Nationals health spokes person making cheap political points.outhouse compares NZ to Singapore yet Singapore has a far worse problem than NZ. Then there is privacy Singapore is not a free democracy like NZ.
Singapore is a stuffup,due to the handling of their indentured labour force.
Singapore trails only China, India, Japan and Pakistan in Asia for the number of coronavirus infections. More than 10,000 of those infected, some 80% of its total, are foreign workers, many of whom have been placed in “isolation facilities” for people with mild symptoms such as the conference centers.
National continues with its misguided idea of what an opposition party should contribute, with relentless negativity and totally uncontructive criticism – just for the sake of trying to "win", nothing about what helps NZ. They just have nothing to add, and you can bet their brilliant crew would do no better at any of the things they criticise.
Two weeks is too long to wait for a contact tracing app for Covid-19, the National Party says.
National's health spokesperson Michael Woodhouse said the Singaporean government offered the code for its app weeks ago, and the ministry should be moving faster.
Anyone familiar with coding? I am guessing even with existing code to modify, for something of this scale two weeks is a very short time.
No doubt Woodhouse would be complaining the app ‘was rushed’ if it had been out that quick…
The penny finally dropped for me listening to Cameron Bagrie last night on Q&A justifying Simon Bridge's negative stance on the grounds that this was the opposition's job. So the justification is that you need to be oppositional even if you are just opening your mouth and letting the wind blow your tongue around. Good grief!
The technological determinists seem to think everyone has a capable mobile phone, and, if they do have one, that it's on all the time.
I have a little prepay, flip phone (AKA shell phone). Even if I could load such an ap on it, I rarely have it on, and rarely use it. Just need it for txts and those phone verification thingies.
And those people who run out of funds to renew their plan?
Plus, the PM and Bloomfield have continually stressed that contact tracing needs to be via personal communications with suspected contacts, not via an ap.
Close to 80% of the population to get close to manual contact tracing using Blutooth.
At least 40% to be of use at all with Bluetooth.
Best approach is to forget the Bluetooth and just to treat it as a diary of locations to assist memory when contract tracing. That alone would massively help because where available it will help cover memory gaps.
But to me, that just defines National. Looking for ineffective quick fixes all of the time. Like the Canterbury earthquake responses.
Best approach is to forget the Bluetooth and just to treat it as a diary of locations to assist memory when contract tracing.
God yes.
Government wants me to install an app so it can monitor my location for contact tracing? Grumpy, but OK it's for the greater good.
Government wants me to have Bluetooth switched on all the time and be charging my phone every few hours is what it would feel like? You can fuck right off, government.
Yeah, I certainly wouldn't put something from the government on my phone that has bluetooth on all the time. And I'm the kind of person that wouldn't object to things like numberplate recognition cameras all around the place, nor do I do anything with my phone or have any info on it that would be of the slightest conceivable interest to anyone else.
If bluetooth-based contact tracking became a requirement, I'd seriously look into just getting a burner phone for that alone. Which would make it more or less the same is the proposed Covid Card.
My phone bluetooth is always turned off. My phone wifi is turned off except for the few moments I need it on. My mobile data is turned off except the few moments I need it on, although since that goes to the same towers as voice and text it doesn't affect my trackability.
From one Twitter discussion I saw between tech experts, even 30% sounded OK. Not nearly as high as I expected – though intended to be alongside manual tracing not replacing it.
The infamous spyware maker from Israel NSO Group, and Cy4Gate, a company that sells surveillance tools from Italy, are actively pitching surveillance tools to contain the virus to their own governments and others around the world, Motherboard has learned.
Their systems are essentially mass surveillance tools that would help governments and health authorities keep track of the movements of every citizen, and who they get in contact with. The goal of this contact tracing method is to track the spread of the coronavirus and help governments make better decisions to counter it, such as quarantining certain areas, informing people they may have been infected, or administering tests.
Two weeks ago, Bloomberg reported that NSO Group developed a new product to track the spread of coronavirus. Now, Motherboard obtained more details about how the product—codenamed Fleming—actually works.
Michael Woodhouse is an idiot and clearly doesn't do software. Especially those designed to go out amongst millions of devices.
I do. Even after you finally get the stuff done it usually takes months to get tested and 'right'. And it has to be right because if it messes up phones then the uptake will be minimal.
Glad that they decided not to go for active BLE in the first pass. That is a very hard ask – sucks battery life , requires it to be an active service, and requires a lot of extra work to make sure that the OS doesn't shut it down. It most likely is the main reason for slow uptake of these kinds of apps.
Also it won't do what the advocates of this kind of app would like it to do. It is no panacea. As much as anything else because you can't get saturation. Many people don't carry phones with them. Many others simply won't activate it.
The manual contact tracking is still required and at much the same level. A app is only an minor add on.
Woodhouse is pretty much cementing his reputation of being an idiot tosser.
I am a complete idiot that can't do anything involving software apart from the most basic fixes for my computer.
Can you explain in laymans terms why we couldn't use the system they've pushed the button on in Australia or Singapore rather than doing it ourselves ?
So far Australia has had over 2m people download their version inside three days. The local tech community has gotten in behind and are supporting it's use.
It's a doddle to install and the user really doesn't need to do anything.
My old five year old Oppo Android phone seems to have had no impact on the battery life that I've noticed so far and works fine.
And the way it's set up it's far less intrusive than Google or FB.
With the lifting of restrictions we are entering the phase where testing and tracking are the vital tools; otherwise the effort so far could easily be wasted. Don't like the app, then keep a paper log. One or the other; but a $10k fine if you do nothing and catch it.
Delightful morning at Level 2. Wait, what's that? It's level 3? But look at what people are doing. They can read, so the government must've changed the level overnight. Welp, business as usual.
[I’ll give you more time to enjoy the delightful mornings for a whole week instead of wasting them on trolling this site – Incognito]
"Mr Assange will not be produced today because he is unwell"
A court clerk announced at Westminster Court today, during Assange's latest case hearing before Judge Vanessa Baraitser, that: "Mr Assange will not be produced today because I understand he is unwell".Assange's father John Shipton was present in court, wearing a mask: close to 80, he's in the high risk group for COVID, as is his son who has a chronic lung condition.
This is the second time Assange has not been 'present' via videolink at his own hearings due to being 'unwell', but his counsel and the judge always motor ahead, getting nowhere.
The US prosecution announced it's not against the delaying of the case until September or 'November 2', which would park the case in the midst of the US elections.
The question is: if the case is delayed again for months, will Assange continue to be held in infected Belmarsh (23-and-a-half-hours a day in solitary lockdown – a couple of deaths noted and under-staffing with scores of guards self-isolating) even though he is (a) a remand prisoner (b) has no charges against him (c) has completed his Bail Act sentence.
“Judge delays for months Assange’s extradition hearing to the US for publishing journalism. There’s no excuse for denying him bail, and keeping him in a high-security jail, unless the hope is that Belmarsh’s Covid-19 outbreak will settle his case pre-emptively.”
Of course, humankind had some weeks/months time to reflect (from link above):
“The climate crisis continues unabated,” Haustein said. “The emissions will go down this year, but the concentrations keep on rising. We are very unlikely to be able to notice any slowdown in the built-up of atmospheric GHG levels. But we have the unique chance now to reconsider our choices and use the corona crisis as a catalyst for more sustainable means of transport and energy production (via incentives, taxes, carbon prices etc).”
After seeing the traffic into Wellington this morning and reading reading article:
If emissions are down, but concentration levels are continuing to rise, then that might suggest we've crossed a tipping point somewhere and global warming is no longer "under our control"…
Yes to a degree – but as the article says there's also considerable lag in the system so any actions/activities/feedbacks take a while to become apparent beyond the massive cracks in my lawn in late April.
Emissions are down from their peak, but not negative. That concentrations are still rising just means emissions are greater than the earth's ability to absorb CO2 from the atmosphere. That's been true since sometime in the 1800s, if not much earlier.
Emissions from our activities will never be negative Andre.
The point about Anthropogenic Global Warming and straight up Global Warming is that tipping points (once crossed) mean that warming is being driven from sources other than human activity and nothing we do can alter eventual outcomes.
I'd have thought it fairly obvious that a rise in atmospheric concentrations occurring in the face of dropping emissions (not a straight forward measurement btw because of natural, mostly seasonal fluctuations) is….not a good sign.
That concentrations are still rising even after a drop in emissions is indeed bad news, but it doesn't "suggest we've crossed a tipping point" anytime recently. That particular tipping point was crossed centuries ago.
By itself it doesn't say anything one way or the other about whether non-anthropogenic sources have recently increased or decreased, nor whether the earth's capacity to absorb CO2 has decreased or increased.
Unless your suggesting that the move from water powered mills to coal/steam powered mills back in the early to mid 1800s coincided with a non-human related source of CO2 being unleashed, then I'm a bit lost on what you might mean by "That particular tipping point was crossed centuries ago".
There has always been a degree of wriggle room in the carbon cycle – which is why major volcanic eruptions (for example) have resulted in short term destabalisations and not wholesale irreversible shifts.
I wrote "might suggestwe've crossed a tipping point somewhere" – which is true, and the only indication we will ever have (as far as I'm aware) that a tipping point has been crossed.
I quit that piece at a paragraph or two in because in spite of the fact the world was in a cooling phase before fossil emissions halted and reversed the cooling, the piece asserts that It also shows that without this human influence, by the start of the Industrial Revolution, the planet would have likely been headed for another ice age.
That aside, in relation to your first response above, the piece does at least highlight why human emissions will never be negative – agriculture will always produce methane and CO2.
Don't you appreciate Jacinda's skill at handling the Press Conference especially the question time? The only questions answered by Trump were ones from MAGA people.
Pity since the demise of Paul Holmes the ability to question PM's, ministers etc has gone from informative and being challenged to watching a bunch of compliant amateurs with a media profile the station and the personality want to maintained. Follow any political blog same comment is universal from both sides, and these are those who are politically active or seeking out info. The public at large are fed 10-30sec meaningless gotcha clips.
Where are the follow up questions ?? This comment was also applicable under Key.
I was talking to a mate today, he has been living off-grid during the lock-down.
The 'mainstream' media came up and the perilous state they find themselves in.
While this is not news, it has become apparent who the newspapers, tv and radio stations serve: the advertisers.
Recently we have had the three 'local' papers- The Dom, The Evening Standard and Feilding Herald adopt the same masthead, puzzle page etc and a lot of common content. The only discernable difference is the obituaries and the real estate for sale.
The media has made itself redundant in many peoples lives.
There are also continuing your theme, plenty of articles that come across as independent news but from reading sound more of an "advertorial", similar with "experts" they appear to be selected based on what their perception is and how that aligns with how the media is framing the story. You think the govt is crap there are media personalities you will listen/ watch. The govt is perfect you can find media that is compliant with this side as well.
