Jester, you may have found that out via Harawira before I became aware of it last night, but he would have been leaked the info from someone, and is unlikely to be in possession of all the facts. You found out around 10pm, and the MoH had Locations of Interest updated by midnight, if not before (that's just when I saw it). The health minister and his staff may have been a little bit occupied with responding to the unfolding crisis to jump in front of the cameras, in the middle of the night, before having all the facts. I am sure Harawira has enough on his plate today with managing non-consented checkpoints in Northland (not saying I disagree with them, especially given the Auckland pair, but that could turn nasty without someone with mana, not to mention; from Mana, on top of it).
Now if they don't front up at 1pm today, I will join you in your annoyance.
Though, I imagine that this community infection topic will quickly swamp OM, so if any Mods are reading this, maybe a dedicated post about this will prevent that? Not trying to waste your time or tell you how to do your work, but it is a bit off topic to use MS's vaccine post from yesterday.
No I found out at around 5:15pm on Newstalk One ZB via Hone (NOT 10pm).
The ministry had not said anything until Hone basically leaked it to HDPA. Later yesterday evening the ministry jumped into action. So yes, I am still annoyed or at least disappointed.
HDPA? I assume you are not referring to the enzyme, but what it does mean eludes me. Also assume that the ministry was already in action, perhaps too much so to be conducting press meetings on the basis of incomplete information. Unless there are still 24hour testing stations operating in Auckland, there is a limited amount anyone could do after 5pm. Anyway, I feel that Hipkins; more than Bloomfield, should be the focus of your ire, as they were less likely to be actively busy analyzing the data at the time.
I think your comment on yesterday's OM was around 10pm, so just assumed that the interview you heard must have been just before then. See what happens when people jump to conclusions on the basis of too little data? They just have to waste time later correcting the error and distracting from the more pressing issues.
Edit: Your initial comment was just after %pm, but just a reckon that was govt confirmed by 6pm
Police have shut down the Tai Tokerau border control information checkpoint at Waiomio. Hone Harawira said he is “p….. off” and concerned nothing is being done to protect the people of the north.
Out of interest why are you annoyed? Hipkins and Bloomfield should have told us sooner? Someone’s leaking in health?
I remained concerned about these new variants and wonder if we should be going into some sort of level change ASAP. But I still have high trust in our covid response and know this is to do with my personal approach which is with an abundance of caution.
hope I am not being a bore and happy to be told I am. Yesterday posed a question would you attend a largish party with someone who had left managed isolation the week before. Thanks to those who answered.
but McFlook and Peter from Chechnya if you are around would your answer still be yes?
btw this is not some hypothetical for me, real life issue and I thought the standard a good place to do a reality check. Thanks
Hi Anker. Yes, my answer would still be yes, for same reasons as yesterday: we need to keep a sense of perspective and have confidence that the MOH and other associated bodies are on top of this and will.inform us if the risk level changes.
ok accept your point of view Peter, but I have a different view. We are free to get on with our lives here mostly because of people being careful when we need to be. I am not proposing stay home and don't ever go out because of Covid. But if there is some risk take pre-cautions. Parties can be held at a better time. Its not that bigger deal.
Personally I wouldn't want to get Covid because I have had cancer and that increases the risk of me getting a bad dose. I also think every time I take an avoidable risk it is potentially risking our precious health workers. Why should I put them at risk just cause I want to go to a party. BTW I would and have attended parties over the last few months (not in level 2) but would not go to one where someone is a week out from managed isolation. Its a very, very tiny sacrifice to avoid what would be a catastrophe.
Could you, or someone else on here, clarify something. At the hypothetical party, if my Covid app has Bluetooth turned on, and it later transpires someone at the party is infected, does the Bluetooth detect that I was in close proximity to that person?
It's totally dependant on the infected person also having 1/ the COVID app installed and running, and 2/ that person also having the bluetooth functionality enabled. And then it's still a maybe, as in not going to be 100%. But way better than nothing if both are using the app.
For admins notes: Just had to ditch a browser called Bing that came with Windows as I set up Windows. It does not know where NZ is nor any of it's business entities. I simply couldn't get The Standard in a search result despite using all manner of trickery. Stuff I needed to find via Canterbury Press! Garbage browser… Chrome it is.
Yes, I see what you mean. If you search for the standard even confined to Only from New Zealand the ‘hits’ are misses. However, at the bottom of each results page you’ll find Related searches for the standard and that can be more helpful.
Sometime a few months back the ability to search TS comments using Google on Firefox on Windows 10 went away for me.
ie, if I wanted to search for when I've been insulting to Colonel Trotter, I used to be able to use google with the search words Andre bowelly site:thestandard.org.nz and it would give me the rude comments I've made. Now it just gives me a listing of author @Andre search results from TS, and sometimes not even that.
Since the search function here is currently working well, it hasn't been an issue.
I used to use the dual system Ubuntu & Windows option on an old computer before it wore out. Windows was better for gaming (at least for the old strategy games that I play). I like linux-based systems (which Ubuntu & Debian are an offshoot of) more; in theory, than; in practice. Fine for running Open office and webrowsing though. It's just that; I always felt I could do so much more with it if I only took the time to learn, so I really got to feel my age, and digital semi-literacy, whenever I used it. Which is not the operating system's fault.
The Torygraph on the failed array of quangos, management consultancies and outsourcing firms.
Why has Britain fared so poorly with Covid-19? Although blaming this or that minister or official offers an easy answer, the deeper causes lie in the transformation of the British state.
Britain inherited from World War II a “command and control” state; a state that could govern. Whitehall was well-practised in strategic planning, good at the rapid and efficient mobilisation of resources and people, and it regularly took authoritative, direct action to meet society’s needs.
Back then, the state could deliver what democratically elected politicians asked of it – to build the NHS, for instance – because it retained the powers, people and resources to do so.
Today, after 40 years of reform, the “command and control” state has been replaced by a “regulatory state”. Decision-making has shifted from parliament to an archipelago of some 400 “arms-length” quangos, employing more than 278,000 people and costing £205 billion per year. Moreover, the state’s assets – its capacity to execute policy on its own accord – have been outsourced or rationalised.
Does anyone know, in the hotels / MIQ facilities, are for example, day 2 people able to mix with say, day 12 people? eg. at common areas / smoking areas. Hopefully not.
I have had two stints in MIQ. One in Hamilton and one in Auckland
There is no mixing with anyone regardless of the day you arrive.
You are permitted to attend fixed times for exercise but you are l isolated from anyone else, and you wear a mask and are socially distanced. There is a risk at the juncture, but from my experience no one is 'mixing'.
About that drive-through testing … probably make self testing a damn sight easier.
More than a million Beijing residents undergoing coronavirus testing amid a fresh outbreak have been administered anal swabs, which are considered more accurate and raise the chances of detecting COVID-19, said a Chinese disease specialist.
Quite depressing to watch, read and listen to various Liberal 'Left' news sources to again unquestioningly jump on board the US led Venezuela regime change band wagon without missing a step and offering no proof or evidence so soon after these same outlets taking so much effort and time to debunk Trumps obvious bullshit over election fraud in the US…it could make you wonder at some of their other reporting…or so you would think?
US (and NZ) Media Require No Evidence for Claims of Electoral Fraud—in Venezuela
"Venezuela’s December 6 parliamentary election offers an instructive case study, with corporate journalists unquestioningly repeating Trump officials’ unsubstantiated allegations of “fraud” there at the same time that they debunked Trump’s virtually identical claims vis-a-vis the US election. And the right-wing violence that was rightly portrayed as a threat to democracy in the US was heartily endorsed as a democratic campaign in Venezuela, where it served Washington’s foreign policy goals.
The media’s uncritical echoing of fraud allegations is in turn used to justify the continuation of Washington’s regime-change policies. Early signs point to this dynamic continuing in full force under the new Biden administration (Reuters, 1/19/21)."
At least Biden's going to revive the Iran nuclear deal, so that's something, plus hand out some more cheques (USD1400) to US citizens and rejoin the Paris Accord on climate change. But mostly he's a ludicrous relic of a profoundly broken past, and completely unequal to the historical moment he finds himself in.
I'm just about past caring – might go plant some things in the garden and catch a fish. To quote Allen Ginsberg from 65 years ago, “America when will you be angelic?”
Advice from someone who really knows how to do a checkmate:
…the UK was uniquely placed to take action against Putin’s inner circle. He argued that the flow of money from Moscow into London had to cease. “It’s very simple. Stop talking and start acting,” he said.
Kasparov said Russia was at a crossroads following pro-Navalny protests last Saturday in more than 100 Russian cities, with 40,000 people taking to the streets in Moscow. He described the demonstrations as “phenomenal” and the most significant since 1991.
“They happened despite state propaganda and pressure on people,” he said. “In Europe nobody can now send a more vocal message to the Kremlin than the Brits. As long as the money keeps flowing into London and to the free world, Putin’s power is untouched.”
It is hard to be a plutocrat when you can't use the money you have looted. Though it's not quite that simple; as Putin's regime still has a lot of guns, and other more terrifying weapons.
