What this illustrates is how fucked up the American health system is, how driven by the dollar, how politicised.
I have been lambasted on here for promoting the videos of Chris Martensen, who months ago suggested HCQ + Ivermectin + zinc given early at the onset of covid-19 and before hospitalisation was the prophylactic which would have most beneficial effects.
Time will tell, and I don’t expect apologies, but I do reserve the right to say: I told you so.
You've been criticised for uncritically posting lengthy videos by Martenson, without doing even the simplest courtesy of a basic couple of sentences of why the video might be worth watching. As it turns out, Martenson does not appear to base his recommendations on sound science, but overhypes limited results from poorly designed studies. A brief look at Martenson's past stuff, from gold-bugging to doomie preparation, suggests he's a clickbait artist on the topics-du-jour rather than a credible expert with insight on a complex specialist topic.
How about providing some links to actual studies backing up your implication that HCQ + ivermectin + zinc given early is beneficial?
Your link to the Lyin' King's twitter account doesn't seem to go to anything like what you've described, and frankly, that you would suggest that any information coming through the Drumpf/Fox sewer line might possibly be taken at face value suggests an extreme deficit in the skepticism and information assessment department.
But if it's about the latest miracle cure touted by Donnie Dumpsterfire, convalescent plasma treatment, here's a look at the actual numbers showing how even the relatively small improvements for something touted as article are in fact an overhype of the tiny improvements actually observed. Let alone the difficulties in obtaining useful quantities of the miracle substance.
Andre, did you hold your nose and actually watch the linked video?
I've no time for Drumpf and I'm not suggesting he has any answers (no matter what the question) but there does seem to be a quickness to jump on HCQ as a prophylactic given early in the onset of covid – merely because trump in one of his meanderings promoted it.
The Harvard professor cites case studies which show the effectiveness of HCQ – yet the profit-driven health system slams the drug and goes after other drugs which cost an arm and a leg.
Nor is your say-so reason to waste ten minutes watching a video, particularly given your history of posting lengthy misinformation videos from clickbait artists that don't have substance behind them.
When it comes to HCQ, there is a large weight of evidence from the better-designed studies showing it has negligible beneficial effect, and is actually likely increase the risk of death due to HCQ's well-known side-effects on heart function.
You have attempted to boost the apparent credibility of your post by saying "Harvard professor" but declined to provide a name nor any info about about the case studies to check out whether there's any substance to the study. It could be a Harvard professor of DrumpfDivinity citing case studies at Liberty University for all we know – and the track record of Trump, Fox, and the clickbait artists you post suggest it's really not worth wasting the time to watch the video to find out.
If you want to provide actually useful info rather than likely amplifying misinformation and worsening the misinformation epidemic, post actual names and links to actual studies.
edit: meanwhile a search for actual hydroxychloroquine evidence turns up a veritable cornucopia of articles such as:
Here are the first three hits from googling risch yale hydroxychloroquine study:
First is a defensively toned memo from Yale defending Risch academic right to opine on topics outside his expertise:
Dr. Harvey Risch is a distinguished cancer epidemiologist who has opined on the topic of hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) and COVID-19 out-patient therapy. He has written a review article in the American Journal of Epidemiology that cites evidence that he believes supports HCQ use for out-patient infection with SARS-CoV-2. Studies that indicate no effect or harmful effects, Dr. Risch believes, enrolled patients too sick to benefit from HCQ.
Yale-affiliated physicians used HCQ early in the response to COVID-19, but it is only used rarely at present due to evidence that it is ineffective and potentially risky…
Yale School of Public Health professor Harvey Risch has been a vocal supporter of the use of hydroxychloroquine to treat COVID-19, despite a lack of scientific evidence that it works.
In a July 23 opinion piece in Newsweek, Risch argued for the use of hydroxychloroquine, in combination with the antibiotic azithromycin, to treat high-risk COVID-19 patients without waiting for further testing on the effectiveness of the treatment. He published this piece after his May 27paper in the American Journal of Epidemiology was widely criticized due to a lack of evidence from randomized trials. Both articles argued this combination of drugs can effectively prevent hospitalization for most symptomatic high-risk outpatients and that it is safe for short-term use early in the course of infection. This claim is now widely disputed.
Risch points readers to his review — he is the only author — published in late May in the American Journal of Epidemiology that cites five studies in support of HCQ, particularly when used early in the course of COVID-19.
None are randomized controlled trials. One is the heavily publicized and now discredited French study by Didier Raoult, MD, and colleagues in March that sparked initial hopes for HCQ. Two have no corresponding data or publications.
I'm not defensive. I'm disgusted with your promotion of misinformation that you didn't even make a rudimentary attempt to fact-check. Or even have the courtesy to drop a few breadcrumbs as to the actual substantive content. Or even provide a clean link to the video you expect people to waste time watching. (Your twitter link went to the Twittertwat's general twitter cesspit, leaving your reader to try to figure out which turd you expected them to pick out)
I'm not defensive. I'm disgusted with your promotion of misinformation …
Having been on the receiving end of your spew Andre, I am disgusted at your continuing propensity to declare any information or opinion which has not got The Establishment's tick of approval as "misinformation".
You worship at the altar of mainstream and official, and seem blind to the fact that practically nothing we see, hear or read on the internet can be relied on unless supported by personal knowledge or experience…or the personal knowledge or experience of others we personally trust.
Sometimes, Andre, what we are told is 'fact' simply does not add up and we have to do our own research and draw on our own knowledge.
Case in point are the discussions you and I have had over the history of measles in the developed world,and the safety and efficacy of the flu vaccine. I'm not going to provide you with links (again) as you will refuse to read or listen to anything that might challenge the comfortable position you cling to.
Taking second information from Harvey's boss and some colleagues as gospel, all the while ignoring what Harvey is actually saying is pretty piss poor fact checking imo.
Thanks Tony, the proof is in the pudding as they say. Minnesota is the second state to revoke the ban and allow HCQ use as a treatment. You would think more states to follow…
Before you start gloating, claim bragging rights, and elevate your YouTube hero to superhero status you may just want to read this balanced piece for a general audience that came out today:
There’s still much we don’t know about this virus and anybody who claims they know (better or best) and they are right are taking a punt, at best, because to the best of knowledge, there is no conclusive evidence for many claims yet. Even a safe and effective vaccine may never eventuate despite enormous efforts (and investments). I think people will have to accept the limits of what is possible but many seem to have huge faith in science and technology to deal with if not solve all issues that are plaguing humankind, sooner or later. That includes CC, by the way.
That truly was an excellent episode of Sunday and word around the staffroom is we need more shows like that, because we here in NZ have no idea what it's really like during a pandemic.
So there seems to be a concerted attempt building, whether by design or by accident, to present Jacinda Ardern as a bit lame and patronising. I agree to a reasonable extent; in manner, she's like John Key with slightly less mangling of the English language, and mercifully minus the doofus dickhead dimension. Having said that, I find it rather off-putting to see David Seymour homing on on her use of the word 'tricky' to describe COVID-19, followed by Luke Malpass at Stuff parroting the line, saying that she 'insists on calling [it] “tricky” as if it somehow deliberately sneaks in the back window […]'. Mr. Seymour, Mr. Malpass, 'tricky' is usually just a synonym for 'difficult'. Look it up, you pair of nitwits.
Malpass is either an idiot (a distinct possibility) or deliberately manufacturing trivial hits on Ardern. 'Tricky' is used all the time colloquially to describe something that is difficult to achieve, handle, or respond to in an effective way. As in 'a tricky problem', 'a tricky corner', 'a tricky situation', 'a tricky climb' etc. etc. In none of these examples does the use of 'tricky' attribute intent to something that is incapable of having intent.
What's happening here is that Malpass doesn't like being reminded that the whole Covid response is immensely difficult. If everything is mixed, nuanced, problematic, evolving as it goes, etc, then simple-minded gotcha journalism is off the table – making it harder for him to shill for the Nats without appearing like a complete loon.
Thanks AB I didn't have a good feeling about Malpass from what I had read and then found that he had been set up as Political Editor made me wonder. He's a bit tricky I feel.
He is an imported neoliberal writer of financial articles and agenda setting news in Australia. Setting the agenda ?? Moved back here in John Key’s time. Nuff said!!
Oh thanks. I thought he must be getting encouragement from somewhere to counter his unfortunate name Malpass. Mal in French is bad. Some surnames are discouraging.
Yes Matiri isn't he good and I'm glad he pops along to Kim and she feeds him questions, of which there are more than he can answer. But promises to come back. You feel that you have heard a well-balanced informed background to the tricky Covid-19 behaviour.
My new phrase around Covid is if you are not part of the solution you are part of the problem.
This govt has done an outstanding job and the figures speak for themselves
Let Mof H and Govt mostly get on with it. They are leading a very strong health response which is best for the economy
each individual needs to work out what they can do for the covid response. Wear a mask, socially distance, stay home if your sick if at all possible , support local business, get out and see NZ, donate to a Foodbank, get a test if you are asked to do so. That is the job of each and every one of us, to whatever capacity we have to do it. And those of us that have more capacity need to step up.
For the arm chair critics eg the gotcha journos, the likes of Gorman Shut the fuck up
My new phrase around Covid is if you are not part of the solution you are part of the problem.
This govt has done an outstanding job and the figures speak for themselves
Let Mof H and Govt mostly get on with it. They are leading a very strong health response which is best for the economy
each individual needs to work out what they can do for the covid response. Wear a mask, socially distance, stay home if your sick, support local business, get out and see NZ, donate to a Foodbank, get a test if you are asked to do so. That is the job of each and every one of us, to whatever capacity we have to do it. And those of us that have more capacity need to step up.
For the arm chair critics eg the gotcha journos, the likes of Gorman Shut the fuck up
as with smart comebacks, not all professors of medicine are without fault. a good professor of ANYTHING will say that they dont know enough, they are still learning.
Perhaps Anker might might take some notice of your wisdom. Maybe better to do that rather than insist that anyone who doesn't agree with his/her narrow viewpoint should STFU.
Its really not about who agrees with me Alan. I go by what the scientists say and trust in the MofH and our Govts directives as they have served and continue to serve us well…It is the arm chair critics I was taking aim at. These are mostly the journos who look to have gotcha moments. The journo who asked Ashleigh B if he was going to resign needs to be told how dangerous the idea is. Re Professor Gorman, see my comments below.
I never said I knew more that a Professor in Medicine and certainly I know very little about medicine for divers and brain injury. These are the two areas Professor Gorman has his qualifications in.
Professor Gorman seems to have held a number of positions in health funding, workforce development and health system design. He held these from around 2010 and it appears from his CV he is no longer used so much by the current govt.
Given he had so much time and influence to sort the health system, if his criticisms are to be believed, he clearly failed to do so in when he was in a position to implement the changes.
By his own admission in the Radio NZ interview, the govt are using the right strategies, contract tracing, quarantine, high testing rates…………..
Right now is not the time for the health system to re-structure or to set up new agencies…………..We are in acute crisis mode. And despite any failings or inadequacies Mr Gorman sees, our health system which has been woefully underfunded is coping and adapting spectacularly well as seen by our Covid response and the statistics that don’t lie….. So no I have no time for Mr Gorman
Hee hee cleverer than you Alan. When you feel the urge to write all you can say is yah-boo. Doh! And yet you are upset at the STFU! When you write you don’t say anything of any assistance in the toil and tribulations we are in. You are not using your great powers to help so why worry about it.
Our misinformation crisis – how can we stop ourselves from falling for it and spreading it?
Fact-checkers, they found, didn’t fall prey to the same missteps as other groups. When presented with the American College of Pediatricians task, for example, they almost immediately left the site and started opening new tabs to see what the wider web had to say about the organization. Wineburg has dubbed this lateral reading: if a person never leaves a site–as the professor failed to do–they are essentially wearing blinders. Fact-checkers not only zipped to additional sources, but also laid their references side by side, to better keep their bearings.
In another test, the researchers asked subjects to assess the website MinimumWage.com. In a few minutes’ time, 100% of fact-checkers figured out that the site is backed by a PR firm that also represents the restaurant industry, a sector that generally opposes raising hourly pay. Only 60% of historians and 40% of Stanford students made the same discovery, often requiring a second prompt to find out who was behind the site.
Another tactic fact-checkers used that others didn’t is what Wineburg calls “click restraint.” They would scan a whole page of search results–maybe even two–before choosing a path forward. “It’s the ability to stand back and get a sense of the overall territory in which you’ve landed,” he says, “rather than promiscuously clicking on the first thing.” This is important, because people or organizations with an agenda can game search results by packing their sites with keywords, so that those sites rise to the top and more objective assessments get buried.
Perhaps we should keep coming to The Standard and someone will raise a point about error as a rule, but not always. I have asked for help now and then and no-one replied so the blog is only partially useful at sorting into piles all the words and sentences that roll out endlessly.
The site still isn't right. But I've fixed most of the speed issue which appears to have been something triggering cache access issues at the database level. Mostly by taking out some of the obsessive protection that used the database as persistent storage and substituting other tools.
I still haven't located the root cause which is kind of irritating. I'll look at that again this evening. There are much higher than usual general (ie non-site aware) attempts to crack into the site. But it is no more than about 5x the usual rate. It averaged at about 20 per minute. Didn't look like a denial of service attack.
However I need to get back to paid employment (had to take a day off yesterday). So it will have do for the moment.
There are much higher than usual general (ie non-site aware) attempts to crack into the site.
Forgive me my technical illiteracy, but are they attempts to interfere with the ability of the site to continue providing a forum for political debate? Not so long ago one of our local experts warned it was inevitable there would be foreign political interference in the election – not unlike what has been experienced elsewhere.
a lot to consider about the site and possible election based interference, we know it isn't fairy dust to consider this. Thanks for your work LPrent, would money help? Nothing else we could do I imagine.
Ok, I have just seen the problem now that I am looking wider.
One of the SSD drives in the array for The Standard has been locked into a very very long SMART data scan – it is currently at 140% of the expected time. It is running at 49C (its partner is at 29C).
Failing it from the array so the spare kicks in.
Yep, and the really problematic issue is fixed. saving comments and updating them is now fast again.
I really don’t tend to view SSDs as being a possible problem. I just lean in the SMART monitoring I’ll add some notifier diagnostics to scan them over-running tests and getting too hot.
The chickns have come home to roost in Auckland. The delays of putting in decent public transport in Auckland that began in Mayor Robbie's* time 1959 on have now led to problems about Covid-19 spread, as well as making it difficult for just ordinary citizens to get to work and have some time for having a life.
According to Auckland Regional Public Health, the trip took two and a half hours. The reason for this was because "there was very bad traffic congestion that morning as people were heading home before the midday lockdown," the Auckland Regional Public Health Service (ARPHS) said.
They said the two people sat on the bus for an hour at Symonds Street.
About his rail ideas: Robinson's main focus during his second period as mayor was his advocacy for rapid transit system for Auckland. Robinson's proposal for a bus-rail rapid transit plan was "to provide fast, modern electrified railways through the main traffic corridors of the region". The proposal had passenger trains every three minutes running from an underground subway terminal in the city centre with above ground tracks leading to Howick, Auckland Airport and a tunnel to the North Shore. The scheme was heavily criticized for its cost (an estimated $273 million in 1973) and both the ARA chairman Tom Pearce and most of its members opposed the scheme. The Third Labour Government reneged on an election pledge to pay for the scheme and the rapid rail proposal disappeared. Retrospectively, Robinson's idea to implement rapid rail was seen as a possible long-term solution to Auckland's subsequent transportation difficulties. The phrase; "If we'd only listened to Robbie…" has become common speech in Auckland whenever the city's transport system is debated.
It seems to me that the struggle to get important work carried out for the overall good of a community is a harder goal than to climb Mt Everest. We love Sir Edmund Hillary for doing something quite notable but unnecessary.
We fail to catch the importance of pushing through a future-looking transport system for a growing, major city like Auckland. And Dove-Myer was also prominent in preventing the city's sewage and meat offcuts from manufacturing being dumped out at sea untreated. Apparently he was a feisty man with a big ego, quite interesting reading about him. But he was a thinker; if they had left the tunnel to North Shore out and gone with the rest, they would have been winners instead of losers as they are now.