IMO we need a functioning opposition (NZ has been lacking one for many years now) and a media that questions.
Whist you say the media has made itself redundant – I counter that it is more dangerous as ever due to its shallowness/personalities built on nothing ( CELEBRITIES) just look at what the US has in leadership !!
I agree that the 'news' can often be rehashed press releases and the shallow celebrity cult flavour of current events. The redundancy I mentioned is a financial one. We don't value it enough to pay for it.
Not surprising really, most by-products of the race to the bottom are unappealing.
Its been quite clear for a while that our media is controlled by the advertiser. I follow Thai politics. { More exciting than game of thrones , I think.} While the rest of the world is provided info on Thai King I have yet to see anything in our media, I can only think the travel advertises keep it from our papers
Mark Blyth covers some interesting ground here – COVID-19 and the economic effects, the nature of bailouts, internationalism and the difference between countries, etc. I was particularly interested in the idea of anti-fragility and automatic stabilisers which he touched on briefly. It's quite long, but worth it.
Thought you might be interested in this in light of a comment made a few days back…
As European leaders launch a multilateral, multi-billion-dollar effort to promote vaccines, testing, and anti-viral medicines, the U.S. withdraws from the World Health Organization and declines to join. There you have it.
Global leaders are launching an initiative with the World Health Organization (WHO) to accelerate the development of coronavirus drugs, tests and vaccines and ensure equal access to all countries, but the US is not involved. European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen, French president Emmanuel Macron and German chancellor Angela Merkel were among leaders participating in a video conference to announce the plan. US president Donald Trump recently criticised the WHO’s handling of the pandemic and announced a withdrawal of US funding to the organisation.
A Chinese pact with Europe and the UK over this event is also smart politics in shifting blocs of influence together – and away from the US.
In my lifetime I can't think of a developed nation that has so wilfully and swiftly disengaged from institutional co-operation at a time of global crisis as the United States has done.
The US withdrawal – and its status as the worst response by levels of infection and death in the world by a country mile – makes the oppressive regime of China look like a reasoned, co-operative, and generous international partner in a global crisis. Which takes some doing.
In my lifetime I can't think of a developed nation that has so wilfully and swiftly disengaged from institutional co-operation at a time of global crisis as the United States has done.
As I've argued before this is the direction the USA has been moving in since the end of the Cold War, a slow drift at first, but now so dramatic as to be obvious to all.
Now think through all the potential consequences of this shift. In my view none of them are good.
Had a bit of a laugh at PhD student Matthew-HeavyBreather-Hooton (@ ~6 minutes into RNZ’s Nine-to-Noon programme this morning) leading with his 'concern' that Grant Roberston might regard himself as "omniscient". Typically it's the National Party that is more inclined to pick business winners – maybe there's only room for one omniscient NZer in Hooten's 'mind'
Of as much concern is his promotion of UBI…writing off a significant portion of the population as an underclass by a mechanism carrying a different name…a repeat of the mistake of the 80s.
China might be "feeling the heat" or, more likely in my mind, is simply pissed off with the children in the room trying to cast it as "bogey man".
eg – From western news outlets and just off the top of my head – China is simultaneously charged with being too authoritarian in locking down cities, and too lax in its response. China sending covid related aid to third countries isn't humanitarianism, but cynical influence building. Scouring the world for ppe when faced with the potential for a pandemic it was trying to avert, is somehow nefarious. Then there's all the false reporting of whistle blowers who weren't actually whistle blowers. Throw in on top the charges that China didn't inform other countries about covid (when it most assuredly did), and how that contradicts bullshit being peddled by sections of the US intelligence community that the virus was "sweeping" China in November…
I read stories that the USA was doing that – exporting ppe to China around the same time it was "hi-jacking" supplies paid for by other countries, but I haven't read of China doing that.
Maybe western corporations who have production facilities in China were 'exporting' ppe to their usual customers? That what you mean? Link?
But threatening a so-called ally as China has done here is clumsy and bound to be counter-productive. Morrison had already had his idea of an inquiry rebuffed by the UK and France. Beijing’s best course of action, at least at the moment, would have been to ignore the posturing from Australia. And, of course, any threat of a boycott is unlikely to be terribly effective right now given that Australia’s economy (like everybody else’s) has pretty gone down the gurgler anyway. There’s more than a whiff of panic about the whole business.
But threatening a so-called ally as China has done …
So China is to not push back on the threats from Pompeo and fellow travelers from US allies like Australia? Is the country also meant to just 'soak up' all the Sinophobic propaganda that's been peddled by 'western' mainstream/corporate media?
If that's your thinking, maybe you missed your calling and should have applied for the role of lead advisor to Jeremy Corbyn and Bernie Sanders. 🙂
Boots on the ground story of MBIE theater – 3 days in a motel for homeless during lockdown. Then back to Work and Income that failed to house them in the first place.
The other thing you failed to pick up is that it is extremely unlikely that Grant Robertson or whoever else within the State apparatus will be able to predict with any certainty where these resources should be reallocated to. They can hazard a guess but the best way of deciding is to allow the market to dictate what areas are going to be successful or not.
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
The post isn't about Hooton's reckons on Nine to Noon, and it's not there for you to derail yet again. When you can demonstrate that you understand what my posts are about, by how you comment, you will be welcome back. My suggestion is to try and not look like you only read the title or first few lines of the post.
For instance, you could have put up an argument (not simply an assertion) of how the market might work as a useful tool within Raworth's framework.
We do know for certain that way to many in the private sector have even less idea.
Forgotten the 87 share market crash, so soon.
Government is always part of allocating resources for business. Both the subsidies for dairying, the roading built for trucks, and the increase in businesses power bills with the privatisation of energy, were all Government effects on business.
Something that should be decided by democratic decision. Not the mythical "free market".
Small businesses should be allowed and helped, to rethink and re direct if necessary.
However if National really wanted to help small businesses restart and rebuild, they would have been advocating rent and loan freezes, for small businesses that couldn't trade during the lockdown, instead of moaning that the "parachute was too big" before we even reach the ground.
The co-owner of an Auckland shopping mall is raging at the "naïve" Government for continuing lockdown restrictions on retailers despite some 400,000 workers returning under COVID-19 alert level 3.
Same crowd who allowed Dan Bidiot to campaign at the mall but refused Shanan Halbert, then packed a sad and refused everyone (after Bidiot had completed campaigning there).
‘Last year, members of the Special Operations — Navy SEALs, Army Green Berets, and Marine Raiders among them — operated in 141 countries, according to figures provided to TomDispatch by U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM). In other words, they deployed to roughly 72% of the nations on this planet. While down from a 2017 high of 149 countries, this still represents a 135% rise from the late 2000s when America’s commandos were reportedly operating in only 60 nations.’
Apropos nothing really I learned today that 50 of the 100 states of the United States have populations no larger than NZ and many very considerably less. If NZ were a US city it would be the 2nd largest in the US after New York City followed by Los Angeles and Chicago. Which made me feel good about my country – I have in me a positive sense about the standard of leadership this country enjoys in these times. Jesus…..imagine living in America right now!
The US has 50 states. Plus Washington DC, which is separate from the states. Plus a bunch of territories, of which Puerto Rico is largest in both area and population. And yeah, our population would slot in pretty close to halfway up the list, between Alabama and Louisiana.
As far as cities goes, your ranking is correct if you go by the boundary of the legally incorporated city. Kinda like Orcland before the Supershitty amalgamation. But if you go by the population of the metropolitan area, then 4.8 million population is around 10th for metro areas in the US, similar to Phoenix AZ, Boston MA and San Francisco – Oakland CA.
The Covid-19 stats are interesting. Accepting all the stuff about accuracy and counting or not counting ones who should or should not be on lists: Random except for Michigan where there were big crazed protests about the lockdown.
Michigan: population 10 million covid cases 38,200, deaths 3,407
Louisiana: population 4.6 million covid cases 27,000, deaths 1,697
Sth Dakota: population 950,000 Covid cases 2,245, deaths 11
NZ: population 4.8 million Covid cases 1,472, deaths 19
Imagine the uproar here if our figures were like theirs. The contrast between our leader and her Ministry people's sessions and Trump's ones are as stark as the numbers.
The headline says he moved in level 4, but his story is he squeaked the move in on the Wednesday while it was still level 3. Can't be arsed checking exactly what was said about moving house at level 3 at the time.
What utter bloody nonsense, Stunted Mullet. There was very little enforcement for such things, and it is quite likely that normal Joe or Jane Blogs would never have been noticed doing that same thing. In fact, I would be willing to bet that many people did so, and had no repercussions.
You Righties are so full of bumf. I remember Key's National Govt. pretending it did a great thing for us all by lowering the alcohol driving limits. But after that, they then cut Police funding to the point where Police were unable to keep up the number of alcohol checkpoints- already too few – and they were silently reduced.
As a result, NZ became one of the very few countries in the world to lower the alcohol limits, then have an increase in the number of alcohol-related accidents.
Enforcement is what matters – the cheats stop cheating only when they know they will probably be caught. (TV ads telling them -"You will be caught!" are crap.)
The cheats will have been right in from the start with the emergency measures needed for Covid19.
Little surveillance or enforcement likely. Clark is not such a malevolent cheat – more a dopy innocent. Go find some real offenders.
He’s entitled to his opinion. Either it was pretty legal, in which case Clark needs to be fired on the spot. Or it was not, in which case Clark needs to resign immediately. There is a third possibility. If it was his third strike, that awful van of his must be crushed with his mountain bike in it. I like the way Stunned Mullet is thinking. It doesn’t leave room for doubt or errors. Oh, how much I would have to give up to have such opinions and to be free of the eternal burden of doubt and feel righteous in perpetuum!
This from Seden's PM – which sounds like typical right wing stuff, unwilling to take responsibility despite having all the stats and advisers that money can buy, or should:
"We can't legislate and ban everything. It's also a question of common sense behaviour," Stefan Löfven, the Prime Minister, said at the end of March, as Sweden laid out its recommendations.
The bars and public places are crammed with people. They are supposed to be social distancing, but they want to socialise and enjoy themselves not police themselves.
When looking at the death figures, they are noticeably higher in the 60 ups. Though the number of cases shown was highest in the 50-59 year group. Apparently they are young enough to throw it off.
Swedish deaths Covid-19 – looking at older age groups
The cases were considerable and growing larger with age in all the age groups after age 20.
They start growing in the 20-29 group at 1425 (5 deaths) which is just exceeded by the over 90s at 1,569 (546 deaths), of whom over 26% appear to have died.
Three decade groups – 40-49 years (25 deaths), 60-69 years (180 deaths), and 70-79 years (526 deaths), have similar numbers of cases – around the 2500s – with deaths rising sharply along with age.
