It seems there are different opinions regarding what people can and cannot do during this next month. Are we to stay at home, are we in isolation or is it even a curfew as the Stuff editorial called it this morning. My view, there is no curfew. There is nothing meaning I have to be home at a certain time of day or the like, what I am doing is isolating myself from other people to limit the spread of the corona virus. If I go for a 4 hour walk through my city and avoid other people that is fine, main point is isolation. If I chose to grab a fishing line and spend the day on the banks of a quiet river fishing with no one else around me thats fine as well. Just avoid other people. I understand the need for police to have the ability to ensure people are isolating, eg if I organised a game of football with mates at the local park that would not be isolation, as well as monitor security of property and assets, no issue with that. I would not expect any one to raise significant concerns about me fishing for half a day in isolation though, should I choose to do such. Common sense should prevail.
It does seem like the cops have a different view as yours was my view as well. Even cops pulling over ppl to ask what they're doing seems a bit much, I'm not under house arrest. This will only work if we still have some freedom to move, I live alone, share a couple kids, we need fresh air.
" If I go for a 4 hour walk through my city and avoid other people that is fine, main point is isolation. If I chose to grab a fishing line and spend the day on the banks of a quiet river fishing with no one else around me thats fine as well."
Second example – fair enough. That would probably be isolated even in normal times (assuming it's a rural river).
First example – not really. If a 4 hour walk in a city is OK because the streets are deserted, then it is OK for all of us, and so the city streets are no longer deserted. Occasional contact would build up, people linger, touch things etc.
Some exercise and fresh air is necessary. Butit's a very small sacrifice to limit it.
Yes, the walks, bike rides etc are supposed to be local. But it is not clear what local is. For instance I live in Bayswater, a peninsula with about 400 households. Is that my local, or is it Bayswater/Devonport, where the supermarket is?
Quite a few people swimming and kayaking in Ngataringa Bay, which is fine. The Bay is only used by local residents and is relatively enclosed, so very safe.
I have concluded 'local' means anywhere between Takapuna North and Devonport.
That will enable me to pick up my fortnightly supply of snapper from the Takapuna fish shop (fresher than the supermarkets), shop spasmodically at either Hauraki Countdown or Devonport New World whichever takes my fancy. I can take my car for a walk around the streets inadvertently ending up on Maungauika (North Head) or other such places…
I live alone, am 70 years old, and have a throat infection. I am in Mt Eden, and my only relative in Auckland is a nephew on the North Shore. He is planning to buy some groceries for me and do a contactless delivery.
I thought this was OK as long as he doesn't come inside, and we maintain the 2 meter distance between us when he delivers stuff.
We decided I'll email him my shopping list which he will also have a copy of to present to any cops that pull him over while driving to my place.
Ah. OK. I most likely have strep throat (bacterial infection – white spots on my tonsils). Because we are in unusual times, the GP prescribed antibiotics over the phone on Monday, and told me to self-isolate, just in case it's mild Covid-19.
At the same time she booked me in for a flu jab next Tuesday, to a session for "well people". Sick people attend during a different session. So I think she expects me to be recovered by Tuesday, unless I notify them otherwise.
Taking my morning beverage out on my son's front doorstep earlier I was invited to participate in an informal neighbourhood gathering. Standing in driveways speaking loud enough to be heard.
One neighbour (looks well into her eighties) went for her schedule flu shot yesterday. The nurse came out to their car to stick 'em.
Comvita propolis lozenges and lysosomal vitamin C for tonsillitis. I am blessed with enormous tonsils and hitherto have only ever had infections in one of them at a time. Barbed wire in the throat and generally feeling like garbage.
The last time I was afflicted it was cheaper to buy the vitamin c( the lysosomal stuff is truly disgusting) than go to an after hours clinic. The comvita lozenges are always in my first aid kit.
BTW. Friends living in Wuhan continued their marathon running practise for the first few weeks of their lockdown. Now running in their apartment. 7kms he did the other day.
They were also saying that hospitals are using high dose vitamin C IV for patients combined with traditional Chinese medicine. They also are vigorously encouraging mask wearing and hand washing and decontamination when returning home from work.
Interesting. I will phone my GPs' reception before my appointment on Tuesday, and ask whether to wait in the car park.
I included vitamin C in my next grocery order – mainly because of problem of keeping up supplies of fresh fruit and veggies. I've also ordered some frozen veggies as back-up, but think they have diminished vitamin C content.
I waited a week with my sore throat before ringing my GP. It didn't clear. Also, the white spots on tonsils usually means strep throat & requires antibiotics.
Great about the doorstep communications in your street. I just got a phone call from my GPs' receptionist.
They have run out of flu jab stock, and the ETA for next batch is about mid to end April. Those already booked in will be top of the list when they arrive, and they will let me know.
Had a good chat with receptionist. Flu shots in car parks are only for those who have someone with them, because there's a 5 minute wait time before the person jabbed can drive. Otherwise, the jab is given in the surgery, and the jabee must wait there for 5 minutes before leaving.
She said I could phone them when I arrive in the car park, and they will come out and get me when the nurse is ready.
I think that be a too big for "local". It is beyond what just about anyone would do for a walk. Takapuna North to Devonport is over 10km, and encompasses around 30,000 people.
I reckon the biggest you could do is Bayswater/Devonport, or Hauraki/Takapuna. Both areas are well under half the size of Takapuna North to Devonport. Both have supermarkets within them. So whichever of those areas you live in, you would have to stay within that area. At least that is my view. And there may well be a view that Bayswater/Devonport is too big, except for the fact the supermarket is in Devonport.
I was being tongue in cheek Wayne. Carving out a nice big slice of "local" to accommodate my personal inclinations. Since the Takapuna Fish shop is likely closed I'm happy to reduce the size to Devonport/Bayswater. 🙂
I live in Belmont and have a nephew a stones throw away in Bayswater who I can call upon at any time.
For what it is worth, Anne, I personally have found those Strepsil lozenges pretty damned useless (to quote Blinglish..) I always get best fix by regular, deep gargling with salt and water – much more effective, much quicker cure. (Just avoid swallowing…)
If a 4 hour walk in a city is OK because the streets are deserted, then it is OK for all of us, and so the city streets are no longer deserted. Occasional contact would build up, people linger, touch things etc.
Yes, I think that is what the police are concerned about. Once they are certain everyone is on the same page and knows they have to stick with it, then we can expect the police to step back. If they're still 'over zealous' in two weeks time, then we can let them know to keep their sticky beaks out of our business. 😉
Don't think anyone is suggesting we do otherwise Fireblade. But we do have to get some fresh air from time to time. Car batteries will go flat if they don't get an occasional little workout. Basics will need to be purchased from time to time. For instance, I have an appointment for my flu jab this arvo and I intend to use the occasion to give my car a wee run around the local streets there and back.
None of that is fucking with people's lives. And I wear a good sized mask.
I picked up the last 4 from a chemist in Devonport. There's no brand name or type on it. It has a clear perspex piece at the top so the eyes are protected too.
In her presser this arvo, the PM said there's a company in NZ that makes n95 masks. These are recommended protection for Covid-19, but not the same as the surgical ones used by doctors, etc.
The government is taking over organising distribution of the n95 masks so the company can focus on producing as many as possible.
My sister-in-law is an infectious diseases specialist at Waikato Hospital. I know what they are planning for and what they expect to happen. It is truly horrifying. Stay home.
Andre, if you haven't seen this I'm sure you will enjoy:
One thing I’ve learned so far in quarantine is that my husband refuses to microwave anything for 45 seconds, he always does 44. When I asked him why, he said, “For Obama.”
Well done the USA! Bigger population than Italy but way smaller than China. With he who shall not be mentioned in charge. A true catastrophe awaits. He is such a great Christian he is even giving up the nations gparents for lent. 😕
And trump did a presser bragging they are doing more tests than South Korea, like it's a competition.
Mum reminded me the reason trump was calling it a hoax the other week is because of the mighty dollar and he is only concerned that the virus will cause him to lose hotel revenue.
Mum reminded me the reason trump was calling it a hoax the other week is because of the mighty dollar and he is only concerned that the virus will cause him to lose hotel revenue.
Yep. For Trump, the measure of his success, is the performance of the share market. He was having nightmares over the past week as every day brought new record lows. It is for that reason, and that alone, that he has urged the agreement of the new trillion dollar rescue package, and the reason why he talks about return to work by Easter, despite the fact that the US is now in a full blown pandemic. That has seemingly calmed the dealers nerves. But it wont stop the spread of COVID-19, and I would think that as the virus continues to rage even further into the American population, the true reality of what this most incompetent administration has left undone, will be obvious even to the most rednecked Trumpkin.
“I don’t understand why we would cause that harm to a business and all their workers and their livelihoods for the sake of some sort of message convenience.
“I think that would be quite reckless.”
Australia’s newly appointed Deputy Chief Medical Officer, Dr Nick Coatsworth, backed up the Prime Minister on the ABC this morning.
“To say that we’ve gone light and slow would be completely inaccurate,” Dr Coatsworth said.
“The measures that we’ve got in at the moment are unprecedented. The impact they’re going to have on individual families is unprecedented.”
Scomo is like Boris Johnson and Trump. Everybody else ( states etc) do the heavy lifting closing as much as they have the authority to do then they come in after the event.
Woken up this morning to a Tui calling out, then on an olive tree the return of some Kererū.
I know that the pūriri berries are available, but with all this peace, Tui and Kererū have already returned (or are more noticeable) same when went for a walk last night.
Were they already there and we couldn't hear them fot the noise and the rush? I too heard a tui today but I quite often do being retired and on the edge of town. In Cook's journals were references to the noise of our birdlife as he sailed offshore! Maybe they had better hearing then, too, and a quiet ship but events like our lockdown might point out to us some of the things we do miss in the noise and rush of 'normal' life.
Economists are predicting that hundreds of thousands of New Zealanders could be left without jobs due to the impact of the lockdown and coronavirus.
Senior economists are predicting unemployment to reach 15 per cent, with one warning it could even hit 30 per cent as Covid-19 brings the economy to a shuddering halt.
Another said the sudden stop to most sectors would make the pandemic far more economically-damaging than even the Global Financial Crisis, while another one described Covid-19's economic impact as "an everywhere, everything, everyone all at once shock"..
State jobless filings are growing geometrically, a signal of how the national numbers will change when we have them. Last Monday, Colorado had 400 people apply for unemployment insurance. This Tuesday: 6,800. California has seen its daily filings jump from 2,000 to 80,000. Oregon went from 800 to 18,000. In Connecticut, nearly 2 percent of the state’s workers declared that they were newly jobless on a single day. Many other states are reporting the same kinds of figures.
These numbers are subject to sharp changes; things like large plant closures lead them to jump and fall and jump and fall. But for them to rise so precipitously, across all of the states? To stay high? That is new. The economy is not tipping into a jobs crisis. It is exploding into one. Given the trajectory of state reports, it is certain that the country will set a record for new jobless claims next week, not only in raw numbers but also in the share of workers laid off. The total is expected to be in the range of 1.5 million to 2.5 million, and to climb from there.
I do hope that when the Government has bailed out everyone they deem 'solvent enough' to be 'bail out worthy' someone will tell them that no one can survive on the wage subsidy and no one can survive on unemployment figures. And maybe now its time to help HE TANGATA, and i hope they have a few more ideas then just throwing 20$ bills at the poor and the poor working class in the hope that that will shut us up for a week or several. And i hope that they are not deducting Student loans either from their hand outs to the people.
He aha te mea nui o te ao, he tangata he tangata he tangata.
please explain to me how people can manage the bills and food on 350 – 580 per week, over several weeks.
while people won't be starving they also won't be 'surviving' i.e. managing to keep up all he payments.
And please don't come with the refrain of 'please negotiate' with your suppliers, because everyone who is currently on this wage subsidy will be negotiating, like the good little trooper they are.
As for have no options ot spend? There are people that will order in their groceries, their medication, and as i said, you still have all your bills to pay in full as non of these companies such as spark / electricity companies/line companies/water care etc have dropped any of their prices.
so yeah, you do the math and you ask yourself how long you can do this before you can't do it anymore.
So feel free to tell me where i am blatantly wrong. As far as it goes, i have been on this for a while now and i have not once said something that was 'blatantly' wrong.
if you consider 'surviving' as keeping what you have and hopefully have a job, then maybe you are correct.
if you consider surviving as the action of paying your bills, not accruing anymore debt, not defaulting on rent payments/ mortgage payments and loosing your belongings in the long term then i am correct.
so no i am not 'blatantly' wrong. Nor are you 'absolutely correct'.
But i am liking the comments of "Doing good. Everything (me) is gonna be OK."
I haven't said that for some it will be sustainable, but I am 100% correct in saying your assertion "no one can survive on the wage subsidy" is blatantly untrue as I am living proof of it being done on less. I have done this for a number of years with no debts other than a mortgage.
as i said, we are disagreing on the meaning of 'surviving.
so let me rephrase this, while no one will outright starve on this subsidy, many will not survive.
feel better now? And please feel free to discuss the actual point i made. Namely that people will not be able to keep up with payments, that many will not go back to jobs, and that they will have no means to pay back any debt accrued under lock down and the very potential extention of lock down period once we realise taht 4 weeks may not be enough. And that many many people will lose what little they have. And how to deal with a potential wave of unemployed and unhoused people to add to our current unemployed and unhoused people.
Despite the long post that says nothing, you're assertions that "Because no one can 'survive' on this without defaulting and declaring bankrputcy in the coming month" and "no one can survive on the wage subsidy" are still blatantly not true.
Given that I take home, after deductions, a mere $380pw in wages and get a $70 accommodation supplement, I pay my mortgage, my rates, my utilities, petrol, wof, reggo and internet with mobile and home line included, and have done for a number of years.
Now while this doesn't play nicely with your apocalyptic narrative, there are many many people like me, and the beneficiaries on even less, who are managing and not destitute. It's not easy, compromises have to be made, like I don't buy boutique chocolates for example, but I bought a 4k car on payments without forgoing the basics.
People with big mortgages will get the mortgage holiday for 6 months, which I won't, so that biggest chunk won't come out of the wage guarantee payment. It will be hard, really hard for some over extended and living beyond their means, and will no doubt result in some going under financially, but to be so finite in saying people won't survive is not only alarmist, but a joke slogan to those who cope and manage with low incomes on a weekly basis.
TA if you have to maintain a household and kids than no. If you are single person sharing a flat or rent in a rural town and study via online options, its possible.
Its a matter of degree and what responsibility has to be met.
please explain to me how people can manage the bills and food on 350 – 580 per week, over several weeks.
Crap, innit? But if you talk to an unemployed person near you, they might be kind enough to tell you how they have survived for months or years at the lower end of your weekly income band.
But that is the point, they don't, they hang on. And for once i will also add that our abysmal suicide levels may actually due to this.
I have argued many many times that we need better benefits, lower rents, more regulation in the housing market, that we need a CGT and tha we need to raise taxes on the higher end, and even now, we still refuse to do that. I have not been kind to he current government for a while now, and one reason is that they literally did nothing of substance but are simply handing out band aids that don't stick well enough to cover the oozing wounds.
I have friends who are in that boat, and like the Ex – Co Leader from the Greens Metiria Turei admitted non of them survives without 'cheating'. Be that working on the low end, prostitution, or outright lying to Winz, or if they have family that still can support them.
And if you read the article in the Herald today ( i linked to hat earlier) we can expect a huge number of jobs to be gone for a long long time. there might be a pandemic economy for a while but i would venture that non of that will really benefit people at the lower end.
so really, this should be discussed, and maybe now that it actually affects people that usually have no issue making and spending money, it will affect how we measure the cost of living for unemployed and beneficiaries. Because no one can 'survive' on this without defaulting and declaring bankrputcy in the coming month (plural) to come.
I am not the only one saying this. So really, many many will not 'survive' this. I have a comment in moderation (i have no idea how to unlink links – with the defintion of Merriam Webster and hopefully you will be able to agree with their many meanings of 'surviving') https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/surviving
Economists are predicting that hundreds of thousands of New Zealanders could be left without jobs due to the impact of the lockdown and coronavirus.