Barfly, if it's not that significant; why has it not happened any other time in the last 40 years? Has Moscow been just so idyllic that there has been nothing to protest, or has a ruthless exKGB officer seized control of the state apparatus to quash dissent through a program (/pogrom) of murder and intimidation? I believe the latter to be closer to the truth.
Well, I can't read Cyrillic; but don't you think that someone would have mentioned it somewhere in an english language source somewhere, if so? I am more inclined to trust Kasparov; a chess grandmaster's memory than your uninformed supposition, unless you can provide a link.
Also that should be; "the last 30 years", not 40. Some clumsy fingers today!
And the newspapers were fooling, and the ash-trays have retired
Cause the keyboard has been drinking…
The point is, if you're only going to read and believe those publications at the head of your google search you're not going to be very well informed are you.
Therefore what you believe is based on poor research so your ignorance is your concern and really doesn't interest me.
Not about dead people (if that's what your image depicts); no, I don't believe Putin does, Joe90. However, I imagine he, and his backers, care very deeply about the state of their bank accounts.
The true thoughts of the heroic Navalny….bit of a racist Nationalist by the looks of it, but hey the Liberals can use him in their anti Russian boogie man McCarthyite hysteria campaign..so who cares right….
“What if we had a different ur-myth about energy and order in the universe? Imagine, for instance, that our intuitions were still informed more by that world of agrarian smallholders, and less by the industrialized cultures that eclipsed it. Letting our worldview shift further still, we could combine such a retrieval of our deeper past with an appreciation of the highly modern. Imagine, that is, a sense of energy informed not by Victorian science but by more recent physics—from cosmic background radiation to the quantum effervescence of space itself. And imagine, too, a feeling for order that derived less from loose notions of entropic decline, and more from recent work on physical self-organization or the way organisms adaptively harness tiny changes in entropy to drive productive chemical reactions.
“Imbued with such a worldview, moved and directed by it much as the Victorians were influenced by thermodynamics and Darwinism, we might think and act less in the vein of industrial agriculture, with its mining of natural gas and unidirectional spill of energy. We might be more inclined to let the flywheel of ecology get spinning and investigate the potential allowances of regenerative agriculture. More generally, perhaps we would begin to see that part of the solution to our planetary crisis lies not in hustle, but in repose. Not in catching the next trans-Atlantic flight to an important conference or meeting, but in staying home, contentedly. Not in buying a new more efficient car, but in leaving the old one parked. Perhaps there are many solutions that do not even occur to us, because they resemble passivity rather than action, and we are so deeply trained to hustle.”
I simply can't see how you can make the majority of NZ car drivers reducing their carbon emissions voluntarily. They are used to cheap, second hand car imports, ideally with as big – means polluting – engine as possible (while NZ petrol is still cheap compared to many Western European countries). On top of it, driving is seen as a god-given right, even if it serves very little to no purpose.
We have now "climate emergency" declared on every level here in Wellington: local, regional and national. Looking forward to the ideas to significantly reduce the transport carbon emission in the near future. Clearly, people have to leave their car at home when going into an office or work from home to achieve any noticeable reduction.
Buggered if I know but her response on this like her response to house prices the other day reminds me of old dont give a fuck key,its I bit depressing.
The thing about short selling is there is literally no limit to how much money a short seller could be on the hook for. I vaguely recall a comment from last year that short sellers in Tesla stock were in the hole for more than the combined market capitalisation of Ford, GM and Volkswagen combined.
Wall St big players have ganged together to stop the free market. Only insider trading allowed now apparently. They shut down the subreddit and Discord on the basis of "hate speech"… because they can't really say the truth: they don't like market manipulation, when it's not themselves doing it.
"What does the stock market do? It provides a convenient method of payment for elevated executive salaries and an avenue to riches for people ― usually organizations of rich people ― who want to bet on stocks. Turns out, that’s a lot of people. "
"The GameStop affair provides an opportunity to update Keynes for the 21st century: If you leave it to professional gamblers to determine the social value of any activity, they will almost always give you the wrong answer, no matter how many of them gamble against each other. They can reward social destruction just as readily as they reward social harmony or a video game store or a well-groomed horse at the starting gate.
Financial markets cannot tell us what is good and what is bad. They can only tell us what a lot of people thought they could make money on at a certain point in time. The real work of determining what kind of world we want to live in is the proper subject of democracy, not high finance. The Redditors have made this brazenly clear to the world, and for that they should be celebrated rather than condemned.
The situation, however, does demand a public policy solution. The Redditors have revealed an absurdity by being absurd. The appropriate response is not to demand an orgy of further absurdity, but to do something sensible."
Yeah suddenly it's a loophole that needs regulating. Wall St & DC have deregulated everything and lined their own pockets, plundering the Earth for decades.
"We have been advised that a small number of people who were in hotel quarantine in the Pullman Hotel in Auckland at the same time as these other cases have since travelled to Australia on green zone flights”
“We know that 12 people who were in quarantine at the Pullman Hotel have arrived in Sydney. Three of these people have travelled on to Hong Kong and the authorities there have been advised.”
I thought people had to disembark once the flight reached NZ. So people transit through NZ and continue on to another destination not leaving the plane?
Pretty simple, there's more quarantine spaces in NZ than Aussie so NZ citizens or residents who have been overseas are using NZ quarantine to get into Australia
Or reverse-501s: grew up in Aus, didn't need paperwork so still technically NZers and not aussies, got kiwi passport, and now have a quicker path back home through NZ MIQ.
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
TL;DR: In today’s ‘six-stack’ of substacks at 6.06pm on Tuesday, March 19:Kāinga Ora’s dry rot The Spinoff DailyBill McKibben on ‘Climate Superfunds’ making Big Oil pay for climate damage The Crucial YearsPreston Mui on returning to 1980s-style productivity growth NoahpinionAndy Boenau on NIMBYs needing unusual bedfellows Urbanism SpeakeasyNed Resnikoff's case ...
Negative yesterday, negative today. Negative all year, according to one departing reader telling me I’ve grown strident and predictable. Fair enough. If it’s any help, every time I go to write about a certain topic that begins with C and ends with arrrrs, I do brace myself and ask: Again? Are ...
Bryce Edwards writes – It’s been a tumultuous time in politics in recent months, as the new National-led Government has driven through its “First 100 Day programme”. During this period there’s been a handful of opinion polls, which overall just show a minimal amount of flux in public support ...
Inspirational: The Family of Man is a glorious hymn to human equality, but, more than that, it is a clarion call to human freedom. Because equality, unleavened by liberty, is a broken piano, an unstrung harp; upon which the songs of fraternity will never be played.“Somebody must have been telling lies about ...
Tax Lawyer Barbara Edmonds vs Emperor Justinian I- Nolo Contendere: False historical explanations of pivotal events are very far from being inconsequential.WHEN BARBARA EDMONDS made reference to the Roman Empire, my ears pricked up. It is, lamentably, very rare to hear a politician admit to any kind of familiarity ...
It’s been a tumultuous time in politics in recent months, as the new National-led Government has driven through its “First 100 Day programme”. During this period there’s been a handful of opinion polls, which overall just show a minimal amount of flux in public support for the various parties in ...
Buzz from the Beehive Housing Minister Chris Bishop delivered news – packed with the ingredients to enflame political passions – worthy of supplanting Winston Peters in headline writers’ priorities. He popped up at the post-Cabinet press conference to promise a crackdown on unruly and antisocial state housing tenants. His ...
Ele Ludemann writes – The Reserve Bank is advertising for a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion advisor. The Bank has one mandate – to keep inflation between one and three percent. It has failed in that and is only slowly getting inflation back down to the upper limit. Will it ...
Last week former National Party leader Simon Bridges was appointed by the Government as the new chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA). You can read about the appointment in Thomas Coughlan’s article, Simon Bridges to become chair of NZ Transport Agency Waka KotahiThe fact that a ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Last week former National Party leader Simon Bridges was appointed by the Government as the new chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA). You can read about the appointment in Thomas Coughlan’s article, Simon Bridges to become chair of NZ Transport Agency ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: Gavin Jacobson talks to Thomas Piketty 10 years on from Capital in the 21st CenturyThe SalvoLocal scoop: Green MP’s business being investigated over migrant exploitation claims StuffSteve KilgallonLocal deep-dive: The commercial contractors making money from School ...
It’s a home - but Kāinga Ora tenants accused of “abusing the privilege” may lose it. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The Government announced a crackdown on Kāinga Ora tenants who were unruly and/or behind on their rent, with Housing Minister Chris Bishop saying a place in a state ...
This is a guest post by Connor Sharp of Surface Light Rail Light rail in Auckland: A way forward sooner than you think With the coup de grâce of Auckland Light Rail (ALR) earlier this year, and the shift of the government’s priorities to roads, roads, and more roads, it ...
Note: As a paid-up Webworm member, I’ve recorded this Webworm as a mini-podcast for you as well. Some of you said you liked this option - so I aim to provide it when I get a chance to record! Read more ...
TL;DR: In my ‘six-stack’ of substacks at 6.06pm on Monday, March 18:IKEA is accused of planting big forests in New Zealand to green-wash; REDD-MonitorA City for People takes a well-deserved victory lap over Wellington’s pro-YIMBY District Plan votes; A City for PeopleSteven Anastasiou takes a close look at the sticky ...
