The Eastern Busway is a dedicated busway, similar to the Northern Busway, for the car-dependent eastern suburbs, which includes new bus interchanges at Pakuranga and Botany and the Reeves Rd flyover.
Once built – the completion date has been pushed out from 2025 to 2027 – it is expected to carry 30,000 people a day between the rapidly growing south-eastern suburbs and the rail network at Panmure.
One of Auckland's biggest transport projects, the $1.4 billion Eastern Busway from Panmure to Pakuranga and Botany, has been put back two years following a surprise cut to Auckland's Transport budget.
Auckland councillors yesterday learned the $940 million capital budget they signed off for Auckland last month in their long-term budget no longer exists. The new budget is $820m.
Well, maybe they could ask the government for some dosh, and rather then ask for a busway tell them that you need a bicycle lane or two on the motorway to combat climate change by getting people out of the car.
One is the electorate of the allegedly anointed new Leader of the National Party, the other one is the electorate with the largest National Party majority of all electorates in the country.
Good grief! Both Sabine and you are so bloody ignorant and yet so happy to parade your ignorance here in full view. You are such time wasters; your comments are full of venomous bile and bullshit.
In addition, are you sure you don’t want to make a comparison with the North Korean government?
"In addition, are you sure you don’t want to make a comparison with the North Korean government?"
You are certainly much closer to the Parties in Government that I am. Would you say it was appropriate to equate them or have you already told us too much about the way they operate?
You most certainly are much closer to the politicians than I am, so I’ll leave it to you to consult with them on your silly and irrelevant comparisons with other regimes. Meanwhile, please ignore and cover up your ignominious ignorance.
I might be ignorant to some who don't like what i have to say, and i have no issues with that, i do not endevour to please just for the sake of pleasing.
But that comment by Ad in regards to the many different people of these two electorates – that they simply don't care about public transport – is lazy at best, callous at worst.
But then maybe Labour is not disappointing the National voters in these electorates but rather their own voters. But then everyone knows that Papakura and Botany are the two
electorate with the largest National Party majority of all electorates
and thus it is good and ok to cancel a much needed Busway, and never mind the Labour voters. They just need to move to a more appropriate area were National MPs don’t get voted in.
I might be ignorant to you Incognito, but i am not willfully blind.
Stop digging and why don’t you read the NZH link in your own comment @ 1. You may not be wilfully blind, but blind nonetheless.
Ad doesn’t comment here to please either but he does provoke people in firing up their lazy ignorant brains. Some think he’s lazy and callous, but his comments just go over their head.
And who said that cancelling the Busway is “good and ok”, except you? You’re seeing and hearing things that don’t exist AKA strawmen and tilting at windmills.
Panmure station figures are up strong. Not Pakuranga. Maurice Williamson and the local board poisoned public opinion against pt for years. And was last Labour in 1969, and never will be.
Papakura is getting a big SH1 widening, plus massive subdivisions and town centres. Train pt is small but steady. Papakura has never, ever been Labour, and never will be.
Suppose I were to approach you with a suspicious substance and offer you the choice of sniffing it, touching it, tasting it, or having it injected directly into your body, I suspect few would choose the last option.
Indeed, this is the closest I’ve seen in a while that attempts to explain the visceral-emotional reaction of some to vaccination in general and against Covid vaccination in particular. To be clear, it is not phobia of needles per se, but fear of what’s in the syringe.
Unfortunately modern vaccines aren't the sort of thing where you can give people the recipe and let them make it for themselves.
It is new biotech with low, but significant, side-effect risks (and I certainly wouldn't be touching Sputnik 5!), so the hesitant who are waiting and seeing may be be persuaded by the lack of adverse effects as their peer groups are vaccinated over the coming months. I guess, once the willing team-members are fully vaccinated, vaccine-averse kiwis can be given a few vials to play with (I am thinking in a teaching lab to demonstrate that the contents are as stated – though if they want to rub it on their skin and see what happens, that'd be expensive, but sure; if it helps increase familiarity). Really we have to distribute any unused vaccines to our neighbours more urgently.
Yep, this link suggests that if 80% of NZers were fully vaccinated with the Pfizer vaccine (which is at least 85% effective against all COVID-19 variants that have evolved to date), then that would be sufficent to realise the benefits of herd immunity.
Note that herd immunity is just what it says – in the event of Covid-19 infection, unvaccinated individuals will still be at (much) greater risk of developing a life-threatening illness than their vaccinated conterparts.
Caveat – I'm just grabbing stuff off the Internet. The R0 of the original Covid-19 virus is 2.5; the Alpha variant has an R0 of 3.75, and the Delta variant has an R0 of 5.
Don't know what % of NZers would need to be vaccinated with the Pfizer vaccine to achieve herd immunity against the Delta variant, but someone here will.
The over-simplistic formula just considering R0 and vaccine efficacy is that the proportion needed to be vaccinated for herd immunity is greater than (1-1/R0)/e.
So if the Delta variant has R0 of 5, and the Pfizer vaccine has 85% efficacy against it, herd immunity should be achieved when over 94% of the population is vaccinated. Or if the Pfizer vaccine has 90% efficacy, then the herd immunity threshold is 89% vaccinated.
Those thresholds appear unlikely to actually be achieved, particularly since the anti-social arsehole anti-vaxers do seem to be getting a small amount of traction. Particularly within specific communities.
Once everyone in NZ that wants vaccination has received it, it's very unlikely the borders will remain closed, or any restrictions on movements imposed. So a likely outcome is that there will be large pockets that don't reach herd immunity and will suffer local outbreaks.
Ta very much Andre; agreed it seems unlikely that NZ will achieve 94% or even 89% Pfizer vaccine coverage, but one can hope.
Depressing (although not surprising) that COVID-19 has already evolved an R0 sufficient to outsmart initial strategies to achieve herd immunity via vaccination. So it's possible that herd immunity will be achieved only once COVID variants have spread through the more concentrated pockets of unvaccinated NZers, hopefully without overwhelming public health services.
Nevertheless, those who choose to have the Pfizer vaccine will be largely protected against serious Covid-related illnesses, at least for now. which will spare our nurses and doctors. It's a no-brainer – get vaccinated people!
It was more in response to the linked newsroom piece than directly to your comment; Incognito. The WSJ is paywalled, so I can't see much on the needleless options for overcoming vaccine hesitancy. The potential (1 in 200,000) blood-clotting with the AstraZeneca vaccine in under-60s was mentioned in the linked piece, Pfizer and Moderna seem to increase heart inflammation risk in adolescents.
According to data from the US Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS), there were 347 observed cases of heart inflammation in the week after the second vaccine dose in males aged 12 to 24. That compares with expectations of 12 or fewer cases for males in that age range based on US population background incidence rates, the CDC said.
So it's not like there is no rational reasons to be cautious of vaccines (though the risk-reward balance is firmly on the side of vaccination), despite what the link said:
Since the reasons for vaccine hesitancy are not rational – vaccines demonstrably work – they cannot be addressed by merely reiterating impressive statistics. It’s time to explore other factors making people reluctant to accept vaccines proven safe and effective.
I just didn't like the suggested fear tactics much, so suggested alternatives. And got a bit rambly too…
Rationality isn't assessed in a vacuum. If there was no benefit to taking a drug, no matter how small the risk, it would be irrational for anyone to take it.
In a country with half a million deaths from the disease, worrying about a few hundred non-fatal adverse events associated with the prevention is highly irrational.
Scenario:
You're being chased by a serial killer. The only route of escape is a footbridge over a gorge. the bridge is new, shiny, of apparently solid construction, and millions of other people fleeing the serial killer have run over it with barely a trip or stumble.
Question:
is it rational to demand an engineer's report on the bridge, demand to see the schematics and maintenance logs, spend hours youtube-searching bridge construction techniques, and generally express bridge-hesitancy while the serial killer is catching up to you?