Let's hope they don't end up like Los Angeles (City of Angels).
“There’s simply not enough places for these people to go, there’s obviously a lot of mental health and addiction problems. “A lot of people flood to California because of the weather and I think the problem has just overwhelmed the system here. “And I think the city of dreams really has turned into the city of nightmares at the moment.” It is a city-wide problem, she says.
“Friends of mine that live I Santa Monica only four blocks from the beach say they can’t take their children to the local park because the homeless situation is so bad that there are people passed out in the park doing drugs, there are syringes everywhere…
“It’s a big city problem across America and I think it’s a socio-economic problem that the rich are getting richer, certainly under Trump, and the poor are getting poorer. “There’s a great sense of social injustice here at the moment.” Homeless encampments are legal in Los Angeles and have blossomed as the city’s chronic housing shortage worsens.
And this is the next step of the epidemic likely to cross our borders carrying all the shit that comes out the actions of the wealthy and malignant in the USA to foul our country's wellbeing, only managed by being the opposite to them in their feckless drive for capital accretion and power.
Wealthy Americans looking for a safe haven in a turbulent Covid-19 world are flocking to invest in New Zealand – and move their businesses here. The number of investor visa applications has soared since the coronavirus outbreak, and the government agency working to attract overseas money says New Zealand's successful public health strategy is behind the ten-fold surge in interest.
I've read that some people in Queenstown are having trouble with the Lords of Creation who have homes with helipads attached that they have wangled on the basis of serving them for arriving and departing. But they have visitors and are restless and on the go so the very loud noise of a helicopter next door can be heard numerous times a week.
When I hear one here it is usually the rescue one going across to land at the hospital set-down spot. They are doing God's work so to speak, and I can put up with that, in fact I find it comforting that we have this service for the needy. There are often trampers who fall, get caught in bad weather, a windy road out of town, Golden Bay and distant communities – so that's different from the wealthy and their taking ways.
If you're prone to COVID panic, don't read further.
Covid reinfection of a healthy 33 year old has been confirmed by the genome of his second infection being different to the genome of his first, with the spike proteins being different between the two strains. The good news, for him anyway, was that the second infection was asymptomatic.
Yep. Still too soon to be making definitive plans about the future and what NZ should be doing with the borders and so on. There's more to learn here about the virus, immunity, transmission before we get to rearranging society again.
And this. South Korea was an early success at controlling Covid-19 and then had a huge outbreak with a religion at its core. I had thought South Koreans religious but well-balanced, now its becoming twisted and political. Their psychology is not too different from what has arisen all over the world, looking for conspiracies and malign agents connected with Covid-19, but it appears so passionate that the country is spiralling out of control.
The latest outbreak of coronavirus cases centred around a right-wing Presbyterian church has spread to all 17 provinces throughout the country for the first time….
The Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) has admitted that about 20 percent of all new cases are of unknown origin – despite the country's efficient contact tracing system which can track down around 1000 potentially infected patients in an hour.
South Korea's fight against Covid-19 began in February after an outbreak at a Christian cult called the Shincheonji Church of Jesus in the city of Daegu, about 200km south of Seoul. Within weeks, the outbreak was under control…
The majority of new cases are all close to the heavily populated capital city which is home to more than 10 million people.
And one of the biggest concerns is that many of the far-right worshippers who are potentially infected believe the virus was planted as part of a conspiracy to close it down. Many are refusing to be contacted, let alone tested.
And there is also one other major risk factor. Infected members of the Shincheonji church were mostly young – in their 20s. But the current outbreak is affecting a much older age group.
Members of the Sarang Jeil Church, which roughly translates as "Love Comes First", are right-wing conservatives and maintain that President Moon Jae-in is a communist and a puppet of China and North Korea.
Before the coronavirus outbreak, they would gather in their hundreds in the centre of Seoul each Saturday loudly rallying and marching past the Blue House to denounce the South Korean leader.
This is really frightening. If the South Korean government tries to have a total lockdown which appears to be the only way to stop spread, these people could riot in another one of their protests aimed at bringing down the government. They refuse to believe in the facts of the virus and its spread, and if they were in charge would probably impose BAU by force, yet the report is that the hospitals are nearly at capacity. Who can break through this web of lies and hysteria that all South Koreans respect and will pay attention to?
South Korea is somewhat used to dealing with mass protests – and they are mostly very well-behaved. They never run out of police because the police claim a proportion of the two-year military service all Korean men must do – if they need another 100 000 they only need to make a few phone calls. The protest culture, which is a Confucian tradition, really took hold under Chun do Hwan, who was somewhat in the Duterte mould, and police under his leadership killed several thousand protestors. It's not like that these days, and the church cannot muster a large crowd in Korean terms.
they would gather in their hundreds
By Korean standards that makes them look as lonely asBilly TK's meagre handful of supporters.
Well that all sounds very calming, which is good for me. But still the spread and the lack of contact tracing that they can do is going to be a worry.
Perhaps they can all go into their church and close the doors and be together and safe from the government forces. But they must care for their sick with the equipment that will be available on request, food delivered in raw state so they can't blame deaths on poisoning.
Perhaps they will come to their senses as people fall sick while under their care. No evil eye to blame it on.
One of my former students just told me there's a weird group in Korea now that may be deliberately spreading Covid – the rationale is apparently that "we have to share the pain with our ally (United States)". It may be a troll cell behind it, but it's the kind of trouble no country needs.
On Monday, the Democratic super PAC American Bridge released a new ad to run during the Republican convention — starring President Donald Trump’s former personal attorney Michael Cohen, who minced no words in blasting his former boss.
Replying to greywarshark @ 12. (for the last 6 months or so I’ve only been able to use the reply function on my iPhone not the iPad I normally use, but now can’t even use iPhone?).
Ironically the reason the cases sat for an hour on the bus on Symonds St is because there was an almighty traffic jam in that area of Symonds St, New North Road, Mt Eden Road and Newton Road after a Covid testing station was set up in a small ex-used car yard on New North Road. It was chaos every day until they moved the testing station to the Eden Park car park. All the bus services routed through that area eventually had to be detoured.
Notwithstanding that I fully agree that Auckland’s cheapskate approach to public transport and planning generally is a growing disaster.
That's awful Scott GN. I think authorities need a knowledgeable outsider who just watches and listens to all the plans re Covid 19 in each area, and steps in before all go away from the meeting room and asks the pertinent questions as to how effective they'll be in that spot, because of this, and this and this? 'I want us to look at these points now, before anything is done and explain to me how these problems can be overcome.'
Someone who has a reinforced spine, and can assert themselves and has knowledge of planning and people, would be useful to spot such things as traffic congestion.
It destroyed the lives of several pro-Corbyn students sympathetic to the Palestinian cause. It also triggered Labour’s “anti-Semitism crisis” in earnest. The manufactured crisis continues today, even with Corbyn now marginalized. After an internal Labour disciplinary investigation, some of the accused were cleared of anti-Semitism the following year.
But by that time the damage had been done.
After a four-year investigation, The Electronic Intifada has obtained the full Rubin report, which has never been published.
I found this yesterday in a promo for The Telegraph and found it very instructive about nice people in the UK and the lengths they will go to maintain their nice lives, and the rationalisation they use for being tricky.
…Every week, when I sit down to write my Wednesday column in The Telegraph, concerns like those are at the forefront of my mind. I see my job as speaking up for the silent majority, for men and women who lack a voice in a world where, if you don’t subscribe to fashionable left-wing causes, you’re called “inappropriate” or “something-phobic”.
People like us have been made to feel like a beleaguered minority. But who gave the Conservatives a whacking majority at the general election and protected our country from the lunatic extremism of Jeremy Corbyn? We did.
I’m proud that readers email to say it’s a huge relief to know that they’re not alone. I rejoice that Telegraph subscribers call the paper a “haven” for those who don’t get offended by views other than their own. Whenever possible, I try to see the funny side. Let’s face it, with the coronabeast laying waste to life as we know it, people are incredibly grateful for a laugh. Allison Pearson, Telegraph Columnist
People like this are irritated at changes including the constant nitpicking of word sensitivity at the moment and regard it as OTT. But they don't see that their own behaviour is similar on the other side of the see-saw.
Sturmer, the King of Nothing, can't get more support than Boris Johnson, even though Johnson is possibly the most obnoxious and incompetent British prime minister in history. He and his cronies have expelled anyone with a moral compass from the Labour Party—people like Asa Winstanley, who wrote this article, and Michael Rosen, and without a doubt would have drummed out Sir Gerald Kaufman if he was still alive….
"It is the nature of human existence that shared sacrifice is the glue that binds disparate individuals and groups into a unified and thus powerful entity."
"Profound disunity is characterized by the recognition that favored elites make no sacrifices, and this injustice consumes the bonds of civil unity."
fuck this. seriously fuck this bullshit, and someone please go to Winz and start weeding some of these drones out and send them to the unemployment queue, also Government (Labour/Green/NZFirst) do fucking better.
Most people know the Emergency Accommodation scheme put people in motels and hotels at market rates of over $120 per night for every room rented.
What they don't know is from 2018 – within this current term of government – the Ministry of Social Development extended this scheme to include private homes.
The catch is that MSD continued to pay the same motel room rates to landlords for every room in the house they would rent.
A three-bedroom house rented out at a "hotel" rate of up to $150 per room per night could bring in $3000 per week in areas of the country where median rent for those was $550. The rent was capped at the $3000 mark.
MSD did not visit the properties to check if they met basic living standards.
Once a provider joined the Emergency Housing scheme through providing a motel or hotel, it could then rent out extra rooms or houses into the scheme – and the status of those would not be checked.
Mangere East Family Services social worker Alastair Russell said the houses MSD paid penthouse apartment rates for were often "marginal to uninhabitable".
He was well aware of the scheme because a large number of properties in South Auckland were tied up in it.
"Houses without stoves and ovens [and] houses that were essentially building sites with debris scattered both in and outside the house.
"You're talking planks of wood with nails sticking out of them. Broken glass. And families with kids that had to go into those houses.
"No one was going in there and checking the places out."
Landlords knew, agent claims
It seems to have happened with the full knowledge of the ministry.
someone said something the other day that 'we know have well being as a priority a new social contract with the government', reading this article it occurs to me that some have a social contract with the government and it makes them very very rich while those that are too poor to be of importance to anyone (unless its an election year) can go live in a dump paid for by the tax payer 3000$ per pop.
But we can't increase unemployment and social benefits to the level of the wage subsidy casue we don't have the money, right? We seem to have the money, for landlords, real estate agents and winz drones who probably did well on kick backs. But hey, surely this is all a great misunderstanding, someone mis spoke, and someone mis appropriated funds and and and and.
Pigeon-holes? People with children thrust into some sort of covered dwelling or room. Is that how it is with MSD? No wonder they need guards on their offices. When people get distraught enough with no end in sight to their condition, they can feel they have nothing to lose!
Can we get our smug backsides off our seats as seen in twitter Hellhole, 'Oh I'm at the beach, on my balcony, on my lifestyle block, walking along this nature reserve'. It was sickening after the first laugh at giving the finger to Trump or some overblown liar about how bad NZ is. For some it bloody well is bad and we shouldn't forget that.
I mention a difficulty that I think is common, and that is authority will say that some remedial program won't fix the problem, so it's no good. That is such a copout to say nothing can be done till it is the perfect solution. "Oh we can't waste money here if more has to be spent later." We are not prepared to divide the problem into sections, start with the worst difficulty, and work up to bigger and better outcomes. Put everything on a graph from axes of 0 so as things improve they'll show up, why not measure that way.
So get up you bums and open your minds, every meeting has to result in a beneficial outcome for people who really need it, and receive enough of your budget to succeed, and be properly monitored with encouragement and support to achieve what is wanted by the recipients.
Sabine, So lazy or overworked people in MSD let greedy landlords and their agents rort the system of the Government trying to find shelter for people. This has come to light, and yet you paint this as a failure by this Government, when you know the rot is endemic, and will take time to overcome, as so many are gaining.
You threw my "social contract comment" back in my face inferring I am one of those who is making $3000 a week!! I realise you mispoke in anger and frustration. I was talking about covid, you have taken that out of context.
This is housing situation is upsetting and not good enough. Who else have you sent a complaint to? Megan Woods? or just us?
PS I could have ignored that remark, but it is not fair.
We must not forget the power of the officials who implement the policy passed but in THEIR OWN way, or do they. There is mention of National gaining power in 1961 and it going to their heads. Do politicians have control or do they face some humiliating discussion with the head of the State Services Commission after they have got nowhere with their head of department?
I have been looking at some columns from Chris Trotter in past years. He said this in 2016 at the time Trump and Farage were looking very pleased with themselves.
The Last Laugh: As Plato predicted, more than 2,000 years ago, a democratic citizenry that loses faith in its own efficacy will voluntarily entrust its destiny to the first demagogue who learns to speak its language of despair. In 2016, this annus horribilis, those demagogues’ names were Nigel Farage and Donald Trump.
These from May 2017.
Not Just At The Gates – Within The Walls! Dr J.C. Beaglehole, writing in 1961, recorded with considerable disdain: “The naïve, the almost childish brutality, with which the chiefs of the National Party fell upon power may seem quite surprising, until one remembers how famished for power they were, and with what an innocency of experience they faced the world about them ….. [Their] insensitiveness to administrative delicacies was quite appalling.”
And The Truth Shall Set You Free: Moving beyond the thirty-year-old neoliberal order in New Zealand can only be achieved by confronting and disproving its explanations and excuses for the inequality, poverty and powerlessness it perpetuates.
New Labour or Coalition government – what will confront them?
The simple answer is: The Past. A government elected on the strength of public misgivings about rampant homelessness and the lack of affordable housing; out-of-control immigration; and a despoiled natural environment; will be presented with thirty-year-old government machinery designed specifically to make effective state intervention as difficult as possible.
Any attempt to deploy this machinery in pursuit of social and economic objectives for which it was not designed is highly likely to end in failure – and, quite possibly, disaster. Arrayed against a government in which only a handful of ministers possess Cabinet experience will be a bristling phalanx of public servants, National Party appointees, corporate and special interest lobbyists and public relations firms – all of whom have a vested interest in preserving the status quo…
When, after staggering into their minister’s offices under the weight of multiple reports, studies and surveys, the representatives of Treasury, MFAT, MBIE and MPI advise the new progressive government that its programme will wreck the economy and/or bankrupt the nation, how will Labour, NZ First and the Greens respond? Will they be able to offer their own stack of reports, studies and surveys in rebuttal?
I am throwing nothing back in your face, i just called it up because we need a social contract. A real contract that covers all of us all the time and not just some of us some of the time.
I am not speaking in anger nor frustration, but i am tired of the misery that we cause by not holding our government accountable and the price of that is paid by those that have the least to give or to loose. I have never ever even mentioned covid, You did. I am constantly talking about unemployment, homelessness and the lack of the government in regards to these issue.
Do i believe that the wage subsidy is / was not enough. I do. Do i think the government did an adequit job re Covid given the circumstances, yes, have i ever said open the borders or relax quarantine? No i never did and you would be hard pressed to find anything in regards to this. The problem is that currently every critisism by us vs Labour is shut down literally with words of 'shut up, national is worse and do you want us all to die". Talk about a nice way of telling people to shut up and just vote. 🙂 Ain't happening.
As for complaining, i spoke to the person who hopes to get elected in my area, lol, not talking policy, don't you think we did well, is this not enough, I leave comments of FB pages and i give money as far as i can to the community where i live which btw has a huge homeless problem, a huge over crowding problem and a huge poverty problem and it will only get worse with raising unemployment and no jobs to apply for. So no i don't see any reason to really talk to labour nor the greens nor nzfirst, as non of them listen when it comes to these issues. Shut up and vote, lest National wins.
