He argues that the "crazed ideology" dictating the Liberal Party's policy on climate could now only be altered by a crushing electoral defeat, or an about-face on the issue from media magnate Rupert Murdoch.
…
Mr Turnbull describes Rupert Murdoch's media empire as "the largest endorser of climate denialism in the world".
"I think if Lachlan Murdoch decided to become a greenie overnight, the Coalition would switch instantly. They'd turn on a dime. Andrew Bolt would suddenly discover he was a greenie, Alan Jones would develop a passionate love for solar panels, Peta Credlin would be, you know, into pumped hydro — they'd all switch," he insists.
Murdoch's media empire has long held a disproportionate influence over Australian politics and he and Prime Minister Scott Morrison are united on this issue. Throw in Murdoch's close ties to Australia's powerful fossil fuel lobby and all the elements are there for a conspiracy of disinformation on the biggest, gravest story of our time.
Can't you see it? I might cancel this and try again.
It was a funny to bring a smile to one’s face, unfortunately I cannot seem to get the thing to work on the Standard
Will have to “study” a bit more how to paste items on here.
to Cinny at 2 : At least shows that most littlies and their teachers will be safe…guess keeping distance no problem with possibly one-to- one correspondence! Also would seem to indicate that most emergency workers have either organised otherwise or have no small ones. ( depends of course on the locality of this one example.)
Are you aware that there is no before school or after school care for children at level 3?
The ECE centres which are opening appear to be doing so in bubbles of about 4.
I would like to know whether there is a difference in privately run centres and government run centres when it comes to opening?
I do not envy ECE teachers/ workers or teachers of new entrants, year 1 and 2.
At some point children will need to return to school. I did hear that there is going to be social distancing at level 2.
With winter to consider and children being indoors and the flu season, the Ministry of Education need to work closely with the Ministry of Health. The measuses taken need to be able to be implemented and based on proven science in a NZ setting and the season of the year.
I would like to know whether there is a difference in privately run centres and government run centres when it comes to opening?
I'd suggest you contact the Ministry or search the Covid website as it appears to be an issue for you Treetop.
You could contact kindergartens (govt) and childcare centres (private) in your own area and share your findings. Same for after school care.
Parents are rather wise and will keep their children home whenever they possibly can during a pandemic. NZ people are great like that, they work together.
Stephen I thought that that call from Mr Goldsmith could have just as easily come from the current Government. Except that the Government sees more infrastructure being needed after years of neglect. And a willingness to consult with the expertise of many interested parties. And clear leadership from the top.
Perhaps Goldsmith would prefer a hands off approach and leave smitten businesses to sink – with no handouts.
Labour MP Deborah Russell has backtracked on her comments regarding small businesses' own responsibility for being in trouble in the pandemic.
Earlier this week, Russell made headlines when she said businesses in trouble "after only a few weeks in a pretty bad situation" was a sign they did not have the necessary strength.
During a select committee hearing on Tuesday, the Labour MP for New Lynn, a former academic, questioned Finance Minister Grant Robertson about her "concerns around small and medium business" and what was being done to build up business strength.
"We are seeing a number of small businesses really struggling, after only a few weeks in a pretty bad situation, which must speak to the strength of those small businesses going into this lockdown.
there is not much difference between the highly paid and rather useless suits in government. The blue don't hide their contempt for the workers of the country, and labour pretends to be 'kinder and gentler' in their contempt. Both parties don't give a shit about the working class of this country. And if anything, it shows with ever passing day that the government does nothing for small/medium/large and micro businesses.
Russell said some businesses in trouble "after only a few weeks in a pretty bad situation" was a sign they did not have the necessary strength.' Was she right?
If Russell had said "Bauer being only a few weeks in a pretty bad situation was a sign they did not have the necessary strength' would she have been right?
Does her saying that mean that she and her party don't give a shit about the working class of this country and shows with ever passing day that the government does nothing for small/medium/large and micro businesses?
Did Russell condemn business owners for not having the 'strength'?
"That's not sustainable," says Steven Scheckter, owner of On Trays Emporium in Petone. Shepherd Elliot of Shepherd estimates the over-supply may run as high as 10 to 15 per cent.
Such fierce competition means New Zealand restaurateurs are loath to be the first to put their prices up. Yet this they desperately need to do, in order to recover their own dramatically escalating costs – of wages, rent and food. There's also a dire shortage of skilled staff.
Already the cracks are beginning to show in the number of high-profile closures in main centres this year."
Hi Chris @ (3.1.1.3). I read about this greedy, despicable arsehole earlier today.
How Black could possibly act like he has done and then boast about it during a nationwide crisis, thieving from Kiwi workers is totally beyond comprehension. Then has the gall to ridicule the government for "throwing money about," while pocketing it himslelf, claiming it's to help his business, so as to keep his workers in a job! A liar and a cheat of the worst kind.
A dishonest, thieving, fraudulant creep, is to put it mildly. Can only hope the law deals with him and his ilk harshly.
Yep, National would love Black, if he's not one of them alreasy!
It's about Stuff trying to make a story and finding someone to oblige. According to what was there:
'It was just a stupid idea from the Labour Government, the Government was "stupid" to pay out, ”We've got people making really big decisions without a lot of forethought."
To me it sounds like he hates Labour, doesn't want them in power and thinks the alternative, National I suppose, would have acted with forethought
When he said, "it frustrates the hell out of me," I assume he means Labour being in Government. If the Government trying to help businesses frustrates him he should change his name to Dick.
If National really have the inside running on private sector leadership, then they should demonstrate that by bringing together a massive group of the good and the great of NZ business leadership to outlines their plans.
His article discusses the way different sectors can contribute to our ability to recover from the economic impact of Covid -19.
He acknowledges the role of government, alongside the role of the private sector. Neither can drive the economic recovery on its own; both of these key sectors need to be involved in an inter related way.
Possible Replacements for Bumbling Bridges
No. 1: SIMON O’CONNOR
Positives:
(1) He has a lovely wife.
(2) He’s opposed to old and sick people being “euthanized.”
Negatives:
(1) He’s a Simon. That carries very bad associations right now.
(2) He’s a rather ridiculous royalist, who a few years ago drove the doddering old reprobate Sir Robert Jones into the following spittle-flecked denunciation….
You’re a thirty-five-year-old octogenarian! If you are the future of the National Party, then—- arrrrrrrggghhh!
Worldwide fatalities from COVID are certainly being undercounted. One way to get a handle on how large the undercount might be is to compare actual deaths to expected deaths for that time period. The Economist article linked below (not paywalled) takes a look and it's scary.
Can you see the Trump going on about his mate Boris fudging the figures? Last week on the podium when the graphs were up he said (paraphrased, "But you don't believe those numbers from Chine A, everyone knows they're fake."
Everything that Covid-19 does is undercounted. Watch a spike in medical conditions for survivors. Probably there is just the one cause of death being entered Covid-19 and not organ failure or an antecedent cause. I have not raised anxiety/depression and grief which many will require support for.
New York City now has approximately 16,000 deaths attributed to COVID, roughly 40,000 hospitalisations, and roughly 150,000 and those almost certainly undercounts. While those rates may have dropped off their peak a little bit, new cases, hospitalisations and deaths are still coming thick and fast. Even with their lockdown.
Per million, that's 1900 deaths (0.19% population death rate), 4750 hospitalisations, 18,000 cases. Scaled to New Zealand's population, that's 9100 deaths, 23,000 hospitalisations, 86,000 cases.
Just something to keep in mind when people publish stuff claiming infection fatality rates might be as low as 0.1% (obviously laughably wrong), or that New Zealand's response was too tough or that we really need to charge hard to go back to how things were before.
Particularly when those comments come from people whose only ideas for dealing with the coming pandemic were tax cuts.
New York City reported its first confirmed COVID-19 case on March 1; a new model from Northeastern University says nearly 11,000 people in the city could already have been infected by then, NYT reported
13.9% of people tested in a New York COVID-19 antibody study tested positive, meaning they had the virus, Cuomo says; that means up to 2.7 million people could have been infected statewide
Nearly 23,000 lives have been lost to coronavirus in the tri-state area to date; more than 386,000 people have been infected — and those are just the ones we know about. NJ will eclipse 100k cases Friday
Preliminary results from New York's first coronavirus antibody study show nearly 14 percent tested positive, meaning they had the virus at some point and recovered, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Thursday. That equates to 2.7 million infections statewide — more than 10 times the state's confirmed cases
Did you catch up with the first case of death from Covid-19 on 6 February 2020 in California? The next death was on 17 February 2020. Obviously was in the population undetected. Cannot do a link on my phone.
Cuomo is doing a good job compared to Trump. Cuomo is being a leader. Shame Cuomo is not standing for president. I need to look it up if he put himself forward as a candidate.
California's governor Gavin Newsom is doing a much better job than Cuomo. But he's mostly just putting his head down and getting on with it so he's not getting the media presence Cuomo does.
Ohio's governor Mike DeWine is also doing a good job on dealing with COVID. Which is utterly gobsmacking since he's a fairly ordinary Repug on most other topics.
Yup. 8,400,000 New York city residents divided by 150,000 cases is indeed 1 in 56.
But that's almost certainly a massive undercount. More than half the tests they do come back positive, so there's a shitload out there with it that have never been near a medical facility to get counted. More realistic estimates from credible sources range from 5% to 20% infection rate. Which is still a long way short of the 50% plus needed before the epidemic would naturally burn itself out.
Of course in the USA tests cost money, lots of money. There's also medical centres closing down and laying staff off because they're profit making businesses, by shutting down surgery and other procedures they're not making money. It's a very poor system.
(I was shocked how much abortion costs over there, thousands of dollars, it's such a sad country).
One of the coronavirus relief bills already passed includes free coronavirus testing. But medical centres are still finding ways to stick people with huge bills for turning up to get free testing.
Prior to this, I read about bills averaging $1500 and going as high as $3000 to get a test done. Even if you had insurance that should have covered it, there would still be huge co-pays plus the hassle of dealing with insurance.
All in all, there's huge incentive to keep well clear of the US medical system unless you are desperately in need of help and willing to risk bankruptcy to get it.
Even with a good insurance plan, there's still good reason to keep clear. Over the 9 years I was there in the 90s, I basically wrote off about a couple grand in doctors visit fees for routine simple things that my insurance should have covered, but in the end I gave up on the hassle of getting the insurance to pay up. It will be way worse now.
Fair question. No two countries/regions are the same. Just pick any one to compare with NZ to suit your narrative. When it no longer suits your narrative, find another one to compare with. Rinse and repeat. Steve Elers made the same mistake in his blatantly biased and stupid opinion piece on Stuff yesterday; thick as a brick, IMHO.
When I'm looking at what might be a reasonable response to a situation, I find it useful to look for something that could plausibly represent the worst-case scenario. Along with a bunch of other better scenarios for comparison.
New York gives a hint at how bad things could have got here had we held off on lockdowns until our situation became much worse.
He's going full nato on twitter re fake news. I guess he's upset that people are calling him stupid.
What is the purpose of having White House News Conferences when the Lamestream Media asks nothing but hostile questions, & then refuses to report the truth or facts accurately. They get record ratings, & the American people get nothing but Fake News. Not worth the time & effort!
Fun fact, trump respects the american people soooo much that he is always, always late to these conferences, from 15 mins to up to an hour late, every single day.
USA is going to implode, the division trump is causing is off the hook.
According to New York Times Republicans are getting some very scary polling coming thru. They’re suggesting that as well as the White House there’s a growing possibility that even the GOP’s majority in The Senate could be overturned in November. They’ve got to rein Trump in before it’s too late
I wouldn't get at Trump's tardiness to the conferences. I don't know what happens out the back with people trying to get their stories together and extra time being needed to at least try to get Trump to see the point.
No doubt sometimes the delays are theatrics. He knows he has everyone in the room and around the world in the palm of his hand, waiting. They rely on him, they need him and while he can't control what they think making them wait is a childish way to exercise some power.
It would be good if the empire struck back like an April fools prank and deserted the room before he and his entourage entered, every single person including all the TV people. (One of the worst 'conferences' was the April 1st one as it turned out.). That isn't going to happen what with Fox and the White House itself beaming coverage out.
One journalist stuffed up one day when he asked a perfectly fair, ordinary question. He was insistent when Trump wouldn't answer properly. Trump said, "If you ask that again I'm leaving." The journalist didn't ask it again. Had the journalist been as narcissistic as Trump he would have taken the challenge. Didn't want to take away the public's access to information I think. Unless he thought his life would have been over by carrying through. It spoiled what should have been our fun and denied him the chance of being a legend.
Are any of you thinking Labour should call an early election?
Good chance to lock in the gains, which might not endure later this year. An announcement of level two, might be the best time. Clearly changes would need to be incorporated at polling stations. These could also be announced at the same time.
Going to the people to secure a mandate, for these difficult times.
It would backfire, and I'm sure Ardern does not intend to do it anyway.