One way to coax the vaccine hesitant might be to make deaths from the coronavirus seem more frightening. Something like that worked in the public health campaign against smoking
I wasn’t too sure whether you were referring to fear tactics by anti-vaxxers.
If only you had given the full quote of that thought:
But I suspect another strategy is likely to be more successful in coaxing the hesitant to vaccinate.
I’m not that keen either on fighting fire with fire and fear with fear. However, as we know, and as Agar mentioned, campaigns that confront people with the possible consequences of their bad behaviours can be quite effective in helping to change these behaviours. Agar mentioned anti-smoking campaign but equally drink-driving campaigns can be very confronting and upsetting.
In the early stages of the pandemic, Covid-19 was portrayed by some as just another flu or even a mild one compared the Spanish Flu Pandemic in 1918. Some fobbed off the fatalities as ‘old people who would have died soon anyway’. This was used in the context of the shocking fatalities in Lombardy-Italy but also Sweden. Interestingly, the same ‘dry wood’ metaphor has been used to bolster a vaccination strategy.
Anyway, much of Covid-19 was sometimes portrayed as mild, moderate, and almost benignly natural. The reality is that many people have suffered so-called long covid and some severe cases had their lungs destroyed to a point at which a lung transplant was the only option.
I can see some similarities with smokers dying of lung cancer except that smoking is a choice. Without necessarily pushing vaccines down people’s throats, we can at least be honest about the possible outcomes of this disease, which is still evolving, may I add.
The thing that annoys me is that private landlords have to ensure their properties are up to a certain standard (eg. heat pumps, insulation etc., often a higher standard than their own homes), whereas the government (the biggest landlord) do not.
"In a fiery exchange in Parliament yesterday, Associate Housing Minister Poto Williams confirmed just 11,345 of a total 66,000 state houses currently meet the standards."
The government has set the rules and should be the first to follow those showing how its done. It cannot be a case of do what I say not what I do. Absolutely.
However the article is about tax deduction of tax on interest. No one can do this when they have a mortgage. I would argue that, If this is right for landlords, it must be right for any owner of a home paying a mortgage.
The difference being, the landlord is producing assessible taxable income ie. the rent he's collecting, therefore, just like any business borrowing money to produce income that is taxable, they should be able to reduce the income by having the interest as a tax deduction.
Living in your own home and paying a mortgage, produces no taxable income. ie. it is a personal expense.
People who are not landlords, seem to get annoyed as some are actually running at a loss ie. the rent received is less than the mortgage interest (negative gearing).
Grant has now ring fenced this (that I agree with), ie. they cannot reduce their other taxable income by the loss.
I do not agree with the non-deductibility of interest though. If a guy borrows $500k and buys earth moving equipment and hires the equipment out, the interest is deductible. If a landlord borrows $500k for a house and rents it out, the interest is not deductible – seems wrong to me.
I maybe saw comments putting this forward when Robertson was justifying calling the usual standard of interest deduction a distortion. Its a complete piece of fiction however, I never saw any reasonable argument being made here.
Deducting interest is in virtually all cases of business legitimate. The main thing the NZ rule change favours is any business which can source funding without going directly to the bank, so larger businesses.
I agree about business. This was about pension fund investments – believe it may have been by Hickey or Easton or similar. No time to look today sorry.
One of the most important changes was little noticed at the time, but has had a huge impact over time. Before 1989 there used to be a tax break for putting money into private pension funds. Given there was no such tax break for capital gains on property and business assets, it was deemed an unfair advantage for pension funds and removed with the aim of creating a ‘level playing field’.
New Zealand is now almost completely on its own now in the western world as not providing any tax breaks or incentives for saving into managed or pension funds, which go on to invest in companies, bonds and other financial assets, and not taxing capital gains or wealth.
Thats a long bow to draw. Most business assets are depreciated. Several years ago you could depreciate your residential property too. If the intent is there to produce taxable income, eg. Rent then the business can deduct the costs including interest. Now that they have said no to residential tax deductions there is an anomoly.
All private rentals must comply within 90 days of any new or renewed tenancy after 1 July 2021, with all private rentals complying by 1 July 2024. All boarding houses must comply by 1 July 2021. All houses rented by Kāinga Ora (formerly Housing New Zealand) and registered Community Housing Providers must comply by 1 July 2023.
here is an interesting piece from the very good and reliable Consortium News on the current fracturing of the Left in the US…it is well worth a read.
"There’s been a new public fracturing of the intellectual left, typified by an essay last week from Nathan J. Robinson, editor of the small, independent, socialist magazine Current Affairs, accusing Glenn Greenwald and Matt Taibbi of bolstering the right’s arguments. He is the more reasonable face of what seems to be a new industry arguing that Greenwald is a wolf in sheep’s clothing, setting the right’s agenda for it."
No worries, I to used to read a bit of Current Affairs and Robinson myself, but have to say I have been pretty shocked on his position on this particular important issue, his nuance on any Left/Right crossover and Left/Right populism can only be described as reactionary and short sighted…and that doesn't even get into his stand on cancel culture, which he staunchly defended, only to then promptly get cancelled himself….
Those were interesting reads, thank you. I skipped the video because I prefer written material.
I now also remember Robinson being ‘fired’ by The Guardian from his little gig.
It was hard to reconcile that both pieces were written by the same person and seemingly about the same person but then I realised that he used Robinson as a pivot for his own narrative.
I now also realise why Robinson and Current Affairs disappeared off my radar a while back. I might have a look to see if they warrant my time and attention.
President Biden appears to have figured out one big solution to Trumpism: split the hard right off and work with the centrists to get stuff done. Key players include Senators Kyrsten Sinema (Arizona Democrat), Rob Portman (Ohio Republican), Jon Tester (Montana Democrat), and Mark Warner (Virginia (democrat).
Some highlights of what's been released so far are:
Roads and bridges: The plan includes $109 billion for roads, bridges and other infrastructure projects. This is $50 billion less than Biden requested initially.
Public transit: The plan also provides $49 billion for public transit, $66 billion for rail, $25 billion for airports and $16 billion for ports and waterways.
Water and power systems: $55 billion will be invested in water infrastructure and $73 billion in the nation’s power structure. Some of this money would be used to eliminate the nation's lead service lines and pipes.
Broadband investment: The plan would provide $65 billion to make improvements to the country's broadband system. Originally, Biden wanted $100 billion to ensure citizens have reliable, high-speed internet. However, the President lowered his ask during negotiations.
Electric vehicles: The bipartisan plan also includes $7.5 billion to build a network of electric vehicle chargers along highways and in rural and disadvantaged communities. The goal is to build 500,000 electric vehicle chargers. Another $7.5 billion will go toward making thousands of school and transit buses electric.
It's not a cure for Trumpism, the package has got a bit to go, and it doesn't mean there's bipartisanship on immigration or Police or anything else. But it is Biden's promised new functioning Washington.
The established ruling elites know there is a crisis. They agreed, at least temporarily, to throw money at it with the $1.9 trillion Covid-19 bill known as American Rescue Plan (ARP). But the ARP will not alter the structural inequities, either by raising the minimum wage to $15.00 an hour or imposing taxes and regulations on corporations or the billionaire class that saw its wealth increase by a staggering $1.1 trillion since the start of the pandemic.
…This act will, at best, provide a momentary respite from the country’s death spiral, sending out one time checks of $1,400 to 280 million Americans, extending $300 weekly unemployment benefits until the end of August and distributing $3,600 through a tax credit for children under the age of 6 and $3,000 per child ages 6 to 17 starting on July 1. Much of this money will be instantly gobbled up by landlords, lenders, medical providers and credit card companies. The act does, to its credit, bail out some 1 million unionized workers poised to lose their pensions and hands $31.2 billion in aid to Native communities, some of the poorest in the nation.
But what happens to the majority of Americans who get government support for only a few months? What are they supposed to do when the checks stop arriving at the end of the year? Will the federal government orchestrate another massive relief package? I doubt it. We will be back where we started.