Senior economists are predicting unemployment to reach 15 per cent, with one warning it could even hit 30 per cent as Covid-19 brings the economy to a shuddering halt.
Another said the sudden stop to most sectors would make the pandemic far more economically-damaging than even the Global Financial Crisis, while another one described Covid-19's economic impact as "an everywhere, everything, everyone all at once shock"..
My friend too is a beneficiary, and she is 'not surviving'. She is simply not dying in a ditch. There is a difference between the two.
And fwiw, i don't think that anyone on unemployemnt or the benefit gets anywhere near enough to 'survive'. And i also have been on record for this on the Standard.
As i often say, Benefits and Unemployment money in NZ is too much to die of and too little to live of.
You said "Because no one can 'survive' on this without defaulting and declaring bankrputcy in the coming month" and "no one can survive on the wage subsidy". I've shown that to be a fatalistic untruth, as many people already live on less per week.
i am happy with what i said. I linked to the thesaurus of the Merriam Webster Dictionary and they agree with me.
So thanks for your concern, but yeah, nah nah. And people will not be able 'to survive'.
Luckily it seems that the Banks are finally coming to play and allow for a full mortgage holiday for people to apply for. And if that is so, i hope that the government will use their emergency powers to simply declare eviction illegal during the time of the pandemic.
And i do hope that the government will come around to increase benefits and unemployment benefits so that you too (and everyone on a benefit) can do more then just hang on by a thread (another way of saying 'survive'') but actually 'survive'.
and that is all i have to say to that. You can continue to be pedantic if it helps you get through the day.
It's not pedantry. Having already given my income details up thread, I'll happily put my experience as a low wage earner and what passes for surviving means over whatever dictionary definition you need to call on to back up what can only describe as an untruthful, panic induced absolute.
Look. I know cafes and what not are closed, but I wonder how many people – those now on an employer administered wage subsidy – grasp 'the reality as was' for thousands, of a 'flat white' from a cafe being a treat and not a convenience?
Or put another way. I wonder how many people will read this comment and reflect that the thought had never crossed their mind?
Suicide rates will most assuredly rise. But I suspect the biggest rise will occur in formerly cloistered sections of the population.
Most people will also have an Accommodation Supplement on top of those low wage figures if they have high rent or mortgage. And if they have children will also have Working for Families.
Tell me Wayne. The cap on Accommodation Supplement – what is it again? Remind everyone here, lest they think it is any way a serious measure intended to mitigate the financial stress of high rents.
And Working for Families extended to unemployed people did it? okay. How much does an unemployed person receive from that quarter?
Nah, thats regular price for cauliflower – its not in the season, so its hot house, all the farmer markets are closed, a lot of the small food supply shops are closed, and this is now what people have to pay.
as for reporting? The government has emergency powers and could regulate.
I mean we are all already spending our time negotiating with our suppliers and financial advisors and now we should report stupid food prices? these are the stupid food prices that we have on any regular day.
i am not a fan of the Mad Butcher, but for many families that is the only meat they buy because its cheap. And the mad butcher is not considered ‘essential’. Go figure.
Yeah, all those millenials frittering away vast sums on smashed avocado toast and barista coffee should come out of this with their first home deposits all sorted and ready to go!
"all my friends are saying you know, this is not a priority, people are dying and i realize that, but they can't get their nails done" pic.twitter.com/UnkqFdvvmp
Yeah I've seen that one too. In such circumstances a little humour is a valuable thing. We are very lucky to be living here with a responsible govt. I pass on my hopes and wishes to my on-line friends in the US, because they fear for their lives right now.
The Penguin lookalike and part time paedophile impersonator is also calling for the re-opening of butcher's shops. I note that the CEO of the Mad Butcher has admitted that the chain tried to exploit the situation:
"Based on the fact that we got told we were essential services, everybody was panic-buying up until that time and we panic-bought as well from our supplier. Our sales were up 60 per cent week-on-week, so we panic-bought as well because we had to keep serving all these customers."
actually i would call that 'stocking up'. And yes, they should be essential services as many on the low incomes only shop at the local mad butchers. They can't afford the regular $ 20 – 25 kg for fatty mince at countdown or new world or pak n save.
In her press stand up yesterday, Ardern was asked about keeping open butchers and fruit and veg shops, and pointing out they have a lot of stock that will go to waste.
Ardern said that no food in NZ needs to go to waste. They can find and supply people who need it without opening the shops to the general public.
Think about it – kidscan, people in quarantine or self isolated as they arrive in the country etc. I'd have thought the govt would ensure shops are paid something for their unused food stocks. They just need to get in touch with the relevant govt dept or authorities.
PS: Ardern said opening up all these small shops would have an increase in people walking around in different locations and they are trying to limit that.
Also, it must be easy to monitor and regulate the general public’s use of supermarkets than across a load of small shops.
Y'know…if I'm asymptomatic and go to the supermarket, then I can infect someone who lives many km away from me. Whereas, if only small local stores/shops were open to the public…
<i>Does it matter that much how far away the supermarket is? </i>
Not so much the distance per se, more the catchment population/area. My local shop essentially covers a few thousand people within a few km. The nearest supermarket covers all of Dunedin (and then some).
So, if I spread the virus, I'd have thought he job of tracing contacts becomes somewhat onerous and sketchy if looking at a supermarket with large numbers of people from all around the show, compared to tracing through a fairly discrete population in a fairly well defined or contained geographical area.
edit – as for numbers of workers being exposed – I dunno the numbers. But if supermarkets were treated as ‘warehouses’ to supply outlying shops, then I’m not exactly sure why it ought to be assumed more workers get exposed.
OK. Found the bit in the above video where Ardern talks about this. It starts about 29 mins 44 secs. She says there doesn't need to be any wastage of food and that there are plenty of people who need it. She said that's she's sure they can use food that can no longer be sold across the counter.
She also says, for small towns they need to make sure people have access to the same essential services and foods that other parts of the country do. So in those areas where there are no supermarkets, then special consideration is given to dairies, superettes, etc.
Maybe we're talking at slight cross purposes. I'm not suggesting "all" food outlets be open. However, to minimise contact, make tracing easier and potential flare-ups more contained and local, shut down supermarkets wherever possible. Turn them into "supply hubs" for (designated if need be) local outlets.
What's more cautious and liable to aid containment? A 1000 people coming backwards and forwards from 'all around' to one supermarket, or 100 people going to and fro 10 different dairies? (With the 'back-shop' of the supermarket operating just as before, but the front end open to retailers, not the public)
I'd have thought the latter scenario, where feasible, was the more prudent one.
Good point. I have heard someone, maybe the PM or Bloomfield, say that it's better for only 1 person from each household be the one to go to the supermarket. And also, someone, maybe a supermarket CEO, say it's better to do a fairly big supermarket shop with each visit, rather than keep going back for small amounts of groceries.
Supermarkets seem to have settled down now and are not being over-run with shoppers.
I think it maybe that at them moment the govt is going for simplicity, and as much as possible across the board regulations re-shopping, etc.
They do seem to have some leeway for special circumstances for small communities. They may fine tune it more a they see how things are playing out.
Have never posted on that site but if did or someone does they might like to tell Farrar if he doesn't already know that the National Party change of legislation applies only to those physically detained. Those serving a sentence of home detention of any length and those are often fraudsters are free to vote in an election by attendance at a polling booth they are not removed from the roll – so the whole thing was hypocritical from the outset
I have time for Sabine, and can see she has a point to make.
Adam, what point are you trying to make? 'Women' is plural. 'This' is singular. I agree about Trump, but what your other sentence about respect means I have no idea.
FFS the issue is Biden sexually assaulted Tara Reade
Or did the russians do it? Or trump? Anybody but Biden I guess?
Can you explain why my misspelling is the end of the world In Vino? Because I'm totally confused , do we do arguing over bad spelling now and avoid talking about sexual assault?
Or is it acceptable to have people run for office, to be like this as long as they are not trump?
Because I'm of the school of thought – Fuck all the rapist and men who use power for sexual advantage – be they left wing or right.
As of 24th March there were 4 cases of suspected community transmission. Since then they have talked of clusters – such as the Marist College cluster, but I don't recall any more cases of community transmission mentioned.
Dunno if that's just a shift in messaging, or if they are still maintaining the distinction where community transmission means cases they can't trace to a specific source and there haven't been any new ones.
The MOH link posted by weka has now been updated with the latest data as at 9am today and is the official site for this information.
MOH are expanding/revising the information provided and today has introduced stats for confirmed (and probable) cases by DHB, age and gender. The site now also has a pop-up asking for feedback on the info being provided.
Unfortunately all the "details to come" could hide a lot of community transmission, along with the two instances of "under investigation". I couldn't find the one case of community transmission that has had details published, nor was I able to identify anyone from the Marist cluster.
I'd expect nothing less than a beautiful solution like that from the stable genius. No doubt it's bigly expensive, so it will be reserved for family, friends and followers. In that order.
The Harshness in our prisons is so horrible, that 72% of offenders return to Prison each year. Happily.
It costs a minimum $100, 000 dollars a year to keep each criminal Happy. There is of course, no Punishment in helping the offenders into and out of prison. Wonderful.
It is a terrible indictment on New Zealand housing and social infrastructure that so many men from our poorest communities would rather prison than home.
Prison has failed to prevent further crime in 72% of cases, by your own statement.
In other words as even Bill English admitted, "The prison system is a costly and expensive failure".
Who would have thought that putting mostly not very bright,, disadvantaged and poorly educated youngsters in prison, results in, better educated in crime, angry and unemployable young men coming out, Eh?
National Party cheerleaders in despair can bitch and whine to their bumbling and irrelevant leader using Facebook Messenger. Please note: Soimun's video is subtitled so everyone can understand what he's saying.
He now seems to have sort of belatedly pivoted towards the Danish model for employment but talks about it being a high trust enviroment so we have to trust employers. – Same ones that have been screwing the workforce for years – well good luck with that. Same government who made all their contractors redundant a few days before lock down.
He needs to go a lot further than that – companies over a certain size who want subsidies or to make mass redundancies should have to have their applications co signed by any unions on their premises saying that all steps have been taken to consult and make savings elsewhere ( chop high end payroll) .
As for overseas owned workplaces – a lien over land buildings and other assets if they try to jump ship.
Frankly a phone call from a government minister lecturing them doesn't cut it.
As to the banks and loans. I get that the government doesn't have the resources for this but the rules again need to be tight. These are the banks that couldn't even see a paedophile ring transacting under their noses.
It's a difficult position. Employers didn't get where they are by being honest. The model is that you screw everyone for maximum profit for yourself. That is the very definition of capitalism. Those that can do it, do it.
So when a wage subsidy scheme comes along in unprecedented times the very first thing an employer will do is work out how to maximise it for themselves.
The government will have to adjust constantly to the raiding that most employers will indulge in.
Difficult for whom? Yes I agree that is the mode but it doesn't mean that steps should not be taken to deter this type of behaviour.
But hey over three years labour has done next to nothing to improve the basic lot of waged employees – are they even consulting the trade unions over all this or justt sucking up to the boss class.
These subsidies are in the billions & if Graant had his wits about him he would chuck $50-$100 million towards the unions and they could use it to hire lawyers to chase down the employers that people are complaining about or have questions about before it puts them out of work..
Not on a one by one basis or by expecting people to go individually to employment tribunals but on a class action basis-. plus fund some decent information about peoples rights etc. The game has to change.
I was looking at that "raise the bar" website which seemed to have solid information well presented. Then I looked down the page and realised there was a bank account there. Felt pretty sad that this absolutely useful activity was being funded by donations from the low paid . It sucks at every level.
And still the top end of town is untouched. Every $20 mill of excess top end wages is 400 $50k p.a jobs.
I get to hear these comments in general discussions:
1/ we are in a kind of martial law situation and it is OK.
I think most do not understand what that actually means.When martial law is declared, civil liberties, such as the right to free movement, free speech, protection from unreasonable searches, and habeas corpus laws (protection against illegal confinement, such as holding a person without charges), are suspended.
2/ you cannot leave the house other than go to the nearest supermarket.
3/ having a bb gun is ok and a shot from it will only hurt a little bit (!?)
The cynic in me thinks that the government has very successfully marginalised Soimun by giving him the 'important' title of chairman of a committee which will have little effect on what happens during the epidemic but will keep him happy (and hopefully out of sight and sound).
Muttonbird, you must have had some bad experiences with your employers to hold such an unrealistic view of them. By your reckoning anyone who is an employee & then decides they want to start a business and employee people must then be dishonest.
Not all employers are bad people, most smaller businesses are just people trying to better themselves in life.
Sorry that employment for you has left a bitter taste.
Hard case, who would have thought the leader of national would be tucked away somewhere with his own 0800si.wants2help2 phone number, while nationals most popular leader ever is praising the leader of the opposition.
It sure is an interesting moment in NZ's history for so many reasons.
I suspect he is not suffering though. I believe he is still a director of air NZ plus the ANZ bank and possibly others. Air NZ cut their average director fee from $150k to around $120k – 15% for a part time job.
Mostly I feel though that he is just trying to catch some of the positive glow off Jacinda to keep the RW in the frame. I felt he did much the same around 2008 – cosying up to Helen & Micheal Cullen so people would not feel so threatened by NACT and give him the job.
Some are surprised at this sudden brain implosion on the part of both Michelle Boag, former National Party President, and the National Party in general, in exposing the private, confidential details of COVID patients. Others…? Let’s be blunt: not so much. Too many of that Party have long operated with ...
Michelle Boag - Former National Party PresidentWhen Todd Muller decided not to discipline Hamish Walker for his horribly racist press release last week, you had to wonder if his lack of proper leadership had something to do with a shared belief system? After all, the whiteness of the blue “team” ...
On Twitter today, lawyer Felix Geiringer asked a good question: why are MP's exempt from the Privacy Act? The Act imposes its obligations on "agencies", and s8 of the 2020 Act states that this term does not include... a member of Parliament in their official capacity The 1993 Act, ...
Climate Explained is a collaboration between The Conversation, Stuff and the New Zealand Science Media Centre to answer your questions about climate change.If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, please send it to climate.change@stuff.co.nzWhat was the climate and sea level like at times ...
So now we know, beyond all doubt. The National party has no interest in joining the “team of five million” in our fight against the pandemic but its priority is to take every opportunity it can to damage the government. The cynicism is breathtaking. It was prepared to leak the ...
In 1987, as a British Labour MP, I was elected to the Shadow Cabinet by my colleagues and was asked by the party leader to direct Labour’s campaign in the general election of that year. The election was to take place at the height of Mrs Thatcher’s dominance and we ...
National MP Nicola WillisHousing, which I would argue is a fundamental human right, has long been a problem in New Zealand. Not only do we have some of the most overpriced houses in the entire world, much of the housing stock is substandard and therefore affects not just people’s health ...
If the government has not lined up behind a "Yes" vote in this year's cannabis referendum the way some reformers would have liked, one entirely laudable thing it did do was commission some science around the public's choice.That science landed today, in the form of the report from an expert ...
Associate Professor Sara WaltonAt the heart of the discussion on opening up our borders is the dichotomy of health and the economy – both of which are actually intertwined, like many things with our economy, as this epidemic has shown.If we think about our country as a system, ...
This is a re-post from Carbon Brief by Josh Gabbatiss This year will see the largest ever drop globally in both investment and consumer spending on energy as the coronavirus pandemic hits every major sector, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA). The crisis is accelerating the shutdown of older fossil-fuelled ...
A short opinion piece – Friday 26th June 2020 Whilst our Government has treated many financial victims of the current Covid-19 virus with appropriate generosity, the same cannot be said for those of the two earlier “epidemics” in NZ. The “Covid-84” virus (also called “Rogernomics”) spread systemic greed, with the ...
Everyone deserves a a decent life. We know this is possible with a fairer approach to income support and tax Read the Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand’s Poverty Action Plan here ...
After a long break, the government is back inserting secrecy clauses in legislation. This time its the Overseas Investment Amendment Bill (No 3), which in its clause allowing Ministers to exempt purchasers of farm land from the usual rules also allows them to exempt an exemption from the publication requirement: ...
