Does an MP need to have the permission of their party leader to do a private members bill?
What sort of private members bills would you want to have drawn for new or change of legislation?
I want to see historical sexual assault cases have their own separate legislation and the Limitations Act to have no time limit for a schedule 3 ACC claim under the 1961 Crimes Act. As well a separate entity with funding for lawyers, a one stop shop so a person does not need to deal with multiple agencies.
It takes on average 18 years for a person to disclose a sexual assault. Odd that is how long it took me.
Unfit for purpose legislation is re abusing claimants and it is up to every politician to fix this. I also feel that discrimination is occurring with an historical case compared to a case which the Limitations Act will cover.
The word private has been dropped now from a members bill.
I disagree with you on not needing a members bill. It will take 5 years to see new and fit for purpose legislation.
I was sad to hear that a man who was to appear in April at the Abuse in Care Royal Commission he died in March. Interim legislation needs to be urgently passed. I don't care which party does it, it needs to be a priority. This will send a clear message to an agency who did not take action to stop offending. The sick old legislation will no longer protect you.
Timing will just have to wait for the priority list for the new government, once the Commission is done.
It won't get done any faster as a private members bill – precisely because any attempt would get absorbed into the Government's own legislative response, as usually happens.
The Abuse of Care Royal Commission Inquiry is highlighting historical sexual, physical and psychological cases of abuse. People like me are being excluded because the crime did not occur in a care home.
As well there is some overlap with state care and non state care psychiatric admission.
Am I correct that only children who were abused (sexually, physically and psychologically) in state care can only appear at the inquiry?
I am pleased that finally the children who are now adults who were in state care have a voice.
There is no time statute of limitations on reporting sexual violence or charging someone with sexual violence offences.
Additionally, there is no time limitations on claims to ACC for historical sexual abuse.
A person, recent or historical victim, does not have to file a Complaint with Police to qualify for an ACC injury payout for sexual abuse.
There are agencies who are like a one stop shop. A victim can be supported through processes they choose. An approved provider of 'counselling' type services is needed for the process of assessment for ACC claims. Services are free for victims.
Should a victim wish to proceed with a police complaint , there is no lawyer needed to be paid for by the victim.
There are a lot of related aspects which are relevant to PTSD which are not covered when it comes to getting cover from ACC for sexual crimes which fuel the PTSD.
In the work place you told your employer and they failed to act and due to the Limitations Act time frame running out you cannot take legal action against your employer for the cover up. The awareness today is so different to an historical case.
Aye a family member was raped in her workplace when she was 17 by a client of her employer. The national organisation basically covered it up. This was in the 80's. Only now has she got some counselling for her ongoing PTSD. No support at all for wages and an inability to work cause she wasn't working when she finally sought help due to all the stress her and her other family members were under. By then she was simply not able to work and had been unwell for a long time.
A friend was groped repeatedly while at the photocopier by an employer who also used to run himself against her buttocks as well. She left that job and 20+ years later still shakes when anyone mentions that employer who is quite often on TV or in the press. She lost her career at a young age and has had mental health difficulties ever since.
There are many who have suffered for a long time.
Just as the generation before suffered hideously from marital rape – particularly as for many of them they had no means of support. The stories of being sent back to the new marital home by parents with the "you made your bed you sleep in it" refrain echoing in their ears was certainly true for many.
There is a strong history of damage done to women in this country through sexual assault. It would be useful to have an enquiry to understand more deeply the numbers and impacts of this while there are still those left from earlier generations.
Thank you for your comment. I put it this way, the damage that sexual assault causes the psychology has finally caught up with the incident/s. Sadly the Limitations Act has expired for far to many to make a civil claim and ACC does not compensate for not being able to sue for a mental injury.
Note: I do hope I have got my facts straight when it comes to ACC ONLY covering a schedule 3 incident under the Crimes Act 1961.
I did not make myself as clear as I needed to. It is about changing civil claims against the state or an employer for not taking action and civil litigation in the courts when the issue was sexual, physical or psychological abuse.
Some cases cannot be separated because the effects of the sexual, physical or psychological abuse are fuelled by the cover up or a civil case not going forward due to the Limitations Act time frame expiring.
'National Party leader Judith Collins is hitting back at attacks from the Left on her agriculture policy, saying the Greens are being "hysterical". '
'She is also accusing Labour leader Jacinda Ardern of "going for the jugular" by saying the National Party had changed its position on climate change. '
As I suggest on yesterday's Daily Review it looks to me like Judith might not be doing too well and the over-reaction and tears as you point out PLA, might hint at failure to cope as well as a hardened "tough" politician would expect. Meanwhile in spite of huge problems faced and dealt to, Jacinda carries on in confidence.
I don't like the word 'confidence' in connection with politicians. That is the approach that National uses – being confident – and it's 90% likely that everything they say confidently will be a load of s..t. A con man or woman is a term short for confidence trickster.
Perhaps we could say that Jacinda is staunch – for good policies that work and for improving and encouraging treatment of the low-income, and micro businesses.
staunch – 1. very loyal and committed in attitude.
lol….they really are floundering. I'd feel sorry …No, not at all : ) I just hope Jacinda is gonna get a bit of rest and chill time. She sure EARNED it !
just three days ago, herald headline was "collins call jacinda, poor wee thing" now its"jacinda going for the jugular". the really interesting point, is that collins is talking about jacinda, not other way round. when your narrative is all about your opponent, even you know youve lost.
This morning I woke up at 6.15am with it being nice and light outside. It was glorious.
Then sadness kicked in when I realised the artifical construct that is Daylight Saving, invented by the Germans, starts on Sunday leading NZ back into the dark ages. No more sunrise until an hour later. Fatigue and a sense of tiredness kicking in for a good two weeks as everyones circadian rhythms get knocked out of whack.
Daylight saving should be scrapped. Permanently. NZ doesn't need it as without it, sunset still wouldn't be until anywhere between 8pm – 9pm, thus rendering the age old argument "but we need more light after work" completely moot.
Of course, NZers love status quo, so I would 100% support a one year moratorium on daylight saving so that NZers could actually experience a proper summer without artifical time shifts. It hasn't done so since 1927. Once that moratorium is over people will then have an informed decision as to whether DS should stay, or be scrapped, or shortened to start somewhere from Labour Weekend. At the moment, it starts way too early. Farmers loathe it.
I for one avail myself of the flexible working hour provisions to shift my start and end times at work to an hour later so I don't bother changing my clocks. I find I'm far less affected than everyone else at work because I stick to normal time and I feel much better for it.
Daylight saving (time) has its pluses (hence popular) and minuses (the extra light causes my curtains to fade!) I found it beneficial on occasion while employed, but really wouldn't miss it now I've retired.
"On 8 February 2018, the European Parliament voted to ask the European Commission to re-evaluate DST in Europe. After a web survey giving high support of not adjusting clocks twice annually on 12 September 2018, the European Commission decided to propose to put an end to seasonal clock changes (repealing Directive 2000/84/EC). In order for this to be valid, the European Union legislative procedure must be followed, mainly that the Council of the European Union and the European Parliament must both approve the proposal." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daylight_saving_time_by_country
There's actually no extra light. The amount of sunshine hours remains the same so the curtain principle is a misnomer.
The only thing that changes is the false equivalence that there is "more" daylight at the end of the working day thanks to the completely artificial and unnecessary time shift.
If you pull your curtains across at a set time, say 7 pm, then with daylight saving they get an hours extra daylight on them. It would be balanced by getting an hours less in the morning but that only works if the sun light strikes them in the morning as well as the evening i.e. they face the right way for that to happen.
Of course, the person could delay pulling their curtains across but maybe they need the room dark to watch Shortland Street.
I'm retired, so it makes little difference to me now, but my sadness used to be at the end of summer when we lost the daylight hours at the end of the day. My way of 'destressing' if I'd had issues during the day at work was to come home and work in the garden – pulling up weeds was especially satisfying! It was very sad when I would lose that every year
.
Yeah … but wasn't it Sandy Edmonds herself who informed us way back in 1967: "Oh, Daylight Saving Time, you're going to give me more time to find love with my Bay-bee" ?
I'm with you James. I would far rather have the hour of daylight during the day and not late in the evening. I spend the summer throwing imaginary poisoned darts at an imagined effigy of Peter Dunne who was responsible for extending D.S by two weeks at both ends. He did so without consulting the public first – the bastard. 👿
Then sadness kicked in when I realised the artifical construct that is Daylight Saving, invented by the Germans, starts on Sunday leading NZ back into the dark ages.
While Germany and Austria were the first countries to use DST in 1916, it is a little-known fact that a few hundred Canadians beat the German Empire by eight years. On July 1, 1908, the residents of Port Arthur, Ontario, today's Thunder Bay, turned their clocks forward by one hour to start the world's first DST period.
Of course, that may be someone's attempt to claim fame and put a minor town on the map so to speak.
This statement:
Today, about 40% of countries worldwide use it to make better use of daylight and to conserve energy.
really needs to be the other way around:
To conserve energy by making better use of daylight.
But a study that same year by the National Bureau of Economic Research concluded that DST increases the demand for electricity — even though lighting usage reduced, demand for heating and cooling increased, so electricity consumption was about the same.
Other studies have found that benefits of DST may be location-specific. One found electricity reductions in Norway and Sweden, while another saw increased electricity demand in Indiana.
1946 — New Zealand summer time (12 hours in advance of GMT) was adopted as New Zealand standard time. Daylight saving time was effectively discontinued at this point.
1974–5 — Daylight saving was trialled again in 1974, and introduced in 1975. Daylight saving time is 1 hour ahead of New Zealand standard time.
However, this theme has little to do with with the budget and a lot to do with projecting a lack of credibility on Goldsmith. The budget is still a forecast so its too early to claim whos figures are right and whos are mistaken (probably both will be way off).
Its quite funny to see the claim by Robertson that there are serious consequences for such mistakes in the budget while in office. This is because the 'mistake' occurred by using figures from a previous budget so exactly the same magnitude of mistake was made by Robertsons govt in office during that previous budget. Will there be consequences? No, will there be further revisions, yes every 6 months.
Credibility is not that important to me (and no I am in no danger of voting for National). I am just suggesting your being sucked into a partizan narrative which don't rest on anything concrete.
Not at all. Russell Norman lost his credibility when he highlighted that the RBNZ could implement QE to assist the country. It clearly now could and has.
I am just suggesting your being sucked into a partizan narrative which don't rest on anything concrete.
Actually, I think that there is evidence of where National's policies have been bad for the economy but that this ain't that evidence.
What Robertson should be doing is pointing to National's similar policies from before and show the deleterious effect that they had rather than this see, he got the numbers wrong approach which, as you say, isn't really proving anything except that Robertson's a dick.
Robertson's using belittling tactics which is a dick move especially when it really is a fact that the numbers really are inconsequential.
And I'm on record as saying his competence is in question because it would only have taken the use of a simple search/replace function in a spreadsheet to get the numbers right.
It is a dick move, yes, but it's also rubbing National's collective face in the excrement of its own narrative that it is better at managing the economy, because it can do difficult things like accountancy and reading spreadsheets and stuff. It would be unfair for Labour to claim that it is better because it can do those things mroe competently, but it is entirely fair for it to hold National to that standard (even if it's still a dick move).