So if I doubted the stress on age I don't any longer, as the older you get the higher the rate of infection, and the higher the death rate in those who were reasonably healthy and could have expected to have longer lives.
just watched paul henry in the most banal pointless teevy programme ever to grace tv3.
he snivelled and bleated and sucked upp to john keys in the greasiest display of fawning sycophancy I have ever seen. JOhn Key dis his very best to dun the government without seeming to poormouth the greatest peacetime NZ has ever seen.
Then the Education expert came on and praised the government and last but not least Paul Rimmington editor of National Affairs also gave the government the thumbs up.
henry had to suck it up and not before he admitted that he was kicked out of australia because they didn't like him.
Well after being beaten for a parliamentary seat by a drag queen and being removed from air over there I would just shut up but not him.
Yes RP. I was channel surfing and stayed to watch Key spouting to Henry. As usual if you tried to assess the importance of Key's words it was like Scotch mist. He did think we should enhance our trade with China but a lot of words to say so little. And putting all our eggs in China's basket is not such a good idea anyway.
Sounds like Key was talking about an Easter eggs hunt for grown-ups. 'They are acshually just down by my swimming pool and through the sculpture garden….etc'
Families tolerate tin garages through winter while comfy insulated holiday houses stand empty.
We need to get smart with this Airbnb etc gig, spin it to suit everyone. Servicing an Airbnb place, cleaning, greeting guests etc could pay for the temp housing for a displaced family through the peak season.
There are ways we can make the arrows we have in our quiver work for all of us and I think that's what most of us want. A toy with all the trimmings is no fun on your tod.
I think Cindy and Ash's plan is genius. The one thing that traditionally gets better fast is virus testing. Soon, it will be bullet-proof.
Testing at our one international airport, attached luxury quarantine hotel should it be needed. The globe's virus free destination. The paranoid, diabetic and dickey heart stricken will flock. Sheesh, bars will be getting $20 a pint and housekeepers $30 an hour.
If the 19 swirls and lingers around the globe. I think our government have poised us well.
If Jacinda was Trump she would be saying "Despite you all being dicks, I've been able to position us so that once we're all through this temporary bullshit, you n' me, we're gonna be Rockstars." The only difference is, as opposed to Don, beaut guy, I think Jacinda can turn us all into rockstars.
Productivity is linked to wages low wages low productivity high wages the business owners invest in more efficient plant. Low wages they just hire more cheap Labour.
Thanks to the all of the teams for their great mahi in keeping the virus at bay.
That's good Internet for rual places getting $16 million investment boost.
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Some of the recent announcements from the government have reminded us of posts we’ve written in the past. Here’s one from early 2020. There were plenty of reactions to the government’s infrastructure announcement a few weeks ago which saw them fund a bunch of big roading projects. One of ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Thursday, July 25 are:News: Why Electric Kiwi is closing to new customers - and why it matters RNZ’s Susan EdmundsScoop: Government drops ...
Hi,I felt a small wet tongue snaking through one of the holes in my Crocs. It explored my big toe, darting down one side, then the other. “He’s looking for some toe cheese,” said the woman next to me, words that still haunt me to this day.Growing up in New ...
Yesterday I happily quoted the Prime Minister without fact-checking him and sure enough, it turns out his numbers were all to hell. It’s not four kg of Royal Commission report, it’s fourteen.My friend and one-time colleague-in-comms Hazel Phillips gently alerted me to my error almost as soon as I’d hit ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Thursday, July 25, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day were:The Abuse in Care Royal Commission of Inquirypublished its final report yesterday.PM Christopher Luxon and The Minister responsible for ...
The Official Information Act has always been a battle between requesters seeking information, and governments seeking to control it. Information is power, so Ministers and government agencies want to manage what is released and when, for their own convenience, and legality and democracy be damned. Their most recent tactic for ...
TL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:Transport and Energy Minister Simeon Brown is accelerating plans to spend at least $10 billion through Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) to extend State Highway One as a four-lane ‘Expressway’ from Warkworth to Whangarei ...
I live my life (woo-ooh-ooh)With no control in my destinyYea-yeah, yea-yeah (woo-ooh-ooh)I can bleed when I want to bleedSo come on, come on (woo-ooh-ooh)You can bleed when you want to bleedYea-yeah, come on (woo-ooh-ooh)Everybody bleed when they want to bleedCome on and bleedGovernments face tough challenges. Selling unpopular decisions to ...
Please note:To skip directly to the- parliamentary footage in the video, scroll to 1:21 To skip to audio please click on the headphone iconon the left hand side of the screenThis video / audio section is under development. ...
Given the crackdown on wasteful government spending, it behooves me to point to a high profile example of spending by the Luxon government that looks like a big, fat waste of time and money. I’m talking about the deployment of NZDF personnel to support the US-led coalition in the Red ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:40 am on Wednesday, July 24 are:Deep Dive: Chipping away at the housing crisis, including my comments RNZ/Newsroom’s The DetailNews: Government softens on asset sales, ...
As I reported about the city centre, Auckland’s rail network is also going through a difficult and disruptive period which is rapidly approaching a culmination, this will result in a significant upgrade to the whole network. Hallelujah. Also like the city centre this is an upgrade predicated on the City ...
Today, a 4 kilogram report will be delivered to Parliament. We know this is what the report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care weighs, because our Prime Minister told us so.Some reporter had blindsided him by asking a question about something done by ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Wednesday, July 24, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Beehive:Transport Minister Simeon Brownannounced plans to use PPPs to fund, build and run a four-lane expressway between Auckland ...
NewstalkZB host Mike Hosking, who can usually be relied on to give Prime Minister Christopher Luxon an easy run, did not do so yesterday when he interviewed him about the HealthNZ deficit. Luxon is trying to use a deficit reported last year by HealthNZ as yet another example of the ...
Back in January a StatsNZ employee gave a speech at Rātana on behalf of tangata whenua in which he insulted and criticised the government. The speech clearly violated the principle of a neutral public service, and StatsNZ started an investigation. Part of that was getting an external consultant to examine ...
Renting for life: Shared ownership initiatives are unlikely to slow the slide in home ownership by much. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:A Deloittereport for Westpac has projected Aotearoa’s home-ownership rate will ...
You're broken down and tiredOf living life on a merry go roundAnd you can't find the fighterBut I see it in you so we gonna walk it outAnd move mountainsWe gonna walk it outAnd move mountainsAnd I'll rise upI'll rise like the dayI'll rise upI'll rise unafraidI'll rise upAnd I'll ...
There’s been a change in Myers Park. Down the steps from St. Kevin’s Arcade, past the grassy slopes, the children’s playground, the benches and that goat statue, there has been a transformation. The underpass for Mayoral Drive has gone from a barren, grey, concrete tunnel, to a place that thrums ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections Global society may have finally slammed on the brakes for climate-warming pollution released by human fossil fuel combustion. According to the Carbon Monitor Project, the total global climate pollution released between February and May 2024 declined slightly from the amount released during the same ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Tuesday, July 23 are:Deep Dive: Penlink: where tolling rhetoric meets reality BusinessDesk-$$$’sOliver LewisScoop:Te Pūkenga plans for regional polytechs leak out ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Tuesday, July 23, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Health: Shane Reti announcedthe Board of Te Whatu Ora-Health New Zealand was being replaced with Commissioner Lester Levy ...
Health NZ warned the Government at the end of March that it was running over Budget. But the reasons it gave were very different to those offered by the Prime Minister yesterday. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon blamed the “botched merger” of the 20 District Health Boards (DHBs) to create Health ...
Long ReadKey Summary: Although National increased the health budget by $1.4 billion in May, they used an old funding model to project health system costs, and never bothered to update their pre-election numbers. They were told during the Health Select Committees earlier in the year their budget amount was deficient, ...
As a momentous, historic weekend in US politics unfolded, analysts and commentators grasped for precedents and comparisons to help explain the significance and power of the choice Joe Biden had made. The 46th president had swept the Democratic party’s primaries but just over 100 days from the election had chosen ...
TL;DR: I’m casting around for new ideas and ways of thinking about Aotearoa’s political economy to find a few solutions to our cascading and self-reinforcing housing, poverty and climate crises.Associate Professor runs an online masters degree in the economics of sustainability at Torrens University in Australia and is organising ...
The Finance and Expenditure Committee has reported back on National's Local Government (Water Services Preliminary Arrangements) Bill. The bill sets up water for privatisation, and was introduced under urgency, then rammed through select committee with no time even for local councils to make a proper submission. Naturally, national's select committee ...
Some years ago, I bought a book at Dunedin’s Regent Booksale for $1.50. As one does. Vandrad the Viking (1898), by J. Storer Clouston, is an obscure book these days – I cannot find a proper online review – but soon it was sitting on my shelf, gathering dust alongside ...
History is not on the side of the centre-left, when Democratic presidents fall behind in the polls and choose not to run for re-election. On both previous occasions in the past 75 years (Harry Truman in 1952, Lyndon Johnson in 1968) the Democrats proceeded to then lose the White House ...
This is a free articleCoverageThis morning, US President Joe Biden announced his withdrawal from the Presidential race. And that is genuinely newsworthy. Thanks for your service, President Biden, and all the best to you and yours.However, the media in New Zealand, particularly the 1News nightly bulletin, has been breathlessly covering ...
A homeless person’s camp beside a blocked-off slipped damage walkway in Freeman’s Bay: we are chasing our tail on our worsening and inter-related housing, poverty and climate crises. Photo: Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy ...
What has happened to it all?Crazy, some'd sayWhere is the life that I recognise?(Gone away)But I won't cry for yesterdayThere's an ordinary worldSomehow I have to findAnd as I try to make my wayTo the ordinary worldYesterday morning began as many others - what to write about today? I began ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Monday, July 22 are:Today’s Must Read: Father and son live in a tent, and have done for four years, in a million ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Monday, July 22, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:US President Joe Biden announced via X this morning he would not stand for a second term.Multinational professional services firm ...
A listing of 32 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, July 14, 2024 thru Sat, July 20, 2024. Story of the week As reflected by preponderance of coverage, our Story of the Week is Project 2025. Until now traveling ...
This weekend, a friend pointed out someone who said they’d like to read my posts, but didn’t want to pay. And my first reaction was sympathy.I’ve already told folks that if they can’t comfortably subscribe, and would like to read, I’d be happy to offer free subscriptions. I don’t want ...
National: The Party of ‘Law and Order’ IntroductionThis weekend, the Government formally kicked off one of their flagship policy programs: a military style boot camp that New Zealand has experimented with over the past 50 years. Cartoon credit: Guy BodyIt’s very popular with the National Party’s Law and Orderimage, ...
Day one of the solo leg of my long journey home begins with my favourite sound: footfalls in an empty street. 5.00 am and it’s already light and already too warm, almost.If I can make the train that leaves Budapest later this hour I could be in Belgrade by nightfall; ...
