the latest crisis in the Middle ...
Costello did not pass on analysis of the benefits of the smokefree reforms to Cabinet, emphasising instead the extra tax revenues of repealing them. Photo: Hagen Hopkins, Getty Images TL;DR: The six news items that stood out to me at 7:26 am today are:The Lead: Casey Costello never passed on ...
True loveYou're the one I'm dreaming ofYour heart fits me like a gloveAnd I'm gonna be true blueBaby, I love youI’ve written about the job cuts in our news media last week. The impact on individuals, and the loss to Aotearoa of voices covering our news from different angles.That by ...
While commentators, including former Prime Minister Helen Clark, are noting a subtle shift in New Zealand’s foreign policy, which now places more emphasis on the United States, many have missed a key element of the shift. What National said before the election is not what the government is doing now. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
The Green Party has today launched a step-by-step guide to help New Zealanders make their voice heard on the Government’s democracy dodging and anti-environment fast track legislation. ...
The National Government’s proposed changes to the Residential Tenancies Act will mean tenants can be turfed from their homes by landlords with little notice, Labour housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty said. ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson is calling on all parties to support a common-sense change that’s great for the planet and great for consumers after her member’s bill was drawn from the ballot today. ...
A significant milestone has been reached in the fight to strike an anti-Pasifika and unfair law from the country’s books after Teanau Tuiono’s members’ bill passed its first reading. ...
New Zealand has today missed the opportunity to uphold the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment, says James Shaw after his member’s bill was voted down in its first reading. ...
Today’s advice from the Climate Change Commission paints a sobering reality of the challenge we face in combating climate change, especially in light of recent Government policy announcements. ...
Minister for Disability Issues Penny Simmonds appears to have delayed a report back to Cabinet on the progress New Zealand is making against international obligations for disabled New Zealanders. ...
The Government’s newly announced review of methane emissions reduction targets hints at its desire to delay Aotearoa New Zealand’s urgent transition to a climate safe future, the Green Party said. ...
The Government must commit to the Maitai School building project for students with high and complex needs, to ensure disabled students from the top of the South Island have somewhere to learn. ...
Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey and his Government colleagues have made a meal of their mental health commitments, showing how flimsy their efforts to champion the issue truly are, says Labour Mental Health spokesperson Ingrid Leary. ...
Māori are yet to see anything from this Government except cuts, reversals and taking our people backwards, Māori Development spokesperson Willie Jackson said. ...
The Coalition Government’s refusal to commit to ongoing funding for social housing is seeing the sector pull back on developments and families watch their dreams of securing a home fade away, says Labour Housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty. ...
Changes to minimum wage and benefit indexation means many New Zealanders will get less this year, as the Government gives a big tax break to landlords instead. ...
New Zealand is demonstrating its commitment to reducing global greenhouse emissions, and supporting clean energy transition in South East Asia, through a contribution of NZ$41 million (US$25 million) in climate finance to the Asian Development Bank (ADB)-led Energy Transition Mechanism (ETM). Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Climate Change Minister Simon Watts announced ...
The Government is today releasing a list of organisations who received letters about the Fast-track applications process, says RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop. “Recently Ministers and agencies have received a series of OIA requests for a list of organisations to whom I wrote with information on applying to have a ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today announced the appointment of Wellington Barrister David Jonathan Boldt as a Judge of the High Court, and the Honourable Justice Matthew Palmer as a Judge of the Court of Appeal. Justice Boldt graduated with an LLB from Victoria University of Wellington in 1990, and also holds ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford will lead the New Zealand delegation at the 2024 International Summit on the Teaching Profession (ISTP) held in Singapore. The delegation includes representatives from the Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) Te Wehengarua and the New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) Te Riu Roa. The summit is co-hosted ...
A stopbank upgrade project in Tairawhiti partly funded by the Government has increased flood resilience for around 7000ha of residential and horticultural land so far, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones today attended a dawn service in Gisborne to mark the end of the first stage of the ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters will represent the Government at Anzac Day commemorations on the Gallipoli Peninsula next week and engage with senior representatives of the Turkish government in Istanbul. “The Gallipoli campaign is a defining event in our history. It will be a privilege to share the occasion ...
Science, Innovation and Technology and Defence Minister Judith Collins will next week attend the OECD Science and Technology Ministerial conference in Paris and Anzac Day commemorations in Belgium. “Science, innovation and technology have a major role to play in rebuilding our economy and achieving better health, environmental and social outcomes ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with the President of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The Prime Minister was accompanied by MP Paulo Garcia, the first Filipino to be elected to a legislature outside the Philippines. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon and President Marcos Jr discussed opportunities to ...
The Government has announced that $20 million in funding will be made available to Westport to fund much needed flood protection around the town. This measure will significantly improve the resilience of the community, says Local Government Minister Simeon Brown. “The Westport community has already been allocated almost $3 million ...
The Government is proud to support the first ever Repco Supercars Championship event in Taupō as up to 70,000 motorsport fans attend the Taupō International Motorsport Park this weekend, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. “Anticipation for the ITM Taupō Super400 is huge, with tickets and accommodation selling out weeks ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced an increase to the Rates Rebate Scheme, putting money back into the pockets of low-income homeowners. “The coalition Government is committed to bringing down the cost of living for New Zealanders. That includes targeted support for those Kiwis who are doing things tough, such ...
The Coalition Government is investing in a project to boost survival rates of New Zealand mussels and grow the industry, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones has announced. “This project seeks to increase the resilience of our mussels and significantly boost the sector’s productivity,” Mr Jones says. “The project - ...
Benefit figures released today underscore the importance of the Government’s plan to rebuild the economy and have 50,000 fewer people on Jobseeker Support, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “Benefit numbers are still significantly higher than when National was last in government, when there was about 70,000 fewer ...
The Government’s commitment to doubling New Zealand’s renewable energy capacity is backed by new data showing that clean energy has helped the country reach its lowest annual gross emissions since 1999, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand’s latest Greenhouse Gas Inventory (1990-2022) published today, shows gross emissions fell ...