So yes, i did took your 'applies to covid only' social contract comment and i applied it to our homeless and jobless. And if that is what upsets you then i can't help you there, because this article again just showed the truth, that in this country some are in it knee deep and others are not, some have a social contract and others don't. And the very poor in this country seem to be disregarded by all parties. We are not all in this together.
MSD isn't that incompetent, they are lacking something vital that should be searched for in their CVs at the time of getting the job, but perhaps the agency that does the human resources work doesn't bother with anything except the right ed and previous employers. That's how a serial fraudster got through recently. Does the department concerned claim the money back:? I believe they get quite a dosh per person. Anyone know what and how it is calculated?
"The Ministry of Social Development has admitted the scheme made the rental crisis worse – as people took rental properties off the market and used them instead to rent out to MSD to earn thousands more."
this is not incompetence it is no one in charge giving a shit. That would be the bosses of the kinder gentler still full of bullshit Winz. Carmel Sepuloni is her name and last i checked she was the minister of social development and if you read the article all the way to the end you will see that she is 'waiting to be briefed and can not answer questions'.
read everything about it, and then maybe understand where i am coming from when i lament the utter failure of the current government (Labour/NZFIRST/Green – and no any one person in particular) in regards to unemployment, social welfare starvation rates and housing. And i am being charitable calling it 'failure'.
if three thousand dollar a week is a strategy to house someone in unsanitary hovels without any security then that is not a strategy, but feel free to educate me about the strategy that i am missing. As i said above, please read all the way to the end where it states that the Minister of social development refuses to answer questions as to the strategy of this particular program.
Please weka, enlighten me. Cause i have been syaing this already under National, where this 'emergency programme' started under Paula Benefit.
The government changed nothing. did nothing, and is now being called out for having done nothing and chances are wasted millions to enrich a handful of in my book criminal land lords and real estate agents.
But i am happy to read your explanation of the strategy that i am missing.
Unless utter failure and disperagement of people going to winz for help is the strategy, then yes i must admit i totally did not see that.
funny that you think this is about Labour's strategy rather than yours or mine or the left's. I've been talking about strategy around this for years. Like I said, you don't get it.
Just to change the conversation, a cool wind blowing through the groves. Eddie Izzard and others having a discussion Europe and UK. Boris was a Daily Telegraph columnist and found Thatcher as the genesis of Eddie's career as a comedian.
I think Boris says he is a socialist about 5 mins in. I don't think he spends the time when he is not speaking, listening to the others, but thinking up what he wants to put over next.
From our archives. 1997 debate. Do we hate the French? What is the UK's place in Europe? Hosted by Jeremy Paxman, with Boris Johnson, comedian Eddie Izzard and Labour MEP Carole Tongue. More Newsnight archives here
Various media channels have sought the views of business leaders in Auckland to what the affects of extending Level 3 'til Sunday will be. And Chamber of Commerce Barnett appeared to be reading from a prepared-script-of-anticipation. Also spokespeople for the hospitality industry, in unison, have said that it is going to be catastrophic and that there will be massive permanent closures as a result.
I hope the media channels will seek these same people out again in a fortnight or so to get their assessments and to check if their predictions were anywhere even close.
I hope the media channels will seek these same people out again in a fortnight or so to get their assessments and to check if their predictions were anywhere even close.
Media Release 10 August 2020
New Zealand’s total fertility rate has reached an all-time low, with an average of 1.71 children per woman in New Zealand, well below population replacement level….
Report author Lindsay Mitchell says, “In the past, government policy could positively affect the size of families. The Universal Family Benefit strongly influenced peak fertility in 1961 when women had an average of 4.3 children. But as females have become better educated and increased their work force participation, more have chosen to have fewer or no children. Economic pressures like student debt and insecure employment play a role. And now they face additional pressure from environmentalists. Meanwhile, policy interventions appear less and less effective.”..
“Without population replacement or growth, economies decline. A nation’s strength lies in its young: their energy, innovation, risk-taking and entrepreneurship.
The new blood drives the exchange of ideas and experimentation. If these attributes aren’t home-grown, they have to be imported. At an individual level, single person households are the fastest growing household type in New Zealand. Increasingly people face old-age with few or no family supports.”
It doesn't take Lindsay Mitchell long to extrapolate opinions from fact. Now environmentalists are causing additional pressures on family numbers. And a nation relying on its young – it shows how far Mitchell is from reality. The PtB are quite happily importing the people it wants, making it difficult for parents especially mothers alone to bring up their children to utilise their, e, i, rt and ent. It's more efficient and valuable to the economy, to teach other people's children for a fee than to ensure good education for well-rounded minds of young NZ. And the future is not with people at the helm, it is as servants to machines and vast conglomerates situated overseas, now with holiday homes in NZ. The jobs that people could do and hold their heads up high as independent people are being deleted. It suits the neolib cohort to virtually delete people! The schools are preparing children for this future by making them do their learning on computers, laptops. Manual, hand work, is out, and jobs are just a number to indicate the movements of the market.
The trouble with these narrow-minded people, is that they are against the lone woman, and will punish her by keeping her poor and lonely, and they regard sex as sinful if not sanctified by marriage. And the actions of such as Family First match this prejudice. They will back the right wing who would rather single women were working at a low-level and tiring job, than to be available to their children and being supported to become first-rate parents, home managers, and have skills training enabling them to earn and improve their lifestyles and work status over the years.
That would be the ideal but it would seem to be encouraging the women and the right wing don't want this to happen. They don't like the idea of beneficiaries being happy – how dare they enjoy living off my hard-won earnings is the mean refrain. So they won't even back them to get a good start in life, along with their children. When they talk about beneficiary mothers it is the children they mention, not the person trying to cope with responsibilities on one pair of shoulders. This has been made worse by the demand to advise the father's identity or lose benefit payment.
After time passes and some wisdom gained, plus the experience of bearing and birthing their child, many women know the man concerned will have a negative affect on them and the child. But money and stiff morality have equal places in the minds of the right wing, and I think it is money that is paramount really. It's a toxic world in there when you get a glimpse into the depths of such people's minds, no matter how pleasant they look and sound.
Hi LP, thanks as ever for your site. I’ve had problems viewing the articles for a while now. I see the headline, and the comments, but not the article itself. Not always, but often. Now, today, the ‘design’ is missing too, your banner for example. A ‘template’ problem? I can switch to desktop version, but that doesn’t work so well either on a phone. I’m using safari, latest iOS 13x, on iPhone se. Hope this info is helpful.
You are absolutely correct. I’ve been mostly concerned with other things (like the site running like a dog due to what turned out to be a failing SSD in a RAID array) for the last day or so.
But I’m seeing the same things on a Android Samsung S10+. I’ll clean it up after I get through inserting new SSDs. However it may be tomorrow (he says looking at the time).
It is now ok now on my samsung. Checked it on my partners iphone. Her front page is still wrong but the rest is as it should be. I’m presuming that is a caching issue. My android suddenly came right a while after I did a update for the appearance.
Is New Zealand chicken production as disgusting as this?
'The UK slaughters 20 million broilers every week, the vast majority of which are fast- growing breeds, reaching slaughter weight in just 35 days – four times faster than in the 1950s. This, according to the RSPCA, is responsible for contributing to severe welfare problems such as chronic leg disorders and heart and circulatory problems.
The data revealed that more than 3 million chickens were rejected at slaughter due to ascites or heart failure. “The main contributor is believed to be an increased oxygen demand by the fast-growing muscle. The body simply can’t keep up,” said Vicky Bond, veterinarian and director of the Humane League. CIWF have called for a ban on the use of fast-growing broiler breeds.
Dr Ed Van Klink, senior lecturer at Bristol Veterinary School, said: “Some of these issues are clearly welfare related … There will always be sick animals, certainly given the enormous numbers that are being processed. Poultry is kept in large flocks, therefore attention for individual disease issues is generally not possible.”
I think Ardern has a 20% advantage in the next election over National. Lets press her to implement the Welfare Advisory Group's recommendations. If not now for our kin, when?
Don't vote for her , talk against her, unless she helps the neediest NOW after 36 years.
Disgusted I have to make a case here.
We are too far near to America's set-up.
When Jacinda bullshits about poverty and can't talk for Godzone.
I despise her because I know her, and reality, unlike others.
Ardern baited her hooks for middle NZ… being the daughter of a white cop in Mangakino does not give her insight into the lives of those the WEAG were trying to champion.
The reality is, just like NZ voted National back in time and time again despite the water in the pot getting hotter all the time, there will be flesh falling from the bones of Godzone's most vulnerable and still the bulk will vote for the popular and telegenic.
Ross Ardern worked in a number of towns in the Waikato region (Murupapa, Piako-Matamata, Morrinsville, etc.) So he was "a white cop in Mangakino" too, eh? SSDD.
However…do you think this government has addressed the needs of the most vulnerable New Zealanders Drowsy M.Kram?
Do you think it is OK for this government to have largely ignored the recommendations of the WEAG?
Do you think it is OK that the most vulnerable have been told since forever…'just wait, be patient, your day will come when there's enough money in the coffers…'
…only to see that when Business is threatened by the effects of a virus there's suddenly mega billions in the coffers?
Do you think that Ardern's(and most of our other elected 'representatives') privileged upbringing has prepared her to be able to properly empathize with those who has been discarded by government for the past twenty five years?
Because if its not to do with her lack of experience of life in the outer margins…?
IMHO it's a bit rich to have a go at Ardern for not being able to "properly empathize", but whatever floats your boat.
I do think that our Government should be aiming to address "the needs of the most vulnerable New Zealanders" as a priority, and then the needs of the less vulnerable, and lastly the needs of the invulnerable should they have any.
No, I don't "think it is OK for this government to have largely ignored the recommendations of the WEAG", nor do I think it's OK that various NZ governments have avoided making recommended changes to MMP, and have avoided alcohol law reform, and have privatised public assets in the face of strong public opposition, and have said no to introducing a CGT, or a Fart Tax, or indeed whatever progressive tax(es) might be needed to adequately address the many and varied needs of all citizens and the wider environment.
But there are only so many things that I can rail against at any one time.
I do think its OK that NZ governments resisted popular attempts to overturn the 'anti-smacking' legislation introduced to the house by Sue Bradford, and it's OK that the current Government introduced stricter gun control laws in the wake of the Christchurch massacre, and that they are also doing a reasonable-to-good job (indeed, an excellent job if current international comparisons of health outcomes are valid) of addressing the immediate public health and welfare issues relating to the Covid-19 pandemic, not to mention record investment in mental health, building classrooms and new schools, fixing hospitals, introducing the winter energy payment, extending paid parental leave…
But something's gotta give, and when it does most of us who are able to look back on past times will realise just how good we had it. Just my opinion, of course, and thanks for asking.
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 ...
Who likes being sneered at? Nobody. Worse yet, when the sneerer has their facts all wrong, and might well be an idiot.The sneer in question is The adults are in charge now, and it is a sneer offered in retort to criticism of this new Government, no matter how well ...
When in government, Labour pushed to extend the Parliamentary term to four years, to reduce accountability and our ability to vote out a bad government. And now, they're trying to do it through the member's ballot, with a Four-Year Parliamentary Term Legislation Bill. The bill at least requires a referendum ...
A ballot for a single Member's Bill was held today, and the following bill was drawn: Public Works (Prohibition of Compulsory Acquisition of Māori Land) Amendment Bill (Hūhana Lyndon) The bill would prevent the government from stealing Māori land in breach of Te Tiriti o Waitangi. It ...
Simeon Brown, alongside Wayne Brown, is favouring a political figleaf now in exchange for loading up tens of millions in extra interest costs on Auckland ratepayers. Photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: Ratings agency Standard & Poor’s is pushing back hard at suggestions from Local Government Minister Simeon Brown and Mayor Wayne Brown ...
Buzz from the Beehive One headline-grabber from the Beehive yesterday was the OECD’s advice that the government must bring the Budget deficit under control or face higher interest rates. Another was the announcement of a $1.9 billion “investment” in Corrections over the next four years. In the best interests of ...
Chris Trotter writes – Had Zheng He’s fleet sailed east, not west, in the early Fifteenth Century, how different our world would be. There is little reason to suppose that the sea-going junks of the Ming Dynasty, among the largest and most sophisticated sailing vessels ever constructed, would have failed ...
David Farrar writes – Two articles give a useful contrast in balance. Both seek to be neutral explainer articles. This one in the Herald on Social Investment covers the pros and cons nicely. It links to critical pieces and talks about aspects that failed and aspects that are more ...
The tikanga regulations will compel law students to be taught that a system which does not conform with the rule of law is nevertheless law which should be observed and applied…Gary Judd KC writes – I have made a complaint to Parliament’s Regulation ...
The future of Te Huia, the train between Hamilton and Auckland, has been getting a lot of attention recently as current funding for it is only in place till the end of June. The government initially agreed to a five year trial, through to April 2026, but that was subject ...
TL;DR: Hamas has just agreed to Israel’s ceasefire plan. Nelson hospital’s rebuild has been cut back to save money. The OECD suggests New Zealand break up network monopolies, including in electricity. PM Christopher Luxon’s news conference on a prison expansion announcement last night was his messiest yet.Here’s my top six ...
A homicide in Ponsonby, a manhunt with a killer on the run. The nation’s leader stands before a press conference reassuring a frightened nation that he’ll sort it out, he’ll keep them safe, he’ll build some new prison spaces.Sorry what? There’s a scary dude on the run with a gun ...
Hi,I know it’s been awhile since there’s been any Webworm merch — and today that all changes!Over the last four months, I’ve been working with New Zealand artist Jess Johnson to create a series of t-shirts, caps and stickers that are infused with Webworm DNA — and as of right ...
The OECD’s chief economist yesterday laid it on the line for the new Government: bring the deficit under control or face higher Reserve Bank interest rates for longer. And to bring the deficit under control, she meant not borrowing for tax cuts. But there was more. Without policy changes—introducing a ...
After a hiatus of over four months Selwyn Manning and I finally got it together to re-start the “A View from Afar” podcast series. We shall see how we go but aim to do 2 episodes per month if possible. … Continue reading → ...
In 2008, the UK Parliament passed the Climate Change Act 2008. The law established a system of targets, budgets, and plans, with inbuilt accountability mechanisms; the aim was to break the cycle of empty promises and replace it with actual progress towards emissions reduction. The law was passed with near-universal ...
Buzz from the Beehive Local Water Done Well – let’s be blunt – is a silly name, but the first big initiative to put it into practice has gone done well. This success is reflected in the headline on an RNZ report:District mayors welcome Auckland’s new water deal with ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate ConnectionsA farmworker cleans the solar panels of a solar water pump in the village of Jagadhri, Haryana Country, India. (Photo credit: Prashanth Vishwanathan/ IWMI) Decisions made in India over the next few years will play a key role in global ...
Lindsay Mitchell writes – The Children’s Minister, Karen Chhour, intends to repeal Section 7AA from the Oranga Tamariki Act 1989 because it creates conflict between claimed Crown Treaty obligations and the child’s best interests. In her words, “Oranga Tamariki’s governing principles and its act should be colour ...
Geoffrey Miller writes – The gloves are off. That might seem to be the undertone of surprisingly tough talk from New Zealand’s foreign and trade ministers. Winston Peters, the foreign minister, may be facing legal action after making allegations about former Australian foreign minister Bob Carr on Radio New Zealand. ...
Brian Easton writes – This is about the time that the Treasury will be locking up its economic forecasts to be published in the 2024 Budget Economic and Fiscal Update (BEFU) on budget day, 30 May. I am not privy to what they will be (I will report on them ...
TL;DR:Winston Peters is reported to have won a budget increase for MFAT. David Seymour wanted his Ministry of Regulation to be three times bigger than the Productivity Commission. Simeon Brown is appointing a Crown Monitor to Watercare to protect the Claytons Crown Guarantee he had to give ratings agencies ...
The gloves are off. That might seem to be the undertone of surprisingly tough talk from New Zealand’s foreign and trade ministers. Winston Peters, the foreign minister, may be facing legal action after making allegations about former Australian foreign minister Bob Carr on Radio New Zealand. Carr had made highly ...