Buzz from the Beehive Here’s hoping for a lively post-cabinet press conference when the PM and – perhaps – some of his ministers tell us what was discussed at their meeting today. Until then, Point of Order has precious little Beehive news to report after its latest monitoring of the ...
David Farrar writes – We now have almost all 2023 data in, which has allowed me to update my annual table of how labour went against its promises. This is basically their final report card. The promiseThe result Build 100,000 affordable homes over 10 ...
I’m a bit worried that I’ve started a previous newsletter with the words “just when you think they couldn’t get any worse…” Seems lately that I could begin pretty much every issue with that opening. Such is the nature of our coalition government that they seem to be outdoing each ...
Geoffrey Miller writes – Timing is everything. And from China’s perspective, this week’s visit by its foreign minister to New Zealand could be coming at just the right moment. The visit by Wang Yi to Wellington will be his first since 2017. Anniversaries are important to Beijing. ...
Depictions of Islam in Western popular culture have rarely been positive, even before 9/11. Five years on from the mosque shootings, this is one of the cultural headwinds that the Muslim community has to battle against. Whatever messages of tolerance and inclusion are offered in daylight, much of our culture ...
Last week Transport Minster Simeon Brown and Mayor Wayne Brown opened the new Auckland Rail Operations Centre. The new train control centre will see teams from KiwiRail, Auckland Transport and Auckland One Rail working more closely together to improve train services across the city. The Auckland Rail Operations Centre in ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Retiring former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson said in an exit interview with Q+A yesterday the Government can and should sustain more debt to invest in infrastructure for future generations. Elsewhere in the news in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 6:36am: Read more ...
Timing is everything. And from China’s perspective, this week’s visit by its foreign minister to New Zealand could be coming at just the right moment. The visit by Wang Yi to Wellington will be his first since 2017. Anniversaries are important to Beijing. It is more than just a happy ...
TL;DR: The key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to March 18 include:China’s Foreign Minister visiting Wellington today;A post-cabinet news conference this afternoon; the resumption of Parliament on Tuesday for two weeks before Easter;retiring former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson gives his valedictory speech in Parliament; ...
New Zealand First Leader Winston Peters’s state-of-the-nation speech on Sunday was really a state-of-Winston-First speech. He barely mentioned any of the Government’s key policies and could not even wholly endorse its signature income tax cuts. Instead, he rehearsed all of his complaints about the Ardern Government, including an extraordinary claim ...
A listing of 35 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 10, 2024 thru Sat, March 16, 2024. Story of the week This week we'll give you a little glimpse into how we collect links to share and ...
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“I’ve been internalising a really complicated situation in my head.”When they kept telling us we should wait until we get to know him, were they taking the piss? Was it a case of, if you think this is bad, wait till you get to know the real Christopher, after the ...
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For the last few years, the Green Party has been the party that has managed to avoid the plague of multiple scandals that have beleaguered other political parties. It appears that their luck has run out with a second scandal which, unfortunately for them, coincided with Golraz Ghahraman, the focus ...
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The Transport and Infrastructure Committee has reported back on the Road User Charges (Light Electric RUC Vehicles) Amendment Bill, basicly rubberstamping it. While there was widespread support among submitters for the principle that EV and PHEV drivers should pay their fair share for the roads, they also overwhelmingly disagreed with ...
Peter Dunne writes – This week’s government bailout – the fifth in the last eighteen months – of the financially troubled Ruapehu Alpine Lifts company would have pleased many in the central North Island ski industry. The government’s stated rationale for the $7 million funding was that it ...
See if you can spot the difference. An Iranian born female MP from a progressive party is accused of serial shoplifting. Her name is leaked to the media, which goes into a pack frenzy even before the Police launch an … Continue reading → ...
Ele Ludemann writes – The government is omitting general Treaty references from legislation : The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last Government in a bid to get greater coherence in the public service on Treaty ...
What was that judge thinking?Peter Williams writes – That Golriz Ghahraman and District Court Judge Maria Pecotic were once lawyer colleagues is incontrovertible. There is published evidence that they took at least one case to the Court of Appeal together. There was a report on ...
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Something you might not know about me is that I’m quite a stubborn person. No, really. I don’t much care for criticism I think’s unfair or that I disagree with. Few of us do I suppose.Back when I was a drinker I’d sometimes respond defensively, even angrily. There are things ...
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It was not so much the Labour Party but really the Chris Hipkins party yesterday at Labour’s caucus retreat in Martinborough. The former Prime Minister was more or less consistent on wealth tax, which he was at best equivocal about, and social insurance, which he was not willing to revisit. ...
Buzz from the BeehiveThe text reproduced above appears on a page which records all the media statements and speeches posted on the government’s official website by Melissa Lee as Minister of Media and Communications and/or by Jenny Marcroft, her Parliamentary Under-secretary. It can be quickly analysed ...
For forty years, Robert Muldoon has been a dirty word in our politics. His style of government was so repulsive and authoritarian that the backlash to it helped set and entrench our constitutional norms. His pig-headedness over forcing through Think Big eventually gave us the RMA, with its participation and ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Is the new government reducing tax on rental properties to benefit landlords or to cut the cost of rents? That’s the big question this week, after Associate Finance Minister David Seymour announced on Sunday that the Government would be reversing the Labour Government’s removal ...
Saudi Arabia is rarely far from the international spotlight. The war in Gaza has brought new scrutiny to Saudi plans to normalise relations with Israel, while the fifth anniversary of the controversial killing of Jamal Khashoggi was marked shortly before the war began on October 7. And as the home ...
Questions need to be asked on both sides of the worldPeter Williams writes – The NRL Judiciary hands down an eight week suspension to Sydney Roosters forward Spencer Leniu , an Auckland-born Samoan, after he calls Ezra Mam, Sydney-orn but of Aboriginal and Torres Strait ...
Ele Ludemann writes – Contrary to what many headlines and news stories are saying, residential landlords are not getting a tax break. The government is simply restoring to them the tax deductibility of interest they had until the previous government removed it. There is no logical reason ...
I can't remember when it was goodMoments of happiness in bloomMaybe I just misunderstoodAll of the love we left behindWatching our flashbacks intertwineMemories I will never findIn spite of whatever you becomeForget that reckless thing turned onI think our lives have just begunI think our lives have just begunDoes anyone ...
Michael Bassett writes – At first reading, a front-page story in the New Zealand Herald on 13 March was bizarre. A group of severely intellectually limited teenagers, with little understanding of the law, have been pleading to the Justice Select Committee not to pass a bill dealing with ram ...
How much political capital is Christopher Luxon willing to burn through in order to deliver his $2.9 billion gift to landlords? Evidently, Luxon is: (a) unable to cost the policy accurately. As Anna Burns-Francis pointed out to him on Breakfast TV, the original ”rock solid” $2.1 billion cost he was ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read:Jonathon Porritt calling bullshit in his own blog post on mainstream climate science as ‘The New Denialism’.Local scoop:The Wellington City Council’s list of proposed changes to the IHP recommendations to be debated later today was leaked this ...
TL;DR:Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said yesterday tenants should be grateful for the reinstatement of interest deductibility because landlords would pass on their lower tax costs in the form of lower rents. That would be true if landlords were regulated monopolies such as Transpower or Auckland Airport1, but they’re not, ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Tom Toro Tom Toro is a cartoonist and author. He has published over 200 cartoons in The New Yorker since 2010. His cartoons appear in Playboy, the Paris Review, the New York Times, American Bystander, and elsewhere. Related: What 10 EV lovers ...
The business section of the NZ Herald is full of opinion. Among the more opinionated of all is the ex-Minister of Transport, ex-Minister of Railways, ex MP for Auckland Central (1975-93, Labour), Wellington Central (1996-99, ACT, then list-2005), ex-leader of the ACT Party, uncle to actor Antonia, the veritable granddaddy ...
Hi,Just quickly — I’m blown away by the stories you’ve shared with me over the last week since I put out the ‘Gary’ podcast, where I told you about the time my friend’s flatmate killed the neighbour.And you keep telling me stories — in the comments section, and in my ...
The first season of Rings of Power was not awful. It was thoroughly underwhelming, yes, and left a lingering sense of disappointment, but it was more expensive mediocrity than catastrophe. I wrote at length about the series as it came out (see the Review section of the blog, and go ...
Buzz from the Beehive Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden told Auckland Business Chamber members they were the first audience to hear her priorities as a minister in a government committed to cutting red tape and regulations. She brandished her liberalising credentials, saying Flexible labour markets are the ...
Chris Trotter writes – TO UNDERSTAND WHY NEWSHUB FAILED, it is necessary to understand how TVNZ changed. Up until 1989, the state broadcaster had been funded by a broadcasting licence fee, collected from every citizen in possession of a television set, supplemented by a relatively modest (compared ...
Bob Edlin writes – The Māori Party has been busy issuing a mix of warnings and threats as its expresses its opposition to interest deductibility for landlords and the plans of seabed miners. It remains to be seen whether they follow the example of indigenous litigants in Australia, ...
The Government has accepted Labour’s change to the Road User Charge (RUC) discount for hybrid vehicles, meaning there will still be some incentive for people to buy greener vehicles. ...