But for the record, she would not need Winston's agreement. The PM announces the date, no approval required from NZF. That's why she's picked September, and his own preference for November is irrelevant.
You need to have communicated a plan before securing a mandate for it. That takes a few months at least, after securing internal agreement. How does say September sound?
"Clearly changes would need to be incorporated at polling stations. These could also be announced at the same time."
That's the Electoral Commission's job. NZ is not the USA, election rules are not decided by gerrymandering incumbents. So, no.
There is no chance of Ardern trying to "cash in" with a snap election. She's no fool, and knows what the reaction would be. There is a slight chance of one being forced, by NZF imploding, but still unlikely.
I guess the one country two systems was always a convenient nonsense.
With the world distracted by the novel coronavirus pandemic, China has carried out a power grab in the former British colony, whose way of life it had pledged to preserve until 2047. In recent days, authorities have said for the first time that Beijing’s representative offices in the territory can “supervise” Hong Kong’s internal affairs — a step that legal experts say violates its constitutional firewall with the mainland. The Basic Law stipulates that the city should run its own affairs, including the police and immigration system, apart from defense and foreign relations.
Beijing officials also called for Hong Kong to introduce a national security law — shelved when an earlier attempt at its introduction sparked massive protests in 2003 — and reached further into the city’s legislature with attacks on pro-democracy lawmakers.
The shift “signals the death of the ‘two systems,’ ” said Eric Cheung, a legal scholar at the University of Hong Kong. “It is quite clear that they are now bringing the mainland system, the mainland idea of supervision and rule of law, here.”
Will a privately run business fall over before a government funded business?
Which businesses are likely to have the highest redundancies?
Which level is going to create the worst unemployment?
I cannot see people having the same interest in running a daycare or a rest home if privately run. As well working in these professions a person's health would need to be assessed more carefully. The fees are out of reach already for some and increasing fees would probably not be enough to save the business.
20 free hours childcare, that means childcare centres won't fall over, makes no difference if its private or a kindy.
Aged care…. if you can't pay for it the state will. So that's taken care of too.
Treetop, don't worry about the aged care and child care going broke, they'll both be just fine. Instead how about thinking of new ideas and innovations, cup half full and all that.
The 20 hours free ECE is for age 3 and above. Often there is a surcharge on top of this. There is a MSD subsidy for fees but again often not enough and it is means tested. Kindergartens are insulated due to being fully government funded. There is a disparity in pay between privately run and government run ECE staff.
Rest homes have been understaffed for decades and some of the food is not nutrious enough for the health of the residents.
Improvements are required and there is a cost for this. Often the young and the old are the most overlooked when it comes to their needs being met.
to Treetop at 11.2.1 : I know my father as principal of a sole school was able to KEEP his job because he had a child…..me. Presumably the intention was to substitute an untrained teacher. As well, teachers' training colleges were shut for some time and for a year, entrance to school was raised from five to six years. I estimate the latter would have been in 1934.
This info must be in government records somewhere.
Thank you for sharing this family history. You would have seen a lot of changes in your lifetime in so many ways.
I can see by what you wrote that the government tried to reduce educational costs during the depression.
I have a friend with 2 young children who is in her last semester for her degree. It is a long semester and she will need to rely on daycare for her youngest and ECE care for her preschooler. I find the terms ECE and daycare to have their separate issues. I tend to use daycare for under age 3 and ECE for age 3 and 4.
Weka was making a good point in her OP that mocking and sneering at Trump's weak grasp of the science is counterproductive. And yet the comments mostly headed off in just that direction (with some honourably constructive exceptions).
I've been in this boat many times before, defending the unpopular. Hell remember Philip Field? I still think at least part of his treatment was racist as hell, and I mean that word in it's original powerful meaning. But pointing that out was not what most people wanted to hear at the time.
It never meant I supported what Field did; it was clearly a bad misjudgement and he was always going to be pinged for it. But the way he was utterly crushed struck me as vengeful and beyond just.
Yes I'm well aware that it would be so much easier to self-censor sometimes. But in the end silence is complicit.
[“Weka was making a good point in her OP that mocking and sneering at Trump’s weak grasp of the science is counterproductive.”
No, I didn’t say that at all. I said that ridiculing anti-vaxxer/conspiracy theory/alt health types is ineffective for the same reasons that calling Trump supporters deplorables is. Trump himself deserves to be ridiculed.
I don’t think what I wrote is hard to parse, and I’ve offered to clarify. You’ve admitted you didn’t read the post properly. This is something like the third time I’ve asked you to stop mispresenting/misinterpreting my post. Please stop doing this because it looks like your misusing my post to run your own lines in the comments. – weka]
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
If it's perfectly OK to mock Trump with inaccurate headlines that you openly accept he didn't say, then exactly why do you feel it necessary to move comments to OM when you feel I've misrepresented your own words?
You get to run the rules as you see fit on your own threads, but this is now in OM.
My point is an important one; if the left wants to present itself as kind, empathetic and inclusive … we cannot pick and choose who is on the inside or outside. If you want to make justice the pivot of your worldview, then you have to be as just to Trump as you are to anyone else. No matter how much it pains you to do so.
Yes by all means point out his lack of clarity and correct it if you really feel the need. Although I have to say when I first watched the video I managed to translate it without concluding I had to run out and inject Janolain my veins; as did most grown-ups. Trump as usual made a mess of this; but gratuitously mocking him for his weak grasp of the science is the same as mocking his supporters. And these are the people we want to vote Biden in a few months time.
The man is utterly unfit to the President in any meaningful sense; but this is not the way to remove him.
I wasn't mocking Trump with the headline, I was poking at people who think Trump's not so bad. You still don't understand the post, which is fine, but please stay out of it for the rest of the day, because this is solidly in derail territory now.
I want Trump gone more than anyone else. Coming from an internationalist perspective (and with my climate change hat on), Trump has been nothing but a disaster.
You made a perfectly sound point when you said that mocking and sneering at people whose minds you want to change is counterproductive. I don't believe I misused it at all. Far too many people who might otherwise happily support progressive causes are repelled by the open hypocrisy of the left when it says how fair and kind it is, and acts cruelly on the other.
In political terms the US Democrats hold their own fate in their hands. The factional alliances that underpin both the Republicans and Democrats are in complete turmoil at the moment; and the party that gets it's act together first will be the one that takes power in the US. The Democrat establishment have wasted much the past four years on tearing down Trump rather than building their own alliances. Ironically some of their primary candidates actually got that … but they all got eliminated.
I wonder what his lawyer will do. I wonder what his accountant will do. I wonder what the government will do. I wonder what the IRD will do. I wonder what his employees will do. Nah, I'm just fuckin with ya. I know what all those people will do.
These are the kind of cunts our government sought to appease by easing a level 4 lockdown that was almost working. For the price of four working days, and any claims of bold leadership or coherent planning, we can go back to work for the Tony Black's of our country on Tuesday. Some come on down, bring the kids, there's a BBq'd sausage waiting for you!
I just thought it was macho king of industry macho postering, a catch 22 really, if his business doesn't need the money he'll have to pay it back, if he does need it he won't have to. He's shown himself to be quite a dick really.
If the money had just been deposited into the business account he might have had a point but he applied for it and met the eligibility criteria and unless his situation has changed markedly he’ll still be entitled to it. Actually, his employees are entitled to it since it is a wage subsidy scheme.
It's not clear to me that he can hang onto the money for the rest of the financial year if he doesn't use it over the 12 weeks. Would also like to know what happens with the interest earned in that time.
At the risk of being shouted down at least he is being honest.
Add to that the primary eligibility criteria is….
Is your actual or predicted revenue down at least 30% in any four-week period between January and 9 June 2020 because of COVID-19?
Being a fairly low bar when the majority of business is locked down for a five week period, he makes some reasonable points through clearly not in the way many at this forum would like.
Do people really believe that there won't be many many businesses that will have taken a similar view ?
It is a low bar…but comes with obligations that must be fulfilled.
"Employers must pass the full amount received onto the employee, except where a person’s income is normally less than the subsidy amount (i.e. $250 a week), in which case they can be paid their normal salary. Any difference should be used for the wages of other affected staff – the wage subsidy is designed to keep your employees connected to their employers."
"The modified Wage Subsidy Scheme, and the previous COVID-19 leave and wage subsidy schemes, are considered excluded income to businesses and are also GST exempt. When passed on as wages, businesses don’t get a deduction for income tax purposes.
Payments to employees under the modified Wage Subsidy Scheme, and the previous COVID-19 wage subsidy and leave schemes, are wages. Therefore, they are subject to standard deductions like PAYE, ACC levies, KiwiSaver contributions and student loan repayments."
There will be thousands of SMEs cursing him to hell and back for highlighting his fortunate position….not to mention a few industry representative bodies.
What it also highlights for me is that updates of the pandemic response plan in future should include detailed information on governmental economic response and allowable activities during and after lockdown informed from our experiences now and over the next 6-12 months.
His criticisms of the subsidy are pedantic as it was in place and delivering the needed assurance within days to enable the lockdown….and covered a period required to enable elimination of the virus.
Support programmes overseas have been panned for failing to deliver support in weeks or indeed sometimes months (trump cheque anyone?)…I think we know how it would have been received here had there been a protracted application and approval process.
"Throwing money around" is the only possible response. Even the most "anti Government spending" proponents have their hands out, now. And the most "Small Government" right wing Governments, are doing it.
Fine Targeting is impossible in the necessary time frame.
Some will end up in the wrong places, but as long as overall, it supports workers and businesses to continue, it has succeeded.
We are receiving the subsidy and have found the process completely seamless and efficient. The design, with having the recipients published, is quite elegant and will have kept a lot of people a bit more honest than they otherwise may have been. Although after making the application I thought "Is that all I have to do???"
Have been audited too, two payments to the same account got the flags up. That was about a week after the payments came through and was professional and courteous. Most impressed with the job MSD have done here.
The only way for him to make money off it is to have money coming in while the govt pays his employees. Fair enough. Good for him.
Anything else (inflating his salary/wage as director, inflating his predicted profit, not paying his other employees) would make his little puff piece a very foolish move indeed.
“Rescue measures absolutely must come with conditions attached. Now that the state is back to playing a leading role, it must be cast as the hero rather than as a naive patsy. That means delivering immediate solutions, but designing them in such a way as to serve the public interest over the long term.”
"Conversions from selfish to selfless are rare. Those who benefited the most from the status quo will fight hard to restore and enhance their position. Examples abound in this crisis."
1 As mass coronavirus testing expands in U.S. prisons, the results are revealing a shocking truth about the virus — large numbers of infected inmates are showing no symptoms. In four state prison systems — Arkansas, North Carolina, Ohio and Virginia — 96% of the over 3,200 inmates who tested positive for the coronavirus were asymptomatic.
2 Young people, with mild to no symptoms of Covid-19, are dying of strokes related to the virus, doctors have warned.
The experts say Covid-19 seems to be the cause for sudden strokes in adults in their 30s and 40s, who are otherwise healthy.
The virus seems to be causing increased clotting in the large arteries, leading to severe stroke,” Dr Thomas Oxley, a neurosurgeon at Mount Sinai Health System in New York, told CNN.
Personally I find indirect casting of aspersions on others via language that avoids being specific much more of a problem.
This isn’t just politics. It’s also human interaction in a very specific culture and as an author and mod that often requires being specific to individual people.
I did you the respect of responding in depth to your comment under my post. A comment that had some interesting points, but appeared to be ignoring the content and point of the post. Your response is to that is to make another indirect criticism of me or my comment.
Take the day off please adam. It's not that what you are doing is hugely problematic, but I'm out of patience for long termers here not paying attention to what moderators are asking or suggesting.
"Because I’m not attacking you – but you think I am"
No, I don't, I just think you are disrespecting me somewhat as an author, and unwilling to engage in debate /shrug. I still hope that will change for you because I think you have important ideas to bring to the table.
I am sad and pathetic I know, but was just looking at the order paper for Parliament restarting Tuesday.
It has oral questions listed
Will be interesting to see how that works.
It might have already been brought up, and forgive me if it has, but are they just having minimal MPs in the chamber itself, or are they doing it online?
There could be a strong National party presence. Don't know how they will manage the 2m physical distancing. Will be interesting to see how they do the seating.
How mobile are the seats in the debating chamber?
As for the naughty ones, yes could be a bit exposed if low numbers.
[Sure is, but what? Only way to find out is to click on a non-descriptive link, which I refuse to do, for a number of reasons. Remember good old Ed the commenter here? Do you remember what one of his main ‘crimes’ was? – Incognito]
[lprent: It is funny though. joe – how about learning how to embed a image. ]
Use the “Source” to shift to HTML.
<img href=”URL” width=”550px” />
Change the URL to whatever the image address is. Don’t abuse it or have extra large images. I tend to turn off the ability to use it rather than educating people.
Nope. I'm using a standard tool for the comment editor, and that isn't an option.
Plus I think I am going to have to look at images and video. I just realised that those are why the jump to a comment #comment-xxxxxxx isn't working too well. Need to look at changing the timing of the jump to the anchor.