I could be a florist'Round the corner from Rye LaneI'll be giving daisies to craziesBut, baby, I'll wrap you up real safe Oh, I can give you flowers At the end of every dayFor the center of your table, a rainbowIn case you have people 'round to stay Depending on ...
TL;DR: The six key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to May 12 include:PM Christopher Luxon is scheduled to hold a post-Cabinet news conference at 4 pm today. Finance Minister Nicola Willis will give a pre-budget speech on Thursday.Parliament sits from Question Time at 2pm on ...
The price of the foreign affairs “reset” is now becoming apparent, with Defence set to get a funding boost in the Budget. Finance Minister Nicola Willis has confirmed that it will be one of the few votes, apart from Health and Education and possibly Police, which will get an increase ...
A listing of 26 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, April 28, 2024 thru Sat, May 4, 2024. Story of the week "It’s straight out of Big Tobacco’s playbook. In fact, research by John Cook and his colleagues ...
Yesterday I received come lovely feedback following my Star Wars themed newsletter. A few people mentioned they’d enjoyed reading the personal part at the beginning.I often begin newsletters with some memories, or general thoughts, before commencing the main topic. This hopefully sets the mood and provides some context in which ...
April 30 was going to be the day we’d be calling Mum from London to wish her a happy birthday. Then it became the day we would be going to St. Paul's at Evensong to remember her. The aim of the cathedral builders was to find a way to make their ...
Rob MacCulloch writes – Can’t remember the last book by a Kiwi author you read? Think the NZ government should spend less on the arts in favor of helping the homeless? If so, as far as Newsroom is concerned, you probably deserve to be called a cultural ignoramus ...
Eric Crampton writes – Grudges are bad. Better to move on. But it can be fun to keep a couple of really trivial ones, so you’re not tempted to have other ones. For example, because of the rootkit fiasco of 2005, no Sony products in our household. ...
A new report warns an estimated third of the adult population have unmet need for health care.Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāHere’s the six key things I learned about Aotaroa’s political economy this week around housing, climate and poverty:Politics - Three opinion polls confirmed support for PM Christopher Luxon ...
Today is May the fourth. Which was just a regular day when my mother took me to see the newly released Star Wars at the Odeon in Rotorua. The queue was right around the corner. Some years later this day became known as Star Wars Day, the date being a ...
Buzz from the Beehive Much more media attention is being paid to something Winston Peters said about former Australian Foreign Minister Bob Carr than to a speech he delivered to the New Zealand China Council. One word is missing from the speech: AUKUS. But AUKUS loomed large in his considerations ...
Is the economy in another long stagnation? If so, why?This is about the time that the Treasury will be locking up its economic forecasts to be published in the 2024 Budget Economic and Fiscal Update (BEFU) on budget day, 30 May. I am not privy to what they will be ...
The annual list of who's been bribing our politicians is out, and journalists will no doubt be poring over it to find the juiciest and dirtiest bribes. The government's fast-track invite list is likely to be a particular focus, and we already know of one company on the list which ...
In the weeks after the October 7 Hamas attacks on Southern Israel I wrote about the possible 2nd, 3rd and even 4th order effects of the conflict. These included new fronts being opened in the West Bank (with Hamas), Golan … Continue reading → ...
Peter Dunne writes – It is one of the oldest truisms that there is never a good time for MPs to get a pay rise. This week’s announcement of pay raises of around 2.8% backdated to last October could hardly have come at a worse time, with the ...
David Farrar writes – Newshub reports: Newshub can reveal a fresh allegation of intimidation against Green MP Julie-Anne Genter. Genter is subject to a disciplinary process for aggressively waving a book in the face of National Minister Matt Doocey in the House – but it’s not the first time ...
The Treasury has published a paper today on the global productivity slowdown and how it is playing out in New Zealand: The productivity slowdown: implications for the Treasury’s forecasts and projections. The Treasury Paper examines recent trends in productivity and the potential drivers of the slowdown. Productivity for the whole economy ...
Winston Peters’ comments about former Australian foreign minister look set to be an ongoing headache for both him and Luxon. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for subscribers features co-hosts and , along with regular guests on Gaza and ...
These puppet strings don't pull themselvesYou're thinking thoughts from someone elseHow much time do you think you have?Are you prepared for what comes next?The debating chamber can be a trying place for an opposition MP. What with the person in charge, the speaker, typically being an MP from the governing ...
The land around Lyme Regis, where Meryl Streep once stood, in a hood, on the Cobb, is falling into the sea.MerylThe land around Lyme Regis, around the Cobb that made it rich, has always been falling slowly but surely into the sea. Read more ...
Buzz from the Beehive Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters was bound to win headlines when he set out his thinking about AUKUS in his speech to the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. The headlines became bigger when – during an interview on RNZ’s Morning Report today – he criticised ...
The Post reports on how the government is refusing to release its advice on its corrupt Muldoonist fast-track law, instead using the "soon to be publicly available" refusal ground to hide it until after select committee submissions on the bill have closed. Fast-track Minister Chris Bishop's excuse? “It's not ...
As pressure on it grows, the livestock industry’s approach to the transition to Net Zero is increasingly being compared to that of fossil fuel interests. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / Getty ImagesTL;DR: Here’s the top five news items of note in climate news for Aotearoa-NZ this week, and a discussion above ...
The New Zealand Herald reports – Stats NZ has offered a voluntary redundancy scheme to all of its workers as a way to give staff some control over their “future” amidst widespread job losses in the public sector. In an update to staff this morning, seen by the Herald, Statistics New Zealand ...
On Werewolf/Scoop, I usually do two long form political columns a week. From now on, there will be an extra column each week about music and movies. But first, some late-breaking political events:The rise in unemployment numbers for the March quarter was bigger than expected – and especially sharp ...
David Farrar writes – The Herald reports: TVNZ says it is dealing with about 50 formal complaints over its coverage of the latest 1News-Verian political poll, with some viewers – as well as the Prime Minister and a former senior Labour MP – critical of the tone of the 6pm report. ...
Muriel Newman writes – When Meridian Energy was seeking resource consents for a West Coast hydro dam proposal in 2010, local Maori “strenuously” objected, claiming their mana was inextricably linked to ‘their’ river and could be damaged. After receiving a financial payment from the company, however, the Ngai Tahu ...
Alwyn Poole writes – “An SEP,’ he said, ‘is something that we can’t see, or don’t see, or our brain doesn’t let us see, because we think that it’s somebody else’s problem. That’s what SEP means. Somebody Else’s Problem. The brain just edits it out, it’s like a ...
Our trust in our political institutions is fast eroding, according to a Maxim Institute discussion paper, Shaky Foundations: Why our democracy needs trust. The paper – released today – raises concerns about declining trust in New Zealand’s political institutions and democratic processes, and the role that the overuse of Parliamentary urgency ...
This article was prepared for publication yesterday. More ministerial announcements have been posted on the government’s official website since it was written. We will report on these later today …. Buzz from the BeehiveThere we were, thinking the environment is in trouble, when along came Jones. Shane Jones. ...
New Zealand now has the fourth most depressed construction sector in the world behind China, Qatar and Hong Kong. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 8:46am on Thursday, May 2:The Lead: ...
Hi,I am just going to state something very obvious: American police are fucking crazy.That was a photo gracing the New York Times this morning, showing New York City police “entering Columbia University last night after receiving a request from the school.”Apparently in America, protesting the deaths of tens of thousands ...
Winston Peters’ much anticipated foreign policy speech last night was a work of two halves. Much of it was a standard “boilerplate” Foreign Ministry overview of the state of the world. There was some hardening up of rhetoric with talk of “benign” becoming “malign” and old truths giving way to ...
Graham Adams assesses the fallout of the Cass Review — The press release last Thursday from the UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls didn’t make the mainstream news in New Zealand but it really should have. The startling title of Reem Alsalem’s statement — “Implementation of ‘Cass ...
This open-for-business, under-new-management cliché-pockmarked government of Christopher Luxon is not the thing of beauty he imagines it to be. It is not the powerful expression of the will of the people that he asserts it to be. It is not a soaring eagle, it is a malodorous vulture. This newest poll should make ...
The latest labour market statistics, showing a rise in unemployment. There are now 134,000 unemployed - 14,000 more than when the National government took office. Which is I guess what happens when the Reserve Bank causes a recession in an effort to Keep Wages Low. The previous government saw a ...
Three opinion polls have been released in the last two days, all showing that the new government is failing to hold their popular support. The usual honeymoon experienced during the first year of a first term government is entirely absent. The political mood is still gloomy and discontented, mainly due ...
National's Finance Minister once met a poor person.A scornful interview with National's finance guru who knows next to nothing about economics or people.There might have been something a bit familiar if that was the headline I’d gone with today. It would of course have been in tribute to the article ...
Rob MacCulloch writes – Throughout the pandemic, the new Vice-Chancellor-of-Otago-University-on-$629,000 per annum-Can-you-believe-it-and-Former-Finance-Minister Grant Robertson repeated the mantra over and over that he saved “lives and livelihoods”.As we update how this claim is faring over the course of time, the facts are increasingly speaking differently. NZ ...
Chris Trotter writes – IT’S A COMMONPLACE of political speeches, especially those delivered in acknowledgement of electoral victory: “We’ll govern for all New Zealanders.” On the face of it, the pledge is a strange one. Why would any political leader govern in ways that advantaged the huge ...
Bryce Edwards writes – The list of former National Party Ministers being given plum and important roles got longer this week with the appointment of former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett as the chair of Pharmac. The Christopher Luxon-led Government has now made key appointments to Bill ...
TL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 10:06am on Wednesday, May 1:The Lead: Business confidence fell across the board in April, falling in some areas to levels last seen during the lockdowns because of a collapse in ...
Over the past 36 hours, Christopher Luxon has been dong his best to portray the centre-right’s plummeting poll numbers as a mark of virtue. Allegedly, the negative verdicts are the result of hard economic times, and of a government bravely set out on a perilous rescue mission from which not ...
Green Party MP Hūhana Lyndon says her Public Works (Prohibition of Compulsory Acquisition of Māori Land) Amendment Bill is an opportunity to right some past wrongs around the alienation of Māori land. ...
A senior, highly respected King’s Counsel with decades of experience in our law courts, Gary Judd KC, has filed a complaint about compulsory tikanga Māori studies for law students - highlighting the utter depths of absurdity this woke cultural madness has taken our society. The tikanga regulations will compel law ...
The Government needs to be clear with the people of the Nelson Marlborough region about the changes it is considering for the Nelson Hospital rebuild, Labour health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall said. ...
Ministers must front up about which projects it will push through under its Fast Track Approvals legislation, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
The Government is again adding to New Zealand’s growing unemployment, this time cutting jobs at the agencies responsible for urban development and growing much needed housing stock. ...
With Minister Karen Chhour indicating in the House today that she either doesn’t know or care about the frontline cuts she’s making to Oranga Tamariki, we risk seeing more and more of our children falling through the cracks. ...
The Labour Party is saddened to learn of the death of Sir Robert Martin, a globally renowned disability advocate who led the way for disability rights both in New Zealand and internationally. ...
Labour is calling for the Government to urgently rethink its coalition commitment to restart live animal exports, Labour animal welfare spokesperson Rachel Boyack said. ...
Today’s Financial Stability Report has once again highlighted that poverty and deep inequality are political choices - and this Government is choosing to make them worse. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to do more for our households in most need as unemployment rises and the cost of living crisis endures. ...
Unemployment is on the rise and it’s only going to get worse under this Government, Labour finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds said. Stats NZ figures show the unemployment rate grew to 4.3 percent in the March quarter from 4 percent in the December quarter. “This is the second rise in unemployment ...
The New Zealand Labour Party welcomes the entering into force of the European Union and New Zealand free trade agreement. This agreement opens the door for a huge increase in trade opportunities with a market of 450 million people who are high value discerning consumers of New Zealand goods and ...
The National-led Government continues its fiscal jiggery pokery with its Pharmac announcement today, Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall says. “The government has increased Pharmac funding but conceded it will only make minimal increases in access to medicine”, said Ayesha Verrall “This is far from the bold promises made to fund ...
This afternoon’s interim Waitangi Tribunal report must be taken seriously as it affects our most vulnerable children, Labour children’s spokesperson Willow-Jean Prime. ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
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. ...
Defence Minister Judith Collins tonight announced the recipients of the Minister of Defence Awards of Excellence for Industry, saying they all contribute to New Zealanders’ security and wellbeing. “Congratulations to this year’s recipients, whose innovative products and services play a critical role in the delivery of New Zealand’s defence capabilities, ...
Welcome to you all - it is a pleasure to be here this evening.I would like to start by thanking Greg Lowe, Chair of the New Zealand Defence Industry Advisory Council, for co-hosting this reception with me. This evening is about recognising businesses from across New Zealand and overseas who in ...
It is a pleasure to be speaking to you as the Minister for Digitising Government. I would like to thank Akolade for the invitation to address this Summit, and to acknowledge the great effort you are making to grow New Zealand’s digital future. Today, we stand at the cusp of ...
New Zealand is urging both Israel and Hamas to agree to an immediate ceasefire to avoid the further humanitarian catastrophe that military action in Rafah would unleash, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “The immense suffering in Gaza cannot be allowed to worsen further. Both sides have a responsibility to ...
A new online data dashboard released today as part of the Government’s school attendance action plan makes more timely daily attendance data available to the public and parents, says Associate Education Minister David Seymour. The interactive dashboard will be updated once a week to show a national average of how ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced Rosemary Banks will be New Zealand’s next Ambassador to the United States of America. “Our relationship with the United States is crucial for New Zealand in strategic, security and economic terms,” Mr Peters says. “New Zealand and the United States have a ...
The Government is considering creating a new tier of minerals permitting that will make it easier for hobby miners to prospect for gold. “New Zealand was built on gold, it’s in our DNA. Our gold deposits, particularly in regions such as Otago and the West Coast have always attracted fortune-hunters. ...
Minister for Trade Todd McClay today announced that New Zealand and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) will commence negotiations on a free trade agreement (FTA). Minister McClay met with his counterpart UAE Trade Minister Dr Thani bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi in Dubai, where they announced the launch of negotiations on a ...
New Zealand Sign Language Week is an excellent opportunity for all Kiwis to give the language a go, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. This week (May 6 to 12) is New Zealand Sign Language (NZSL) Week. The theme is “an Aotearoa where anyone can sign anywhere” and aims to ...
Six tertiary students have been selected to work on NASA projects in the US through a New Zealand Space Scholarship, Space Minister Judith Collins announced today. “This is a fantastic opportunity for these talented students. They will undertake internships at NASA’s Ames Research Center or its Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), where ...
New Zealanders will be safer because of a $1.9 billion investment in more frontline Corrections officers, more support for offenders to turn away from crime, and more prison capacity, Corrections Minister Mark Mitchell says. “Our Government said we would crack down on crime. We promised to restore law and order, ...
The OECD’s latest report on New Zealand reinforces the importance of bringing Government spending under control, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The OECD conducts country surveys every two years to review its members’ economic policies. The 2024 New Zealand survey was presented in Wellington today by OECD Chief Economist Clare Lombardelli. ...
The Government has delivered on its election promise to provide a financially sustainable model for Auckland under its Local Water Done Well plan. The plan, which has been unanimously endorsed by Auckland Council’s Governing Body, will see Aucklanders avoid the previously projected 25.8 per cent water rates increases while retaining ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters discussed the need for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, and enhanced cooperation in the Pacific with German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock during her first official visit to New Zealand today. "New Zealand and Germany enjoy shared interests and values, including the rule of law, democracy, respect for the international system ...
The Minister Responsible for RMA Reform, Chris Bishop today released his decision on four recommendations referred to him by the Western Bay of Plenty District Council, opening the door to housing growth in the area. The Council’s Plan Change 92 allows more homes to be built in existing and new ...
Thank you, John McKinnon and the New Zealand China Council for the invitation to speak to you today. Thank you too, all members of the China Council. Your effort has played an essential role in helping to build, shape, and grow a balanced and resilient relationship between our two ...