Do you remember Y2K, the threat that hung over humanity in the closing days of the twentieth century? Horror scenarios of planes falling from the sky, electronic payments failing and ATMs refusing to dispense cash. As for your VCR following instructions and recording your favourite show - forget about it.All ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts being questioned by The Kākā’s Bernard Hickey.TL;DR: My top six things to note around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the week to July 20 were:1. A strategy that fails Zero Carbon Act & Paris targetsThe National-ACT-NZ First Coalition Government finally unveiled ...
Summary:As New Zealand loses at least 12 leaders in the public service space of health, climate, and pharmaceuticals, this month alone, directly in response to the Government’s policies and budget choices, what lies ahead may be darker than it appears. Tui examines some of those departures and draws a long ...
The Minister of Housing’s ambition is to reduce markedly the ratio of house prices to household incomes. If his strategy works it would transform the housing market, dramatically changing the prospects of housing as an investment.Leaving aside the Minister’s metaphor of ‘flooding the market’ I do not see how the ...
As previously noted, my historical fantasy piece, set in the fifth-century Mediterranean, was accepted for a Pirate Horror anthology, only for the anthology to later fall through. But in a good bit of news, it turned out that the story could indeed be re-marketed as sword and sorcery. As of ...
An employee of tobacco company Philip Morris International demonstrates a heated tobacco device. Photo: Getty ImagesTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy on Friday, July 19 are:At a time when the Coalition Government is cutting spending on health, infrastructure, education, housing ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 8:30 am on Friday, July 19 are:Scoop: NZ First Minister Casey Costello orders 50% cut to excise tax on heated tobacco products. The minister has ...
Kia ora, it’s time for another Friday roundup, in which we pull together some of the links and stories that caught our eye this week. Feel free to add more in the comments! Our header image this week shows a foggy day in Auckland town, captured by Patrick Reynolds. ...
TL;DR : Here’s the top six items climate news for Aotearoa this week, as selected by Bernard Hickey and The Kākā’s climate correspondent Cathrine Dyer. A discussion recorded yesterday is in the video above and the audio of that sent onto the podcast feed.The Government released its draft Emissions Reduction ...
Save some money, get rich and old, bring it back to Tobacco Road.Bring that dynamite and a crane, blow it up, start all over again.Roll up. Roll up. Or tailor made, if you prefer...Whether you’re selling ciggies, digging for gold, catching dolphins in your nets, or encouraging folks to flutter ...
Waiting In The Wings:For truly, if Trump is America’s un-assassinated Caesar, then J.D. Vance is America’s Octavian, the Republic’s youthful undertaker – and its first Emperor.DONALD TRUMP’S SELECTION of James D. Vance as his running-mate bodes ill for the American republic. A fervent supporter of Viktor Orban, the “illiberal” prime ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Friday, July 19, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:The PSAannounced the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) had ruled in the PSA’s favour in its case against the Ministry ...
TL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers last night features co-hosts and talking with:The Kākā’s climate correspondent talking about the National-ACT-NZ First Government’s release of its first Emissions Reduction Plan;University of Otago Foreign Relations Professor and special guest Dr Karin von ...
Open access notablesImproving global temperature datasets to better account for non-uniform warming, Calvert, Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society:To better account for spatial non-uniform trends in warming, a new GITD [global instrumental temperature dataset] was created that used maximum likelihood estimation (MLE) to combine the land surface ...
A late change to charter school legislation will cheat educators out of fair pay and negotiating power proving charter schools are just a vehicle to make profit out of our education system. ...
In 2004 te iwi Māori rallied against the Crown’s attempt to confiscate our coastlines and moana with the Foreshore and Seabed Act. This led to the largest hīkoi of a generation and the birth of Te Pāti Māori. 20 years later, history is repeating itself. Today the government has announced ...
It has been five and a half years since the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care was established to investigate the abuse of children, young people, and vulnerable adults within state and faith-based institutions. Yesterday, the final report - Whanaketia through pain and trauma, from darkness to light ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to take action off the back of the International Court of Justice ruling on Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine. ...
On Friday the International Court of Justice reaffirmed what Palestinian’s have been telling us for decades: that the occupation and colonisation of Palestinian lands by Israel is illegal and must end immediately. They also called for reparations for Palestinian’s who have lived under Israeli occupation since it began in 1967. ...
Labour calls on the Government to act after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian Territories is illegal. ...
The 53.7 percent rise in benefit sanctions over the last year is more proof of this Government’s disdain for our communities most in need of support. ...
Aotearoa could be a country where every child grows up feeling safe, loved and with a sense of belonging in their whānau and community. But for some of our children, this is far from reality. Instead, they are trapped in a maze of intergenerational harm that they can’t escape on ...
Te Pāti Māori are calling for David Seymour to resign as Associate Health Minister in response to his call for Pharmac to ignore the Treaty of Waitangi. “This announcement is just another example of the government’s anti-Tiriti, anti-Māori agenda.” Said Co-leader and spokesperson for health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. “Seymour thinks it ...
The soaring price of renting is driving the rise of inflation in this country - with latest figures from Stats NZ showing rents are up 4.8 per cent on average while annual inflation is at 3.3 per cent. ...
National’s Emissions Reduction Plan will take New Zealand further from the economy we need to ensure the next generation has a stable climate and secure livelihoods. ...
Following consultation with named parties and thorough consideration of privacy interests, the Green Party is in a position to release the Executive Summary of the final report from the independent investigation into Darleen Tana. ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon should be asking serious questions of his Minister for Resources Shane Jones now it’s been revealed he misled the public about a dinner with mining companies that he didn’t declare and said wasn’t pre-arranged. ...
Te Pāti Māori have submitted to the Justice Select Committee against the Sentencing (Reinstating Three Strikes) Amendment Bill. The bill will further entrench racism in our justice system and fails to focus on rehabilitation. “Reinstating Three Strikes will empower a systematically racist system and exacerbate the overrepresentation of Māori in ...
The Transport and Infrastructure Committee is set to make a determination on the Residential Tenancies Amendment (RTA) Bill in the coming weeks. “This legislation will give landlords the power to kick our whānau out onto the street for no reason” said Housing spokesperson, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “Their solution to the housing ...
“National’s campaign was about tackling crime and the best they can do is a two-year long Ministerial Advisory Group,” Labour justice spokesperson Duncan Webb said. ...
“There are more examples of charter schools failing their students than there are success stories. The coalition Government is driving to dismantle our public school system and instead promote a privatised, competitive structure that puts profits before kids,” Jan Tinetti said. ...
“This government is choosing to deliberately mislead and withhold information, keeping our people in the dark about this government’s agenda and the future of our mokopuna,” said co-leader and spokesperson for Health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. The call comes after the demand from the Chief Ombudsman that Associate Minister of Health, Casey ...
“Today’s climate announcement by Simon Watts makes clear the National Government is simply paying lip service to meeting its climate change targets,” Megan Woods said. ...
National is choosing to make life harder for workers by taking away the rights our communities have fought hard for. Here's how they’re taking workers backwards. ...
Australia, Canada and New Zealand today issued the following statement on the need for an urgent ceasefire in Gaza and the risk of expanded conflict between Hizballah and Israel. The situation in Gaza is catastrophic. The human suffering is unacceptable. It cannot continue. We remain unequivocal in our condemnation of ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today reminded all State and faith-based institutions of their legal obligation to preserve records relevant to the safety and wellbeing of those in its care. “The Abuse in Care Inquiry’s report has found cases where records of the most vulnerable people in State and faith‑based institutions were ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says the Government’s online safety website for children and young people has reached one million page views. “It is great to see so many young people and their families accessing the site Keep It Real Online to learn how to stay safe online, and manage ...
Tēnā tātou katoa, Ngā mihi te rangi, ngā mihi te whenua, ngā mihi ki a koutou, kia ora mai koutou. Thank you for the opportunity to be here and the invitation to speak at this 50th anniversary conference. I acknowledge all those who have gone before us and paved the ...
New Zealand’s payroll providers have successfully prepared to ensure 3.5 million individuals will, from Wednesday next week, be able to keep more of what they earn each pay, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis and Revenue Minister Simon Watts. “The Government's tax policy changes are legally effective from Wednesday. Delivering this tax ...
An experimental vineyard which will help futureproof the wine sector has been opened in Blenheim by Associate Regional Development Minister Mark Patterson. The covered vineyard, based at the New Zealand Wine Centre – Te Pokapū Wāina o Aotearoa, enables controlled environmental conditions. “The research that will be produced at the Experimental ...
The Coalition Government has confirmed the indicative regional breakdown of North Island Weather Event (NIWE) funding for state highway recovery projects funded through Budget 2024, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Regions in the North Island suffered extensive and devastating damage from Cyclone Gabrielle and the 2023 Auckland Anniversary Floods, and ...
Indonesia’s Foreign Minister, Retno Marsudi, will visit New Zealand next week, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “Indonesia is important to New Zealand’s security and economic interests and is our closest South East Asian neighbour,” says Mr Peters, who is currently in Laos to engage with South East Asian partners. ...
He aha te kai a te rangatira? He kōrero, he kōrero, he kōrero. The government has reaffirmed its commitment to supporting the aspirations of Ngāti Maniapoto, Minister for Māori Development Tama Potaka says. “My thanks to Te Nehenehenui Trust – Ngāti Maniapoto for bringing their important kōrero to a ministerial ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has thanked outgoing Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority, Janice Fredric, for her service to the board.“I have received Ms Fredric’s resignation from the role of Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority,” Mr Brown says.“On behalf of the Government, I want to thank Ms Fredric for ...
The Government is proposing legislation to overturn a Court of Appeal decision and amend the Marine and Coastal Area Act in order to restore Parliament’s test for Customary Marine Title, Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “Section 58 required an applicant group to prove they have exclusively used and occupied ...
Regulation Minister David Seymour says that opposition parties have united in bad faith, opposing what they claim are ‘dangerous changes’ to the Early Childhood Education sector, despite no changes even being proposed yet. “Issues with affordability and availability of early childhood education, and the complexity of its regulation, has led ...
After receiving more than 740 submissions in the first 20 days, Regulation Minister David Seymour is asking the Ministry for Regulation to extend engagement on the early childhood education regulation review by an extra two weeks. “The level of interest has been very high, and from the conversations I’ve been ...
The Coalition Government is investing $802.9 million into the Wairarapa and Manawatū rail lines as part of a funding agreement with the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA), KiwiRail, and the Greater Wellington and Horizons Regional Councils to deliver more reliable services for commuters in the lower North Island, Transport Minister Simeon ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced his intention to appoint a Crown Manager to both Hawke’s Bay Regional and Wairoa District Councils to speed up the delivery of flood protection work in Wairoa."Recent severe weather events in Wairoa this year, combined with damage from Cyclone Gabrielle in 2023 have ...