The Government is bringing the earthquake-prone building review forward, with work to start immediately, and extending the deadline for remediations by four years, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “Our Government is focused on rebuilding the economy. A key part of our plan is to cut red tape that ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and his Thai counterpart, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, have today agreed that New Zealand and the Kingdom of Thailand will upgrade the bilateral relationship to a Strategic Partnership by 2026. “New Zealand and Thailand have a lot to offer each other. We have a strong mutual desire to build ...
RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop and Transport Minister Simeon Brown have today announced the Coalition Government’s intention to extend port coastal permits for a further 20 years, providing port operators with certainty to continue their operations. “The introduction of the Resource Management Act in 1991 required ports to obtain coastal ...
Today’s announcement that inflation is down to 4 per cent is encouraging news for Kiwis, but there is more work to be done - underlining the importance of the Government’s plan to get the economy back on track, acting Finance Minister Chris Bishop says. “Inflation is now at 4 per ...
Refreshed health guidance released today will help parents and schools make informed decisions about whether their child needs to be in school, addressing one of the key issues affecting school attendance, says Associate Education Minister David Seymour. In recent years, consistently across all school terms, short-term illness or medical reasons ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is streamlining high-level oceans management while maintaining a focus on supporting the sector’s role in the export-led recovery of the economy. “I am working to realise the untapped potential of our fishing and aquaculture sector. To achieve that we need to be smarter with ...
Associate Agriculture Minister Mark Patterson is speaking at the International Wool Textile Organisation Congress in Adelaide, promoting New Zealand wool, and outlining the coalition Government’s support for the revitalisation the sector. "New Zealand’s wool exports reached $400 million in the year to 30 June 2023, and the coalition Government ...
The Government is making legislative changes to make it easier for new early learning services to be established, and for existing services to operate, Associate Education Minister David Seymour says. The changes involve repealing the network approval provisions that apply when someone wants to establish a new early learning service, ...
Changes to the Resource Management Act will align consenting for coal mining to other forms of mining to reduce barriers that are holding back economic development, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The inconsistent treatment of coal mining compared with other extractive activities is burdensome red tape that fails to acknowledge ...
Trade, Agriculture and Forestry Minister Todd McClay has concluded productive discussions with ministerial counterparts in Beijing today, in support of the New Zealand-China trade and economic relationship. “My meeting with Commerce Minister Wang Wentao reaffirmed the complementary nature of the bilateral trade relationship, with our Free Trade Agreement at its ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon today paid tribute to Singapore’s outgoing Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. Meeting in Singapore today immediately before Prime Minister Lee announced he was stepping down, Prime Minister Luxon warmly acknowledged his counterpart’s almost twenty years as leader, and the enduring legacy he has left for Singapore and South East ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong. While in Singapore as part of his visit to South East Asia this week, Prime Minister Luxon also met with Singapore President Tharman Shanmugaratnam and will meet with Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has made further appointments to the Board of Antarctica New Zealand as part of a continued effort to ensure the Scott Base Redevelopment project is delivered in a cost-effective and efficient manner. The Minister has appointed Neville Harris as a new member of the Board. Mr ...
Finance Minister Nicola Willis will travel to the United States on Tuesday to attend a meeting of the Five Finance Ministers group, with counterparts from Australia, the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. “I am looking forward to meeting with our Five Finance partners on how we can work ...
The coalition Government has today announced purrfect and pawsitive changes to the Residential Tenancies Act to give tenants with pets greater choice when looking for a rental property, says Housing Minister Chris Bishop. “Pets are important members of many Kiwi families. It’s estimated that around 64 per cent of New ...
State Highway 1 (SH1) through Wellington City is heavily congested at peak times and while planning continues on the duplicate Mt Victoria Tunnel and Basin Reserve project, the Government has also asked NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) to consider and provide advice on a Long Tunnel option, Transport Minister Simeon Brown ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Foreign Minister Winston Peters have condemned Iran’s shocking and illegal strikes against Israel. “These attacks are a major challenge to peace and stability in a region already under enormous pressure," Mr Luxon says. "We are deeply concerned that miscalculation on any side could ...
Hundreds of people in little over a week have turned out in Northland to hear Regional Development Minister Shane Jones speak about plans for boosting the regional economy through infrastructure. About 200 people from the infrastructure and associated sectors attended an event headlined by Mr Jones in Whangarei today. Last ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti has today thanked outgoing Health New Zealand – Te Whatu Ora Chair Dame Karen Poutasi for her service on the Board. “Dame Karen tendered her resignation as Chair and as a member of the Board today,” says Dr Reti. “I have asked her to ...
The NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) has signalled their proposed delivery approach for the Government’s 15 Roads of National Significance (RoNS), with the release of the State Highway Investment Proposal (SHIP) today, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Boosting economic growth and productivity is a key part of the Government’s plan to ...
New Zealand is renewing its connections with a world facing urgent challenges by pursuing an active, energetic foreign policy, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “Our country faces the most unstable global environment in decades,” Mr Peters says at the conclusion of two weeks of engagements in Egypt, Europe and the United States. “We cannot afford to sit back in splendid ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has announced the Australian Governor-General, His Excellency General The Honourable David Hurley and his wife Her Excellency Mrs Linda Hurley, will make a State visit to New Zealand from Tuesday 16 April to Thursday 18 April. The visit reciprocates the State visit of former Governor-General Dame Patsy Reddy ...
Associate Health Minister David Seymour has announced that Medsafe has approved 11 cold and flu medicines containing pseudoephedrine. Pharmaceutical suppliers have indicated they may be able to supply the first products in June. “This is much earlier than the original expectation of medicines being available by 2025. The Government recognised ...
New Zealand and the United States have recommitted to their strategic partnership in Washington DC today, pledging to work ever more closely together in support of shared values and interests, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “The strategic environment that New Zealand and the United States face is considerably more ...