…The Biden administration — and Biden was one of the principal architects of the policies that fleeced the working class and made war on the poor — is nothing more than a brief coda in the decline and fall, set against which is China’s rising global economic and military clout.
The loss of credibility has left the media, which serves as courtiers to the elites, largely powerless to manipulate public perceptions and public opinion. Rather, the media has divided the public into competing demographics. Media platforms target one demographic, feeding its opinions and proclivities back to it, while shrilly demonizing the demographic on the other side of the political divide. This has proved commercially successful. But it has also split the country into irreconcilable warring factions that can no longer communicate. Truth and verifiable fact have been sacrificed. Russiagate is as absurd as the belief that the presidential election was stolen from Trump. Pick your fantasy.
Well I guess he now works in the US prison system so gets to see first hand the direct result of a broken US model of governance still following blindly an ideology that relentlessly destroys the planet along with the living things that inhabit it through it's insatiable need for endless, unsustainable growth…before then worked extensively as a war correspondent, saw and experienced the result of western imperialism on the ground..so I assume that maybe those things shaped his writing and positions in his writing that we read today?
Maybe Rachel Maddow is more you cup of tea?
A Court Ruled Rachel Maddow’s Viewers Know She’s Not Offering Facts
Greed and what they can get away with is obviously the only rule here. No exemptions. In fact, given that there are no tourists to speak off its NZlanders themselves who are the perpetrators – no more excuses.
If the Russians fire warning shots to protect their maritime territory, that's fine.
If they fire warning shots to stop other nations entering the waters of a third party, that's generally called a "blockade" and is an act of war (which is why the US avoided the term "blockade" in the cuban Missile crisis).
So the Russians are claiming they fired warning shots, while the British are saying that there was just some coincidental noisiness as their ship travelled through Ukrainian waters.
Concern raising articles, especially given the profession of two of the authors…and it will be interesting to see if Mr Bradbury is as good as his word.
Reddit banned lesbian female only subreddits (those that exclude trans women, irrespective of content), but allows groups like this to stay. This is important for understanding why gender critical feminists are doing what they are doing. This stuff from Reddit is tech bro sanctioned misogyny, and is largely accepted by the left.
The plan is part of the government's work to strengthen social cohesion, in response to the Royal Commission of inquiry into the Christchurch terror attack.
Frankly I hate the sound of this. It is so stupid to try to control speech by suppressing it. The wrong words, even spoken in jest, could become a blackmailing tactic against people afraid to lose their jobs, shown up by our increasingly witch-hunting, puritan world. Nazi propaganda brought naive children in to their service, reporting on parents!
Our governments are so pathetic and irrational – we know this by previous Labour opening us up to laissez faire trading which in centuries before was disastrous for principled civilisation. They should have recognised this but no, steam ahead, was the call. Mark Twain should have been a counter-call, that's where the depth of the river was constantly checked to prevent running into a new sandbank in the ever-changing river. But we had no practical, knowledgeable pilot in 1984 and we appear to have newbies now putting forward their notions as policy with no allowance for the unintended consequences which come with all change. On this theme I have put link to Don McGlashan singing Anchor Me with memories of Helen Kelly.
And further I find that Mr Faafoi is in charge of not only Broadcasting but Justice and Immigration as well. Is he capable of looking at what we need for Just-us or is he inflated with a desire to look big in the world – making his mark etc. He is ex-journalist with BBC and TVNZ; if we got National back in, could we end up with Mike Hosking as Min. of Justice dealing out behavioural controls on all the unsatisfactory people he picks on! Oh lordie, lordie.
Here is Anchor Me played by Don McGlashan for Helen Kelly's memory on television.
I suggest you actually read the proposals and engage with them, rather than make sweeping generalisations and personal attacks to try and support your concerns.
I suggest Nordy you think about whether it is an appropriate proposal to bring in and about the lead politician involved. Why is it that citizens are constantly having to fight legislation that is poorly thought out and which once in will have huge ramifications? I suggest that you give us a break by not supporting such proposals. It wears out thinking citizens to have to monitor supposed intelligent well-meaning pollies.
Everybody is free to make a submission and nobody should be discouraged from exercising their democratic right to make a submission. I do hope that many will make submission and I don’t expect for one second that I’d agree with all of them, if I were to see and read them all, which is extremely unlikely. A proposal such as this needs input and feedback from many quarters. Nobody has a monopoly on wisdom (an oxymoron) and/or The Truth. This site values and encourages robust debate, not the exclusion of others and their opinions.
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Aotearoa remains the minority’s birthright, New Zealand the majority’s possession. WAITANGI DAY commentary see-saws manically between the warmly positive and the coldly negative. Many New Zealanders consider this a good thing. They point to the unexamined patriotism of July Fourth and Bastille Day celebrations, and applaud the fact that the ...
The podcast above of the weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers on Thursday night features co-hosts & talking about the week’s news with regular and special guests, including: and on the week in geopolitics, including the latest from Donald Trump’s administration over Gaza and Ukraine; on the ...
Up until now, the prevailing coalition view of public servants was that there were simply too many of them. But yesterday the new Public Service Commissioner, handpicked by the Luxon Government, said it was not so much numbers but what they did and the value they produced that mattered. Sir ...
In a moment we explore the question: What is Andrew Bayly wanting to tell ACC, and will it involve enjoying a small wine tasting and then telling someone to fuck off? But first, for context, a broader one: What do we look for in a government?Imagine for a moment, you ...
As expected, Donald Trump just threw Ukraine under the bus, demanding that it accept Russia's illegal theft of land, while ruling out any future membership of NATO. Its a colossal betrayal, which effectively legitimises Russia's invasion, while laying the groundwork for the next one. But Trump is apparently fine with ...
A ballot for a single member's bill was held today, and the following bill was drawn: Employment Relations (Collective Agreements in Triangular Relationships) Amendment Bill (Adrian Rurawhe) The bill would extend union rights to employees in triangular relationships, where they are (nominally) employed by one party, but ...
This is a guest post by George Weeks, reviewing a book called ‘How to Fly a Horse’ by Kevin AshtonBook review: ‘How to Fly a Horse’ by Kevin Ashton (2015) – and what it means for Auckland. The title of this article might unnerve any Greater Auckland ...
This story was originally published by Capital & Main and is part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story. Within just a week, the sheer devastation of the Los Angeles wildfires has pushed to the fore fundamental questions about the impact of the climate crisis that have been ...
In this world, it's just usYou know it's not the same as it wasSongwriters: Harry Edward Styles / Thomas Edward Percy Hull / Tyler Sam JohnsonYesterday, I received a lovely message from Caty, a reader of Nick’s Kōrero, that got me thinking. So I thought I’d share it with you, ...
In past times a person was considered “unserious” or “not a serious” person if they failed to grasp, behave and speak according to the solemnity of the context in which they were located. For example a serious person does not audibly pass gas at Church, or yell “gun” at a ...
Long stories short, the top six things in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Thursday, February 13 are:The coalition Government’s early 2024 ‘fiscal emergency’ freeze on funding, planning and building houses, schools, local roads and hospitals helped extend and deepen the economic and jobs recession through calendar ...
For obvious reasons, people feel uneasy when the right to be a citizen is sold off to wealthy foreigners. Even selling the right to residency seems a bit dubious, when so many migrants who are not millionaires get turned away or are made to jump through innumerable hoops – simply ...
A new season of White Lotus is nearly upon us: more murder mystery, more sumptuous surroundings, more rich people behaving badly.Once more we get to identify with the experience of the pampered tourist or perhaps the poorly paid help; there's something in White Lotus for all New Zealanders.And unlike the ...
In 2016, Aotearoa shockingly plunged to fourth place in the Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index. Nine years later, and we're back there again: New Zealand has seen a further slip in its global ranking in the latest Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI). [...] In the latest CPI New Zealand's score ...
1. You’ve started ranking your politicians on how much they respect the rule of law2. You’ve stopped paying attention to those news publications3. You’ve developed a sudden interest in a particular period of history4. More and more people are sounding like your racist, conspiracist uncle.5. Someone just pulled a Nazi ...
