"Testimonies given by traditional medicine people in these sacred site cases pointed out that climate change is not the problem, but a symptom of the problem; that species extinction is not the problem, but a symptom of the problem; that in fact all the environmental problems that now threaten the human species are only symptoms of the underlying problem. In half a dozen different court cases across the country, traditional people testified time and again that the air, the water and the land are sacred elements at the core of their religions that must not be desecrated, while the government and business interests made the case that these life-supporting systems can be closed down when there’s a financial incentive to do so. "
"Time after time, tribal members testified that their worldview recognises the Earth as a numinous presence upon which the fate of the human species depends. On the other side, government lawyers relied on the dominant paradigm of Earth as a soulless material resource, disconnected from the fate of the human species. "
"The final legal standoff unfolded amidst the ancient redwood forests of the Pacific Northwest, which many consider the crown jewel of North American ecosystems. Even for unbelievers, the overwhelming scale and beauty of 2,000 year-old trees towering 350 feet overhead silences mental chatter and raises the volume on the ineffable. The local Yurok, Karok, Tolowa and Hupa peoples possess a distinct cosmology and an entire way of life centred on listening to that voice. While much of their spiritual life-way remains mystical and secret, they have publicly revealed that their dances, ceremonies and prayers are directed toward maintaining the stability of the Earth and the renewal of all life. A recent scientific study confirmed what these people have long known – redwood forests exert a strong stabilising effect on the climate because they store at least three times more carbon above ground than any other type of forest."
"The Kootenai case was resolved in an entirely different way. The tribe had a charismatic spokesman in medicine man Pat Lefthand, who thought that Kootenai Falls could speak for itself. He invited the judge to accompany him on a personal encounter with the site, and as the two men walked beside the river, Pat recounted his tribe’s history and described some of their spiritual practices. Then he suggested that the judge sit on one of the rocks below the falls and contemplate the beauty that surrounded him. The lawyer Steve Moore, who represented the tribe along with Walter Echohawk, said that ‘there’s an irrefutable presumption that a license will be granted by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. In the past 40 years, only three applications out of thousands have been denied.’ Yet in that moment of listening to the waters that had inspired countless generations of traditional people, the judge had a change of heart. Upon returning to the courtroom, he refused to grant the utility’s permit to build the dam."
"The answer may emerge if Americans in the mainstream culture can begin relating to the spirit of their particular places, as opposed to bringing foreign spiritual practices to those places. The traditional life-ways of the Native Nations based on observations of natural phenomena have persisted throughout centuries of oppression, and remain to this day as guideposts for our imperilled civilization. At this late hour, as wildfires ravage the west, floods inundate the south and east coasts, and heat waves stifle the cities, the people and the courts would do well to listen to them."
"As part of its launch, the media consortium, which included The Guardian of the U.K., published a Hertsgaard and Pope essay in The Nation entitled “The media are complacent while the world burns.”
In that piece, the two authors put forward a series of “preliminary suggestions” under such sub-headlines as:
Follow the leaders, “emulate outlets that are already covering climate change well.”
Don’t blame the audience and listen to the kids.
Establish a diverse climate desk, but don’t silo climate coverage.
Learn the science.
Don’t internalize the spin.
Lose the Beltway mindset.
Help the Heartland.
Cover the solutions.
Don’t be afraid to point figures.
Their provocative and entreaty-filled ideas amount to the proverbial clarion call to action, in this case for the enfeebled news media to come to the aid of an endangered and in many ways politically immobilized planet, ours."
Yes I do think it enough Robert Guyton, late stage capitalism can no longer operate without consumption. Massive consumption, and whilst it can handle about 15% (very rough figure) being weak consumers, it could not handle an extra 5% to 10% actively not participating. If we ever got that % of the population to not consume goods and services for a week or more – our economy as it is constructed, will be stretched to breaking point. That said, I'm also in no doubt that gossy and the die hard devotees of liberalism would start calling for violence at that point.
The dam was overwhelmingly resisted by most of the Tasman District. It was one of those issues that crossed over , as the reasons for protesting the dam were many
Environmental, social,(the many paying the costs, the few reaping the profits of irrigation)ratepayers finding yet another big idea to pay for, the arrogance of the council and in particular the mayor, riding roughshod over the wishes of the people of Tasman.
We'd won, when suddenly the council pulled out of its hat a mystery investor, thus reducing the costs to the ratepayers…actually all residents of Tasman , as those who pay rent also indirectly pay rates)
This swung the vote, and a terrible precedent has been created.
The costs will rise astronomically and now we're stuck with it, a problem that could have been avoided if the council in previous years hadn't wildly over allocated water in the first place
Waikoropupu Springs has had better luck with strong advocacy from local iwi
Lolz too true and there be my opportunity to add some more info…
The council didn't listen to the people re the dam, they then leveraged the unusually long dry spell to enforce their choice. Interestingly during the water restrictions growers and farmers on the Waimea Plains still irrigated, during the middle of the day (yup wtf!). Think I might have mentioned on here at the time when I saw.
I really, really hope we have a big clean out of councillors at this years election and get some who do listen to the public over a few farmers and growers who appear to not want to change their business methods to factor in the changing climate.
kempthorne gave up months ago and tells lies. Many complaints are made about the council. As well there are many, many complaints made about the lack of response from kempthorne and his admin when people approach them with issues. Those are facts.
Apparently kempthorne is just a puppet now and his deputy and now mayoral candidate tim king has been running it for some time. That's a fact too.
My advice to anyone in the Tasman District is, if you really want change and god knows we need it, don't vote for any of the 'old guard'. Many members of the TDC have been there for decades and done sweet fa.
tim king has been there for around 19 yrs, no way I'd be voting for him to be mayor, he is part of the problem.
On the upside, I do hear good things about the CEO, apparently she is lovely and gets things done.
Too late, the US already doesn't abide by any agreement or international law, or national sovereignty and so on and so forth that it doesn't want to already.
Jesus, the parallels with 1930's Europe are frightening.
And increasing on a daily basis. Another one – Trump using emergency powers to carry out operational business, aka the arms sales to Saudi Arabia. Hitler did this too.
There will be another example before the week is out.
Work to clean up landfill rubbish strewn along the West Coast is being axed by the local council for the time being because it cannot afford to continue with the work.
That's why a price on carbon AND a price on pollution is required. Firstly to get access to land, men and material and 2nd to allocate those resources to areas that lack built up infrastructure. A lot of the pollution, espesseially out on the ocean dosnt have easy access to a ready made workforce close to towns with all the amenities a workforce would expect. With out this financial and structure or function climate policy ends up being haphazard, volinteery and ineffective,
Perhaps if the West Coast local government had greater sources of revenue like from say the impact of mining and forestry investment then perhaps they could afford to clean up the rivers.
Perhaps if people living on the West Coast loved the land, they wouldn't have chucked their waste into a hole dug into it. If they loved the land, they wouldn't mine it, nor would they fell the forests.
Except the West Coast doesn't have an awful lot else going for it to attract people and investment. Sure Tourism is nice and everything but it tends to be on the lower return side of economic activity.
Eventually, they'll explore sustainable activities to support their people and the environment they live in; at least, that's my wish. Clinging to destructive behaviours is not a long-term solution.
investment investment growth growth… how tedious are those cries…
we dont need all that… many people are quite happy having their breakfast in the morning and going about their daily activities. This idea that all must put shoulder to the grindstone to build big business and get growth growth growth – pffttt – it is a myth rapidly being exposed. It is only to support the financial 'system'.
ready – take money from something else and use it to clean it up or don't clean it up and continue with the other uses of the money and accept the consequences. This is a local and national strategy that could do it. DO NOT double down and dig more hole. cut down more trees or hide the truth of our dirty polluting life. Front up and get it sorted.
It is a serious question and one that Environmentalists generally avoid. Previously Tourism was meant to be the great saviour of the West Coast in terms of jobs. However Tourist related jobs tend to be low value and low pay. Now I understand it is meant to be IT related which is at least higher value and higher paid. However I am yet to be convinced that it is a viable option given IT workers tend to like to work in larger more cosmopolitan cities than what the West Coast has to offer.