The Government is modernising insurance law to better protect Kiwis and provide security in the event of a disaster, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly announced today. “These reforms are long overdue. New Zealand’s insurance law is complicated and dated, some of which is more than 100 years old. ...
The coalition Government is refreshing its approach to supporting pay equity claims as time-limited funding for the Pay Equity Taskforce comes to an end, Public Service Minister Nicola Willis says. “Three years ago, the then-government introduced changes to the Equal Pay Act to support pay equity bargaining. The changes were ...
Structured literacy will change the way New Zealand children learn to read - improving achievement and setting students up for success, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “Being able to read and write is a fundamental life skill that too many young people are missing out on. Recent data shows that ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay says Canada’s refusal to comply in full with a CPTPP trade dispute ruling in our favour over dairy trade is cynical and New Zealand has no intention of backing down. Mr McClay said he has asked for urgent legal advice in respect of our ‘next move’ ...
The rights of our children and young people will be enhanced by changes the coalition Government will make to strengthen oversight of the Oranga Tamariki system, including restoring a single Children’s Commissioner. “The Government is committed to delivering better public services that care for our most at-risk young people and ...
The Government is making it easier for minor changes to be made to a building consent so building a home is easier and more affordable, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on making it easier and cheaper to build homes so we can ...
New Zealand lost a true legend when internationally renowned disability advocate Sir Robert Martin (KNZM) passed away at his home in Whanganui last night, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. “Our Government’s thoughts are with his wife Lynda, family and community, those he has worked with, the disability community in ...
Good evening – Before discussing the challenges and opportunities facing New Zealand’s foreign policy, we’d like to first acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. You have contributed to debates about New Zealand foreign policy over a long period of time, and we thank you for hosting us. ...
From today, passengers travelling internationally from Auckland Airport will be able to keep laptops and liquids in their carry-on bags for security screening thanks to new technology, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Creating a more efficient and seamless travel experience is important for holidaymakers and businesses, enabling faster movement through ...
People with an interest in the health of Northland’s marine ecosystems are invited to a public meeting to discuss how to deal with kina barrens, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones will lead the discussion, which will take place on Friday, 10 May, at Awanui Hotel in ...
Kiwi exporters are $100 million better off today with the NZ EU FTA entering into force says Trade Minister Todd McClay. “This is all part of our plan to grow the economy. New Zealand's prosperity depends on international trade, making up 60 per cent of the country’s total economic activity. ...
There are heartening signs that the extractive sector is once again becoming an attractive prospect for investors and a source of economic prosperity for New Zealand, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The beginnings of a resurgence in extractive industries are apparent in media reports of the sector in the past ...
The return of the historic Ō-Rākau battle site to the descendants of those who fought there moved one step closer today with the first reading of Te Pire mō Ō-Rākau, Te Pae o Maumahara / The Ō-Rākau Remembrance Bill. The Bill will entrust the 9.7-hectare battle site, five kilometres west ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has announced 25 new high-speed EV charging hubs along key routes between major urban centres and outlined the Government’s plan to supercharge New Zealand’s EV infrastructure. The hubs will each have several chargers and be capable of charging at least four – and up to 10 ...
The coalition Government will not proceed with the previous Government’s plans to regulate residential property managers, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “I have written to the Chairperson of the Social Services and Community Committee to inform him that the Government does not intend to support the Residential Property Managers Bill ...
The Government has announced an independent review into the disability support system funded by the Ministry of Disabled People – Whaikaha. Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston says the review will look at what can be done to strengthen the long-term sustainability of Disability Support Services to provide disabled people and ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith has attended the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva and outlined the Government’s plan to restore law and order. “Speaking to the United Nations Human Rights Council provided us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while responding to issues and ...
The Government and Rotorua Lakes Council are committed to working closely together to end the use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua. Associate Minister of Housing (Social Housing) Tama Potaka says the Government remains committed to ending the long-term use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua by the ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay heads overseas today for high-level trade talks in the Gulf region, and a key OECD meeting in Paris. Mr McClay will travel to Riyadh to meet with counterparts from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). “New Zealand’s goods and services exports to the Gulf region ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford has outlined six education priorities to deliver a world-leading education system that sets Kiwi kids up for future success. “I’m putting ambition, achievement and outcomes at the heart of our education system. I want every child to be inspired and engaged in their learning so they ...
The new NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) App is a secure ‘one stop shop’ to provide the services drivers need, Transport Minister Simeon Brown and Digitising Government Minister Judith Collins say. “The NZTA App will enable an easier way for Kiwis to pay for Vehicle Registration and Road User Charges (RUC). ...
Whānau with tamariki growing up in emergency housing motels will be prioritised for social housing starting this week, says Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka. “Giving these whānau a better opportunity to build healthy stable lives for themselves and future generations is an essential part of the Government’s goal of reducing ...
Racing Minister Winston Peters has paid tribute to an icon of the industry with the recent passing of Dave O’Sullivan (OBE). “Our sympathies are with the O’Sullivan family with the sad news of Dave O’Sullivan’s recent passing,” Mr Peters says. “His contribution to racing, initially as a jockey and then ...
Assalaamu alaikum, greetings to you all. Eid Mubarak, everyone! I want to extend my warmest wishes to you and everyone celebrating this joyous occasion. It is a pleasure to be here. I have enjoyed Eid celebrations at Parliament before, but this is my first time joining you as the Minister ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Martin, Visiting Fellow, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University The Reserve Bank is now assuming Australians will see no interest rate cuts this year – and quite possibly none before the next federal election, due next May. That’s ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Hayward, Emeritus Professor of Public Policy, RMIT University The Victorian budget offered more of the same on Tuesday, with the only change being how the budget papers were packaged. The usual shrink wrap was gone, hinting at savings in the pages ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The Coalition is demanding extensive amendments to the government’s legislation targeting non-citizens who refuse to co-operate with their removal. In a dissenting report to the senate inquiry into the legislation, the Coalition says it ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Vanita Yadav, Senior Research Fellow, Urban Transformations Research Centre, Western Sydney University Brett Boardman/Belvoir The complex and grappling issue of violence against women takes centre stage in the soul-stirring solo dance drama Nayika: A Dancing Girl. During a dinner conversation ...
Disruption to patient care from a nationwide junior doctors strike is bordering on unsafe, a senior doctor claims, despite what health officials say. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sarah Diepstraten, Senior Research Officer, Blood Cells and Blood Cancer Division, Walter and Eliza Hall Institute Ground Picture/Shutterstock The anti-cancer drug abemaciclib (also known as Vernezio) has this month been added to the Australian Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) to treat certain ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dominic McAfee, Postdoctoral researcher, marine ecology, University of Adelaide Robbie Porter, OzFish Unlimited Around Australia, hundreds of people are coming together to help a once-prized, but decimated and largely forgotten marine ecosystem. They’re busy restoring Australia’s native oyster and mussel reefs. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sara Webb, Lecturer, Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing, Swinburne University of Technology Austin Human/Unsplash How does Earth stop meteors from hitting Earth and hurting people? –Asher, 6 years 11 months, New South Wales Alright, let’s embark on a meteor ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rory Mulcahy, Associate Professor of Marketing, University of the Sunshine Coast Professional sports organisations regularly promote and develop initiatives to support diversity, equity and inclusion. While sport has the power to change attitudes by sparking conversations about political issues and social ...
Comment: The weekly Monday post-Cabinet press conference is a useful forum for observing Christopher Luxon and how he is developing into the job of Prime Minister. He attempts to convey the impression of a man of action, speaking fast, delivering memorised National Party strategies in a connect-the-slogans kind of way, ...
Double votes, missing ballot boxes, tired tech and stressed staff: how tick-tallying went astray at last year’s election. Cast your mind back to November 2023, that bleary-eyed post-election period duringwhichwewaited, andwaited, for a coalition deal to be hammered out. A distraction from the hotel-hopping of our ...
International audiences are starting to discover what New Zealand already knew about After the Party.When After the Party aired in New Zealand last year, the response was fast and furious. In his preview for Rec Room, Duncan Greive said it was a “gritty, wrenching and highly confronting” series. By ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Shahram Akbarzadeh, Convenor of the Middle East Studies Forum (MESF), and Acting Director the Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation, Deakin University Iran’s leadership has been a direct beneficiary of the months-long war in Gaza. With every missile that Israel fires ...
Claire Mabey reviews the haunting and sexy debut novel from Sinéad Gleeson, who is about to touch down in Aotearoa for a string of live events.When Irish writer Sinéad Gleeson was in Aotearoa in 2018 with her spectacular collection of essays, Constellations, she told me she was working on ...
PNG Post-Courier Bougainville Affairs Minister Manasseh Makiba has described the Post-Courier’s front page story yesterday regarding a meeting between Bougainville and national government leaders as “sensationalised” and without substance. The Autonomous Bougainville Government (AGB) had warned it might use “other avenues to gain its independence” should the PNG government “continue ...
Where some saw the worst press conference given by the government to date, Anna Rawhiti-Connell recognised girl maths game.Nicola Willis, recently exasperated by comparisons to Ruth Richardson, said she was “a bit sick of being compared with every female finance minister that’s ever been out there.”Some think that’s ...
The March results are reported against forecasts based on the Half Year Economic and Fiscal Update 2023 (HYEFU 2023), published on 20 December 2023 and the results for the same period for the previous year. ...
Jamie Arbuckle, the district councillor who became an MP but decided to keep getting paid for both roles, will instead donate one salary to charity. ...
Adding gender to the Human Rights Act would simply make the implicit explicit. So why is it so controversial? Paul Thistoll explain. At present, Aotearoa’s 1993 Human Rights Act (HRA) includes sex, marital status, religious belief, ethical belief (meaning a lack of religious belief), colour, race, ethnicity or national origin, ...
As part of our series exploring how New Zealanders live and our relationship with money, an 18-year-old who’s studying and working in hospo shares their approach to spending and saving. Want to be part of The Cost of Being? Fill out the questionnaire here.Gender: Transmasc Age: 18 Ethnicity: Pākehā/Māori Role: Student, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jane Kelsey, Emeritus Professor of Law, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau Getty Images Resources Minister Shane Jones has reportedly asked officials for advice on whether oil and gas companies could be offered “bonds” as compensation if drilling rights offered by ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kate Gleeson, Associate Professor of Law, Macquarie University Shutterstock The Albanese government is weighing up the costs of delivering an election promise to protect religious people from discrimination in Commonwealth law. Such protections were relatively uncontroversial when included in state anti-discrimination ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Yen Ying Lim, Associate Professor, Turner Institute for Brain and Mental Health, Monash University Pexels/Andrea Piacquadio Dementia is often described as “the long goodbye”. Although the person is still alive, dementia slowly and irreversibly chips away at their memories and the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Judy Bush, Senior Lecturer in Urban Planning, The University of Melbourne Adam Calaitzis/Shutterstock I met with a friend for a walk beside Merri Creek, in inner Melbourne. She had lived in the area for a few years, and as we walked ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Throsby, Distinguished Professor of Economics, Macquarie University Arts companies and individual artists in Australia are supported by government arts agencies, philanthropists, industry bodies, private donors and patrons. However, it is frequently overlooked that a major source of support for the arts ...
Harm Reduction Coalition Aotearoa, a new incorporated society dedicated to ending harmful drug policies, officially launched today, seeks a new fit-for-purpose drug law for Aotearoa New Zealand, rooted in science, experience and evidence. ...
The Corrections Minister admits he "muddied the water" after he and the Prime Minister repeatedly provided incorrect information about a $1.9 billion prison spend-up. ...
It took a post-post-cabinet statement to confirm that 810 new beds will be built at Waikeria, writes Stewart Sowman-Lund in this extract from The Bulletin. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. ...
Lili Tokaduadua was only 15 when she left her family in Fiji to pursue her netball dream in New Zealand. She’d been playing the sport for 10 years and was offered a netball scholarship at Auckland’s Howick College. Now, in her first year out of high school, the 19-year-old defender ...
The beloved local grocers lost a legal challenge to stop a new cycleway outside their store. Joel MacManus reports. In the annals of New Zealand legal history, there are a few brave people who have dared to stand up to the powers that be, no matter how bleak the odds ...
How what we produce and what we eat connects us to the world beyond our shores, visualised. Walking around a supermarket or vege shop, it might be obvious that everything on the shelves came from somewhere. But you might ...
A $1.8b funding boost for Pharmac still won’t enable it to buy more drugs, raising questions about the Government’s approach to the agency The post Can Pharmac do more with the same pot of money? appeared first on Newsroom. ...
Professor Jemma Geoghegan, of the University of Otago, Otakou Whakaihu Waka, co-leads a Te Niwha project aimed at understanding how and where avian influenza could affect Aotearoa New Zealand, as the highly infectious H5N1 virus spreads globally. The virus has now spread to all continents except Oceania and was recently ...
Thirty years on from Rwanda’s genocide, is guilt over the atrocities is blinding the world to the true nature of its current leadership? The post The repressive underside of Rwanda’s regime appeared first on Newsroom. ...
Opinion: Last week, important recommendations for our criminal justice system were made by the international community. Every five years, each member of the United Nations has its human rights practices reviewed. This rolling event – the Universal Periodic Review – is the culmination of a government reporting on its human ...
Highly pathogenic avian influenza – H5N1, or bird flu – has been flying around the world since the late 1990s. New Zealand, Australia and the Pacific Islands are so far free of it, but now it’s been discovered in mainland Antarctica and scientists say it’s only a matter of time ...
Loading…(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){var ql=document.querySelectorAll('A,DIV,A[data-quiz],DIV[data-quiz]'); if(ql){if(ql.length){for(var k=0;k<ql.length;k++){ql[k].id='quiz-embed-'+k;ql[k].href="javascript:var i=document.getElementById('quiz-embed-"+k+"');try{qz.startQuiz(i)}catch(e){i.start=1;i.style.cursor='wait';i.style.opacity='0.5'};void(0);"}}};i['QP']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){(i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)})(window,document,'script','https://take.quiz-maker.com/3012/CDN/quiz-embed-v1.js','qp'); Got a good quiz question?Send Newsroom your questions. The post Newsroom daily quiz, Tuesday 7 May appeared first on Newsroom. ...
The following interview with auto electrician and former caver Stu Berendt, 68, of Charleston on the West Coast, came about because he was part of the caving team that found the rare and amazing fossil remains of the giant Haast eagle, the subject of one of the year’s best books, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Eric Stokan, Assistant Professor of Political Science, University of Maryland, Baltimore County If you live in one of the most economically deprived neighborhoods in your city, you might think the government is directing a smaller share of public funds to your community. ...
Wansolwara The news media’s crucial role in climate change and environment journalism was the focus of The University of the South Pacific’s Journalism Programme 2024 World Press Freedom Day celebrations. The European Union Ambassador to the Pacific, Barbara Plinkert, and Pacific Islands Forum Secretary General Henry Puna were the chief ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michael Adams, Professor of Corporate Law & Academic Director of UNE Sydney campus, University of New England Last August, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) launched legal proceedings against Qantas. The consumer watchdog accused the airline of selling thousands of tickets ...
This episode of A View From Afar was recorded LIVE on May 6, 2024 (NZST) which is Sunday evening, May 5, 2024 at 8:30pm (USEST). In an analytical essay titled ‘A moment of friction’ political scientist Dr Paul Buchanan wrote how we are living within a decisive moment ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alison Taylor, Assistant Professor, Bond University Metro Goldwyn Mayer Pictures At the crux of the critical response to Luca Guadagnino’s new movie Challengers is one word: “sexy”. The film charts a love triangle between three up-and-coming tennis players: Tashi (Zendaya), ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jenny Stewart, Professor of Public Policy, ADFA Canberra, UNSW Sydney For years, First Nations people have been telling governments they want to be listened to. In particular, they want more ownership of the programs and services that are supposed to help them. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gregory Moore, Senior Research Associate, School of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences, The University of Melbourne Why do trees have bark? Julien, age 6, Melbourne. This is a great question, Julien. We are so familiar with bark on trees, that most of us ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anthony Nasser, Senior Lecturer in Physiotherapy, University of Technology Sydney PeopleImages.com – Yuri A/Shutterstock The anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) is an important ligament in the knee. It runs from the thigh bone (femur) to the shin bone (tibia) and helps stabilise ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne I covered the May 2 United Kingdom local government elections for The Poll Bludger. The Blackpool South parliamentary byelection was also held, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Deanna Grant-Smith, Professor of Management, University of the Sunshine Coast The federal government has announced a “Commonwealth Prac Payment” to support selected groups of students doing mandatory work placements. Those who are studying to be a teacher, nurse, midwife or social ...