Transforming New Zealand: Brian EastonBrian Easton will discuss the above topic at 2/57 Willis Street, Wellington at 5:30pm on Tuesday 26 February at 2/57 Willis Street, WellingtonThe sub-title to the above is "Why is the Left failing?" Brian Easton's analysis is based on his view that while the ...
Salvation Army’s State of the Nation 2025 report highlights falling living standards, the highest unemployment rates since the 1990s and half of all Pacific children going without food. There are reports of hundreds if not thousands of people are applying for the same jobs in the wake of last year’s ...
Mountain Tui is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Correction: On the article The Condundrum of David Seymour, Luke Malpass conducted joint reviews with Bryce Wilkinson, the architect of the Regulatory Standards Bill - not Bryce Edwards. The article ...
Tomorrow the council’s Transport, Resilience and Infrastructure Committee meet and agenda has a few interesting papers. Council’s Letter of Expectation to Auckland Transport Every year the council provide a Letter of Expectation to Auckland Transport which is part of the process for informing AT of the council’s priorities and ...
All around in my home townThey're trying to track me down, yeahThey say they want to bring me in guiltyFor the killing of a deputyFor the life of a deputySongwriter: Robert Nesta Marley.Support Nick’s Kōrero today with a 20% discount on a paid subscription to receive all my newsletters directly ...
Hi,I think all of us have probably experienced the power of music — that strange, transformative thing that gets under our skin and helps us experience this whole life thing with some kind of sanity.Listening and experiencing music has always been such a huge part of my life, and has ...
Business frustration over the stalled economy is growing, and only 34% of voters are confidentNicola Willis can deliver. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Wednesday, February 12 are:Business frustration is growing about a ...
I have now lived long enough to see a cabinet minister go both barrels on their Prime Minister and not get sacked.It used to be that the PM would have a drawer full of resignations signed by ministers on the day of their appointment, ready for such an occasion. But ...
This session will feature Simon McCallum, Senior Lecturer in Engineering and Computer Science (VUW) and recent Labour Party candidate in the Southland Electorate talking about some of the issues around AI and how this should inform Labour Party policy. Simon is an excellent speaker with a comprehensive command of AI ...
The proposed Waimate garbage incinerator is dead: The company behind a highly-controversial proposal to build a waste-to-energy plant in the Waimate District no longer has the land. [...] However, SIRRL director Paul Taylor said the sales and purchase agreement to purchase land from Murphy Farms, near Glenavy, lapsed at ...
The US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act has been a vital tool in combatting international corruption. It forbids US companies and citizens from bribing foreign public officials anywhere in the world. And its actually enforced: some of the world's biggest companies - Siemens, Hewlett Packard, and Bristol Myers Squibb - have ...
December 2024 photo - with UK Tory Boris Johnson (Source: Facebook)Those PollsFor hours, political poll results have resounded across political hallways and commentary.According to the 1News Verizon poll, 50% of the country believe we are heading in the “wrong direction”, while 39% believe we are “on the right track”.The left ...
A Tai Rāwhiti mill that ran for 30 years before it was shut down in late 2023 is set to re-open in the coming months, which will eventually see nearly 300 new jobs in the region. A new report from Massey University shows that pensioners are struggling with rising costs. ...
As support continues to fall, Luxon also now faces his biggest internal ructions within the coalition since the election, with David Seymour reacting badly to being criticised by the PM. File photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short, the top six things in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate ...
Not since 1988 when Richard Prebble openly criticised David Lange have we seen such a challenge to a Prime Minister as that of David Seymour to Christopher Luxon last night. Prebble suggested Lange had mental health issues during a TV interview and was almost immediately fired. Seymour hasn’t gone quite ...
“The ACT Party can’t be bothered putting an MP on one of the Justice subcommittees hearing submissions on their own Treaty Principles Bill,” Labour Justice Spokesperson Duncan Webb said. ...
The Government’s newly announced funding for biodiversity and tourism of $30-million over three years is a small fraction of what is required for conservation in this country. ...
The Government's sudden cancellation of the tertiary education funding increase is a reckless move that risks widespread job losses and service reductions across New Zealand's universities. ...
National’s cuts to disability support funding and freezing of new residential placements has resulted in significant mental health decline for intellectually disabled people. ...
The hundreds of jobs lost needlessly as a result of the Kinleith Mill paper production closure will have a devastating impact on the Tokoroa community - something that could have easily been avoided. ...
Today Te Pāti Māori MP for Te Tai Tokerau, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi, released her members bill that will see the return of tamariki and mokopuna Māori from state care back to te iwi Māori. This bill will establish an independent authority that asserts and protects the rights promised in He Whakaputanga ...
The Whangarei District Council being forced to fluoridate their local water supply is facing a despotic Soviet-era disgrace. This is not a matter of being pro-fluoride or anti-fluoride. It is a matter of what New Zealanders see and value as democracy in our country. Individual democratically elected Councillors are not ...
Nicola Willis’ latest supermarket announcement is painfully weak with no new ideas, no real plan, and no relief for Kiwis struggling with rising grocery costs. ...
Half of Pacific children sometimes going without food is just one of many heartbreaking lowlights in the Salvation Army’s annual State of the Nation report. ...
The Salvation Army’s State of the Nation report is a bleak indictment on the failure of Government to take steps to end poverty, with those on benefits, including their children, hit hardest. ...
New Zealand First has today introduced a Member’s Bill which would restore decision-making power to local communities regarding the fluoridation of drinking water. The ‘Fluoridation (Referendum) Legislation Bill’ seeks to repeal the Health (Fluoridation of Drinking Water) Amendment Act 2021 that granted centralised authority to the Direct General of Health ...
New Zealand First has introduced a Member’s Bill aimed at preventing banks from refusing their services to businesses because of the current “Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) Framework”. “This Bill ensures fairness and prevents ESG standards from perpetuating woke ideology in the banking sector being driven by unelected, globalist, climate ...
Erica Stanford has reached peak shortsightedness if today’s announcement is anything to go by, picking apart immigration settings piece by piece to the detriment of the New Zealand economy. ...
Our originating document, theTreaty of Waitangi, was signed on February 6, 1840. An agreement between Māori and the British Crown. Initially inked by Ngā Puhi in Waitangi, further signatures were added as it travelled south. The intention was to establish a colony with the cession of sovereignty to the Crown, ...
Te Whatu Ora Chief Executive Margie Apa leaving her job four months early is another symptom of this government’s failure to deliver healthcare for New Zealanders. ...
The Green Party is calling for the Prime Minister to show leadership and be unequivocal about Aotearoa New Zealand’s opposition to a proposal by the US President to remove Palestinians from Gaza. ...
The latest unemployment figures reveal that job losses are hitting Māori and Pacific people especially hard, with Māori unemployment reaching a staggering 9.7% for the December 2024 quarter and Pasifika unemployment reaching 10.5%. ...
Waitangi 2025: Waitangi Day must be community and not politically driven - Shane Jones Our originating document, theTreaty of Waitangi, was signed on February 6, 1840. An agreement between Māori and the British Crown. Initially inked by Ngā Puhi in Waitangi, further signatures were added as it travelled south. ...
Despite being confronted every day with people in genuine need being stopped from accessing emergency housing – National still won’t commit to building more public houses. ...
The Green Party says the Government is giving up on growing the country’s public housing stock, despite overwhelming evidence that we need more affordable houses to solve the housing crisis. ...
Before any thoughts of the New Year and what lies ahead could even be contemplated, New Zealand reeled with the tragedy of Senior Sergeant Lyn Fleming losing her life. For over 38 years she had faithfully served as a front-line Police officer. Working alongside her was Senior Sergeant Adam Ramsay ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson will return to politics at Waitangi on Monday the 3rd of February where she will hold a stand up with fellow co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick. ...