April 11, 2024 Joint Declaration by United States Secretary of State the Honorable Antony J. Blinken and New Zealand Minister of Foreign Affairs the Right Honourable Winston Peters We met today in Washington, D.C. to recommit to the historic partnership between our two countries and the principles that underpin it—rule ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced further New Zealand cooperation with the United States in the Pacific Islands region through $16.4 million in funding for initiatives in digital connectivity and oceans and fisheries research. “New Zealand can achieve more in the Pacific if we work together more urgently and ...
Kia Ora Gaza A passionate haka reverberated through Auckland International Airport as a medical team of three New Zealand doctors received an emotional farewell from a big crowd of supporters before flying to Turkey to join the international Freedom Flotilla to Gaza. The doctors, who left Auckland yesterday, hope to ...
With submissions closing today, Macassey-Pickard says groups around the country have been supporting a huge range of people to make their submissions. ...
Our response to the new legislation is informed by targeted conversations with practitioners working in the system and through an implementation lens. ...
The new ‘Fast-track Approvals Bill’ would give just three Ministers the power to approve or deny development projects. They would avoid the usual checks and balances that are in place to protect rivers, land, the ocean, and communities. ...
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Nice ANZAC moment with the neighbours: we had lit candles and put them on our letterboxes, put a radio out there and we listened to the whole thing – together alone.
Was beautiful here too,we heard a bugler, a moment of silence, then someone fired measured shots on a gun and the sky turned crimson.
A respectful silence in the crisp morning air, even the animals kept the noise down, a vibrant sunrise reflected in the ocean enhanced by a sprinkling of mist levitating over the paddock. It was pretty special TBH.
Least we forget
A different commemoration
https://twitter.com/Awa_1/status/1253821531659964416
Lucky you, our neighbour destroyed the peace very early by jumping on his tractor and mulching up his pruned off avocado branches in his avocado orchard. You really can,t get a noise more loud and horrible than that. I was so angry I texted the family that it was ANZAC day and educated them on what that means and what we expect in NZ on ANZAC day. They are immigrants who have been here long enough to know better but…..
For Australia-watchers out t here, this pithy little set from the Lowy Institute is worth a read. It covers forecasts on the world after Covid-19's effects for:
– The United States
– China
– South-East Asia
– The Pacific
– Developing Nations
– Globalisation,
and some more. Just a few hundred words each, nice and concise.
https://interactives.lowyinstitute.org/features/covid19/
Simon, or Simon's friends are getting a bit thin skinned, a second arrest for making threats to the leader of the opposition in a couple of days.
https://www.odt.co.nz/news/national/bullet-head-man-arrested-over-second-bridges-threat
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12327155
I don't condone threats or bullying in any form from anyone, but the second one looks more like a commentary on Simon's propensity to make a dick of himself, than a threat to his life.
Truth and realisation, is a threat to the National Party built on subterfuge, camouflage and bombast – and all those words sounding war-related!
Now, I'm not crying “Battleship Potempkin” here, but if the US Defence Secretary really does reinstate Captain Brett Crozier to re-command the USS Theodore Roosevelt, President Trump is going to have a PR nightmare on his hands throughout the entire military.
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/04/24/politics/navy-recommend-reinstating-roosevelt-commander/index.html
This is the Captain who specifically asked for help for his sailors, went public with it (perhaps too public), and was summarily dismissed.
Trump as Commander in Chief has overruled specific military disciplinary actions before, but not one associated with Covid-19.
Trump can either agree with the recommendation – in which case his armed forces can see that his chain of command failed to act on Covid-19 and endangered many military lives.
Or Trump can over-rule the recommendation – and ensure that at least the crew of that ship burn with hatred against him.
Neither will be good for President Trump's support within the military.
Surely the navy have long been aware that the top brass are fuckwits.
He did what you would expect, contacted his superiors and also informed some fellow Captains, asking for their advice..
Pretty much what you would expect.
Having successfully silenced Julian Assange, the UK government is now trying to do the same to Craig Murray. If you feel strongly about supporting his voice then click this link.
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2020/04/craig-murray-defence-fund-launched/
The Clinton rump is also trying to silence critics in the U.S…..
Krystal Ball: The woke Left tried to cancel me, that's why they keep losing
https://www.youtube.com/?gl=NZ
So they've cottoned on to the scam.
https://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/politics-government/article210775574.html
https://www.opensecrets.org/pacs/expenditures.php?cycle=2018&cmte=C00639997
So Krystal Ball's a scam artist, is she? At least her enemies haven't called her an anti-Semite. Yet.
Yeah, because someone who publishes the names of rape and sexual assault accusers, against a court order, deserves our support as an outstanding, upright citizen.
False accusers. It was a political smear campaign, of the sort you have, notoriously, endorsed in the recent past.
Court ordered name suppression for sexual assault and rape accusers. If you think breaching those orders is okay, based on your political opinion, put your wank ideology on the line and name the killer of grace Millane on your blog or tweet it,
[Don’t even go there, thanks – Incognito]
See my Moderation note @ 8:38 PM.
The point is obviously how some people can ride roughshod over court ordered name suppression, especially those concerning rape and sexual assault accusers, but not having the conviction to do it themselves. The example I gave, which in hindsight was ill advised and one you should probably delete on my behalf, was the only one I could think of before I watched Bill Maher.
Interesting, and very ironic, is how Morrisey, through his support of Murray's actions, is posting in solidarity with the likes of Cameron Slater, who also breached orders for political purposes.
Indeed, it wasn’t smart to make that suggestion; another Moderator might have given you a (short?) ban for that. You received just a warning.
Court orders are there for a reason and anybody who breaches them here is out, for life.
As far as I’m concerned, Morrissey is in a world of his own. Maybe you guys could make it less personal, yes?
Fortunately for me, then, I wouldn't be so stupid to suggest Morrisey put his money where his mouth is and post against an illegal suppression order on this site, just as I'm sure he hasn't the cajones to back up his slanted rhetoric from here and do it on his own site either.
A short letter to the editor:
Fair-weather capitalists who privatise profits and socialise losses. They hold up their hand for government assistance and call for bailout. In fact, they demand it because they need the assistance to save jobs, not for personal gain or preservation.