Nic has a valid point however , competent or not both are trying to sell a message based on wishful thinking by crystal ball gazers at Treasury….garbage in garbage out.
If only they were just rounding errors. It also depends on how/where you round, e.g. to the nearest billion.
Look, at the end of the day, pretty ok is ok enough for National just as pretty legal was ok. And if National’s economic shambles plan is genuinely reflecting what Paora believes then that’s ok with Judith. Apparently. And if it’s ok with Judith then the great unwashedthe plebs we must be ok with it too because National MPs are our natural leaders. Plus they have a rich imagination tradition in creating holes out of nothing.
The differences are largely due to updates between the budget and the pre election budget update, so the scale of his differences is the same as the scale of the treasury revisions.
Its also clear this scale of error is completely inconsequential compared to how far the countries budget shifted due to the GFC and Covid lockdowns. If your not able to see those kinds of budget shifts there is hardely any point being concerned about 4 billion one way or the other in 14 years time.
Bill English put no money into the NZSF, if he had the government would be about $10B better off than it is now (you know $10B more in the fund than the inputs).
Goldsmith thinks by doing the same he will have our debt lower than Labour by 2035, so how clever is he and National.
Having debt **** dollars lower when that **** would multiply in the NZSF (and you know debt is real cheap at the moment and that means rising asset values) is not the smart play.
Put it this way – property investors can pay down debt while mortgage costs are cheap, or they can borrow more and buy another property. Which one delivers the better return? Anyone trying to buy a first home over the past 5 years knows the answer.
Or another way does Goldsmith have a rental while with a mortgage on his home?
It’s pretty obvious National prefers to pay down debt and then siphon out money for tax cuts – so they can buy another investment property. They think like looters.
If only Paul would go floundering. Something that requires actual physical and mental skill (dare I say talent). And if done sustainably within bag limits, achieves good things – feeding whanau and lots of delicate, buttery tastiness with chips and/or salad.
Sadly Paul is not that useful. Resembling a 1990's Alfa Romeo from the height of the Rogernomics era – superficially attractive, but shoddily-built, grotesquely unreliable and deadly if anything goes wrong.
Re latest outbreak of Covid from person who travelled in from India and has now possibly infected people from many parts of NZ
“Bloomfield said he did not think fear of Aucklanders was justified”
Fear of Aucklanders who travelled away from Auckland while in Level 3 and 2.5 and who have recently arrived in this country is justified.
It is justified until people arriving from countries in the grip of the Covid Pandemic are
1/ testing negative before leaving that country although I know it doesn,t mean they are 100% clear but it is a good start.
2/ do not rush off travelling around NZ catching up with families and friends as soon as they come out of quarantine because 14 days is only a probable indication that someone is not infected.
3/ and best would be not to allow anyone in from countries experiencing current high levels of Covid infection to begin with.
Once out of 14 day isolation a stay at home for a week (all members in the house to stay home for a week, everyone to get tested on day 6) and no travel out of the region for 2 weeks once the 1 week at home is completed.
If I heard correctly during the debate the other night Jacinda said that the number of returnees are slowing and that is what would give space for the 1000 essential workers a month. But if demand is slowing why not just reduce the number coming through and forget about the essential workers – that alone would help reduce risk.
Plus it's really starting to take off again overseas with the northern winter so yes lengthier quarantines and possible border closure plus strict auditing of the practices of all the airlines flying here – the news reports are unclear but one referred to a charter flight – plus maybe more pre quarantine before leaving to try to reduce the number of infections that actually get on the plane.
I for one have stopped trying to plan anything away from home.
Running a pre leaving quarantine in an airport hotel for a few days pre departure whilst not being perfect might help though. Plus testing of course. Airlines to include this with the fares package from high risk departure points.
How do you know the room has been cleaned properly, very little of the world is anywhere near as thorough as NZ, that's why its fun to travel and see what you can catch.
That's true about foreign diseases, I bought back bilharzia (parasitic flatworm in the bladder) from Malawi many moons ago and dengue fever came back with me from Cambodia a few years back.
explain this to me. Because lessening the number of people with covid getting on a plane seems like a no brainer. There are significant fairness and logistics issues that might make that not viable, but that's a different issue.
This conversation already happened a few weeks ago. A negative test means nothing of any value. Everyone needs to be handled as if they are infectious anyway.
that's not an explanation, it's an assertion (which is what I've seen a lot of).
Is there any chance of someone on a plane being infected by someone else on a plane with covid even where everyone is handled as if they are infectious?
I'm pretty sure it has been discussed before, when some politician or media opinionator blithely demanded everyone be tested before they come, so therefore there would be no need for quarantine (something like that).
Firstly, we have no control over the labs, or even whether the "test results" a passenger provides are genuine. Even an "accredited provider" could have an employee on the take.
Secondly, the gap between testing and travel can be an incubation period, or an opportunity to catch the disease.
Thirdly, they could catch it actively in transit. Especially as aircraft air conditioning is notoriously bad quality (to save fuel they suck in the minimum amount of fresh air).
Fourth, and most importantly, it doesn't really change anything, other than costing money to administer and monitor. We'd still need to quarantine everyone who arrives. It might not even lower the number of infected people coming in, depending on track and trace efforts in origin countries.
If it gets to the stage of "spit in a cup, two seconds later you get 99.99% (insane) accurate red light or green light at the boarding gate even if you just got exposed in the taxi to the airport", maybe it might be a better pandemic purchase than a million new masks. But then we'd be doing it for community surveillance first.
thanks McFlock. Much of that fits into the logistics make it not viable at this stage category, rather than it being a bad idea per se. If we put aside National's policy (which wasn't well thought out), and just look at if testing before getting on a plane could useful or not, I've yet to see the rationale for why not.
If the goal is to reduce transmission on the plane, then pre-travel testing may be useful once the tech, logistics and economics work.
McFlock very concisely explained the rationale – nothing to do with logistics:
Secondly, the gap between testing and travel can be an incubation period, or an opportunity to catch the disease.
Thirdly, they could catch it actively in transit. Especially as aircraft air conditioning is notoriously bad quality (to save fuel they suck in the minimum amount of fresh air).
Fourth, and most importantly, it doesn't really change anything, other than costing money to administer and monitor. We'd still need to quarantine everyone who arrives.
the point of testing before travel isn't to pick up all cases of covid, it's to lessen the risk of transmission from low symptom/pre symptomatic people (or people hiding/minimising symptoms). The point isn't to say negative tests = covid free or establish the plane as covid free (that's not possible), but to catch the positive tests and not let them on the plane.
So the first two points in your quote are irrelevant to what I am saying. The last point doesn't make sense, because anyone not let on the plane is one less person needing Q at this end.
Sure, but the case still hasn't been made against what I said. McFlock or someone else might pick it up, but it's going to keep coming up and I think telling people who are suggesting it that it's not useful doesn't work without a clear explanation. National's policy was easy to pick apart when it came out, but the general idea isn't going away.
If the tests are quick enough, airports are a logical place to run them.
Asian airports began running thermal cameras (to find passengers running fevers) way back in the swine flu days. It's a cheap unintrusive measure, and if it stops even a handful of further infections, it's worthwhile.
On the basis of our knowledge and understanding of viral infectivity and host response, we urge countries without the capacity to do molecular testing at scale to research the use of serology tests to triage symptomatic patients in community settings, to test contacts of confirmed cases, and in situational analysis and surveillance.
Though, as McFlock notes, we still need to maintain our isolation protocols.
It depends where you come from, which airline you travel with, and where you catch your connecting flight. For example:
Before you travel
Take a COVID-19 PCR test:
All passengers travelling to Dubai from any destination, including passengers connecting in Dubai, must have a printed negative COVID-19 PCR test certificate to be accepted on the flight.
The test must be taken a maximum of 96 hours before departure.
The certificate must be for a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test. Other test certificates including antibody tests and home testing kits are not accepted in Dubai.
Bring an official, printed certificate to check-in – SMS and digital certificates are not accepted. Without a printed negative test certificate, you will not be accepted on the flight.
the point of testing before travel isn't to pick up all cases of covid, it's to lessen the risk of transmission from low symptom/pre symptomatic people (or people hiding/minimising symptoms).
But it doesn't actually change the situation at the NZ end. Flights will still be bringing in infected people. Everyone still needs to be quarantined.
Different actors have different priorities. Airlines need to minimise covid disruption to their workforce, so slow down the amount of time before the pursar gets infected. Testing might marginally help them do that.
NZ govt priority is to make sure that people getting off the plane don't release it into the community. So regardless of the preflight test result, everybody goes into isolation. It's even possible that mandatory preflight testing might not even effect NZ numbers at all, given the people who provide a negative 3 day test and positive towards the end of their isolation.
"But it doesn't actually change the situation at the NZ end"
Can you please explain how preventing someone from getting covid doesn't affect the NZ end? There's the person who doesn't have the illness and potentially end up disabled (or dead). And there's potentially one less person's need for ICU etc.
I understand the public health management perspective, but I don't understand the argument that the pragmatics of that mean there is no benefit at all. If someone gets on the plane with covid and infects another person on the plane, and that could have been prevented, is this not a good thing irrespective of how the prevention of spread is handled at the NZ end?
"NZ govt priority is to make sure that people getting off the plane don't release it into the community. So regardless of the preflight test result, everybody goes into isolation."
You do understand that this is completely irrelevant to what I am saying right? It's a given that everyone goes into isolation at the NZ end.
I don’t know but I assume that it is a combination of changing knowledge & information, PR & politics, and economic/profit motives. I believe airlines and airports can set their own rules as they see fit. I’ve read that some (?) countries require a negative test result less than 96 hours old upon boarding and some upon arrival, which can make a big difference on long-haul flights. Of course, it changes all the time …
Yes anyone going through a number of hubs (Dubai and Hong Kong plus possibly others im unaware of) are required to show a negative test before boarding their flight at departure point….however that test is up to 4 days old, and as has been pointed out by others there is the possibility of poor testing practice and false negatives (low viral load etc)….the regime however already exists and may add a marginal improvement in the numbers arriving in NZ without infection and all the implications of such.
NZ demanding a negative test before departure in addition to these hubs however presents problems for travellers (these are largely NZ nationals remember) in areas without easy access to testing for that marginal benefit.
It seems to me that the process as it currently operates is operating at both a practical and safe level …no process is going to be 100%.
The call strikes me as a beat up largely for political purpose.
Can you please explain how preventing someone from getting covid doesn't affect the NZ end? There's the person who doesn't have the illness and potentially end up disabled (or dead). And there's potentially one less person's need for ICU etc.
As I said, It's even possible that mandatory preflight testing might not even effect NZ numbers at all, given the people who provide a negative 3 day test and positive towards the end of their isolation.
If someone is severely ill, they're not travelling anyway.
If someone is a close contact, chances are that they've been identified and tested by the country of origin's public health service, anyway.
That leaves a narrow window of people who have it, are not yet symptomatic, have not been identified as a close contact, have not tripped any airline criteria or criteria in the country of origin, but would trip a further preflight test. It does nothing to identify the people who catch it on the ride to the airport. The likelihood is that testing with even a few hours turnaround would detect bugger all otherwise-undetected-until-in-NZ cases
An all it takes is thousands of staff hours to administer when they could be doing other stuff like contact tracing or procuring equipment for those ICU beds.