Te Pāti Māori is appalled by the government's blatant mishandling of the school lunch programme. David Seymour’s ‘cost-saving’ measures have left tamariki across Aotearoa with unidentifiable meals, causing distress and outrage among parents and communities alike. “What’s the difference between providing inedible food, and providing no food at all?” Said ...
The Government is doubling down on outdated and volatile fossil fuels, showing how shortsighted and destructive their policies are for working New Zealanders. ...
Green Party MP Steve Abel this morning joined Coromandel locals in Waihi to condemn new mining plans announced by Shane Jones in the pit of the town’s Australian-owned Gold mine. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to strengthen its just-announced 2030-2035 Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) under the Paris Agreement and address its woeful lack of commitment to climate security. ...
The Government’s commitment to get New Zealand’s roads back on track is delivering strong results, with around 98 per cent of potholes on state highways repaired within 24 hours of identification every month since targets were introduced, Transport Minister Chris Bishop says. “Increasing productivity to help rebuild our economy is ...
The former Cadbury factory will be the site of the Inpatient Building for the new Dunedin Hospital and Health Minister Simeon Brown says actions have been taken to get the cost overruns under control. “Today I am giving the people of Dunedin certainty that we will build the new Dunedin ...
From today, Plunket in Whāngarei will be offering childhood immunisations – the first of up to 27 sites nationwide, Health Minister Simeon Brown says. The investment of $1 million into the pilot, announced in October 2024, was made possible due to the Government’s record $16.68 billion investment in health. It ...
New Zealand’s strong commitment to the rights of disabled people has continued with the response to an important United Nations report, Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston has announced. Of the 63 concluding observations of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD), 47 will be progressed ...
Resources Minister Shane Jones has launched New Zealand’s national Minerals Strategy and Critical Minerals List, documents that lay a strategic and enduring path for the mineral sector, with the aim of doubling exports to $3 billion by 2035. Mr Jones released the documents, which present the Coalition Government’s transformative vision ...
Firstly I want to thank OceanaGold for hosting our event today. Your operation at Waihi is impressive. I want to acknowledge local MP Scott Simpson, local government dignitaries, community stakeholders and all of you who have gathered here today. It’s a privilege to welcome you to the launch of the ...
Racing Minister, Winston Peters has announced the Government is preparing public consultation on GST policy proposals which would make the New Zealand racing industry more competitive. “The racing industry makes an important economic contribution. New Zealand thoroughbreds are in demand overseas as racehorses and for breeding. The domestic thoroughbred industry ...
Business confidence remains very high and shows the economy is on track to improve, Economic Growth Minister Nicola Willis says. “The latest ANZ Business Outlook survey, released yesterday, shows business confidence and expected own activity are ‘still both very high’.” The survey reports business confidence fell eight points to +54 ...
Enabling works have begun this week on an expanded radiology unit at Hawke’s Bay Fallen Soldiers’ Memorial Hospital which will double CT scanning capacity in Hawke’s Bay to ensure more locals can benefit from access to timely, quality healthcare, Health Minister Simeon Brown says. This investment of $29.3m in the ...
The Government has today announced New Zealand’s second international climate target under the Paris Agreement, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand will reduce emissions by 51 to 55 per cent compared to 2005 levels, by 2035. “We have worked hard to set a target that is both ambitious ...
Nine years of negotiations between the Crown and iwi of Taranaki have concluded following Te Pire Whakatupua mō Te Kāhui Tupua/the Taranaki Maunga Collective Redress Bill passing its third reading in Parliament today, Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “This Bill addresses the historical grievances endured by the eight iwi ...
As schools start back for 2025, there will be a relentless focus on teaching the basics brilliantly so all Kiwi kids grow up with the knowledge, skills and competencies needed to grow the New Zealand of the future, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “A world-leading education system is a key ...
Housing Minister Chris Bishop and Associate Agriculture Minister Mark Patterson have welcomed Kāinga Ora’s decision to re-open its tender for carpets to allow wool carpet suppliers to bid. “In 2024 Kāinga Ora issued requests for tender (RFTs) seeking bids from suppliers to carpet their properties,” Mr Bishop says. “As part ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour has today visited Otahuhu College where the new school lunch programme has served up healthy lunches to students in the first days of the school year. “As schools open in 2025, the programme will deliver nutritious meals to around 242,000 students, every school day. On ...
Minister for Children Karen Chhour has intervened in Oranga Tamariki’s review of social service provider contracts to ensure Barnardos can continue to deliver its 0800 What’s Up hotline. “When I found out about the potential impact to this service, I asked Oranga Tamariki for an explanation. Based on the information ...
Comment: Crypto exchange-traded funds (ETFs) are making it easier for people to invest in cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum without having to handle digital wallets or private keys. These allow investors to buy and sell cryptocurrency through their regular brokerage accounts.This has opened the door for billions of dollars ...
The New Zealand Government says the Cook Islands must share more information about the deals it has signed with China, following the release of an ‘action plan’ in the face of protests in the Pacific nation’s capital.The Cook Islands government has also revealed plans to spend $3 million on a ...
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Comment: The recent attack by Destiny Church front groups on a Drag science show at Te Atatū library crossed a line. This wasn’t the first time that Brian Tamaki, the multimillionaire self-appointed ‘apostle’, has ordered acts of aggression against the queer community. Last year, Drag Story Time events were targeted, ...
Martina Salmon is well versed in the fast-paced action on a netball court, but even she was caught by surprise with the speed at which her career changed tack last year.Staying in the fast lane is only part of her drive this season.Fresh off a nine-day camp in Sydney with ...
Last night I may as well have been in Taihape. Or, closer to home, for me at least, somewhere in the Wairarapa. Or Tūrangi, even – which is near where we used to spend the summer when I was a child. For there was that same gorgeous small town feeling ...
Having Auckland’s food scraps dumped onto your rural backyard sounds scandalous, but in the North Island town of Reporoa there’s no fuss about the thousands of tonnes carted here every week.From the same site as one truck drops the waste, another truck picks up fertiliser to spread on local sheep ...
Negotiating rights over freshwater in Treaty settlement negotiations could have extended negotiations a decade, a Ngāi Tahu leader says.Tribal leaders, and its umbrella body, Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu, have taken the Attorney-General to court in a bid to have the Crown recognise its rangatiratanga (chiefly authority) over wai māori ...
Analysis: Poor safeguarding of New Zealanders’ data could be a widespread practice within the public service and certainly within the health system, according to the findings of an independent inquiry into allegations of misused census and Covid-19 vaccination information.The Public Service Commission’s review, led by consultant Pania Gray and former ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jennifer Stone, Principal Research Fellow, School of Population and Global Health, The University of Western Australia Gorodenkoff/Shutterstock Having dense breasts is a clear risk factor for breast cancer. It can also make cancers hard to spot on mammograms. Yet you ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The National Anti-Corruption Commission will finally investigate whether six people referred to it by the royal commission into Robodebt engaged in corrupt conduct. This follows an independent reconsideration by former High Court judge Geoffrey ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Blaxland, Professor, Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, Australian National University Last week in Europe, the United States sent some very strong messages it is prepared to upend the established global order. US Vice President JD Vance warned a stunned Munich ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The Reserve Bank has delivered the expected modest rate cut of a quarter of a percentage point, and we’re set for the predictable frenzy of speculation about an April election. The cut is unlikely to ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Hawkins, Senior Lecturer, Canberra School of Politics, Economics and Society, University of Canberra The Reserve Bank cut official interest rates on Tuesday, the first decrease in four years, saying inflationary pressures are easing “a little more quickly than expected”. However, the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The Reserve Bank has delivered the expected modest rate cut of a quarter of a percentage point, and we’re set for the predictable frenzy of speculation about an April election. The cut is unlikely to ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Allan Fels, Professor Allan Fels, Professor of Law, Economics and Business at the University of Melbourne and Monash University., The University of Melbourne Australia is creeping towards adding a divestiture power to its Competition and Consumer Act. Under such a law, ...