Kicking the most vulnerable people out of state housing and pushing them towards homelessness will result in a proliferation of poverty and trauma across our most vulnerable communities. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader and MP for Waiariki, Rawiri Waititi has penned a letter asking MPs to support his members bill to remove GST from all food. The bill is expected to go through its first reading in parliament this Wednesday. “I’m calling on all political parties to support my ...
This year is about getting real with Kiwis and discussing the tough issues, as the National Government exacerbates inequality and divides New Zealand, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said ...
The Government adding Significant Natural Areas (SNAs) to its already roaring environmental policy bonfire is an assault on the future of wildlife that makes Aotearoa unique. ...
After 12 years of fighting to protect our moana we are finding ourselves back at square one and back at court. Today, the Environmental Protection Agency is sitting in Hawera to reconsider an application from Trans-Tasman Resources to dig up 50 million tonnes of the seabed in South Taranaki. This ...
Minister Shane Jones’ decision to step away from a seabed mining project is evidence of the murky waters surrounding the Government’s fast-track legislation. ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The Coalition Government’s miscalculation saga continues as it has forgotten an eyewatering $90 million gap in its interest deductibility cost figures, say Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds and Revenue Spokesperson Deborah Russell. ...
He Pou a Rangi Climate Change Commission has today released advice that says if the Government doesn’t act now New Zealand is at risk of not meeting its climate goals. ...
The Coalition Government has today confirmed it is abandoning first home buyers who are struggling to get ahead, says Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds. ...
The New Zealand public voted for a change in direction at the 2023 general election and that is exactly what this coalition government has been delivering in its first 100 days. There was an immediate focus on the economy, easing the cost of living, cracking down on law and order ...
The Government has left the health system as an afterthought, announcing half-baked targets at the last minute of their 100-day plan, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
Kiwis are still waiting for their promised cost of living support after 100 days of a National Government that is taking us backwards, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The National Government has spent its first 100 days stopping, cutting and reversing. They have scrapped stuff for stuff for the sake of it, without putting up any solutions of their own – and it’s hardworking New Zealanders who will pay for it. ...
100 days of National taking NZ backwardsThe National Government has spent its first 100 days stopping, cutting and reversing. They have scrapped stuff for stuff for the sake of it, without putting up any solutions of their own – and it’s hardworking New Zealanders who will pay for it. ...
The Government must commit to funding free and healthy school lunches, as thousands of people sign the petition to keep them, education spokesperson Jan Tinetti says. ...
If the Government was serious about moving families into public housing, they would build more houses so there is actually somewhere for people to go. ...
The free and healthy school lunches programme feeds our kids, helps them to learn, and saves families money – but it is at risk under this Government, education spokesperson Jan Tinetti said. ...
The Government’s proposed changes to Firearms Prohibition Orders (FPO) add almost nothing new and are merely an attempt to distract from its plans to loosen gun laws, police spokesperson Ginny Andersen and justice spokesperson Dr Duncan Webb said. ...
The great Victorian era English politician Lord Macauley stood in the British House of Parliament and said, "The gallery in which the reporters sit has become a fourth estate of the realm".He understood and outlined even way back then, the significant role and influence media have in a democracy. ...
"The Government is moving quickly to realise an additional $46 million in tariff savings in the EU market this season for Kiwi exporters,” Minister for Trade and Agriculture, Todd McClay says. Parliament is set, this week, to complete the final legislative processes required to bring the New Zealand – European ...
New Zealand’s social workers are qualified, experienced, and more representative of the communities they serve, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “I want to acknowledge and applaud New Zealand’s social workers for the hard work they do, providing invaluable support for our most vulnerable. “To coincide with World ...
Cabinet has agreed to a reduced road user charge (RUC) rate for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. Owners of PHEVs will be eligible for a reduced rate of $38 per 1,000km once all light electric vehicles (EVs) move into the RUC system from 1 April. ...
Minister of Agriculture and Trade, Todd McClay, says that today’s opening of Riverland Foods manufacturing plant in Christchurch is a great example of how trade access to overseas markets creates jobs in New Zealand. Speaking at the official opening of this state-of-the-art pet food factory the Minister noted that exports ...
Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Wellington today. “It was a pleasure to host Foreign Minister Wang Yi during his first official visit to New Zealand since 2017. Our discussions were wide-ranging and enabled engagement on many facets of New Zealand’s relationship with China, including trade, ...
Kāinga Ora – Homes & Communities has been instructed to end the Sustaining Tenancies Framework and take stronger measures against persistent antisocial behaviour by tenants, says Housing Minister Chris Bishop. “Earlier today Finance Minister Nicola Willis and I sent an interim Letter of Expectations to the Board of Kāinga Ora. ...
Tēna koutou katoa. Greetings everyone. Thank you to the Auckland Chamber of Commerce and the Honourable Simon Bridges for hosting this address today. I acknowledge the business leaders in this room, the leaders and governors, the employers, the entrepreneurs, the investors, and the wealth creators. The coalition Government shares your ...
Minister Winston Peters completed the final leg of his visit to South and South East Asia in Singapore today, where he focused on enhancing one of New Zealand’s indispensable strategic partnerships. “Singapore is our most important defence partner in South East Asia, our fourth-largest trading partner and a ...
Minister of Internal Affairs and Workplace Relations and Safety, Hon. Brooke van Velden, will travel to the Republic of Korea to represent New Zealand at the Third Summit for Democracy on 18 March. The summit, hosted by the Republic of Korea, was first convened by the United States in 2021, ...
ICNZ Speech 7 March 2024, Auckland Acknowledgements and opening Mōrena, ngā mihi nui. Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho. Good morning, it’s a privilege to be here to open the ICNZ annual conference, thank you to Mark for the Mihi Whakatau My thanks to Tim Grafton for inviting me ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Lead Coordination Minister Judith Collins have expressed their deepest sympathy on the five-year anniversary of the Christchurch terror attacks. “March 15, 2019, was a day when families, communities and the country came together both in sorrow and solidarity,” Mr Luxon says. “Today we pay our respects to the 51 shuhada ...
Speech for Financial Advice NZ Conference 5 March 2024 Acknowledgements and opening Morena, Nga Mihi Nui. Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho. Thanks Nate for your Mihi Whakatau Good morning. It’s a pleasure to formally open your conference this morning. What a lovely day in Wellington, What a great ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters held discussions in Jakarta today about the future of relations between New Zealand and South East Asia’s most populous country. “We are in Jakarta so early in our new government’s term to reflect the huge importance we place on our relationship with Indonesia and South ...
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters has announced that the Foreign Minister of China, Wang Yi, will visit New Zealand next week. “We look forward to re-engaging with Foreign Minister Wang Yi and discussing the full breadth of the bilateral relationship, which is one of New Zealand’s ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has today opened the new Auckland Rail Operations Centre, which will bring together KiwiRail, Auckland Transport, and Auckland One Rail to improve service reliability for Aucklanders. “The recent train disruptions in Auckland have highlighted how important it is KiwiRail and Auckland’s rail agencies work together to ...
The Government is proud to support the 10th edition of Crankworx Rotorua as the Crankworx World Tour returns to Rotorua from 16-24 March 2024, says Minister for Economic Development Melissa Lee. “Over the past 10 years as Crankworx Rotorua has grown, so too have the economic and social benefits that ...
Legislation implementing coalition Government tax commitments and addressing long-standing tax anomalies will be progressed in Parliament next week, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The legislation is contained in an Amendment Paper to the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill issued today. “The Amendment Paper represents ...
Associate Environment Minister Andrew Hoggard has today announced that the Government has agreed to suspend the requirement for councils to comply with the Significant Natural Areas (SNA) provisions of the National Policy Statement for Indigenous Biodiversity for three years, while it replaces the Resource Management Act (RMA).“As it stands, SNAs ...
Agriculture Minister Todd McClay has classified the drought conditions in the Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts as a medium-scale adverse event, acknowledging the challenging conditions facing farmers and growers in the district. “Parts of Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts are in the grip of an intense dry spell. I know ...
The Government is helping farmers eradicate the significant impact of facial eczema (FE) in pastoral animals, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced. “A $20 million partnership jointly funded by Beef + Lamb NZ, the Government, and the primary sector will save farmers an estimated NZD$332 million per year, and aims to ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has completed a successful visit to India, saying it was an important step in taking the relationship between the two countries to the next level. “We have laid a strong foundation for the Coalition Government’s priority of enhancing New Zealand-India relations to generate significant future benefit for both countries,” says Mr Peters, ...
Cabinet has agreed to provide $7 million to ensure the 2024 ski season can go ahead on the Whakapapa ski field in the central North Island but has told the operator Ruapehu Alpine Lifts it is the last financial support it will receive from taxpayers. Cabinet also agreed to provide ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says the launch of a new mobile breast screening unit in Counties Manukau reinforces the coalition Government’s commitment to drive better cancer services for all New Zealanders. Speaking at the launch of the new mobile clinic, Dr Reti says it’s a great example of taking ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says the launch of a new mobile breast screening unit in Counties Manukau reinforces the coalition Government’s commitment to drive better cancer services for all New Zealanders. Speaking at the launch of the new mobile clinic, Dr Reti says it’s a great example of taking ...