We round up everything coming to streaming services this week, including Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney+, Apple TV+, ThreeNow, Neon and TVNZ+. If you love a dark comedy: Bodkin (Netflix, May 9)An English podcaster, an Irish podcaster and American podcaster walk into a pub and…make a TV show? ...
By Eleisha Foon, RNZ Pacific senior journalist A Pacific regionalism academic has called out New Zealand’s Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters for withholding information from the public on AUKUS and says the security deal “raises serious questions for the Pacific region”. Auckland University of Technology academic Dr Marco de Jong ...
OMG we live in very strange times!
Here I am linking to a Fox News clip and suggesting that Donald Trump is right!
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor
(10 minutes long)
What this illustrates is how fucked up the American health system is, how driven by the dollar, how politicised.
I have been lambasted on here for promoting the videos of Chris Martensen, who months ago suggested HCQ + Ivermectin + zinc given early at the onset of covid-19 and before hospitalisation was the prophylactic which would have most beneficial effects.
Time will tell, and I don’t expect apologies, but I do reserve the right to say: I told you so.
You've been criticised for uncritically posting lengthy videos by Martenson, without doing even the simplest courtesy of a basic couple of sentences of why the video might be worth watching. As it turns out, Martenson does not appear to base his recommendations on sound science, but overhypes limited results from poorly designed studies. A brief look at Martenson's past stuff, from gold-bugging to doomie preparation, suggests he's a clickbait artist on the topics-du-jour rather than a credible expert with insight on a complex specialist topic.
How about providing some links to actual studies backing up your implication that HCQ + ivermectin + zinc given early is beneficial?
Your link to the Lyin' King's twitter account doesn't seem to go to anything like what you've described, and frankly, that you would suggest that any information coming through the Drumpf/Fox sewer line might possibly be taken at face value suggests an extreme deficit in the skepticism and information assessment department.
But if it's about the latest miracle cure touted by Donnie Dumpsterfire, convalescent plasma treatment, here's a look at the actual numbers showing how even the relatively small improvements for something touted as article are in fact an overhype of the tiny improvements actually observed. Let alone the difficulties in obtaining useful quantities of the miracle substance.
https://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2020/08/trump-misleads-the-nation-yet-again-about-covid-19-miracle-cure/
Andre, did you hold your nose and actually watch the linked video?
I've no time for Drumpf and I'm not suggesting he has any answers (no matter what the question) but there does seem to be a quickness to jump on HCQ as a prophylactic given early in the onset of covid – merely because trump in one of his meanderings promoted it.
The Harvard professor cites case studies which show the effectiveness of HCQ – yet the profit-driven health system slams the drug and goes after other drugs which cost an arm and a leg.
No I didn't watch the video because the evidence shows that statements from Trump are more likely to be false than true by a ratio of about two to one.
Nor is your say-so reason to waste ten minutes watching a video, particularly given your history of posting lengthy misinformation videos from clickbait artists that don't have substance behind them.
When it comes to HCQ, there is a large weight of evidence from the better-designed studies showing it has negligible beneficial effect, and is actually likely increase the risk of death due to HCQ's well-known side-effects on heart function.
You have attempted to boost the apparent credibility of your post by saying "Harvard professor" but declined to provide a name nor any info about about the case studies to check out whether there's any substance to the study. It could be a Harvard professor of DrumpfDivinity citing case studies at Liberty University for all we know – and the track record of Trump, Fox, and the clickbait artists you post suggest it's really not worth wasting the time to watch the video to find out.
If you want to provide actually useful info rather than likely amplifying misinformation and worsening the misinformation epidemic, post actual names and links to actual studies.
edit: meanwhile a search for actual hydroxychloroquine evidence turns up a veritable cornucopia of articles such as:
https://medcitynews.com/2020/08/why-hydroxychloroquines-appeal-endures-despite-evidence-it-doesnt-work-for-covid-19/
https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMe2020388 (looking at HCQ for prophylaxis)
Here are the first three hits from googling risch yale hydroxychloroquine study:
First is a defensively toned memo from Yale defending Risch academic right to opine on topics outside his expertise:
Next is:
Third is:
I'm not defensive. I'm disgusted with your promotion of misinformation that you didn't even make a rudimentary attempt to fact-check. Or even have the courtesy to drop a few breadcrumbs as to the actual substantive content. Or even provide a clean link to the video you expect people to waste time watching. (Your twitter link went to the Twittertwat's general twitter cesspit, leaving your reader to try to figure out which turd you expected them to pick out)
I'm not defensive. I'm disgusted with your promotion of misinformation …
Having been on the receiving end of your spew Andre, I am disgusted at your continuing propensity to declare any information or opinion which has not got The Establishment's tick of approval as "misinformation".
You worship at the altar of mainstream and official, and seem blind to the fact that practically nothing we see, hear or read on the internet can be relied on unless supported by personal knowledge or experience…or the personal knowledge or experience of others we personally trust.
Sometimes, Andre, what we are told is 'fact' simply does not add up and we have to do our own research and draw on our own knowledge.
Case in point are the discussions you and I have had over the history of measles in the developed world,and the safety and efficacy of the flu vaccine. I'm not going to provide you with links (again) as you will refuse to read or listen to anything that might challenge the comfortable position you cling to.
Taking second information from Harvey's boss and some colleagues as gospel, all the while ignoring what Harvey is actually saying is pretty piss poor fact checking imo.
Thanks Tony, the proof is in the pudding as they say. Minnesota is the second state to revoke the ban and allow HCQ use as a treatment. You would think more states to follow…
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2020/08/17/mn_governor_quietly_reverses_course_on_hydroxychloroquine__143978.html
…the proof is in the pudding" as they say. Some might say. Others say
"The proof of the pudding is in the eating…" but it seems to be passé now.
Before you start gloating, claim bragging rights, and elevate your YouTube hero to superhero status you may just want to read this balanced piece for a general audience that came out today:
https://www.abc.net.au/news/health/2020-08-25/covid-19-repurposed-treatments/12587250?section=health
There’s still much we don’t know about this virus and anybody who claims they know (better or best) and they are right are taking a punt, at best, because to the best of knowledge, there is no conclusive evidence for many claims yet. Even a safe and effective vaccine may never eventuate despite enormous efforts (and investments). I think people will have to accept the limits of what is possible but many seem to have huge faith in science and technology to deal with if not solve all issues that are plaguing humankind, sooner or later. That includes CC, by the way.
It's started already advertorials for those set to take advantage of Collins; clear intention, given the chance, & shows her limited capacity to do anything other than tender the virus out https://www.nzherald.co.nz/sponsored-stories/news/article.cfm?c_id=1503708&objectid=12358168
That truly was an excellent episode of Sunday and word around the staffroom is we need more shows like that, because we here in NZ have no idea what it's really like during a pandemic.
I found her column really thoughtful and more people ought to have access to it.
Who is she? And where is Sunday – on tv?
Eaxactly. That photography exhibition was also a winner.
So there seems to be a concerted attempt building, whether by design or by accident, to present Jacinda Ardern as a bit lame and patronising. I agree to a reasonable extent; in manner, she's like John Key with slightly less mangling of the English language, and mercifully minus the doofus dickhead dimension. Having said that, I find it rather off-putting to see David Seymour homing on on her use of the word 'tricky' to describe COVID-19, followed by Luke Malpass at Stuff parroting the line, saying that she 'insists on calling [it] “tricky” as if it somehow deliberately sneaks in the back window […]'. Mr. Seymour, Mr. Malpass, 'tricky' is usually just a synonym for 'difficult'. Look it up, you pair of nitwits.
Malpass is either an idiot (a distinct possibility) or deliberately manufacturing trivial hits on Ardern. 'Tricky' is used all the time colloquially to describe something that is difficult to achieve, handle, or respond to in an effective way. As in 'a tricky problem', 'a tricky corner', 'a tricky situation', 'a tricky climb' etc. etc. In none of these examples does the use of 'tricky' attribute intent to something that is incapable of having intent.
What's happening here is that Malpass doesn't like being reminded that the whole Covid response is immensely difficult. If everything is mixed, nuanced, problematic, evolving as it goes, etc, then simple-minded gotcha journalism is off the table – making it harder for him to shill for the Nats without appearing like a complete loon.
Thanks AB I didn't have a good feeling about Malpass from what I had read and then found that he had been set up as Political Editor made me wonder. He's a bit tricky I feel.
He is an imported neoliberal writer of financial articles and agenda setting news in Australia. Setting the agenda ?? Moved back here in John Key’s time. Nuff said!!
Oh thanks. I thought he must be getting encouragement from somewhere to counter his unfortunate name Malpass. Mal in French is bad. Some surnames are discouraging.
in manner, she's like John Key
????
Your reading of "manner" is most eccentric. Key never seemed bright or particularly pleasant. Ardern doesn't come across as oafish or malicious.
Jacinda has never come across as a sleazy car-salesman!
Nor has she ever coolly and repeatedly told a lie such as "Jon Stephenson rang me up and harassed me on the phone at home."
He was a one, wasn't he! Still is, I bet.
Tricky is the adjective science seems to have given it. They were going with evil however inferring intent isn't allowed so ‘tricky’ it is.
Seymour and science not in the same room, no surprises there.
Dr Chris Smith, superb communicator, virologist from Cambridge, and regular on Kim Hill RNZ – describes coronavirus as 'tricky'.
Yes Matiri isn't he good and I'm glad he pops along to Kim and she feeds him questions, of which there are more than he can answer. But promises to come back. You feel that you have heard a well-balanced informed background to the tricky Covid-19 behaviour.
– one for each bullet point.
so you know more than a Professor of Medicine, gee you must be clever
as with smart comebacks, not all professors of medicine are without fault. a good professor of ANYTHING will say that they dont know enough, they are still learning.
Perhaps Anker might might take some notice of your wisdom. Maybe better to do that rather than insist that anyone who doesn't agree with his/her narrow viewpoint should STFU.
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/a-message-for-our-scientists?utm_source=Friends+of+the+Newsroom&utm_campaign=5d49fddc3a-Daily+Briefing+25.8.20&utm
[lprent: removed the dot at the end of your handle. I’ll do it on the first of the other comments as well. Could you correct on your side please. ]
So sorry Iprent. Will try not to have that happen again
Its really not about who agrees with me Alan. I go by what the scientists say and trust in the MofH and our Govts directives as they have served and continue to serve us well…It is the arm chair critics I was taking aim at. These are mostly the journos who look to have gotcha moments. The journo who asked Ashleigh B if he was going to resign needs to be told how dangerous the idea is. Re Professor Gorman, see my comments below.
Have a nice day
I never said I knew more that a Professor in Medicine and certainly I know very little about medicine for divers and brain injury. These are the two areas Professor Gorman has his qualifications in.
Professor Gorman seems to have held a number of positions in health funding, workforce development and health system design. He held these from around 2010 and it appears from his CV he is no longer used so much by the current govt.
Given he had so much time and influence to sort the health system, if his criticisms are to be believed, he clearly failed to do so in when he was in a position to implement the changes.
By his own admission in the Radio NZ interview, the govt are using the right strategies, contract tracing, quarantine, high testing rates…………..
Right now is not the time for the health system to re-structure or to set up new agencies…………..We are in acute crisis mode. And despite any failings or inadequacies Mr Gorman sees, our health system which has been woefully underfunded is coping and adapting spectacularly well as seen by our Covid response and the statistics that don’t lie….. So no I have no time for Mr Gorman
Hee hee cleverer than you Alan. When you feel the urge to write all you can say is yah-boo. Doh! And yet you are upset at the STFU! When you write you don’t say anything of any assistance in the toil and tribulations we are in. You are not using your great powers to help so why worry about it.
Literally all you have is an appeal to authority, when that authority disagrees with most of his peers.
Best campaign ad of 2020, probably
https://twitter.com/TheDailyShow/status/1296620499385163777?s=20
That was a lot of fun.
Also fair.
Really appreciate The Standard. Feeling of loss when it has a few hiccups, so thankyou Lprent for giving us this outlet.
+1000 for LPrent and team.
Yes well done Lprent. Much appreciated.
Many thanks to Iprent and team!
Thank you lprent and the team.
Our misinformation crisis – how can we stop ourselves from falling for it and spreading it?
Videos seem to be particularly pernicious for misinformation, at least partly because of the extra obstacles in the way of fact-checking:
https://factcheckingday.com/articles/13/10-tips-for-verifying-viral-social-media-videos
More useful reading on different kinds of misinformation:
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/misinformation-has-created-a-new-world-disorder/
Perhaps we should keep coming to The Standard and someone will raise a point about error as a rule, but not always. I have asked for help now and then and no-one replied so the blog is only partially useful at sorting into piles all the words and sentences that roll out endlessly.
The site still isn't right. But I've fixed most of the speed issue which appears to have been something triggering cache access issues at the database level. Mostly by taking out some of the obsessive protection that used the database as persistent storage and substituting other tools.
I still haven't located the root cause which is kind of irritating. I'll look at that again this evening. There are much higher than usual general (ie non-site aware) attempts to crack into the site. But it is no more than about 5x the usual rate. It averaged at about 20 per minute. Didn't look like a denial of service attack.
However I need to get back to paid employment (had to take a day off yesterday). So it will have do for the moment.
Forgive me my technical illiteracy, but are they attempts to interfere with the ability of the site to continue providing a forum for political debate? Not so long ago one of our local experts warned it was inevitable there would be foreign political interference in the election – not unlike what has been experienced elsewhere.
a lot to consider about the site and possible election based interference, we know it isn't fairy dust to consider this. Thanks for your work LPrent, would money help? Nothing else we could do I imagine.
See the "Donate" button at the top right.
https://thestandard.org.nz/contact-us/donate/
not targeted.
Okay. I thought "aware" might have been a typo.
Pretty much not targeted.
If they were then the main point of any login seeking would be to get the super admin logins. I'm not seeing that.
It looks like a general increase in intrusion attacks. I'd say that new botnets have been activated.
Ok, I have just seen the problem now that I am looking wider.
One of the SSD drives in the array for The Standard has been locked into a very very long SMART data scan – it is currently at 140% of the expected time. It is running at 49C (its partner is at 29C).
Failing it from the array so the spare kicks in.
Yep, and the really problematic issue is fixed. saving comments and updating them is now fast again.
I really don’t tend to view SSDs as being a possible problem. I just lean in the SMART monitoring I’ll add some notifier diagnostics to scan them over-running tests and getting too hot.
" I still haven't located the root cause…"
This is a catastrophe….more testing please.
🙂 See 11.2
"its a shambles"
The chickns have come home to roost in Auckland. The delays of putting in decent public transport in Auckland that began in Mayor Robbie's* time 1959 on have now led to problems about Covid-19 spread, as well as making it difficult for just ordinary citizens to get to work and have some time for having a life.
According to Auckland Regional Public Health, the trip took two and a half hours. The reason for this was because "there was very bad traffic congestion that morning as people were heading home before the midday lockdown," the Auckland Regional Public Health Service (ARPHS) said.
They said the two people sat on the bus for an hour at Symonds Street.
According to Auckland Transport's website, the trip from Stop 7162 to Stop 8200 can be walked in 11 minutes. By bus, albeit with no traffic, it takes 3 minutes.