Mr Speaker, this is a day that many New Zealanders who were abused in State care never thought would come. It’s the day that this Parliament accepts, with deep sorrow and regret, the Report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care. At the heart of this report are the ...
For the first time, the Government is formally acknowledging some children and young people at Lake Alice Psychiatric Hospital experienced torture. The final report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care “Whanaketia – through pain and trauma, from darkness to light,” was tabled in Parliament ...
The Government has acknowledged the nearly 2,400 courageous survivors who shared their experiences during the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Historical Abuse in State and Faith-Based Care. The final report from the largest and most complex public inquiry ever held in New Zealand, the Royal Commission Inquiry “Whanaketia – through ...
With a week to go before hard-working New Zealanders see personal income tax relief for the first time in fourteen years, 513,000 people have used the Budget tax calculator to see how much they will benefit, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis. “Tax relief is long overdue. From next Wednesday, personal income ...
Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden says a bill that has passed its first reading will improve parental leave settings and give non-biological parents more flexibility as primary carer for their child. The Regulatory Systems Amendment Bill (No3), passed its first reading this morning. “It includes a change ...
Two Bills designed to improve regulation and make it easier to do business have passed their first reading in Parliament, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. The Regulatory Systems (Economic Development) Amendment Bill and Regulatory Systems (Immigration and Workforce) Amendment Bill make key changes to legislation administered by the Ministry ...
New legislation paves the way for greater competition in sectors such as banking and electricity, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly says. “Competitive markets boost productivity, create employment opportunities and lift living standards. To support competition, we need good quality regulation but, unfortunately, a recent OECD report ranked New ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says lotteries for charitable purposes, such as those run by the Heart Foundation, Coastguard NZ, and local hospices, will soon be allowed to operate online permanently. “Under current laws, these fundraising lotteries are only allowed to operate online until October 2024, after which ...
The Coalition Government is accelerating work on the new four-lane expressway between Auckland and Whangārei as part of its Roads of National Significance programme, with an accelerated delivery model to deliver this project faster and more efficiently, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “For too long, the lack of resilient transport connections ...
Sir Don McKinnon will travel to Viet Nam this week as a Special Envoy of the Government, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “It is important that the Government give due recognition to the significant contributions that General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong made to New Zealand-Viet Nam relations,” Mr ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says newly appointed Commissioner, Grant Illingworth KC, will help deliver the report for the first phase of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into COVID-19 Lessons, due on 28 November 2024. “I am pleased to announce that Mr Illingworth will commence his appointment as ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters travels to Laos this week to participate in a series of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)-led Ministerial meetings in Vientiane. “ASEAN plays an important role in supporting a peaceful, stable and prosperous Indo-Pacific,” Mr Peters says. “This will be our third visit to ...
Construction of a new mental health facility at Te Nikau Grey Hospital in Greymouth is today one step closer, Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey says. “This $27 million facility shows this Government is delivering on its promise to boost mental health care and improve front line services,” Mr Doocey says. ...
New Zealand is committing nearly $50 million to a package supporting sustainable Pacific fisheries development over the next four years, Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones announced today. “This support consisting of a range of initiatives demonstrates New Zealand’s commitment to assisting our Pacific partners ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour says proposed changes to the Education and Training Amendment Bill will ensure charter schools have more flexibility to negotiate employment agreements and are equipped with the right teaching resources. “Cabinet has agreed to progress an amendment which means unions will not be able to initiate ...
In response to serious concerns around oversight, overspend and a significant deterioration in financial outlook, the Board of Health New Zealand will be replaced with a Commissioner, Health Minister Dr Shane Reti announced today. “The previous government’s botched health reforms have created significant financial challenges at Health NZ that, without ...
Minister for Space and Science, Innovation and Technology Judith Collins will travel to Adelaide tomorrow for space and science engagements, including speaking at the Australian Space Forum. While there she will also have meetings and visits with a focus on space, biotechnology and innovation. “New Zealand has a thriving space ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts will travel to China on Saturday to attend the Ministerial on Climate Action meeting held in Wuhan. “Attending the Ministerial on Climate Action is an opportunity to advocate for New Zealand climate priorities and engage with our key partners on climate action,” Mr Watts says. ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is travelling to the Solomon Islands tomorrow for meetings with his counterparts from around the Pacific supporting collective management of the region’s fisheries. The 23rd Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Committee and the 5th Regional Fisheries Ministers’ Meeting in Honiara from 23 to 26 July ...
The Government today launched the Military Style Academy Pilot at Te Au rere a te Tonga Youth Justice residence in Palmerston North, an important part of the Government’s plan to crackdown on youth crime and getting youth offenders back on track, Minister for Children, Karen Chhour said today. “On the ...
The Government has welcomed news the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) has begun work to replace nine priority bridges across the country to ensure our state highway network remains resilient, reliable, and efficient for road users, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says.“Increasing productivity and economic growth is a key priority for the ...
Acting Prime Minister David Seymour has been in contact throughout the evening with senior officials who have coordinated a whole of government response to the global IT outage and can provide an update. The Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet has designated the National Emergency Management Agency as the ...
New Zealand and Japan will continue to step up their shared engagement with the Pacific, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “New Zealand and Japan have a strong, shared interest in a free, open and stable Pacific Islands region,” Mr Peters says. “We are pleased to be finding more ways ...
New developments in the heart of North Island forestry country will reinvigorate their communities and boost economic development, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones visited Kaingaroa and Kawerau in Bay of Plenty today to open a landmark community centre in the former and a new connecting road in ...
President Adeang, fellow Ministers, honourable Diet Member Horii, Ambassadors, distinguished guests. Minasama, konnichiwa, and good afternoon, everyone. Distinguished guests, it’s a pleasure to be here with you today to talk about New Zealand’s foreign policy reset, the reasons for it, the values that underpin it, and how it ...
Last summer when Matairangi burned, Ginny and Tom stood at the window of their lounge, watching kākā shoot skyward from the burning trees. From the distance, they looked to Ginny like pages torn from books and thrown into a bonfire. It was Tom, voice tight, who told her it was ...
Opinion: The Canadian short story writer Alice Munro – winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2013 – died in May at the age of 92. Her work was about “the damage people inflict on one another in the name of love”, Deborah Treisman wrote in the New Yorker. ...
This month marks two years since the most powerful telescope ever built sent its first pictures back to earth. From its lofty vantage point, beyond the moon in orbit around the sun, the James Webb Space Telescope was tuned to observe the first stars and galaxies being born soon after ...
Comment: After Climate Change Minister Simon Watts’ preview several weeks ago, I had some optimism about the Government’s emissions reduction plan. Now I’ve read the discussion document, that hope has been dashed. How can the Government propose a plan that wants to take New Zealand taxpayers’ hard-earned money, and spend ...
Christopher Luxon: hurdles The little man from National jumps hurdles in his sleep. He’s quite good at it in his dreams and even though the reality doesn’t quite match up you have to give him credit for getting up every morning and crashing into the very first hurdle of the ...
Comment: It was a good two hours into the conversation when Tyrone Marks raised the most basic of questions when I first spoke to him in 2017. “They didn’t explain the things they did to me. They never told me why. And they still haven’t. There’s no explanation for it. ...
Madeleine Chapman rounds out Death Week on The Spinoff with a final recommendation. You can read all of our Death Week coverage here. Nothing forces you to reflect on your life and relationships quite like proximity to death. For those whose nearest and dearest have died, there are reasonably obvious ...
Whitney Greene takes us through her life in television, including the TV character she’d like to plan a funeral for and her cow lung catastrophe on The Traitors NZ. “If the phone rings, I have to answer it,” Whitney Greene from The Traitors NZ warns as we begin our My ...
Maddie Ballard reviews the debut essay collection of Pōneke writer Flora Feltham.In ‘The Raw Material’, the longest essay in Flora Feltham’s dazzling debut collection, the author heads out for a run after hours of weaving and sees the world turn to textile. “Pounding along the Parade, I saw the ...
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Celebrating our quadrennial opportunity to become experts in a bunch of sports we never normally watch.The games of the XXXIII Olympiad are upon us. Paris will host this year’s showcase of sporting and athletic prowess, which means some late-night and early-morning viewing for us in Aotearoa.But what sports ...
The photograph is striking and beautiful, but also disturbing – a reminder that my love for John was often entangled in shame.The Sunday Essay is made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand.In the spring of 1980, in Dunedin, shortly before his death, someone took a photograph ...
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Nationals health spokes person making cheap political points.outhouse compares NZ to Singapore yet Singapore has a far worse problem than NZ. Then there is privacy Singapore is not a free democracy like NZ.
Singapore is a stuffup,due to the handling of their indentured labour force.
Singapore trails only China, India, Japan and Pakistan in Asia for the number of coronavirus infections. More than 10,000 of those infected, some 80% of its total, are foreign workers, many of whom have been placed in “isolation facilities” for people with mild symptoms such as the conference centers.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-singapore-temp-hos-idUSKCN22805B
National continues with its misguided idea of what an opposition party should contribute, with relentless negativity and totally uncontructive criticism – just for the sake of trying to "win", nothing about what helps NZ. They just have nothing to add, and you can bet their brilliant crew would do no better at any of the things they criticise.
Covid-19 contact tracing app: National decries slow pace
Anyone familiar with coding? I am guessing even with existing code to modify, for something of this scale two weeks is a very short time.
No doubt Woodhouse would be complaining the app ‘was rushed’ if it had been out that quick…
The penny finally dropped for me listening to Cameron Bagrie last night on Q&A justifying Simon Bridge's negative stance on the grounds that this was the opposition's job. So the justification is that you need to be oppositional even if you are just opening your mouth and letting the wind blow your tongue around. Good grief!
Novapay
The technological determinists seem to think everyone has a capable mobile phone, and, if they do have one, that it's on all the time.
I have a little prepay, flip phone (AKA shell phone). Even if I could load such an ap on it, I rarely have it on, and rarely use it. Just need it for txts and those phone verification thingies.
And those people who run out of funds to renew their plan?
Plus, the PM and Bloomfield have continually stressed that contact tracing needs to be via personal communications with suspected contacts, not via an ap.
For contact tracing apps to work overall, not everyone needs to use them.
What percentage approx needs to use them?
My guesstimate…
Close to 80% of the population to get close to manual contact tracing using Blutooth.
At least 40% to be of use at all with Bluetooth.
Best approach is to forget the Bluetooth and just to treat it as a diary of locations to assist memory when contract tracing. That alone would massively help because where available it will help cover memory gaps.
But to me, that just defines National. Looking for ineffective quick fixes all of the time. Like the Canterbury earthquake responses.
Thanks. As an oldie, I intend not to go out and about any more than I need to. Keeping my own diary of contacts seems as useful to me as an ap.
Best approach is to forget the Bluetooth and just to treat it as a diary of locations to assist memory when contract tracing.
God yes.