It sounds great. But it has no known benefit (how many cases it would actually prevent in the real world) and potentially astronomical costs (how to administer a system that is not easily compromised) and could well require some complex international cooperation (NZ oversight of labs? Do we test the people and ship the samples back here doubletime for testing – how to avoid customs delays? Or do we hope a certified form is as good as doing the job ourselves?).
Interesting observation since the debate. Quite voluntarily, people since then that I have come across have expressed their intense dislike for Judith Collins and the way she behaved. Hopefully that reaction is widespread.
After an MMP election, the politicians dick around working out who they are going to partner up with – it can take two or three weeks. Usually, the country carries on and, as my father say, it just shows how little we need politicians. But this time getting the politicians back to working again ASAP and making decisions about covid-19 is going to be vitally important – what happens if we have an outbreak while the politicians are negotiating about who is going to be in power? Who is going to be making decisions about going to level 2, 3 or 4?
In this time and place, we really need a definitive result before the end of election night.
It is a bit alarming – but I imagine one of the senior health officials has the powers to act without government instruction in what would be an emergency. If not, some combination of MoH and the military isolation staff should get a containment brief until the silly season is over.
Actually we spend 2 weeks waiting for the result (even longer this time). No government can be formed before then. But usually under MMP we have known who would lead the government already on election night (99, 02, 08, 11, 14).
2017 was the first time since 2005 that we had to wait for negotiations, and even then we knew Clark would be PM, but not who with.
But it won't be as bad (or as good?) as Belgium, which went almost 600 days without a government in 2010-11 and another year without one in 2018-19.
Whatever happens Ardern remains caretaker PM until she or someone else is sworn in by the Governor-General.
Decisions about alert level changes during that period would presumably require consultation with the leaders of the parties in the (new?) parliament. But if the election result is conclusive other parties couldn’t push their views too strongly.
I think Auckland people should have to stay in place not travel around. There are enough of them to make their own economy. The rest of NZ can visit them. I notice that Aucklanders have got the money to go visiting, and the sheer numbers of them and the propensity of that area to carry Covid 19 increases the likelihood of the disease being spread.
Keep them home, let them enjoy the wonderful, world class Auckland amenities on their doorstep. They can host whoever from the rest of the country and get business, and we'll take our chances on Covid-19 if we go there.
Also let's have a direction from MoH to keep wearing face masks. I notice little hand washing, mask wearing. We are getting casual about individual responsibility.
Diana tried to find a way to use her position and fame to act for better ways and helping humanity. Now Prince Harry and Meghan are getting the ire of the upper class twits in the UK and USA. It's not easy being green etc.
edit
Take a break from angry stress – let Jonathan Pie do it for you. This one from 2017 about the curbing of free speech by the people who believe in always being 'naice' and well-behaved – sort of like The Charge of the Light Brigade in the face of overwhelming fire.
Someone had blundered.
Theirs not to make reply,
Theirs not to reason why,
Theirs but to do and die.
That's the spirit – no, no, wrong – don't show spirit, just grit teeth and carry on with the right behaviour like gutless little wimps. So Jonathan Pie gets exercised and shows how to be dynamically charged.
I think balance is what is needed, trying to decide where excess should be curbed but recognising that life is dynamic – we can't cope if we are milksops.
National has thrown caution to the wind in a last ditch attempt to increase their vote share at election time….suspect ACT is gaining too much of their support for comfort.
Reduced brightline test period
Tax cuts
Repealing much of Climate Act
Repealing much of water strategy
cancelling minimum wage increase
If ever anyone needed confirmation that a continuation of the failed migration/housing low wage imported growth model is all they have to offer then it has just been given.
National…governing for the top quintile since forever
At the very limits of our atmosphere, where life meets void, two vultures hang, fell-wings spread in a questioning-arc, poised, poisonous; the Eyebrows of Judith;
"National leader Judith Collins refused to criticise two of her MPs for circulating a fake quote from Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern on Friday.
Collins said she didn’t think the MPs should take down their posts as they were “genuinely reflecting what they believe.”"
Matt King is for the future, at least the coming election. He shows the real calibre of their mob. A smartarse who will gather the votes of similar Northland boofheads.
As a teenager ,I remember the unusual looking Vernon Cracknell as the party leader in the 60's and thought he must be a crackpot with fuddy duddy ideas , sort of a crimplene suited joke
It's all about monetary reform and using the Reserve Bank to issue money to fund our Covid recovery .And clearly the policies don't stop there.
Modern monetary theory does seem to have become more topical
My first vote was for them back in 1978, FPP in most electorates meant nothing in those elections – and they were the ones speaking truth about global debt capitalism at the time. Democratic empowerment of the people, then and now was constrained by the expection that government was dependent on tax revenue or affordable levels of debt finance.
Look what the world has come to since then post GFC and the pandemic – it was always possible but only applied to save private sector capitalism and even now dismissed as a way to improve the well being of the people.
Winston Peters is one Maori who doesn't support the others trying to build a cohesive future for all Maori. He is corrupted by what he has achieved for himself.
He isn't funny or satirical like the black man playing out racist expectations in Blazing Saddles. He manages to show black and white attitudes in the one performance, when as the black Sheriff he is threatened by the stock black criminal.
This discussion is from a Twitter thread by Martin Kulldorff on 20 December 2020. He is a Professor at Harvard Medical School specialising in disease surveillance methods, infectious disease outbreaks and vaccine safety. His Twitter handle is @MartinKulldorff #1 Public health is about all health outcomes, not just a single ...
The Treasury forecasts suggest the economy is doing better than expected after the Covid Shock. John Kenneth Galbraith was wont to say that economic forecasting was designed to make astrology look good. Unfair, but it raises the question of the purpose of economic forecasts. Certainly the public may treat them ...
Q: Will the COVID-19 vaccines prevent the transmission of the coronavirus and bring about community immunity (aka herd immunity)? A: Jury not in yet but vaccines do not have to be perfect to thwart the spread of infection. While vaccines induce protection against illness, they do not always stop actual ...
Joe Biden seems to be everything that Donald Trump was not – decent, straightforward, considerate of others, mindful of his responsibilities – but none of that means that he has an easy path ahead of him. The pandemic still rages, American standing in the world is grievously low, and the ...
Keana VirmaniFrom healthcare robots to data privacy, to sea level rise and Antarctica under the ice: in the four years since its establishment, the Aotearoa New Zealand Science Journalism Fund has supported over 30 projects.Rebecca Priestley, receiving the PM Science Communication Prize (Photo by Mark Tantrum) Associate Professor ...
Nothing more from me today - I'm off to Wellington, to participate in the city's annual roleplaying convention (which has also eaten my time for the whole week, limiting blogging despite there being interesting things happening). Normal bloggage will resume Tuesday. ...
The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weaponscame into force today, making the development, possession, use or threat of use of nuclear weapons illegal in international law. Every nuclear-armed state is now a criminal regime. The corporations and scientists who design, build and maintain their illegal weapons are now ...
"Come The Revolution!" The key objective of Bernard Hickey’s revolutionary solution to the housing crisis is a 50 percent reduction in the price of the average family home. This will be achieved by the introduction of Capital Gains, Land, and Wealth taxes, and by the opening up of currently RMA-protected ...
by Daphna Whitmore Twitter and Facebook shutting down Trump’s accounts after his supporters stormed Capitol Hill is old news now but the debates continue over whether the actions against Trump are a good thing or not. Those in favour of banning Trump say Twitter and Facebook are private companies and ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections Democrats now control the White House, Senate, and House of Representatives for the first time in a decade, albeit with razor thin Congressional majorities. The last time, in the 111th Congress (2009-2011), House Democrats passed a carbon cap and trade bill, but it died ...
Session thirty-three was highly abbreviated, via having to move house in a short space of time. Oh well. The party decided to ignore the tree-monster and continue the attack on the Giant Troll. Tarsin – flying on a giant summoned bat – dumped some high-grade oil over the ...
Last night I stayed up till 3am just to see then-President Donald Trump leave the White House, get on a plane, and fly off to Florida, hopefully never to return. And when I woke up this morning, America was different. Not perfect, because it never was. Probably not even good, ...
Watching today’s inauguration of Joe Biden as the United States’ 46th president, there’s not a lot in common with the inauguration of Donald Trump just four destructive years ago. Where Trump warned of carnage, Biden dared to hope for unity and decency. But the one place they converge is that ...
Dan FalkBritons who switched on their TVs to “Good Morning Britain” on the morning of Sept. 15, 2020, were greeted by news not from our own troubled world, but from neighboring Venus. Piers Morgan, one of the hosts, was talking about a major science story that had surfaced the ...
Sara LutermanGrowing up autistic in a non-autistic world can be very isolating. We are often strange and out of sync with peers, despite our best efforts. Autistic adults have, until very recently, been largely absent from media and the public sphere. Finding role models is difficult. Finding useful advice ...
Doug JohnsonThe alien-like blooms and putrid stench of Amorphophallus titanum, better known as the corpse flower, draw big crowds and media coverage to botanical gardens each year. In 2015, for instance, around 75,000 people visited the Chicago Botanic Garden to see one of their corpse flowers bloom. More than ...
Getting to Browser Tab Zero so I can reboot the computer is awfully hard when the one open tab is a Table of Contents for the Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, and every issue has more stuff I want to read. A few highlights: Gugler et al demonstrating ...
Timothy Ford, University of Massachusetts Lowell and Charles M. Schweik, University of Massachusetts AmherstTo mitigate health inequities and promote social justice, coronavirus vaccines need to get to underserved populations and hard-to-reach communities. There are few places in the U.S. that are unreachable by road, but other factors – many ...
Israel chose to pay a bit over the odds for the Pfizer vaccine to get earlier access. Here’s The Times of Israel from 16 November. American government will be charged $39 for each two-shot dose, and the European bloc even less, but Jerusalem said to agree to pay $56. Israel ...
Orla is a gender critical Marxist in Ireland. She gave a presentation on 15 January 2021 on the connection between postmodern/transgender identity politics and the current attacks on democratic and free speech rights. Orla has been active previously in the Irish Socialist Workers Party and the People Before Profit electoral ...
. . America: The Empire Strikes Back (at itself) Further to my comments in the first part of 2020: The History That Was, the following should be considered regarding the current state of the US. They most likely will be by future historians pondering the critical decades of ...
Nathaniel ScharpingIn March, as the Covid-19 pandemic began to shut down major cities in the U.S., researchers were thinking about blood. In particular, they were worried about the U.S. blood supply — the millions of donations every year that help keep hospital patients alive when they need a transfusion. ...
Sarah L Caddy, University of CambridgeVaccines are a marvel of medicine. Few interventions can claim to have saved as many lives. But it may surprise you to know that not all vaccines provide the same level of protection. Some vaccines stop you getting symptomatic disease, but others stop you ...
Back in 2016, the Portuguese government announced plans to stop burning coal by 2030. But progress has come much quicker, and they're now scheduled to close their last coal plant by the end of this year: The Sines coal plant in Portugal went offline at midnight yesterday evening (14 ...
The Sincerest Form Of Flattery: As anybody with the intestinal fortitude to brave the commentary threads of local news-sites, large and small, will attest, the number of Trump-supporting New Zealanders is really quite astounding. IT’S SO DIFFICULT to resist the temptation to be smug. From the distant perspective of New Zealand, ...