On Google Maps, from one stop to the other, it is 750 metres.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/424334/more-details-around-bus-trip-with-covid-19-emerge
*https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dove-Myer_Robinson
About his rail ideas: Robinson's main focus during his second period as mayor was his advocacy for rapid transit system for Auckland. Robinson's proposal for a bus-rail rapid transit plan was "to provide fast, modern electrified railways through the main traffic corridors of the region". The proposal had passenger trains every three minutes running from an underground subway terminal in the city centre with above ground tracks leading to Howick, Auckland Airport and a tunnel to the North Shore. The scheme was heavily criticized for its cost (an estimated $273 million in 1973) and both the ARA chairman Tom Pearce and most of its members opposed the scheme. The Third Labour Government reneged on an election pledge to pay for the scheme and the rapid rail proposal disappeared. Retrospectively, Robinson's idea to implement rapid rail was seen as a possible long-term solution to Auckland's subsequent transportation difficulties. The phrase; "If we'd only listened to Robbie…" has become common speech in Auckland whenever the city's transport system is debated.
Greywarshark
I remember the rhetoric at the time, even the media put the boot in.
I seem to remember it was his last term as mayor.
In the last 50 yrs Robinson was the only person that I can recall that "Had a Vision for the Future of Auckland and NZ",
NZ has suffered from a Visionary" deficit ever since.
It seems to me that the struggle to get important work carried out for the overall good of a community is a harder goal than to climb Mt Everest. We love Sir Edmund Hillary for doing something quite notable but unnecessary.
We fail to catch the importance of pushing through a future-looking transport system for a growing, major city like Auckland. And Dove-Myer was also prominent in preventing the city's sewage and meat offcuts from manufacturing being dumped out at sea untreated. Apparently he was a feisty man with a big ego, quite interesting reading about him. But he was a thinker; if they had left the tunnel to North Shore out and gone with the rest, they would have been winners instead of losers as they are now.
Let's hope they don't end up like Los Angeles (City of Angels).
“There’s simply not enough places for these people to go, there’s obviously a lot of mental health and addiction problems.
“A lot of people flood to California because of the weather and I think the problem has just overwhelmed the system here.
“And I think the city of dreams really has turned into the city of nightmares at the moment.”
It is a city-wide problem, she says.
“Friends of mine that live I Santa Monica only four blocks from the beach say they can’t take their children to the local park because the homeless situation is so bad that there are people passed out in the park doing drugs, there are syringes everywhere…
“It’s a big city problem across America and I think it’s a socio-economic problem that the rich are getting richer, certainly under Trump, and the poor are getting poorer.
“There’s a great sense of social injustice here at the moment.”
Homeless encampments are legal in Los Angeles and have blossomed as the city’s chronic housing shortage worsens.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/sunday/audio/2018760720/los-angeles-has-turned-into-a-city-of-nightmares
And this is the next step of the epidemic likely to cross our borders carrying all the shit that comes out the actions of the wealthy and malignant in the USA to foul our country's wellbeing, only managed by being the opposite to them in their feckless drive for capital accretion and power.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/2018760983/covid-19-wealthy-americans-flock-to-invest-in-nz
Wealthy Americans looking for a safe haven in a turbulent Covid-19 world are flocking to invest in New Zealand – and move their businesses here.
The number of investor visa applications has soared since the coronavirus outbreak, and the government agency working to attract overseas money says New Zealand's successful public health strategy is behind the ten-fold surge in interest.
and you can bet that those wealthy americans will hide in gated communities here, if they get the chance.
I've read that some people in Queenstown are having trouble with the Lords of Creation who have homes with helipads attached that they have wangled on the basis of serving them for arriving and departing. But they have visitors and are restless and on the go so the very loud noise of a helicopter next door can be heard numerous times a week.
When I hear one here it is usually the rescue one going across to land at the hospital set-down spot. They are doing God's work so to speak, and I can put up with that, in fact I find it comforting that we have this service for the needy. There are often trampers who fall, get caught in bad weather, a windy road out of town, Golden Bay and distant communities – so that's different from the wealthy and their taking ways.
If you're prone to COVID panic, don't read further.
Covid reinfection of a healthy 33 year old has been confirmed by the genome of his second infection being different to the genome of his first, with the spike proteins being different between the two strains. The good news, for him anyway, was that the second infection was asymptomatic.
https://arstechnica.com/science/2020/08/first-confirmed-case-of-sars-cov-2-reinfection-reported-in-hong-kong/
Yep. Still too soon to be making definitive plans about the future and what NZ should be doing with the borders and so on. There's more to learn here about the virus, immunity, transmission before we get to rearranging society again.
And this. South Korea was an early success at controlling Covid-19 and then had a huge outbreak with a religion at its core. I had thought South Koreans religious but well-balanced, now its becoming twisted and political. Their psychology is not too different from what has arisen all over the world, looking for conspiracies and malign agents connected with Covid-19, but it appears so passionate that the country is spiralling out of control.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/world/424345/south-korea-on-brink-of-nationwide-virus-outbreak-officials-warn
The latest outbreak of coronavirus cases centred around a right-wing Presbyterian church has spread to all 17 provinces throughout the country for the first time….
The Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) has admitted that about 20 percent of all new cases are of unknown origin – despite the country's efficient contact tracing system which can track down around 1000 potentially infected patients in an hour.
South Korea's fight against Covid-19 began in February after an outbreak at a Christian cult called the Shincheonji Church of Jesus in the city of Daegu, about 200km south of Seoul. Within weeks, the outbreak was under control…
The majority of new cases are all close to the heavily populated capital city which is home to more than 10 million people.
And one of the biggest concerns is that many of the far-right worshippers who are potentially infected believe the virus was planted as part of a conspiracy to close it down. Many are refusing to be contacted, let alone tested.
And there is also one other major risk factor. Infected members of the Shincheonji church were mostly young – in their 20s. But the current outbreak is affecting a much older age group.
Members of the Sarang Jeil Church, which roughly translates as "Love Comes First", are right-wing conservatives and maintain that President Moon Jae-in is a communist and a puppet of China and North Korea.
Before the coronavirus outbreak, they would gather in their hundreds in the centre of Seoul each Saturday loudly rallying and marching past the Blue House to denounce the South Korean leader.
This is really frightening. If the South Korean government tries to have a total lockdown which appears to be the only way to stop spread, these people could riot in another one of their protests aimed at bringing down the government. They refuse to believe in the facts of the virus and its spread, and if they were in charge would probably impose BAU by force, yet the report is that the hospitals are nearly at capacity. Who can break through this web of lies and hysteria that all South Koreans respect and will pay attention to?
South Korea is somewhat used to dealing with mass protests – and they are mostly very well-behaved. They never run out of police because the police claim a proportion of the two-year military service all Korean men must do – if they need another 100 000 they only need to make a few phone calls. The protest culture, which is a Confucian tradition, really took hold under Chun do Hwan, who was somewhat in the Duterte mould, and police under his leadership killed several thousand protestors. It's not like that these days, and the church cannot muster a large crowd in Korean terms.
they would gather in their hundreds
By Korean standards that makes them look as lonely as Billy TK's meagre handful of supporters.
Well that all sounds very calming, which is good for me. But still the spread and the lack of contact tracing that they can do is going to be a worry.
Perhaps they can all go into their church and close the doors and be together and safe from the government forces. But they must care for their sick with the equipment that will be available on request, food delivered in raw state so they can't blame deaths on poisoning.
Perhaps they will come to their senses as people fall sick while under their care. No evil eye to blame it on.
One of my former students just told me there's a weird group in Korea now that may be deliberately spreading Covid – the rationale is apparently that "we have to share the pain with our ally (United States)". It may be a troll cell behind it, but it's the kind of trouble no country needs.
?
https://twitter.com/MichaelCohen212/status/1298025781310955520
On Monday, the Democratic super PAC American Bridge released a new ad to run during the Republican convention — starring President Donald Trump’s former personal attorney Michael Cohen, who minced no words in blasting his former boss.
“For more than a decade, I was President Trump’s right-hand man, fixer, and confidante,” said Cohen, who went to prison over the scheme to make hush payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels on Trump’s behalf. “I was complicit in helping conceal the real Donald Trump. I was part of creating an illusion.”
https://www.rawstory.com/2020/08/michael-cohen-stars-in-new-anti-trump-ad-to-run-during-rnc-convention/
Watching tRump jnr and his squeeze's speeches at the RNC. They’re baked.
edit:
https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1298075982595842048
Barking nuts
Replying to greywarshark @ 12. (for the last 6 months or so I’ve only been able to use the reply function on my iPhone not the iPad I normally use, but now can’t even use iPhone?).
Ironically the reason the cases sat for an hour on the bus on Symonds St is because there was an almighty traffic jam in that area of Symonds St, New North Road, Mt Eden Road and Newton Road after a Covid testing station was set up in a small ex-used car yard on New North Road. It was chaos every day until they moved the testing station to the Eden Park car park. All the bus services routed through that area eventually had to be detoured.
Notwithstanding that I fully agree that Auckland’s cheapskate approach to public transport and planning generally is a growing disaster.
That's awful Scott GN. I think authorities need a knowledgeable outsider who just watches and listens to all the plans re Covid 19 in each area, and steps in before all go away from the meeting room and asks the pertinent questions as to how effective they'll be in that spot, because of this, and this and this? 'I want us to look at these points now, before anything is done and explain to me how these problems can be overcome.'
Someone who has a reinforced spine, and can assert themselves and has knowledge of planning and people, would be useful to spot such things as traffic congestion.
The bogus anti-Semitism report that sank Jeremy Corbyn
by ASA WINSTANLEY, The Electronic Intifada, 24 August 2020
The road to Jeremy Corbyn’s political downfall began at Oxford University Labour Club in February 2016. A rogue inquiry by a Labour staffer with close ties to the Israeli embassy included fabricated allegations of anti-Semitism.
It destroyed the lives of several pro-Corbyn students sympathetic to the Palestinian cause. It also triggered Labour’s “anti-Semitism crisis” in earnest. The manufactured crisis continues today, even with Corbyn now marginalized. After an internal Labour disciplinary investigation, some of the accused were cleared of anti-Semitism the following year.
But by that time the damage had been done.
After a four-year investigation, The Electronic Intifada has obtained the full Rubin report, which has never been published.
Michael Rubin, who wrote it, was chair of the right-wing group Labour Students. But the “inquiry” was his own initiative and had not been mandated by either Labour’s leader or its ruling National Executive Committee. Rubin was also collaborating with Shai Masot, an Israeli “diplomat” who would be kicked out of the UK the following year.
Soon after writing the report, Rubin was hired by Labour Friends of Israel, a group which secretly coordinates with the Israeli embassy in London.
Masot was caught in undercover footage recruiting to the Israeli front group.
Read more…
https://electronicintifada.net/content/bogus-anti-semitism-report-sank-jeremy-corbyn/31026
I found this yesterday in a promo for The Telegraph and found it very instructive about nice people in the UK and the lengths they will go to maintain their nice lives, and the rationalisation they use for being tricky.
…Every week, when I sit down to write my Wednesday column in The Telegraph, concerns like those are at the forefront of my mind. I see my job as speaking up for the silent majority, for men and women who lack a voice in a world where, if you don’t subscribe to fashionable left-wing causes, you’re called “inappropriate” or “something-phobic”.
People like us have been made to feel like a beleaguered minority. But who gave the Conservatives a whacking majority at the general election and protected our country from the lunatic extremism of Jeremy Corbyn? We did.
I’m proud that readers email to say it’s a huge relief to know that they’re not alone. I rejoice that Telegraph subscribers call the paper a “haven” for those who don’t get offended by views other than their own. Whenever possible, I try to see the funny side. Let’s face it, with the coronabeast laying waste to life as we know it, people are incredibly grateful for a laugh. Allison Pearson, Telegraph Columnist
People like this are irritated at changes including the constant nitpicking of word sensitivity at the moment and regard it as OTT. But they don't see that their own behaviour is similar on the other side of the see-saw.
Jeremy Corbyn. Wikipedia narrates him us as the Hilary Clinton of UK politics.
Take a sure thing, fuck it up, blame everyone else.
Just wait for the book no one will read.
Whereas in the real world, Keir Starmer is leading Labour already close to even pegging with the Conservatives already; Conservative 40%, Labour 38%:
https://yougov.co.uk/topics/politics/explore/political_party/Labour_Party
Sturmer, the King of Nothing, can't get more support than Boris Johnson, even though Johnson is possibly the most obnoxious and incompetent British prime minister in history. He and his cronies have expelled anyone with a moral compass from the Labour Party—people like Asa Winstanley, who wrote this article, and Michael Rosen, and without a doubt would have drummed out Sir Gerald Kaufman if he was still alive….
"It is the nature of human existence that shared sacrifice is the glue that binds disparate individuals and groups into a unified and thus powerful entity."
"Profound disunity is characterized by the recognition that favored elites make no sacrifices, and this injustice consumes the bonds of civil unity."
The best thing I have read today.
fuck this. seriously fuck this bullshit, and someone please go to Winz and start weeding some of these drones out and send them to the unemployment queue, also Government (Labour/Green/NZFirst) do fucking better.
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/landlords-paid-3k-a-week-by-government
someone said something the other day that 'we know have well being as a priority a new social contract with the government', reading this article it occurs to me that some have a social contract with the government and it makes them very very rich while those that are too poor to be of importance to anyone (unless its an election year) can go live in a dump paid for by the tax payer 3000$ per pop.
But we can't increase unemployment and social benefits to the level of the wage subsidy casue we don't have the money, right? We seem to have the money, for landlords, real estate agents and winz drones who probably did well on kick backs. But hey, surely this is all a great misunderstanding, someone mis spoke, and someone mis appropriated funds and and and and.
Pigeon-holes? People with children thrust into some sort of covered dwelling or room. Is that how it is with MSD? No wonder they need guards on their offices. When people get distraught enough with no end in sight to their condition, they can feel they have nothing to lose!
Can we get our smug backsides off our seats as seen in twitter Hellhole, 'Oh I'm at the beach, on my balcony, on my lifestyle block, walking along this nature reserve'. It was sickening after the first laugh at giving the finger to Trump or some overblown liar about how bad NZ is. For some it bloody well is bad and we shouldn't forget that.
I mention a difficulty that I think is common, and that is authority will say that some remedial program won't fix the problem, so it's no good. That is such a copout to say nothing can be done till it is the perfect solution. "Oh we can't waste money here if more has to be spent later." We are not prepared to divide the problem into sections, start with the worst difficulty, and work up to bigger and better outcomes. Put everything on a graph from axes of 0 so as things improve they'll show up, why not measure that way.
So get up you bums and open your minds, every meeting has to result in a beneficial outcome for people who really need it, and receive enough of your budget to succeed, and be properly monitored with encouragement and support to achieve what is wanted by the recipients.
Sabine, So lazy or overworked people in MSD let greedy landlords and their agents rort the system of the Government trying to find shelter for people. This has come to light, and yet you paint this as a failure by this Government, when you know the rot is endemic, and will take time to overcome, as so many are gaining.
You threw my "social contract comment" back in my face inferring I am one of those who is making $3000 a week!! I realise you mispoke in anger and frustration. I was talking about covid, you have taken that out of context.
This is housing situation is upsetting and not good enough. Who else have you sent a complaint to? Megan Woods? or just us?
PS I could have ignored that remark, but it is not fair.
This government is committed to the Middle. Always was. Always will be. Case in point the pathetically embarrassing launch of Kiwibuild.
Channeling Savage…shame.
Should have hit the ground running housing the homeless.
Should have implemented the recommendations of the Welfare Experts Advisory Group.
Should have listened to those at the front line rather than the bureaucrats from the various Ministries.
Patricia you are right. How do we stop the rot
We must not forget the power of the officials who implement the policy passed but in THEIR OWN way, or do they. There is mention of National gaining power in 1961 and it going to their heads. Do politicians have control or do they face some humiliating discussion with the head of the State Services Commission after they have got nowhere with their head of department?