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Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mary Anne Kenny, Associate Professor, School of Law, Murdoch University Australia’s minister for home affairs announced on Sunday that the federal government has struck a deal with Nauru to “resettle” three non-citizens from what’s come to be known as the “NZYQ cohort”. ...
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The purpose was to establish the facts and provide an independent assessment of government agency activity in relation to allegations that personal data may have been misused during the 2023 General Election. ...
Privacy Commissioner Michael Webster said he is carefully reviewing the referrals raised in the two reports. That work will be done in the context the Privacy Act and the need to ensure individuals’ rights to privacy is protected and respected. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Bhavna Middha, ARC DECRA Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Urban Research, RMIT University The average Australian household size has decreased from 4.5 people per household in 1911 to 2.5 people in 2024. At the same time, the average house size has increased, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Catherine Page Jeffery, Lecturer in Media and Communications, University of Sydney suriyachan/Shutterstock When the Australian government passed legislation in November last year banning young people under 16 from social media, it included exemptions for platforms “that are primarily for the purposes ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Leslie Roberson, Postdoctoral research fellow, Centre for Biodiversity and Conservation Science, The University of Queensland If you’ve ever been stopped by quarantine officers at the airport, you might think Australia’s international border is locked down like a fortress. But when it comes ...
Duncan Sarkies’ latest novel, Star Gazers, is about the collapse of democracy in a society of alpaca breeders. Here are some things his intensive research revealed. 1 How greed works, psychologicallyYes, I guess I already understood greed, but I could never understand why people who already have everything they ...
The proposed cuts would see only two full time Telehealth data and digital roles, and one Planning, Funding and Outcomes (PFO) role remain, reduced from 17 Telehealth support roles (including vacant roles). Roles proposed to be cut include Telehealth ...
The Taxpayers’ Union is calling for Ministers to end funding for Te Kurahuna programmes and workshop grifters that have received millions in taxpayer funding, despite the Government’s supposed focus on cutting costs. ...
Well, maybe they could ask the government for some dosh, and rather then ask for a busway tell them that you need a bicycle lane or two on the motorway to combat climate change by getting people out of the car.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/aucklands-14b-eastern-busway-put-back-two-years-after-big-cut-to-auckland-transport-budget/IH2U62NFIG6LETBLNYGV427W6Y/
Botany and Pakuranga just don't care.
They haven't seen the pt benefits like North Shore have. Won't bother them.
Well, then, it is all good then. Labour surely won't need these votes come the next election. Next.
One is the electorate of the allegedly anointed new Leader of the National Party, the other one is the electorate with the largest National Party majority of all electorates in the country.
https://www.electionresults.govt.nz/electionresults_2020/electorate-details-04.html
https://www.electionresults.govt.nz/electionresults_2020/electorate-details-35.html
Both Ad and you are correct.
Next.
Well at least you are honest about the Government's approach.
If you don't vote for us you will get nothing. They are learning from the Singapore Government I see. They are notorious for this behaviour.
Good grief! Both Sabine and you are so bloody ignorant and yet so happy to parade your ignorance here in full view. You are such time wasters; your comments are full of venomous bile and bullshit.
In addition, are you sure you don’t want to make a comparison with the North Korean government?
"In addition, are you sure you don’t want to make a comparison with the North Korean government?"
You are certainly much closer to the Parties in Government that I am. Would you say it was appropriate to equate them or have you already told us too much about the way they operate?
You most certainly are much closer to the politicians than I am, so I’ll leave it to you to consult with them on your silly and irrelevant comparisons with other regimes. Meanwhile, please ignore and cover up your ignominious ignorance.
Not so fast, dear Incognito. Not so fast.
2020 election Papakura (https://www.parliament.nz/en/mps-and-electorates/historical-electorate-profiles/electorate-profiles-data/document/DBHOH_Lib_EP_Papakura_Electoral_Profile/papakura-electoral-profile)
COLLINS, Judith (NAT) 20,266 55.63
PABLA, Jesse (LAB) 12,780 35.08
GREENING, Toa (NZF) 2,778 7.63
BHANA, Raewyn Teresa (MAOR)607 1.67
Botany (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Botany_(New_Zealand_electorate))
NationalChristopher Luxon 16,661 53.23
LabourNaisi Chen 11,890 38.0
I might be ignorant to some who don't like what i have to say, and i have no issues with that, i do not endevour to please just for the sake of pleasing.
But that comment by Ad in regards to the many different people of these two electorates – that they simply don't care about public transport – is lazy at best, callous at worst.
But then maybe Labour is not disappointing the National voters in these electorates but rather their own voters. But then everyone knows that Papakura and Botany are the two
and thus it is good and ok to cancel a much needed Busway, and never mind the Labour voters. They just need to move to a more appropriate area were National MPs don’t get voted in.
I might be ignorant to you Incognito, but i am not willfully blind.
sigh
Stop digging and why don’t you read the NZH link in your own comment @ 1. You may not be wilfully blind, but blind nonetheless.
Ad doesn’t comment here to please either but he does provoke people in firing up their lazy ignorant brains. Some think he’s lazy and callous, but his comments just go over their head.
And who said that cancelling the Busway is “good and ok”, except you? You’re seeing and hearing things that don’t exist AKA strawmen and tilting at windmills.
Panmure station figures are up strong. Not Pakuranga. Maurice Williamson and the local board poisoned public opinion against pt for years. And was last Labour in 1969, and never will be.
Papakura is getting a big SH1 widening, plus massive subdivisions and town centres. Train pt is small but steady. Papakura has never, ever been Labour, and never will be.
No loss either way.
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/vaccines-and-our-irrational-natures
Indeed, this is the closest I’ve seen in a while that attempts to explain the visceral-emotional reaction of some to vaccination in general and against Covid vaccination in particular. To be clear, it is not phobia of needles per se, but fear of what’s in the syringe.
Unfortunately modern vaccines aren't the sort of thing where you can give people the recipe and let them make it for themselves.
It is new biotech with low, but significant, side-effect risks (and I certainly wouldn't be touching Sputnik 5!), so the hesitant who are waiting and seeing may be be persuaded by the lack of adverse effects as their peer groups are vaccinated over the coming months. I guess, once the willing team-members are fully vaccinated, vaccine-averse kiwis can be given a few vials to play with (I am thinking in a teaching lab to demonstrate that the contents are as stated – though if they want to rub it on their skin and see what happens, that'd be expensive, but sure; if it helps increase familiarity). Really we have to distribute any unused vaccines to our neighbours more urgently.
No one is safe until everyone is safe.
"No one is safe until everyone is safe." Is 80%, the so called herd immunity enough?
Maybe the anti vaxers would account to this option and leave more vaccine for 3rd world countries that might never be rid of covid19?
Yep, this link suggests that if 80% of NZers were fully vaccinated with the Pfizer vaccine (which is at least 85% effective against all COVID-19 variants that have evolved to date), then that would be sufficent to realise the benefits of herd immunity.
https://theconversation.com/covid-is-surging-in-the-worlds-most-vaccinated-country-why-160869
Note that herd immunity is just what it says – in the event of Covid-19 infection, unvaccinated individuals will still be at (much) greater risk of developing a life-threatening illness than their vaccinated conterparts.
https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/coronavirus/in-depth/herd-immunity-and-coronavirus/art-20486808
Caveat – I'm just grabbing stuff off the Internet. The R0 of the original Covid-19 virus is 2.5; the Alpha variant has an R0 of 3.75, and the Delta variant has an R0 of 5.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/coronavirus/125530953/covid19-the-delta-variant-and-how-scarily-fleeting-encounters-can-allow-the-virus-to-spread
Don't know what % of NZers would need to be vaccinated with the Pfizer vaccine to achieve herd immunity against the Delta variant, but someone here will.
The over-simplistic formula just considering R0 and vaccine efficacy is that the proportion needed to be vaccinated for herd immunity is greater than (1-1/R0)/e.