Over the past two years the government has repeatedly delayed a scheme to put cameras on boats to monitor Mew Zealand's pervasively criminal fishing industry. But it turns out that the industry actually wants cameras: Three of the country's biggest seafood companies have broken ranks with the rest of the ...
Louise Delany (public health lawyer)Health and emergency laws have played a critical role in this country’s successful elimination of community transmission of the COVID-19 pandemic. This blog details key aspects of the legislation and comments on issues around testing, payments by incoming travellers for quarantine costs, and mask use. ...
I like Andrew Curry’s succinct and insightful futures blog The Next Wave. His most recent post is about social change. In particular, the decadal-long periods usually required for changes in values. He highlights a 2016 paper by Inglehart and Norris, who examined whether economic insecurity or a “cultural backlash” ...
Story of the Week... Toon of the Week... Coming Soon on SkS... Poster of the Week... SkS Week in Review... Story of the Week... Stop making sense: why it's time to get emotional about climate changeThe science has been settled to the highest degree, so now ...
MONDAY JULY 6Washington (History, Sky 073, 7.30pm). The brilliant Doris Kearns Goodwin is the executive producer of this six-part series about America's first president. It combines interviews with live action and is narrated by Jeff Daniels. It's engaging, said Salon.TUESDAY JULY 7The ABC Murders (Prime, 8.30pm). Sarah Phelps has done incredible things with ...
I think we can all agree that the mainstream media in New Zealand has a very different set of rules for the right wing compared to the left. While Labour and Green Party politicians don’t seem to be able to fart without it becoming a sackable offence, National and Act ...
A chronological listing of news articles linked to on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week: Sun, June 28 through Sat, July 4, 2020Editor's Choice'2040': A funny, entertaining, upbeat climate documentaryA timely Australian documentary takes a 'solutions' approach, with the filmmaker inspired by visions of ...
Racist National MP Hamish WalkerEven before Todd Muller's coup ousted Simon Bridges by a single vote, it was patently obvious that the National Party promotes and stands for white privilege. In fact they’ve always worked to ensure the discriminatory status quo in New Zealand doesn’t change.So it’s no surprise that ...
Dave HeatleyZero community transmission. Just a handful of active cases, all in quarantine. New Zealand is in an attractive situation, at least compared to much of the world. The situation could be robust and enduring – or it might be fragile, just one border incursion away from a “second ...
Is the consequence of the Simpson Report proposals for restructuring the health system poorer accountability to people? When in doubt, centralise‘ has been a persistent theme in New Zealand public policy throughout our history. The current government is no exception. Here are some examples. - The regional polytechs have been ...
I wrote earlier in the week about the Scientology front organisations Drug Free World and Drug Free Ambassadors and their quite prominent role in anti-cannabis reform "coalition" assembled by Family First and a newloca branch of the American prohibitionist organisation SAM.It turns out Family First aren't the only ones helping ...
Nik GreenMuch of the public debate about the response to the COVID-19 pandemic has focused on the extent to which government regulations have restricted personal and business activity.Oxford University Blavatnik School of Government Here in New Zealand, the question of when to change Alert Levels dominated the ...
James Higham, University of OtagoUnprecedented border closures and the domestic lockdown have paralysed New Zealand’s $40.9 billion a year tourism industry. In the process, the vulnerability of the sector to external shocks and the tenuous nature of tourism employment have been exposed. While New Zealand’s handling of the pandemic ...
Raising The Bar: Would that the Prime Minister and her colleagues would listen as intently to what the people – as opposed to the power elites – are saying as the Greens. Were they so disposed, the popular clamour for a transformational post-Covid reset would be loud in their ears. ...
Climate Explained is a collaboration between The Conversation, Stuff and the New Zealand Science Media Centre to answer your questions about climate change.If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, please send it to climate.change@stuff.co.nzDo you think the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown will slow or ...
A bit like a letter home. I have now been full-time at the University of Melbourne since 2019. Before that, I was 20 years at the University of Otago, Wellington. Indeed, I set up this very Public Health Expert Blog with Nick Wilson ten years ago. Now I am your ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections House Democrats have released a comprehensive report showing how – if they control the White House and both the Senate and the House of Representatives – they might move forward on climate change. Their “Climate Crisis Action Plan,” released June 30 by the ...
A ballot for three Member's Bills was held today, and the following bills were drawn: Electoral (Integrity Repeal) Amendment Bill (David Carter) Harmful Digital Communications (Unauthorised Posting of Intimate Visual Recording) Amendment Bill (Louisa wall) Unit Titles (Strengthening Body Corporate Governance and Other Matters) Amendment Bill (Judith ...
Not Ready: Todd Muller’s lack-lustre and self-contradictory performances offer conclusive proof that a political leader cannot be managed into competence. National’s new boss has Janet Wilson handling his media and Matthew Hooton writing his speeches. Both are highly professional political and public relations specialists, and Muller is lucky to have ...
Unfortunately, due to a medical emergency, I have landed in hospital so am not able to do a current update on the NZ blog statistics. Let’s hope I can get back to this in good time. ...
It started as a family story, about a step-father who went out one night to break into an embassy in Wadestown, Wellington. John Daniell wanted to understand what his family had been part of when his mother and then step-father work for New Zealand’s Security Intelligence. He wanted to know ...
The Greens have shaken up the election campaign with the announcement of their radical poverty and action plan to reform welfare provision and introduce a new wealth tax for millionaires. It’s a big-thinking, controversial policy and has generated a lot of disagreement over how radical it is, whether it could ...
My house is currently supplied electricity by Meridian. As soon as I can change I will because Meridian spilled water to hike electricity prices. They got consumers to spend an extra $80 million on power unnecessarily. Clever them. The Electricity Authority has called their behaviour an “undesirable trading situation”, or ...
When Jacinda Ardern unexpectedly became the Labour Party leader shortly before the 2017 general election, she promised to lead a government of transformation. After nearly three years occupying the Treasury benches, health professionals working in public hospitals have been keenly waiting for transformational progress, including in the capacity and quality ...
Last night, One News ran a follow-up story to its Colmar Brunton poll results on the cannabis referendum, headed here as Government accuses big American anti-cannabis group of interfering in NZ politics.In truth it wasn't just the government: Justice minister Andrew Little, National's Shane Reti and the Greens' Chloe Swarbrick ...
When the government refused to put cameras on fishing boats to ensure fishers obeyed the law, Fisheries Minister Stuart Nash claimed that coalition partner NZ First (which has received large donations from the fishing industry) was not responsible for the decision. He has repeated that claim repeatedly since then. But ...
Heroic Evasions: Labour needs to be unequivocal in its communications with the electorate. Either it has a plan to prevent their fellow New Zealanders from falling off the economic cliff, or it doesn’t. Either it has a fiscal policy equal to the task of funding that plan, or it hasn’t. ...
Prof John Potter*Elimination has been an effective strategy for New Zealand in the management of the COVID-19 pandemic virus (SARS-CoV-2). Most other countries have not pursued this goal and are ignoring the opportunity even now. SARS-CoV-2 is not manageable by the influenza playbook; its longer incubation period makes tracing ...
This is a re-post from Weather Underground by Bob HensonAbove: This rainbow appears unusually low in the sky because it has formed early in the afternoon, rather than toward sunset. For a rainbow to form, water droplets must be present in the air in front of an observer ...
On Monday, Todd Muller gave an important speech to the Wellington Chamber of Commerce, He spoke firmly about his belief in the need for foreign investment, for the public sector to partner with the private sector rather than boss it around and, crucially, demanded the government deliver a clear strategy ...
Todd Muller's first act on become party leader was to appoint an all-white front bench. This understandably raised eyebrows, so he is now apparently reconsidering caucus and list rankings. Which is obviously necessary, but there's still the underlying problem: National doesn't have a lot of Māori MP's. And the reason ...
Meridian energy has been caught manipulating the electricity market for fun and profit: Meridian Energy pushed up power prices by unnecessary spilling water from its south dams in December that could have been used for generation, the Electricity Authority has ruled in a preliminary decision. The authority said the ...
When the Christchurch murderer pleaded guilty to 51 counts of murder and a number of other violent assault charges a few months ago, he effectively closed the door on what the public will know about the lead up to and commission of the event. His plea means that no evidence ...
Daphna Whitmore The Philippines is enduring one of the longest lockdowns in the world. For President Duterte the lockdown provides an opportunity to garner more powers and to push through a brazen assault on human rights. A new law called the Anti-Terror Bill has been passed under urgency and it ...
Hearing the Prime Minister castigate the Warehouse for laying off 1,000 workers after receiving $52 million in wage subsidies reminds me of the fabled frog who agreed to carry a scorpion across a river. The scorpion stings the frog halfway across, dooming both to drown. The frog cries “Why on ...
Prof Nick Wilson, Dr Amanda Kvalsvig, Prof Michael BakerCompared with other OECD countries NZ is a stand-out success story by ending community transmission of COVID-19. While there have been some well-publicised recent deficiencies (eg, quarantine organisation), there has still been no evidence of community transmission for many weeks. Nevertheless, ...
It’s June 30th, marked as Asteroid Day by many people of an astronomical bent around the globe. On this date in 1908, early in the morning in a remote part of central Siberia, the sky fell in. Well, not literally. What happened is a substantially-sized lump of cosmic detritus ...
There really is not much about Paula Bennett concerning her career trajectory, the policies she promoted, and most importantly, the socio-economic effect this had upon New Zealand (and particularly the most vulnerable in this, our oft-cited “egalitarian” society of this country) that can be said now that hasn’t already been ...
Don Franks Poverty, inequality – really – aren’t politicians paid to sort that stuff ? Why can’t they just get it together and come up with something fair and sensible? A cold rainy 2020 morning, a headline showed promise. “Green Party’s $8b plan would guarantee an income of $325 a ...
A guest repost by Climate Science Legal Defense Fund (CSLDF) staff attorney Augusta Wilson. Fundraising is not the objective of this article but readers may wish to know that CSLDF is currently conducting a summer fundraiser to support defense of research scientists and research integrity from anti-science interference by politicians and industrial interests. The COVID-19 pandemic ...
Helloy… My name is Todd Muller and I am the leader of the National Party of New Zealand. Many people come up to me on the street and ask me who I am. I’m often walking through Tauranga, or in a mall in suburban Auckland, or maybe even a farmers’ ...
The US state of Mississippi has finally voted to remove the Confederate emblem from its state flag. Good. Its appalling that it was put there in the first place, but even more appalling that it took so long to remove it. Its basicly as if a German Länder still had ...
No one could have predicted when David Seymour’s End of Life Choice Bill was passed by Parliament last November that the referendum required to bring the legislation into force would be held against the backdrop of a deadly global pandemic. Since then, the mounting tally of casualties around the world ...
Paul GoldsmithYou can often tell just how effective a progressive policy proposal will be by how much the right wing criticise it. The more socially beneficial, the more vitriolic and unhinged they seem to become.That was the case when the Green Party announced their Poverty Action Plan yesterday. The response ...
Back at the beginning of April, when we had much else on our minds, I wrote this post urging some caution in interpreting the results of the latest Horizon poll, conducted in February, on voting intentions in this year's cannabis referendum, which was paid for by Helius Therapeutics.I wrote that ...
Over the weekend the Greens made their first election policy announcement, and promised transformational change: a more progressive tax system, with new rates applying to incomes of $100,000 and $150,000; a new wealth tax on net wealth over $1 million; and a guaranteed minimum income to eliminate poverty. Its bold, ...
Story of the Week... El Niño/La Niña Update... Toon of the Week... Coming Soon on SkS... Poster of the Week... SkS Week in Review... Story of the Week... Global Warming Is Melting Our Sense of Time Satellite image of smoke from active fires burning near the ...
. . Plague town? There are two things right now in Aotearoa New Zealand that are guaranteed to piss people off. Firstly, it’s National playing silly-bugger politics with the covid-19 pandemic. This cost Simon Bridges his job as National’s Leader. Lately, Michael Woodhouse has been playing fast and loose with ...
Tertiary fees in New Zealand versus Australia: Fees Are Important, but not as Important as Financing In Australia, the Education Minister Dan Tehan has proposed an overhaul of the existing higher education funding system to offer 39,000 additional study places by 2023 and 100,000 by 2030. The proposal has been ...
Mark Patterson MP, Spokesperson for Primary Industry New Zealand First is supporting calls by hunters and the New Zealand Tahr Foundation (NZTF) to halt a large scale cull of Himalayan Tahr by the Department of Conservation in National Parks. The calls are supported by a 40,000 strong petition and the ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters, Leader of New Zealand First New Zealand First leader Winston Peters today scoffed at suggestions that a team of six political operatives have been dispatched to New Zealand to assist his campaign. ‘As President Ronald Reagan once said, ‘there they go again.’ ‘The clickbait journos can’t ...
New Zealand First is pleased to announce Jenny Marcroft as the party’s election 2020 candidate for the Auckland Central electorate. Jenny spent years working in Auckland Central, having spent a vast proportion of her broadcasting career there. She says she, "knows the place and knows the people." Ms Marcroft says ...
New Zealanders deserve healthy rivers and lakes that are safe to swim in - but they have been getting worse for decades. That's why, with our latest announcement, we're investing in projects that will help clean up our rivers and lakes and restore them to health, within a generation. ...
This week we moved into the second half of 2020 - and our Government delivered another week of big changes and major progress for New Zealanders. Read below for a wrap of the key things moments from the week - from extending paid parental leave, to making major investments in ...
The Green Party has opposed the COVID-19 Recovery Fast-track Consenting Bill which shortcuts normal consenting processes under the Resource Management Act (RMA), reduces public participation and narrows environmental considerations. ...
Hon Shane Jones, Minister of Regional Economic Development A regional freight hub for the lower North Island will be built just northeast of Palmerston North, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones has announced. The Government is investing $40 million through the Provincial Growth Fund to designate and buy land and design ...
Green Party Co-leader Marama Davidson is calling for the introduction of a Guaranteed Minimum Income to lift hundreds of thousands of people out of poverty and prevent more families entering into further debt with the Ministry of Social Development. ...
There has been renewed focus on New Zealand First acting as a handbrake on the Government after our decision to not support Auckland light rail. We are a handbrake for bad ideas, that istrue, but our track record since 2017 has seen New Zealand First constructively also serve as an ...
Mark Patterson MP, New Zealand First List MP New Zealand First’s Fair Residency for Superannuation Bill passed its First Reading in Parliament today. The Bill makes a significant change to NZ Super by raising the minimum residency requirement from 10 to 20 years, after age 20. “Currently, a migrant of ...
Darroch Ball MP, Spokesperson for Law and Order A New Zealand First member’s bill in the name of Darroch Ball introducing a six-month minimum prison sentence for assaults on first responders has passed its second reading in Parliament. The new offence of "injuring a first responder or corrections officer with ...
Fletcher Tabuteau MP, Deputy Leader of New Zealand First New Zealand First welcomes the launch of the new Criminal Cases Review Commission, gifted with the name from Waikato-Tainui - Te Kāhui Tātari Ture, announced in Hamilton today by Justice Minister Andrew Little. “New Zealand First has long believed in and ...
The Green Party is celebrating over $800m in new funding for green projects, which will get people into jobs while solving New Zealand’s long-term challenges. ...
Mark Patterson MP, Spokesperson for Primary Industries New Zealand First is appalled that Meridian seems to have been unnecessarily spilling water from its dams to drive up its profits."While New Zealanders have been coming together in some of our darkest hours, we don’t expect power gentailers to waste water and ...
We wrapped up the first half of 2020 with a busy month, taking additional steps to support New Zealanders as we continue with our economic recovery. We rolled out targeted packages to support key industries like tourism and construction, helped create jobs in the environmental and agriculture sectors, and set ...
Hon Shane Jones, Minister for Infrastructure Infrastructure Minister Shane Jones has welcomed the appointment of Maurice Davis and his deep infrastructure and construction experience to the board of the Infrastructure Commission. Mr Davis (Ngāti Maniapoto), is the seventh and final appointment to the board led by former Reserve Bank Governor ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters, Leader of New Zealand First New Zealand’s click bait journalism is taking a turn for the worse, with yet another example of sensationalist, wilful-misrepresentation of the facts. “New Zealand First has worked constructively with its Coalition partner on hundreds of pieces of legislation and policy, and ...