Unlocking economic growth and land for housing are critical elements of the Government’s plan for our transport network, and planned upgrades to State Highway 29 (SH29) near Tauriko will deliver strongly on those priorities, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The SH29 upgrades near Tauriko will improve safety at the intersections ...
Unlocking economic growth and land for housing are critical elements of the Government’s plan for our transport network, and planned upgrades to State Highway 29 (SH29) near Tauriko will deliver strongly on those priorities, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The SH29 upgrades near Tauriko will improve safety at the intersections ...
Lower fruit and vegetable prices are welcome news for New Zealanders who have been doing it tough at the supermarket, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. Stats NZ reported today the price of fruit and vegetables has dropped 9.3 percent in the 12 months to February 2024. “Lower fruit and vege ...
Tēnā koutou katoa and greetings to you all. Chair, I am honoured to address the sixty-eighth session of the Commission on the Status of Women. I acknowledge the many crises impacting the rights of women and girls. Heightened global tensions, war, climate related and humanitarian disasters, and price inflation all ...
Tēnā koutou katoa and greetings to you all. Chair, I am honoured to address the 68th session of the Commission on the Status of Women. I acknowledge the many crises impacting the rights of women and girls. Heightened global tensions, war, climate related and humanitarian disasters, and price inflation all ...
The coalition Government is supporting farmers to enhance land management practices by investing $3.3 million in locally led catchment groups, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced. “Farmers and growers deliver significant prosperity for New Zealand and it’s vital their ongoing efforts to improve land management practices and water quality are supported,” ...
Good evening everyone and thank you for that lovely introduction. Thank you also to the Honourable Simon Bridges for the invitation to address your members. Since being sworn in, this coalition Government has hit the ground running with our 100-day plan, delivering the changes that New Zealanders expect of us. ...
Recommendations from the Climate Change Commission for New Zealand on the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) auction and unit limit settings for the next five years have been tabled in Parliament, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “The Commission provides advice on the ETS annually. This is the third time the ...
The coalition Government is beginning its fight to lower building costs and reduce red tape by exempting minor building work from paying the building levy, says Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk. “Currently, any building project worth $20,444 including GST or more is subject to the building levy which is ...
Proposed changes to tax legislation to prevent the over-taxation of low-earning trusts are welcome, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The changes have been recommended by Parliament’s Finance and Expenditure Committee following consideration of submissions on the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill. “One of the ...
Assalaamu alaikum. السَّلَام عليكم In light of the holy month of Ramadan, I want to extend my warmest wishes to our Muslim community in New Zealand. Ramadan is a time for spiritual reflection, renewed devotion, perseverance, generosity, and forgiveness. It’s a time to strengthen our bonds and appreciate the diversity ...
Former Transport Minister and CEO of the Auckland Business Chamber Hon Simon Bridges has been appointed as the new Board Chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) for a three-year term, Transport Minister Simeon Brown announced today. “Simon brings extensive experience and knowledge in transport policy and governance to the role. He will ...
Good morning all, it is a pleasure to be here as Minister of Science, Innovation and Technology. It is fantastic to see how connected and collaborative the life science and biotechnology industry is here in New Zealand. I would like to thank BioTechNZ and NZTech for the invitation to address ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says he is looking forward to the day when three key water projects in Northland are up and running, unlocking the full potential of land in the region. Mr Jones attended a community event at the site of the Otawere reservoir near Kerikeri on Friday. ...
Associate Finance Minister David Seymour has today announced that the Government has agreed to restore deductibility for mortgage interest on residential investment properties. “Help is on the way for landlords and renters alike. The Government’s restoration of interest deductibility will ease pressure on rents and simplify the tax code,” says ...
Sport and Recreation Minister Chris Bishop will travel to Switzerland today to attend an Executive Committee meeting and Symposium of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). Mr Bishop will then travel on to London where he will attend a series of meetings in his capacity as Infrastructure Minister. “New Zealanders believe ...
Pacific Media Watch Earthwise hosts Lois and Martin Griffiths. Earthwise presenters Lois and Martin Griffiths on Plains FM 96.9 community radio talk to Dr David Robie, a New Zealand author, independent journalist and media educator with a passion for the Asia-Pacific region. David talks about the struggle to raise awareness ...
Pacific Media Watch Ismail al-Ghoul, an Al Jazeera Arabic correspondent who was held for 12 hours at Gaza’s al-Shifa hospital, says Israeli forces rounded up Palestinian journalists at the facility and made them kneel on the ground for hours, while naked and blindfolded. “The occupation forces handcuffed and blindfolded us ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tony Wood, Program Director, Energy, Grattan Institute chinasong, Shutterstock Electricity customers in four Australian states can breathe a sigh of relief. After two years in a row of 20% price increases, power prices have finally stabilised. In many places they’re ...
Chumbawamba have reportedly issued the deputy PM a cease-and-desist notice after he used their song 'Tubthumping' before his state of the nation speech. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Deborah Lupton, SHARP Professor, Vitalities Lab, Centre for Social Research in Health and Social Policy Centre, and the ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society, UNSW Sydney kitzcorner/Shutterstock The assertion from Queensland’s chief health officer John Gerrard that ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Martin, Visiting Fellow, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University Shutterstock Why are musicians so keen to get played on the radio? It can’t be because of the money. In Australia they are paid at rates so low they ...
"Farmers make a point not to tell our urban cousins how to live, yet Chlöe from central Auckland is hell-bent on having her say about farmers," says ACT Rural Communities spokesman Mark Cameron. “On her first day in the House as Green ...
Analysis by Dr Bryce Edwards – Democracy Project (https://democracyproject.nz)Political scientist, Dr Bryce Edwards. It’s been a tumultuous time in politics in recent months, as the new National-led Government has driven through its “First 100 Day programme”. During this period there’s been a handful of opinion polls, which overall just ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tim Curran, Associate Professor of Ecology, Lincoln University, New Zealand Getty Images/Gerald Corsi In the latest move to reform environmental laws in New Zealand, the coalition government has introduced a bill to fast-track consenting processes for projects deemed to ...
Uber has argued it does not have as much control over drivers as the unions suggest, and wants a judgment ruling that drivers are employees and not contractors set aside and sent back to the Employment Court. The 2022 ruling followed a three-week hearing in which four drivers sought to ...
What can and can’t be purchased by disabled people or their carers has been slashed in an effort by the Ministry of Disabled People Whaikaha to save money. The purchasing guidelines, a set of rules that sets out what can be purchased using the various streams of Government disability funding, ...
The Treasury has published today a new Analytical Note by Tod Wright and Hien Nguyen, Fiscal incidence in New Zealand: The effects of taxes and benefits on household incomes in tax year 2018/19 . Analyses of the distributional impact of taxation and government ...
The Treasury has published today a new Analytical Note by Cory Davis, Boston Hart and Benjamin Stubbing, Household cost-of-living impacts from the Emissions Trading Scheme and using transfers to mitigate regressive outcomes . This Analytical Note ...
A coalition of public transport and climate organisations, united as ‘Transport for All’, is actively opposing the government’s transport proposals. The draft Government Policy Statement (GPS) includes plans for higher fares for public transport, ...
Greater Wellington is inviting feedback on proposed changes to its Revenue and Financing Policy. The Revenue and Financing Policy covers the Council’s various sources of funding, and how the cost of services is shared across the region. This includes ...
Labour has conceded it could have done more to deal with disruptive state housing tenants while in government but says the current coalition is going too far. ...
The band has asked their record label to issue a cease and desist to stop the NZ First leader using their 1997 hit to support his ‘misguided political views’. “I get knocked down, but I get up again,” blared through the speakers on Sunday as Winston Peters took the stage ...
By Lydia Lewis, RNZ Pacific journalist Food rationing is underway in remote areas in Papua New Guinea’s Highlands following torrential rain and flash flooding. More than 20 people have been reported dead in Chimbu Province. In nearby Enga Province, the centre of last month’s massacre, a 15-year-old boy has been ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Hughes, Lecturer, Research School of Management, Australian National University After months of debate and intrigue, the AFL’s 19th and newest team, the Tasmania Devils, finally launched its jumper, logo and colours in Devonport this week. The Devils will wear green, ...
Brannavan Gnanalingam reviews the debut novel by Saraid de Silva.One of the most baffling things for children who move to a new country is what their parents’ (or grandparents’) lives were like prior to moving – for kids in particular, they’re too busy trying to fit in in their ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stephen Gaunson, Associate Professor in Cinema Studies, RMIT University Narelle Portanier/Binge “If you don’t know who your mob are, you don’t know who you are,” Detective Andrea “Andie” Whitford (played by Leah Purcell) is told early into the new crime ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Elise Klein, Associate professor, Australian National University It’s commonly accepted that women do the vast majority of caregiving in Australian society. But less appreciated is that Indigenous women do larger amounts of unpaid care than any other group. Working with the Aboriginal ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne Joe Biden and Donald Trump have both secured their parties’ nominations for the November 5 United States general election by winning a ...
Comment: There has been a striking contrast in trans-Tasman interest about Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi’s visit to New Zealand and Australia. While the Australian press has been full of articles about the visit – including his curious decision to meet with former prime minister and China booster Paul Keating ...