So if the Delta variant has R0 of 5, and the Pfizer vaccine has 85% efficacy against it, herd immunity should be achieved when over 94% of the population is vaccinated. Or if the Pfizer vaccine has 90% efficacy, then the herd immunity threshold is 89% vaccinated.
Those thresholds appear unlikely to actually be achieved, particularly since the anti-social arsehole anti-vaxers do seem to be getting a small amount of traction. Particularly within specific communities.
Once everyone in NZ that wants vaccination has received it, it's very unlikely the borders will remain closed, or any restrictions on movements imposed. So a likely outcome is that there will be large pockets that don't reach herd immunity and will suffer local outbreaks.
Ta very much Andre; agreed it seems unlikely that NZ will achieve 94% or even 89% Pfizer vaccine coverage, but one can hope.
Depressing (although not surprising) that COVID-19 has already evolved an R0 sufficient to outsmart initial strategies to achieve herd immunity via vaccination. So it's possible that herd immunity will be achieved only once COVID variants have spread through the more concentrated pockets of unvaccinated NZers, hopefully without overwhelming public health services.
Nevertheless, those who choose to have the Pfizer vaccine will be largely protected against serious Covid-related illnesses, at least for now. which will spare our nurses and doctors. It's a no-brainer – get vaccinated people!
I cannot make head nor tail of your comment, sorry.
It was more in response to the linked newsroom piece than directly to your comment; Incognito. The WSJ is paywalled, so I can't see much on the needleless options for overcoming vaccine hesitancy. The potential (1 in 200,000) blood-clotting with the AstraZeneca vaccine in under-60s was mentioned in the linked piece, Pfizer and Moderna seem to increase heart inflammation risk in adolescents.
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2021/jun/23/fda-warning-heart-inflammation-pfizer-moderna-vaccines
So it's not like there is no rational reasons to be cautious of vaccines (though the risk-reward balance is firmly on the side of vaccination), despite what the link said:
I just didn't like the suggested fear tactics much, so suggested alternatives. And got a bit rambly too…
Rationality isn't assessed in a vacuum. If there was no benefit to taking a drug, no matter how small the risk, it would be irrational for anyone to take it.
In a country with half a million deaths from the disease, worrying about a few hundred non-fatal adverse events associated with the prevention is highly irrational.
Scenario:
You're being chased by a serial killer. The only route of escape is a footbridge over a gorge. the bridge is new, shiny, of apparently solid construction, and millions of other people fleeing the serial killer have run over it with barely a trip or stumble.
Question:
is it rational to demand an engineer's report on the bridge, demand to see the schematics and maintenance logs, spend hours youtube-searching bridge construction techniques, and generally express bridge-hesitancy while the serial killer is catching up to you?
Sorry, but whose “fear tactics” are you talking about?
Agar's (in your original link at comment 2.0):
Ta
I wasn’t too sure whether you were referring to fear tactics by anti-vaxxers.
If only you had given the full quote of that thought:
I’m not that keen either on fighting fire with fire and fear with fear. However, as we know, and as Agar mentioned, campaigns that confront people with the possible consequences of their bad behaviours can be quite effective in helping to change these behaviours. Agar mentioned anti-smoking campaign but equally drink-driving campaigns can be very confronting and upsetting.
In the early stages of the pandemic, Covid-19 was portrayed by some as just another flu or even a mild one compared the Spanish Flu Pandemic in 1918. Some fobbed off the fatalities as ‘old people who would have died soon anyway’. This was used in the context of the shocking fatalities in Lombardy-Italy but also Sweden. Interestingly, the same ‘dry wood’ metaphor has been used to bolster a vaccination strategy.
Anyway, much of Covid-19 was sometimes portrayed as mild, moderate, and almost benignly natural. The reality is that many people have suffered so-called long covid and some severe cases had their lungs destroyed to a point at which a lung transplant was the only option.
https://www.health.govt.nz/our-work/diseases-and-conditions/covid-19-novel-coronavirus/covid-19-health-advice-public/long-covid
Early outcomes after lung transplantation for severe COVID-19: a series of the first consecutive cases from four countries
I can see some similarities with smokers dying of lung cancer except that smoking is a choice. Without necessarily pushing vaccines down people’s throats, we can at least be honest about the possible outcomes of this disease, which is still evolving, may I add.
The vaccine averse could be left alone until they recognise it is safe, at which point they can pay for it.
Do landlords put pressure on to get exemption to find a ruse not to pay?
https://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/homed/renting/125552758/call-to-exempt-longterm-tenancies-from-new-rental-tax-rules
And this is in the news:
Another deal for the rich at the expense of the taxpayer. When will the government officials realize that the tax they collect is not their money.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/125551395/minister-waited-months-to-reveal-maximum-grant-given-to-amazon
The thing that annoys me is that private landlords have to ensure their properties are up to a certain standard (eg. heat pumps, insulation etc., often a higher standard than their own homes), whereas the government (the biggest landlord) do not.
"In a fiery exchange in Parliament yesterday, Associate Housing Minister Poto Williams confirmed just 11,345 of a total 66,000 state houses currently meet the standards."
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/444486/govt-accused-of-double-standards-over-health-of-state-houses
The government has set the rules and should be the first to follow those showing how its done. It cannot be a case of do what I say not what I do. Absolutely.
However the article is about tax deduction of tax on interest. No one can do this when they have a mortgage. I would argue that, If this is right for landlords, it must be right for any owner of a home paying a mortgage.
The basis for the difference is that for a landlord the interest is a business expense.
The difference being, the landlord is producing assessible taxable income ie. the rent he's collecting, therefore, just like any business borrowing money to produce income that is taxable, they should be able to reduce the income by having the interest as a tax deduction.
Living in your own home and paying a mortgage, produces no taxable income. ie. it is a personal expense.
People who are not landlords, seem to get annoyed as some are actually running at a loss ie. the rent received is less than the mortgage interest (negative gearing).
Grant has now ring fenced this (that I agree with), ie. they cannot reduce their other taxable income by the loss.
I do not agree with the non-deductibility of interest though. If a guy borrows $500k and buys earth moving equipment and hires the equipment out, the interest is deductible. If a landlord borrows $500k for a house and rents it out, the interest is not deductible – seems wrong to me.
I recall reading that the fatal distortion happened when govt removed deductibility for pension funds compared with rental housing.
I maybe saw comments putting this forward when Robertson was justifying calling the usual standard of interest deduction a distortion. Its a complete piece of fiction however, I never saw any reasonable argument being made here.
Deducting interest is in virtually all cases of business legitimate. The main thing the NZ rule change favours is any business which can source funding without going directly to the bank, so larger businesses.
I agree about business. This was about pension fund investments – believe it may have been by Hickey or Easton or similar. No time to look today sorry.
Found one example from Hickey last year though I'm sure I read it in a few places now in more detail: https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/opinion-analysis/300175287/how-past-generations-pulled-up-the-property-ladder-on-todays-youth
Not a good analogy.
The thing is that earth moving equipment is depreciated.
And, if you sell it for more than the depreciated value, you are taxed on the difference.
Land appreciates, and, mostly isn't taxed on the gain. So long as you are careful about what you "intend".
An anomaly.
Thats a long bow to draw. Most business assets are depreciated. Several years ago you could depreciate your residential property too. If the intent is there to produce taxable income, eg. Rent then the business can deduct the costs including interest. Now that they have said no to residential tax deductions there is an anomoly.
Not at all.
You could depreciate, buildings, not land!
Yes I meant buildings only in my comment. But you can no longer depreciate residential rental buildings.
Land has never been depreciated.
https://www.tenancy.govt.nz/healthy-homes/about-the-healthy-homes-standards/
Link in RNZ article points to wrong article.
here is an interesting piece from the very good and reliable Consortium News on the current fracturing of the Left in the US…it is well worth a read.