The same people who, in many cases, didn't give a shit about the people losing jobs, in the 80's and 90's coup.
Or in the GFC.
Indeed. I don't mind having a social contract which includes the government as social insurer, but if that's the new normal, I expect better terms for the workers in this contract.
https://twitter.com/WesClarkjr/status/1253452544119988224
At least it won't be the coronavirus that kills them.
Apparently Trump was being sarcastic.
Yeh Right nek minute
US has 916k cases and 51k deaths.
And over 30k new cases today. (3? hours to go)
https://www.stuff.co.nz/world/americas/121268246/trump-says-he-was-being-sarcastic-about-injecting-disinfectant-to-stop-coronavirus
Now over 35k new cases (In the last 30mins!!!)
Thats is a new record.
Of course he was.
/
The leader of the most prominent group in the US peddling potentially lethal industrial bleach as a “miracle cure” for coronavirus wrote to Donald Trump at the White House this week.
In his letter, Mark Grenon told Trump that chlorine dioxide – a powerful bleach used in industrial processes such as textile manufacturing that can have fatal side-effects when drunk – is “a wonderful detox that can kill 99% of the pathogens in the body”. He added that it “can rid the body of Covid-19”.
A few days after Grenon dispatched his letter, Trump went on national TV at his daily coronavirus briefing at the White House on Thursday and promoted the idea that disinfectant could be used as a treatment for the virus. To the astonishment of medical experts, the US president said that disinfectant “knocks it out in a minute. One minute!”
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/24/revealed-leader-group-peddling-bleach-cure-lobbied-trump-coronavirus
Why is this fellow not in prison? Is poisoning a first amendment right.
Or is he being sarcastic now? Fake sark.
Hard to believe anything Trump says.
And new cases now over 37k today
"Covidians"
Here's a thought, let's bring back MAGA mass rallies again.
Shouldn't do that 'cause the hoax infection might spread.
They could hand out UV light dildo's to keep the MAGA crowd safe. 🧨
I think you can buy them on Goop together with the steam cleaner.
UVC, can Kill Covid, but also people. So. Don't try it at home.
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20200327-can-you-kill-coronavirus-with-uv-light.
Bugs can be killed with UV. It is routinely used for water treatment.
I suppose. If you can persuade people that “steaming out their vagina” is a good idea…….
Been there, done that.
https://morrisseybreen.blogspot.com/2019/05/dildos-wanted-jan-18-2016.html
Barack Obama, Friend of the Poor, Humble, and Honest
http://normanfinkelstein.com/2020/04/20/barack-obama-friend-of-the-poor-humble-and-honest/
I am pretty sure the pictures are from a holiday from 2 or so years ago. Yes, Barack Obama did go on holiday on the island. As a former president he is going to be invited to places that you and I can only imagine.
He could have done the same thing on his holidays in Hawaii, and probably does. You could also criticise him for playing golf at Kauri Cliffs in The North a couple of years ago. Although neither of these things are in the Branson league.
None of that makes him an enemy of the poor, any more than Jacinda and Clark enjoying fishing while at the family bach from Clark's boat (which from what I have seen of it on TV is well north of $100,000).
I personally think that one of the things that torpedoed CGT was the realisation it would hit things like family baches. There are apparently 250,000 of them in New Zealand, so at least 10% of New Zealand families own a bach. And they are used by many more people than the owners, either by being invited by friends who own them or by renting. Maybe 60 to 70% of New Zealanders at one time or another have had a bach experience. Of course a CGT could have exempted bachs, but then where do you stop with the exemptions?
the CGT only kicks in when the crib is sold, so I think the issue is more about the massive cultural push to use property investment to create retirement income.
Indeed. The sharemarket crash of 1987 and finance companies' collapses in the GFC rather put paid to a lot of savings for a lot of people though, so I can't blame people for going for property.
I seem to remember the government actively encouraged it because of the idea that we couldn't afford to support the Boomer generation when they retired. It was a neoliberal solution and is a big part of the reason we have a housing crisis. People kept voting in neoliberal governments, so I think holding them responsible is reasonable.
It should have been mentioned that CGT would have only hit the "family bach" if/when it left the family, was sold.
It would have slowed the beach McMansions bought as "investments". And made the "retirement beach houses" more affordable for most of us. The ones that are currently beyound our reach.
Of course it didn't suit the opponents of CGT, who wanted people to think it was Mum and Dad's modest retirement crib, that would get hit.
As a former president he is going to be invited to places that you and I can only imagine.
As a friend of Wall St bankers and people like Branson, yes, he gets invited to places that decent people would steer clear of.
Was going to write something similar, but you beat me to it…
yeh.
Some people should have two places earning more in appreciation than most do in a year. And some should have their lives dependent on the character of their landlord.
The family baches I've had experience at either stayed in the family or cost on book-a-bach. Not sure why a capital gains tax would worry anyone in either of those situations.
Lets run Wayne's story again:
A: oh no I'm living in a car or a mouldy overpriced rental.
B: oh no, I may have to pay some tax on the goldmine bach I finally conned nana into agreeing to sell.
Not much of a tricky moral dilemma for most of us.
Blame the PM and "her tricky moral dilemma". She was the one who canned CGT. I was simply speculating on one of the reasons that she did. Incidentally I don’t own a holiday home.
Not sure what finally got to her, on that one, but the unrelenting BS, about it, probably figured.
I wouldn't be surprised if it was a National Government that eventually does it.
With Bill English talking about too narrow a tax base.
" I wouldn't be surprised if it was a National Government that eventually does it."
AKA Nixon to China …
Eventually a party will announce that while they certainly do not want a CGT, because that's BAD, they are however prepared to consider a "land transfer levy" or "property purchase adjustment" or whatever else they can find in the dictionary.
Bright line test.
That's a first for the Corona Task Force Press Briefing….
Short and sweet, no questions allowed.
trump and co just walked out…. this is important because his pressers have been very long and he always, always does Q+A.