After years of pressuring banks and other institutions to stop investing in fossil fuels, climate campaigners are making some progress. So how does divestment work?For years, climate activists have been pushing banks and other big institutions to divest from fossil fuels. New research from climate advocacy group 350 Aotearoa ...
For Boba, Ethan and Ashley, K-pop is a place to belong, a way to express themselves, and a bridge to connect with others. The three young Polynesians are part of a K-pop fan community in Tāmaki Makaurau. It’s one of many that have sprung up worldwide as K-pop has gone ...
For Boba, Ethan and Ashley, K-pop is a place to belong, a way to express themselves, and a bridge to connect with others. This one-off documentary presents three intimate portraits of young Polynesians who are pulled into a Korean cultural phenomenon. K-POLYS is directed by Litia Tuiburelevu, Produced by Hex ...
There’s ample evidence demonstrating free school lunch programmes provide wide benefits across schools, households and communities according to public health researchers. ACT Minister David Seymour wants to reduce the spending on Aotearoa New Zealand’s ...
By Wata Shaw in Suva Fiji is facing an exodus of Fijians as many are leaving for overseas seeking employment and education and others are migrating, says Opposition MP Viliame Naupoto. Speaking in Parliament, he said: “His Excellency’s speech (Ratu Wiliame Katonivere) comes after a little over one year of ...
The Taxpayers’ Union is welcoming comments from Christopher Luxon this morning recommitting to ‘no new taxes’ as part of Budget 2024. “Mr Luxon’s refusal at the Post-Cabinet press conference yesterday to repeat the ‘no new taxes’ promise ...
SAFE is urgently calling on the Environment Committee to reject the Government’s Fast-Track Approvals Bill, and is urging New Zealanders to rally behind the call. The proposed Bill, currently under consideration with the Environment select committee, ...
Teammates who spend all their time picking fights with spectators are only helpful for the other team, writes Madeleine Chapman. Anyone who has ever played a team sport competitively, particularly as a child and particularly, for some reason, basketball, will know that there’s a lot of politics involved. While there ...
The long-running Wellington music festival is too focused on the Jim Beam-ness and not enough on the Homegrown-ness.There is something about Homegrown that’s difficult to place. A barely perceptible-ness. Like feeling a ghost is watching you from the corner of the room but when you look, there’s nothing there. ...
The latest Ipsos New Zealand Issues Monitor reveals that fewer New Zealanders believe crime / law and order is one of the top issues facing our country. In 2018, Ipsos New Zealand started tracking the key issues facing New Zealand. In this wave ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kate Griffiths, Deputy Program Director, Budgets and Government, Grattan Institute Australia’s political donations rules are woefully inadequate, but donations reform is finally on the agenda. The federal government has signalled its interest in reform and will soon begin briefing MPs on its ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Patrick Taylor, Chief Environmental Scientist, EPA Victoria; Honorary Professor, School of Natural Sciences, Macquarie University Naiyana Somchitkaeo/Shutterstock A recent study published in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine has linked microplastics with risk to human health. The study ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Albert Van Dijk, Professor, Water and Landscape Dynamics, Fenner School of Environment & Society, Australian National University Global climate records were shattered in 2023, from air and sea temperatures to sea-level rise and sea-ice extent. Scores of countries recorded their hottest year ...
As part of our series exploring how New Zealanders live and our relationship with money, a teacher explains why he and his partner are in frugal mode – and how they’re making it work. Gender: Male Age: 35Ethnicity: Pākehā Role: I am an intermediate school teacher and my partner is ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sarah Bendall, Senior Lecturer, Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences, Australian Catholic University Binge Mary & George, the new British television drama series, depicts the real-life story of Mary Villiers and her son George, and their social climbing at the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jason Nassios, Associate Professor, Centre of Policy Studies, Victoria University This article is part of The Conversation’s series examining the housing crisis. Read the other articles in the series here. Australian state and federal governments spend money in many ways to ...
The finance minister is denying that there’s a $5.6b shortfall in paying for the government’s campaign promises, including tax cuts. At his post-cabinet press conference yesterday, the PM refused to rule out new taxes to pay for the cuts, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s ...
Kāinga Ora tenants abused by their neighbours are doubting the government's crackdown on disruptive tenants will make a difference on their behaviour. ...
Kāinga Ora is New Zealand’s biggest residential landlord, housing more than 180,000 vulnerable people in more than 67,000 properties. Yesterday the government announced a crackdown on its tenants who fall behind on rent. One longtime Kāinga Ora tenant shares her experience.For 18 years I lived in a 1960s standalone ...
Why does this myth persist, and what’s the real reason our skin is suffering?It’s one of the biggest international grievances New Zealanders hold, up there with the sinking of the Rainbow Warrior and 1981’s underarm incident. We’re quick to tell international travellers that the world’s pollution led to the ...
Auckland Council is opposing a fast-track development backed by Sir John Kirwan and Spark NZ, because it doesn’t meet stringent new climate adaptation requirements The post Surf-data centre faces new 3.8C climate warming rules appeared first on Newsroom. ...
When the Criminal Proceeds (Recovery) Act was introduced in 2009 it was firmly targeted at gangs and drugs. The legislation means police no longer need a conviction to seize assets that criminals can’t prove were paid for legitimately, as long as their alleged offences are punishable by more than a ...
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Bob’s relationship with certain members of Lincoln’s academic staff continued to deteriorate in the 1990s. Others supported him publicly, though articles such as Roland Clark’s 1993 piece in Growing Today cannot have pleased the university management. Clark wrote that Bob was selling onions from the Biological Husbandry Unit to a ...
SailGP’s races feature in-your-face action, with agile, hydro-foiling catamarans tacking and jibing for the title over several days. However, public comments ahead of the global series’ return to New Zealand have left this past year’s controversy in the shadows, as a key appointment attracts criticism from dolphin advocates. A year ...
Opinion: We are fast approaching a fundamental change in prisons. As the number of people on custodial remand looks set to overtake the number of sentenced prisoners, the main function of prisons in New Zealand may become incarcerating un-sentenced people who may not be guilty of offending. We have already ...
A huge seven months lies in store for the White Ferns, beginning this week with the visit of England and culminating with the T20 World Cup in Bangladesh in September and October. Starting on Tuesday in Dunedin, the world ranked No. 2 visitors will play five T20s and three ODIs, ...
Opinion: In a move that has shocked road safety advocates across the country, the new Minister of Transport, Simeon Brown, is poised to abandon the previous government’s speed limit reduction policy, particularly around schools. Even more alarmingly, he wants school speed limits to be variable rather than full-time, arguing ...
The letters, which were published last week, were addressed to Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) Chairperson Megawati Sukarnoputri, National Democrat Party (NasDem) Chairperson Surya Paloh, National Awakening Party (PKB) Chairperson Muhaimin Iskandar, Justice and Prosperity Party (PKS) President Ahmad Syaikhu and United Development Party (PPP) Chairperson Muhammad Mardiono. In ...
Evicting more people from state housing is ignorant to the consequences of poverty, the Greens say, but the Housing Minister says it's a privilege that can be taken away if abused. ...
Evicting more people from state housing is ignorant to the consequences of poverty, the Greens say, but the Housing Minister says it's a privilege that can be taken away if abused. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emerald L King, Lecturer in Humanities, University of Tasmania IMDB Between Netflix’s 2023 live-action version of One Piece, and its latest take on Avatar: The Last Airbender, fans are once again asking: why are live-action anime adaptations so tricky to ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emerald L King, Lecturer in Humanities, University of Tasmania IMDB Between Netflix’s 2023 live-action version of One Piece, and its latest take on Avatar: The Last Airbender, fans are once again asking: why are live-action anime adaptations so tricky to ...
The government says it still intends to deliver tax cuts by July, but will not lock them in until they have got them past their coalition partners. ...
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jan/27/keep-covid-rescue-programmes-or-risk-triggering-stock-market-crash-warns-imf
And there you have it…..all pretence gone.
Oops – they said the quiet bit out loud.
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2021/01/jacinda-ardern-weighing-options-against-companies-dumping-contaminated-waste-into-sewers.html
The double standard in nz continues . Farmers get hung drawn and quartered for less
Reckon!
Judith seems to be bringing the Nats back to the centre. Her speech at Ellerslie about housing, apparently did not go down too well with the Rotarians. https://thespinoff.co.nz/politics/27-01-2021/judith-collins-wants-to-help-solve-the-countrys-housing-crisis-do-people-care/
And now she wants to contest the Maōri seats. There must be a lot of spluttering going on somewhere. Although it does give ACT more room on the right, so maybe part of some plan?
https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/exclusive-national-party-contest-m-ori-electorate-seats?auto=6226481526001
ACT and National with former leaders like Banks and Brash will struggle to get any votes.
Still very annoyed that we find this out from Hone and not Hipkins or Bloomfield.