RNZ reports on continued arbitrariness on decisions at the border. British comedian Russell Howard is about to tour New Zealand and other acts allowed in through managed isolation this summer include drag queen RuPaul and musicians at Northern Bass in Mangawhai and the Bay Dreams festival. The vice-president of the ...
As families around the world mourn more than two million people dead from Covid-19, the Plan B academics and their PR industry collaborator continue to argue that the New Zealand government should stop focusing on our managed isolation and quarantine system and instead protect the elderly so that they can ...
A chronological listing of news articles linked to on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week: Sun, Jan 10, 2021 through Sat, Jan 16, 2021Editor's ChoiceNASA says 2020 tied for hottest year on record — here’s what you can do to helpPhoto by Michael Held on Unsplash ...
Health authorities in Norway are reporting some concerns about deaths in frail elderly after receiving their COVID-19 vaccine. Is this causally related to the vaccine? Probably not but here are the things to consider. According to the news there have been 23 deaths in Norway shortly after vaccine administration and ...
Happy New Year! No, experts are not concerned that “…one of New Zealand’s COIVD-1( vaccines will fail to protect the country” Here is why. But first I wish to issue an expletive about this journalism (First in Australia and then in NZ). It exhibits utter failure to actually truly consult ...
All nations have shadows; some acknowledge them. For others they shape their image in uncomfortable ways.The staunch Labour supporter was in despair at what her Rogernomics Government was doing. But she finished ‘at least, we got rid of Muldoon’, a response which tells us that then, and today, one’s views ...
Grigori GuitchountsIn November, Springer Nature, one of the world’s largest publishers of scientific journals, made an attention-grabbing announcement: More than 30 of its most prestigious journals, including the flagship Nature, will now allow authors to pay a fee of US$11,390 to make their papers freely available for anyone to read ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Gary Yohe, Henry Jacoby, Richard Richels, and Benjamin Santer Imagine a major climate change law passing the U.S. Congress unanimously? Don’t bother. It turns out that you don’t need to imagine it. Get this: The Global Change Research Act of 1990 was passed ...
“They’re here already! You’re next! You’re next! You’re next!”WHO CAN FORGET the penultimate scene of the 1956 movie classic, Invasion of the Body Snatchers? The wild-eyed doctor, stumbling down the highway, trying desperately to warn his fellow citizens: “They’re here already! You’re next! You’re next! You’re next!”Ostensibly science-fiction, the movie ...
TheOneRing.Net has got its paws on the official synopsis of the upcoming Amazon Tolkien TV series. It’s a development that brings to mind the line about Sauron deliberately releasing Gollum from the dungeons of Barad-dûr. Amazon knew exactly what they were doing here, in terms of drumming up publicity: ...
Since Dwight Eisenhower’s inauguration in 1953, US presidents have joined an informal club intended to provide support - and occasionally rivalry - between those few who have been ‘leaders of the free world’. Donald Trump, elected on a promise to ‘drain the swamp’ and a constant mocker of his predecessors, ...
For over a decade commentators have noted the rise of a new brand of explicitly ideological politics throughout the world. By this they usually refer to the re-emergence of national populism and avowedly illiberal approaches to governance throughout the “advanced” democratic community, but they also extend the thought to the ...
The US House of Representatives has just impeached Donald Trump, giving him the dubious honour of being the only US President to be impeached twice. Ten Republicans voted for impeachement, making it the most bipartisan impeachment ever. The question now is whether the Senate will rise to the occasion, and ...
Kieren Mitchell; Alice Mouton, Université de Liège; Angela Perri, Durham University, and Laurent Frantz, Ludwig Maximilian University of MunichThanks to the hit television series Game of Thrones, the dire wolf has gained a near-mythical status. But it was a real animal that roamed the Americas for at least 250,000 ...
Tide of tidal data rises Having cast our own fate to include rising sea level, there's a degree of urgency in learning the history of mean sea level in any given spot, beyond idle curiosity. Sea level rise (SLR) isn't equal from one place to another and even at a particular ...
Well, some of those chickens sure came home bigly, didn’t they… and proceeded to shit all over the nice carpet in the Capitol. What we were seeing here are societal forces that have long had difficulty trying to reconcile people to the “idea” of America and the reality of ...
In the wake of Donald Trump's incitement of an assault on the US capitol, Twitter finally enforced its terms of service and suspended his account. They've since followed that up with action against prominent QAnon accounts and Trumpers, including in New Zealand. I'm not unhappy with this: Trump regularly violated ...
Peter S. Ross, University of British ColumbiaThe Arctic has long proven to be a barometer of the health of our planet. This remote part of the world faces unprecedented environmental assaults, as climate change and industrial chemicals threaten a way of life for Inuit and other Indigenous and northern ...
Susan St John makes the case for taxing a deemed rate of return on excessive real estate holdings (after a family home exemption), to redirect scarce housing resources to where they are needed most. Read the full article here ...
I’m less than convinced by arguments that platforms like Twitter should be subject to common carrier regulation preventing them from being able to decide who to keep on as clients of their free services, and who they would not like to serve. It’s much easier to create competition for the ...
The hypocritical actions of political leaders throughout the global Covid pandemic have damaged public faith in institutions and governance. Liam Hehir chronicles the way in which contemporary politicians have let down the public, and explains how real leadership means walking the talk. During the Blitz, when German bombs were ...
Over the years, we've published many rebuttals, blog posts and graphics which came about due to direct interactions with the scientists actually carrying out the underlying research or being knowledgable about a topic in general. We'll highlight some of these interactions in this blog post. We'll start with two memorable ...
Yesterday we had the unseemly sight of a landleech threatening to keep his houses empty in response to better tenancy laws. Meanwhile in Catalonia they have a solution for that: nationalisation: Barcelona is deploying a new weapon in its quest to increase the city’s available rental housing: the power ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Jeff Masters, PhD The 2020 global wildfire season brought extreme fire activity to the western U.S., Australia, the Arctic, and Brazil, making it the fifth most expensive year for wildfire losses on record. The year began with an unprecedented fire event ...
NOTE: This is an excerpt from a digital story – read the full story here.Tess TuxfordKo te Kauri Ko Au, Ko te Au ko Kauri I am the kauri, the kauri is me Te Roroa proverb In Waipoua Forest, at the top of the North Island, New ...
Story of the Week... Toon of the Week... Coming Soon on SkS... Poster of the Week... SkS Week in Review... Story of the Week... Coming attraction: IPCC's upcoming major climate assessmentLook for more emphasis on 'solutions,' efforts by cities, climate equity ... and outlook for emissions cuts in ...
Ringing A Clear Historical Bell: The extraordinary images captured in and around the US Capitol Building on 6 January 2021 mirror some of the worst images of America's past.THERE IS A SCENE in the 1982 movie Missing which has remained with me for nearly 40 years. Directed by the Greek-French ...
To impact or not to impeach? I understand why some of those who are justifiably aghast at Trump’s behaviour over recent days might still counsel against impeaching him for a second time. To impeach him, they argue, would run the risk of making him a martyr in the eyes of ...
The Capitol Building, Washington DC, Wednesday, 6 January 2021. Oh come, my little one, come.The day is almost done.Be at my side, behold the sightOf evening on the land.The life, my love, is hardAnd heavy is my heart.How should I live if you should leaveAnd we should be apart?Come, let me ...
A chronological listing of news articles linked to on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week: Sun, Jan 3, 2021 through Sat, Jan 9, 2021Editor's ChoiceAfter the Insurrection: Accountability, Reform, and the Science of Democracy The poisonous lies and enablers of sedition--including Senator Hawley, pictured ...
This article, guest authored by Prof. Angela Gallego-Sala & Dr. Julie Loisel, was originally published on the Carbon Brief website on Dec 21, 2020. It is reposted below in its entirety. Click here to access the original article and comments. Peatlands Peatlands are ecosystems unlike any other. Perpetually saturated, their ...
The assault on the US Capitol and constitutional crisis that it has caused was telegraphed, predictable and yet unexpected and confusing. There are several subplots involved: whether the occupation of the Michigan State House in May was a trial run for the attacks on Congress; whether people involved in the ...
On Christmas Eve, child number 1 spotted a crack in a window. It’s a double-glazed window, and inspection showed that the small, horizontal crack was in the outermost pane. It was perpendicular to the frame, about three-quarters of the way up one side. The origins are a mystery. It MIGHT ...
Anne-Marie Broudehoux, Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM)Will the COVID-19 pandemic prompt a shift to healthier cities that focus on wellness rather than functional and economic concerns? This is a hypothesis that seems to be supported by several researchers around the world. In many ways, containment and physical distancing ...
A growing public housing waiting list and continued increase of house prices must be urgently addressed by Government, Green Party Co-leader Marama Davidson said today. ...
[Opening comments, welcome and thank you to Auckland University etc] It is a great pleasure to be here this afternoon to celebrate such an historic occasion - the entry into force of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. This is a moment many feared would never come, but ...
The Government is providing $3 million in one-off seed funding to help disabled people around New Zealand stay connected and access support in their communities, Minister for Disability Issues, Carmel Sepuloni announced today. The funding will allow disability service providers to develop digital and community-based solutions over the next two ...
Border workers in quarantine facilities will be offered voluntary daily COVID-19 saliva tests in addition to their regular weekly testing, COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said today. This additional option will be rolled out at the Jet Park Quarantine facility in Auckland starting on Monday 25 January, and then to ...
The next steps in the Government’s ambitious firearms reform programme to include a three-month buy-back have been announced by Police Minister Poto Williams today. “The last buy-back and amnesty was unprecedented for New Zealand and was successful in collecting 60,297 firearms, modifying a further 5,630 firearms, and collecting 299,837 prohibited ...
The Government has released its Public Housing Plan 2021-2024 which outlines the intention of where 8,000 additional public and transitional housing places announced in Budget 2020, will go. “The Government is committed to continuing its public house build programme at pace and scale. The extra 8,000 homes – 6000 public ...
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has congratulated President Joe Biden on his inauguration as the 46th President of the United States of America. “I look forward to building a close relationship with President Biden and working with him on issues that matter to both our countries,” Jacinda Ardern said. “New Zealand ...
A major investment to tackle wilding pines in Mt Richmond will create jobs and help protect the area’s unique ecosystems, Biosecurity Minister Damien O’Connor says. The Mt Richmond Forest Park has unique ecosystems developed on mineral-rich geology, including taonga plant species found nowhere else in the country. “These special plant ...
To further protect New Zealand from COVID-19, the Government is extending pre-departure testing to all passengers to New Zealand except from Australia, Antarctica and most Pacific Islands, COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said today. “The change will come into force for all flights arriving in New Zealand after 11:59pm (NZT) on Monday ...
Bay Conservation Cadets launched with first intake Supported with $3.5 million grant Part of $1.245b Jobs for Nature programme to accelerate recover from Covid Cadets will learn skills to protect and enhance environment Environment Minister David Parker today welcomed the first intake of cadets at the launch of the Bay ...
The Prime Minister of New Zealand Jacinda Ardern and the Prime Minister of the Cook Islands Mark Brown have announced passengers from the Cook Islands can resume quarantine-free travel into New Zealand from 21 January, enabling access to essential services such as health. “Following confirmation of the Cook Islands’ COVID ...