Thinking on Anzac Day that we need a new name for it now that Australia does not view us as an equal ally but a doormat with Welcome on it. I wonder what name we should give this day of remembrance in the 20th century? WANZ Day for World and New Zealand Day?
And can we extend that to mean being kindly connected to the world, instead of wielding war on it as hapless tools of nations behaving viciously because they can. Bring in a better Colombo Plan, first started in 1951. However not sufficient to prevent a dreadful civil war in Sri Lanka 1983-2009. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colombo_Plan
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Origins_of_the_Sri_Lankan_civil_war
2001 – https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA0111/S00468/the-colombo-plan-at-50-a-new-zealand-perspective.htm
The USA Peace Corps for humanitarian reasons not strategic anti-communist ones. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peace_Corps
Let's hear more about the VSA – NZ Volunteer Service Abroad getting national media coverage not secondary to the latest school shooting in the USA.
https://vsa.org.nz/volunteer/
The Lackey Country says that New Zealand is a doormat? Really?
If New Zealand has a cohesive foreign policy, no-one knows what it is.
We've been freeloading off Australia for decades.
Could you explain exactly how we "freeload" off the Lackey Country? Simply repeating a National Party talking point is not evidence.
Ad's perfectly correct. Not only does NZ freeload off the Aussies, we drift along in the wake of wider global US security blanket as well. And even that's sliding off the bed as we speak.
At most NZ talks up a commitment to multi-lateralism (Helen Clark's favourite word) but with the UN coming apart at the seams it's not clear what exact value lies in that direction.
Other than our FTA with China and various other bilateral trade deals there isn't much else on the table that's obvious. Essentially NZ seems to be relying on a combination of remoteness and relative obscurity to fly below everyone's radar. But all modern maps have NZ clearly mapped nowadays and it's a lazy policy that one day may well bite us in the arse.
Ad is correct, is he? But he didn't actually provide any evidence—although judging by your comments, National Party talking points are good enough, and no further debate is necessary.
Ad's point is just that … there isn't much evidence of NZ having a comprehensive and visionary foreign policy.
there isn't much evidence of NZ having a comprehensive and visionary foreign policy.
????
Perhaps you've heard of our principled refusal to allow nuclear ships into our waters? Perhaps you've heard of our sending ships with cabinet members on board to prevent a rogue state detonating nuclear bombs in the South Pacific? Perhaps you've heard of our government leading a U.N. resolution against another rogue state in 2016?
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11780250
Perhaps—-oh, you'd rather quote National Party talking points, obviously.
Perhaps you've heard of our principled refusal to allow nuclear ships into our waters?
Yes it seemed a good idea at the time. The ban on nuclear power was always just virtue signalling. The ban on nuclear weapons however simply irked the nation on whom we ultimately depended on for security. The only reason why we got away with it was because the idea never looked like spreading elsewhere and ultimately the USA didn't care about us that much.
In my view NZ has from a security perspective has freeloaded on our remoteness and the fact that any potential hostile nations all have other more pressing priorities than us, for decades. But push come to shove, we're utterly helpless on our own, but we obdurately refuse to own a fact that isn't lost on either Australia nor the USA.
The ban on nuclear power was always just virtue signalling.
Enough already with the National Party talking points.
… irked the nation on whom we ultimately depended on for security.
????? You obviously don't know, but when we depended on other nations to help us counter the French regime, first in 1973, then in 1985, the United States went out of its way to side with France, and not us.
However, despite the hostility and obstructiveness of the U.S., and the uselessness of its Australian vassal, we did fine, tracking down and trying the terrorists responsible for the attack on the Rainbow Warrior.
A dated [Sept 2006], well-researched article on differences (and commonalities) between NZ and Australia. ‘Freeloading‘ gets a mention, “virtue-signalling” not so much.
"One the commonest complaints in Canberra through that decade [the 1990s] was that New Zealand was freeloading on Australia."
Drowsy, that highly partisan and dodgy statement was written by Colin James, who was notorious as a government stenographer.
That claim that Australia regarded NZ as a "freeloader" was also made, about the same time as James's article, on television by the Canterbury University academic Therese Arseneau. The host of the show, Paul Holmes, then said this: "You know, I talked to the chief of the Australian Defence Force just this week, and I put that to him. He said that nobody in the Australian top brass has ever said that. It's a myth." Arseneau, stopped in her tracks, nearly dried up with mortification.
If I remember rightly, "freeloading" was a meme from New Zealand military Chiefs, wanting more funding.
You're probably correct, KJT. As shown all too plainly by the less than thorough investigation into the actions of NZ troops in Afghanistan, New Zealand military chiefs are not noted for their honesty.
Morrissey, to be fair to James, he was writing (in 2006) about 'Canberra complaints' made in the 1990s, a period some 10 – 20 years prior to that April 2009 Q+A panel discussion between Holmes, Arseneau, Bob Harvey and Ron Mark.
Have you got a link for your quote (above), because this is all I could find – not quite the same, and hardly surprising
Thanks so much, Drowsy! I've been looking for that episode and never tracked it down! It appears my memory was faulty—it was a New Zealand military man cited by Paul Holmes, and not an Australian one as I thought. Sadly, the transcript doesn't capture Therese Arseneau's embarrassment.
Partially…
Wars waged basically by adventurous youth, are supposed to be winners under the command of competent Generals and Senior Officers. Complete with maps and routes and Good Artillery.
But the ANZAC youth didn't have any idea of that. They did not know even which steep hills to clamber. Which ridges.
And so our ANZAC Youth scrambled this way and that way, and got slaughtered up and down Gallipolli. So Sickening.
All because the enemy turned out to be a sloppy British Military Mob. Who knew nothing.
Whilst the clean cut Turks Military Command with its Extensive regional knowledge carried out their deadly efficient Duties. Hundreds of Kiwis Slaughtered. Many injured.
Sometimes I wonder about the English. The Great Imperial Britain had everything. It still Struts and puffs. It slops around about Brexit. It doesn't worry about its' numerous Poor. It's Health is under Funded.