Gosman – why do you hold "environmentalists" responsible for finding solutions to the West Coast's predicament? It's not they, whoever "they" are who are, demanding change there, it's reality itself, speaking through circumstance (a gouged out refuse dump) and the wider world (coal, it's just not on!). The Coast and coasters will have to figure it out themselves, local solutions to local problems, they know best their own circumstances, or they must ask for help in solving their dilemma.
Unfortunately Robert a lot of coasters don't like "greenies". Their local Council reflects this too. It is this very attitude that had led to this problem in the first place, in the same way this very attitude led to the Waiho bridge being taken out in the same storm due to their attitude to rivers and stopbanks… the attitude is mired in colonial pioneering days..
Until this attitude to "green" changes then coasters wont "figure out" how to deal with these such problems. Their current answer is more of the same, so they will almost certainly simply dig another hole in the ground, probably beside the last one.
I always think local, poission. If those good folk are being managed fairly and the business systems are sound, then I wish them all the best and hope they'll keep their jobs; they deserve and benefit greatly from their involvement and engagement in the industry. Though my own council is not part of the decision-making trio of ICC, GDC and SDC, we have discussed this issue at length and depth.
So dirty up the rivers (and cut down trees and gouge vast craters into the landscape) so you can afford to clean them up afterward, while still dirtying them? That's almost Pythonesque in its genius. Your reasoning skills are woefully underrated, Gossie.
Fun fact… maureen pugh was Mayor of Westland District Council and enforced a massive rate hike, driving the Council into quite a bit of debt.
If there's not enough money in the coffers….why is that maureen? She doesn't like talking about it lollz.
May 2013.. Ms Keenan says the council is up to $20 million in debt. Westland District mayor Maureen Pugh has previously said her council's debt is not significant compared with others in the country.
As well West Coast Regional Council do not believe in climate change….and with mine owners on that Council I doubt they would be asking any mine/forestry owners for revenue to solve such issues as said clean up.
Jan 2019
The West Coast Regional Council has been called "idiotic" after saying it will not support the Zero Carbon Bill until the science behind human-caused climate change is proven.
Mine owner and West Coast District councillor Allan Birchfield, wearing a Make America Great Again hat, strongly opposes climate change.
It seems that RNZ has just noticed (again) that New Zealand has a two tier Health system, well worry not….I have a very simple solution that I will guarantee will fix ALL the problems in our two tier health system and would within three election cycles bring NZ the best public health care system in the world…
Every politician who has a portfolio in a sitting Government, including their direct family (spouse and children) including the Prime Minister has to use the public health care system while in government and for five years after…there you go problem solved.
Where there is a will there is a way… maybe mandated by citizen driven popular consensus that forces the politicians to be seen as having enough faith in our public health care system that they actually use it themselves…seems only fair and sensible to me.
Why let people make decisions on something so fundamentally important to the fabric of our society, yet they don't want to use that system themselves? in fact it turns out they trust that system to take care of them and their family so little, that they use a parallel system that they do trust, and can afford to pay for…seems a little strange to me.
Part of it is technology. The latest cutting-edge MRI machine, plus all the training and techs to use it, is going to cost your hospital muy mucho dinero, and the cost has to be made up somehow. Same with the upgrades to other older equipment. The armies of paper-shuffling functionaries, who exist for no other intelligible reason than to administer the 4,567,345,798,001.2 new regulations, only pumps up the cost even more. Some times it's best to hand it over to the private sector than give it to. A bureaucracy.
In the book "Viking Economics" the author wrote of the Scandinavian economies in at least some of which the rich supported their health system and were happy to pay the tax required to fund it. It was a public good and they were part of the public. Similarly, their children went to public schools; fee paying-schools were not permitted. Consequently, the schools and hospitals are very good.
Another way to enforce compliance is to make avoidance a worse option. In London, pollution in the Thames was greatly reduced by the simple rule that water you took for use from the river was sourced downstream from your outflow into the river.
In other words, you got back some part of what you put in.
That idea could apply to taxes and public services.
Popular consensus would also ensure that tax compliance would increase as the Scandinavian model encouraged payment and use of taxation-sourced services. I'm sure there that tax avoiders amongst the well-off would be socially sanctioned at least.
"Viking Economics: How the Scandinavians Got It Right-and How We Can, Too" by George Lakey.
Does anyone wonder about the sustained attack on Pharmac?
Here we have a great system where medicines are purchased on our behalf after due diligence. We should be praising Pharmac for their economical operations. Not condemn them.
So who is likely to profit by condemning Pharmac, and why?
I agree, it comes down to governmental fiscal priorities, and you can be sure that if those same politicians who are being all hardarse on the spending now, had that health system as their and their families primary provider, that there would be no problem at all with funding, for all facets of decaying health care system…none whatsoever.
Can you imagine baby Neve having to wait for a month screaming to have her teeth seen too…I think not.
I understand Pharmac is an autonomous body who make their own decisions around the funding or otherwise of medicines etc. and the government has no input into those decisions. So what has the sarky inference about the families of politicians got to do with Pharmac? They have no more influence than any other person.
I think you have used ianmac's contribution to throw some dirt at Jacinda and the Lab. led govt., knowing full well they are not responsible for the deterioration of Public Health services in NZ. One thing we do know, this government will over time be able to turn it around just as they have done in the past.
Anne, Pharmac can only spend what they are allocated to spend….that amount being dictated by the sitting government. and by extension the mother of baby Neve.
Hardly snarky. more a case of what is good for the gander is good for the goose.
Thing is, the funding can't be open-ended, so there has to be a cap on it, and any cap you put on it is an arbitrary figure. So, the current cap is an arbitrary figure and could be raised if the government chose to prioritise that over other spending.
But suppose the government actually did raise the current cap: the cap would now be higher, but it would still be an arbitrary figure and would still fail to cover all the expenditure that people would like to see, which in turn would mean we'd still regularly have sob stories in the media about so-and-so who's being heartlessly murdered by the government.
There is no way for society to give everyone everything they want – well, not outside of Iain Banks novels, at least.
I would actually like to see some data on that – this isn't a "links or it didn't happen" argument, it's just that if we set some criteria to reasonable treatment options, then what would the total cost be?
Like if (just for the sake of discussion) we adopted a spreadsheet function that would see if the efficacy and QALY probability was less than a million dollars for each likely QALY. Then one to two million was in a minister's discretion, and more than that was in a "not recommended".
So is there any indication that such a system would cost like $50billion a year as everyone demanded the most extreme but marginally-beneficial intervention (or trebled their use of viagra), or would it just be an achievable goal to reach towards? Or does pharmac actually already overreach that hypothetical criteria of "reasonable treatment"?
I don't have an issue with pharmac, but it is always good to do the math before we argue something is unaffordable.
Oh sure, I'd never argue that there's no point in increasing the funding because you can't increase it to infinity dollars. I just don't see it as being possible to increase it to a point where there'd be no wailing about the government killing people.
While there may be no way for society to give everyone everything they want and funding can't be open-ended, we could and should be doing more.
Unfortunately, at the end of the day, the Government deems other matters are a higher priority.
And for good reason, many are questioning the Government's spending priorities and avenues being taken for new sources of revenue. For example, should we really be gifting so much in foreign aid when we can't look after our own? Should the Government be taxing offshore property investors to bolster revenue, thus expenditure to improve well-being?
@Psycho Milt, All I am saying is that it would be very interesting to see were that mysterious cap would be if the people who made those decisions used that same service themselves…quite a bit higher i would hazard a guess.
Thanks Adrian, that's clear. And I like your thinking @6 – would concentrate the 'political mind'!
"Every politician who has a portfolio in a sitting Government, including their direct family (spouse and children) including the Prime Minister has to use the public health care system while in government and for five years after…there you go problem solved."
And mac1 @6.1.1.2 had a good suggestion on how to improve water quality.
"Another way to enforce compliance is to make avoidance a worse option. In London, pollution in the Thames was greatly reduced by the simple rule that water you took for use from the river was sourced downstream from your outflow into the river."
It would be an interesting experiment, yes. I expect you're right – if John Key had had to send his family to the public health and education systems, they would have been funded at a level fit for the scions of merchant bankers (he probably would have stripped the social welfare system to pay for it, mind).
Came as a shock, and I'm guessing Espiner was forced to dive into the turbid waters that is diabetes in NZ.
And being a journalist with an inquiring mind he will have done the Dr Google thing to see what is the gold standard international management program for both common types of diabetes that are so prevalent in NZ.