Government wants me to install an app so it can monitor my location for contact tracing? Grumpy, but OK it's for the greater good.
Government wants me to have Bluetooth switched on all the time and be charging my phone every few hours is what it would feel like? You can fuck right off, government.
Yeah, I certainly wouldn't put something from the government on my phone that has bluetooth on all the time. And I'm the kind of person that wouldn't object to things like numberplate recognition cameras all around the place, nor do I do anything with my phone or have any info on it that would be of the slightest conceivable interest to anyone else.
If bluetooth-based contact tracking became a requirement, I'd seriously look into just getting a burner phone for that alone. Which would make it more or less the same is the proposed Covid Card.
how do you see it differently from other things like widespread numberplate recognition cameras?
Entry vector for malware. Both from the government and malicious non-state actors.
It would be gathering data at several levels deeper in detail and more definitively personal.
The protection for the public is in the arrangements around it, not the tech as such. But the battery drain sounds like a PITA in any case.
Ever seen a smart motorway? They are scanning your bluetooth signals and other data.
Same with wifi. You don't need to connect. Your phone is constantly sending becons.
Your phone compensates for this, but you can track people easily.
My phone bluetooth is always turned off. My phone wifi is turned off except for the few moments I need it on. My mobile data is turned off except the few moments I need it on, although since that goes to the same towers as voice and text it doesn't affect my trackability.
From one Twitter discussion I saw between tech experts, even 30% sounded OK. Not nearly as high as I expected – though intended to be alongside manual tracing not replacing it.
A cautionary tale about the monetisation of whizz-bang C19 tracking and one of the organisations involved.
https://twitter.com/jsrailton/status/1254198212430368769
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1254198212430368769.html
The infamous spyware maker from Israel NSO Group, and Cy4Gate, a company that sells surveillance tools from Italy, are actively pitching surveillance tools to contain the virus to their own governments and others around the world, Motherboard has learned.
Their systems are essentially mass surveillance tools that would help governments and health authorities keep track of the movements of every citizen, and who they get in contact with. The goal of this contact tracing method is to track the spread of the coronavirus and help governments make better decisions to counter it, such as quarantining certain areas, informing people they may have been infected, or administering tests.
Two weeks ago, Bloomberg reported that NSO Group developed a new product to track the spread of coronavirus. Now, Motherboard obtained more details about how the product—codenamed Fleming—actually works.
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/epg9jm/nso-covid-19-surveillance-tech-software-tracking-infected-privacy-experts-worried
Michael Woodhouse is an idiot and clearly doesn't do software. Especially those designed to go out amongst millions of devices.
I do. Even after you finally get the stuff done it usually takes months to get tested and 'right'. And it has to be right because if it messes up phones then the uptake will be minimal.
Glad that they decided not to go for active BLE in the first pass. That is a very hard ask – sucks battery life , requires it to be an active service, and requires a lot of extra work to make sure that the OS doesn't shut it down. It most likely is the main reason for slow uptake of these kinds of apps.
Also it won't do what the advocates of this kind of app would like it to do. It is no panacea. As much as anything else because you can't get saturation. Many people don't carry phones with them. Many others simply won't activate it.
The manual contact tracking is still required and at much the same level. A app is only an minor add on.
Woodhouse is pretty much cementing his reputation of being an idiot tosser.
QFT
That said, the more people who will download it and use it correctly, the more helpful it will be.
I am a complete idiot that can't do anything involving software apart from the most basic fixes for my computer.
Can you explain in laymans terms why we couldn't use the system they've pushed the button on in Australia or Singapore rather than doing it ourselves ?
So far Australia has had over 2m people download their version inside three days. The local tech community has gotten in behind and are supporting it's use.
It's a doddle to install and the user really doesn't need to do anything.
My old five year old Oppo Android phone seems to have had no impact on the battery life that I've noticed so far and works fine.
And the way it's set up it's far less intrusive than Google or FB.
With the lifting of restrictions we are entering the phase where testing and tracking are the vital tools; otherwise the effort so far could easily be wasted. Don't like the app, then keep a paper log. One or the other; but a $10k fine if you do nothing and catch it.
Nick Smith's email is causing Bridges more grief
Delightful morning at Level 2. Wait, what's that? It's level 3? But look at what people are doing. They can read, so the government must've changed the level overnight. Welp, business as usual.
[I’ll give you more time to enjoy the delightful mornings for a whole week instead of wasting them on trolling this site – Incognito]
See my Moderation note @ 8:06 AM.
Even the revised TPPA had extensive clauses for business to sue Govts for loss of profits did it not?
China can expect an avalanche of law suits I guess.
And China was in the revised TPPA?
Are you intent on getting a dumb troll trying cause a flame war ban? I guess it helps with the moron cred levels eh?
Good thing I am off duty today.
You're right it isn't.RCEP is the deal involving China.Don't get excited.
"Mr Assange will not be produced today because he is unwell"
A court clerk announced at Westminster Court today, during Assange's latest case hearing before Judge Vanessa Baraitser, that: "Mr Assange will not be produced today because I understand he is unwell".Assange's father John Shipton was present in court, wearing a mask: close to 80, he's in the high risk group for COVID, as is his son who has a chronic lung condition.
This is the second time Assange has not been 'present' via videolink at his own hearings due to being 'unwell', but his counsel and the judge always motor ahead, getting nowhere.
The US prosecution announced it's not against the delaying of the case until September or 'November 2', which would park the case in the midst of the US elections.
The question is: if the case is delayed again for months, will Assange continue to be held in infected Belmarsh (23-and-a-half-hours a day in solitary lockdown – a couple of deaths noted and under-staffing with scores of guards self-isolating) even though he is (a) a remand prisoner (b) has no charges against him (c) has completed his Bail Act sentence.
Assange defence lawyer Ed Fitzgerald's opening statement, this morning: https://bridgesforfreedom.media/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/EF-Opening-remarks-for-renewed-application-to-adjourn-24-04-20-4-updated.pdf
Jonathan Cook tweets:
“Judge delays for months Assange’s extradition hearing to the US for publishing journalism. There’s no excuse for denying him bail, and keeping him in a high-security jail, unless the hope is that Belmarsh’s Covid-19 outbreak will settle his case pre-emptively.”
https://members5.boardhost.com/xxxxx/thread/1588008120.html
Thanks for the update.
Another one deported from Aussie and back to NZ, this time it's Ray Elise, Pres of Victorian Rebels MC
Elise has a record in NZ of carrying an imitation firearm and unlawfully presenting it at a person.
No wonder Australia want trans-Tasman borders re-opened. So they can resume exporting crime.
Looks like the heating of the planet is going to continue:
Meteorologists say 2020 on course to be hottest year since records began
Of course, humankind had some weeks/months time to reflect (from link above):
After seeing the traffic into Wellington this morning and reading reading article:
Traffic returns to Auckland roads
There's very little hope we avoid disaster, we continue trying our best to "Pollute ourselves to Prosperity".
If emissions are down, but concentration levels are continuing to rise, then that might suggest we've crossed a tipping point somewhere and global warming is no longer "under our control"…
Yes to a degree – but as the article says there's also considerable lag in the system so any actions/activities/feedbacks take a while to become apparent beyond the massive cracks in my lawn in late April.
Emissions are down from their peak, but not negative. That concentrations are still rising just means emissions are greater than the earth's ability to absorb CO2 from the atmosphere. That's been true since sometime in the 1800s, if not much earlier.
Emissions from our activities will never be negative Andre.
The point about Anthropogenic Global Warming and straight up Global Warming is that tipping points (once crossed) mean that warming is being driven from sources other than human activity and nothing we do can alter eventual outcomes.
I'd have thought it fairly obvious that a rise in atmospheric concentrations occurring in the face of dropping emissions (not a straight forward measurement btw because of natural, mostly seasonal fluctuations) is….not a good sign.
That concentrations are still rising even after a drop in emissions is indeed bad news, but it doesn't "suggest we've crossed a tipping point" anytime recently. That particular tipping point was crossed centuries ago.
By itself it doesn't say anything one way or the other about whether non-anthropogenic sources have recently increased or decreased, nor whether the earth's capacity to absorb CO2 has decreased or increased.
Unless your suggesting that the move from water powered mills to coal/steam powered mills back in the early to mid 1800s coincided with a non-human related source of CO2 being unleashed, then I'm a bit lost on what you might mean by "That particular tipping point was crossed centuries ago".
There has always been a degree of wriggle room in the carbon cycle – which is why major volcanic eruptions (for example) have resulted in short term destabalisations and not wholesale irreversible shifts.
I wrote "might suggest we've crossed a tipping point somewhere" – which is true, and the only indication we will ever have (as far as I'm aware) that a tipping point has been crossed.
There is some evidence of ancient agriculture going back millenia causing detectable global warming.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/09/180906141507.htm
I quit that piece at a paragraph or two in because in spite of the fact the world was in a cooling phase before fossil emissions halted and reversed the cooling, the piece asserts that It also shows that without this human influence, by the start of the Industrial Revolution, the planet would have likely been headed for another ice age.
That aside, in relation to your first response above, the piece does at least highlight why human emissions will never be negative – agriculture will always produce methane and CO2.
Trump Live – I think.
After two days of ranting on twitter, trump is doing a presser, looks like it's about to start.
Here's a link (with open chat) if you wish to watch a live stream. Edit the chat is full of Maga people.
Those people behind him on the podium are even scarier.
The chap on the right does have a great deal of the look of a ventriloquists dummy about him.
Unfortunately, he's far more dangerous than a ventriloquist's dummy. He would be in prison, of course, if the United States was not run by gangsters.
https://theintercept.com/2017/01/03/treasury-nominee-steve-mnuchins-bank-accused-of-widespread-misconduct-in-leaked-memo/
https://www.businessinsider.com.au/mnuchins-onewest-bank-has-long-record-of-mortgage-foreclosures-2017-8?r=US&IR=T
Don't you appreciate Jacinda's skill at handling the Press Conference especially the question time? The only questions answered by Trump were ones from MAGA people.
Rambling Rose the Chump Trump.
I have often smiled to myself at these press conferences, when the Prime Minister is using the journo's first name to get their question.
Similarly, with us being a small nation, you almost feel the PM knows the folk that have passed away during the last month or so.
Pity since the demise of Paul Holmes the ability to question PM's, ministers etc has gone from informative and being challenged to watching a bunch of compliant amateurs with a media profile the station and the personality want to maintained. Follow any political blog same comment is universal from both sides, and these are those who are politically active or seeking out info. The public at large are fed 10-30sec meaningless gotcha clips.
Where are the follow up questions ?? This comment was also applicable under Key.
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2020/04/prime-minister-jacinda-ardern-disagrees-with-frontline-health-workers-saying-there-s-an-issue-with-flu-vaccine-supplies.html
I was talking to a mate today, he has been living off-grid during the lock-down.