Britain should try harder. It has done nothing for all its Colonies. And very little for the Common man.
Despite the Extensive Use of Capital Letters, Turkish Casualties in the Gallipoli Campaign were Apallingly Heavy.
https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fyoutu.be%2FTkVF4UXPx9E%3Ffbclid%3DIwAR2jxizz_Gc9zEtpsjD9qENyOz4Vd1utHvVvmBRUSJ4eqeVkNZhZU9KnreA&h=AT1BJbmdlN0yPhZLG3C8w1hY9GJuoEaT7ERo_6zKCD1tQpmGrNeB6I37_8tjqJxyktWFUIcHn-XHcDc3T5hxgjMYXJH5SjjPfw8JwtFYF9u30HOn4YOJhqcDLDIHB6BmCCMJdg
This is a must watch.
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
Damned if I’m going to click on a non-descriptive FB link without knowing why it is so compelling.
https://twitter.com/JaneyGodley/status/1253670118095310850
I'm also not inclined to click through without an introduction. I suspect you were trying to post a youtube vid but your URL got caught in FB's outgoing link mess. You're welcome to try again, but even youtubes that display some content in a post are better with an explanation of why they're a must watch.
Sorry will remember Weka-Joe90 has posted it above anyway.
Be careful what you wish for.
Japan’s northern island of Hokkaido offers a grim lesson in the next phase of the battle against COVID-19. It acted quickly and contained an early outbreak of the coronavirus with a 3-week lockdown. But, when the governor lifted restrictions, a second wave of infections hit even harder. Twenty-six days later, the island was forced back into lockdown.
A doctor who helped coordinate the government response says he wishes they’d done things differently. “Now I regret it, we should not have lifted the first state of emergency,” Dr. Kiyoshi Nagase, chairman of the Hokkaido Medical Association, tells TIME.
Hokkaido’s story is a sobering reality check for leaders across the world as they consider easing coronavirus lockdowns: Experts say restrictions were lifted too quickly and too soon because of pressure from local businesses, coupled with a false sense of security in its declining infection rate.
https://time.com/5826918/hokkaido-coronavirus-lockdown/
Testing and contact tracing aside…we're told that asymptomatic people can infect others.
But is that term being used to denote a person who hasn't yet exhibited symptoms, or a person who will not exhibit symptoms?
Or are there pre-symptomatic carriers of infection as well as asymptomatic carriers of infection?
If there are asymptomatic carriers of infection, are we looking at anything along the lines of herpes that can flare up in an infected person years from now? Given that a person with a herpes outbreak obviously exhibits symptoms and is only contagious while symptoms persist….
But maybe 'asymptomatic' is just a lax use of terminology where pre-symptomatic would be more accurate?
There is indeed distinction between asymptomatic and pre-symptomatic.
Fears of asymptomatic carriers transmitting the disease appear to be receding.
However, pre-symptomatic transmission appears to have happened in a significant number of cases.
It's unclear how many asymptomatic are in fact presymptomatic. There's the study linked below saying many of those initially classed as asymptomatic in a rest home study were actually presymptomatic. I've got tickling in the back of my head that I read something similar for the sailors aboard the USS Roosevelt
https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2008457
There's also the question of those testing positive for the virus some time after they have nominally recovered. It's unclear whether those test results indicate the presence of live virus that could still re-infect and/or transmit to someone else, or if the test is just detecting the remains of virus corpses that have been dealt to by the immune system.
I have yet to see any reports of someone that has been considered recovered, with several days symptom free and two or more negative tests, falling ill with COVID a second time.
edit: here’s a fairly recent piece from Siouxsie Wiles on the asymptomatic/presymptomatic question.
https://thespinoff.co.nz/society/21-04-2020/siouxsie-wiles-just-how-widespread-is-covid-19-in-people-who-get-no-symptoms/
Thanks Andre. The USS Roosevelt stuff is mentioned in the Spinoff link.
From a further link running off the Spin-off piece, it seems NZ is testing for the virus but not anti-bodies…which just raises further questions vis a vis eventual total mapping of where the virus is and has been.
At least (as far as I can figure) testing for the virus rather than for anti-bodies should pick up all pre-symptomatic cases.
Sunshine and cigarettes are 'the go' apparently. (Vit D and nicotine 'they' say) I'm hoping for the tri-fecta, and so on the lookout for anything on the medicinal properties of top shelf alcohol so as to be passing me some purposefully lazy 'n hazy days 🙂
Yes, in NZ we are testing for the virus (strictly speaking we are testing for bits of viral RNA that are unique to SARS-CoV-2). That's because we're still in the mode of finding people who actually have the disease and might transmit it to others.
When it comes to antibody testing, that's useful to find people that have had it. Well, it would be if we could have confidence in the tests. At the moment, there seems to be a lot of doubt over whether any of the tests are any good. Questions have been raised whether the antibodies being detected by at least some tests are cold coronavirus antibodies, not COVID coronavirus antibodies. Antibody tests are not much good for detecting people who currently have the infection, early in the course of the disease you'll have a high viral load but bugger-all or zero detectable antibodies.
When it comes to the effects of alcohol on COVID, go ahead and choose who you want to believe. The World Health Organisation or Trump Golf?
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/apr/21/trump-golf-company-retweets-video-of-john-daly-recommending-vodka-as-covid-19-cure.
When it comes to the effects of alcohol on COVID, go ahead and choose who you want to believe. The World Health Organisation or Trump Golf?
You do realise I was being 'somewhat' less than serious, yes?
Nope. Everyone kind of have to be pedantic about this type of stuff because otherwise you have boneheads like Trump getting gullible people pouring bleach down their throats, or fools smoking or drinking themselves to death based on probabilities that they can’t assess for risk.
It depends if the swab picks up viruses where the swab is, in the throat or nasal cavity. Generally what they’re after if the people who are shedding newly manufactured covid-19 viruses in the upper of lower respiratory tract.
There are multiple causes of false positive and negatives with that. I’ll ignore the false positives because most of them aren’t relevant.
etc..