Farrar, in his delivery of National Party strategy, has started posting Australian stats state by state in comparison to New Zealand. He even made his own table (he provided no link).
He’s a stats man and his is a deliberate attack on New Zealand to make us look worse. Miraculously, it places NZ near the bottom of a table of ten!
But the real cynical bit was his use of "ANZAC" in the title of the post.
This politicises our pandemic response using the sacrifices of Kiwi servicemen and their families. The same servicemen who went to war to end persecution of Jews in Europe.
It is a new low from Farrar and completely tone deaf.
He and his paymasters seriously need to take a look at themselves and start reading the room.
Don’t worry about DPF, he’s not worth it. Today he also agreed with the pseudo-academic Steve Elers. It has got nothing to do with stats but everything with (media and data) manipulation and anti-government propaganda.
John Key personally thanked Farrar in a victory speech. This shows how important to the National Party his polling and blogging is.
Journalists read Kiwiblog for leads and opinion. I think it's really important to push back when he makes a blunder as I believe he has done here. The push back might not rate any column inches but at least it gets the journalists thinking.
I also like to call out his hypocrisy whenever it occurs, which is quite a lot. Farrar hates nothing more than the questioning of his integrity.
I cannot see any analysis or opinion from the OP himself. The wee ranking table is nothing much and includes one oddity, which is the inclusion of Australia-overall in the ranking. I think DPF used it as a ‘fuse’ to light the commentariat with, which seems to have worked well. Only a fool would have taken that table one step further but DPF hadn’t – the KB commentariat did.
Farrar's posting is never innocent or by accident.
It serves as an extension of Curia's focus groups. He needs not provide analysis or opinion because his opinion is implicit when viewed alongside the rest of his posting and opinion.
Farrar is an extension of the National Party and the dragging down of New Zealand's Covid-19 response is a part of both their strategies.
Kristallnacht or the Night of Broken Glass, also called the November Pogrom, was a pogrom against Jews carried out by SA paramilitary forces and civilians throughout Nazi Germany on 9–10 November 1938.
Sorry, Muttonbird, but I suspect that the majority of our soldiers would have had little idea of what Kristalnacht was. My father was in the second intake of NZIEF, and never mentioned it. I don't believe that such events got huge coverage here: only a small minority would be likely to be aware. The Poles also held big pogroms against the Jews – did we hear of them?
Fact remains NZ servicemen and their families made huge sacrifices to defeat Germany and its allies in WWI and the Germany and its allies in WWII which ended the persecution of Jews in Europe.
Farrar knows this but cynically used the term ANZAC for political gain. If he'd used the ANZAC spirit in a post about NZ/AUS unity fighting Covid-19 that might be different but his motivation is to undermine NZ's pandemic response in an effort to weaken the Labour-led government.
PDF is using NZ confirmed plus probable compared to confirmed cases only for Australia (they don't record probable cases).
Either he is spectacularly ignorant about stats & data (unlikely given his job) or has deliberately inflated NZ's total to make the government look bad.
The NZ Sikh community has fed 15,000 families in just the past fortnight.
"People from any ethnicity, any religion are welcome. We are all one and in this difficult time we are all New Zealanders. We should all stand with the wider community," says Daljit Singh.
New Zealand is again having to reconcile conflicting pressures from its military and its trade interests. Should we join Pillar Two of AUKUS and risk compromising our markets in China? For a century after New Zealand was founded in 1840, its external security arrangements and external economics arrangements were aligned. ...
The ‘50 Shades of Green’ farmers’ protest in 2019 was heavy on climate change denial, but five years on, scepticism and criticism about the idea that pine forests can save us is growing across the board. File photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: Here’s the top six news items of note in climate ...
This morning the sky was bright.The birds, in their usual joyous bliss. Nature doesn’t seem to feel the heat of what might angst humans.Their calls are clear and beautiful.Just some random thoughts:MāoriPaul Goldsmith has announced his government will roll back the judiciary’s rulings on Māori Customary Marine Title, which recognises ...
In 2003, the Court of Appeal delivered its decision in Ngati Apa v Attorney-General, ruling that Māori customary title over the foreshore and seabed had not been universally extinguished, and that the Māori Land Court could determine claims and confirm title if the facts supported it. This kicked off the ...
Earlier this week at Parliament, Labour leader Chris Hipkins was applauded for saying that the response to the final report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care had to be “bigger than politics.” True, but the fine words, apologies and “we hear you” messages will soon ring ...
TL;DR: In news breaking this morning:The Ministry of Education is cutting $2 billion from its school building programme so the National-ACT-NZ First Coalition Government has enough money to deliver tax cuts; The Government has quietly lowered its child poverty reduction targets to make them easier to achieve;Te Whatu Ora-Health NZ’s ...
Kia ora. These are some stories that caught our eye this week – as always, feel free to share yours in the comments. Our header image this week (via Eke Panuku) shows the planned upgrade for the Karanga Plaza Tidal Swimming Steps. The week in Greater Auckland On ...
1. What's not to love about the way the Harris campaign is turning things around?a. Nothingb. Love all of itc. God what a reliefd. Not that it will be by any means easye. All of the above 2. Documents released by the Ministry of Health show Associate Health Minister Casey ...
Trust in me in all you doHave the faith I have in youLove will see us through, if only you trust in meWhy don't you, you trust me?In a week that saw the release of the 3,000 page Abuse in Care report Christopher Luxon was being asked about Boot Camps. ...
TL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers last night features co-hosts and talking about the Royal Commission Inquiry into Abuse in Carereport released this week, and with:The Kākā’s climate correspondent on a UN push to not recognise carbon offset markets and ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Friday, July 26, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Transport: Simeon Brown announced$802.9 million in funding for 18 new trains on the Wairarapa and Manawatū rail lines, which ...
The northern expressway extension from Warkworth to Whangarei is likely to require radical changes to legislation if it is going to be built within the foreseeable future. The Government’s powers to purchase land, the planning process and current restrictions on road tolling are all going to need to be changed ...
Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedFirst they came for the doctors But I was confused by the numbers and costs So I didn't speak up Then they came for our police and nurses And I didn't think we could afford those costs anyway So I ...
Photo by Joshua J. Cotten on UnsplashWe’re back again after our mid-winter break. We’re still with the ‘new’ day of the week (Thursday rather than Friday) when we have our ‘hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kākā for an hour at 5 pm.Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream ...
Notes: This is a free article. Abuse in Care themes are mentioned. Video is at the bottom.BackgroundYesterday’s report into Abuse in Care revealed that at least 1 in 3 of all who went through state and faith based care were abused - often horrifically. At least, because not all survivors ...
Luxon speaks in Parliament yesterday about the Abuse in Care report. Photo: Hagen Hopkins/Getty ImagesTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:PM Christopher Luxon said yesterday in tabling the Abuse in Carereport in Parliament he wanted to ‘do the ...
About a decade ago I worked with a bloke called Steve. He was the grizzled veteran coder, a few years older than me, who knew where the bodies were buried - code wise. Despite his best efforts to be approachable and friendly he could be kind of gruff, through to ...
Some of the recent announcements from the government have reminded us of posts we’ve written in the past. Here’s one from early 2020. There were plenty of reactions to the government’s infrastructure announcement a few weeks ago which saw them fund a bunch of big roading projects. One of ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Thursday, July 25 are:News: Why Electric Kiwi is closing to new customers - and why it matters RNZ’s Susan EdmundsScoop: Government drops ...
Hi,I felt a small wet tongue snaking through one of the holes in my Crocs. It explored my big toe, darting down one side, then the other. “He’s looking for some toe cheese,” said the woman next to me, words that still haunt me to this day.Growing up in New ...
Yesterday I happily quoted the Prime Minister without fact-checking him and sure enough, it turns out his numbers were all to hell. It’s not four kg of Royal Commission report, it’s fourteen.My friend and one-time colleague-in-comms Hazel Phillips gently alerted me to my error almost as soon as I’d hit ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Thursday, July 25, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day were:The Abuse in Care Royal Commission of Inquirypublished its final report yesterday.PM Christopher Luxon and The Minister responsible for ...
The Official Information Act has always been a battle between requesters seeking information, and governments seeking to control it. Information is power, so Ministers and government agencies want to manage what is released and when, for their own convenience, and legality and democracy be damned. Their most recent tactic for ...
TL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:Transport and Energy Minister Simeon Brown is accelerating plans to spend at least $10 billion through Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) to extend State Highway One as a four-lane ‘Expressway’ from Warkworth to Whangarei ...
I live my life (woo-ooh-ooh)With no control in my destinyYea-yeah, yea-yeah (woo-ooh-ooh)I can bleed when I want to bleedSo come on, come on (woo-ooh-ooh)You can bleed when you want to bleedYea-yeah, come on (woo-ooh-ooh)Everybody bleed when they want to bleedCome on and bleedGovernments face tough challenges. Selling unpopular decisions to ...
Please note:To skip directly to the- parliamentary footage in the video, scroll to 1:21 To skip to audio please click on the headphone iconon the left hand side of the screenThis video / audio section is under development. ...
Given the crackdown on wasteful government spending, it behooves me to point to a high profile example of spending by the Luxon government that looks like a big, fat waste of time and money. I’m talking about the deployment of NZDF personnel to support the US-led coalition in the Red ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:40 am on Wednesday, July 24 are:Deep Dive: Chipping away at the housing crisis, including my comments RNZ/Newsroom’s The DetailNews: Government softens on asset sales, ...
As I reported about the city centre, Auckland’s rail network is also going through a difficult and disruptive period which is rapidly approaching a culmination, this will result in a significant upgrade to the whole network. Hallelujah. Also like the city centre this is an upgrade predicated on the City ...
Today, a 4 kilogram report will be delivered to Parliament. We know this is what the report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care weighs, because our Prime Minister told us so.Some reporter had blindsided him by asking a question about something done by ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Wednesday, July 24, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Beehive:Transport Minister Simeon Brownannounced plans to use PPPs to fund, build and run a four-lane expressway between Auckland ...
NewstalkZB host Mike Hosking, who can usually be relied on to give Prime Minister Christopher Luxon an easy run, did not do so yesterday when he interviewed him about the HealthNZ deficit. Luxon is trying to use a deficit reported last year by HealthNZ as yet another example of the ...
Back in January a StatsNZ employee gave a speech at Rātana on behalf of tangata whenua in which he insulted and criticised the government. The speech clearly violated the principle of a neutral public service, and StatsNZ started an investigation. Part of that was getting an external consultant to examine ...
Renting for life: Shared ownership initiatives are unlikely to slow the slide in home ownership by much. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:A Deloittereport for Westpac has projected Aotearoa’s home-ownership rate will ...
You're broken down and tiredOf living life on a merry go roundAnd you can't find the fighterBut I see it in you so we gonna walk it outAnd move mountainsWe gonna walk it outAnd move mountainsAnd I'll rise upI'll rise like the dayI'll rise upI'll rise unafraidI'll rise upAnd I'll ...
There’s been a change in Myers Park. Down the steps from St. Kevin’s Arcade, past the grassy slopes, the children’s playground, the benches and that goat statue, there has been a transformation. The underpass for Mayoral Drive has gone from a barren, grey, concrete tunnel, to a place that thrums ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections Global society may have finally slammed on the brakes for climate-warming pollution released by human fossil fuel combustion. According to the Carbon Monitor Project, the total global climate pollution released between February and May 2024 declined slightly from the amount released during the same ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Tuesday, July 23 are:Deep Dive: Penlink: where tolling rhetoric meets reality BusinessDesk-$$$’sOliver LewisScoop:Te Pūkenga plans for regional polytechs leak out ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Tuesday, July 23, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Health: Shane Reti announcedthe Board of Te Whatu Ora-Health New Zealand was being replaced with Commissioner Lester Levy ...
Health NZ warned the Government at the end of March that it was running over Budget. But the reasons it gave were very different to those offered by the Prime Minister yesterday. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon blamed the “botched merger” of the 20 District Health Boards (DHBs) to create Health ...
Long ReadKey Summary: Although National increased the health budget by $1.4 billion in May, they used an old funding model to project health system costs, and never bothered to update their pre-election numbers. They were told during the Health Select Committees earlier in the year their budget amount was deficient, ...
As a momentous, historic weekend in US politics unfolded, analysts and commentators grasped for precedents and comparisons to help explain the significance and power of the choice Joe Biden had made. The 46th president had swept the Democratic party’s primaries but just over 100 days from the election had chosen ...
TL;DR: I’m casting around for new ideas and ways of thinking about Aotearoa’s political economy to find a few solutions to our cascading and self-reinforcing housing, poverty and climate crises.Associate Professor runs an online masters degree in the economics of sustainability at Torrens University in Australia and is organising ...
The Finance and Expenditure Committee has reported back on National's Local Government (Water Services Preliminary Arrangements) Bill. The bill sets up water for privatisation, and was introduced under urgency, then rammed through select committee with no time even for local councils to make a proper submission. Naturally, national's select committee ...