Jobs for Nature funding is being made available to conservation groups and landowners to employ staff and contractors in a move aimed at boosting local biodiversity-focused projects, Conservation Minister Kiritapu Allan has announced. It is estimated some 400-plus jobs will be created with employment opportunities in ecology, restoration, trapping, ...
The Government has approved an exception class for 1000 international tertiary students, degree level and above, who began their study in New Zealand but were caught offshore when border restrictions began. The exception will allow students to return to New Zealand in stages from April 2021. “Our top priority continues ...
Today’s deal between Meridian and Rio Tinto for the Tiwai smelter to remain open another four years provides time for a managed transition for Southland. “The deal provides welcome certainty to the Southland community by protecting jobs and incomes as the region plans for the future. The Government is committed ...
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has appointed Anna Curzon to the APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC). The leader of each APEC economy appoints three private sector representatives to ABAC. ABAC provides advice to leaders annually on business priorities. “ABAC helps ensure that APEC’s work programme is informed by business community perspectives ...
The Government’s prudent fiscal management and strong policy programme in the face of the COVID-19 global pandemic have been acknowledged by the credit rating agency Fitch. Fitch has today affirmed New Zealand’s local currency rating at AA+ with a stable outlook and foreign currency rating at AA with a positive ...
The Government is putting in place a suite of additional actions to protect New Zealand from COVID-19, including new emerging variants, COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said today. “Given the high rates of infection in many countries and evidence of the global spread of more transmissible variants, it’s clear that ...
$36 million of Government funding alongside councils and others for 19 projects Investment will clean up and protect waterways and create local jobs Boots on the ground expected in Q2 of 2021 Funding part of the Jobs for Nature policy package A package of 19 projects will help clean up ...
The commemoration of the 175th anniversary of the Battle of Ruapekapeka represents an opportunity for all New Zealanders to reflect on the role these conflicts have had in creating our modern nation, says Associate Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Kiri Allan. “The Battle at Te Ruapekapeka Pā, which took ...
Babies born with tongue-tie will be assessed and treated consistently under new guidelines released by the Ministry of Health, Associate Minister of Health Dr Ayesha Verrall announced today. Around 5% to 10% of babies are born with a tongue-tie, or ankyloglossia, in New Zealand each year. At least half can ...
At an antagonistic hearing yesterday, the internet giant laid out the ‘worst case scenario’. And Facebook is also considering an ‘amputation’. Hal Crawford was watching.Google is poised to hit self-destruct in Australia according to a fractious Senate hearing into an unprecedented law that will force digital giants to pay money ...
It’s great to hear Phil Twyford celebrating a success. Not a personal ministerial success, it’s fair to say, but a success nevertheless related to arms control. The arms on which Twyford is focused, it should be noted, will make quite a mess if they are triggered. They tend to be ...
Duncan Greive and Leonie Hayden were young hip hop heads and music journalists during the era captured in a new documentary about the rise and fall of South Auckland hip hop label Dawn Raid. Here they discuss the film and their memories (what’s left of them) of that time. Warning: contains ...
Houses might be the most popular and inflated purchases in New Zealand, but there are plenty of other products that are seeing soaring demand and prices over the past few months. Here’s a list of what New Zealanders are spending their money on with international travel out of the picture.Used ...
"The young boy leaps, the muscles in his thighs tensing and twisting as he lifts from the handrail": the noble art of bombing, by Pātea writer Airana Ngarewa A beautifully muscled boy is posted on the side of a pool, his feet fixed to the top of a pair of ...
How Waiwera Hot Pools went from New Zealand’s most visited water park to dereliction and decay. Many who grew up in Auckland likely have fond memories of Waiwera Hot Pools. Like me, they remember summer days spent racing down the slides and playing in the naturally hot pools. But how did ...
A government contract for a P rehab programme was canned after half a million dollars of taxpayer money was given out. Aaron Smale investigates. The Ministry of Health spent over half a million dollars on a P Rehab contract before pulling the pin because there were no results or progress reports. ...
Kia Koropp and her husband John Daubeny have been cruising the Pacific, Southeast Asia and the Indian Ocean over the past decade with their two children onboard their 50ft yacht, Atea. Starting in 2011 from Auckland, New Zealand, they have sailed more than 64,000 kilometres and just completed their longest ...
We are drowning out the natural world with synthetic sounds, and it’s getting worse, writes Michelle Langstone.It used to be quiet once. Remember that? Remember the hush that settled over the cities like the silence that comes down in a snowstorm? It’s less than a year since Aotearoa first locked ...
Summer reissue: Join Michèle A’Court, Alex Casey and Leonie Hayden in the latest episode of On the Rag as they examine the topic of boobs from every possible angle. First published November 16, 2020.Independent journalism depends on you. Help us stay curious in 2021. The Spinoff’s journalism is funded by its ...
Seventy-five years after the US detonated the first nuclear tests in the Pacific, New Zealand pledges its support to Joe Biden's first tentative step towards disarmament. Today, the United Nations Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons comes into effect, making it illegal for New Zealand and the 50 other ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Terry, Professor of Psychology, University of Southern Queensland The challenge of bringing the world’s best tennis players and support staff, about 1,200 people in all, from COVID-ravaged parts of the world to our almost pandemic-free shores was always going to be ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Geoffrey Browne, Research Fellow in International Urban Development, University of Melbourne The Victorian government has committed to removing 75 road/rail level crossings across Melbourne by 2025. That’s the fastest rate of removal in the city’s history. The scale of the investment — ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Richard Holden, Professor of Economics, UNSW In an age of hyperpartisan politics, the Biden presidency offers a welcome centrism that might help bridge the divides. But it is also Biden’s economic centrism that offers a chance to cut through what has become ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kate Stevens, Lecturer in History, University of Waikato In a year of surprises, one of the more pleasant was the recent runaway viral popularity of 19th century sea shanties on TikTok. A collaborative global response to pandemic isolation, it saw singers and ...
The sudden departure of Graine Moss from her Chief Executive role at Oranga Tamariki is a vital first step in a sequence of changes that must take place at the Ministry according to a group of wahine Māori leaders. Dame Naida Glavish, Dame Tariana Turia, ...
A new poem from Dunedin poet Jenny Powell.Her uncle’s eyeShe introduced us to her uncle’s eye floating in a jar.Lost in an accident, he hadn’t wanted to lose it again. He left it to her in his will.We must have looked shocked. ‘Don’t worry,’ she said. ‘I turn him to ...
The chief executive of Oranga Tamariki is quitting, leaving behind an agency she’s admitted suffers from structural racism. Justin Giovannetti looks at the future of Oranga Tamariki.Grainne Moss’s tenure as head of Oranga Tamariki has been untenable since November when the government’s senior Māori minister wouldn’t express any confidence in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Christopher Sainsbury, Senior Lecturer Composition, Australian National University Despite having different cultural backgrounds and experiences — Indigenous composers with an Indigenous mentor, and a pianist descended from Anglo-colonial history — it is nevertheless possible to create a project that can serve as ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michael Plank, Professor in Applied Mathematics, University of Canterbury With new, more infectious variants of COVID-19 detected around the world, and at New Zealand’s border, the risk of further level 3 or 4 lockdowns is increased if those viruses get into the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rachel Hogg, Lecturer in Psychology, Charles Sturt University Horse racing is an ethical hotbed in Australia. The Melbourne Cup alone has seen seven horses die after racing since 2013, and animal cruelty protesters have become a common feature at carnivals. The latest ...
Right now, our most fiery national debate is over whether New Zealanders were nice to the singer Amanda Palmer in a café. Desperate to restore peace in our nation, Hayden Donnell went in search of the truth.Joe Biden had barely finished calling for unity when Amanda Palmer posted a tweet ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 When We Cease to Understand the World by Benjamin Labatut (Pushkin Press, $37)Maths, cyanide, suicide, gardening; ye ...
Wellington artist Estère isn’t just breaking boundaries, she’s dissecting them. Maddi Rowe spoke to her about her new album, Archetypes.“That’s the story of pelicans, they’ll stab themselves in the heart to feed their young.”Despite the somewhat dark subject matter, Estère Dalton’s eyes sparkle with fascination. We’ve met to discuss Archetypes, ...
Cycling advocates are welcoming new advice from the Transport Agency on safe cycling. "Cyclists hate it when drivers pass too close. That's scary and dangerous," said Patrick Morgan from Cycling Action Network. "So it's encouraging to see ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tilman Ruff, Honorary Principal Fellow, School of Population and Global Health, University of Melbourne Today, many around the world will celebrate the first multilateral nuclear disarmament treaty to enter into force in 50 years. The UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear ...
The Public Service Association welcomes the creation of a Chief Executive role to lead the public service’s pay equity work, and the appointment of Grainne Moss to this position. "Unions and public service employers are currently working ...
The Council of Trade Unions is warning that the Consumer Price Index (CPI) figures out today illustrate that the cost of living is increasing disproportionately for those on lower incomes; resulting in the poor getting poorer. CTU Economist Craig ...
Why are there so many offensive comments on the New Zealand Police Facebook page and are they breaking the law? Janaye Henry investigates. New Zealand Police Facebook pages – there are a number of them, for different regional police districts around the country – are an interesting place to spend ...
Our guide to stopping procrastinating and actually (finally) getting on top of investing. Because there’s a good chance that if you’re reading this, you don’t know a single thing about it.In part one, we covered some of the basic things you need to know about investing – why do it? ...
Children’s Commissioner Andrew Becroft acknowledges the huge effort and commitment of departing Oranga Tamariki Chief Executive Grainne Moss and says her decision to resign today was principled. “The issues facing Oranga Tamariki are beyond individual ...
Analysis by Keith Rankin. Two Large Waves versus One Tsunami. Chart by Keith Rankin. Two Large Waves versus One Tsunami. Chart by Keith Rankin. With Covid19, Italy shows the classic European pattern, with its early outbreak, substantial recovery thanks to lockdowns and other public health measures, and resurgence thanks to complacency ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gabrielle Appleby, Professor, UNSW Law School, UNSW This year has already seen significant progress in the government’s commitment to establish a body – a “Voice” – that would allow Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to have a say when the government ...
Northland farmer Derek Robinson was sentenced earlier today by the District Court in Whangarei for two offences of ill-treating animals at rodeo events. Mr Robinson was found guilty in November last year, following a defended hearing. The charges ...
Under fire Oranga Tamariki chief executive Grainne Moss has announced she will resign, effective February 28, Marc Daalder reports After four and a half years at the helm of child protection agency Oranga Tamariki, chief executive Grainne Moss has announced she will be leaving the position at the end of ...
The Department of Internal Affairs and New Zealand Police acknowledge the sentencing of 36-year-old Aaron Joseph Hutton on charges relating to the possession of child sexual exploitation material, and entering into a dealing involving the sexual exploitation ...
Ngā Tāngata Microfinance (NTM) is calling for tougher penalties for those caught promoting pyramid schemes. Such business models are illegal under the Fair Trading Act 1986. This call comes after the Commerce Commission issued a ‘stop now’ notice ...
British High Commissioner to New Zealand Laura Clarke is calling on young women aged 17 to 25 to apply for the annual ‘Be British High Commissioner for the Day’ competition. The winner will have the opportunity to become an ‘honorary High Commissioner’, ...