Generally biological infection systems are pretty hard to pin down to definites. Mostly you just have to define them with statistical probabilities of a particular type of event happening, and when you look at medical literature you’ll find the probabilistic and tight definitions are the norm. That is because probabilities are the basic way of all biological life and damn near everything else. Determinism is more of an artifact of people wanting simplifications than any kind of reality.
Finished of The Crucible of Time last night. Engaging and thoughtful, good read. I just couldn't make up my mind of the 'folk's' biology was derived from an insect or plant model … both seemed possible.
And rife with biological indeterminism 🙂
Thanks.
I still have to re-read it. The last memory was from well before I got rid of my paper books in 2012. But I brought it last night along with “The Sheep Look Up” and “The Jagged Orbit” in a set.
Certainly do, even when some people really don't like to hear it.
Jesus fucking wept. So I might have said 'could' rather than 'should' – is that your point? 🙄
Nope, “can’t”.
Fine. Limited by the test's efficacy. Quite unlike an antibody one that's looking for an indicator that won't necessarily be there at the time of testing.
So in terms of finding asymptomatic peeps….
Yup, the test result is limited by where and when the sample was taken, as explained by Lynne, and also how. Taking a sample takes a certain level of skill and experience, and then the sample is handled and transported, and processed. The actual PCR test is the final step in the process.
Asymptomatic peeps are a pain in the proverbial …
PCR is sensitive also.
Yes, PCR is sensitive, assuming you do mean analytical sensitivity. It won’t be able to pick up the virus ‘footprint’.
I thought the problem was of asymptomatic and pre-symptomatic carriers being able to infect others without knowing it.
That is because probabilities are the basic way of all biological life
Which is always problematic (almost surely) eg Monod.(chance and necessity)
Indeed. Of course there is the multiverse probabilities as well. Move the forces of physics a tweak and the universe doesn't suffer some of those outside probabilities like long-life stars, or chemical reactions.
As Lynn was saying yesterday, these novel zoonotic bugs do things we haven't seen before:
COVID-19 kills “in a ferocious rampage through the body from brain to toes” doctors have explained, saying the virus “acts like no pathogen humanity has ever seen”.
On reading this I can't help but wonder if all those asymptomatic or trivial cases aren't being set up for a much more serious sequel episode some months or years down the track.
Yes the science seems to be all over the place, the virus a very cheeky little monkey. Once a respiratory ailment and now creating stroke inducing blood clots.
The storyteller in me wants to start a yarn that places the virus in the hands of the CCP 20 years ago and they've spent the last 2 decades creating an effective remedy.
Very good link and a cautionary experience.
Moving down from Level 4 to 3 should not be seen as the end of the effort to beat this bastard bug, but as a transition to the next phase in the fight.
Lockdown is not the most efficient tool in our arsenal, but it was the one that was immediately to hand when the crisis hit. It essentially bought us time to get a reliable test and trace capacity in place.
Letting our guard down is not an option.
This once great political party has been ruined
https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/opendemocracyuk/leaked-labour-report-should-have-been-explosive-scandal/
National Party in disarray.
https://www.twitter.com/nealejones/status/1253498523955286016
https://www.twitter.com/POLITIKwebsite/status/1253609584435974145
The only reason why National/ACT and their supporters oppose "helicopter cash" is because poor people would get it, and they would be able to pay their bills.
(Then they proceed to complain that their tenants dont pay their rent).
Disarray ?….or muddying the waters.
https://www.interest.co.nz/business/104705/nationals-paul-goldsmith-resolute-nz-needs-come-out-lockdown-faster-calls-targeted
“We believe we should be moving as quickly as we safely can to open up the border,” Goldsmith told interest.co.nz; also criticising the Government for being too slow to close to the border in the first place.
Goldsmith pointed to the restrictiveness of Level 3, but wouldn’t explicitly say what alert level he believed the country should be at right now, or when the alert levels should change."
Such a transparent slime-ball. Maybe he thinks he can sneak in when the Collins and Bennett camps knock each other out.
the state of that party.
I despise and detest the National Party and its inept, immoral "leaders"—but I'll bet a large amount of money that they're in better shape than the disgusting, discredited, demoralized rabble that the British Labour Party has been reduced to.
[Diverting much? – Incognito]
See my Moderation note @ 1:58 PM.
The discussion was about a party in disarray. I pointed to an example of a party in even worse—far worse—disarray than National. I concede that the two parties are separated by 12,000 miles or so, but surely there are some parallels to be noted.
[The discussion was about a specific party, the National Party of NZ. If you wanted to draw parallels and play whataboutery, you should have started your own thread. When comparing apples with oranges, there are parallels too, so this is a red herring trying to divert from your diversion – Incognito]
See my Moderation note @ 9:35 AM.
Bridges?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XggxeuFDaDU
A gnarly problem…
How does NZ realign its financial market with the real economy (in a world that is intent on increasing the disconnect) without destroying its currency value….especially when it has lost (for the foreseeable) 20% of its export receipts and its other main foreign exchange source is at output capacity?
I suspect, as with tourism, a lot more than we anticipate will, in reality, balance out.
Our net balance of trade, may not be much different.
Some drop in our dollar, will help.
'some' drop in the dollar is inflationary, especially when your export receipt capacity has just been decimated and you had an already negative trade balance…it is a recipe for stagflation.
Granted there will be a deflationary impact from reduced demand worldwide but that reduced demand also impacts our exports…. and substitute industries dont appear overnight.
We need to realign asset values with the economy and that requires someone taking a hit….and a good proportion of those someones are offshore who may decide NZD is more trouble than its worth, especially when other players are bending over backwards (or more honestly, frontwards) to ensure they do not…that 'some' drop could easily become very large.
Ultimately its going to end very badly but we are almost trapped into playing along….unless we decide its better to take the hit now rather than later.
I suspect too many will want to wait
Asset prices, especially land, have been misaligned with the possible business earnings, as an asset in a going concern, for a long time.
Reflected in farm land prices and commercial rents, in particular.