The Green Party is today unveiling its Poverty Action Plan, which includes a Guaranteed Minimum Income to ensure people have enough to live with dignity. ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters, Deputy Prime Minister Fletcher Tabuteau MP, Under-Secretary for Regional Economic Development The Rotorua Museum redevelopment and Whakarewarewa and Tokorangi Forest projects will be accelerated thanks to a $2.09 million Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) boost, Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters and Under-Secretary for Regional Economic Development Fletcher ...
This week, we rolled out the next steps of our recovery plan, with new infrastructure investment, extra support for tourism operators, and a new programme to get Kiwis into agriculture careers. The global economic consequences of COVID-19 will continue to be a challenge, but we have a detailed plan to ...
Jenny Marcroft MP, Spokesperson for Health New Zealand First welcomes the passage of the Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission Bill through its final reading in Parliament today fulfilling a coalition agreement commitment. “This is an important step in saving the lives of New Zealanders and delivers a key coalition commitment ...
Whakatāne has been given a $2.5 million boost to speed up previously funded projects and create more than 450 jobs in the next decade. Of those, the equivalent of 160 full-time jobs could be delivered in the next six weeks. Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters is in town to make ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters, Deputy Prime Minister Fletcher Tabuteau MP, Under-Secretary for Regional Economic Development The Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) is investing $2.5 million to accelerate three infrastructure projects in Whakatāne, Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters and Under-Secretary for Regional Economic Development Fletcher Tabuteau announced today. “This package is about ...
Infrastructure Minister Shane Jones is throwing his weight behind a bid by the Auckland Council to fast-track the more than doubling of the city's water allowance from the Waikato River. And he's coming out strongly against anyone who plans on getting in the way of this campaign. "It is my ...
The Green Party is thrilled to see changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that mean consents for large projects can be declined if they will have significant climate change implications that are inconsistent with the Zero Carbon Act and Aotearoa New Zealand’s Paris Agreement obligations. ...
Hon Ron Mark, Minister of Defence The Royal New Zealand Navy’s new ship, Aotearoa, set sail for New Zealand on 10 June from the Republic of Korea, and is due to arrive in Auckland tomorrow, announced Minister of Defence Ron Mark. “Aotearoa is the Royal New Zealand Navy’s new fleet ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister for Racing Racing Minister Winston Peters has today welcomed the Racing Industry Bill passing its third reading, creating the legislative framework for revitalising the racing industry while limiting the need for future government intervention. “For too long our domestic racing industry has ...
The Green Party has today put forward an amendment to the Electoral (Registration of Sentenced Prisoners) Amendment Bill to ensure all people in prisons can vote in general elections. ...
The Green Party welcomes the decision to not proceed with Public Public Investment (PPI) delivery of Auckland’s light rail project and to instead run the process through the public service. ...
Hon Ron Mark, New Zealand First List MP based in the Wairarapa New Zealand First List MP Hon Ron Mark welcomes the announcement of Provincial Growth Funding investment of $1.4 million to help secure the Wairarapa’s water supply. The funding boost will allow the Greater Wellington Regional Council (GWRC), and ...
New Zealand First list MP Mark Patterson has been selected to represent the party in the newly formed Taieri electorate at the upcoming election. Mr Patterson, his wife Jude and two daughters farm sheep and beef at Lawrence and Waitahuna. He previously stood in the Clutha-Southland electorate however boundary changes ...
Hon Shane Jones, Associate Minister for State Owned Enterprises A new ‘super depot’ to be built for NZ Post in Wellington will create around 350 jobs during construction, Associate Minister for State Owned Enterprises Shane Jones says. Shane Jones today attended a ground-breaking and blessing ceremony for the parcel-processing depot ...
Our strong economic management prior to COVID-19 - with surpluses, low debt and near-record-low unemployment - put us in a good position to weather the impact of the virus and start to rebuild our economy much earlier than many other countries.Now we're putting our plan to recover and rebuild ...
Darroch Ball MP, New Zealand First Spokesperson for Law and Order Recently released Police fleeing driver statistics have shown yet another increase in incidents with another record-high in the latest quarter. “This new quarterly record-high is the latest in a string of record-high numbers since 2014. The data shows incidents ...
New Zealand First MP Fletcher Tabuteau is pleased to be confirmed today as the party’s candidate for the Rotorua electorate. Speaking at the Rotorua AGM for New Zealand First, Mr Tabuteau said this is an election that is incredibly important for the people of Rotorua. “The founding principles of New ...
The Human Rights Commission’s PRISM report on the issues impacting people based on their sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, and sex characteristics (SOGIESC) provides an excellent programme of work for future governments to follow, say the Greens. ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters said the trans-Tasman bubble had not been jeopardised after aborder botch-upresulted in New Zealand having two active cases of COVID-19. On Friday, Mr Peters told RNZ's Morning Report he had heard from Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison that borders for trans-Tasman travel would open by ...
Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters said today he was pleased the army was now running the quarantine and isolation process - up until now it has been the Ministry of Health. Peters told Newstalk ZB's Mike Hosking that the army knew how to introduce and follow protocols and instil discipline. ...
The Government is pleased to confirm funding for improvements to radiology and surgical services at Hawke's Bay DHB, Health Minister Chris Hipkins says. "The Minister of Finance the Hon Grant Robertson and former Health Minister Dr David Clark approved funding for Hawke's Bay DHB’s redevelopment of their radiology facilities ...
• New funding for four beds at Napier’s Springhill Residential Addiction Centre • A new managed withdrawal home and community service, and peer support before and after residential care at Tairāwhiti DHB • A co-ordinated network of withdrawal management services throughout the South Island • Peer support in Rotorua and ...
Introduction, seafarers and POAL Good morning everyone, I am delighted to be online with you all today. Before I begin, I have to acknowledge that COVID-19 has disrupted the maritime sector on an unprecedented scale. The work of seafarers and the maritime industry is keeping many economies around the world ...
A $13 million investment from Government will create jobs and improve the resilience of the rail connection between Christchurch and the West Coast, Infrastructure Minister Shane Jones and Regional Economic Development Under-Secretary Fletcher Tabuteau say. The funding comes from the tagged contingency set aside in Budget 2020 for infrastructure projects ...
The Government is investing $761 million to assist local government upgrade under-pressure water services across the country, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Local Government Minister Nanaia Mahuta announced today. The announcement was made at the site of the water bore that was found to be the source of the fatal ...
Recognised Seasonal Employers and migrant seasonal workers stranded in New Zealand will be able to continue working and supporting themselves with more flexible hours and roles, says Immigration Minister Iain Lees-Galloway. The time-limited visa changes are: Stranded RSE workers will be able to work part-time (a minimum of 15 hours ...
The Government is making immediate short-term changes to visa settings to support temporary migrants already onshore in New Zealand and their employers, while also ensuring New Zealanders needing work are prioritised, Immigration Minister Iain Lees-Galloway says. We are: Extending temporary work visas due to expire by the end of 2020 ...
Professor Peter Skelton CNZM has been appointed as Chief Freshwater Commissioner and Alternate Environment Court Judge Craig James Thompson as Deputy Chief Freshwater Commissioner for the newly established Freshwater Planning Process (FPP). Environment Minister David Parker today also announced the appointment of Chief Environment Court Judge Laurie Newhook as the ...
Auckland Queen’s Counsel Neil Campbell has been appointed a Judge of the High Court, Attorney‑General David Parker announced today. Justice Campbell graduated with a BCom and LLB (Hons) from the University of Auckland in 1992. He spent two years with Bell Gully Buddle Weir in Auckland before travelling to the United ...
The Associate Minister for Greater Christchurch Regeneration, Poto Williams, is seeking feedback on a proposal to better enable the development and operation of commercial film and video facilities in Christchurch. The Proposal, developed by Regenerate Christchurch in response to a request from Christchurch City Council, asks that powers under section ...
The Government has launched a bold plan to boost primary sector export earnings by $44 billion over the next decade, while protecting the environment and growing jobs. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern today released Fit for a Better World – Accelerating our Economic Potential, a 10-year roadmap to unlock greater value ...
A new approach to prevent family harm that encourages greater collaboration across government and community groups is being celebrated at the opening of a new facility in Auckland. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern today opened the Multi-Disciplinary Family Harm Prevention Hub Te Taanga Manawa in Lambie Road in Manukau. The facility ...
The Government has released a major new report on the options for relocating the Port of Auckland’s freight operations while deferring any decision on the issue. “That decision needs to be informed by policy analysis that is still to be completed. As a result it will be up to a ...
The history of Rāpaki is being restored through the inclusion of te reo in thirteen official place names on Te Pātaka-o-Rākaihautū / Banks Peninsula and around Lyttelton Harbour/Whakaraupō, the Minister for Land Information, Eugenie Sage, announced today. “I am pleased to approve the proposals from Te Hapū o Ngāti ...
Bookings for seats on Air New Zealand flights into New Zealand will be managed in the short term to ensure the Government is able to safely place New Zealanders arriving home into a managed isolation or quarantine facility, says Housing Minister Megan Woods. “Last week Air Commodore Darryn Webb and I ...
Grant Robertson has today announced the first major release of funding from the $265 million Sport Recovery Package announced at Budget 2020. “Today we’re setting out how $80 million will be invested, with $54 million of that over the 2020/2021 financial year for organisations from community level through to elite ...
The Government is maintaining current levy rates for the next 2 years, as part of a set of changes to help ease the financial pressures of COVID-19 providing certainty for businesses and New Zealanders, ACC Minister Iain Lees-Galloway says. “New Zealanders and businesses are facing unprecedented financial pressures as a ...
Small businesses are getting greater certainty about access to finance with an extension to the interest-free cashflow loan scheme to the end of the year. The Small Business Cashflow Loan Scheme has already been extended once, to 24 July. Revenue and Small Business Minister Stuart Nash says it will be ...
A package of 23 projects across the country will clean up waterways and deliver over 2000 jobs Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Environment Minister David Parker announced today. The $162 million dollar package will see 22 water clean-up projects put forward by local councils receiving $62 million and the Kaipara ...
Tena koutou katoa Nga tangata whenua o tenei rohe o Pōneke, tena koutou Nau mai, haere mai ki te hui a tau mo te roopu reipa Ko tatou! Ko to tatou mana! Ko to tatou kaupapa kei te kokiri whakamua Tena koutou, tena koutou, tena tatou katoa Welcome. I ...
The Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) is investing $1.5 million to ensure QE Health in Rotorua can proceed with its world class health service and save 75 existing jobs, Under Secretary for Regional Economic Development, Fletcher Tabuteau announced today. The PGF funding announced today is in addition to the $8 million ...
A new programme, which sets a firm course for the Building and Construction sector to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions, has been announced by the Minister for Building and Construction Jenny Salesa. “A significant amount of New Zealand’s carbon emissions come from the building and construction sector. If we’re serious ...
The Provincial Growth Fund is investing more than $7.5 million in Northland ventures to combat the economic impact of the COVID-19 virus, Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters and Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones have announced. The Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) investment is going to the Northern Adventure Experience and ...
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Education Minister Chris Hipkins today announced significant funding for Auckland’s Northcote College as part of the first wave of a new nationwide school redevelopment programme to upgrade schools over the next 10 years. The $48.5 million project brings the total investment in Northcote College to ...
The Government has opened an urgent response fund to support schools and early learning services to get children and young people back on track after the Covid-19 lockdown. “While we are seeing improvements in attendance under Alert Level 1 Ministry of Education data shows that attendance rates in our schools ...
The law to boost the economic recovery from the impact of COVID-19 by speeding up resource consenting on selected projects has passed its second and third readings in the House today. “Accelerating nationwide projects and activities by government, iwi and the private sector will help deliver faster economic recovery and ...
Five port-related projects in Whanganui will receive a $26.75 million Provincial Growth Fund investment to support local economic recovery and create new opportunities for growth, Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones announced today. “This is a significant investment that will support the redevelopment of the Whanganui Port, a project governed ...
Whanganui’s Sarjeant Gallery will receive an investment of up to $12 million administered by the Provincial Growth Fund to support its redevelopment, Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones announced today. The project is included in a $3 billion infrastructure pipeline announced by Finance Minister Grant Robertson and Shane Jones yesterday. ...
The Provincial Growth Fund is investing nearly $2.5 million into three Te Ara Mahi programmes to support Manawatū-Whanganui jobseekers and employees to quickly train and upskill, Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones announced today. “Up to 154 local people will be supported into employment within the first year by these ...
This morning I have formally tendered my resignation as Minister of Health, which was accepted by the Prime Minister. Serving as Minister of Health has been an absolute privilege – particularly through these extraordinary last few months. It’s no secret that Health is a challenging portfolio. I have given ...
Scholarships for 57 early-career agricultural emissions scientists from 20 developing countries is another example of New Zealand’s international leadership in primary sector sustainability, says Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor. Mr O’Connor, announcing the scholarships today, says hundreds of applications were received for this fourth round of the CLIFF-GRADS programme (Climate, Food ...
A project to help rejuvenate the Horowhenua town of Foxton will receive a Provincial Growth Fund investment of $3.86 million, Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones announced today. “This funding for the Foxton Regeneration project will be used to make the well-known holiday town even more attractive for visitors and ...
Moa bones and other sub-fossil remains of extinct species are set to have improved protection with proposals to prevent the trade in extinct species announced the Minister of Conservation Eugenie Sage today. “We have lost too many of our native species, but these lost species, such as moa, remain an ...
The Government’s free and healthy school lunches programme moves south for the first time creating jobs for around 30 people in Otago and Southland. “Eighteen schools with 3000 students are joining the programme – 11 have already begun serving lunches, and seven are preparing to start during Term 3. This is ...
Thousands of Kiwi jobs and investment in New Zealand productions will be protected through a screen sector support package announced today by Associate Minister for Arts Culture and Heritage Carmel Sepuloni, Minister for Economic Development Phil Twyford and Minister for Broadcasting Kris Faafoi. The package also includes investment in broadcasting ...
The Government has established a new $10 million fund for the domestic events sector to help save jobs and protect incomes as it recovers from the impacts of COVID-19, Minister of Economic Development Phil Twyford announced today. This funding from Budget 2020 follows talks with the event sector designed to ...
The Government has taken another step in its commitment to making sure New Zealanders get a fairer deal at the petrol pump with the introduction of legislation to improve competition in the retail fuel market, says Energy and Resources Minister Megan Woods. “The fuel market study that this Government ordered ...
New Zealand has joined a global initiative that aims to enable all countries to access a safe and effective Covid-19 vaccine, Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters announced today. The COVAX Facility was recently launched by Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. The Alliance includes the World Health Organization, UNICEF, the World Bank ...
From today new legislation takes effect to both restore the right to legal representation at the start of a Care of Children (CoCA) dispute in the Family Court, and allow parties to those proceedings to access legal aid where eligible. During a visit to the Family Court in Auckland today, ...
Home-based early childhood education (ECE) subsidised by the government will transition to a fully qualified workforce by 2025 to ensure better and more consistent quality, Education Minister Chris Hipkins announced today. “Quality early learning helps provide children with a strong foundation for their future,” Chris Hipkins said. From 1 January ...
Luckily for Labour, Jacinda Ardern's leadership in the Covid-19 crisis is a much more powerful political weapon than bread-and-butter issues about the country’s future. ...
IrrigationNZ believes Government investment in the water sector is a step in the right direction – but calls for a broader strategy to encompass all water infrastructure, including storage and policy development. ...
The race relations commissioner, Meng Foon, has just sent the following letter to leaders of New Zealand political parties.Tēnā koe, Talofa, Fakaalofa lahi atu, Kia orana, 你好, Namaste.My role as Race Relations Commissioner is to promote and enhance harmonious communities in our diverse nation. As the leader of a political ...