The Māori Party is welcoming the resignation of Oranga Tamariki chief executive Grainne Moss after sustained pressure from leading figures within the Māori Party. This resignation is the result of the continued strong pressure of the Māori Party ...
In a historic corner of Dunedin, startup culture is thriving. Catherine McGregor visited the city’s Warehouse Precinct to meet the people driving the movement. When Jason and Kate Lindsey bought the four storey building now known as Petridish, it was an absolute wreck. Once home to a thriving hat and textiles ...
Summer reissue: The Fold’s very first guest is back to tell Duncan Greive how she pulled off the media deal of the year.The chaotic couple of weeks which finally saw the end of the Stuff-NZME saga were riveting and strange, replete with stock exchange announcements, legal challenges and finally the ...
Chris Liddell has dropped his candidacy to become director-general of the Paris-based OECD. Without support from the Ardern government and vilified in the media as somehow being involved in the encouragement by Donald Trump of the Washington riots, he plainly saw he had little chance of crowning his stellar career ...
Tara Ward hands out her first impression roses as she dives deep into the sea of single men vying to win The Bachelorette NZ’s heart. While the world burns in a searing fireball of unpredictability, we can take comfort in the fact that some things never change. The heart still yearns, ...
People from all around New Zealand will be converging on the super-secret Waihopai satellite interception spybase, in Marlborough, on Saturday January 30th. ...
In its Thursday editorial the NZ Herald speaks an important truth: “Investment important to stay on track”. This won’t have startled its more literate readers but in its text it notes the strong result in the latest Global Dairy Trade auction, which prompted Westpac to raise its forecast for dairy ...
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Does an MP need to have the permission of their party leader to do a private members bill?
What sort of private members bills would you want to have drawn for new or change of legislation?
I want to see historical sexual assault cases have their own separate legislation and the Limitations Act to have no time limit for a schedule 3 ACC claim under the 1961 Crimes Act. As well a separate entity with funding for lawyers, a one stop shop so a person does not need to deal with multiple agencies.
It takes on average 18 years for a person to disclose a sexual assault. Odd that is how long it took me.
Unfit for purpose legislation is re abusing claimants and it is up to every politician to fix this. I also feel that discrimination is occurring with an historical case compared to a case which the Limitations Act will cover.
They certainly need to consult with their caucus, or they won't get it passed.
But sexual assault legislation changes will almost certainly come out of the Commission which is going through Hearings at the moment.
No need for a private members' bill in that area.
The word private has been dropped now from a members bill.
I disagree with you on not needing a members bill. It will take 5 years to see new and fit for purpose legislation.
I was sad to hear that a man who was to appear in April at the Abuse in Care Royal Commission he died in March. Interim legislation needs to be urgently passed. I don't care which party does it, it needs to be a priority. This will send a clear message to an agency who did not take action to stop offending. The sick old legislation will no longer protect you.
Timing will just have to wait for the priority list for the new government, once the Commission is done.
It won't get done any faster as a private members bill – precisely because any attempt would get absorbed into the Government's own legislative response, as usually happens.
The Abuse of Care Royal Commission Inquiry is highlighting historical sexual, physical and psychological cases of abuse. People like me are being excluded because the crime did not occur in a care home.
As well there is some overlap with state care and non state care psychiatric admission.
Am I correct that only children who were abused (sexually, physically and psychologically) in state care can only appear at the inquiry?
I am pleased that finally the children who are now adults who were in state care have a voice.
There is no time statute of limitations on reporting sexual violence or charging someone with sexual violence offences.
Additionally, there is no time limitations on claims to ACC for historical sexual abuse.
A person, recent or historical victim, does not have to file a Complaint with Police to qualify for an ACC injury payout for sexual abuse.
There are agencies who are like a one stop shop. A victim can be supported through processes they choose. An approved provider of 'counselling' type services is needed for the process of assessment for ACC claims. Services are free for victims.
Should a victim wish to proceed with a police complaint , there is no lawyer needed to be paid for by the victim.
I knew everything you said.
There are a lot of related aspects which are relevant to PTSD which are not covered when it comes to getting cover from ACC for sexual crimes which fuel the PTSD.
In the work place you told your employer and they failed to act and due to the Limitations Act time frame running out you cannot take legal action against your employer for the cover up. The awareness today is so different to an historical case.
See the Mariya Taylor case.
Aye a family member was raped in her workplace when she was 17 by a client of her employer. The national organisation basically covered it up. This was in the 80's. Only now has she got some counselling for her ongoing PTSD. No support at all for wages and an inability to work cause she wasn't working when she finally sought help due to all the stress her and her other family members were under. By then she was simply not able to work and had been unwell for a long time.
A friend was groped repeatedly while at the photocopier by an employer who also used to run himself against her buttocks as well. She left that job and 20+ years later still shakes when anyone mentions that employer who is quite often on TV or in the press. She lost her career at a young age and has had mental health difficulties ever since.
There are many who have suffered for a long time.
Just as the generation before suffered hideously from marital rape – particularly as for many of them they had no means of support. The stories of being sent back to the new marital home by parents with the "you made your bed you sleep in it" refrain echoing in their ears was certainly true for many.
There is a strong history of damage done to women in this country through sexual assault. It would be useful to have an enquiry to understand more deeply the numbers and impacts of this while there are still those left from earlier generations.
Thank you for your comment. I put it this way, the damage that sexual assault causes the psychology has finally caught up with the incident/s. Sadly the Limitations Act has expired for far to many to make a civil claim and ACC does not compensate for not being able to sue for a mental injury.
Note: I do hope I have got my facts straight when it comes to ACC ONLY covering a schedule 3 incident under the Crimes Act 1961.
I did not make myself as clear as I needed to. It is about changing civil claims against the state or an employer for not taking action and civil litigation in the courts when the issue was sexual, physical or psychological abuse.
Some cases cannot be separated because the effects of the sexual, physical or psychological abuse are fuelled by the cover up or a civil case not going forward due to the Limitations Act time frame expiring.
'National Party leader Judith Collins is hitting back at attacks from the Left on her agriculture policy, saying the Greens are being "hysterical". '
'She is also accusing Labour leader Jacinda Ardern of "going for the jugular" by saying the National Party had changed its position on climate change. '
https://www.odt.co.nz/news/decision-2020/collins-targets-%E2%80%98stupider-stuff%E2%80%99
So….Jacinda's "going for the jugular"?
Judith, Judith, Judith. Kinda sounds like hysterical hyperbole : )
As I suggest on yesterday's Daily Review it looks to me like Judith might not be doing too well and the over-reaction and tears as you point out PLA, might hint at failure to cope as well as a hardened "tough" politician would expect. Meanwhile in spite of huge problems faced and dealt to, Jacinda carries on in confidence.
I don't like the word 'confidence' in connection with politicians. That is the approach that National uses – being confident – and it's 90% likely that everything they say confidently will be a load of s..t. A con man or woman is a term short for confidence trickster.
Perhaps we could say that Jacinda is staunch – for good policies that work and for improving and encouraging treatment of the low-income, and micro businesses.
staunch –
1. very loyal and committed in attitude.
Similar:stalwart loyal faithful
trusty committed
devoted dedicated
dependable reliable
steady constant
hard-working vigorous
stable firm
steadfast redoubtable
resolute
2. (of a wall) of strong or firm construction.
“these staunch walls could withstand attack by cannon”
And she also has Proven Credibility : )
Psy…

Collins et al – Proven Incredibility!
lol….they really are floundering. I'd feel sorry …No, not at all : ) I just hope Jacinda is gonna get a bit of rest and chill time. She sure EARNED it !
Perhaps we can use the word confident despite your reservations.
I wouldn't attempt to argue about that Gabby.
Would that be why judith timed her meet and greet in Punakaiki to finish around 15mins before Jacinda arrived in Punakaiki?
I find the timing of judith's visit there today strange. It's a really small location and there was no special occasion happening.
just three days ago, herald headline was "collins call jacinda, poor wee thing" now its"jacinda going for the jugular". the really interesting point, is that collins is talking about jacinda, not other way round. when your narrative is all about your opponent, even you know youve lost.
Although if you can't even work out what that narrative is, there's a decent possibility that you haven't noticed.
This morning I woke up at 6.15am with it being nice and light outside. It was glorious.
Then sadness kicked in when I realised the artifical construct that is Daylight Saving, invented by the Germans, starts on Sunday leading NZ back into the dark ages. No more sunrise until an hour later. Fatigue and a sense of tiredness kicking in for a good two weeks as everyones circadian rhythms get knocked out of whack.
Daylight saving should be scrapped. Permanently. NZ doesn't need it as without it, sunset still wouldn't be until anywhere between 8pm – 9pm, thus rendering the age old argument "but we need more light after work" completely moot.
Of course, NZers love status quo, so I would 100% support a one year moratorium on daylight saving so that NZers could actually experience a proper summer without artifical time shifts. It hasn't done so since 1927. Once that moratorium is over people will then have an informed decision as to whether DS should stay, or be scrapped, or shortened to start somewhere from Labour Weekend. At the moment, it starts way too early. Farmers loathe it.
I for one avail myself of the flexible working hour provisions to shift my start and end times at work to an hour later so I don't bother changing my clocks. I find I'm far less affected than everyone else at work because I stick to normal time and I feel much better for it.
Daylight saving is popular, but has no purpose.
Daylight saving (time) has its pluses (hence popular) and minuses (the extra light causes my curtains to fade!) I found it beneficial on occasion while employed, but really wouldn't miss it now I've retired.
https://www.govt.nz/browse/recreation-and-the-environment/daylight-saving/public-attitudes-to-daylight-saving/ [link to 2008 survey]
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/116204765/little-political-appetite-for-abolishing-daylight-savings [Oct. 2019 article]
There's actually no extra light. The amount of sunshine hours remains the same so the curtain principle is a misnomer.
The only thing that changes is the false equivalence that there is "more" daylight at the end of the working day thanks to the completely artificial and unnecessary time shift.
Thanks James – I found 'daylight saving' useful/helpful/beneficial on occasion. Wouldn't miss it now, although that's just a personal (minority) view.
If you pull your curtains across at a set time, say 7 pm, then with daylight saving they get an hours extra daylight on them. It would be balanced by getting an hours less in the morning but that only works if the sun light strikes them in the morning as well as the evening i.e. they face the right way for that to happen.
Of course, the person could delay pulling their curtains across but maybe they need the room dark to watch Shortland Street.
'The Germans' (well, the federal government of Germany), of course, favour a permanent switch to daylight saving, not the abolition of it.
“Daylight saving should be scrapped”
+100
I'm retired, so it makes little difference to me now, but my sadness used to be at the end of summer when we lost the daylight hours at the end of the day. My way of 'destressing' if I'd had issues during the day at work was to come home and work in the garden – pulling up weeds was especially satisfying! It was very sad when I would lose that every year
Sorry James but I love daylight saving….those long warm summer evenings.
We have had a permanent 30 minute daylight saving in NZ since the 1940s. Midday is 12:30pm.
.
Yeah … but wasn't it Sandy Edmonds herself who informed us way back in 1967:
"Oh, Daylight Saving Time, you're going to give me more time to find love with my Bay-bee" ?
Wise words indeed.