Live: Child and adult are the new Covid-19 cases in the community in Auckland | Stuff.co.nz
Jester, you may have found that out via Harawira before I became aware of it last night, but he would have been leaked the info from someone, and is unlikely to be in possession of all the facts. You found out around 10pm, and the MoH had Locations of Interest updated by midnight, if not before (that's just when I saw it). The health minister and his staff may have been a little bit occupied with responding to the unfolding crisis to jump in front of the cameras, in the middle of the night, before having all the facts. I am sure Harawira has enough on his plate today with managing non-consented checkpoints in Northland (not saying I disagree with them, especially given the Auckland pair, but that could turn nasty without someone with mana, not to mention; from Mana, on top of it).
https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/checkpoint/audio/2018781204/northland-covid-19-checkpoints-to-go-ahead-without-police
Now if they don't front up at 1pm today, I will join you in your annoyance.
Though, I imagine that this community infection topic will quickly swamp OM, so if any Mods are reading this, maybe a dedicated post about this will prevent that? Not trying to waste your time or tell you how to do your work, but it is a bit off topic to use MS's vaccine post from yesterday.
No I found out at around 5:15pm on Newstalk One ZB via Hone (NOT 10pm).
The ministry had not said anything until Hone basically leaked it to HDPA. Later yesterday evening the ministry jumped into action. So yes, I am still annoyed or at least disappointed.
HDPA? I assume you are not referring to the enzyme, but what it does mean eludes me. Also assume that the ministry was already in action, perhaps too much so to be conducting press meetings on the basis of incomplete information. Unless there are still 24hour testing stations operating in Auckland, there is a limited amount anyone could do after 5pm. Anyway, I feel that Hipkins; more than Bloomfield, should be the focus of your ire, as they were less likely to be actively busy analyzing the data at the time.
I think your comment on yesterday's OM was around 10pm, so just assumed that the interview you heard must have been just before then. See what happens when people jump to conclusions on the basis of too little data? They just have to waste time later correcting the error and distracting from the more pressing issues.
Edit: Your initial comment was just after %pm, but just a reckon that was govt confirmed by 6pm
That should be; "just after 5pm", not %pm!
Anyway this is more important:
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/300215941/live-child-and-adult-with-covid19-in-the-community-in-auckland-have-south-african-strain
No close contacts test positive so good news so far.
Good wake up call use tracer app wash hands minimise unnecessary contacts .
I remained concerned about these new variants and wonder if we should be going into some sort of level change ASAP. But I still have high trust in our covid response and know this is to do with my personal approach which is with an abundance of caution.
hope I am not being a bore and happy to be told I am. Yesterday posed a question would you attend a largish party with someone who had left managed isolation the week before. Thanks to those who answered.
but McFlook and Peter from Chechnya if you are around would your answer still be yes?
btw this is not some hypothetical for me, real life issue and I thought the standard a good place to do a reality check. Thanks
Hi Anker. Yes, my answer would still be yes, for same reasons as yesterday: we need to keep a sense of perspective and have confidence that the MOH and other associated bodies are on top of this and will.inform us if the risk level changes.
ok accept your point of view Peter, but I have a different view. We are free to get on with our lives here mostly because of people being careful when we need to be. I am not proposing stay home and don't ever go out because of Covid. But if there is some risk take pre-cautions. Parties can be held at a better time. Its not that bigger deal.
Personally I wouldn't want to get Covid because I have had cancer and that increases the risk of me getting a bad dose. I also think every time I take an avoidable risk it is potentially risking our precious health workers. Why should I put them at risk just cause I want to go to a party. BTW I would and have attended parties over the last few months (not in level 2) but would not go to one where someone is a week out from managed isolation. Its a very, very tiny sacrifice to avoid what would be a catastrophe.
Could you, or someone else on here, clarify something. At the hypothetical party, if my Covid app has Bluetooth turned on, and it later transpires someone at the party is infected, does the Bluetooth detect that I was in close proximity to that person?
Sorry I don't know the answer to that Peter
It's totally dependant on the infected person also having 1/ the COVID app installed and running, and 2/ that person also having the bluetooth functionality enabled. And then it's still a maybe, as in not going to be 100%. But way better than nothing if both are using the app.
For admins notes: Just had to ditch a browser called Bing that came with Windows as I set up Windows. It does not know where NZ is nor any of it's business entities. I simply couldn't get The Standard in a search result despite using all manner of trickery. Stuff I needed to find via Canterbury Press! Garbage browser… Chrome it is.
Yes, I see what you mean. If you search for the standard even confined to Only from New Zealand the ‘hits’ are misses. However, at the bottom of each results page you’ll find Related searches for the standard and that can be more helpful.
HTH
Sometime a few months back the ability to search TS comments using Google on Firefox on Windows 10 went away for me.
ie, if I wanted to search for when I've been insulting to Colonel Trotter, I used to be able to use google with the search words Andre bowelly site:thestandard.org.nz and it would give me the rude comments I've made. Now it just gives me a listing of author @Andre search results from TS, and sometimes not even that.
Since the search function here is currently working well, it hasn't been an issue.
It's 'bowalley road' Andre. Does that make a difference to your search?
biochar – Saw this and thought of your enthusiasm for this bleeple.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/afternoons/audio/2018781782/new-zealand-s-first-microforest
“We are coastal hillside, so all the natives that are traditionally in that area are from that list.”
He says the key difference between his project and others is the use of bio char to enrich the soil.
At this stage most of their work is to do with making bio char which he says is very growth supporting.
Bing is Windows default search engine. Results for thestandardnz and the standard nz
You could ditch windoze entirely and install a less buggy OS.
https://ubuntu.com/tutorials/install-ubuntu-desktop#1-overview
Firefox is the default browser and works well.
I used to use the dual system Ubuntu & Windows option on an old computer before it wore out. Windows was better for gaming (at least for the old strategy games that I play). I like linux-based systems (which Ubuntu & Debian are an offshoot of) more; in theory, than; in practice. Fine for running Open office and webrowsing though. It's just that; I always felt I could do so much more with it if I only took the time to learn, so I really got to feel my age, and digital semi-literacy, whenever I used it. Which is not the operating system's fault.
A long(ish) and instructive read…the rules of the game.
https://michael-hudson.com/2021/01/the-rentier-resurgence-and-takeover-finance-capitalism-vs-industrial-capitalism/
The Torygraph on the failed array of quangos, management consultancies and outsourcing firms.
Why has Britain fared so poorly with Covid-19? Although blaming this or that minister or official offers an easy answer, the deeper causes lie in the transformation of the British state.
Britain inherited from World War II a “command and control” state; a state that could govern. Whitehall was well-practised in strategic planning, good at the rapid and efficient mobilisation of resources and people, and it regularly took authoritative, direct action to meet society’s needs.
Back then, the state could deliver what democratically elected politicians asked of it – to build the NHS, for instance – because it retained the powers, people and resources to do so.
Today, after 40 years of reform, the “command and control” state has been replaced by a “regulatory state”. Decision-making has shifted from parliament to an archipelago of some 400 “arms-length” quangos, employing more than 278,000 people and costing £205 billion per year. Moreover, the state’s assets – its capacity to execute policy on its own accord – have been outsourced or rationalised.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/science-and-disease/rolls-royce-skoda-pandemic-has-exposed-britains-failed-regulatory/ (free)
Does anyone know, in the hotels / MIQ facilities, are for example, day 2 people able to mix with say, day 12 people? eg. at common areas / smoking areas. Hopefully not.
I understand 'social distancing' applies in MIQ irrespective of time arrived i.e. between and within groups
oh well, it's all good then. 🙂
IF it has transferred through the aircon then obviously not
I have had two stints in MIQ. One in Hamilton and one in Auckland
There is no mixing with anyone regardless of the day you arrive.
You are permitted to attend fixed times for exercise but you are l isolated from anyone else, and you wear a mask and are socially distanced. There is a risk at the juncture, but from my experience no one is 'mixing'.
That is good to know. Thanks
About that drive-through testing … probably make self testing a damn sight easier.
More than a million Beijing residents undergoing coronavirus testing amid a fresh outbreak have been administered anal swabs, which are considered more accurate and raise the chances of detecting COVID-19, said a Chinese disease specialist.
https://www.newsweek.com/covid-anal-swabs-beijing-residents-more-accurate-says-chinese-expert-1564381?
Quite depressing to watch, read and listen to various Liberal 'Left' news sources to again unquestioningly jump on board the US led Venezuela regime change band wagon without missing a step and offering no proof or evidence so soon after these same outlets taking so much effort and time to debunk Trumps obvious bullshit over election fraud in the US…it could make you wonder at some of their other reporting…or so you would think?
US (and NZ) Media Require No Evidence for Claims of Electoral Fraud—in Venezuela
"Venezuela’s December 6 parliamentary election offers an instructive case study, with corporate journalists unquestioningly repeating Trump officials’ unsubstantiated allegations of “fraud” there at the same time that they debunked Trump’s virtually identical claims vis-a-vis the US election. And the right-wing violence that was rightly portrayed as a threat to democracy in the US was heartily endorsed as a democratic campaign in Venezuela, where it served Washington’s foreign policy goals.
The media’s uncritical echoing of fraud allegations is in turn used to justify the continuation of Washington’s regime-change policies. Early signs point to this dynamic continuing in full force under the new Biden administration (Reuters, 1/19/21)."
Depressing and enraging but entirely predictable.
At least Biden's going to revive the Iran nuclear deal, so that's something, plus hand out some more cheques (USD1400) to US citizens and rejoin the Paris Accord on climate change. But mostly he's a ludicrous relic of a profoundly broken past, and completely unequal to the historical moment he finds himself in.