National MP Hamish Walker's unconscionable privacy breach has already ended his career and that of a party stalwart - but his caucus colleagues may also be cursing his terrible judgment come September 19, Sam Sachdeva writes A young, promising politician gifted one of the safest seats in the country and the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alexander Gillespie, Professor of Law, University of Waikato The leak of the confidential personal information of COVID-19 patients by Clutha-Southland MP Hamish Walker and influential party figure Michelle Boag has been highly embarrassing for the National Party. In less than 24 hours ...
An extract from The Quick and the Dead, the new memoir by Palmerston North pathologist Cynric Temple-Camp.Books editor Catherine Woulfe writes: Strong recommend for this medical memoir, the second by the most excellently-named Cynric Temple-Camp after his 2017 bestseller The Cause of Death.Ostensibly a collection of yarns and case studies, after ...
National Party leader Todd Muller has spoken about the controversy around Hamish Walker at a roading announcement this afternoon, saying the National MP's exit from politics was "the only option". ...
National Party leader Todd Muller has made another roading announcement this afternoon, as the controversy around the National MP who leaked Covid-19 patient details continues to unfold. ...
"Linking funding to commitment from councils to reform the investment, planning and delivery of their water assets is a welcome move," says Infracom (New Zealand Infrastructure Commission, Te Waihanga) Chief Executive Ross Copland, in response ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dani Larkin, Associate Lecturer in Law, University of Newcastle Gunnai-Kurnai and Gunditjmara woman Lidia Thorpe was recently elected by Greens party members to replace the former party leader, Richard Di Natale, as senator for Victoria. Thorpe is the first Indigenous woman to ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Charlene Zietsma, Associate professor, Pennsylvania State University In May this year, we were convening a dream conference: 140 like-minded academics on a Greek island for three-and-a-half days to work on a topic we cared about – organising sustainably. We recognised the contradiction ...
“The Government’s long-awaited funding boost and water reform agenda is New Zealand’s best chance to create a high performing water sector for New Zealanders,” says Infrastructure NZ CEO Paul Blair. “The Government has today announced it will ...
Yesterday evening I received a letter from Leader Todd Muller, asking the National Party Board of Directors to urgently meet and consider some very serious, publicly reported, issues concerning Clutha-Southland MP Hamish Walker. The Board met at midday ...
Te Rūnanga o Ngāti Whātua is working with Marae, hapū, Post Settlement Governance Entities (Te Uri o Hau, Ngā Maunga Whakahī, and Ōrākei) and Fight the Tip to lead a hikoi in Tāmaki Mākaurau (Auckland) on Friday 17 July 2020. It is the position ...
The country's latest case of Covid-19 will be charged for visiting an Auckland supermarket last night, Health Minister Chris Hipkins has confirmed. Hipkins said the 32-year-old man, who arrived from India on July 3, left his managed isolation last night to go to the Countdown supermarket on Victoria Street in central ...
The Government has formally confirmed that it will not use any of the current or future serology tests to assess how widespread the Covid19 disease has been in New Zealand. In answer to an Official Information Request by the Covid Plan B group, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Marina Yue Zhang, Associate Professor of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Swinburne University of Technology Only 40% of students in China who previously intended to study overseas still plan to, while just under 50% of those who had studied overseas plan to return to ...
Local Government New Zealand (LGNZ) welcomes the announcement of $761 million for Tranche One funding as part of the Government’s three waters reform programme, saying it provides a measure of financial assistance to councils as they consider ...
Latest from the Beehive The government’s economic engineers were hard at work yesterday. One minister was set on establishing a base for film production in Christchurch while – much more critically for the wellbeing of the nation – a cluster of others led by the PM were unveiling their grand ...
Recent shocks to our economy have shown that when it comes to knowing how to manage our money, New Zealand still has a long way to go. Having now moved on from my first illustrious job as a graduate tax accountant, a lot of what I learnt about tax in my ...
The Taxpayers’ Union is welcoming the proposed removal of water services from local councils , but says that the new ‘Rolls Royce’ drinking quality standards risk lumping communities with the enormous costs of engineers' gold plating. Union ...
Auckland Action Against Poverty is launching a campaign to build commitment from Members of Parliament seeking to be part of Government to increase incomes across the board to liveable levels. The campaign launch will be held tomorrow, Thursday ...
As the settler government did in the late 1800s, it’s high time we erected a bunch of new monuments to the great people of this country (and maybe take some of the stink ones down). Ātea editor Leonie Hayden has some suggestions. Hundreds of heroic and revered ancestors proudly adorn walls, ...
New research from Unisys Corporation (NYSE: UIS) reveals New Zealand women are significantly more concerned than their male counterparts about the impact of COVID-19, according to the new 2020 Unisys Security Index™. ...
“The Zero Waste Network Aotearoa is extremely pleased to announce that we will host a free, international online zero waste conference in December this year. The conference is called Our Zero Waste World Digital Summit . It will highlight zero ...
The High-profile former National Party president has resigned from her campaign and electorate roles for Auckland Central MP and National deputy leader Nikki Kaye. ...
Murray Chong has been selected as the New Conservative candidate for New Plymouth for the 2020 General Election. “I’m delighted to be the New Conservative candidate for the 2020 election. Having stood for another party in 2017, only to be let down ...
Michelle Boag has stood down as Auckland Central MP Nikki Kaye's campaign chair for the upcoming election and no longer has any role with the party. ...
How did the bizarre story of Hamish Walker trying to leak confidential Covid details to media all play out? Radio NZ’s Jo Moir was one of the journalists contacted by the MP, and wrote this timeline. In an extraordinary move National Party leader Todd Muller has had one of his own ...
By RNZ News The opposition National Party leader says he has written to the party’s board asking them to remove MP Hamish Walker from the party after it was revealed he leaked private health information to New Zealand media. It was revealed yesterday that former National Party president Michelle Boag ...
COMMENT:By Nasya Bahfen in Melbourne Australia’s Victorian state government told returned travellers to quarantine for two weeks. Some broke the rules. It then paid for them to stay in hotels with security guards. Some of the guards couldn’t keep their dicks in their pants. Some of the returned travellers ...
Toby Manhire, Annabelle Lee-Mather and Ben Thomas on ministerial resignations in the recent and middle-distant past, a new book from Judith Collins, and the reinvention of Simon Bridges.This episode was recorded on Tuesday morning, before news broke that Hamish Walker and Michelle Boag were behind the Covid-19 data leak.The Gone ...
Fonterra will be greeted by drums, cow costumes, placards and a pile of coal on Thursday morning, 9 July, as Extinction Rebellion Ōtautahi ask the question, ‘Why are Fonterra still using coal in a climate emergency?’ The group will be gathering ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Bjorn Sturmberg, Research Leader, Battery Storage & Grid Integration Program, Australian National University Electric vehicles can help keep the air clean in our cities – as we’ve seen recently with the reduction of traffic through COVID-19 lockdowns – but they face two ...
Editor’s Note: Here below is a list of the main issues currently under discussion in New Zealand and links to media coverage.Today’s contentNational Party revealed as source of Covid-19 privacy leak Audrey Young (Herald): National’s failures on patient leak from top to bottom (paywalled) Luke Malpass (Stuff): National leader Todd Muller ...
Troy Mihaka , local Wellington Conservation Volunteer, Arts Manager and LGBTQ+ Advocate announces candidacy in the 2020 General Election. Standing in the Electorate of Rongotai , Mihaka will be representing the Integrity Party of Aotearoa New Zealand . A political ...
As universities around the world slash jobs and courses in response to the pandemic, Victoria University of Wellington is signalling its intention to introduce sweeping austerity measures, a group of concerned tutors write. A response from Victoria University of Wellington is at the end of this column.So far, 2020 has ...
New Conservative is appalled by the lack of consultation provided by DOC to stakeholders in the management of the New Zealand Tahr herd by not following protocol and not allowing all stakeholders to consult on the plan proposed. DOC released its new Tahr ...
For all The Spinoff’s latest coverage of Covid-19 see here. Read Siouxsie Wiles’s work here. New Zealand is currently in alert level one – read about what that means here. For official government advice, see here.The Spinoff’s coverage of the Covid-19 outbreak is made possible thanks to donations from Spinoff Members. To support this ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Paul Haskell-Dowland, Associate Dean (Computing and Security), Edith Cowan University In an age of isolation, video sharing platform TikTok has emerged as a bonding force for many. But recent headlines allege the service, owned by Beijing-based company ByteDance, is feeding users’ data ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kingsley Dixon, John Curtin Distinguished Professor, Curtin University This article is a preview from Flora, Fauna, Fire, a multimedia project launching on Monday July 13. The project tracks the recovery of Australia’s native plants and animals after last summer’s bushfire tragedy. Sign ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Shulmeister, Professor, University of Canterbury CC BY-NDClimate Explained is a collaboration between The Conversation, Stuff and the New Zealand Science Media Centre to answer your questions about climate change.If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dallas Rogers, Associate Dean, School of Architecture, Design and Planning, University of Sydney A target of 70% private and 30% public dwellings is an accepted standard for public housing renewal projects in several Australian states. This level of private ownership is said ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Simon Lacey, Senior Lecturer in International Trade, University of Adelaide When the United Kingdom completed its telecom supply chain review last year it gave a green light to Huawei by concluding that nationality-based bans did nothing to improve network security and could ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alison M Joubert, Lecturer in Marketing, The University of Queensland Cancel culture — withdrawing support for public figures when they do or say something offensive — has become so widespread it was Macquarie Dictionary’s 2019 word of the year. A practice where ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dan Fastnedge, Lecturer in Advertising Creativity, Auckland University of Technology When the New Zealand government wanted a campaign to keep kids safe online, naturally it turned to a couple of naked porn actors to get the message across. Actually the government turned ...
A grassroots campaign has launched this week calling on political party leaders to support the implementation of a gender-balanced Cabinet with 50 percent women and 50 percent men in this year’s election. The many vital issues discussed each ...
Air NZ shares fall as quarantine capacity stops it from selling new international tickets for at least three weeks and as Melbourne goes into complete lockdown ...
A flood of Kiwis returning home from Australia has overwhelmed quarantine capacity. Bernard Hickey reports the Government is looking at bringing in cruise ships to expand supply and a quarantine booking system to further restrict demand. Meanwhile, there is now no space for new guest workers, tourists or students for the foreseeable future. ...
The National Party leader says he has written to the party's board asking them to remove MP Hamish Walker from the party after it was revealed he leaked private health information to media. ...
Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Scandal for MP after leaking confidential Covid data, new bookings for return to country put on hold, and Islamic Women’s Council release evidence of being ignored.We now know exactly how the leak of private information of all active Covid-19 patients happened. National ...
Opinion: While the investigation into the security of patient data may still find the Government wanting, a rookie National MP’s spectacular own goal has put the opposition in the firing line, writes Laura Walters Political gameplay 101: If you're trying to highlight that another political party shouldn't be trusted with ...
A new survey supports fundamental changes to the country's criminal justice system, but a parallel study shows many still believe in a punitive system, Laura Walters reports A new survey suggests strong support amongst Kiwis for fundamental changes in the resourcing and funding of the criminal justice system, as well as a ...
The Covid-19 lockdown has only confirmed how vital New Zealand’s early childhood sector is to the future of this country. Now is the time to bed in a systemic policy infrastructure to support resilient children, write three experts. The Early Learning Action Plan (ELAP), released in December 2019, was barely ...
Picked as a star by one of the great women golfers of all time, Wellington teenager Darae Chung is preparing herself mentally and physically to play overseas again. When 16-year-old Darae Chung travels around the country – and eventually around the globe again – playing golf, she will have the ...
He has been in the job less than a week, but new Health Minister Chris Hipkins is already making his presence felt on some critical Covid-19 issues, Sam Sachdeva writes When it was revealed Chris Hipkins would replace David Clark as Health Minister, some observers wondered whether the role may stretch him ...
Matteo Di Maio takes a look at New Zealand’s most expensive rare books. Anah Dunsheath from Rare Books in Auckland knows how you ought to take an old book off the shelf, and how you ought not to. Novices will just pull the book out by the top of its ...
The incoming government needs to wake up and have a critical look at the child protection monster that is Oranga Tamariki, writes Dr Ian Hyslop There is always risk of a chronic disconnect between the policy and operational arms of public service organisations. This risk is particularly acute in excessively ...
The genetic secrets of New Zealand’s predatory 'lion' have been revealed with the mapping of the stoat genome, and there's hope better, kinder ways of getting rid of the introduced killing machines might be found A stoat’s spleen, liquid nitrogen, supercomputers, and 18 months of international effort has led to the mapping ...
Auckland 'move the port' studies have averaged out to at least two per year over the last decade with almost every one of them throwing out a different option or result. ...
The Covid-19 pandemic made us see the value of a life. Now the Team of Five Million needs to take that lesson and open its eyes to the value of the lives of Maori, Pasifika and People of Colour, writes Karamia Muller. This year, 2020, is asking everyone: What is ...
Power Play - Todd Muller is dreaming if he thinks saying no comment will wash after his MP leaked the private details of Covid-19 patients to the media. ...
The leak, we discovered last night, was the work of a first-term MP and a veteran National Party operator. What does it mean for the pair, and for the party, asks Ben Thomas.The latest whodunit in New Zealand politics was solved last night in a flurry of releases, as National’s ...
The Government wants to accelerate improvements to production and sustainability on the land to almost double export earnings in a decade. But big change will be needed, Tim Murphy reports. ...
Methamphetamine - or P - is now here to stay. But addicts of the destructive drug are so ashamed, they will wait up to 10 years to get help. In 2001, William Bell murdered three people in a meth-fuelled rampage at the Mt Wellington RSA in Auckland. He was ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mary-Louise McLaws, Professor of Epidemiology Healthcare Infection and Infectious Diseases Control, UNSW From midnight Wednesday, all of Metropolitan Melbourne and Mitchell Shire will return to Stage 3 lockdown for six weeks. There are only four reasons for residents to leave their homes: ...
After the Spinoff recounted Leave.EU heads telling Britain’s Daily Telegraph they had ‘dispatched’ a team to Auckland to work with NZ First, the party leader issued a deeply curious statement.The day began with news that the “bad boys of Brexit” were back and they were coming to New Zealand.The Daily ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Vaz, Senior Lecturer, Department of Banking and Finance, Monash University The reimposition of stage 3 restrictions on metropolitan Melbourne is, as Victorian premier Daniel Andrews says, a matter of life or death. That’s also true for small businesses. A further six ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By C Raina MacIntyre, Professor of Global Biosecurity, NHMRC Principal Research Fellow, Head, Biosecurity Program, Kirby Institute, UNSW After early success in suppressing COVID-19, we are facing a resurgence in Victoria, which is threatening disease control for the whole country. Outbreaks in northwestern ...