Then I guess Pharmac slithered into the picture…and really…what do y'all expect?
It is a system that has had its day in its current form.
You could very well be right ianmac and there is a conspiracy afoot…someone will profit!
Or it could simply be that sick folk do google, and the fact that other countries are funding these pharmaceuticals for their citizens cannot be hidden.
People want to live. Mothers want to see their kids grow.
Yeah, diabetes is a good one (and also something I know about, so am happy to comment on it).
Years ago now, Pharmac decided to change the blood glucose meter it was subsidising because there was a much cheaper one available. There was outrage, particularly from the parents of diabetic children. How dare Pharmac force them to use this inferior Korean product, thereby threatening their children's health, just to save money? Wouldn't someone please, please think of the children?
Eventually my old meter crapped out and I had to get one of the cheapo new ones. It was notably flimsier and more cheaply-built than the old one, but when I gave it a drop of blood it told me what my blood glucose level was, which is the whole point of the damn thing. Since then, the health-threatened children have grown up without dying from having to use a cheap appliance and people have accepted that yes, actually the Koreans are perfectly capable of designing and building a functional blood glucose meter.
Also since then, Pharmac's had all money it saved on blood glucose meters available for other purposes. If it had instead listened to all the bleaters with so little drama in their lives they need to invent some, that money wouldn't have been available. Also since then, I'm suspicious of any attempts to undermine Pharmac, because none of it comes from a good place.
Also since then, I'm suspicious of any attempts to undermine Pharmac, because none of it comes from a good place.
Pray tell, oh Wise One, from where are the attempts to undermine Pharmac coming from?
And you, with you're wee anecdote about how for the greater good you sucked up using the inferior quality blood sugar meter and didn't die!!!!, are effectively calling Kay (and anyone else who could literally die because of Pharmac's reckless decisions) she is a 'bleater' inventing issues.
… where are the attempts to undermine Pharmac coming from?
"None of it" was too strong a term, given that I've made no serious study of Pharmac's opponents. However, the following are fairly obvious:
1. Pharmaceutical companies and their lobbyists.
2. Libertarian ideologues.
3. Irrational people who are outraged that the government won't spend a fortune to extend their grannie's life by a few months at the expense of other illness sufferers.
4. Irrational people who are convinced that well-intentioned public officials are actually involved in a nefarious plot to save money at illness sufferers' expense.
There may be other variants, but I haven't noticed them. And none of the above attempts to undermine Pharmac come from a good place.
No more middle class than you are an accomplished debater.
As for wanker, we're probably neck and neck, though as I wouldn't be openly racist in this current, or any climate for that matter, you finally get to win at something. Well done, champ. lol
I know I'm a wanker, but you chump, sheesh. Do you actually hold onto the belief that adding a ‘lol’ makes a comment funny – sad.
And this coming from the prat who thinks it's ok to call someone a "crippled cunt"
What racism, your ultra dumb belief that 'tory land' is a physical reality. Oh please – you sad little prat, crawl back under the party hack rock you crawled out off.
Actually I think it's not right to call someone that, just like it's not right to tell someone to fuck off back to their own country, but you did it, so tough shit all round you nasty little man.
I'm English, tories are in the UK, and now you're wriggling like a maggot with it's arse cut off.
Listen fucknut, it's quite clear I think you're a nonsense waste of space. I find you overly simplistic, quite uneducated and not much more than a walking slogan machine on repeat. What more do you want me to say apart from be more careful who you racially target next?
Just to be clear, you didn't actually say "piss off to tory land", your actual quote was "Piss off back to the tory land you come from", which is quite different in meaning.
Seriously didn't know your were a POME, that is funny.
Well any way, piss off back to the tory land ( not somthing I ever heard england being called ) you came from, you faux lefty.
Or to clarify my comment for the 3rd time, it's an attack on your politics you muppet.
Sheesh how many times do I have to explain it to you, before I get it through your thick skull. Sorry your so dumb, or is that to much of a complex slogan for you.
You are a bit like your faux racism claim, you are full of shit.
Tendering for things such as blood glucose meters is where PHARMAC adds value, the years of delays prior to funding a gliptin and the complete lack of funding for flozins and other pharmaceutical interventions diabetes is where they add no value and arguably add cost to Vote Health in NZ.
I'm in two minds about the meters. I've lived with type I diabetes for half my life (I'm 52) and the meter is part of that. On the one hand, the Korean ones aren't as accurate as the old ones (and definitely not as accurate as the expensive American one I used on a recent drug trial). On the other hand, measuring blood sugar levels to a critical amount only matters if you don't have a good blood sugar control, and that's been something that most of the time I've been blessed with the right numbers on. Others are not so lucky. Or maybe my Aspergers and strict routine helps with that. Who knows. Add me to the list of people who haven't been badly affected by the change in blood sugar meters. I too am suspicious of attempts to badmouth Pharmac.
I have heard from an insider, a few years back that Pharmac is a joke compared with other 'drug agencies' on the planet, was told it was almost 3rd world in comparison. Said person was extremely well versed to make the claim.
The below Al Jazeera doco may be of interest, food for thought… Dec 2018
Trust WHO: The Business of Global Health
Investigating the hidden motives behind actions of the World Health Organisation and the real powers that control it.
Does anyone wonder about the sustained attack on Pharmac?
It's not a sustained attacked, it finally the media doing the job of the media and informing the public about the inner workings of our drug funding agency, an agency which affects all of us at some point, and how it operates (or doesn't) is literally a matter of life and death for a lot of NZers. Plus if there's one thing this investigation has showed, it's the arrogant attitude of their CEO which has got me even more angry than this, which I am currently caught up in, so this "sustained attack" is rather personal, as these other stories are to many other people.
I'm not going to try and explain just how more complicated the background to this decision is, or the consequences, but I can assure you that if you believe that all decisions to defund brands and force people to switch brands for the sole reason of saving money in the drug budget is a good thing, then sorry, you are sadly mistaken. Maybe Pharmac can boast about their savings but will you be happy about the very real world consequences, ie avoidable costs to the health system, people losing their jobs (and stop paying taxes/forced onto a benefit) drivers licences, heaven forbid having a seizure behind the wheel (brand changes can and do cause breakthrough seizures in fully controlled people- do you want to be in the car they crash into? The Transport Agency don’t have a problem with this btw, you might want to have a word with them about this); read the article again- this condition kills people. Pharmac are completely ignoring Medsafe and best international practice.
I'm in total freak out mode because in 4 months time I face the choice of literally starving to pay to stay on my brand ($90/week) or be forced to switch brands which I won't tolerate because I have a history of not tolerating brain drug brand switches. So what do you propose I do? If I don't stay on this drug I will die, and it's the only epilepsy drug on the market I can tolerate. I am far from the only one in the situation.
The Minister of Health is deliberately ignoring our letters, he is not making an comment about this. Ultimately Pharmac funding is on the government, of course it is. I don't know why the frozen capping, more people coould be out there being productive (read;taxpaying ) members of society if they were able to access medications that are currently denied. So yeah the prioroties are all screwed up. Rant over.
Thank you Kay. Real world experience beyond price.
(And I'll wager there are any number of examples of adverse effects from Pharmac pulling funding for a particular brand of drug in favour of a cheap generic. I have a couple I'll share if necessary.)
I can only assume that those here who do not understand why the sustained attack on Pharmac have no health and disability issues at all. Or have been living in caves…
joe90, yes I have heard that certain campaigns against Pharmac are engineered by the pharmaceutical industry, and if necessary I will stipulate exactly which of Pharmac's decisions I am talking about.
Most often I base my opinions on my own lived experience with having to mitigate the adverse effects of some of Pharmac's decisions…and on accounts from others with similar experiences. I have no reason to doubt these people.
We all need to be able to sort the wheat from the chaff.
I'm surprised that Russel Brown of all people wasn't aware that particular tactic has been used by Big Pharma in NZ for many years now. I was very aware of it many years ago. Can't remember exactly where I heard it. We'd be completely naive not to think Pharma doesn't employ all sorts in attempts to influence sales.
I haven't got any time for Pharma's tactics, or their behaviour in general, especially their price gouging whenever they can get away with it (especially in the US). I certainly don't like the fact that it's profits first and foremost, distantly trailed by the public good.