I'm with you James. I would far rather have the hour of daylight during the day and not late in the evening. I spend the summer throwing imaginary poisoned darts at an imagined effigy of Peter Dunne who was responsible for extending D.S by two weeks at both ends. He did so without consulting the public first – the bastard. 👿
Id vote for the party who has a policy whereby, you can save up all of your unwanted saved daylight and sell it to some nightshift workers.
woodart
Apparently not:
Of course, that may be someone's attempt to claim fame and put a minor town on the map so to speak.
This statement:
really needs to be the other way around:
To conserve energy by making better use of daylight.
Then there's the question of if it actually works:
The fact that it was discontinued 1946 and then re-introduced in 75 may indicate that it does work for saving electricity in NZ.
Or, it could just be that people liked it.
It's a frigging horrible idea, and it was typical of fright wig bowtie boy Dunne to make a bad idea worse.
"Paul Goldsmith is floundering", Labour's Grant Robertson says.
Goldsmith says he doesn't "accept that at all".
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/426859/national-says-fiscal-plan-stacks-up-after-labour-insists-there-s-another-mistake
Welll…denial aint a river in Egypt : )
Pauley's a willing servant who knows he's in way over his head with no signs of surfacing.
He represents their lack of depth once you look beyond the bluster front of JC/GB as another career trougher who's coat tailed the likes of Banksy.
However, this theme has little to do with with the budget and a lot to do with projecting a lack of credibility on Goldsmith. The budget is still a forecast so its too early to claim whos figures are right and whos are mistaken (probably both will be way off).
Its quite funny to see the claim by Robertson that there are serious consequences for such mistakes in the budget while in office. This is because the 'mistake' occurred by using figures from a previous budget so exactly the same magnitude of mistake was made by Robertsons govt in office during that previous budget. Will there be consequences? No, will there be further revisions, yes every 6 months.
And how is his Credibility looking? You know ….as a Potential NZ Finance Minister an all : )
Credibility is not that important to me (and no I am in no danger of voting for National). I am just suggesting your being sucked into a partizan narrative which don't rest on anything concrete.
"Credibility is not that important to me" ? Surely you jest : ) As Credibility…
"Credibility has two key components: trustworthiness and expertise, which both have objective and subjective components."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Credibility
you know…
Not at all. Russell Norman lost his credibility when he highlighted that the RBNZ could implement QE to assist the country. It clearly now could and has.
Actually, I think that there is evidence of where National's policies have been bad for the economy but that this ain't that evidence.
What Robertson should be doing is pointing to National's similar policies from before and show the deleterious effect that they had rather than this see, he got the numbers wrong approach which, as you say, isn't really proving anything except that Robertson's a dick.
"proving anything except that Robertson's a dick" Well…maybe to you and Nic the Not national voter..
Robertson ,and I'm pretty sure the Labour Govt (and Voters) are quite within their rights to ponder on a Potential Finance Ministers competence.
: )
Robertson's using belittling tactics which is a dick move especially when it really is a fact that the numbers really are inconsequential.
And I'm on record as saying his competence is in question because it would only have taken the use of a simple search/replace function in a spreadsheet to get the numbers right.
It is a dick move, yes, but it's also rubbing National's collective face in the excrement of its own narrative that it is better at managing the economy, because it can do difficult things like accountancy and reading spreadsheets and stuff. It would be unfair for Labour to claim that it is better because it can do those things mroe competently, but it is entirely fair for it to hold National to that standard (even if it's still a dick move).
Nic has a valid point however , competent or not both are trying to sell a message based on wishful thinking by crystal ball gazers at Treasury….garbage in garbage out.
Stuffing up the numbers on that scale seems concrete enough.
The numbers are less then half a percent of the budget, less than a rounding error.
If only they were just rounding errors. It also depends on how/where you round, e.g. to the nearest billion.
Look, at the end of the day, pretty ok is ok enough for National just as pretty legal was ok. And if National’s economic
shamblesplan is genuinely reflecting what Paora believes then that’s ok with Judith. Apparently. And if it’s ok with Judith thenthe great unwashedthe plebswe must be ok with it too because National MPs are our natural leaders. Plus they have a richimaginationtradition in creating holes out of nothing.That, Incognito is priceless. Lol
The differences are largely due to updates between the budget and the pre election budget update, so the scale of his differences is the same as the scale of the treasury revisions.
Its also clear this scale of error is completely inconsequential compared to how far the countries budget shifted due to the GFC and Covid lockdowns. If your not able to see those kinds of budget shifts there is hardely any point being concerned about 4 billion one way or the other in 14 years time.
We could consider
Bill English put no money into the NZSF, if he had the government would be about $10B better off than it is now (you know $10B more in the fund than the inputs).
Goldsmith thinks by doing the same he will have our debt lower than Labour by 2035, so how clever is he and National.
Having debt **** dollars lower when that **** would multiply in the NZSF (and you know debt is real cheap at the moment and that means rising asset values) is not the smart play.
Put it this way – property investors can pay down debt while mortgage costs are cheap, or they can borrow more and buy another property. Which one delivers the better return? Anyone trying to buy a first home over the past 5 years knows the answer.
Or another way does Goldsmith have a rental while with a mortgage on his home?
It’s pretty obvious National prefers to pay down debt and then siphon out money for tax cuts – so they can buy another investment property. They think like looters.
"Paul Goldsmith is floundering"
If only Paul would go floundering. Something that requires actual physical and mental skill (dare I say talent). And if done sustainably within bag limits, achieves good things – feeding whanau and lots of delicate, buttery tastiness with chips and/or salad.
Sadly Paul is not that useful. Resembling a 1990's Alfa Romeo from the height of the Rogernomics era – superficially attractive, but shoddily-built, grotesquely unreliable and deadly if anything goes wrong.
denial isnt a river in egypt, but dont think there is anywhere to flounder in epsom. flounce, yes, founder probably.
Re latest outbreak of Covid from person who travelled in from India and has now possibly infected people from many parts of NZ
“Bloomfield said he did not think fear of Aucklanders was justified”
Fear of Aucklanders who travelled away from Auckland while in Level 3 and 2.5 and who have recently arrived in this country is justified.
It is justified until people arriving from countries in the grip of the Covid Pandemic are
1/ testing negative before leaving that country although I know it doesn,t mean they are 100% clear but it is a good start.
2/ do not rush off travelling around NZ catching up with families and friends as soon as they come out of quarantine because 14 days is only a probable indication that someone is not infected.
3/ and best would be not to allow anyone in from countries experiencing current high levels of Covid infection to begin with.
Once out of 14 day isolation a stay at home for a week (all members in the house to stay home for a week, everyone to get tested on day 6) and no travel out of the region for 2 weeks once the 1 week at home is completed.
If I heard correctly during the debate the other night Jacinda said that the number of returnees are slowing and that is what would give space for the 1000 essential workers a month. But if demand is slowing why not just reduce the number coming through and forget about the essential workers – that alone would help reduce risk.
Plus it's really starting to take off again overseas with the northern winter so yes lengthier quarantines and possible border closure plus strict auditing of the practices of all the airlines flying here – the news reports are unclear but one referred to a charter flight – plus maybe more pre quarantine before leaving to try to reduce the number of infections that actually get on the plane.
I for one have stopped trying to plan anything away from home.
Already happening in the transit hubs..i.e Dubai and HongKong….you cant board without a negative test result if transiting through these hubs
No. It means nothing. Just sounds good when people say it, hence Nats doing so.
Running a pre leaving quarantine in an airport hotel for a few days pre departure whilst not being perfect might help though. Plus testing of course. Airlines to include this with the fares package from high risk departure points.
A few days, also nothing.
How do you know the room has been cleaned properly, very little of the world is anywhere near as thorough as NZ, that's why its fun to travel and see what you can catch.
That's true about foreign diseases, I bought back bilharzia (parasitic flatworm in the bladder) from Malawi many moons ago and dengue fever came back with me from Cambodia a few years back.
And we could train ourselves some of these dogs to use as well. Maybe fly them offshore to sniff out the boarding passengers.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/sep/24/close-to-100-accuracy-airport-enlists-sniffer-dogs-to-test-for-covid-19
I thought animals could catch it. We wouldn't want to encourage the nasty to jump the species barrier. So no sniffers I think. But good try.
This is a job for the Hero Rats.
Yes, animals can get infected with Covid-19.
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/daily-life-coping/animals.html
Apparently not through sweat samples.
explain this to me. Because lessening the number of people with covid getting on a plane seems like a no brainer. There are significant fairness and logistics issues that might make that not viable, but that's a different issue.
This conversation already happened a few weeks ago. A negative test means nothing of any value. Everyone needs to be handled as if they are infectious anyway.
that's not an explanation, it's an assertion (which is what I've seen a lot of).
Is there any chance of someone on a plane being infected by someone else on a plane with covid even where everyone is handled as if they are infectious?
This has already been explained here.
not that I've seen, at least not adequately.
I'm pretty sure it has been discussed before, when some politician or media opinionator blithely demanded everyone be tested before they come, so therefore there would be no need for quarantine (something like that).
Firstly, we have no control over the labs, or even whether the "test results" a passenger provides are genuine. Even an "accredited provider" could have an employee on the take.
Secondly, the gap between testing and travel can be an incubation period, or an opportunity to catch the disease.
Thirdly, they could catch it actively in transit. Especially as aircraft air conditioning is notoriously bad quality (to save fuel they suck in the minimum amount of fresh air).
Fourth, and most importantly, it doesn't really change anything, other than costing money to administer and monitor. We'd still need to quarantine everyone who arrives. It might not even lower the number of infected people coming in, depending on track and trace efforts in origin countries.
If it gets to the stage of "spit in a cup, two seconds later you get 99.99% (insane) accurate red light or green light at the boarding gate even if you just got exposed in the taxi to the airport", maybe it might be a better pandemic purchase than a million new masks. But then we'd be doing it for community surveillance first.
Thank you.
thanks McFlock. Much of that fits into the logistics make it not viable at this stage category, rather than it being a bad idea per se. If we put aside National's policy (which wasn't well thought out), and just look at if testing before getting on a plane could useful or not, I've yet to see the rationale for why not.
If the goal is to reduce transmission on the plane, then pre-travel testing may be useful once the tech, logistics and economics work.
McFlock very concisely explained the rationale – nothing to do with logistics:
the point of testing before travel isn't to pick up all cases of covid, it's to lessen the risk of transmission from low symptom/pre symptomatic people (or people hiding/minimising symptoms). The point isn't to say negative tests = covid free or establish the plane as covid free (that's not possible), but to catch the positive tests and not let them on the plane.
So the first two points in your quote are irrelevant to what I am saying. The last point doesn't make sense, because anyone not let on the plane is one less person needing Q at this end.
I can't be bothered arguing about this when it has been discussed before. Enjoy your day.
Sure, but the case still hasn't been made against what I said. McFlock or someone else might pick it up, but it's going to keep coming up and I think telling people who are suggesting it that it's not useful doesn't work without a clear explanation. National's policy was easy to pick apart when it came out, but the general idea isn't going away.
If the tests are quick enough, airports are a logical place to run them.
Asian airports began running thermal cameras (to find passengers running fevers) way back in the swine flu days. It's a cheap unintrusive measure, and if it stops even a handful of further infections, it's worthwhile.