Open mike 27/03/2020 
Some are surprised at this sudden brain implosion on the part of both Michelle Boag, former National Party President, and the National Party in general, in exposing the private, confidential details of COVID patients. Others…? Let’s be blunt: not so much. Too many of that Party have long operated with ...2 hours ago
Michelle Boag - Former National Party PresidentWhen Todd Muller decided not to discipline Hamish Walker for his horribly racist press release last week, you had to wonder if his lack of proper leadership had something to do with a shared belief system? After all, the whiteness of the blue “team” ...4 hours ago
On Twitter today, lawyer Felix Geiringer asked a good question: why are MP's exempt from the Privacy Act? The Act imposes its obligations on "agencies", and s8 of the 2020 Act states that this term does not include... a member of Parliament in their official capacity The 1993 Act, ...5 hours ago
Climate Explained is a collaboration between The Conversation, Stuff and the New Zealand Science Media Centre to answer your questions about climate change. If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, please send it to climate.change@stuff.co.nz What was the climate and sea level like at times ...5 hours ago
So now we know, beyond all doubt. The National party has no interest in joining the “team of five million” in our fight against the pandemic but its priority is to take every opportunity it can to damage the government. The cynicism is breathtaking. It was prepared to leak the ...7 hours ago
Today’s content National Party revealed as source of Covid-19 privacy leak Audrey Young (Herald): National’s failures on patient leak from top to bottom (paywalled) Luke Malpass (Stuff): National leader Todd Muller found wanting in first real test of moral leadership Jo Moir (RNZ): How the Hamish Walker Covid-19 patient detail leak played out Mark ...9 hours ago
If the government has not lined up behind a "Yes" vote in this year's cannabis referendum the way some reformers would have liked, one entirely laudable thing it did do was commission some science around the public's choice.That science landed today, in the form of the report from an expert ...1 day ago
This is a re-post from Carbon Brief by Josh Gabbatiss This year will see the largest ever drop globally in both investment and consumer spending on energy as the coronavirus pandemic hits every major sector, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA). The crisis is accelerating the shutdown of older fossil-fuelled ...2 days ago
...2 days ago
Is the consequence of the Simpson Report proposals for restructuring the health system poorer accountability to people? When in doubt, centralise‘ has been a persistent theme in New Zealand public policy throughout our history. The current government is no exception. Here are some examples. - The regional polytechs have been ...5 days ago
5 days ago
Unfortunately, due to a medical emergency, I have landed in hospital so am not able to do a current update on the NZ blog statistics. Let’s hope I can get back to this in good time. ...6 days ago
When the Christchurch murderer pleaded guilty to 51 counts of murder and a number of other violent assault charges a few months ago, he effectively closed the door on what the public will know about the lead up to and commission of the event. His plea means that no evidence ...1 week ago
Daphna Whitmore The Philippines is enduring one of the longest lockdowns in the world. For President Duterte the lockdown provides an opportunity to garner more powers and to push through a brazen assault on human rights. A new law called the Anti-Terror Bill has been passed under urgency and it ...1 week ago
There really is not much about Paula Bennett concerning her career trajectory, the policies she promoted, and most importantly, the socio-economic effect this had upon New Zealand (and particularly the most vulnerable in this, our oft-cited “egalitarian” society of this country) that can be said now that hasn’t already been ...1 week ago
Helloy… My name is Todd Muller and I am the leader of the National Party of New Zealand. Many people come up to me on the street and ask me who I am. I’m often walking through Tauranga, or in a mall in suburban Auckland, or maybe even a farmers’ ...1 week ago
. . Plague town? There are two things right now in Aotearoa New Zealand that are guaranteed to piss people off. Firstly, it’s National playing silly-bugger politics with the covid-19 pandemic. This cost Simon Bridges his job as National’s Leader. Lately, Michael Woodhouse has been playing fast and loose with ...1 week ago
Tertiary fees in New Zealand versus Australia: Fees Are Important, but not as Important as Financing In Australia, the Education Minister Dan Tehan has proposed an overhaul of the existing higher education funding system to offer 39,000 additional study places by 2023 and 100,000 by 2030. The proposal has been ...1 week ago
Mark Patterson MP, Spokesperson for Primary Industry New Zealand First is supporting calls by hunters and the New Zealand Tahr Foundation (NZTF) to halt a large scale cull of Himalayan Tahr by the Department of Conservation in National Parks. The calls are supported by a 40,000 strong petition and the ...1 day ago
New Zealanders deserve healthy rivers and lakes that are safe to swim in - but they have been getting worse for decades. That's why, with our latest announcement, we're investing in projects that will help clean up our rivers and lakes and restore them to health, within a generation. ...3 days ago
The Green Party has opposed the COVID-19 Recovery Fast-track Consenting Bill which shortcuts normal consenting processes under the Resource Management Act (RMA), reduces public participation and narrows environmental considerations. ...6 days ago
The Government is pleased to confirm funding for improvements to radiology and surgical services at Hawke's Bay DHB, Health Minister Chris Hipkins says. "The Minister of Finance the Hon Grant Robertson and former Health Minister Dr David Clark approved funding for Hawke's Bay DHB’s redevelopment of their radiology facilities ...1 hour ago
Luckily for Labour, Jacinda Ardern's leadership in the Covid-19 crisis is a much more powerful political weapon than bread-and-butter issues about the country’s future. ...18 mins ago
IrrigationNZ believes Government investment in the water sector is a step in the right direction – but calls for a broader strategy to encompass all water infrastructure, including storage and policy development. ...1 hour ago
The race relations commissioner, Meng Foon, has just sent the following letter to leaders of New Zealand political parties.Tēnā koe, Talofa, Fakaalofa lahi atu, Kia orana, 你好, Namaste.My role as Race Relations Commissioner is to promote and enhance harmonious communities in our diverse nation. As the leader of a political ...1 hour ago
Services to help those with drug and alcohol addictions are set to get an extra $32 million in funding over the next four years. ...2 hours ago
National MP Hamish Walker's unconscionable privacy breach has already ended his career and that of a party stalwart - but his caucus colleagues may also be cursing his terrible judgment come September 19, Sam Sachdeva writes A young, promising politician gifted one of the safest seats in the country and the ...2 hours ago
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alexander Gillespie, Professor of Law, University of Waikato The leak of the confidential personal information of COVID-19 patients by Clutha-Southland MP Hamish Walker and influential party figure Michelle Boag has been highly embarrassing for the National Party. In less than 24 hours ...2 hours ago
The country's latest case of Covid-19 will be charged for visiting an Auckland supermarket last night, Health Minister Chris Hipkins has confirmed. Hipkins said the 32-year-old man, who arrived from India on July 3, left his managed isolation last night to go to the Countdown supermarket on Victoria Street in central ...3 hours ago
Latest from the Beehive The government’s economic engineers were hard at work yesterday. One minister was set on establishing a base for film production in Christchurch while – much more critically for the wellbeing of the nation – a cluster of others led by the PM were unveiling their grand ...4 hours ago
Air NZ shares fall as quarantine capacity stops it from selling new international tickets for at least three weeks and as Melbourne goes into complete lockdown ...9 hours ago
A flood of Kiwis returning home from Australia has overwhelmed quarantine capacity. Bernard Hickey reports the Government is looking at bringing in cruise ships to expand supply and a quarantine booking system to further restrict demand. Meanwhile, there is now no space for new guest workers, tourists or students for the foreseeable future. ...10 hours ago
Opinion: While the investigation into the security of patient data may still find the Government wanting, a rookie National MP’s spectacular own goal has put the opposition in the firing line, writes Laura Walters Political gameplay 101: If you're trying to highlight that another political party shouldn't be trusted with ...11 hours ago
A new survey supports fundamental changes to the country's criminal justice system, but a parallel study shows many still believe in a punitive system, Laura Walters reports A new survey suggests strong support amongst Kiwis for fundamental changes in the resourcing and funding of the criminal justice system, as well as a ...11 hours ago
The Covid-19 lockdown has only confirmed how vital New Zealand’s early childhood sector is to the future of this country. Now is the time to bed in a systemic policy infrastructure to support resilient children, write three experts. The Early Learning Action Plan (ELAP), released in December 2019, was barely ...11 hours ago
Picked as a star by one of the great women golfers of all time, Wellington teenager Darae Chung is preparing herself mentally and physically to play overseas again. When 16-year-old Darae Chung travels around the country – and eventually around the globe again – playing golf, she will have the ...11 hours ago
He has been in the job less than a week, but new Health Minister Chris Hipkins is already making his presence felt on some critical Covid-19 issues, Sam Sachdeva writes When it was revealed Chris Hipkins would replace David Clark as Health Minister, some observers wondered whether the role may stretch him ...11 hours ago
Matteo Di Maio takes a look at New Zealand’s most expensive rare books. Anah Dunsheath from Rare Books in Auckland knows how you ought to take an old book off the shelf, and how you ought not to. Novices will just pull the book out by the top of its ...11 hours ago
The incoming government needs to wake up and have a critical look at the child protection monster that is Oranga Tamariki, writes Dr Ian Hyslop There is always risk of a chronic disconnect between the policy and operational arms of public service organisations. This risk is particularly acute in excessively ...11 hours ago
The genetic secrets of New Zealand’s predatory 'lion' have been revealed with the mapping of the stoat genome, and there's hope better, kinder ways of getting rid of the introduced killing machines might be found A stoat’s spleen, liquid nitrogen, supercomputers, and 18 months of international effort has led to the mapping ...11 hours ago
Auckland 'move the port' studies have averaged out to at least two per year over the last decade with almost every one of them throwing out a different option or result. ...11 hours ago
The Covid-19 pandemic made us see the value of a life. Now the Team of Five Million needs to take that lesson and open its eyes to the value of the lives of Maori, Pasifika and People of Colour, writes Karamia Muller. This year, 2020, is asking everyone: What is ...11 hours ago
The Government wants to accelerate improvements to production and sustainability on the land to almost double export earnings in a decade. But big change will be needed, Tim Murphy reports. ...12 hours ago
Methamphetamine - or P - is now here to stay. But addicts of the destructive drug are so ashamed, they will wait up to 10 years to get help. In 2001, William Bell murdered three people in a meth-fuelled rampage at the Mt Wellington RSA in Auckland. He was ...12 hours ago
It seems there are different opinions regarding what people can and cannot do during this next month. Are we to stay at home, are we in isolation or is it even a curfew as the Stuff editorial called it this morning. My view, there is no curfew. There is nothing meaning I have to be home at a certain time of day or the like, what I am doing is isolating myself from other people to limit the spread of the corona virus. If I go for a 4 hour walk through my city and avoid other people that is fine, main point is isolation. If I chose to grab a fishing line and spend the day on the banks of a quiet river fishing with no one else around me thats fine as well. Just avoid other people. I understand the need for police to have the ability to ensure people are isolating, eg if I organised a game of football with mates at the local park that would not be isolation, as well as monitor security of property and assets, no issue with that. I would not expect any one to raise significant concerns about me fishing for half a day in isolation though, should I choose to do such. Common sense should prevail.
It does seem like the cops have a different view as yours was my view as well. Even cops pulling over ppl to ask what they're doing seems a bit much, I'm not under house arrest. This will only work if we still have some freedom to move, I live alone, share a couple kids, we need fresh air.
" If I go for a 4 hour walk through my city and avoid other people that is fine, main point is isolation. If I chose to grab a fishing line and spend the day on the banks of a quiet river fishing with no one else around me thats fine as well."
Second example – fair enough. That would probably be isolated even in normal times (assuming it's a rural river).
First example – not really. If a 4 hour walk in a city is OK because the streets are deserted, then it is OK for all of us, and so the city streets are no longer deserted. Occasional contact would build up, people linger, touch things etc.
Some exercise and fresh air is necessary. But it's a very small sacrifice to limit it.
Yes, the walks, bike rides etc are supposed to be local. But it is not clear what local is. For instance I live in Bayswater, a peninsula with about 400 households. Is that my local, or is it Bayswater/Devonport, where the supermarket is?
Quite a few people swimming and kayaking in Ngataringa Bay, which is fine. The Bay is only used by local residents and is relatively enclosed, so very safe.
I have concluded 'local' means anywhere between Takapuna North and Devonport.
That will enable me to pick up my fortnightly supply of snapper from the Takapuna fish shop (fresher than the supermarkets), shop spasmodically at either Hauraki Countdown or Devonport New World whichever takes my fancy. I can take my car for a walk around the streets inadvertently ending up on Maungauika (North Head) or other such places…
Oh noes, I suppose the fish shop is closed. 😯
I live alone, am 70 years old, and have a throat infection. I am in Mt Eden, and my only relative in Auckland is a nephew on the North Shore. He is planning to buy some groceries for me and do a contactless delivery.
I thought this was OK as long as he doesn't come inside, and we maintain the 2 meter distance between us when he delivers stuff.
We decided I'll email him my shopping list which he will also have a copy of to present to any cops that pull him over while driving to my place.
I have a mild throat infection which I'm keeping at bay with Strepsils lozenges. That is why I wear a mask if I have to leave my home.
Ah. OK. I most likely have strep throat (bacterial infection – white spots on my tonsils). Because we are in unusual times, the GP prescribed antibiotics over the phone on Monday, and told me to self-isolate, just in case it's mild Covid-19.
At the same time she booked me in for a flu jab next Tuesday, to a session for "well people". Sick people attend during a different session. So I think she expects me to be recovered by Tuesday, unless I notify them otherwise.
Taking my morning beverage out on my son's front doorstep earlier I was invited to participate in an informal neighbourhood gathering. Standing in driveways speaking loud enough to be heard.
One neighbour (looks well into her eighties) went for her schedule flu shot yesterday. The nurse came out to their car to stick 'em.
Comvita propolis lozenges and lysosomal vitamin C for tonsillitis. I am blessed with enormous tonsils and hitherto have only ever had infections in one of them at a time. Barbed wire in the throat and generally feeling like garbage.
The last time I was afflicted it was cheaper to buy the vitamin c( the lysosomal stuff is truly disgusting) than go to an after hours clinic. The comvita lozenges are always in my first aid kit.
BTW. Friends living in Wuhan continued their marathon running practise for the first few weeks of their lockdown. Now running in their apartment. 7kms he did the other day.
They were also saying that hospitals are using high dose vitamin C IV for patients combined with traditional Chinese medicine. They also are vigorously encouraging mask wearing and hand washing and decontamination when returning home from work.
Interesting. I will phone my GPs' reception before my appointment on Tuesday, and ask whether to wait in the car park.
I included vitamin C in my next grocery order – mainly because of problem of keeping up supplies of fresh fruit and veggies. I've also ordered some frozen veggies as back-up, but think they have diminished vitamin C content.
I waited a week with my sore throat before ringing my GP. It didn't clear. Also, the white spots on tonsils usually means strep throat & requires antibiotics.
Great about the doorstep communications in your street. I just got a phone call from my GPs' receptionist.
They have run out of flu jab stock, and the ETA for next batch is about mid to end April. Those already booked in will be top of the list when they arrive, and they will let me know.
Had a good chat with receptionist. Flu shots in car parks are only for those who have someone with them, because there's a 5 minute wait time before the person jabbed can drive. Otherwise, the jab is given in the surgery, and the jabee must wait there for 5 minutes before leaving.
She said I could phone them when I arrive in the car park, and they will come out and get me when the nurse is ready.
Anne,
I think that be a too big for "local". It is beyond what just about anyone would do for a walk. Takapuna North to Devonport is over 10km, and encompasses around 30,000 people.
I reckon the biggest you could do is Bayswater/Devonport, or Hauraki/Takapuna. Both areas are well under half the size of Takapuna North to Devonport. Both have supermarkets within them. So whichever of those areas you live in, you would have to stay within that area. At least that is my view. And there may well be a view that Bayswater/Devonport is too big, except for the fact the supermarket is in Devonport.
I was being tongue in cheek Wayne. Carving out a nice big slice of "local" to accommodate my personal inclinations. Since the Takapuna Fish shop is likely closed I'm happy to reduce the size to Devonport/Bayswater. 🙂
I live in Belmont and have a nephew a stones throw away in Bayswater who I can call upon at any time.
For what it is worth, Anne, I personally have found those Strepsil lozenges pretty damned useless (to quote Blinglish..) I always get best fix by regular, deep gargling with salt and water – much more effective, much quicker cure. (Just avoid swallowing…)
Thanks for the reminder. It's what we used to do in the "good old days".
Fisherman's Friend work best for me. Hope you're feeling better soon.
Thanks. 🙂
Hehehe when Grandma was alive and I had a bad cold in my twenties she told me to do the salt water gargle.
I rang her back afterwards and said…. Grandma, that made me throw up.
She laughed and said, yes dear, and did it get all the phlem off your chest.
Yes it did Grandma, but you could have warned me.
If I had warned you dear you would not have done it, now do you feel better.
Yes Grandma, thank you (she was still laughing, bless her).
+1
clever woman.
For sures 🙂
Same In Vino. Use as a preventative when others have a sore throat as well.
Yes, that is what I thought where you live, Belmont, but wasn't quite sure.
Yes, I think that is what the police are concerned about. Once they are certain everyone is on the same page and knows they have to stick with it, then we can expect the police to step back. If they're still 'over zealous' in two weeks time, then we can let them know to keep their sticky beaks out of our business. 😉
Stay home unless you genuinely have to go to the supermarket, pharmacy or doctor. It's not a fucking holiday. Don't fuck with people lives.
Don't think anyone is suggesting we do otherwise Fireblade. But we do have to get some fresh air from time to time. Car batteries will go flat if they don't get an occasional little workout. Basics will need to be purchased from time to time. For instance, I have an appointment for my flu jab this arvo and I intend to use the occasion to give my car a wee run around the local streets there and back.