Do I condone these 'planted' stories? Well, they are declared as sponsored in the fine print. If they weren't that would be another issue. Probably ethically a bit dubious, but at the same time they're making a point aren't they? I don't suffer from extreme allergies but I've been made aware about this funding argument over epipens. I don't care if that was a sponsored article if it bought this story to light and got the proper media interested. Is it any different to the cut and paste press released that the MSM frequently print as "News" hoping we won't notice?
The situation I'm currently caught up in (read above)- we're not considered "sexy" enough to have drug companies want to write promo pieces to promote access to their brand new drugs, and there are an awful lot of new generation epilepsy drugs that are not even close to being available in NZ. Cynical, but that's how it works. But with Pharmac (and by extension successive governments) playing Russian Roulette with our lives, and the general population clearly not giving a damn until they're personally affected, then yeah, promote away. Get the unenlightened thinking. maybe they'll sign a petition. Even write to their MP. You know, think about their fellow man, even if the end result is zilch.
She did point out that the figures quoted re the low ranking of NZ were provided by a lobby group. A hint perhaps that we should exercise a little scepticism?
ianmac….this has been going on forever. It does not detract from the fact that Pharmac has on more than one occasion made funding decisions that have risked/costs the lives of New Zealanders.
Big Pharma exploiting the suffering of New Zealanders to force Pharmac's arm does not excuse Pharmac's callous treatment of patients who have come to rely on proven medication….or to deny funding to patients for medication with proven efficacy in other jurisdictions.
Could it be that Pharmac is high on on it's successes. It has so very carefully constructed this hard- arse persona in its battle against the pharmaceutical companies that is has lost sight of what its actual purpose is?
It does not detract from the fact that Pharmac has on more than one occasion made funding decisions that have risked/costs the lives of New Zealanders.
No, it doesn't. However, given that it's impossible for what is effectively a rationing system for health care funding not to make decisions that risk/cost the lives of New Zealanders, what conclusion are you wanting us to draw from that?
I draw the conclusion that Public Servic CEO who have this type of attitude and no concept of the real world have NO right to be in the role:
What does Pharmac chief executive Sarah Fitt make of people taking desperate measures to fund their own medicine? "I don't think it is a two-tiered system," she says.
"We have to make the decisions about what are the best uses of the medicines we've got. If people choose to go and fund medicines themselves then that is their choice … It's like having elective surgery on insurance – you can choose whether to do that rather than going to the hospital system."
But what if you are a low-income earner? "Yeah, that's not going to be a choice. Absolutely," she says.
Believe it or not, most of us have no problem with the concepts of budget caps, even rationing. We're even intelligent enough to see some of the pros of the Pharmac system alongside the cons. But when you can't get a straight answer out of them, they send out form emails as a reply to everything, they blatently lie to support their claims for defunding drugs, you experience the joke that is their consultation process, the Ministers refuse to get involved, it's impossible to get important information because everything is deemed 'commercially sensitive'- how the hell is anyone meant to be supportive of the system anymore, yet alone have anymore confidence? Having such a patronising arrogant CEO is not helping them one bit.
@AdrianT. Of course – and the same for requiring politician’s families to use the public education system.
That way we wouldn't have got Billy ("kiwis are pretty useless") English advocating for larger class sizes in public schools while packing his own kids off to private schools that advertise smaller class sizes as one of their advantages.
Why allow politicians the perverse incentive of being able to ghettoize systems they are rich enough to avoid? Sounds like a "moral hazard" and I recall how hot Billy Boy was on the plebs being susceptible to moral hazards.
Worthy people like Billy don't experience moral hazards, they simply have a wider range of choices, due no doubt to their inherent superiority. Billy was elitist trash in a way (Saint) John Key never was.
You know there are two hilarious things about Bill English's famous "young people these days are useless" claim… Both of which burst all of his hubris…
One. If they are useless at that age it is Bill English's own generation that has raised them. Ha ha, fucking useless parents are Bill English's lot.
Two. If they are useless at that age it is Bill English's own policies that they were raised under too, being born in the 1990's, post-neoliberalism intro, Ruth Richardson and Jim Bolger, all of which Bill English was a full blown cog. Ha ha, fucking useless Bill English policies.
So to Bill English – you cock-sucker, piss off back to Uselessville. Dont try raising kids again – they end up useless
The "quote" was inexact and deliberately so – but it was absolutely true to the elitist spirit of the actual comment English made.
It was more a nickname than a quote I suppose – such as:
Alwyn “seething with rage that the plebs are taking over” on the Standard
The other tier in the health system are the medical insurance schemes that provide top tier service for those that can pay the premium and meet the criteria. Remove the blood sucking insurance industry out of the health system and…….problem solved.
One hundred canoes by Christmas. That's the aim of one of the Pacific's most ambitious traditional boat building projects.
Team leaders for the 100 Traditional Sailing Canoes project, Adi Tulia Nacola (L) and traditional boat builder from Lau, Amena Photo: Supplied
Fiji's Uto ni Yalo Trust is not only reviving ancient construction and navigation techniques, it's also aiming to help remote villages ditch diesel, catch bigger fish and entice tourists to their shores.
Volunteers from around the country are busy at the trust's workshop near Suva building the craft, according to Trust Vice President Dwain Qalovaki.
In the Auckland region a third of our confirmed cases are Pacific, 43 percent European, 15 percent Māori and the balance are Asian."
Europeans high with measles in Auckland. That is a change-around from the usual. More poor families amongst Europeans than has been thought?
The stats are high for under 4 then 15-29 togther forming 68% of cases. Are there many young adult pakeha getting sick, finished school but not in secure training or employment?
unless the horse is called jockey and the jockey called horse – imagine – here comes horse on jockey round the bend and jockey and horse and horse and jockey… whew that woke me up!
Puts me in mind of the fact that the Zucker brothers (of Airplane! fame) bought three race horses over four years and called them "All pink", "Ol pink", and "Awl pink" respectively.
They intructed the jockey to run next to the inside rail, and it was still four years before the announcer calling the race yelled out "It's awl pink on the inside!"
I'm not going to say because I had assumed the person would slinked off. The person even had a farewell pitty party. So I wonder if I play it cool whether this person will stay true to its word or if there word ain't worth shit. My money is on there credibility being worth dog shit.
I'm not sure I do agree with all that. I'm happy to honour what ever agreement pseudo agreement or what ever. But change it, modify the conditions in what ever way and I'll fight harder than most.
Sam. I find the best way to deal with mosquitoes is to assume they are not the slightest bit interested in me and ignore them. And usually they go on to bother someone else.
Comparatively, in Auckland, Watercare charges $1.40 per cubic metre (1000 litres) for water piped to houses, while the rest of the country paid an average $1.60 per cubic metre.
“Water companies are getting the same water but paying bugger all for it,” said water campaigner Jen Branje from the Bung the Bore group.
Applies to both Alfred Ngaro, and to Simon Bridges today at midday who was reduced to putting out bits of what he claims to be the Budget, who won't reveal their provenance and who claims to be open and transparent in his politics. Pffft!
yep we have climbed the mountain of survival from the darkest days in the cave, through war, pestilence, disease and bad luck – our genes have survived and replicated through generation to generation to bring us here today in all our wondrous glory, surrounded by artifacts and creations that previously would have been the dreams of kings and queens – and also we have this…
Did she walk or ride her bicycle down from The Coromandel?
Or, and much more likely, did she travel down by plane? That would be what a Green Party person does. Look at the travel James Shaw does on his overseas jaunts for example.
Is it a requirement that anyone protesting mining or oil extraction must walk to the protest site, alwyn?
That would surely reduce the number of people able to protest to almost nil. Is that good for democracy, do you think; placing unreasonable barriers in front of a section of society? Those in favour of oil drilling would be able to drive to the site to support the drillers, I suppose you mean?
How come there is so much violence in families in NZ? This good NZ Herald report written by Simon Collins in 2000 gives background to the injuries and death of a little boy. And the stepfather and his mother were so inured to violence that they thought the child would recover, and probably thought that heavy physical attack would 'larn' him.
GPs saw James Whakaruru at least 30 times, but none told CYFS about his injuries because he went to at least six different doctors, and probably many more.