The 'mainstream' media came up and the perilous state they find themselves in.
While this is not news, it has become apparent who the newspapers, tv and radio stations serve: the advertisers.
Recently we have had the three 'local' papers- The Dom, The Evening Standard and Feilding Herald adopt the same masthead, puzzle page etc and a lot of common content. The only discernable difference is the obituaries and the real estate for sale.
The media has made itself redundant in many peoples lives.
There are also continuing your theme, plenty of articles that come across as independent news but from reading sound more of an "advertorial", similar with "experts" they appear to be selected based on what their perception is and how that aligns with how the media is framing the story. You think the govt is crap there are media personalities you will listen/ watch. The govt is perfect you can find media that is compliant with this side as well.
IMO we need a functioning opposition (NZ has been lacking one for many years now) and a media that questions.
Whist you say the media has made itself redundant – I counter that it is more dangerous as ever due to its shallowness/personalities built on nothing ( CELEBRITIES) just look at what the US has in leadership !!
I agree that the 'news' can often be rehashed press releases and the shallow celebrity cult flavour of current events. The redundancy I mentioned is a financial one. We don't value it enough to pay for it.
Not surprising really, most by-products of the race to the bottom are unappealing.
Well said, Hero…
Its been quite clear for a while that our media is controlled by the advertiser. I follow Thai politics. { More exciting than game of thrones , I think.} While the rest of the world is provided info on Thai King I have yet to see anything in our media, I can only think the travel advertises keep it from our papers
Tatler, “Thailand protests as King takes holiday during pandemic“
eTurbo News, “Long Live the King of Thailand in Bavaria with his Harem of 20 Beautiful Ladies”
Digi24, “Regele Thailandei s-a izolat alături de 20 de femei. A închiriat în Germania un hotel întreg pentru haremul său”
Aftenposten, “Murring mot monark: Kongen bor på hotell utenlands under pandemien”
The Independent, “Coronavirus: Thai king self-isolates in Alpine hotel with harem of 20 women amid pandemic”
Mail Online, “King of Thailand self-isolates from coronavirus by hiring out entire luxury German hotel for him and his entourage including a harem of 20 concubines”
Looks like he's crashing after an all-nighter on the fry.
https://twitter.com/AdamParkhomenko/status/1254875425223950342
High as a kite and up up in the sky.
His Surgeon General must give him some nice drugs judging by his eyes.
Mark Blyth covers some interesting ground here – COVID-19 and the economic effects, the nature of bailouts, internationalism and the difference between countries, etc. I was particularly interested in the idea of anti-fragility and automatic stabilisers which he touched on briefly. It's quite long, but worth it.
Blyth does economics with black humour so well
@ Ad.
Thought you might be interested in this in light of a comment made a few days back…
As European leaders launch a multilateral, multi-billion-dollar effort to promote vaccines, testing, and anti-viral medicines, the U.S. withdraws from the World Health Organization and declines to join. There you have it.
And from the link in that article…
Global leaders are launching an initiative with the World Health Organization (WHO) to accelerate the development of coronavirus drugs, tests and vaccines and ensure equal access to all countries, but the US is not involved. European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen, French president Emmanuel Macron and German chancellor Angela Merkel were among leaders participating in a video conference to announce the plan. US president Donald Trump recently criticised the WHO’s handling of the pandemic and announced a withdrawal of US funding to the organisation.
Cheers Bill.
A Chinese pact with Europe and the UK over this event is also smart politics in shifting blocs of influence together – and away from the US.
In my lifetime I can't think of a developed nation that has so wilfully and swiftly disengaged from institutional co-operation at a time of global crisis as the United States has done.
The US withdrawal – and its status as the worst response by levels of infection and death in the world by a country mile – makes the oppressive regime of China look like a reasoned, co-operative, and generous international partner in a global crisis. Which takes some doing.
Ad WW1 and WW2.Particularly helping arm Germany to the teeth.Ford IBM etc .The US reluctance to work with its Allies.
That was more isolationism being the status quo, moving towards participation, though.
This is almost like Pershing disembarked in France, only to find a telegram from POTUS ordering everyone back to the US because he'd changed his mind.
I specified 'my lifetime'. You may be a little older than I.
Pretty hard to argue that the US didn't cooperate with Allies in the second half of both wars.
In my lifetime I can't think of a developed nation that has so wilfully and swiftly disengaged from institutional co-operation at a time of global crisis as the United States has done.
As I've argued before this is the direction the USA has been moving in since the end of the Cold War, a slow drift at first, but now so dramatic as to be obvious to all.
Now think through all the potential consequences of this shift. In my view none of them are good.
Stunted Mullet Privacy, Network capability,apps are an add on reliant of mass uptake.Then having enough people to Trace.
Had a bit of a laugh at PhD student Matthew-HeavyBreather-Hooton (@ ~6 minutes into RNZ’s Nine-to-Noon programme this morning) leading with his 'concern' that Grant Roberston might regard himself as "omniscient". Typically it's the National Party that is more inclined to pick business winners – maybe there's only room for one omniscient NZer in Hooten's 'mind'![laugh laugh](https://cdn.ckeditor.com/4.11.3/full-all/plugins/smiley/images/teeth_smile.png)
https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/ninetonoon/audio/2018744289/political-commentators-hooton-and-jones
Of as much concern is his promotion of UBI…writing off a significant portion of the population as an underclass by a mechanism carrying a different name…a repeat of the mistake of the 80s.
Whoops – @14 minutes – sorry.
China must be feeling the heat, its ambassador to Canberra has dispensed with the usual diplomatic niceties and flat-out threatened Australia with billions of dollars in boycotts if the government there persists with its ‘foolish’ plan for an inquiry into the causes and origins of the pandemic.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/australia-could-lose-billions-from-chinese-government-boycott-threat-20200427-p54nmh.html
China might be "feeling the heat" or, more likely in my mind, is simply pissed off with the children in the room trying to cast it as "bogey man".
eg – From western news outlets and just off the top of my head – China is simultaneously charged with being too authoritarian in locking down cities, and too lax in its response. China sending covid related aid to third countries isn't humanitarianism, but cynical influence building. Scouring the world for ppe when faced with the potential for a pandemic it was trying to avert, is somehow nefarious. Then there's all the false reporting of whistle blowers who weren't actually whistle blowers. Throw in on top the charges that China didn't inform other countries about covid (when it most assuredly did), and how that contradicts bullshit being peddled by sections of the US intelligence community that the virus was "sweeping" China in November…
I could go on.
It is kind of weird to besimultaneously hunting for ppe overseas and exporting the stuff.
I read stories that the USA was doing that – exporting ppe to China around the same time it was "hi-jacking" supplies paid for by other countries, but I haven't read of China doing that.
Maybe western corporations who have production facilities in China were 'exporting' ppe to their usual customers? That what you mean? Link?
I’m sure you could go on and on Bill.
But threatening a so-called ally as China has done here is clumsy and bound to be counter-productive. Morrison had already had his idea of an inquiry rebuffed by the UK and France. Beijing’s best course of action, at least at the moment, would have been to ignore the posturing from Australia. And, of course, any threat of a boycott is unlikely to be terribly effective right now given that Australia’s economy (like everybody else’s) has pretty gone down the gurgler anyway. There’s more than a whiff of panic about the whole business.
But threatening a so-called ally as China has done …
So China is to not push back on the threats from Pompeo and fellow travelers from US allies like Australia? Is the country also meant to just 'soak up' all the Sinophobic propaganda that's been peddled by 'western' mainstream/corporate media?
If that's your thinking, maybe you missed your calling and should have applied for the role of lead advisor to Jeremy Corbyn and Bernie Sanders. 🙂
Now is the time for NZ to stand up and – move quietly to the back of the room. Maybe order some popcorn.
Inspirational leadership there, Gabby.. (You may well be right.)
The Berejiklian government may spend up to $500 million to support the housing market in New South Wales
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/nsw/nsw-government-may-buy-up-spare-housing-in-500-million-stimulus-plan-20200427-p54noc.html
Boots on the ground story of MBIE theater – 3 days in a motel for homeless during lockdown. Then back to Work and Income that failed to house them in the first place.
Anyone else spoken to some homeless people?
The other thing you failed to pick up is that it is extremely unlikely that Grant Robertson or whoever else within the State apparatus will be able to predict with any certainty where these resources should be reallocated to. They can hazard a guess but the best way of deciding is to allow the market to dictate what areas are going to be successful or not.
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
The post isn't about Hooton's reckons on Nine to Noon, and it's not there for you to derail yet again. When you can demonstrate that you understand what my posts are about, by how you comment, you will be welcome back. My suggestion is to try and not look like you only read the title or first few lines of the post.
For instance, you could have put up an argument (not simply an assertion) of how the market might work as a useful tool within Raworth's framework.
We do know for certain that way to many in the private sector have even less idea.
Forgotten the 87 share market crash, so soon.
Government is always part of allocating resources for business. Both the subsidies for dairying, the roading built for trucks, and the increase in businesses power bills with the privatisation of energy, were all Government effects on business.
Something that should be decided by democratic decision. Not the mythical "free market".
Small businesses should be allowed and helped, to rethink and re direct if necessary.
However if National really wanted to help small businesses restart and rebuild, they would have been advocating rent and loan freezes, for small businesses that couldn't trade during the lockdown, instead of moaning that the "parachute was too big" before we even reach the ground.
Glenfield Mall politicking again:
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2020/04/glenfield-mall-owner-rages-at-na-ve-government-over-retail-restrictions-under-covid-19-alert-level-3.html
Same crowd who allowed Dan Bidiot to campaign at the mall but refused Shanan Halbert, then packed a sad and refused everyone (after Bidiot had completed campaigning there).
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2018/05/security-called-into-northcote-by-election-mall-confrontation.html
Re the Glenfield Mall owners and the fact that they reduced the rent of some tenants "…forcing them to dip into their own savings".
Yeah, right. Everybody shed a tear for the poor impoverished mall owners.
The same co-owner who didn't have much sympathy for the Goldcorp shareholders / owners of misplaced gold back in 1987 ?
https://twitter.com/GGrucilla/status/1254957402014625792
I do not know if this would be doable, I think National would do much better if David Seymour was the National party leader.
That's just nasty, Treetop.![laugh laugh](https://cdn.ckeditor.com/4.11.3/full-all/plugins/smiley/images/teeth_smile.png)
At least, no underling is writing emails to David Seymour in criticism, the advantage of being a one-man act.
Seymour does well for a one man act. He is a person I would watch.
And they won't. Because on the whole they know it works.
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
Oh I think there is plenty of State assets left to privatise. Have you heard of Landcorp?