None of that is fucking with people's lives. And I wear a good sized mask.
Yes. i also have an appointment for a flu jab on Tuesday. Will drive to the GPs, and clear my PO Box at the same time.
Where did you get the mask? Is it an n95 one?
I picked up the last 4 from a chemist in Devonport. There's no brand name or type on it. It has a clear perspex piece at the top so the eyes are protected too.
OK. I assume all the staff at my GPs will have masks. I will disinfect my hands after I leave, and after I leave the Post Office.
In her presser this arvo, the PM said there's a company in NZ that makes n95 masks. These are recommended protection for Covid-19, but not the same as the surgical ones used by doctors, etc.
The government is taking over organising distribution of the n95 masks so the company can focus on producing as many as possible.
My sister-in-law is an infectious diseases specialist at Waikato Hospital. I know what they are planning for and what they expect to happen. It is truly horrifying. Stay home.
Actual official government advice (emphasis added):
covid19.govt.nz
On the idea that authoritarian states are better at managing a crisis like COVID-19: nonsense. The important factor is state capacity and competence.
https://www.vox.com/2020/3/26/21184238/coronavirus-china-authoritarian-system-democracy
That's superb … highly recommended.
+100
Andre, if you haven't seen this I'm sure you will enjoy:
RE reported cases
USA at 79000 is just below china (81000) and Italy (80000)
USA will go top in the next day or so.
And an Article in the Herald about the difference between the muddle responses from scum and the clear communication by Jacinta
Covid 19 coronavirus: Sam Clench – Clarity is the quality that makes Jacinda Ardern so effective in a crisis
Well worth a read
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12320229
Oops Scomo, not scum.
Ans USA is now above Italy!!!!
Well done the USA! Bigger population than Italy but way smaller than China. With he who shall not be mentioned in charge. A true catastrophe awaits. He is such a great Christian he is even giving up the nations gparents for lent. 😕
And trump did a presser bragging they are doing more tests than South Korea, like it's a competition.
Mum reminded me the reason trump was calling it a hoax the other week is because of the mighty dollar and he is only concerned that the virus will cause him to lose hotel revenue.
Yep. For Trump, the measure of his success, is the performance of the share market. He was having nightmares over the past week as every day brought new record lows. It is for that reason, and that alone, that he has urged the agreement of the new trillion dollar rescue package, and the reason why he talks about return to work by Easter, despite the fact that the US is now in a full blown pandemic. That has seemingly calmed the dealers nerves. But it wont stop the spread of COVID-19, and I would think that as the virus continues to rage even further into the American population, the true reality of what this most incompetent administration has left undone, will be obvious even to the most rednecked Trumpkin.
Was just about to post this link from news (dot) com.au
There is what I believe to be a historic quote from ScoMo
Good to see NSW is ready to lockdown anyway.
Scomo is like Boris Johnson and Trump. Everybody else ( states etc) do the heavy lifting closing as much as they have the authority to do then they come in after the event.
USA now top on 83,000 cases.
Yes but the dow index increased so all will be good. Ha
Woken up this morning to a Tui calling out, then on an olive tree the return of some Kererū.
I know that the pūriri berries are available, but with all this peace, Tui and Kererū have already returned (or are more noticeable) same when went for a walk last night.
Were they already there and we couldn't hear them fot the noise and the rush? I too heard a tui today but I quite often do being retired and on the edge of town. In Cook's journals were references to the noise of our birdlife as he sailed offshore! Maybe they had better hearing then, too, and a quiet ship but events like our lockdown might point out to us some of the things we do miss in the noise and rush of 'normal' life.
Somehow I missed this…the PM being her fabulous self on FB on the night just before the lockdown began.
Thanks for that link A. An object lesson in kindness, understanding, and communication.
We are so fortunate to have such a leader at this time.
on the coming recession and a third of the country unemployed.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=12320069
or from the US
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/03/quantifying-coming-recession/608443/
I do hope that when the Government has bailed out everyone they deem 'solvent enough' to be 'bail out worthy' someone will tell them that no one can survive on the wage subsidy and no one can survive on unemployment figures. And maybe now its time to help HE TANGATA, and i hope they have a few more ideas then just throwing 20$ bills at the poor and the poor working class in the hope that that will shut us up for a week or several. And i hope that they are not deducting Student loans either from their hand outs to the people.
He aha te mea nui o te ao, he tangata he tangata he tangata.
That's blatantly not true.
electricity bills – 25 pw
gas bills (if applicable)
water bills / waste water – 15 pw
telephone/internet – 25 pw
line charges (if applicable and rural it is)
mortgage (rent) – 400 pw
car payments – 50 pw
car insurance – 15 pw
household insurance – 15 pw
Student loans (if applicable)
an loans that come with a weekly bill
please explain to me how people can manage the bills and food on 350 – 580 per week, over several weeks.
while people won't be starving they also won't be 'surviving' i.e. managing to keep up all he payments.
And please don't come with the refrain of 'please negotiate' with your suppliers, because everyone who is currently on this wage subsidy will be negotiating, like the good little trooper they are.
As for have no options ot spend? There are people that will order in their groceries, their medication, and as i said, you still have all your bills to pay in full as non of these companies such as spark / electricity companies/line companies/water care etc have dropped any of their prices.
so yeah, you do the math and you ask yourself how long you can do this before you can't do it anymore.
So feel free to tell me where i am blatantly wrong. As far as it goes, i have been on this for a while now and i have not once said something that was 'blatantly' wrong.
you can have a play here to see how far you get on the subsidy. https://www.newzealandnow.govt.nz/living-in-nz/money-tax/comparable-living-costs
mortgage costs / rent from here
https://www.interest.co.nz/property/home-loan-affordability
I earn less than the wage subsidy every week. I pay tax and student loan.
I am not dead or in the poor house.
"no one can survive on the wage subsidy" is still blatantly not true.
if you consider 'surviving' as keeping what you have and hopefully have a job, then maybe you are correct.
if you consider surviving as the action of paying your bills, not accruing anymore debt, not defaulting on rent payments/ mortgage payments and loosing your belongings in the long term then i am correct.
so no i am not 'blatantly' wrong. Nor are you 'absolutely correct'.
But i am liking the comments of "Doing good. Everything (me) is gonna be OK."
🙂
I haven't said that for some it will be sustainable, but I am 100% correct in saying your assertion "no one can survive on the wage subsidy" is blatantly untrue as I am living proof of it being done on less. I have done this for a number of years with no debts other than a mortgage.
again,
as i said, we are disagreing on the meaning of 'surviving.
so let me rephrase this, while no one will outright starve on this subsidy, many will not survive.
feel better now? And please feel free to discuss the actual point i made. Namely that people will not be able to keep up with payments, that many will not go back to jobs, and that they will have no means to pay back any debt accrued under lock down and the very potential extention of lock down period once we realise taht 4 weeks may not be enough. And that many many people will lose what little they have. And how to deal with a potential wave of unemployed and unhoused people to add to our current unemployed and unhoused people.
No, that's still not acceptable to counter "no one can survive on the wage subsidy" when they can and, as I've clearly stated, do.
and you have still to demonstrate how people will 'survive' their regular bill payments.
but then you won't right, because all you want it to tell me i am incorrect, and my friend, i am not.
People will 'not survive' this. They will not starve in their houses, but they will not 'survive' this.
From the Merriam Webster (and if you have an issue with their interpretation please take it up with them)
surviving
[Deleted long list of synonyms and antonyms. One (master) link suffices: https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/surviving – Incognito]
Despite the long post that says nothing, you're assertions that "Because no one can 'survive' on this without defaulting and declaring bankrputcy in the coming month" and "no one can survive on the wage subsidy" are still blatantly not true.
Given that I take home, after deductions, a mere $380pw in wages and get a $70 accommodation supplement, I pay my mortgage, my rates, my utilities, petrol, wof, reggo and internet with mobile and home line included, and have done for a number of years.
Now while this doesn't play nicely with your apocalyptic narrative, there are many many people like me, and the beneficiaries on even less, who are managing and not destitute. It's not easy, compromises have to be made, like I don't buy boutique chocolates for example, but I bought a 4k car on payments without forgoing the basics.
People with big mortgages will get the mortgage holiday for 6 months, which I won't, so that biggest chunk won't come out of the wage guarantee payment. It will be hard, really hard for some over extended and living beyond their means, and will no doubt result in some going under financially, but to be so finite in saying people won't survive is not only alarmist, but a joke slogan to those who cope and manage with low incomes on a weekly basis.
TA if you have to maintain a household and kids than no. If you are single person sharing a flat or rent in a rural town and study via online options, its possible.
Its a matter of degree and what responsibility has to be met.
please explain to me how people can manage the bills and food on 350 – 580 per week, over several weeks.
Crap, innit? But if you talk to an unemployed person near you, they might be kind enough to tell you how they have survived for months or years at the lower end of your weekly income band.
But that is the point, they don't, they hang on. And for once i will also add that our abysmal suicide levels may actually due to this.
I have argued many many times that we need better benefits, lower rents, more regulation in the housing market, that we need a CGT and tha we need to raise taxes on the higher end, and even now, we still refuse to do that. I have not been kind to he current government for a while now, and one reason is that they literally did nothing of substance but are simply handing out band aids that don't stick well enough to cover the oozing wounds.
I have friends who are in that boat, and like the Ex – Co Leader from the Greens Metiria Turei admitted non of them survives without 'cheating'. Be that working on the low end, prostitution, or outright lying to Winz, or if they have family that still can support them.
And if you read the article in the Herald today ( i linked to hat earlier) we can expect a huge number of jobs to be gone for a long long time. there might be a pandemic economy for a while but i would venture that non of that will really benefit people at the lower end.
so really, this should be discussed, and maybe now that it actually affects people that usually have no issue making and spending money, it will affect how we measure the cost of living for unemployed and beneficiaries. Because no one can 'survive' on this without defaulting and declaring bankrputcy in the coming month (plural) to come.
That's blatantly not true.
I am not the only one saying this. So really, many many will not 'survive' this. I have a comment in moderation (i have no idea how to unlink links – with the defintion of Merriam Webster and hopefully you will be able to agree with their many meanings of 'surviving') https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/surviving
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=12320069
Yeah yeah 🙄 Direct contrary evidence from the poorly/low paid or benefit recipients says you're talking bollocks for the fun of it.
nope. that is not what i said, and you know that.
My friend too is a beneficiary, and she is 'not surviving'. She is simply not dying in a ditch. There is a difference between the two.
And fwiw, i don't think that anyone on unemployemnt or the benefit gets anywhere near enough to 'survive'. And i also have been on record for this on the Standard.
As i often say, Benefits and Unemployment money in NZ is too much to die of and too little to live of.
You said "Because no one can 'survive' on this without defaulting and declaring bankrputcy in the coming month" and "no one can survive on the wage subsidy". I've shown that to be a fatalistic untruth, as many people already live on less per week.
Maybe you shouldn't write in such absolutes.
The Al1en,
i am happy with what i said. I linked to the thesaurus of the Merriam Webster Dictionary and they agree with me.
So thanks for your concern, but yeah, nah nah. And people will not be able 'to survive'.
Luckily it seems that the Banks are finally coming to play and allow for a full mortgage holiday for people to apply for. And if that is so, i hope that the government will use their emergency powers to simply declare eviction illegal during the time of the pandemic.
And i do hope that the government will come around to increase benefits and unemployment benefits so that you too (and everyone on a benefit) can do more then just hang on by a thread (another way of saying 'survive'') but actually 'survive'.
and that is all i have to say to that. You can continue to be pedantic if it helps you get through the day.
It's not pedantry. Having already given my income details up thread, I'll happily put my experience as a low wage earner and what passes for surviving means over whatever dictionary definition you need to call on to back up what can only describe as an untruthful, panic induced absolute.
We're on the same page.
Look. I know cafes and what not are closed, but I wonder how many people – those now on an employer administered wage subsidy – grasp 'the reality as was' for thousands, of a 'flat white' from a cafe being a treat and not a convenience?
Or put another way. I wonder how many people will read this comment and reflect that the thought had never crossed their mind?
Suicide rates will most assuredly rise. But I suspect the biggest rise will occur in formerly cloistered sections of the population.
Most people will also have an Accommodation Supplement on top of those low wage figures if they have high rent or mortgage. And if they have children will also have Working for Families.
Tell me Wayne. The cap on Accommodation Supplement – what is it again? Remind everyone here, lest they think it is any way a serious measure intended to mitigate the financial stress of high rents.
And Working for Families extended to unemployed people did it? okay. How much does an unemployed person receive from that quarter?
Don,t forget, not much opportunity to spend it in Lockdown .The dollars should go a lot further .
Unfortunately all the specials have been removed from the supermarket. This will make life a bit more challenging for some
on a food group that i am on, someone posted the picture of a cauliflower for 12.99$ the piece.
i guess that can't be regulated either.
Fork!!!
I was too scared to go to the panic stricken supermarket on Wednesday and ended up paying $12 for a pack of sanitary pads at the garage.
But $13 for a cauli, what the actual fork?
Hope that person reports the seller, that's price gouging and Jacinda won't stand for it.
Edit…
“The Prime Minister has warned retailers not to price gouge just to make a buck, even asking for names of specific shops to be handed over to her when it’s been mentioned in press conferences. ”
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2020/03/coronavirus-how-to-dob-in-price-gouging-retailers-during-the-lockdown.html
Nah, thats regular price for cauliflower – its not in the season, so its hot house, all the farmer markets are closed, a lot of the small food supply shops are closed, and this is now what people have to pay.
as for reporting? The government has emergency powers and could regulate.
I mean we are all already spending our time negotiating with our suppliers and financial advisors and now we should report stupid food prices? these are the stupid food prices that we have on any regular day.
i am not a fan of the Mad Butcher, but for many families that is the only meat they buy because its cheap. And the mad butcher is not considered ‘essential’. Go figure.
not much opportunity to spend it
Yeah, all those millenials frittering away vast sums on smashed avocado toast and barista coffee should come out of this with their first home deposits all sorted and ready to go!
comment day of the day!
not much opportunity to spend it in Lockdown
Essentials can be had. Us unemployed have only ever really had access to essentials…and we have struggled/survived.
Time to roll out a recurring emergency universal payment that's set at a level well above benefit rates.
Another candidate.
#Guillotine
With Trump's swift action and bold leadership, the US has managed to limit projected deaths from COVID-19 to a maximum of 1 per person!
I read a telling joke about the lack of testing among the poor in the face of $3000 charges.
How do you know if you have covid 19? Cough in a rich persons face and wait for their test results to come back.
Yeah I've seen that one too. In such circumstances a little humour is a valuable thing. We are very lucky to be living here with a responsible govt. I pass on my hopes and wishes to my on-line friends in the US, because they fear for their lives right now.
Very lucky indeed.
Been skimming thru r/conspiracy, a couple of gems amidst the dross:
https://www.reddit.com/r/conspiracy/comments/fo4m4s/chinese_virus_is_getting_exposed/
https://youtu.be/pmSG8vfhroY David Icke on COVID-19
Fust Never Sleeps
We're in lockdown, but that democracy-hating lout D.P. Farrar is still posting up his nonsense….
https://www.kiwiblog.co.nz/2020/03/meet_your_future_voters.html
The Penguin lookalike and part time paedophile impersonator is also calling for the re-opening of butcher's shops. I note that the CEO of the Mad Butcher has admitted that the chain tried to exploit the situation:
"Based on the fact that we got told we were essential services, everybody was panic-buying up until that time and we panic-bought as well from our supplier. Our sales were up 60 per cent week-on-week, so we panic-bought as well because we had to keep serving all these customers."
Happily, the CEO has personally added to the available meat supply:
"Mad Butcher chief executive Michael Morton said on Friday that he was gutted …"
actually i would call that 'stocking up'. And yes, they should be essential services as many on the low incomes only shop at the local mad butchers. They can't afford the regular $ 20 – 25 kg for fatty mince at countdown or new world or pak n save.
In her press stand up yesterday, Ardern was asked about keeping open butchers and fruit and veg shops, and pointing out they have a lot of stock that will go to waste.