Dr Paddy Twigg, of the Paradigm group serving two-thirds of Hawkes Bay GPs, deplores this fragmentation and advocates the British system of "capitation," where state subsidies are based on each patient registering with a specific doctor. People are still free to change doctors, but their files go with them so no doctor has to treat them in a vacuum, except in an emergency. This system is encouraged in the Government's new primary care strategy.
The McClay report also recommends "consideration" of mandatory reporting, which would make it illegal not to report any suspected case of child abuse.
Social Services Minister Steve Maharey says overseas experience is that this merely increases the number of notifications without reducing the incidence of abuse.
But Dr Kelly says mandatory reporting is already in force in public hospitals, at least in Auckland, and helps doctors to resist pressure from families not to notify suspected abuses.
Guyon Espiner left his interviewing job with Radionz and has gone into long-form reporting for them on Pharmac. I think he is taking an extreme view that puts Pharmac's operations on the back foot and is in favour of the middle class who are becoming very demanding for expensive drugs that are not curative, and only slow down the disease. A new protocol is needed for life-extending drugs when there is a terminal disease. How long can they be funded for the individual, in what circumstances? I know someone who has a condition that has been treated and that allows this person to contribute significantly to society as a whole. But if the applicant is a woman and wants to be with her children till they grow up, how do we weigh that up, and all the other similar demands.
Meanwhile under our present societal system, people are unable to get their children's health needs attended to.
It seems an attack on government, not just shining a light on practices that are unsatisfactory or bad, for Guyon to undertake this. It is an emotional story, a story that will go to anybody's heart, and especially those of the middle class who are used to getting what they want.
We constantly hear what they do overseas, which may mean USA which is a basket case. Other countries aren't living on cow dung closest to a hostile neighbour, that only gives a brief Godfather smile when handed sufficient money. A story about a rational comparison between us and other better-managed nations may go into our dependence for most things on distant countries, and how we have run our skill set down because government doesn't care about what young NZs work at, if they can't cope they get put in prison, so they had better watch out.
I imagine the next story will go deep into how much roads cost us and why KiwiRail isn't properly funded. It will look at the huge trucks and how they make driving hard for cars, and vice versa. The drivers have a very demanding job.
After that there is the revelation of how much of our tourist money actually gets to NZs and how much is channelled off overseas. It will look at the cost in money and free volunteer hours tied up in regular searches, and the ongoing costs to NZs who are run into as tourists go into default and steer to the right instead of our left hand rule.
Rosemary, a hypothetical question. If you were an expert clinician advising Pharmac on whether to EITHER:
(A) Switch to funding a cheaper and (on paper) effective anti-epilesy drug, with savings to be used to fund innovative diabetes medicines,
OR
(B) Continue funding the more expensive anti-epilepsy drug (avoiding any potential problems associated with the cheaper alternative), foregoing the opportunity to fund innovative diabetes medicines,
then what would you recommend? How would you decide? Surely not on the basis of any personal sympathy towards an individual (family member or friend) or group of individuals.
Nevertheless, it would be your job to make a recommendation, and that's not a job I would want [we want the best people working for Pharmac] – too close to the classroom Lifeboat Dilemma.
I choose to believe (without any evidence) that the staff of the non-profit Pharmac organisation are genuinely trying to get the best pharmaceutical value for money for as many New Zealanders as possible. I accept that I could be a mistaken in my belief – there are bad Pharmac advisors, poor GPs, poor surgeons, etc., working in NZ. But I believe they are a minority, and that those acting maliciously represent an even smaller minority.
As a user of Pharmac-funded medicines, I'd prefer to put the acid on the Government that sets Pharmac's funding cap. Was there more, less or about the same amount of acid directed towards the previous National governments (compared to the current coalition Government) re the Pharmac funding cap?
And, if you have evidence that Pharmac is doing a poor job and/or making bad decisions then definitely bring that to their attention (I would) – the more feedback they have on their decision-making processes and health outcomes, the more likely they are to make sound decisions in the future.
Guyon Espiner left his interviewing job with Radionz and has gone into long-form reporting for them on Pharmac. I think he is taking an extreme view that puts Pharmac's operations on the back foot and is in favour of the middle class who are becoming very demanding for expensive drugs that are not curative, and only slow down the disease.
New Zealand Vietnam War veterans are calling for more help as they face health issues they say are related to their war service.
Vietnam veteran Jimmy Tainui, and his wife Maryanne. Photo: Supplied / NZDF
Veterans had the opportunity to attend a health and wellbeing expo in Auckland on Saturday which brought together a number of veteran support agencies.
About 300 Vietnam veterans and their families were there.
From New Zealand, 3000 served in Vietnam between 1965 and 1972, when 37 were killed and 187 were wounded.
Every dollar it gets in the money allocated for Health is a dollar less for Health Boards. For equipment and for staff, safe staffing levels and adequate pay and conditions. And for aged care homes and care for those in the home who need help. Mental health, dental health drug addiction programmes and affordable GP visits.
Within its budget, every call for a new drug/treatment regime availability requires of them the search for a cheaper option for existing treatment cover.
And every extra dollar to health is a dollar less for education, for housing and for welfare/disability.
No (weaker negotiating position). It is neither a good thing, or a bad thing, but simply a fact that within a budget limit that each new drug treatment funded is only afforded if there is a saving on drug treatments already funded.
Looks like their (National) private spooks have entered the premises of the printers. The government should set those they trust on that lot next year.
"The government should set those they trust on that lot next year. ".
Is that why Lees-Galloway was working so late in his Office. Using his Ministerial discretion to issue Permanent Residency visas to members of the New York Mafia families. They should get on very well with quite a lot of the Prime Minister's friends. Winston and Shane will be at the head of the queue to welcome them.
Oops their private spooks have been hacking Treasury.
Treasury says there's sufficient evidence to show this information came from its systems being hacked, and has referred the issue to the police. Treasury secretary Gabriel Makhlouf says the breach is serious, and the matter was referred to police on the advice of the National Cyber Security Centre.
Wonder who leaked it or did someone create it? simon's feeling pretty pleased with himself. Takes the focus off his reluctance to release the report into their party culture.
Personally I really don't think it's going to cause any damage to the government as a result. A nat from work mentioned it and even he said no one believes anything simon says and that he would be waiting till Thursday for the real budget. Lolz I almost fell over when he brought it up.
Just heard on radiolive that they are interviewing bridges in the next hour… here's the link for a listen, not sure what time it's going to be on.
That's the thing – so far there haven't been any surprises leaked, so nothing's been spiked or drawn out.
Looks like someone's side copy or early draft working numbers. It would be an issue if there were a massive change – e.g. a new levy or something that would unexpectedly skew an industry or the economy (like the 1984 announcement of floating the dollar was a gift to forex speculators). But at the moment it's a bit "meh".
The documents were printed as discussion documents a while ago. They were then collected and collated to become the Budget. The format/layout is different from the Cabinet documents.,
It seems I still can’t reply to posts from my iPad?
McFlock@20.2.1, It all sounds very fishy to me and it could be a stitch up design to trip up old muppet face? His slogan IRT tanks for teachers is quite funny consider that the last true tank that the NZDF had was retired back in 1982 as they replace the old M41 Walker Bulldog Tank and replace it with the Scorpion Combat Vehicle Reconnaissance Track CRV(T). But in saying that the figure of $1.3B NZ begin bounced around atm, does roughly work out to be 5 new C130J models? the Government does need to pull its finger out of its digit as the old H models will run out of airframe hrs sometime after 2020- 2025.
The massive increase in the police vote could be to do with the buy back MSSA and non MSSA firearms?
The other one that sort of stands out is MPI, Bio Security and two other depts had their votes all combined, which to is a little weird and when one considers that all previous budgets under Labour and the “No Mates Party they all had separate votes?
In Spain, voters rejected the far right populist party Vox, which collapsed back to 6% from the 10% high it achieved only a fortnight ago in the Spanish general elections. On the radical left, Podemos saw its support decline to 10%, a sharp fall from the 18% they’d scored in the last European Parliament elections.
The decline of Podemos holds a cautionary message for the Green Party in New Zealand.
Now that Podemos is no longer an outsider party but is actively propping up the Socialist government of Pedro Sanchez, much of its support has been bleeding back to Sanchez and his PSOE party, which has long been Spain’s neo-liberal Third Way party of the centre-left.
I thought you might be interested in this book written by a shepherd. It's on Trademe closes Sat 1/6 start price $9 plus postage? Might be some good 'yarns'.