Some years ago, I bought a book at Dunedin’s Regent Booksale for $1.50. As one does. Vandrad the Viking (1898), by J. Storer Clouston, is an obscure book these days – I cannot find a proper online review – but soon it was sitting on my shelf, gathering dust alongside ...
History is not on the side of the centre-left, when Democratic presidents fall behind in the polls and choose not to run for re-election. On both previous occasions in the past 75 years (Harry Truman in 1952, Lyndon Johnson in 1968) the Democrats proceeded to then lose the White House ...
This is a free articleCoverageThis morning, US President Joe Biden announced his withdrawal from the Presidential race. And that is genuinely newsworthy. Thanks for your service, President Biden, and all the best to you and yours.However, the media in New Zealand, particularly the 1News nightly bulletin, has been breathlessly covering ...
A homeless person’s camp beside a blocked-off slipped damage walkway in Freeman’s Bay: we are chasing our tail on our worsening and inter-related housing, poverty and climate crises. Photo: Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy ...
What has happened to it all?Crazy, some'd sayWhere is the life that I recognise?(Gone away)But I won't cry for yesterdayThere's an ordinary worldSomehow I have to findAnd as I try to make my wayTo the ordinary worldYesterday morning began as many others - what to write about today? I began ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Monday, July 22 are:Today’s Must Read: Father and son live in a tent, and have done for four years, in a million ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Monday, July 22, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:US President Joe Biden announced via X this morning he would not stand for a second term.Multinational professional services firm ...
A listing of 32 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, July 14, 2024 thru Sat, July 20, 2024. Story of the week As reflected by preponderance of coverage, our Story of the Week is Project 2025. Until now traveling ...
This weekend, a friend pointed out someone who said they’d like to read my posts, but didn’t want to pay. And my first reaction was sympathy.I’ve already told folks that if they can’t comfortably subscribe, and would like to read, I’d be happy to offer free subscriptions. I don’t want ...
National: The Party of ‘Law and Order’ IntroductionThis weekend, the Government formally kicked off one of their flagship policy programs: a military style boot camp that New Zealand has experimented with over the past 50 years. Cartoon credit: Guy BodyIt’s very popular with the National Party’s Law and Orderimage, ...
Day one of the solo leg of my long journey home begins with my favourite sound: footfalls in an empty street. 5.00 am and it’s already light and already too warm, almost.If I can make the train that leaves Budapest later this hour I could be in Belgrade by nightfall; ...
Do you remember Y2K, the threat that hung over humanity in the closing days of the twentieth century? Horror scenarios of planes falling from the sky, electronic payments failing and ATMs refusing to dispense cash. As for your VCR following instructions and recording your favourite show - forget about it.All ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts being questioned by The Kākā’s Bernard Hickey.TL;DR: My top six things to note around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the week to July 20 were:1. A strategy that fails Zero Carbon Act & Paris targetsThe National-ACT-NZ First Coalition Government finally unveiled ...
Summary:As New Zealand loses at least 12 leaders in the public service space of health, climate, and pharmaceuticals, this month alone, directly in response to the Government’s policies and budget choices, what lies ahead may be darker than it appears. Tui examines some of those departures and draws a long ...
The Minister of Housing’s ambition is to reduce markedly the ratio of house prices to household incomes. If his strategy works it would transform the housing market, dramatically changing the prospects of housing as an investment.Leaving aside the Minister’s metaphor of ‘flooding the market’ I do not see how the ...
As previously noted, my historical fantasy piece, set in the fifth-century Mediterranean, was accepted for a Pirate Horror anthology, only for the anthology to later fall through. But in a good bit of news, it turned out that the story could indeed be re-marketed as sword and sorcery. As of ...
An employee of tobacco company Philip Morris International demonstrates a heated tobacco device. Photo: Getty ImagesTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy on Friday, July 19 are:At a time when the Coalition Government is cutting spending on health, infrastructure, education, housing ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 8:30 am on Friday, July 19 are:Scoop: NZ First Minister Casey Costello orders 50% cut to excise tax on heated tobacco products. The minister has ...
Kia ora, it’s time for another Friday roundup, in which we pull together some of the links and stories that caught our eye this week. Feel free to add more in the comments! Our header image this week shows a foggy day in Auckland town, captured by Patrick Reynolds. ...
TL;DR : Here’s the top six items climate news for Aotearoa this week, as selected by Bernard Hickey and The Kākā’s climate correspondent Cathrine Dyer. A discussion recorded yesterday is in the video above and the audio of that sent onto the podcast feed.The Government released its draft Emissions Reduction ...
Save some money, get rich and old, bring it back to Tobacco Road.Bring that dynamite and a crane, blow it up, start all over again.Roll up. Roll up. Or tailor made, if you prefer...Whether you’re selling ciggies, digging for gold, catching dolphins in your nets, or encouraging folks to flutter ...
Waiting In The Wings:For truly, if Trump is America’s un-assassinated Caesar, then J.D. Vance is America’s Octavian, the Republic’s youthful undertaker – and its first Emperor.DONALD TRUMP’S SELECTION of James D. Vance as his running-mate bodes ill for the American republic. A fervent supporter of Viktor Orban, the “illiberal” prime ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Friday, July 19, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:The PSAannounced the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) had ruled in the PSA’s favour in its case against the Ministry ...
TL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers last night features co-hosts and talking with:The Kākā’s climate correspondent talking about the National-ACT-NZ First Government’s release of its first Emissions Reduction Plan;University of Otago Foreign Relations Professor and special guest Dr Karin von ...
Open access notablesImproving global temperature datasets to better account for non-uniform warming, Calvert, Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society:To better account for spatial non-uniform trends in warming, a new GITD [global instrumental temperature dataset] was created that used maximum likelihood estimation (MLE) to combine the land surface ...
A late change to charter school legislation will cheat educators out of fair pay and negotiating power proving charter schools are just a vehicle to make profit out of our education system. ...
In 2004 te iwi Māori rallied against the Crown’s attempt to confiscate our coastlines and moana with the Foreshore and Seabed Act. This led to the largest hīkoi of a generation and the birth of Te Pāti Māori. 20 years later, history is repeating itself. Today the government has announced ...
It has been five and a half years since the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care was established to investigate the abuse of children, young people, and vulnerable adults within state and faith-based institutions. Yesterday, the final report - Whanaketia through pain and trauma, from darkness to light ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to take action off the back of the International Court of Justice ruling on Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine. ...
On Friday the International Court of Justice reaffirmed what Palestinian’s have been telling us for decades: that the occupation and colonisation of Palestinian lands by Israel is illegal and must end immediately. They also called for reparations for Palestinian’s who have lived under Israeli occupation since it began in 1967. ...
Labour calls on the Government to act after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian Territories is illegal. ...
The 53.7 percent rise in benefit sanctions over the last year is more proof of this Government’s disdain for our communities most in need of support. ...
Aotearoa could be a country where every child grows up feeling safe, loved and with a sense of belonging in their whānau and community. But for some of our children, this is far from reality. Instead, they are trapped in a maze of intergenerational harm that they can’t escape on ...
Te Pāti Māori are calling for David Seymour to resign as Associate Health Minister in response to his call for Pharmac to ignore the Treaty of Waitangi. “This announcement is just another example of the government’s anti-Tiriti, anti-Māori agenda.” Said Co-leader and spokesperson for health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. “Seymour thinks it ...
The soaring price of renting is driving the rise of inflation in this country - with latest figures from Stats NZ showing rents are up 4.8 per cent on average while annual inflation is at 3.3 per cent. ...
National’s Emissions Reduction Plan will take New Zealand further from the economy we need to ensure the next generation has a stable climate and secure livelihoods. ...
Following consultation with named parties and thorough consideration of privacy interests, the Green Party is in a position to release the Executive Summary of the final report from the independent investigation into Darleen Tana. ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon should be asking serious questions of his Minister for Resources Shane Jones now it’s been revealed he misled the public about a dinner with mining companies that he didn’t declare and said wasn’t pre-arranged. ...
Te Pāti Māori have submitted to the Justice Select Committee against the Sentencing (Reinstating Three Strikes) Amendment Bill. The bill will further entrench racism in our justice system and fails to focus on rehabilitation. “Reinstating Three Strikes will empower a systematically racist system and exacerbate the overrepresentation of Māori in ...
The Transport and Infrastructure Committee is set to make a determination on the Residential Tenancies Amendment (RTA) Bill in the coming weeks. “This legislation will give landlords the power to kick our whānau out onto the street for no reason” said Housing spokesperson, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “Their solution to the housing ...
“National’s campaign was about tackling crime and the best they can do is a two-year long Ministerial Advisory Group,” Labour justice spokesperson Duncan Webb said. ...
“There are more examples of charter schools failing their students than there are success stories. The coalition Government is driving to dismantle our public school system and instead promote a privatised, competitive structure that puts profits before kids,” Jan Tinetti said. ...
“This government is choosing to deliberately mislead and withhold information, keeping our people in the dark about this government’s agenda and the future of our mokopuna,” said co-leader and spokesperson for Health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. The call comes after the demand from the Chief Ombudsman that Associate Minister of Health, Casey ...
“Today’s climate announcement by Simon Watts makes clear the National Government is simply paying lip service to meeting its climate change targets,” Megan Woods said. ...
National is choosing to make life harder for workers by taking away the rights our communities have fought hard for. Here's how they’re taking workers backwards. ...
Australia, Canada and New Zealand today issued the following statement on the need for an urgent ceasefire in Gaza and the risk of expanded conflict between Hizballah and Israel. The situation in Gaza is catastrophic. The human suffering is unacceptable. It cannot continue. We remain unequivocal in our condemnation of ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today reminded all State and faith-based institutions of their legal obligation to preserve records relevant to the safety and wellbeing of those in its care. “The Abuse in Care Inquiry’s report has found cases where records of the most vulnerable people in State and faith‑based institutions were ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says the Government’s online safety website for children and young people has reached one million page views. “It is great to see so many young people and their families accessing the site Keep It Real Online to learn how to stay safe online, and manage ...
Tēnā tātou katoa, Ngā mihi te rangi, ngā mihi te whenua, ngā mihi ki a koutou, kia ora mai koutou. Thank you for the opportunity to be here and the invitation to speak at this 50th anniversary conference. I acknowledge all those who have gone before us and paved the ...
New Zealand’s payroll providers have successfully prepared to ensure 3.5 million individuals will, from Wednesday next week, be able to keep more of what they earn each pay, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis and Revenue Minister Simon Watts. “The Government's tax policy changes are legally effective from Wednesday. Delivering this tax ...
An experimental vineyard which will help futureproof the wine sector has been opened in Blenheim by Associate Regional Development Minister Mark Patterson. The covered vineyard, based at the New Zealand Wine Centre – Te Pokapū Wāina o Aotearoa, enables controlled environmental conditions. “The research that will be produced at the Experimental ...
The Coalition Government has confirmed the indicative regional breakdown of North Island Weather Event (NIWE) funding for state highway recovery projects funded through Budget 2024, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Regions in the North Island suffered extensive and devastating damage from Cyclone Gabrielle and the 2023 Auckland Anniversary Floods, and ...
Indonesia’s Foreign Minister, Retno Marsudi, will visit New Zealand next week, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “Indonesia is important to New Zealand’s security and economic interests and is our closest South East Asian neighbour,” says Mr Peters, who is currently in Laos to engage with South East Asian partners. ...
He aha te kai a te rangatira? He kōrero, he kōrero, he kōrero. The government has reaffirmed its commitment to supporting the aspirations of Ngāti Maniapoto, Minister for Māori Development Tama Potaka says. “My thanks to Te Nehenehenui Trust – Ngāti Maniapoto for bringing their important kōrero to a ministerial ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has thanked outgoing Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority, Janice Fredric, for her service to the board.“I have received Ms Fredric’s resignation from the role of Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority,” Mr Brown says.“On behalf of the Government, I want to thank Ms Fredric for ...
The Government is proposing legislation to overturn a Court of Appeal decision and amend the Marine and Coastal Area Act in order to restore Parliament’s test for Customary Marine Title, Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “Section 58 required an applicant group to prove they have exclusively used and occupied ...
Regulation Minister David Seymour says that opposition parties have united in bad faith, opposing what they claim are ‘dangerous changes’ to the Early Childhood Education sector, despite no changes even being proposed yet. “Issues with affordability and availability of early childhood education, and the complexity of its regulation, has led ...
After receiving more than 740 submissions in the first 20 days, Regulation Minister David Seymour is asking the Ministry for Regulation to extend engagement on the early childhood education regulation review by an extra two weeks. “The level of interest has been very high, and from the conversations I’ve been ...
The Coalition Government is investing $802.9 million into the Wairarapa and Manawatū rail lines as part of a funding agreement with the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA), KiwiRail, and the Greater Wellington and Horizons Regional Councils to deliver more reliable services for commuters in the lower North Island, Transport Minister Simeon ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced his intention to appoint a Crown Manager to both Hawke’s Bay Regional and Wairoa District Councils to speed up the delivery of flood protection work in Wairoa."Recent severe weather events in Wairoa this year, combined with damage from Cyclone Gabrielle in 2023 have ...