A correction has been avoided by bringing in lots of immigrants,and encouraging offshore speculation.
It is really long overdue.
But. It won't be pretty.
No it wont be pretty, either way…but there are added risks in rowing against the tide, at least in the short term….and short term thinking predominates.
Granted there will be a deflationary impact from reduced demand worldwide but that reduced demand also impacts our exports…. and substitute industries dont appear overnight.
In NZ companies are often small enough,with a mixed client base to be able to switch markets,they have better flexibility.
Very clear in the case of small fries.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/timaru-herald/news/121126080/makikihi-fries-chips-away-at-nationwide-supermarkets
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-french-fries-analy/heres-why-you-cant-find-frozen-fries-while-u-s-farmers-are-sitting-on-tons-of-potatoes-idUSKCN2261AU
the larger processors also switched from supplying fast food to exporting supermarket product (in large quantities)
This was also seen in toilet paper demand with large monoculture commercial production lines in the US and europe being idled, whilst capacity constraints were observed in the retail market.
KPI and efficiency gains working against them.
yes there can be advantages in being small and nimble….and we will need to be all of that regardless.
My main concern is we will make the same mistake as the US and bail out investors maintaining the disconnect. With the exception of Air NZ which the gov (we) currently own 52% of we havnt made that decision but the pressure to do so mounts daily.
I have no problem maintaining a strategic asset such as AirNZ especially as we are likely to increase our holding and its vital to maintain trade links, the same dosnt apply to all assets.
I agree,if we are required to bail out the investors,through wage substitution etc,we also should have a say on how that (nz taxpayers) money should be used.One example would be through the prohibition of dividends for a fixed period as the RBNZ has used with the Banks.
This would essentially maintain liquidity with companies,by increasing capital.Companies that were able such as COVID 19 proof organisations such as telecoms and utilities could use that to repay debt,or fund capital projects.
Yes the dividend halt a good move..as was requiring the underwritten loans being determined on the basis of viability (though courageous)…but as noted the pressure for more mounts.
Requiring the same for bailed out companies is reasonable but still needs to be on a basis of expected viability…no point in flogging a dead horse.
Then there is the property market…theyve been staunch to date but again the pressure mounts…the same possibly going to appear in the rural sector, especially if commodity prices come under extended pressure (as I expect they will)
I could foresee a substantial increase in HNZ stock
Robertson threw the property market (commercial and industry) sectors a bone with the reintroduction of depreciation.
Its a risky business.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/118634990/clouds-on-the-horizon-for-commercial-property-real-estate-guru-warns
What a difference a few weeks can make
Can't believe I missed this when it came out:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6nZQRt4BXr8
Surprise, profiteers want to profiteer.
In New Haven, meanwhile, Dr. Joseph Vinetz, an infectious disease doctor at Yale School of Medicine, is seeking to launch a clinical study of the drug camostat mesylate, a generic medication approved in Japan to treat chronic pancreatitis that he hopes can be approved and marketed to treat COVID-19. If the trial succeeds, he said, this could be ”a total game changer.” But the process is proving fraught. Within hours of registering his trial on a National Institutes of Health website on April 20, he received an email from a large U.S. pharmaceutical company. “They are trying to take my project and engulf it for their proprietary [financial] gain,” Vinetz told me. “I take that email as a threat.”
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2020/04/big-pharma-meddling-in-race-for-covid-19-treatment
It is going to take a lot of PR to polish the turd that is this current coalition. The kingmaker Peters about to be finally nailed by the Serious Fraud Squad,the greens out building electric railways and the minister of unemployment Willie Jackson and his mates Dr Clark and Tywford rattling on about things they know nothing about. Smell the roses guys . It will be the economy that wakes up NZ from their Stockholm syndrome from where I am sitting.
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
Ha! Are you the guy that didn't sign up The Beatles?
https://www.facebook.com/62507427296/posts/10157429074242297/?d=null&vh=e
Bill Maher on covid, factory farms and why we are here.
Good clip Bruce, Bill's talk left me with little argument against what he had to say. My animal intake continues to decline. My T-Bone derived pleasure is waning.
I watched Tiger King, they outlawed touring freak-shows, it's a human thing.
I'm counting the days until we see a new float on Wall Street.
Trump PPE
Jacinda is toast for the reasons you mention and Bridges is tarred with the same brush. The labour caucus does not have the talent to even help to fix the mess Ardern has inficted on NZ. She has fucked the economy and hasn't a clue on how to fix it.Fasten your seatbelt folks,the approaching turbulence will be tooth chattering.
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
Ian, you will get what you ask for, we all do.
Most of us were asking for an empathetic guiding leader that relied heavily on science. We got Cindy and Ash and an awful lot of us are very pleased we did.
The future, yep, it's unknown but given what's happened so far, I think most of us are happy to stick with this horse midstream.
People like you have fucked the economy and the environment with your greed.
Our rivers are shitholes because people like you want to make more and more and more money.
I think Ashley B makes about 500k a year. At last, someone on mega bucks that's worth the spend.
…wonder what he spends it on? Nice house, yeah, but he's not a Ferrari kinda guy. I think he'd like a nice gourmet cheese and Florence. I guess Italy is going to be off the menu for a while. Come and see us up in Northland in the spring Dr B, we'll get you onto the snapper sweet-spots.
No relation to policts, but here is a Bluegrass cover of Thunderstruck by AC/DC. Steve'n'Seagulls are based in Finland. It's just a bit of fun, but they are clearly talented musicians with a sense of humour.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4Ao-iNPPUc
Hi Ian
Where can I forward your fresh turds- to replace the ones you gobbled up last night and the night before ?
Do your children enjoy Turds too ? I guess you ram them down their young throats –
Just as you ram your pitiful obscenities down our five senses. Grow up !
[Grow up yourself! We don’t need this turd-slinging BS competition but you tend to take that one step further, crossing the line again, and make personal insults. I don’t know if Ian has any children but your comment about his children was unacceptable IMO. Take a week off – Incognito]
See my Moderation note @ 7:52 AM.