The bowtie is good one day maybe I wear a tie the old saying is you must have the feathers to talk.
I have one eye vision its he tangata he tangata he tangata there is nothing wrong with Trevor Malard .
I agree with Chris simon should have reported the leak he would have gained mana from that action but know he leaked it now reap te wai in his face no one likes a cheater????
The midwest of America hurricane allie it's a bad tornado season condolence to all the people who are affected by this bad weather that is getting worse every year because of climate changes . a earthquake is not that scary.
I think all sports is good for te tamariki keeping fit helps sport is good for their mental health it helps the tamariki learn to interact with their pears m8. Losing is part of winning you have to lose a few times to become a winner
There you go the teachers have been moving the goal post in negotiations that alone tells a story our government has up the offer 2 times like I have said this needs to be conducted FAIRLY.
I don't see any reason for the financial minister to resign .
I have stated that everything on the internet can be hacked it's all about how much resource are put into hacking a system.
I did read a couple of weeks ago that the Sydney town water dam was half full lowest level in ten years they have cranked up their saltwater desalination plants.
I agree OUR tamariki education is very important it's a pitty the last government was running down state schools in a goal of privatizing education who cares about the tamariki not getting a good education I hope that a good agreement can be achieved.
I can see a lot of whanau struggling I think our government will deliver the best possible solution to our problems ma te wa .A lot of the problems that have occurred in Aotearoa is directly linked to the funding cuts joyce and did while national was in power .
, ,I,,, no I don't read the nutrition value on food I have a good Idea what good food looks like yes most of the fancy breakfast cereals are full of sugar just crap porridge is my favourite breakfast food.
That's the way you play it Duncan also everyone knows that the NZ governments budget is a state secret they are breaking the law targeting that DATA.
I agree with the numbers cruncher a hiccup in the world economy and NZ economy is due being conservative with the growth forecast is needed.
Its heating up on the American political scene I say no more
Lloyd boris and frage are shorting the British political seen I read that frages party doesn't even have sound policy WTF.
If it wasn't a hack it is national people left in Treasury that deliberately left the back door
I agree on the smoking issue more needed to be dune to help smokers
matthew hooton your creditability on this site thestandard is crap Eco Maori has a lot of respect for the leftist on this site I have learned a lot from them .Matthew was drooling trying to dent our Coalition Governments Mana with the hack leak left back door open. But NO you're national m8 will be warning the backbenchers for quite a few more years. LOL.
Asholes I know of a few I say to much money makes a Asholes. I agree we don't need people to behave like a Asholes if we don't accept that type of behavior it will go away just like one word Eco Maori has pushed to the back of our vocabulary te Elephant John I won't comment on that it's hot over there..With John Cleese in the film show it will be hilarious.
Simon and the lawyer good honest opinion I see European elections have given more power to the Green Partys times are changing.
You know the teeth are getting long when you forget the glasses and can't read the fine print I have that problem to .
I want to name a intelligent ashole who blinded a country with his power of control but I won't Ka kite ano P.S that GPS
I think that some people should be supporting the students future and join the students climate change Global strike .We are only alive on Papatuanuku for a fraction of time when measured by geologic time and from the time life started it's a crying shame that humans can stuff up Papatuanuku in just 2 short life time. If we look after our tamariki future and stop burning carbon our tamariki future will be happy healthy and bright. If we carry on SHITTING In our own backyard burning carbon Our futures will Suffer the consequences of the greedy ruling class not wanting to let go of their POWER CARBON. Enough said
Greta Thunberg and leading youth strikers for climate action from across the world have called for all adults to join a global general strike on 20 September.
The Welbing budget looks good the mental health spend is up . Jacinda knows the tamariki need good nurturing as they will be looking after the country and us when we retire its logical to put the best care into our mokopuna the return on that investment will be 100 fold.
Very good investment into Railways its the most effective efficient way to transport goods and people it shealds the transport of our goods and people from oil prices shocks ka pai Winston
The walk cycle way on the Auckland harbor bridge will be good viewing for the public well over due.
Shamuvl I think you are correct the wellbeing budget is good well over due after the cuts of the last government.
The Westcoast has more hard tawhirimate /rain again it has always had a lot of rain but these days the west coast is getting extreme weather caused by Global warming.
I think sometimes John Clesse puts his foot in his —- any publicity is good publicity. Lucy you look and have a smilia character to a kiwi comedian people can you guess whom.
Mark I can give you advice on some good sleeping tonics that's the reason I started talking it.
Awesome that British scientists are advancing cancer research breakthroughs for radiation therapy.
The roads in Auckland are jammed up at rushhour times .We have heaps more cars a people nowadays I say it is very visionary our Coalition Governments big investment in massetransport Railways those moves will help save our environment.
Very good a ban on trampers around Tane Mahuta we have to do all we can to save him and his mokopuna.
New trade Mark cartoonists don't worry m8 you will still have plenty of putea for the holidays you just mite not be able to have refreshments in the Korua lounge not to much of a sacrifice so that the people under the bridge get good care ????????
Grant your budget is awesome m8 you can't keep everyone happy the national supporters will have the tissue flying again.
Kris give judy a tissue I agree the kiwi workers need to be nurtured and have good wairua to participate in our economy we have to stop just importing workers at the demise of good KIWIs. Investment in te tangata will give Aotearoa 100 fold returns.
Cool smoke free day everyone needs to stop this dumb habit its quite hard to QUIT but I will very soon for te mokopuna .
Good on the Porirua city council for paying all their workers the living WAGE. Ka kite ano
New Zealand is again having to reconcile conflicting pressures from its military and its trade interests. Should we join Pillar Two of AUKUS and risk compromising our markets in China? For a century after New Zealand was founded in 1840, its external security arrangements and external economics arrangements were aligned. ...
The ‘50 Shades of Green’ farmers’ protest in 2019 was heavy on climate change denial, but five years on, scepticism and criticism about the idea that pine forests can save us is growing across the board. File photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: Here’s the top six news items of note in climate ...
This morning the sky was bright.The birds, in their usual joyous bliss. Nature doesn’t seem to feel the heat of what might angst humans.Their calls are clear and beautiful.Just some random thoughts:MāoriPaul Goldsmith has announced his government will roll back the judiciary’s rulings on Māori Customary Marine Title, which recognises ...
In 2003, the Court of Appeal delivered its decision in Ngati Apa v Attorney-General, ruling that Māori customary title over the foreshore and seabed had not been universally extinguished, and that the Māori Land Court could determine claims and confirm title if the facts supported it. This kicked off the ...
Earlier this week at Parliament, Labour leader Chris Hipkins was applauded for saying that the response to the final report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care had to be “bigger than politics.” True, but the fine words, apologies and “we hear you” messages will soon ring ...
TL;DR: In news breaking this morning:The Ministry of Education is cutting $2 billion from its school building programme so the National-ACT-NZ First Coalition Government has enough money to deliver tax cuts; The Government has quietly lowered its child poverty reduction targets to make them easier to achieve;Te Whatu Ora-Health NZ’s ...
Kia ora. These are some stories that caught our eye this week – as always, feel free to share yours in the comments. Our header image this week (via Eke Panuku) shows the planned upgrade for the Karanga Plaza Tidal Swimming Steps. The week in Greater Auckland On ...
1. What's not to love about the way the Harris campaign is turning things around?a. Nothingb. Love all of itc. God what a reliefd. Not that it will be by any means easye. All of the above 2. Documents released by the Ministry of Health show Associate Health Minister Casey ...
Trust in me in all you doHave the faith I have in youLove will see us through, if only you trust in meWhy don't you, you trust me?In a week that saw the release of the 3,000 page Abuse in Care report Christopher Luxon was being asked about Boot Camps. ...
TL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers last night features co-hosts and talking about the Royal Commission Inquiry into Abuse in Carereport released this week, and with:The Kākā’s climate correspondent on a UN push to not recognise carbon offset markets and ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Friday, July 26, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Transport: Simeon Brown announced$802.9 million in funding for 18 new trains on the Wairarapa and Manawatū rail lines, which ...
The northern expressway extension from Warkworth to Whangarei is likely to require radical changes to legislation if it is going to be built within the foreseeable future. The Government’s powers to purchase land, the planning process and current restrictions on road tolling are all going to need to be changed ...
Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedFirst they came for the doctors But I was confused by the numbers and costs So I didn't speak up Then they came for our police and nurses And I didn't think we could afford those costs anyway So I ...
Photo by Joshua J. Cotten on UnsplashWe’re back again after our mid-winter break. We’re still with the ‘new’ day of the week (Thursday rather than Friday) when we have our ‘hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kākā for an hour at 5 pm.Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream ...
Notes: This is a free article. Abuse in Care themes are mentioned. Video is at the bottom.BackgroundYesterday’s report into Abuse in Care revealed that at least 1 in 3 of all who went through state and faith based care were abused - often horrifically. At least, because not all survivors ...
Luxon speaks in Parliament yesterday about the Abuse in Care report. Photo: Hagen Hopkins/Getty ImagesTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:PM Christopher Luxon said yesterday in tabling the Abuse in Carereport in Parliament he wanted to ‘do the ...
About a decade ago I worked with a bloke called Steve. He was the grizzled veteran coder, a few years older than me, who knew where the bodies were buried - code wise. Despite his best efforts to be approachable and friendly he could be kind of gruff, through to ...
Some of the recent announcements from the government have reminded us of posts we’ve written in the past. Here’s one from early 2020. There were plenty of reactions to the government’s infrastructure announcement a few weeks ago which saw them fund a bunch of big roading projects. One of ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Thursday, July 25 are:News: Why Electric Kiwi is closing to new customers - and why it matters RNZ’s Susan EdmundsScoop: Government drops ...
Hi,I felt a small wet tongue snaking through one of the holes in my Crocs. It explored my big toe, darting down one side, then the other. “He’s looking for some toe cheese,” said the woman next to me, words that still haunt me to this day.Growing up in New ...
Yesterday I happily quoted the Prime Minister without fact-checking him and sure enough, it turns out his numbers were all to hell. It’s not four kg of Royal Commission report, it’s fourteen.My friend and one-time colleague-in-comms Hazel Phillips gently alerted me to my error almost as soon as I’d hit ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Thursday, July 25, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day were:The Abuse in Care Royal Commission of Inquirypublished its final report yesterday.PM Christopher Luxon and The Minister responsible for ...
The Official Information Act has always been a battle between requesters seeking information, and governments seeking to control it. Information is power, so Ministers and government agencies want to manage what is released and when, for their own convenience, and legality and democracy be damned. Their most recent tactic for ...
TL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:Transport and Energy Minister Simeon Brown is accelerating plans to spend at least $10 billion through Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) to extend State Highway One as a four-lane ‘Expressway’ from Warkworth to Whangarei ...
I live my life (woo-ooh-ooh)With no control in my destinyYea-yeah, yea-yeah (woo-ooh-ooh)I can bleed when I want to bleedSo come on, come on (woo-ooh-ooh)You can bleed when you want to bleedYea-yeah, come on (woo-ooh-ooh)Everybody bleed when they want to bleedCome on and bleedGovernments face tough challenges. Selling unpopular decisions to ...
Please note:To skip directly to the- parliamentary footage in the video, scroll to 1:21 To skip to audio please click on the headphone iconon the left hand side of the screenThis video / audio section is under development. ...
Given the crackdown on wasteful government spending, it behooves me to point to a high profile example of spending by the Luxon government that looks like a big, fat waste of time and money. I’m talking about the deployment of NZDF personnel to support the US-led coalition in the Red ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:40 am on Wednesday, July 24 are:Deep Dive: Chipping away at the housing crisis, including my comments RNZ/Newsroom’s The DetailNews: Government softens on asset sales, ...
As I reported about the city centre, Auckland’s rail network is also going through a difficult and disruptive period which is rapidly approaching a culmination, this will result in a significant upgrade to the whole network. Hallelujah. Also like the city centre this is an upgrade predicated on the City ...
Today, a 4 kilogram report will be delivered to Parliament. We know this is what the report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care weighs, because our Prime Minister told us so.Some reporter had blindsided him by asking a question about something done by ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Wednesday, July 24, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Beehive:Transport Minister Simeon Brownannounced plans to use PPPs to fund, build and run a four-lane expressway between Auckland ...
NewstalkZB host Mike Hosking, who can usually be relied on to give Prime Minister Christopher Luxon an easy run, did not do so yesterday when he interviewed him about the HealthNZ deficit. Luxon is trying to use a deficit reported last year by HealthNZ as yet another example of the ...
Back in January a StatsNZ employee gave a speech at Rātana on behalf of tangata whenua in which he insulted and criticised the government. The speech clearly violated the principle of a neutral public service, and StatsNZ started an investigation. Part of that was getting an external consultant to examine ...
Renting for life: Shared ownership initiatives are unlikely to slow the slide in home ownership by much. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:A Deloittereport for Westpac has projected Aotearoa’s home-ownership rate will ...
You're broken down and tiredOf living life on a merry go roundAnd you can't find the fighterBut I see it in you so we gonna walk it outAnd move mountainsWe gonna walk it outAnd move mountainsAnd I'll rise upI'll rise like the dayI'll rise upI'll rise unafraidI'll rise upAnd I'll ...
There’s been a change in Myers Park. Down the steps from St. Kevin’s Arcade, past the grassy slopes, the children’s playground, the benches and that goat statue, there has been a transformation. The underpass for Mayoral Drive has gone from a barren, grey, concrete tunnel, to a place that thrums ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections Global society may have finally slammed on the brakes for climate-warming pollution released by human fossil fuel combustion. According to the Carbon Monitor Project, the total global climate pollution released between February and May 2024 declined slightly from the amount released during the same ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Tuesday, July 23 are:Deep Dive: Penlink: where tolling rhetoric meets reality BusinessDesk-$$$’sOliver LewisScoop:Te Pūkenga plans for regional polytechs leak out ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Tuesday, July 23, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Health: Shane Reti announcedthe Board of Te Whatu Ora-Health New Zealand was being replaced with Commissioner Lester Levy ...
Health NZ warned the Government at the end of March that it was running over Budget. But the reasons it gave were very different to those offered by the Prime Minister yesterday. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon blamed the “botched merger” of the 20 District Health Boards (DHBs) to create Health ...
Long ReadKey Summary: Although National increased the health budget by $1.4 billion in May, they used an old funding model to project health system costs, and never bothered to update their pre-election numbers. They were told during the Health Select Committees earlier in the year their budget amount was deficient, ...
As a momentous, historic weekend in US politics unfolded, analysts and commentators grasped for precedents and comparisons to help explain the significance and power of the choice Joe Biden had made. The 46th president had swept the Democratic party’s primaries but just over 100 days from the election had chosen ...
TL;DR: I’m casting around for new ideas and ways of thinking about Aotearoa’s political economy to find a few solutions to our cascading and self-reinforcing housing, poverty and climate crises.Associate Professor runs an online masters degree in the economics of sustainability at Torrens University in Australia and is organising ...
The Finance and Expenditure Committee has reported back on National's Local Government (Water Services Preliminary Arrangements) Bill. The bill sets up water for privatisation, and was introduced under urgency, then rammed through select committee with no time even for local councils to make a proper submission. Naturally, national's select committee ...
Some years ago, I bought a book at Dunedin’s Regent Booksale for $1.50. As one does. Vandrad the Viking (1898), by J. Storer Clouston, is an obscure book these days – I cannot find a proper online review – but soon it was sitting on my shelf, gathering dust alongside ...
History is not on the side of the centre-left, when Democratic presidents fall behind in the polls and choose not to run for re-election. On both previous occasions in the past 75 years (Harry Truman in 1952, Lyndon Johnson in 1968) the Democrats proceeded to then lose the White House ...
This is a free articleCoverageThis morning, US President Joe Biden announced his withdrawal from the Presidential race. And that is genuinely newsworthy. Thanks for your service, President Biden, and all the best to you and yours.However, the media in New Zealand, particularly the 1News nightly bulletin, has been breathlessly covering ...
A homeless person’s camp beside a blocked-off slipped damage walkway in Freeman’s Bay: we are chasing our tail on our worsening and inter-related housing, poverty and climate crises. Photo: Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy ...