Ardern said that no food in NZ needs to go to waste. They can find and supply people who need it without opening the shops to the general public.
Think about it – kidscan, people in quarantine or self isolated as they arrive in the country etc. I'd have thought the govt would ensure shops are paid something for their unused food stocks. They just need to get in touch with the relevant govt dept or authorities.
PS: Ardern said opening up all these small shops would have an increase in people walking around in different locations and they are trying to limit that.
Also, it must be easy to monitor and regulate the general public’s use of supermarkets than across a load of small shops.
Y'know…if I'm asymptomatic and go to the supermarket, then I can infect someone who lives many km away from me. Whereas, if only small local stores/shops were open to the public…
Does it matter that much how far away the supermarket is? And Ardern also said it's putting more workers at risk to open al those shops.
She said that at just before 40minutes here. been trying to find the other comment she made about it – maybe between about 27 minutes and 34 minutes.
<i>Does it matter that much how far away the supermarket is? </i>
Not so much the distance per se, more the catchment population/area. My local shop essentially covers a few thousand people within a few km. The nearest supermarket covers all of Dunedin (and then some).
So, if I spread the virus, I'd have thought he job of tracing contacts becomes somewhat onerous and sketchy if looking at a supermarket with large numbers of people from all around the show, compared to tracing through a fairly discrete population in a fairly well defined or contained geographical area.
edit – as for numbers of workers being exposed – I dunno the numbers. But if supermarkets were treated as ‘warehouses’ to supply outlying shops, then I’m not exactly sure why it ought to be assumed more workers get exposed.
OK. Found the bit in the above video where Ardern talks about this. It starts about 29 mins 44 secs. She says there doesn't need to be any wastage of food and that there are plenty of people who need it. She said that's she's sure they can use food that can no longer be sold across the counter.
She also says, for small towns they need to make sure people have access to the same essential services and foods that other parts of the country do. So in those areas where there are no supermarkets, then special consideration is given to dairies, superettes, etc.
Maybe we're talking at slight cross purposes. I'm not suggesting "all" food outlets be open. However, to minimise contact, make tracing easier and potential flare-ups more contained and local, shut down supermarkets wherever possible. Turn them into "supply hubs" for (designated if need be) local outlets.
What's more cautious and liable to aid containment? A 1000 people coming backwards and forwards from 'all around' to one supermarket, or 100 people going to and fro 10 different dairies? (With the 'back-shop' of the supermarket operating just as before, but the front end open to retailers, not the public)
I'd have thought the latter scenario, where feasible, was the more prudent one.
Good point. I have heard someone, maybe the PM or Bloomfield, say that it's better for only 1 person from each household be the one to go to the supermarket. And also, someone, maybe a supermarket CEO, say it's better to do a fairly big supermarket shop with each visit, rather than keep going back for small amounts of groceries.
Supermarkets seem to have settled down now and are not being over-run with shoppers.
I think it maybe that at them moment the govt is going for simplicity, and as much as possible across the board regulations re-shopping, etc.
They do seem to have some leeway for special circumstances for small communities. They may fine tune it more a they see how things are playing out.
The problem is getting the food distributed to those who need it. Many foodbanks have closed. So fresh fruit and vegetables just going to waste.
Our local roadside food bank is closed.
Tough on people who can't afford to grocery shop.
Two days in and his morans are losing their shit.
I too, assumed butchers would be allowed to stay open.
After all they are solely food sellers.
Dairy's are.
Stocking up in anticipation of a rush, seems to be sensible, rather than necessarily greedy.
Being stuck at home having only countdown mince, should be a human rights violation. 😁
Have never posted on that site but if did or someone does they might like to tell Farrar if he doesn't already know that the National Party change of legislation applies only to those physically detained. Those serving a sentence of home detention of any length and those are often fraudsters are free to vote in an election by attendance at a polling booth they are not removed from the roll – so the whole thing was hypocritical from the outset
Joe Biden, what a great guy. (warning it's bloody awful)
https://soundcloud.com/katie-halper/joe-bidens-accuser-finally-tells-her-full-story
And then the boys club protects him from this
https://www.democracynow.org/2020/3/26/headlines/the_intercept_times_up_legal_defense_fund_refused_to_support_metoo_allegation_against_joe_biden
Grab em by the pussy.
Its ok if you do it if you are a celebrety, they just let you do it.
whats good for the goose is good for he gander, and besides boys will be boys, and nothing can be done.
How is he orange one doing?
Almost all the country are POSITIVE and then we have Sabine what a pain in the arse
I'm positively cynical. Does that count? 😉
Come on Sabine we all know trump is a fucking arsehole.
Show some respect to this women can you?
I have time for Sabine, and can see she has a point to make.
Adam, what point are you trying to make? 'Women' is plural. 'This' is singular. I agree about Trump, but what your other sentence about respect means I have no idea.
I got my spelling wrong. I apologise.
FFS the issue is Biden sexually assaulted Tara Reade
Or did the russians do it? Or trump? Anybody but Biden I guess?
Can you explain why my misspelling is the end of the world In Vino? Because I'm totally confused , do we do arguing over bad spelling now and avoid talking about sexual assault?
Or is it acceptable to have people run for office, to be like this as long as they are not trump?
Because I'm of the school of thought – Fuck all the rapist and men who use power for sexual advantage – be they left wing or right.
There's a lengthy interview given by her on The Hill. fck it. link.
Is NZ still at 2 cases of known community transmission?
No number, but down the page it says "several"
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2020/03/coronavirus-85-new-cases-in-new-zealand.html
thanks. This one says two.
https://www.health.govt.nz/our-work/diseases-and-conditions/covid-19-novel-coronavirus/covid-19-current-cases/covid-19-current-cases-details
Though the number of cases on the page says confirmed at 262, while the number today is at 368.
Edit:
Noticed it states Page updated 5:55pm Thursday 26 March 2020
Maybe later will show different.
It's been updated now.
As of 24th March there were 4 cases of suspected community transmission. Since then they have talked of clusters – such as the Marist College cluster, but I don't recall any more cases of community transmission mentioned.
Dunno if that's just a shift in messaging, or if they are still maintaining the distinction where community transmission means cases they can't trace to a specific source and there haven't been any new ones.
The MOH link posted by weka has now been updated with the latest data as at 9am today and is the official site for this information.
MOH are expanding/revising the information provided and today has introduced stats for confirmed (and probable) cases by DHB, age and gender. The site now also has a pop-up asking for feedback on the info being provided.
Here are the latest links
https://www.health.govt.nz/our-work/diseases-and-conditions/covid-19-novel-coronavirus/covid-19-current-cases
https://www.health.govt.nz/our-work/diseases-and-conditions/covid-19-novel-coronavirus/covid-19-current-cases/covid-19-current-cases-details
Unfortunately all the "details to come" could hide a lot of community transmission, along with the two instances of "under investigation". I couldn't find the one case of community transmission that has had details published, nor was I able to identify anyone from the Marist cluster.
I wish that MoH page had dates on it (for each person).
one has to wonder at the mentality of some people
https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/middayreport/audio/2018740435/hospital-masks-sanitiser-and-gowns-are-being-stolen
Survival?
https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/03/26/metro/dozens-boston-hospital-staffers-have-contracted-coronavirus/
that makes sense….disable the health system that is likely to treat you should what you fear come to pass….brilliant
Guilty – a new thought about Evil
I realise that we have quite a large number of prisons…
But Punishment is not given to any of our criminals.
The absence of Punishment hands out an unrepentant easy existance- and leads to endless recidivism.
I think our ancestors got things right, when they issued a matching punishment for the Crime committed.
What is your view ? But please don't tell me that being in prison is a hardship in Aotearoa.
Where are you going with this please Observer Tokoroa?
Back to the Dark Ages.
To join Brian the Bish? Maybe she wants a Harley too.
Hi Cinny
I am suggesting that if a crime is committed the consequence should be Punishment.
That was the case until very recent times. Well into the 1960's.
Why do think crime is not a problem ? May I ask
observer tokoroa, Your logical fallacy is ……. a loaded question
A question that had a presumption built into it so that it couldn't be answered without appearing guilty.
A logical fallacy is a flaw in reasoning.
Logical fallacies are like tricks or illusions of thought, and they’re often very sneakily used by politicians and the media to fool people.
Have you seen the studies about how people become criminals?
Or the evidence from countries, that are "soft on crime" that have much less crime and recidivism?
If you really want to make people safer you address the causes of crime before it occurs. Not enact revenge, afterwards.
Have you been imprisoned in Aotearoa?
Hi Joe
I haven't been imprisoned. But I had to go through a lot of internal Gates and play rugby with a mob of hard running badies every so often.
That was Paparua Christchurch
As Morrissey the Saint says below: my Rugby is ignorant.
Ian Smith is a rugby ignoramus. I was commenting not on your rugby knowledge, but your astonishing ignorance about the reality of imprisonment.
But please don't tell me that being in prison is a hardship in Aotearoa.
????
What an ignorant comment.
Can't you HANDLE the troot?
Y'all-Qaeda rides again!
To defend their First Amendment right to peaceably assemble and spread coronavirus.
https://www.motherjones.com/coronavirus-updates/2020/03/self-quarantine-orders-meet-the-right-wing-militia-movement/
Andre you are aware that Trump has a breakthru treatment for the virus that limits the deaths to one per person.
I'd expect nothing less than a beautiful solution like that from the stable genius. No doubt it's bigly expensive, so it will be reserved for family, friends and followers. In that order.
Life of Riley
Hi
The Harshness in our prisons is so horrible, that 72% of offenders return to Prison each year. Happily.
It costs a minimum $100, 000 dollars a year to keep each criminal Happy. There is of course, no Punishment in helping the offenders into and out of prison. Wonderful.
It is a terrible indictment on New Zealand housing and social infrastructure that so many men from our poorest communities would rather prison than home.
Prison has failed to prevent further crime in 72% of cases, by your own statement.
In other words as even Bill English admitted, "The prison system is a costly and expensive failure".
Who would have thought that putting mostly not very bright,, disadvantaged and poorly educated youngsters in prison, results in, better educated in crime, angry and unemployable young men coming out, Eh?
National Party cheerleaders in despair can bitch and whine to their bumbling and irrelevant leader using Facebook Messenger. Please note: Soimun's video is subtitled so everyone can understand what he's saying.
https://mobile.twitter.com/simonjbridges/status/1242984359402942464?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Etweet
Grant still doesn't seem to be getting it.
He now seems to have sort of belatedly pivoted towards the Danish model for employment but talks about it being a high trust enviroment so we have to trust employers. – Same ones that have been screwing the workforce for years – well good luck with that. Same government who made all their contractors redundant a few days before lock down.
He needs to go a lot further than that – companies over a certain size who want subsidies or to make mass redundancies should have to have their applications co signed by any unions on their premises saying that all steps have been taken to consult and make savings elsewhere ( chop high end payroll) .
As for overseas owned workplaces – a lien over land buildings and other assets if they try to jump ship.
Frankly a phone call from a government minister lecturing them doesn't cut it.
As to the banks and loans. I get that the government doesn't have the resources for this but the rules again need to be tight. These are the banks that couldn't even see a paedophile ring transacting under their noses.
It's a difficult position. Employers didn't get where they are by being honest. The model is that you screw everyone for maximum profit for yourself. That is the very definition of capitalism. Those that can do it, do it.
So when a wage subsidy scheme comes along in unprecedented times the very first thing an employer will do is work out how to maximise it for themselves.
The government will have to adjust constantly to the raiding that most employers will indulge in.
Difficult for whom? Yes I agree that is the mode but it doesn't mean that steps should not be taken to deter this type of behaviour.
But hey over three years labour has done next to nothing to improve the basic lot of waged employees – are they even consulting the trade unions over all this or justt sucking up to the boss class.
I'm saying it's difficult for the Government to second guess self-serving employers in a pandemic situation while trying to look after workers.
Employers are almost like a virus themselves.
But it doesn't have to be like this .
These subsidies are in the billions & if Graant had his wits about him he would chuck $50-$100 million towards the unions and they could use it to hire lawyers to chase down the employers that people are complaining about or have questions about before it puts them out of work..
Not on a one by one basis or by expecting people to go individually to employment tribunals but on a class action basis-. plus fund some decent information about peoples rights etc. The game has to change.
I was looking at that "raise the bar" website which seemed to have solid information well presented. Then I looked down the page and realised there was a bank account there. Felt pretty sad that this absolutely useful activity was being funded by donations from the low paid . It sucks at every level.
And still the top end of town is untouched. Every $20 mill of excess top end wages is 400 $50k p.a jobs.
I get to hear these comments in general discussions:
1/ we are in a kind of martial law situation and it is OK.
I think most do not understand what that actually means.When martial law is declared, civil liberties, such as the right to free movement, free speech, protection from unreasonable searches, and habeas corpus laws (protection against illegal confinement, such as holding a person without charges), are suspended.
2/ you cannot leave the house other than go to the nearest supermarket.
3/ having a bb gun is ok and a shot from it will only hurt a little bit (!?)
If you didn’t catch this on TV this evening
here it is:
Brilliant!
The cynic in me thinks that the government has very successfully marginalised Soimun by giving him the 'important' title of chairman of a committee which will have little effect on what happens during the epidemic but will keep him happy (and hopefully out of sight and sound).
Soimun should be doing something useful like restocking the shelves at his local supermarket.
Muttonbird, you must have had some bad experiences with your employers to hold such an unrealistic view of them. By your reckoning anyone who is an employee & then decides they want to start a business and employee people must then be dishonest.
Not all employers are bad people, most smaller businesses are just people trying to better themselves in life.
Sorry that employment for you has left a bitter taste.
Former Prime Minister Sir John Key praises Jacinda Ardern's 'faultless' COVID-19 communication.
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2020/03/former-prime-minister-sir-john-key-praises-jacinda-ardern-s-faultless-covid-19-communication.html
He's alive!
I was wondering where he'd got to. Good on him for having no truck with the frothing Ardern-haters, at least.
Hard case, who would have thought the leader of national would be tucked away somewhere with his own 0800si.wants2help2 phone number, while nationals most popular leader ever is praising the leader of the opposition.
It sure is an interesting moment in NZ's history for so many reasons.
I suspect he is not suffering though. I believe he is still a director of air NZ plus the ANZ bank and possibly others. Air NZ cut their average director fee from $150k to around $120k – 15% for a part time job.
Mostly I feel though that he is just trying to catch some of the positive glow off Jacinda to keep the RW in the frame. I felt he did much the same around 2008 – cosying up to Helen & Micheal Cullen so people would not feel so threatened by NACT and give him the job.
Personally I see it as pretty manipulative.
Absolutely.
I’ll bet these people have some good tips on self-isolation and staying in your bubble.
https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/expeditions/expedition62/index.html
Once they're in the capsules, then I think that they have fewer choices. Vacuum is less forgiving than a plod.
I will be posting tomorrow asking for advice and help with a tenancy issue. Please
help if you can
Barfly
Boris Johnson has Covid-19 and is self-isolating.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/03/million-infected-worldwide-deaths-surge-live-updates-200326230320792.html
Kia Ora Newshub.
Yes the days are getting shorter and colder.
Awsome getting blood from people who have had the virus to treat the people who have been hit hard by the virus.
Ka kite Ano.
Kia Ora Te Ao Maori News.
Thanks to all the health workers running our health care centres and hospitals.
Its good to see Iwi getting Kai for their Tangata.
Iwi contacting their Tangata online is great use the new tool to protect te tangata.
Ka kite Ano
Kia Ora Newshub.
Bullying is not on these people who have the virus have enough stress their is no need to add to it.
That's good some supermarket workers getting a 10% pay rise.
Some people will use any means to hack your lives be careful.
Ka kite Ano.
Kia Ora Te Ao Maori News.
Cool the online Facebook Te reo teaching program. It can be good for all tamariki.
Puhi Kai ariki looks good organic kia.
Ka kite Ano.
Kia Ora Newshub.
We need to help our youth get a higher education.
Can you see the big picture men are making a big MESS of their Country.
There you go there is something positive out there.
Some people are good at throwing Crap around.
Ka kite Ano