Mr Speaker, this is a day that many New Zealanders who were abused in State care never thought would come. It’s the day that this Parliament accepts, with deep sorrow and regret, the Report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care. At the heart of this report are the ...
For the first time, the Government is formally acknowledging some children and young people at Lake Alice Psychiatric Hospital experienced torture. The final report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care “Whanaketia – through pain and trauma, from darkness to light,” was tabled in Parliament ...
The Government has acknowledged the nearly 2,400 courageous survivors who shared their experiences during the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Historical Abuse in State and Faith-Based Care. The final report from the largest and most complex public inquiry ever held in New Zealand, the Royal Commission Inquiry “Whanaketia – through ...
With a week to go before hard-working New Zealanders see personal income tax relief for the first time in fourteen years, 513,000 people have used the Budget tax calculator to see how much they will benefit, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis. “Tax relief is long overdue. From next Wednesday, personal income ...
Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden says a bill that has passed its first reading will improve parental leave settings and give non-biological parents more flexibility as primary carer for their child. The Regulatory Systems Amendment Bill (No3), passed its first reading this morning. “It includes a change ...
Two Bills designed to improve regulation and make it easier to do business have passed their first reading in Parliament, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. The Regulatory Systems (Economic Development) Amendment Bill and Regulatory Systems (Immigration and Workforce) Amendment Bill make key changes to legislation administered by the Ministry ...
New legislation paves the way for greater competition in sectors such as banking and electricity, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly says. “Competitive markets boost productivity, create employment opportunities and lift living standards. To support competition, we need good quality regulation but, unfortunately, a recent OECD report ranked New ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says lotteries for charitable purposes, such as those run by the Heart Foundation, Coastguard NZ, and local hospices, will soon be allowed to operate online permanently. “Under current laws, these fundraising lotteries are only allowed to operate online until October 2024, after which ...
The Coalition Government is accelerating work on the new four-lane expressway between Auckland and Whangārei as part of its Roads of National Significance programme, with an accelerated delivery model to deliver this project faster and more efficiently, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “For too long, the lack of resilient transport connections ...
Sir Don McKinnon will travel to Viet Nam this week as a Special Envoy of the Government, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “It is important that the Government give due recognition to the significant contributions that General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong made to New Zealand-Viet Nam relations,” Mr ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says newly appointed Commissioner, Grant Illingworth KC, will help deliver the report for the first phase of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into COVID-19 Lessons, due on 28 November 2024. “I am pleased to announce that Mr Illingworth will commence his appointment as ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters travels to Laos this week to participate in a series of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)-led Ministerial meetings in Vientiane. “ASEAN plays an important role in supporting a peaceful, stable and prosperous Indo-Pacific,” Mr Peters says. “This will be our third visit to ...
Construction of a new mental health facility at Te Nikau Grey Hospital in Greymouth is today one step closer, Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey says. “This $27 million facility shows this Government is delivering on its promise to boost mental health care and improve front line services,” Mr Doocey says. ...
New Zealand is committing nearly $50 million to a package supporting sustainable Pacific fisheries development over the next four years, Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones announced today. “This support consisting of a range of initiatives demonstrates New Zealand’s commitment to assisting our Pacific partners ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour says proposed changes to the Education and Training Amendment Bill will ensure charter schools have more flexibility to negotiate employment agreements and are equipped with the right teaching resources. “Cabinet has agreed to progress an amendment which means unions will not be able to initiate ...
In response to serious concerns around oversight, overspend and a significant deterioration in financial outlook, the Board of Health New Zealand will be replaced with a Commissioner, Health Minister Dr Shane Reti announced today. “The previous government’s botched health reforms have created significant financial challenges at Health NZ that, without ...
Minister for Space and Science, Innovation and Technology Judith Collins will travel to Adelaide tomorrow for space and science engagements, including speaking at the Australian Space Forum. While there she will also have meetings and visits with a focus on space, biotechnology and innovation. “New Zealand has a thriving space ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts will travel to China on Saturday to attend the Ministerial on Climate Action meeting held in Wuhan. “Attending the Ministerial on Climate Action is an opportunity to advocate for New Zealand climate priorities and engage with our key partners on climate action,” Mr Watts says. ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is travelling to the Solomon Islands tomorrow for meetings with his counterparts from around the Pacific supporting collective management of the region’s fisheries. The 23rd Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Committee and the 5th Regional Fisheries Ministers’ Meeting in Honiara from 23 to 26 July ...
The Government today launched the Military Style Academy Pilot at Te Au rere a te Tonga Youth Justice residence in Palmerston North, an important part of the Government’s plan to crackdown on youth crime and getting youth offenders back on track, Minister for Children, Karen Chhour said today. “On the ...
The Government has welcomed news the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) has begun work to replace nine priority bridges across the country to ensure our state highway network remains resilient, reliable, and efficient for road users, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says.“Increasing productivity and economic growth is a key priority for the ...
Acting Prime Minister David Seymour has been in contact throughout the evening with senior officials who have coordinated a whole of government response to the global IT outage and can provide an update. The Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet has designated the National Emergency Management Agency as the ...
New Zealand and Japan will continue to step up their shared engagement with the Pacific, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “New Zealand and Japan have a strong, shared interest in a free, open and stable Pacific Islands region,” Mr Peters says. “We are pleased to be finding more ways ...
New developments in the heart of North Island forestry country will reinvigorate their communities and boost economic development, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones visited Kaingaroa and Kawerau in Bay of Plenty today to open a landmark community centre in the former and a new connecting road in ...
President Adeang, fellow Ministers, honourable Diet Member Horii, Ambassadors, distinguished guests. Minasama, konnichiwa, and good afternoon, everyone. Distinguished guests, it’s a pleasure to be here with you today to talk about New Zealand’s foreign policy reset, the reasons for it, the values that underpin it, and how it ...
Comment: After Climate Change Minister Simon Watts’ preview several weeks ago, I had some optimism about the Government’s emissions reduction plan. Now I’ve read the discussion document, that hope has been dashed. How can the Government propose a plan that wants to take New Zealand taxpayers’ hard-earned money, and spend ...
Christopher Luxon: hurdles The little man from National jumps hurdles in his sleep. He’s quite good at it in his dreams and even though the reality doesn’t quite match up you have to give him credit for getting up every morning and crashing into the very first hurdle of the ...
Comment: It was a good two hours into the conversation when Tyrone Marks raised the most basic of questions when I first spoke to him in 2017. “They didn’t explain the things they did to me. They never told me why. And they still haven’t. There’s no explanation for it. ...
Last summer when Matairangi burned, Ginny and Tom stood at the window of their lounge, watching kākā shoot skyward from the burning trees. From the distance, they looked to Ginny like pages torn from books and thrown into a bonfire. It was Tom, voice tight, who told her it was ...
Opinion: The Canadian short story writer Alice Munro – winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2013 – died in May at the age of 92. Her work was about “the damage people inflict on one another in the name of love”, Deborah Treisman wrote in the New Yorker. ...
This month marks two years since the most powerful telescope ever built sent its first pictures back to earth. From its lofty vantage point, beyond the moon in orbit around the sun, the James Webb Space Telescope was tuned to observe the first stars and galaxies being born soon after ...
Madeleine Chapman rounds out Death Week on The Spinoff with a final recommendation. You can read all of our Death Week coverage here. Nothing forces you to reflect on your life and relationships quite like proximity to death. For those whose nearest and dearest have died, there are reasonably obvious ...
Whitney Greene takes us through her life in television, including the TV character she’d like to plan a funeral for and her cow lung catastrophe on The Traitors NZ. “If the phone rings, I have to answer it,” Whitney Greene from The Traitors NZ warns as we begin our My ...
Maddie Ballard reviews the debut essay collection of Pōneke writer Flora Feltham.In ‘The Raw Material’, the longest essay in Flora Feltham’s dazzling debut collection, the author heads out for a run after hours of weaving and sees the world turn to textile. “Pounding along the Parade, I saw the ...
Andy Christiansen, one half of the experimental rock-pop duo TRiPS, shares the tunes inspiring the band’s perfect weekend and new release. “Good speakers, good food, good music, no distractions”: that’s all you need to enjoy the psychedelic stylings of TRiPS, a new band formed by Fly My Pretties’ Barnaby Weir ...
Celebrating our quadrennial opportunity to become experts in a bunch of sports we never normally watch.The games of the XXXIII Olympiad are upon us. Paris will host this year’s showcase of sporting and athletic prowess, which means some late-night and early-morning viewing for us in Aotearoa.But what sports ...
The photograph is striking and beautiful, but also disturbing – a reminder that my love for John was often entangled in shame.The Sunday Essay is made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand.In the spring of 1980, in Dunedin, shortly before his death, someone took a photograph ...
Get to know Babushka, our latest Dog of the Month. This feature was offered as a reward during our What’s Eating Aotearoa PledgeMe campaign. Thank you to Babu’s humans, Jo and Isabel, for their support. Dog name: Babushka (Babu for short) Age: 2Breed: Border Collie X poodleIf rescued, ...
Pacific Media Watch A Lebanese photojournalist who was severely wounded during an Israeli air strike in south Lebanon carried the Olympic torch in Paris this week in honour of her peers who have been wounded and killed in the field — especially in Gaza and Lebanon. Christina Assi of Agence ...
The first report in a five-part web series focused on the 15th Triennial Conference of Pacific Women taking place in the Marshall Islands this week.SPECIAL REPORT:By Netani Rika in Majuro Women continue to fight for justice 70 years after the first nuclear tests by the United States caused ...
Christopher Luxon has joined with Australia and Canada's leaders in voicing support for US President Joe Biden's ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The 2022 election brought the “teal wave” into parliament. The next election will test whether teals, who occupy what were Liberal seats, and other independents can maintain their momentum. Joining us on the Podcast ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Musgrave, Senior lecturer in Pharmacology, University of Adelaide Pixavri/Shutterstock A major Federal Court class action has been dismissed this week after Justice Michael Lee ruled there was not enough evidence to prove the weedkiller Roundup causes cancer. Plaintiff Kelvin ...
In The Week in Politics: politicians have to decide what to do about child abuse, Health NZ is booked in for major surgery and Darleen Tana returns. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clare Corbould, Associate Professor, Contemporary Histories Research Group, Deakin University Mainstream media are surprisingly muted at the prospect of the world’s most powerful nation being led for the first time by a woman – specifically a woman of colour, Vice President Kamala ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rebecca Bennett, PhD Student, Associate Research Fellow, Deakin University Last week, a drone delivery company called Wing (owned by Google’s parent company, Alphabet) started operating in Melbourne. Some 250,000 residents in parts of the city’s eastern suburbs can now order food from ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jonathan Foo, Lecturer, Physiotherapy, Monash University pikselstock/Shutterstock In the next 40 years in Australia, it’s predicted the number of Australians aged 65 and over will more than double, while the number of people aged 85 and over will more than triple. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Katrina Grant, Research Associate, Power Institute for Arts and Visual Culture, University of Sydney Jonas Åkerström’s 1790 work, Session of the Accademia dell’Arcadia on August 17 1788.Nationalmuseum/Cecilia Heisser Ever wondered whether you’d have a better chance at winning an Olympic gold ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alexandra Jones, Program Lead, Food Governance, George Institute for Global Health wavebreakmedia/Shutterstock On Thursday, Australian and New Zealand food ministers at state, federal and national levels met to thrash out what’s next for health star ratings on packaged foods. Now, after ...
The Abuse in Care report found many Pacific survivors lost their connections to their culture and language, resulting in trauma that has been carried from generation to generation. ...
In the regulatory review, ECC intends to suggest that ERO focus on curriculum delivery reviews rather than the Ministry, because it’s not efficient or effective to have two agencies with radically different approaches climbing over each other. ...
Te Rūnanga Nui o Ngā Kura Kaupapa Māori invites the current government to work in partnership with them to develop a pathway forward, including the development of a parallel pathway and meaningful policy and strategy for Kura Kaupapa Māori ...
If you haven’t started watching yet, Tara Ward begs you to reconsider. This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. In the world of New Zealand reality television, we have many gems in our crown. There’s the delicious second season of the Celebrity Treasure ...
A new poem by Fiona Kidman. The clothes of the dead I did not keep my mother’s furry red beret for long nor the stringy scarves that adorned the necks of my aunts, although I have kept tag ends of gold, the rings and trinkets they wore, the brooches no ...
The government’s announcement that it will re-open the foreshore and seabed controversy by changing the rules on recognising centuries-old Māori customary title for a third time goes against the rule of law and New Zealand values,” Mr Tipa says. ...
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 Lioness by Emily Perkins (Bloomsbury, $25) Roarrrr! Perkins’ brilliant, award-winning, Marian-Keyes anointed, darkly funny, long ...