Serology tests make sense also
On the basis of our knowledge and understanding of viral infectivity and host response, we urge countries without the capacity to do molecular testing at scale to research the use of serology tests to triage symptomatic patients in community settings, to test contacts of confirmed cases, and in situational analysis and surveillance.
Though, as McFlock notes, we still need to maintain our isolation protocols.
It depends where you come from, which airline you travel with, and where you catch your connecting flight. For example:
https://www.emirates.com/nz/english/help/covid-19/dubai-travel-requirements/tourists/
These requirements change all the time!
But it doesn't actually change the situation at the NZ end. Flights will still be bringing in infected people. Everyone still needs to be quarantined.
Different actors have different priorities. Airlines need to minimise covid disruption to their workforce, so slow down the amount of time before the pursar gets infected. Testing might marginally help them do that.
NZ govt priority is to make sure that people getting off the plane don't release it into the community. So regardless of the preflight test result, everybody goes into isolation. It's even possible that mandatory preflight testing might not even effect NZ numbers at all, given the people who provide a negative 3 day test and positive towards the end of their isolation.
"But it doesn't actually change the situation at the NZ end"
Can you please explain how preventing someone from getting covid doesn't affect the NZ end? There's the person who doesn't have the illness and potentially end up disabled (or dead). And there's potentially one less person's need for ICU etc.
I understand the public health management perspective, but I don't understand the argument that the pragmatics of that mean there is no benefit at all. If someone gets on the plane with covid and infects another person on the plane, and that could have been prevented, is this not a good thing irrespective of how the prevention of spread is handled at the NZ end?
"NZ govt priority is to make sure that people getting off the plane don't release it into the community. So regardless of the preflight test result, everybody goes into isolation."
You do understand that this is completely irrelevant to what I am saying right? It's a given that everyone goes into isolation at the NZ end.
Incognitio, is that change because of better knowledge of how covid works? Or changes in govt covid response?
I don’t know but I assume that it is a combination of changing knowledge & information, PR & politics, and economic/profit motives. I believe airlines and airports can set their own rules as they see fit. I’ve read that some (?) countries require a negative test result less than 96 hours old upon boarding and some upon arrival, which can make a big difference on long-haul flights. Of course, it changes all the time …
Stuart, that's from July, would be interesting to see what the position is now.
@ incognito
Yes anyone going through a number of hubs (Dubai and Hong Kong plus possibly others im unaware of) are required to show a negative test before boarding their flight at departure point….however that test is up to 4 days old, and as has been pointed out by others there is the possibility of poor testing practice and false negatives (low viral load etc)….the regime however already exists and may add a marginal improvement in the numbers arriving in NZ without infection and all the implications of such.
NZ demanding a negative test before departure in addition to these hubs however presents problems for travellers (these are largely NZ nationals remember) in areas without easy access to testing for that marginal benefit.
It seems to me that the process as it currently operates is operating at both a practical and safe level …no process is going to be 100%.
The call strikes me as a beat up largely for political purpose.
As I said, It's even possible that mandatory preflight testing might not even effect NZ numbers at all, given the people who provide a negative 3 day test and positive towards the end of their isolation.
If someone is severely ill, they're not travelling anyway.
If someone is a close contact, chances are that they've been identified and tested by the country of origin's public health service, anyway.
That leaves a narrow window of people who have it, are not yet symptomatic, have not been identified as a close contact, have not tripped any airline criteria or criteria in the country of origin, but would trip a further preflight test. It does nothing to identify the people who catch it on the ride to the airport. The likelihood is that testing with even a few hours turnaround would detect bugger all otherwise-undetected-until-in-NZ cases
An all it takes is thousands of staff hours to administer when they could be doing other stuff like contact tracing or procuring equipment for those ICU beds.
It sounds great. But it has no known benefit (how many cases it would actually prevent in the real world) and potentially astronomical costs (how to administer a system that is not easily compromised) and could well require some complex international cooperation (NZ oversight of labs? Do we test the people and ship the samples back here doubletime for testing – how to avoid customs delays? Or do we hope a certified form is as good as doing the job ourselves?).
Interesting observation since the debate. Quite voluntarily, people since then that I have come across have expressed their intense dislike for Judith Collins and the way she behaved. Hopefully that reaction is widespread.
Both Ardern and Collins were just being themselves, so that reaction is natural – what we (NZers) see is what we (will/would) get.
After an MMP election, the politicians dick around working out who they are going to partner up with – it can take two or three weeks. Usually, the country carries on and, as my father say, it just shows how little we need politicians. But this time getting the politicians back to working again ASAP and making decisions about covid-19 is going to be vitally important – what happens if we have an outbreak while the politicians are negotiating about who is going to be in power? Who is going to be making decisions about going to level 2, 3 or 4?
In this time and place, we really need a definitive result before the end of election night.
It is a bit alarming – but I imagine one of the senior health officials has the powers to act without government instruction in what would be an emergency. If not, some combination of MoH and the military isolation staff should get a containment brief until the silly season is over.
Actually we spend 2 weeks waiting for the result (even longer this time). No government can be formed before then. But usually under MMP we have known who would lead the government already on election night (99, 02, 08, 11, 14).
2017 was the first time since 2005 that we had to wait for negotiations, and even then we knew Clark would be PM, but not who with.
But it won't be as bad (or as good?) as Belgium, which went almost 600 days without a government in 2010-11 and another year without one in 2018-19.
Whatever happens Ardern remains caretaker PM until she or someone else is sworn in by the Governor-General.
Decisions about alert level changes during that period would presumably require consultation with the leaders of the parties in the (new?) parliament. But if the election result is conclusive other parties couldn’t push their views too strongly.
That's right – Ardern is caretaker PM, and the caretaker convention applies, as always.
This is the case even if Labour get 99% of the vote on election night. There is no result. There never is on election night.
I think Auckland people should have to stay in place not travel around. There are enough of them to make their own economy. The rest of NZ can visit them. I notice that Aucklanders have got the money to go visiting, and the sheer numbers of them and the propensity of that area to carry Covid 19 increases the likelihood of the disease being spread.
Keep them home, let them enjoy the wonderful, world class Auckland amenities on their doorstep. They can host whoever from the rest of the country and get business, and we'll take our chances on Covid-19 if we go there.
Also let's have a direction from MoH to keep wearing face masks. I notice little hand washing, mask wearing. We are getting casual about individual responsibility.
At least keep them out of Te Wai Pounamu,. How long is it now that we have not had a community case ..120+days ?.
Diana tried to find a way to use her position and fame to act for better ways and helping humanity. Now Prince Harry and Meghan are getting the ire of the upper class twits in the UK and USA. It's not easy being green etc.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/royal-family/2020/09/23/hard-see-way-back-royal-family-harry-meghan-risky-decision-appear/?
It’s hard to see any way back into the Royal family for Harry and Meghan after risky decision to appear in US voting video
It’s one thing for Meghan to nail her political colours to the mast – but quite another for Prince Harry to do the same…
About: The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have caused plenty of controversy recently, but now the couple have drawn the ire of President Donald Trump by appearing together in a US voter registration drive video. Camilla Tominey explains why the move could prove a point of no return for the Duke.
edit
Take a break from angry stress – let Jonathan Pie do it for you. This one from 2017 about the curbing of free speech by the people who believe in always being 'naice' and well-behaved – sort of like The Charge of the Light Brigade in the face of overwhelming fire.
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45319/the-charge-of-the-light-brigade
That's the spirit – no, no, wrong – don't show spirit, just grit teeth and carry on with the right behaviour like gutless little wimps. So Jonathan Pie gets exercised and shows how to be dynamically charged.
I think balance is what is needed, trying to decide where excess should be curbed but recognising that life is dynamic – we can't cope if we are milksops.
National has thrown caution to the wind in a last ditch attempt to increase their vote share at election time….suspect ACT is gaining too much of their support for comfort.
Reduced brightline test period
Tax cuts
Repealing much of Climate Act
Repealing much of water strategy
cancelling minimum wage increase
If ever anyone needed confirmation that a continuation of the failed migration/housing low wage imported growth model is all they have to offer then it has just been given.
National…governing for the top quintile since forever
We knew they would.
but hoped they wouldnt
Vain hope.
sadly yes
With the school holidays upon us, to all the parents, grandparents, caregivers etc out there…. may the force be with you for the next two weeks
Go it with some bright blues and pazazz just like the Blues Brothers being good.
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHV0zs0kVGg
Have a Happy Day with choir of children and then nuns and Whoopi Goldberg:
At the very limits of our atmosphere, where life meets void, two vultures hang, fell-wings spread in a questioning-arc, poised, poisonous; the Eyebrows of Judith;
"National leader Judith Collins refused to criticise two of her MPs for circulating a fake quote from Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern on Friday.
Collins said she didn’t think the MPs should take down their posts as they were “genuinely reflecting what they believe.”"
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/300116953/election-2020-judith-collins-refuses-to-condemn-false-quote-posted-by-her-mps
Like Trump before her, Collins is not shy about warning people about what they would get if elected.
Of course it may be that Collins knows that she could not control her caucus especially since she leads by awful example.
I genuinely believe that Matt King and Harete Hipango are things of the past.
Matt King is for the future, at least the coming election. He shows the real calibre of their mob. A smartarse who will gather the votes of similar Northland boofheads.
Fish flapping forlornly on the dry sands of history.
This is extraordinary
The only political party in NZ that has actually mentioned Julian Assange's name
https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO2009/S00193/social-credit-condemns-assange-show-trial.htm
I thought Social Credit expired back in the 80's.
As a teenager ,I remember the unusual looking Vernon Cracknell as the party leader in the 60's and thought he must be a crackpot with fuddy duddy ideas , sort of a crimplene suited joke
It's all about monetary reform and using the Reserve Bank to issue money to fund our Covid recovery .And clearly the policies don't stop there.
Modern monetary theory does seem to have become more topical
Interesting
https://www.socialcredit.nz/
What an extraordinary plethora of small parties have been thrown up by Covid
I've never seen so many billboards in the paddocks surrounding our small rural town
My first vote was for them back in 1978, FPP in most electorates meant nothing in those elections – and they were the ones speaking truth about global debt capitalism at the time. Democratic empowerment of the people, then and now was constrained by the expection that government was dependent on tax revenue or affordable levels of debt finance.
Look what the world has come to since then post GFC and the pandemic – it was always possible but only applied to save private sector capitalism and even now dismissed as a way to improve the well being of the people.
It does seem to me that now is the time for a totally different approach to what money is about
After all it's a human construct, not a physical law
Matt Robson, big ups for his support for Assange as well. A man of principle.
Winston Peters is one Maori who doesn't support the others trying to build a cohesive future for all Maori. He is corrupted by what he has achieved for himself.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/te-manu-korihi/426907/winston-peters-says-nz-first-staved-off-any-action-on-ihumatao-before-election
He isn't funny or satirical like the black man playing out racist expectations in Blazing Saddles. He manages to show black and white attitudes in the one performance, when as the black Sheriff he is threatened by the stock black criminal.
He's Establishment. He'll tolerate no threats to his comfy perch.
Establishment – a useful word that we haven't used much.
Sir David Attenborough…94 years old! What a Man. Worthy of that descriptor. A lifetimes Wealth of Wisdom. .
We ignore at our peril…
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/entertainment/2020/09/david-attenborough-s-a-life-on-our-planet-an-obituary-for-the-earth.html