I'm just about past caring – might go plant some things in the garden and catch a fish. To quote Allen Ginsberg from 65 years ago, “America when will you be angelic?”
I like this version; with Waits' melancholy setting for Ginsberg's reading, though there is something to be said for the starkness of the bare words.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZQ1F45j8Vc
Advice from someone who really knows how to do a checkmate:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jan/27/garry-kasparov-calls-on-uk-to-impose-sanctions-oligarchs-vladmiri-putin-alexei-navalny
It is hard to be a plutocrat when you can't use the money you have looted. Though it's not quite that simple; as Putin's regime still has a lot of guns, and other more terrifying weapons.
Moscow population 12,190,000 approx 40,000 protesters = just over 0.3 % I doubt Putin is losing sleep
Barfly, if it's not that significant; why has it not happened any other time in the last 40 years? Has Moscow been just so idyllic that there has been nothing to protest, or has a ruthless exKGB officer seized control of the state apparatus to quash dissent through a program (/pogrom) of murder and intimidation? I believe the latter to be closer to the truth.
"there has been nothing to protest"
Not necessarily. If the guardian, bbc et al haven't reported an event that doesn't prove no event took place.
Well, I can't read Cyrillic; but don't you think that someone would have mentioned it somewhere in an english language source somewhere, if so? I am more inclined to trust Kasparov; a chess grandmaster's memory than your uninformed supposition, unless you can provide a link.
Also that should be; "the last 30 years", not 40. Some clumsy fingers today!
The point is, if you're only going to read and believe those publications at the head of your google search you're not going to be very well informed are you.
Therefore what you believe is based on poor research so your ignorance is your concern and really doesn't interest me.
My beliefs don't matter to you so much, that you; felt compelled to leave a reply telling me how they don't matter to you? Okayy…
Poots doesn't give a rats….
Not about dead people (if that's what your image depicts); no, I don't believe Putin does, Joe90. However, I imagine he, and his backers, care very deeply about the state of their bank accounts.
They're murdered Russian journalists.
" witnesses saw at least one killer in a parked Lada"
Yep Russia did it.
Does Putin drive a Lada? He might. So yeah he did it.
Check out the #RussiaProtests tag on twitter. This is a massive movement.
https://twitter.com/AlexKokcharov/status/1352999003361857539?s=20
The true thoughts of the heroic Navalny….bit of a racist Nationalist by the looks of it, but hey the Liberals can use him in their anti Russian boogie man McCarthyite hysteria campaign..so who cares right….
https://twitter.com/MarkAmesExiled/status/1354052162570117121
Nalvany looks like he is just another Putin if the Twitter post is to believed .
Who knows Russian bot factories Putins financial contribution to Trump Pence The leave Brexit campaign..
Attn RedLogix 🙂
“What if we had a different ur-myth about energy and order in the universe? Imagine, for instance, that our intuitions were still informed more by that world of agrarian smallholders, and less by the industrialized cultures that eclipsed it. Letting our worldview shift further still, we could combine such a retrieval of our deeper past with an appreciation of the highly modern. Imagine, that is, a sense of energy informed not by Victorian science but by more recent physics—from cosmic background radiation to the quantum effervescence of space itself. And imagine, too, a feeling for order that derived less from loose notions of entropic decline, and more from recent work on physical self-organization or the way organisms adaptively harness tiny changes in entropy to drive productive chemical reactions.
“Imbued with such a worldview, moved and directed by it much as the Victorians were influenced by thermodynamics and Darwinism, we might think and act less in the vein of industrial agriculture, with its mining of natural gas and unidirectional spill of energy. We might be more inclined to let the flywheel of ecology get spinning and investigate the potential allowances of regenerative agriculture. More generally, perhaps we would begin to see that part of the solution to our planetary crisis lies not in hustle, but in repose. Not in catching the next trans-Atlantic flight to an important conference or meeting, but in staying home, contentedly. Not in buying a new more efficient car, but in leaving the old one parked. Perhaps there are many solutions that do not even occur to us, because they resemble passivity rather than action, and we are so deeply trained to hustle.”
https://nautil.us/issue/86/energy/the-idea-of-entropy-has-led-us-astray
Average weekly rent in Auckland now $595pw! Unfortunately I cant see it easing much over the coming year if there is as much demand as they say.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/homed/real-estate/124072625/super-city-rents-hit-new-record
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2021/01/jacinda-ardern-encourages-higher-spending-on-cars-to-reduce-emissions-as-act-fears-for-less-fortunate.html
I'm starting to think Ardern just can't be bothered trying to solve the big problems.
What solution(s) do you propose?
I simply can't see how you can make the majority of NZ car drivers reducing their carbon emissions voluntarily. They are used to cheap, second hand car imports, ideally with as big – means polluting – engine as possible (while NZ petrol is still cheap compared to many Western European countries). On top of it, driving is seen as a god-given right, even if it serves very little to no purpose.
We have now "climate emergency" declared on every level here in Wellington: local, regional and national. Looking forward to the ideas to significantly reduce the transport carbon emission in the near future. Clearly, people have to leave their car at home when going into an office or work from home to achieve any noticeable reduction.
Buggered if I know but her response on this like her response to house prices the other day reminds me of old dont give a fuck key,its I bit depressing.
Amsterdam Is Embracing a Radical New Economic Theory to Help Save the Environment. Could It Also Replace Capitalism?
https://time.com/5930093/amsterdam-doughnut-economics/
Hope so. Or at least opens a door to good change.
Covid may test the model.
an explainer for those trying to make sense of the redditors taking down the hedge fund dudes. I think I understood this, most of it at least.
https://twitter.com/migbike/status/1354449364463325185
Longer form explanation of what's going on:
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/redditors-myth-stock-market_n_6011bd16c5b61cb9535099d6
The thing about short selling is there is literally no limit to how much money a short seller could be on the hook for. I vaguely recall a comment from last year that short sellers in Tesla stock were in the hole for more than the combined market capitalisation of Ford, GM and Volkswagen combined.
Wall St big players have ganged together to stop the free market. Only insider trading allowed now apparently. They shut down the subreddit and Discord on the basis of "hate speech"… because they can't really say the truth: they don't like market manipulation, when it's not themselves doing it.
"What does the stock market do? It provides a convenient method of payment for elevated executive salaries and an avenue to riches for people ― usually organizations of rich people ― who want to bet on stocks. Turns out, that’s a lot of people. "
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/redditors-myth-stock-market_n_6011bd16c5b61cb9535099d6
"The GameStop affair provides an opportunity to update Keynes for the 21st century: If you leave it to professional gamblers to determine the social value of any activity, they will almost always give you the wrong answer, no matter how many of them gamble against each other. They can reward social destruction just as readily as they reward social harmony or a video game store or a well-groomed horse at the starting gate.
Financial markets cannot tell us what is good and what is bad. They can only tell us what a lot of people thought they could make money on at a certain point in time. The real work of determining what kind of world we want to live in is the proper subject of democracy, not high finance. The Redditors have made this brazenly clear to the world, and for that they should be celebrated rather than condemned.
The situation, however, does demand a public policy solution. The Redditors have revealed an absurdity by being absurd. The appropriate response is not to demand an orgy of further absurdity, but to do something sensible."
Nuff said
Yeah suddenly it's a loophole that needs regulating. Wall St & DC have deregulated everything and lined their own pockets, plundering the Earth for decades.
https://twitter.com/rudy_betrayed/status/1354485494445461510?s=20
https://twitter.com/bocxtop/status/1354496988193185806?s=20
"We have been advised that a small number of people who were in hotel quarantine in the Pullman Hotel in Auckland at the same time as these other cases have since travelled to Australia on green zone flights”
“We know that 12 people who were in quarantine at the Pullman Hotel have arrived in Sydney. Three of these people have travelled on to Hong Kong and the authorities there have been advised.”
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/covid-19-coronavirus-twelve-travellers-from-virus-hotel-came-to-australia/VDFZ2NXR44TOCEJFHVGI5ASZYY/
What is going on here ? Extrapolation of the quarantine service which was for Kiwis coming home not for others to use and abuse to go elsewhere.
Is it because it is too hard to get direct flights or it is cheaper to fly so they transit through NZ.
Surely immigration could keep track somehow and it cannot be excluded that they paid for their own MIQ.
If that is the case it should be prohibited.
In transit passengers remains air side at the airport. Those flying on to other destinations from MIQ would be NZ citizens with the right to do so.
I thought people had to disembark once the flight reached NZ. So people transit through NZ and continue on to another destination not leaving the plane?
Those flying on to another country never enter NZ, remaining air side in one of Dante's circles of hell, the international transit lounge.
Pretty simple, there's more quarantine spaces in NZ than Aussie so NZ citizens or residents who have been overseas are using NZ quarantine to get into Australia
NZers coming into NZ presumably don't have to tell the govt why, or how long they intend to stay.
I bet it's just global citizens who have scammed a nz resident Visa and are useing nz as a back door to other places ,
heh.
Or reverse-501s: grew up in Aus, didn't need paperwork so still technically NZers and not aussies, got kiwi passport, and now have a quicker path back home through NZ MIQ.