The 2004 Act vested ownership of the foreshore and seabed in the Crown, extinguishing any Māori claims to ownership and causing widespread outrage and protests among Māori communities. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Antje Deckert, Associate Professor (Criminology), Auckland University of Technology Getty Images Despite the connection between institutional harm and gang membership made clear in this week’s mammoth royal commission abuse-in care report, the government seems unlikely to soften its “get tough on ...
From Lewis Clareburt in the swimming to the start of the rowing – the first seven days of Paris 2024 promise to be big for New Zealand. There are few events that bring the country together quite like an Olympic Games. Nothing quite matches the excitement of getting up in ...
Groundbreaking local science just showed up in the most surprising of places: the season finale of The Kardashians. In the season five finale of The Kardashians last night, several members of the family gathered together in one of their signature empty, cream-coloured rooms to hear test results that had been ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Amin Saikal, Emeritus professor of Middle Eastern and Central Asian Studies, Australian National University The Middle East is on the brink of a possibly devastating regional war, with hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah reaching an extremely dangerous level. Washington has engaged in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Laura Elizabeth Eades, Rheumatologist, Monash University Lupus is an inflammatory autoimmune illness, where the body’s immune system mistakenly attacks itself. Lupus can affect virtually any part of the body, although it most commonly affects the skin, joints and kidneys. The symptoms ...
A law firm that specialises in working with survivors of abuse in State care is disappointed that the Government fails to recognise that its boot camps can be directly compared to previous boot camps from the 1990s and 2000s. ...
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A night of karaoke and community in a pub that feels like a memory. You’d barely even notice it, unless you knew to look. Tucked away behind a liquor store on busy Constable Street is the capital’s last great pub. Newtown Sports Bar is an emblem of the pub culture ...
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Malcom Turnbull's kiss and tell has spiced up an otherwise steady diet of COVID news on this side of the Tasman for some weeks. From a climate change point of view he's come out pointing the finger of blame for the denialist cult firmly at the Murdoch empire:
How long has it taken him to work that one out? Well at least he's being vocal about it, credit where credit is due.
From earlier in the year… first story up approx 11 mins long.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZmdrDaH4eo
At least Turnbull is finally acknowledging who was really in charge. What ripples is that causing in the current govt and their backers?
That's nice for you. Mind telling the rest of us what it is?
Can't you see it? I might cancel this and try again.
It was a funny to bring a smile to one’s face, unfortunately I cannot seem to get the thing to work on the Standard
Will have to “study” a bit more how to paste items on here.
Spoke to my friend who is an ECE worker at a busy childcare centre.
In a normal day there would be around 30 -35 pre-schoolers attending their facility.
Of that number only four, are going to return to preschool this week.
Which shows that parents are following advice. Use their own judgement and send children to these facilities only if absolutely necessary.
to Cinny at 2 : At least shows that most littlies and their teachers will be safe…guess keeping distance no problem with possibly one-to- one correspondence! Also would seem to indicate that most emergency workers have either organised otherwise or have no small ones. ( depends of course on the locality of this one example.)
Yesah, four teachers and a child each, that's do-able for sure. Excellent.
Are you aware that there is no before school or after school care for children at level 3?
The ECE centres which are opening appear to be doing so in bubbles of about 4.
I would like to know whether there is a difference in privately run centres and government run centres when it comes to opening?
I do not envy ECE teachers/ workers or teachers of new entrants, year 1 and 2.
At some point children will need to return to school. I did hear that there is going to be social distancing at level 2.
With winter to consider and children being indoors and the flu season, the Ministry of Education need to work closely with the Ministry of Health. The measuses taken need to be able to be implemented and based on proven science in a NZ setting and the season of the year.
I've got my kids staying home and their teacher told me none of her kids are showing up next week.
I'd suggest you contact the Ministry or search the Covid website as it appears to be an issue for you Treetop.
You could contact kindergartens (govt) and childcare centres (private) in your own area and share your findings. Same for after school care.
Parents are rather wise and will keep their children home whenever they possibly can during a pandemic. NZ people are great like that, they work together.
It is going to take a few months for the information to be known.
Indeed it will.
Baby steps.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/121249170/paul-godsmith-getting-new-zealand-working-again-heres-my-plan
Paul Goldsmith, bring the same old crap to the party. The market will provide!
For some weird reason, I can post, but not reply.
Ps, Stuff really do need a sub editor.
Stephen I thought that that call from Mr Goldsmith could have just as easily come from the current Government. Except that the Government sees more infrastructure being needed after years of neglect. And a willingness to consult with the expertise of many interested parties. And clear leadership from the top.
Perhaps Goldsmith would prefer a hands off approach and leave smitten businesses to sink – with no handouts.
well to be fair…….
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=12327486
there is not much difference between the highly paid and rather useless suits in government. The blue don't hide their contempt for the workers of the country, and labour pretends to be 'kinder and gentler' in their contempt. Both parties don't give a shit about the working class of this country. And if anything, it shows with ever passing day that the government does nothing for small/medium/large and micro businesses.
Small business were always going to take a hit when it comes to a consumer accessing their product, if the service/product is a want before a need.
Some businesses may survive if they combine with another business and this would reduce overheads.
Russell said some businesses in trouble "after only a few weeks in a pretty bad situation" was a sign they did not have the necessary strength.' Was she right?
If Russell had said "Bauer being only a few weeks in a pretty bad situation was a sign they did not have the necessary strength' would she have been right?
Does her saying that mean that she and her party don't give a shit about the working class of this country and shows with ever passing day that the government does nothing for small/medium/large and micro businesses?
Did Russell condemn business owners for not having the 'strength'?
"That's not sustainable," says Steven Scheckter, owner of On Trays Emporium in Petone. Shepherd Elliot of Shepherd estimates the over-supply may run as high as 10 to 15 per cent.
Such fierce competition means New Zealand restaurateurs are loath to be the first to put their prices up. Yet this they desperately need to do, in order to recover their own dramatically escalating costs – of wages, rent and food. There's also a dire shortage of skilled staff.
Already the cracks are beginning to show in the number of high-profile closures in main centres this year."
https://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/food-wine/food-news/115028830/done-like-a-dinner-nzs-hospitality-crisis
August 2019
Then there's this dickhead who national will no doubt seize upon:
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/121254612/coronavirus-business-owner-pockets-150000-from-government-wage-subsidy-and-hes-not-paying-it-back
Hi Chris @ (3.1.1.3). I read about this greedy, despicable arsehole earlier today.
How Black could possibly act like he has done and then boast about it during a nationwide crisis, thieving from Kiwi workers is totally beyond comprehension. Then has the gall to ridicule the government for "throwing money about," while pocketing it himslelf, claiming it's to help his business, so as to keep his workers in a job! A liar and a cheat of the worst kind.
A dishonest, thieving, fraudulant creep, is to put it mildly. Can only hope the law deals with him and his ilk harshly.
Yep, National would love Black, if he's not one of them alreasy!
It's about Stuff trying to make a story and finding someone to oblige. According to what was there:
'It was just a stupid idea from the Labour Government, the Government was "stupid" to pay out, ”We've got people making really big decisions without a lot of forethought."
To me it sounds like he hates Labour, doesn't want them in power and thinks the alternative, National I suppose, would have acted with forethought
When he said, "it frustrates the hell out of me," I assume he means Labour being in Government. If the Government trying to help businesses frustrates him he should change his name to Dick.
Seems to me he's saying the subsidy did its job, and now he gets a free audit lol
If National really have the inside running on private sector leadership, then they should demonstrate that by bringing together a massive group of the good and the great of NZ business leadership to outlines their plans.
I wish someone would.
Stephen
You're misrepresenting Goldsmith.
His article discusses the way different sectors can contribute to our ability to recover from the economic impact of Covid -19.
He acknowledges the role of government, alongside the role of the private sector. Neither can drive the economic recovery on its own; both of these key sectors need to be involved in an inter related way.
If I was a small Business Owner, what was Goldsmith actually promoting for my 3 person business to survive that was not already in the wings?
Possible Replacements for Bumbling Bridges
No. 1: SIMON O’CONNOR
Positives:
(1) He has a lovely wife.
(2) He’s opposed to old and sick people being “euthanized.”
Negatives:
(1) He’s a Simon. That carries very bad associations right now.
(2) He’s a rather ridiculous royalist, who a few years ago drove the doddering old reprobate Sir Robert Jones into the following spittle-flecked denunciation….
This series is compiled by the team at Daisycutter Sports, Inc.
Coming up: Paula Bennett
So they're your picks rather than predictions?
They're another cry for help. 🙂
Please no re-play of old Mr Breen episodes here.
Sorry, couldn't resist.![blush blush](https://cdn.ckeditor.com/4.11.3/full-all/plugins/smiley/images/embarrassed_smile.png)
I know![devil devil](https://cdn.ckeditor.com/4.11.3/full-all/plugins/smiley/images/devil_smile.png)
Worldwide fatalities from COVID are certainly being undercounted. One way to get a handle on how large the undercount might be is to compare actual deaths to expected deaths for that time period. The Economist article linked below (not paywalled) takes a look and it's scary.
https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2020/04/16/tracking-covid-19-excess-deaths-across-countries
20,000 covid deaths in the UK, and that's not counting covid deaths at home, resthomes or hospices, so yes, there's def under reporting.
Can you see the Trump going on about his mate Boris fudging the figures? Last week on the podium when the graphs were up he said (paraphrased, "But you don't believe those numbers from Chine A, everyone knows they're fake."
Everything that Covid-19 does is undercounted. Watch a spike in medical conditions for survivors. Probably there is just the one cause of death being entered Covid-19 and not organ failure or an antecedent cause. I have not raised anxiety/depression and grief which many will require support for.
Thanks Andre, a thought provoking post. I look forward to your take on things as you present facts rather than reckons.
New York City now has approximately 16,000 deaths attributed to COVID, roughly 40,000 hospitalisations, and roughly 150,000 and those almost certainly undercounts. While those rates may have dropped off their peak a little bit, new cases, hospitalisations and deaths are still coming thick and fast. Even with their lockdown.
Per million, that's 1900 deaths (0.19% population death rate), 4750 hospitalisations, 18,000 cases. Scaled to New Zealand's population, that's 9100 deaths, 23,000 hospitalisations, 86,000 cases.
Just something to keep in mind when people publish stuff claiming infection fatality rates might be as low as 0.1% (obviously laughably wrong), or that New Zealand's response was too tough or that we really need to charge hard to go back to how things were before.
Particularly when those comments come from people whose only ideas for dealing with the coming pandemic were tax cuts.
I read last night something like 1 in 56 New Yorker's are infected.![sad sad](https://cdn.ckeditor.com/4.11.3/full-all/plugins/smiley/images/sad_smile.png)
Worse.
Preliminary results from New York's first coronavirus antibody study show nearly 14 percent tested positive, meaning they had the virus at some point and recovered, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Thursday. That equates to 2.7 million infections statewide — more than 10 times the state's confirmed cases
https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/new-york-virus-deaths-top-15k-cuomo-expected-to-detail-plan-to-fight-nursing-home-outbreaks/2386556/
Did you catch up with the first case of death from Covid-19 on 6 February 2020 in California? The next death was on 17 February 2020. Obviously was in the population undetected. Cannot do a link on my phone.
Cuomo is doing a good job compared to Trump. Cuomo is being a leader. Shame Cuomo is not standing for president. I need to look it up if he put himself forward as a candidate.
California's governor Gavin Newsom is doing a much better job than Cuomo. But he's mostly just putting his head down and getting on with it so he's not getting the media presence Cuomo does.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/12/how-the-coronavirus-crisis-gave-gavin-newsom-his-leadership-moment
Ohio's governor Mike DeWine is also doing a good job on dealing with COVID. Which is utterly gobsmacking since he's a fairly ordinary Repug on most other topics.
Yup. 8,400,000 New York city residents divided by 150,000 cases is indeed 1 in 56.
But that's almost certainly a massive undercount. More than half the tests they do come back positive, so there's a shitload out there with it that have never been near a medical facility to get counted. More realistic estimates from credible sources range from 5% to 20% infection rate. Which is still a long way short of the 50% plus needed before the epidemic would naturally burn itself out.
FOrk!
I also heard that the tests cost money. Have you heard that Andre, that you have to pay to get a test?
Another thing I wondered is due to no free health care, would people hold off seeking medical help until it was too late?
Of course in the USA tests cost money, lots of money. There's also medical centres closing down and laying staff off because they're profit making businesses, by shutting down surgery and other procedures they're not making money. It's a very poor system.
(I was shocked how much abortion costs over there, thousands of dollars, it's such a sad country).
One of the coronavirus relief bills already passed includes free coronavirus testing. But medical centres are still finding ways to stick people with huge bills for turning up to get free testing.
https://www.cnet.com/how-to/are-coronavirus-tests-free-yes-but-you-still-might-get-a-bill/
Prior to this, I read about bills averaging $1500 and going as high as $3000 to get a test done. Even if you had insurance that should have covered it, there would still be huge co-pays plus the hassle of dealing with insurance.