I have been looking at some columns from Chris Trotter in past years. He said this in 2016 at the time Trump and Farage were looking very pleased with themselves.
https://bowalleyroad.blogspot.com/2016/12/2016-annus-horribilis.html
The Last Laugh: As Plato predicted, more than 2,000 years ago, a democratic citizenry that loses faith in its own efficacy will voluntarily entrust its destiny to the first demagogue who learns to speak its language of despair. In 2016, this annus horribilis, those demagogues’ names were Nigel Farage and Donald Trump.
These from May 2017.
Not Just At The Gates – Within The Walls! Dr J.C. Beaglehole, writing in 1961, recorded with considerable disdain: “The naïve, the almost childish brutality, with which the chiefs of the National Party fell upon power may seem quite surprising, until one remembers how famished for power they were, and with what an innocency of experience they faced the world about them ….. [Their] insensitiveness to administrative delicacies was quite appalling.”
https://bowalleyroad.blogspot.com/2017/05/insensitiveness-to-administrative.html
https://bowalleyroad.blogspot.com/2017/05/our-path-to-future-is-blocked-by-past.html
Our path to the future is blocked by the past.
And The Truth Shall Set You Free: Moving beyond the thirty-year-old neoliberal order in New Zealand can only be achieved by confronting and disproving its explanations and excuses for the inequality, poverty and powerlessness it perpetuates.
New Labour or Coalition government – what will confront them?
The simple answer is: The Past. A government elected on the strength of public misgivings about rampant homelessness and the lack of affordable housing; out-of-control immigration; and a despoiled natural environment; will be presented with thirty-year-old government machinery designed specifically to make effective state intervention as difficult as possible.
Any attempt to deploy this machinery in pursuit of social and economic objectives for which it was not designed is highly likely to end in failure – and, quite possibly, disaster. Arrayed against a government in which only a handful of ministers possess Cabinet experience will be a bristling phalanx of public servants, National Party appointees, corporate and special interest lobbyists and public relations firms – all of whom have a vested interest in preserving the status quo…
When, after staggering into their minister’s offices under the weight of multiple reports, studies and surveys, the representatives of Treasury, MFAT, MBIE and MPI advise the new progressive government that its programme will wreck the economy and/or bankrupt the nation, how will Labour, NZ First and the Greens respond? Will they be able to offer their own stack of reports, studies and surveys in rebuttal?
I am throwing nothing back in your face, i just called it up because we need a social contract. A real contract that covers all of us all the time and not just some of us some of the time.
I am not speaking in anger nor frustration, but i am tired of the misery that we cause by not holding our government accountable and the price of that is paid by those that have the least to give or to loose. I have never ever even mentioned covid, You did. I am constantly talking about unemployment, homelessness and the lack of the government in regards to these issue.
Do i believe that the wage subsidy is / was not enough. I do. Do i think the government did an adequit job re Covid given the circumstances, yes, have i ever said open the borders or relax quarantine? No i never did and you would be hard pressed to find anything in regards to this. The problem is that currently every critisism by us vs Labour is shut down literally with words of 'shut up, national is worse and do you want us all to die". Talk about a nice way of telling people to shut up and just vote. 🙂 Ain't happening.
As for complaining, i spoke to the person who hopes to get elected in my area, lol, not talking policy, don't you think we did well, is this not enough, I leave comments of FB pages and i give money as far as i can to the community where i live which btw has a huge homeless problem, a huge over crowding problem and a huge poverty problem and it will only get worse with raising unemployment and no jobs to apply for. So no i don't see any reason to really talk to labour nor the greens nor nzfirst, as non of them listen when it comes to these issues. Shut up and vote, lest National wins.
So yes, i did took your 'applies to covid only' social contract comment and i applied it to our homeless and jobless. And if that is what upsets you then i can't help you there, because this article again just showed the truth, that in this country some are in it knee deep and others are not, some have a social contract and others don't. And the very poor in this country seem to be disregarded by all parties. We are not all in this together.
Incompetence (MSD) meets corruption (REI)
MSD isn't that incompetent, they are lacking something vital that should be searched for in their CVs at the time of getting the job, but perhaps the agency that does the human resources work doesn't bother with anything except the right ed and previous employers. That's how a serial fraudster got through recently. Does the department concerned claim the money back:? I believe they get quite a dosh per person. Anyone know what and how it is calculated?
"The Ministry of Social Development has admitted the scheme made the rental crisis worse – as people took rental properties off the market and used them instead to rent out to MSD to earn thousands more."
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/landlords-paid-3k-a-week-by-government
this is not incompetence it is no one in charge giving a shit. That would be the bosses of the kinder gentler still full of bullshit Winz. Carmel Sepuloni is her name and last i checked she was the minister of social development and if you read the article all the way to the end you will see that she is 'waiting to be briefed and can not answer questions'.
Had read the article in full (twice) hours before you posted the link…and incompetence it surely is
I've only read the first third of that so far, and I feel sick.
read everything about it, and then maybe understand where i am coming from when i lament the utter failure of the current government (Labour/NZFIRST/Green – and no any one person in particular) in regards to unemployment, social welfare starvation rates and housing. And i am being charitable calling it 'failure'.
pretty sure we disagree on strategy not on political views of what is happening.
honestly i can't see the strategy here, all i see is 'nothing was done, nothing at all'.
that's right, you can't see strategy.
if three thousand dollar a week is a strategy to house someone in unsanitary hovels without any security then that is not a strategy, but feel free to educate me about the strategy that i am missing. As i said above, please read all the way to the end where it states that the Minister of social development refuses to answer questions as to the strategy of this particular program.
Please weka, enlighten me. Cause i have been syaing this already under National, where this 'emergency programme' started under Paula Benefit.
The government changed nothing. did nothing, and is now being called out for having done nothing and chances are wasted millions to enrich a handful of in my book criminal land lords and real estate agents.
But i am happy to read your explanation of the strategy that i am missing.
Unless utter failure and disperagement of people going to winz for help is the strategy, then yes i must admit i totally did not see that.
funny that you think this is about Labour's strategy rather than yours or mine or the left's. I've been talking about strategy around this for years. Like I said, you don't get it.
Is the National Party feeding questions to Mike Hosking for his interviews with the Prime Minister?
You don't seriously think that would happen do you? Oh, okay, of course it would.
Maybe it's Newshub, they seem to be part of the National Party.
if so, he should be renamed patsy hoskings… perhaps someone with twitter can start that one.
Not sure they're smart enough to do that – maybe someone they've hired eh.
Just to change the conversation, a cool wind blowing through the groves. Eddie Izzard and others having a discussion Europe and UK. Boris was a Daily Telegraph columnist and found Thatcher as the genesis of Eddie's career as a comedian.
I think Boris says he is a socialist about 5 mins in. I don't think he spends the time when he is not speaking, listening to the others, but thinking up what he wants to put over next.
From our archives. 1997 debate. Do we hate the French? What is the UK's place in Europe? Hosted by Jeremy Paxman, with Boris Johnson, comedian Eddie Izzard and Labour MEP Carole Tongue. More Newsnight archives here
Various media channels have sought the views of business leaders in Auckland to what the affects of extending Level 3 'til Sunday will be. And Chamber of Commerce Barnett appeared to be reading from a prepared-script-of-anticipation. Also spokespeople for the hospitality industry, in unison, have said that it is going to be catastrophic and that there will be massive permanent closures as a result.
I hope the media channels will seek these same people out again in a fortnight or so to get their assessments and to check if their predictions were anywhere even close.
I wouldn't hold my breath.
https://www.familyfirst.org.nz/2020/08/nz-fertility-rate-is-at-all-time-low/
Media Release 10 August 2020
New Zealand’s total fertility rate has reached an all-time low, with an average of 1.71 children per woman in New Zealand, well below population replacement level….
Report author Lindsay Mitchell says, “In the past, government policy could positively affect the size of families. The Universal Family Benefit strongly influenced peak fertility in 1961 when women had an average of 4.3 children. But as females have become better educated and increased their work force participation, more have chosen to have fewer or no children. Economic pressures like student debt and insecure employment play a role. And now they face additional pressure from environmentalists. Meanwhile, policy interventions appear less and less effective.”..
“Without population replacement or growth, economies decline. A nation’s strength lies in its young: their energy, innovation, risk-taking and entrepreneurship.
The new blood drives the exchange of ideas and experimentation. If these attributes aren’t home-grown, they have to be imported. At an individual level, single person households are the fastest growing household type in New Zealand. Increasingly people face old-age with few or no family supports.”
It doesn't take Lindsay Mitchell long to extrapolate opinions from fact. Now environmentalists are causing additional pressures on family numbers. And a nation relying on its young – it shows how far Mitchell is from reality. The PtB are quite happily importing the people it wants, making it difficult for parents especially mothers alone to bring up their children to utilise their, e, i, rt and ent. It's more efficient and valuable to the economy, to teach other people's children for a fee than to ensure good education for well-rounded minds of young NZ. And the future is not with people at the helm, it is as servants to machines and vast conglomerates situated overseas, now with holiday homes in NZ. The jobs that people could do and hold their heads up high as independent people are being deleted. It suits the neolib cohort to virtually delete people! The schools are preparing children for this future by making them do their learning on computers, laptops. Manual, hand work, is out, and jobs are just a number to indicate the movements of the market.
The trouble with these narrow-minded people, is that they are against the lone woman, and will punish her by keeping her poor and lonely, and they regard sex as sinful if not sanctified by marriage. And the actions of such as Family First match this prejudice. They will back the right wing who would rather single women were working at a low-level and tiring job, than to be available to their children and being supported to become first-rate parents, home managers, and have skills training enabling them to earn and improve their lifestyles and work status over the years.
That would be the ideal but it would seem to be encouraging the women and the right wing don't want this to happen. They don't like the idea of beneficiaries being happy – how dare they enjoy living off my hard-won earnings is the mean refrain. So they won't even back them to get a good start in life, along with their children. When they talk about beneficiary mothers it is the children they mention, not the person trying to cope with responsibilities on one pair of shoulders. This has been made worse by the demand to advise the father's identity or lose benefit payment.
After time passes and some wisdom gained, plus the experience of bearing and birthing their child, many women know the man concerned will have a negative affect on them and the child. But money and stiff morality have equal places in the minds of the right wing, and I think it is money that is paramount really. It's a toxic world in there when you get a glimpse into the depths of such people's minds, no matter how pleasant they look and sound.
Replying to Logie97 at 21.
The media interview businesses, and the opposition. For the sake of balance they should be also interviewing those whose lives are being saved.
Hi LP, thanks as ever for your site. I’ve had problems viewing the articles for a while now. I see the headline, and the comments, but not the article itself. Not always, but often. Now, today, the ‘design’ is missing too, your banner for example. A ‘template’ problem? I can switch to desktop version, but that doesn’t work so well either on a phone. I’m using safari, latest iOS 13x, on iPhone se. Hope this info is helpful.
You are absolutely correct. I’ve been mostly concerned with other things (like the site running like a dog due to what turned out to be a failing SSD in a RAID array) for the last day or so.
But I’m seeing the same things on a Android Samsung S10+. I’ll clean it up after I get through inserting new SSDs. However it may be tomorrow (he says looking at the time).
It is now ok now on my samsung. Checked it on my partners iphone. Her front page is still wrong but the rest is as it should be. I’m presuming that is a caching issue. My android suddenly came right a while after I did a update for the appearance.
Is New Zealand chicken production as disgusting as this?
'The UK slaughters 20 million broilers every week, the vast majority of which are fast- growing breeds, reaching slaughter weight in just 35 days – four times faster than in the 1950s. This, according to the RSPCA, is responsible for contributing to severe welfare problems such as chronic leg disorders and heart and circulatory problems.
The data revealed that more than 3 million chickens were rejected at slaughter due to ascites or heart failure. “The main contributor is believed to be an increased oxygen demand by the fast-growing muscle. The body simply can’t keep up,” said Vicky Bond, veterinarian and director of the Humane League. CIWF have called for a ban on the use of fast-growing broiler breeds.
Dr Ed Van Klink, senior lecturer at Bristol Veterinary School, said: “Some of these issues are clearly welfare related … There will always be sick animals, certainly given the enormous numbers that are being processed. Poultry is kept in large flocks, therefore attention for individual disease issues is generally not possible.”
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/aug/25/over-60-million-chickens-in-england-and-wales-rejected-over-disease-and-defects
Don't buy it or consume it.
(Hat tip to Mary from The Lifeboat News.)
I think Ardern has a 20% advantage in the next election over National. Lets press her to implement the Welfare Advisory Group's recommendations. If not now for our kin, when?
Don't vote for her , talk against her, unless she helps the neediest NOW after 36 years.
Disgusted I have to make a case here.
We are too far near to America's set-up.
When Jacinda bullshits about poverty and can't talk for Godzone.
I despise her because I know her, and reality, unlike others.
Just about sums it up, sumsuch.
Ardern baited her hooks for middle NZ… being the daughter of a white cop in Mangakino does not give her insight into the lives of those the WEAG were trying to champion.
The reality is, just like NZ voted National back in time and time again despite the water in the pot getting hotter all the time, there will be flesh falling from the bones of Godzone's most vulnerable and still the bulk will vote for the popular and telegenic.
SSDD
“In 2002 Mr Ardern received a Police Commissioner’s Commendation after he negotiated for three hours with a man armed with a machete in an incident in Morrinsville’s main street. The stand-off ended peacefully.”
https://www.pressreader.com/new-zealand/waikato-times/20131120/281689727589313
Ross Ardern worked in a number of towns in the Waikato region (Murupapa, Piako-Matamata, Morrinsville, etc.) So he was "a white cop in Mangakino" too, eh? SSDD.
Murupara/Mangakino
I always confuse the two…my bad.
However…do you think this government has addressed the needs of the most vulnerable New Zealanders Drowsy M.Kram?
Do you think it is OK for this government to have largely ignored the recommendations of the WEAG?
Do you think it is OK that the most vulnerable have been told since forever…'just wait, be patient, your day will come when there's enough money in the coffers…'
…only to see that when Business is threatened by the effects of a virus there's suddenly mega billions in the coffers?
Do you think that Ardern's(and most of our other elected 'representatives') privileged upbringing has prepared her to be able to properly empathize with those who has been discarded by government for the past twenty five years?
Because if its not to do with her lack of experience of life in the outer margins…?
IMHO it's a bit rich to have a go at Ardern for not being able to "properly empathize", but whatever floats your boat.
I do think that our Government should be aiming to address "the needs of the most vulnerable New Zealanders" as a priority, and then the needs of the less vulnerable, and lastly the needs of the invulnerable should they have any.
No, I don't "think it is OK for this government to have largely ignored the recommendations of the WEAG", nor do I think it's OK that various NZ governments have avoided making recommended changes to MMP, and have avoided alcohol law reform, and have privatised public assets in the face of strong public opposition, and have said no to introducing a CGT, or a Fart Tax, or indeed whatever progressive tax(es) might be needed to adequately address the many and varied needs of all citizens and the wider environment.
But there are only so many things that I can rail against at any one time.
I do think its OK that NZ governments resisted popular attempts to overturn the 'anti-smacking' legislation introduced to the house by Sue Bradford, and it's OK that the current Government introduced stricter gun control laws in the wake of the Christchurch massacre, and that they are also doing a reasonable-to-good job (indeed, an excellent job if current international comparisons of health outcomes are valid) of addressing the immediate public health and welfare issues relating to the Covid-19 pandemic, not to mention record investment in mental health, building classrooms and new schools, fixing hospitals, introducing the winter energy payment, extending paid parental leave…
But something's gotta give, and when it does most of us who are able to look back on past times will realise just how good we had it. Just my opinion, of course, and thanks for asking.
The neediest matter most.
You won't confuse the two if you ever go through and 'stop' at Murupara (don't), Rosemary. It's Ardern's Dorian Gray portrait.
The 1980 ruling class by right of 'merit' has everything but 'right'.
And we remember, and, what's more, have the personnel to turn around our country, unlike America, their model.
https://youtu.be/QAB6aXOfUmU
https://youtu.be/REXeJAdQ68c
https://youtu.be/qQfetkoGrpU