"There’s been a new public fracturing of the intellectual left, typified by an essay last week from Nathan J. Robinson, editor of the small, independent, socialist magazine Current Affairs, accusing Glenn Greenwald and Matt Taibbi of bolstering the right’s arguments. He is the more reasonable face of what seems to be a new industry arguing that Greenwald is a wolf in sheep’s clothing, setting the right’s agenda for it."
https://consortiumnews.com/2021/06/24/what-happened-to-glenn-greenwald/
Or watch the two main players debate their positions…
Ta
I lost sight of Robinson and I used to read Current Affairs on a regular basis. Maybe time to reacquaint myself with them again.
No worries, I to used to read a bit of Current Affairs and Robinson myself, but have to say I have been pretty shocked on his position on this particular important issue, his nuance on any Left/Right crossover and Left/Right populism can only be described as reactionary and short sighted…and that doesn't even get into his stand on cancel culture, which he staunchly defended, only to then promptly get cancelled himself….
https://www.commondreams.org/views/2021/02/12/guardian-reveals-its-true-face-sacking-progressive-columnist-nathan-robinson
Those were interesting reads, thank you. I skipped the video because I prefer written material.
I now also remember Robinson being ‘fired’ by The Guardian from his little gig.
It was hard to reconcile that both pieces were written by the same person and seemingly about the same person but then I realised that he used Robinson as a pivot for his own narrative.
I now also realise why Robinson and Current Affairs disappeared off my radar a while back. I might have a look to see if they warrant my time and attention.
President Biden appears to have figured out one big solution to Trumpism: split the hard right off and work with the centrists to get stuff done. Key players include Senators Kyrsten Sinema (Arizona Democrat), Rob Portman (Ohio Republican), Jon Tester (Montana Democrat), and Mark Warner (Virginia (democrat).
https://edition.cnn.com/politics/live-news/biden-senate-infrastructure-policing-06-24-21/index.html
Some highlights of what's been released so far are:
https://www.politico.com/news/2021/06/24/how-the-infrastructure-deal-got-done-496121
It's not a cure for Trumpism, the package has got a bit to go, and it doesn't mean there's bipartisanship on immigration or Police or anything else. But it is Biden's promised new functioning Washington.
Don't worry Ad there is plenty of bipartisanship between Trumpism and Bidenism on immigration, The Police and funding Israel
Kamala Harris tells migrants 'do not come' during talks in Guatemala
Biden backs funding more police to fight crime wave
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-57589416
Power Up: Biden administration approves $735 million weapons sale to Israel, raising red flags for some House Democrats
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/05/17/power-up-biden-administration-approves-735-million-weapons-sale-israel-raising-red-flags-some-house-democrats/
Well, that is one curated view of Biden.
Here is another: Bandaging the Corpse by Chris Hedges.
Good ol' Chris Hedges, never one to pull his punch's or get get suckered in by the centrist liberals masquerading as the Left…thanks for that link.
To that old catastrophist, everything is just bandage.
Well I guess he now works in the US prison system so gets to see first hand the direct result of a broken US model of governance still following blindly an ideology that relentlessly destroys the planet along with the living things that inhabit it through it's insatiable need for endless, unsustainable growth…before then worked extensively as a war correspondent, saw and experienced the result of western imperialism on the ground..so I assume that maybe those things shaped his writing and positions in his writing that we read today?
Maybe Rachel Maddow is more you cup of tea?
A Court Ruled Rachel Maddow’s Viewers Know She’s Not Offering Facts
https://scheerpost.com/2021/06/22/a-court-ruled-rachel-maddows-viewers-know-shes-not-offering-facts/
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/fishermen-filmed-with-thousands-of-pink-maomao-in-bins-in-tairua/TOLOSXOST56XJTYJSU5SKUEBSU/
Greed and what they can get away with is obviously the only rule here. No exemptions. In fact, given that there are no tourists to speak off its NZlanders themselves who are the perpetrators – no more excuses.
Yes, and who is the middle man and final market?
See the little Bulldog doing some agitating sailing of their little boat in Russian waters at the behest of Uncle Sam.
Better they put their money to better use at home where it's needed to fight Covid instead of playing Paper Tiger games.
I'm not up with the play Byd. Briefly who, what, are you referring to?
Sailing a UK Navy boat to agitate in Ukraine.
Geopolitical circlejerk between regional powers.
Can't let a good ferment go off the boil eh.
Well, bojo's a dick but so is Putin.
I found the wee dance amusing, though.
If the Russians fire warning shots to protect their maritime territory, that's fine.
If they fire warning shots to stop other nations entering the waters of a third party, that's generally called a "blockade" and is an act of war (which is why the US avoided the term "blockade" in the cuban Missile crisis).
So the Russians are claiming they fired warning shots, while the British are saying that there was just some coincidental noisiness as their ship travelled through Ukrainian waters.
Disturbingly wars often appear during the demise of economic systems
Yes, unfortunately true.
Full court (no intention) press over at the Daily Blog
https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2021/06/25/guest-blog-marie-dyhrberg-qc-false-sexual-accusers-face-little-risk/
https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2021/06/24/guest-blog-my-son-has-been-wrongfully-convicted-of-rape-part-two/
https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2021/06/23/guest-blog-samira-taghavi-surviving-a-sexual-prosecution-in-21st-century-salem/
Concern raising articles, especially given the profession of two of the authors…and it will be interesting to see if Mr Bradbury is as good as his word.
Reddit banned lesbian female only subreddits (those that exclude trans women, irrespective of content), but allows groups like this to stay. This is important for understanding why gender critical feminists are doing what they are doing. This stuff from Reddit is tech bro sanctioned misogyny, and is largely accepted by the left.
https://twitter.com/lilithwon_fds/status/1408146058304126977
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/445495/hate-speech-govt-plans-new-law-tougher-penalties
The plan is part of the government's work to strengthen social cohesion, in response to the Royal Commission of inquiry into the Christchurch terror attack.
Frankly I hate the sound of this. It is so stupid to try to control speech by suppressing it. The wrong words, even spoken in jest, could become a blackmailing tactic against people afraid to lose their jobs, shown up by our increasingly witch-hunting, puritan world. Nazi propaganda brought naive children in to their service, reporting on parents!
Our governments are so pathetic and irrational – we know this by previous Labour opening us up to laissez faire trading which in centuries before was disastrous for principled civilisation. They should have recognised this but no, steam ahead, was the call. Mark Twain should have been a counter-call, that's where the depth of the river was constantly checked to prevent running into a new sandbank in the ever-changing river. But we had no practical, knowledgeable pilot in 1984 and we appear to have newbies now putting forward their notions as policy with no allowance for the unintended consequences which come with all change. On this theme I have put link to Don McGlashan singing Anchor Me with memories of Helen Kelly.
And further I find that Mr Faafoi is in charge of not only Broadcasting but Justice and Immigration as well. Is he capable of looking at what we need for Just-us or is he inflated with a desire to look big in the world – making his mark etc. He is ex-journalist with BBC and TVNZ; if we got National back in, could we end up with Mike Hosking as Min. of Justice dealing out behavioural controls on all the unsatisfactory people he picks on! Oh lordie, lordie.
Here is Anchor Me played by Don McGlashan for Helen Kelly's memory on television.
+100 Grey
We are a scoldingly litigious country.
Our intelligence +defense community should just do their jobs.
I suggest you actually read the proposals and engage with them, rather than make sweeping generalisations and personal attacks to try and support your concerns.
I suggest Nordy you think about whether it is an appropriate proposal to bring in and about the lead politician involved. Why is it that citizens are constantly having to fight legislation that is poorly thought out and which once in will have huge ramifications? I suggest that you give us a break by not supporting such proposals. It wears out thinking citizens to have to monitor supposed intelligent well-meaning pollies.
Everybody is free to make a submission and nobody should be discouraged from exercising their democratic right to make a submission. I do hope that many will make submission and I don’t expect for one second that I’d agree with all of them, if I were to see and read them all, which is extremely unlikely. A proposal such as this needs input and feedback from many quarters. Nobody has a monopoly on wisdom (an oxymoron) and/or The Truth. This site values and encourages robust debate, not the exclusion of others and their opinions.