All in all, there's huge incentive to keep well clear of the US medical system unless you are desperately in need of help and willing to risk bankruptcy to get it.
Even with a good insurance plan, there's still good reason to keep clear. Over the 9 years I was there in the 90s, I basically wrote off about a couple grand in doctors visit fees for routine simple things that my insurance should have covered, but in the end I gave up on the hassle of getting the insurance to pay up. It will be way worse now.
'Another thing I wondered is due to no free health care, would people hold off seeking medical help until it was too late?'
Well as it's happening in NZ even with a free healthcare system it is easy to predict it would happen in the USA.
A free health care system in NZ? Please point me to it.
Some easy clips for an election campaign.
I can't see why anyone would compare NZ's COVID-19 response and outcomes to those of NY ?
NZ has little inc common with NY apart from we both speak a common language (kind of).
Fair question. No two countries/regions are the same. Just pick any one to compare with NZ to suit your narrative. When it no longer suits your narrative, find another one to compare with. Rinse and repeat. Steve Elers made the same mistake in his blatantly biased and stupid opinion piece on Stuff yesterday; thick as a brick, IMHO.
When I'm looking at what might be a reasonable response to a situation, I find it useful to look for something that could plausibly represent the worst-case scenario. Along with a bunch of other better scenarios for comparison.
New York gives a hint at how bad things could have got here had we held off on lockdowns until our situation became much worse.
Strange going's on in the USA ….
NO presser for trump today, that's a first.
He's going full nato on twitter re fake news. I guess he's upset that people are calling him stupid.
Fun fact, trump respects the american people soooo much that he is always, always late to these conferences, from 15 mins to up to an hour late, every single day.
USA is going to implode, the division trump is causing is off the hook.
According to New York Times Republicans are getting some very scary polling coming thru. They’re suggesting that as well as the White House there’s a growing possibility that even the GOP’s majority in The Senate could be overturned in November. They’ve got to rein Trump in before it’s too late
I wouldn't get at Trump's tardiness to the conferences. I don't know what happens out the back with people trying to get their stories together and extra time being needed to at least try to get Trump to see the point.
No doubt sometimes the delays are theatrics. He knows he has everyone in the room and around the world in the palm of his hand, waiting. They rely on him, they need him and while he can't control what they think making them wait is a childish way to exercise some power.
It would be good if the empire struck back like an April fools prank and deserted the room before he and his entourage entered, every single person including all the TV people. (One of the worst 'conferences' was the April 1st one as it turned out.). That isn't going to happen what with Fox and the White House itself beaming coverage out.
One journalist stuffed up one day when he asked a perfectly fair, ordinary question. He was insistent when Trump wouldn't answer properly. Trump said, "If you ask that again I'm leaving." The journalist didn't ask it again. Had the journalist been as narcissistic as Trump he would have taken the challenge. Didn't want to take away the public's access to information I think. Unless he thought his life would have been over by carrying through. It spoiled what should have been our fun and denied him the chance of being a legend.
Business as usual while the world's occupied with other things.
https://twitter.com/WendySiegelman/status/1254083083319627779
https://twitter.com/WendySiegelman/status/1254084131232845825
He's a piece of work that erik prince.
Are any of you thinking Labour should call an early election?
Good chance to lock in the gains, which might not endure later this year. An announcement of level two, might be the best time. Clearly changes would need to be incorporated at polling stations. These could also be announced at the same time.
Going to the people to secure a mandate, for these difficult times.
Maybe it's just me, but that kind of cynical opportunism would piss me right off.
Indeed.
To the point of probably back-firing on them.
Doubt Winston would agree any way.
It would backfire, and I'm sure Ardern does not intend to do it anyway.
But for the record, she would not need Winston's agreement. The PM announces the date, no approval required from NZF. That's why she's picked September, and his own preference for November is irrelevant.
You need to have communicated a plan before securing a mandate for it. That takes a few months at least, after securing internal agreement. How does say September sound?
Hard to secure a mandate when there are three parties involved, one of whom is notorious for keeping their cards close to their chest pre-election.
also not thrilled about the election being based around Nat vs Lab on this either 🙁
Securing several mandates is probably more accurate. Even less reason to have an early election.
agreed.
"Clearly changes would need to be incorporated at polling stations. These could also be announced at the same time."
That's the Electoral Commission's job. NZ is not the USA, election rules are not decided by gerrymandering incumbents. So, no.
There is no chance of Ardern trying to "cash in" with a snap election. She's no fool, and knows what the reaction would be. There is a slight chance of one being forced, by NZF imploding, but still unlikely.
September it is.
I guess the one country two systems was always a convenient nonsense.
With the world distracted by the novel coronavirus pandemic, China has carried out a power grab in the former British colony, whose way of life it had pledged to preserve until 2047. In recent days, authorities have said for the first time that Beijing’s representative offices in the territory can “supervise” Hong Kong’s internal affairs — a step that legal experts say violates its constitutional firewall with the mainland. The Basic Law stipulates that the city should run its own affairs, including the police and immigration system, apart from defense and foreign relations.
Beijing officials also called for Hong Kong to introduce a national security law — shelved when an earlier attempt at its introduction sparked massive protests in 2003 — and reached further into the city’s legislature with attacks on pro-democracy lawmakers.
The shift “signals the death of the ‘two systems,’ ” said Eric Cheung, a legal scholar at the University of Hong Kong. “It is quite clear that they are now bringing the mainland system, the mainland idea of supervision and rule of law, here.”
http://archive.li/XiYk2
I have been giving redundancies a thought.
Will a privately run business fall over before a government funded business?
Which businesses are likely to have the highest redundancies?
Which level is going to create the worst unemployment?
I cannot see people having the same interest in running a daycare or a rest home if privately run. As well working in these professions a person's health would need to be assessed more carefully. The fees are out of reach already for some and increasing fees would probably not be enough to save the business.
20 free hours childcare, that means childcare centres won't fall over, makes no difference if its private or a kindy.
Aged care…. if you can't pay for it the state will. So that's taken care of too.
Treetop, don't worry about the aged care and child care going broke, they'll both be just fine. Instead how about thinking of new ideas and innovations, cup half full and all that.
The 20 hours free ECE is for age 3 and above. Often there is a surcharge on top of this. There is a MSD subsidy for fees but again often not enough and it is means tested. Kindergartens are insulated due to being fully government funded. There is a disparity in pay between privately run and government run ECE staff.
Rest homes have been understaffed for decades and some of the food is not nutrious enough for the health of the residents.
Improvements are required and there is a cost for this. Often the young and the old are the most overlooked when it comes to their needs being met.
In the Great Depression working for the Govt was the best job you could have.
So I believe that was the case.
Do you know if there was a wage cut for a government worker during the depression or longer hours without pay were worked?
to Treetop at 11.2.1 : I know my father as principal of a sole school was able to KEEP his job because he had a child…..me. Presumably the intention was to substitute an untrained teacher. As well, teachers' training colleges were shut for some time and for a year, entrance to school was raised from five to six years. I estimate the latter would have been in 1934.
This info must be in government records somewhere.
Thank you for sharing this family history. You would have seen a lot of changes in your lifetime in so many ways.
I can see by what you wrote that the government tried to reduce educational costs during the depression.
I have a friend with 2 young children who is in her last semester for her degree. It is a long semester and she will need to rely on daycare for her youngest and ECE care for her preschooler. I find the terms ECE and daycare to have their separate issues. I tend to use daycare for under age 3 and ECE for age 3 and 4.
You're probably right.
Weka was making a good point in her OP that mocking and sneering at Trump's weak grasp of the science is counterproductive. And yet the comments mostly headed off in just that direction (with some honourably constructive exceptions).
I've been in this boat many times before, defending the unpopular. Hell remember Philip Field? I still think at least part of his treatment was racist as hell, and I mean that word in it's original powerful meaning. But pointing that out was not what most people wanted to hear at the time.
It never meant I supported what Field did; it was clearly a bad misjudgement and he was always going to be pinged for it. But the way he was utterly crushed struck me as vengeful and beyond just.
Yes I'm well aware that it would be so much easier to self-censor sometimes. But in the end silence is complicit.
[“Weka was making a good point in her OP that mocking and sneering at Trump’s weak grasp of the science is counterproductive.”
No, I didn’t say that at all. I said that ridiculing anti-vaxxer/conspiracy theory/alt health types is ineffective for the same reasons that calling Trump supporters deplorables is. Trump himself deserves to be ridiculed.
I don’t think what I wrote is hard to parse, and I’ve offered to clarify. You’ve admitted you didn’t read the post properly. This is something like the third time I’ve asked you to stop mispresenting/misinterpreting my post. Please stop doing this because it looks like your misusing my post to run your own lines in the comments. – weka]
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
Trump himself deserves to be ridiculed.
If it's perfectly OK to mock Trump with inaccurate headlines that you openly accept he didn't say, then exactly why do you feel it necessary to move comments to OM when you feel I've misrepresented your own words?
You get to run the rules as you see fit on your own threads, but this is now in OM.
My point is an important one; if the left wants to present itself as kind, empathetic and inclusive … we cannot pick and choose who is on the inside or outside. If you want to make justice the pivot of your worldview, then you have to be as just to Trump as you are to anyone else. No matter how much it pains you to do so.
Yes by all means point out his lack of clarity and correct it if you really feel the need. Although I have to say when I first watched the video I managed to translate it without concluding I had to run out and inject Janola in my veins; as did most grown-ups. Trump as usual made a mess of this; but gratuitously mocking him for his weak grasp of the science is the same as mocking his supporters. And these are the people we want to vote Biden in a few months time.
The man is utterly unfit to the President in any meaningful sense; but this is not the way to remove him.
I wasn't mocking Trump with the headline, I was poking at people who think Trump's not so bad. You still don't understand the post, which is fine, but please stay out of it for the rest of the day, because this is solidly in derail territory now.
I want Trump gone more than anyone else. Coming from an internationalist perspective (and with my climate change hat on), Trump has been nothing but a disaster.
You made a perfectly sound point when you said that mocking and sneering at people whose minds you want to change is counterproductive. I don't believe I misused it at all. Far too many people who might otherwise happily support progressive causes are repelled by the open hypocrisy of the left when it says how fair and kind it is, and acts cruelly on the other.
In political terms the US Democrats hold their own fate in their hands. The factional alliances that underpin both the Republicans and Democrats are in complete turmoil at the moment; and the party that gets it's act together first will be the one that takes power in the US. The Democrat establishment have wasted much the past four years on tearing down Trump rather than building their own alliances. Ironically some of their primary candidates actually got that … but they all got eliminated.
"I want Trump gone more than anyone else."![wink wink](https://cdn.ckeditor.com/4.11.3/full-all/plugins/smiley/images/wink_smile.png)
I just want him gone – it's not a ‘virtue signalling‘ competition
+1. How can RedLogix want it more than anyone else?
Gratuitously?
Redundantly then.
No, I didn't write this. No one would believe it.
Asshole tells everyone he an asshole, no one cares.
I wonder what his lawyer will do. I wonder what his accountant will do. I wonder what the government will do. I wonder what the IRD will do. I wonder what his employees will do. Nah, I'm just fuckin with ya. I know what all those people will do.
These are the kind of cunts our government sought to appease by easing a level 4 lockdown that was almost working. For the price of four working days, and any claims of bold leadership or coherent planning, we can go back to work for the Tony Black's of our country on Tuesday. Some come on down, bring the kids, there's a BBq'd sausage waiting for you!
Sacha saved me from writing many sentences,
https://twitter.com/kaupapa/status/1254207356541390848
Lol he's changed his story a bit now.
Apparently now he'll happily pay the money back that doesn't go straight to staff.
So much for his "lolly scramble".
I just thought it was macho king of industry macho postering, a catch 22 really, if his business doesn't need the money he'll have to pay it back, if he does need it he won't have to. He's shown himself to be quite a dick really.
If the money had just been deposited into the business account he might have had a point but he applied for it and met the eligibility criteria and unless his situation has changed markedly he’ll still be entitled to it. Actually, his employees are entitled to it since it is a wage subsidy scheme.
It's not clear to me that he can hang onto the money for the rest of the financial year if he doesn't use it over the 12 weeks. Would also like to know what happens with the interest earned in that time.
I don’t know either but right now, it seems like storm in a teacup.
I'm still curious how it ended up in the MSM in the first place.
forensic audit
Yep – his entire tax arrangements over several years could perhaps do with some scrutiny.
At the risk of being shouted down at least he is being honest.
Add to that the primary eligibility criteria is….
Is your actual or predicted revenue down at least 30% in any four-week period between January and 9 June 2020 because of COVID-19?
Being a fairly low bar when the majority of business is locked down for a five week period, he makes some reasonable points through clearly not in the way many at this forum would like.
Do people really believe that there won't be many many businesses that will have taken a similar view ?
It is a low bar…but comes with obligations that must be fulfilled.