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
Trump the Isolationist
‘Last year, members of the Special Operations — Navy SEALs, Army Green Berets, and Marine Raiders among them — operated in 141 countries, according to figures provided to TomDispatch by U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM). In other words, they deployed to roughly 72% of the nations on this planet. While down from a 2017 high of 149 countries, this still represents a 135% rise from the late 2000s when America’s commandos were reportedly operating in only 60 nations.’
https://www.salon.com/2020/04/01/americas-global-military-presence-skyrockets-under-trump-us-commandos-now-deployed-to-141-nations_partner/
https://www.lobster-magazine.co.uk/free/lobster79/lob79-view-from-the-bridge.pdf
Do not bail out the property investors!
https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/checkpoint/audio/2018744348/small-businesses-need-more-govt-help-mall-owner
Apropos nothing really I learned today that 50 of the 100 states of the United States have populations no larger than NZ and many very considerably less. If NZ were a US city it would be the 2nd largest in the US after New York City followed by Los Angeles and Chicago. Which made me feel good about my country – I have in me a positive sense about the standard of leadership this country enjoys in these times. Jesus…..imagine living in America right now!
Probably better to look at metropolitan areas to assess relative population sizes
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_metropolitan_statistical_areas#United_States
Err, wut?
The US has 50 states. Plus Washington DC, which is separate from the states. Plus a bunch of territories, of which Puerto Rico is largest in both area and population. And yeah, our population would slot in pretty close to halfway up the list, between Alabama and Louisiana.
As far as cities goes, your ranking is correct if you go by the boundary of the legally incorporated city. Kinda like Orcland before the Supershitty amalgamation. But if you go by the population of the metropolitan area, then 4.8 million population is around 10th for metro areas in the US, similar to Phoenix AZ, Boston MA and San Francisco – Oakland CA.
The Covid-19 stats are interesting. Accepting all the stuff about accuracy and counting or not counting ones who should or should not be on lists: Random except for Michigan where there were big crazed protests about the lockdown.
Michigan: population 10 million covid cases 38,200, deaths 3,407
Louisiana: population 4.6 million covid cases 27,000, deaths 1,697
Sth Dakota: population 950,000 Covid cases 2,245, deaths 11
NZ: population 4.8 million Covid cases 1,472, deaths 19
Imagine the uproar here if our figures were like theirs. The contrast between our leader and her Ministry people's sessions and Trump's ones are as stark as the numbers.
Addendum: We have to be mindful of different circumstances in the United States.
Loiusiana's stats speak for themselves.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTrXqdpoDcw
And they have God on their side.
Can someone sack this muppet.
Health Minister David Clark moved house during level 4 lockdown
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12328085
Don't care if it's a storm in a teacup, any one of us normal Joe or Jane Blogs would've been kicked to touch by now.
The headline says he moved in level 4, but his story is he squeaked the move in on the Wednesday while it was still level 3. Can't be arsed checking exactly what was said about moving house at level 3 at the time.
What utter bloody nonsense, Stunted Mullet. There was very little enforcement for such things, and it is quite likely that normal Joe or Jane Blogs would never have been noticed doing that same thing. In fact, I would be willing to bet that many people did so, and had no repercussions.
You Righties are so full of bumf. I remember Key's National Govt. pretending it did a great thing for us all by lowering the alcohol driving limits. But after that, they then cut Police funding to the point where Police were unable to keep up the number of alcohol checkpoints- already too few – and they were silently reduced.
As a result, NZ became one of the very few countries in the world to lower the alcohol limits, then have an increase in the number of alcohol-related accidents.
Enforcement is what matters – the cheats stop cheating only when they know they will probably be caught. (TV ads telling them -"You will be caught!" are crap.)
The cheats will have been right in from the start with the emergency measures needed for Covid19.
Little surveillance or enforcement likely. Clark is not such a malevolent cheat – more a dopy innocent. Go find some real offenders.
Fortunately you're as entitled to your opinion as I am to mine.
The discerning look for educated thoughtful opinion out of the free-for-all of rampant confusion to be found in blogs.
I suspect you are being damned with faint praise there, Stunted Mullet. Or something like that..
I remember Brownlee "barging through" airport security, them were the days huh?
It doesn't compare with the two previous stories, especially the "beach breach", which he was rightly criticised for.
He literally walked a few hundred metres from a home to an office, like Ardern and Bloomfield in Wellington.
Simon Bridges drove a few hundred km from a home to an office.
David Clark had a bad internet connection at his old house.
Fireblade, he used the old house as his office.
To the Stunned Mullet. The move was largely done prior to the lockdown, he didnt break the rules.
But but but – that doesn't suit Mullet's agenda! Expect no response.
He’s entitled to his opinion. Either it was pretty legal, in which case Clark needs to be fired on the spot. Or it was not, in which case Clark needs to resign immediately. There is a third possibility. If it was his third strike, that awful van of his must be crushed with his mountain bike in it. I like the way Stunned Mullet is thinking. It doesn’t leave room for doubt or errors. Oh, how much I would have to give up to have such opinions and to be free of the eternal burden of doubt and feel righteous in perpetuum!
'One may smile, and be a villain' .. Shakespeare?
Mona Lisa
This from Seden's PM – which sounds like typical right wing stuff, unwilling to take responsibility despite having all the stats and advisers that money can buy, or should:
"We can't legislate and ban everything. It's also a question of common sense behaviour," Stefan Löfven, the Prime Minister, said at the end of March, as Sweden laid out its recommendations.
The bars and public places are crammed with people. They are supposed to be social distancing, but they want to socialise and enjoy themselves not police themselves.
When looking at the death figures, they are noticeably higher in the 60 ups. Though the number of cases shown was highest in the 50-59 year group. Apparently they are young enough to throw it off.
Swedish deaths Covid-19 – looking at older age groups
as at Apr.27/20:
Lower ages were in single figures.
40-49 had 25 deaths
50-59 had 78 deaths
Much higher in age 60-69 with 180 deaths,
70-79 with 526 deaths
80-90 with 906 deaths
In the 90 years and over the deaths were 546.
https://www.statista.com/statistics/1107913/number-of-coronavirus-deaths-in-sweden-by-age-groups/
The cases were considerable and growing larger with age in all the age groups after age 20.
They start growing in the 20-29 group at 1425 (5 deaths) which is just exceeded by the over 90s at 1,569 (546 deaths), of whom over 26% appear to have died.
Three decade groups – 40-49 years (25 deaths), 60-69 years (180 deaths), and 70-79 years (526 deaths), have similar numbers of cases – around the 2500s – with deaths rising sharply along with age.
https://www.statista.com/statistics/1107905/number-of-coronavirus-cases-in-sweden-by-age-groups/
So if I doubted the stress on age I don't any longer, as the older you get the higher the rate of infection, and the higher the death rate in those who were reasonably healthy and could have expected to have longer lives.
just watched paul henry in the most banal pointless teevy programme ever to grace tv3.
he snivelled and bleated and sucked upp to john keys in the greasiest display of fawning sycophancy I have ever seen. JOhn Key dis his very best to dun the government without seeming to poormouth the greatest peacetime NZ has ever seen.
Then the Education expert came on and praised the government and last but not least Paul Rimmington editor of National Affairs also gave the government the thumbs up.
henry had to suck it up and not before he admitted that he was kicked out of australia because they didn't like him.
Well after being beaten for a parliamentary seat by a drag queen and being removed from air over there I would just shut up but not him.
henry was so noxious, he was beaten by a drag queen in a conservative nat electorate. even his fellow travellers hated him!
Yes RP. I was channel surfing and stayed to watch Key spouting to Henry. As usual if you tried to assess the importance of Key's words it was like Scotch mist. He did think we should enhance our trade with China but a lot of words to say so little. And putting all our eggs in China's basket is not such a good idea anyway.
Sounds like Key was talking about an Easter eggs hunt for grown-ups. 'They are acshually just down by my swimming pool and through the sculpture garden….etc'
Never have I exchanged so many smiles as the last few weeks. The way we've pulled together has made me feel closer to you, hi, I'm Dave.
I'm finding kindness a bit contagious.
Families tolerate tin garages through winter while comfy insulated holiday houses stand empty.
We need to get smart with this Airbnb etc gig, spin it to suit everyone. Servicing an Airbnb place, cleaning, greeting guests etc could pay for the temp housing for a displaced family through the peak season.
There are ways we can make the arrows we have in our quiver work for all of us and I think that's what most of us want. A toy with all the trimmings is no fun on your tod.
I think Cindy and Ash's plan is genius. The one thing that traditionally gets better fast is virus testing. Soon, it will be bullet-proof.
Testing at our one international airport, attached luxury quarantine hotel should it be needed. The globe's virus free destination. The paranoid, diabetic and dickey heart stricken will flock. Sheesh, bars will be getting $20 a pint and housekeepers $30 an hour.
If the 19 swirls and lingers around the globe. I think our government have poised us well.
If Jacinda was Trump she would be saying "Despite you all being dicks, I've been able to position us so that once we're all through this temporary bullshit, you n' me, we're gonna be Rockstars." The only difference is, as opposed to Don, beaut guy, I think Jacinda can turn us all into rockstars.
"StAy aT HoMe! SaVE LiVEs!
Kia Ora The Am Show.
Productivity is linked to wages low wages low productivity high wages the business owners invest in more efficient plant. Low wages they just hire more cheap Labour.
Thanks to the all of the teams for their great mahi in keeping the virus at bay.
That's good Internet for rual places getting $16 million investment boost.
Ka kite Ano. 😇
Kia Ora Newshub.
Correct A 1 in 100 year pandemic who do we have to thank for the state of our health systems.
Its good to see some Kiwis who lost their jobs in Britain have taken jobs cleaning hospital.
Ka kite Ano
Kia Ora Te Ao Maori News.
Its good now tangata can have 10 people at a tangi in level 3 isolation.
The new economy is going to be very different from the past.
Yes Tangata call you health service if you have not been able to get appointment during level 4 isolation.
Ka kite Ano
Kia Ora The Am Show.
There you go our public health systems has been under funded for decades.
Correct Maori and Pacific health stats ie the poorest part of our community are sad.
Well correct our Prime minister has been quite busy in the last 2 years.
Ka kite Ano
Kia Ora Newshub.
75 years since the end of World War 2.
Robots dogs patrols Awsome how technology is developing.
Ka kite Ano.
Kia Ora Te Ao Maori News.
People will have to look outside the square box to find solution to their problems cause by viruses isolation.
Buying Maori made is cool.
Ka kite Ano
Awesome the Maori studios making Maori cartoons that's the way.
https://youtu.be/qQfetkoGrpU
Kia Ora Newshub.
That will be good more funding for Pharmac.
Kia Kaha David.
That good more workers for Doc to do some great mahi.
Ka kite Ano.
Kia Ora Te Ao Maori News.
It will be good to see weed legalised to stop our Rangatahi being thrown to the wolfs.
Mother day today it will be awesome when they have equality Mana Wahine.
Mauri poi cool get more Maori into Kapa Haka.
Ka kite Ano