"Employers must pass the full amount received onto the employee, except where a person’s income is normally less than the subsidy amount (i.e. $250 a week), in which case they can be paid their normal salary. Any difference should be used for the wages of other affected staff – the wage subsidy is designed to keep your employees connected to their employers."
"The modified Wage Subsidy Scheme, and the previous COVID-19 leave and wage subsidy schemes, are considered excluded income to businesses and are also GST exempt. When passed on as wages, businesses don’t get a deduction for income tax purposes.
Payments to employees under the modified Wage Subsidy Scheme, and the previous COVID-19 wage subsidy and leave schemes, are wages. Therefore, they are subject to standard deductions like PAYE, ACC levies, KiwiSaver contributions and student loan repayments."
https://www.employment.govt.nz/leave-and-holidays/other-types-of-leave/coronavirus-workplace/wage-subsidy/
Yep – and there's no indication he doesn't intend to abide by those requirements.
I understand the indignant responses to his comments which to be fair isn't helped by the way the article framed them.
There will be thousands of SMEs cursing him to hell and back for highlighting his fortunate position….not to mention a few industry representative bodies.
No doubt.
What it also highlights for me is that updates of the pandemic response plan in future should include detailed information on governmental economic response and allowable activities during and after lockdown informed from our experiences now and over the next 6-12 months.
His criticisms of the subsidy are pedantic as it was in place and delivering the needed assurance within days to enable the lockdown….and covered a period required to enable elimination of the virus.
Support programmes overseas have been panned for failing to deliver support in weeks or indeed sometimes months (trump cheque anyone?)…I think we know how it would have been received here had there been a protracted application and approval process.
"Throwing money around" is the only possible response. Even the most "anti Government spending" proponents have their hands out, now. And the most "Small Government" right wing Governments, are doing it.
Fine Targeting is impossible in the necessary time frame.
Some will end up in the wrong places, but as long as overall, it supports workers and businesses to continue, it has succeeded.
We are receiving the subsidy and have found the process completely seamless and efficient. The design, with having the recipients published, is quite elegant and will have kept a lot of people a bit more honest than they otherwise may have been. Although after making the application I thought "Is that all I have to do???"
Have been audited too, two payments to the same account got the flags up. That was about a week after the payments came through and was professional and courteous. Most impressed with the job MSD have done here.
From stuff
The managing director of a construction firm says he has made $150,000 profit from the Government's wage subsidy, and he has no intention of paying it back.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/121254612/coronavirus-business-owner-pockets-150000-from-government-wage-subsidy-and-hes-not-paying-it-back
The only way for him to make money off it is to have money coming in while the govt pays his employees. Fair enough. Good for him.
Anything else (inflating his salary/wage as director, inflating his predicted profit, not paying his other employees) would make his little puff piece a very foolish move indeed.
“Rescue measures absolutely must come with conditions attached. Now that the state is back to playing a leading role, it must be cast as the hero rather than as a naive patsy. That means delivering immediate solutions, but designing them in such a way as to serve the public interest over the long term.”
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/2020/04/26/1141709/a-message-for-the-timid-fearful-and-selfish
"Conversions from selfish to selfless are rare. Those who benefited the most from the status quo will fight hard to restore and enhance their position. Examples abound in this crisis."
Two interesting (scary) articles
1 As mass coronavirus testing expands in U.S. prisons, the results are revealing a shocking truth about the virus — large numbers of infected inmates are showing no symptoms. In four state prison systems — Arkansas, North Carolina, Ohio and Virginia — 96% of the over 3,200 inmates who tested positive for the coronavirus were asymptomatic.
https://play.stuff.co.nz/details/_6152092116001
2 Young people, with mild to no symptoms of Covid-19, are dying of strokes related to the virus, doctors have warned.
The experts say Covid-19 seems to be the cause for sudden strokes in adults in their 30s and 40s, who are otherwise healthy.
The virus seems to be causing increased clotting in the large arteries, leading to severe stroke,” Dr Thomas Oxley, a neurosurgeon at Mount Sinai Health System in New York, told CNN.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=12327627&utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=nzh_fb&fbclid=IwAR3wtCgqFAjDWOCrLLh6v1uCYj453O4qrrpf9OFLhFigwfc41NNOIpqNJ3c
Personalisation of politics is not helpful.
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
Personally I find indirect casting of aspersions on others via language that avoids being specific much more of a problem.
This isn’t just politics. It’s also human interaction in a very specific culture and as an author and mod that often requires being specific to individual people.
I did you the respect of responding in depth to your comment under my post. A comment that had some interesting points, but appeared to be ignoring the content and point of the post. Your response is to that is to make another indirect criticism of me or my comment.
Feel free to delete it.
Edit: Because I’m not attacking you – but you think I am. If that is what you think then deleting my post seems the only option.
Feel free to miss/ignore the point.
Ever wondered why comments are moved to OM instead of outright deleted here, even with, or particularly with a note or comment from a Moderator?
Thanks for the condescension incogneto.
Take the day off please adam. It's not that what you are doing is hugely problematic, but I'm out of patience for long termers here not paying attention to what moderators are asking or suggesting.
Any time 😉
"Because I’m not attacking you – but you think I am"
No, I don't, I just think you are disrespecting me somewhat as an author, and unwilling to engage in debate /shrug. I still hope that will change for you because I think you have important ideas to bring to the table.
Plus, what Incog said.
I am sad and pathetic I know, but was just looking at the order paper for Parliament restarting Tuesday.
It has oral questions listed
Will be interesting to see how that works.
It might have already been brought up, and forgive me if it has, but are they just having minimal MPs in the chamber itself, or are they doing it online?
Plan is for minimal MPs (not sure how many).
At least there will be a lot less "Who said that?" from the Speaker. Hard for the naughty ones to hide.
“Which MP just said that watching online!! Get out of bed and withdraw and apologies at your laptop. And for christs sake put some pants on first!”.
There could be a strong National party presence. Don't know how they will manage the 2m physical distancing. Will be interesting to see how they do the seating.
How mobile are the seats in the debating chamber?
As for the naughty ones, yes could be a bit exposed if low numbers.
Presuming it will be mainly MPs living in a Wellington and a wild stab in the dark says David Parker won't rock up.
I'm almost certain you mean David Clark.
Heh, yeah the "joke" fell quite flat huh?
Get ready everyone, it's happening.
[Sure is, but what? Only way to find out is to click on a non-descriptive link, which I refuse to do, for a number of reasons. Remember good old Ed the commenter here? Do you remember what one of his main ‘crimes’ was? – Incognito]
[lprent: It is funny though. joe – how about learning how to embed a image. ]
![](https://preview.redd.it/cipq9f3touu41.png?width=960&crop=smart&auto=webp&s=ee8e81d361217883da3ef566f614d960279b955a)
See my Moderation note @ 3:25 PM.
Or folk could mouse-over and see that it's a reddit image.
Didn’t see the three letters “png” in the long link; do you know how many bloody links I see here every day? Anyway, what Lynn said.
I'm actually a bit hazy on how to embed images here.
lots of them end up being too large.
Use the “Source” to shift to HTML.
<img href=”URL” width=”550px” />
Change the URL to whatever the image address is. Don’t abuse it or have extra large images. I tend to turn off the ability to use it rather than educating people.
ah old school, cheers
Any chance of a UI button like the hyperlink & blockquotes?
Nope. I'm using a standard tool for the comment editor, and that isn't an option.
Plus I think I am going to have to look at images and video. I just realised that those are why the jump to a comment #comment-xxxxxxx isn't working too well. Need to look at changing the timing of the jump to the anchor.
That is so funny.
The joke is: there will be idiots who do it. Geez I hope someone gets some photos.
Farrar watch:
Farrar, in his delivery of National Party strategy, has started posting Australian stats state by state in comparison to New Zealand. He even made his own table (he provided no link).
He’s a stats man and his is a deliberate attack on New Zealand to make us look worse. Miraculously, it places NZ near the bottom of a table of ten!
But the real cynical bit was his use of "ANZAC" in the title of the post.
This politicises our pandemic response using the sacrifices of Kiwi servicemen and their families. The same servicemen who went to war to end persecution of Jews in Europe.
It is a new low from Farrar and completely tone deaf.
He and his paymasters seriously need to take a look at themselves and start reading the room.
Don’t worry about DPF, he’s not worth it. Today he also agreed with the pseudo-academic Steve Elers. It has got nothing to do with stats but everything with (media and data) manipulation and anti-government propaganda.
But I do.
John Key personally thanked Farrar in a victory speech. This shows how important to the National Party his polling and blogging is.
Journalists read Kiwiblog for leads and opinion. I think it's really important to push back when he makes a blunder as I believe he has done here. The push back might not rate any column inches but at least it gets the journalists thinking.
I also like to call out his hypocrisy whenever it occurs, which is quite a lot. Farrar hates nothing more than the questioning of his integrity.
I cannot see any analysis or opinion from the OP himself. The wee ranking table is nothing much and includes one oddity, which is the inclusion of Australia-overall in the ranking. I think DPF used it as a ‘fuse’ to light the commentariat with, which seems to have worked well. Only a fool would have taken that table one step further but DPF hadn’t – the KB commentariat did.
Farrar's posting is never innocent or by accident.
It serves as an extension of Curia's focus groups. He needs not provide analysis or opinion because his opinion is implicit when viewed alongside the rest of his posting and opinion.
Farrar is an extension of the National Party and the dragging down of New Zealand's Covid-19 response is a part of both their strategies.
Let's not be naive about that.
The same servicemen who went to war to end persecution of Jews in Europe.
You do know that is not why we went to war eh. Just saying.
Agree. Not attacking Muttonbird – our men went to war because they were told and agreed that Nazis were not nice at the time.
Only after the war were most of our soldiers aware of persecution of Jews.
More a technicality than a major disagreement.
As a country we went to war because Germany invaded Poland and so we followed Britain in declaring war. Most men went because they were conscripted.
Kristallnacht:
Pogrom:
It's wrong to say New Zealand and Australian servicemen were ignorant of the plight of Jews in Europe under Nazi rule.
I didn't say this, did you mean to reply to In Vino?
Sorry, Muttonbird, but I suspect that the majority of our soldiers would have had little idea of what Kristalnacht was. My father was in the second intake of NZIEF, and never mentioned it. I don't believe that such events got huge coverage here: only a small minority would be likely to be aware. The Poles also held big pogroms against the Jews – did we hear of them?
Fact remains NZ servicemen and their families made huge sacrifices to defeat Germany and its allies in WWI and the Germany and its allies in WWII which ended the persecution of Jews in Europe.
Farrar knows this but cynically used the term ANZAC for political gain. If he'd used the ANZAC spirit in a post about NZ/AUS unity fighting Covid-19 that might be different but his motivation is to undermine NZ's pandemic response in an effort to weaken the Labour-led government.
PDF is using NZ confirmed plus probable compared to confirmed cases only for Australia (they don't record probable cases).
Either he is spectacularly ignorant about stats & data (unlikely given his job) or has deliberately inflated NZ's total to make the government look bad.
I popped over for a look – I think you're seeing things that aren't there.
https://www.kiwiblog.co.nz/2020/04/latest_anzac_covid_stats.html
I think you are blind to it.
For instance, does the title of the post diminishing New Zealand's Covid-19 record use 'ANZAC', the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps?
It's not enough to say ANZAC is a de-facto term for 'Australasian'. The correct term for that is 'Australasian'.
ANZAC refers to the day of remembrance which Farrar has highjacked for political purposes.
Disgraceful.
Since I agreed with Solkta, I feel bound to agree with Muttonbird here. Farrar is a propagandist, and this is the low stuff he does.
The NZ Sikh community has fed 15,000 families in just the past fortnight.
"People from any ethnicity, any religion are welcome. We are all one and in this difficult time we are all New Zealanders. We should all stand with the wider community," says Daljit Singh.
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2020/04/sikh-community-feeds-15k-families-over-past-fortnight.html
Kia Ora Newshub.
Level 3 tomorrow cool.
That's was the question.
At least our lock down was not as strict as that.
Ka kite Ano
Kia Ora Te Ao Maori News.
No fast Kai for me but I see Burger King is running got a Email reka Te dubble whopper.
It is good that our homeless people have rooms to stay in now.
Ka kite Ano
Kia Ora The Am Show.
I think what the travel restrictions are to try to minimise your travel that minimise the risk of catching or spreading the virus.
There you go travelling for mahi stay in your region.
Let's all try to have a positive attitude after all we are lucky to be living in the Ion age.
Looks like most people on the Show will be indulging in a wee while.
Ka kite Ano
Kia Ora Newshub.
The tradies back to mahi.
Its good to see the government helping regional economy's get up and running.
Ka kite Ano.
Kia Ora Te Ao Maori News.
There you go anyone can end up under the bridge.
Queuing for hours is not fast Kai it only takes 15 minutes to cook a quick kia stuff waiting hours.
I agree looking after the environment and low income whanau is needed and will boost the economy.
Good to see how the virus is affecting other indigenous cultures around the world.
Ka kite Ano.