What has happened to it all?Crazy, some'd sayWhere is the life that I recognise?(Gone away)But I won't cry for yesterdayThere's an ordinary worldSomehow I have to findAnd as I try to make my wayTo the ordinary worldYesterday morning began as many others - what to write about today? I began ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Monday, July 22 are:Today’s Must Read: Father and son live in a tent, and have done for four years, in a million ...
TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Monday, July 22, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:US President Joe Biden announced via X this morning he would not stand for a second term.Multinational professional services firm ...
A listing of 32 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, July 14, 2024 thru Sat, July 20, 2024. Story of the week As reflected by preponderance of coverage, our Story of the Week is Project 2025. Until now traveling ...
This weekend, a friend pointed out someone who said they’d like to read my posts, but didn’t want to pay. And my first reaction was sympathy.I’ve already told folks that if they can’t comfortably subscribe, and would like to read, I’d be happy to offer free subscriptions. I don’t want ...
National: The Party of ‘Law and Order’ IntroductionThis weekend, the Government formally kicked off one of their flagship policy programs: a military style boot camp that New Zealand has experimented with over the past 50 years. Cartoon credit: Guy BodyIt’s very popular with the National Party’s Law and Orderimage, ...
Day one of the solo leg of my long journey home begins with my favourite sound: footfalls in an empty street. 5.00 am and it’s already light and already too warm, almost.If I can make the train that leaves Budapest later this hour I could be in Belgrade by nightfall; ...
Do you remember Y2K, the threat that hung over humanity in the closing days of the twentieth century? Horror scenarios of planes falling from the sky, electronic payments failing and ATMs refusing to dispense cash. As for your VCR following instructions and recording your favourite show - forget about it.All ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts being questioned by The Kākā’s Bernard Hickey.TL;DR: My top six things to note around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the week to July 20 were:1. A strategy that fails Zero Carbon Act & Paris targetsThe National-ACT-NZ First Coalition Government finally unveiled ...
Summary:As New Zealand loses at least 12 leaders in the public service space of health, climate, and pharmaceuticals, this month alone, directly in response to the Government’s policies and budget choices, what lies ahead may be darker than it appears. Tui examines some of those departures and draws a long ...
The Minister of Housing’s ambition is to reduce markedly the ratio of house prices to household incomes. If his strategy works it would transform the housing market, dramatically changing the prospects of housing as an investment.Leaving aside the Minister’s metaphor of ‘flooding the market’ I do not see how the ...
As previously noted, my historical fantasy piece, set in the fifth-century Mediterranean, was accepted for a Pirate Horror anthology, only for the anthology to later fall through. But in a good bit of news, it turned out that the story could indeed be re-marketed as sword and sorcery. As of ...
An employee of tobacco company Philip Morris International demonstrates a heated tobacco device. Photo: Getty ImagesTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy on Friday, July 19 are:At a time when the Coalition Government is cutting spending on health, infrastructure, education, housing ...
TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 8:30 am on Friday, July 19 are:Scoop: NZ First Minister Casey Costello orders 50% cut to excise tax on heated tobacco products. The minister has ...
Kia ora, it’s time for another Friday roundup, in which we pull together some of the links and stories that caught our eye this week. Feel free to add more in the comments! Our header image this week shows a foggy day in Auckland town, captured by Patrick Reynolds. ...
TL;DR : Here’s the top six items climate news for Aotearoa this week, as selected by Bernard Hickey and The Kākā’s climate correspondent Cathrine Dyer. A discussion recorded yesterday is in the video above and the audio of that sent onto the podcast feed.The Government released its draft Emissions Reduction ...
Save some money, get rich and old, bring it back to Tobacco Road.Bring that dynamite and a crane, blow it up, start all over again.Roll up. Roll up. Or tailor made, if you prefer...Whether you’re selling ciggies, digging for gold, catching dolphins in your nets, or encouraging folks to flutter ...
Waiting In The Wings:For truly, if Trump is America’s un-assassinated Caesar, then J.D. Vance is America’s Octavian, the Republic’s youthful undertaker – and its first Emperor.DONALD TRUMP’S SELECTION of James D. Vance as his running-mate bodes ill for the American republic. A fervent supporter of Viktor Orban, the “illiberal” prime ...
TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Friday, July 19, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:The PSAannounced the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) had ruled in the PSA’s favour in its case against the Ministry ...
TL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers last night features co-hosts and talking with:The Kākā’s climate correspondent talking about the National-ACT-NZ First Government’s release of its first Emissions Reduction Plan;University of Otago Foreign Relations Professor and special guest Dr Karin von ...
Open access notablesImproving global temperature datasets to better account for non-uniform warming, Calvert, Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society:To better account for spatial non-uniform trends in warming, a new GITD [global instrumental temperature dataset] was created that used maximum likelihood estimation (MLE) to combine the land surface ...
A late change to charter school legislation will cheat educators out of fair pay and negotiating power proving charter schools are just a vehicle to make profit out of our education system. ...
In 2004 te iwi Māori rallied against the Crown’s attempt to confiscate our coastlines and moana with the Foreshore and Seabed Act. This led to the largest hīkoi of a generation and the birth of Te Pāti Māori. 20 years later, history is repeating itself. Today the government has announced ...
It has been five and a half years since the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care was established to investigate the abuse of children, young people, and vulnerable adults within state and faith-based institutions. Yesterday, the final report - Whanaketia through pain and trauma, from darkness to light ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to take action off the back of the International Court of Justice ruling on Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine. ...
On Friday the International Court of Justice reaffirmed what Palestinian’s have been telling us for decades: that the occupation and colonisation of Palestinian lands by Israel is illegal and must end immediately. They also called for reparations for Palestinian’s who have lived under Israeli occupation since it began in 1967. ...
Labour calls on the Government to act after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian Territories is illegal. ...
The 53.7 percent rise in benefit sanctions over the last year is more proof of this Government’s disdain for our communities most in need of support. ...
Aotearoa could be a country where every child grows up feeling safe, loved and with a sense of belonging in their whānau and community. But for some of our children, this is far from reality. Instead, they are trapped in a maze of intergenerational harm that they can’t escape on ...
Te Pāti Māori are calling for David Seymour to resign as Associate Health Minister in response to his call for Pharmac to ignore the Treaty of Waitangi. “This announcement is just another example of the government’s anti-Tiriti, anti-Māori agenda.” Said Co-leader and spokesperson for health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. “Seymour thinks it ...
The soaring price of renting is driving the rise of inflation in this country - with latest figures from Stats NZ showing rents are up 4.8 per cent on average while annual inflation is at 3.3 per cent. ...
National’s Emissions Reduction Plan will take New Zealand further from the economy we need to ensure the next generation has a stable climate and secure livelihoods. ...
Following consultation with named parties and thorough consideration of privacy interests, the Green Party is in a position to release the Executive Summary of the final report from the independent investigation into Darleen Tana. ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon should be asking serious questions of his Minister for Resources Shane Jones now it’s been revealed he misled the public about a dinner with mining companies that he didn’t declare and said wasn’t pre-arranged. ...
Te Pāti Māori have submitted to the Justice Select Committee against the Sentencing (Reinstating Three Strikes) Amendment Bill. The bill will further entrench racism in our justice system and fails to focus on rehabilitation. “Reinstating Three Strikes will empower a systematically racist system and exacerbate the overrepresentation of Māori in ...
The Transport and Infrastructure Committee is set to make a determination on the Residential Tenancies Amendment (RTA) Bill in the coming weeks. “This legislation will give landlords the power to kick our whānau out onto the street for no reason” said Housing spokesperson, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “Their solution to the housing ...
“National’s campaign was about tackling crime and the best they can do is a two-year long Ministerial Advisory Group,” Labour justice spokesperson Duncan Webb said. ...
“There are more examples of charter schools failing their students than there are success stories. The coalition Government is driving to dismantle our public school system and instead promote a privatised, competitive structure that puts profits before kids,” Jan Tinetti said. ...
“This government is choosing to deliberately mislead and withhold information, keeping our people in the dark about this government’s agenda and the future of our mokopuna,” said co-leader and spokesperson for Health, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. The call comes after the demand from the Chief Ombudsman that Associate Minister of Health, Casey ...
“Today’s climate announcement by Simon Watts makes clear the National Government is simply paying lip service to meeting its climate change targets,” Megan Woods said. ...
National is choosing to make life harder for workers by taking away the rights our communities have fought hard for. Here's how they’re taking workers backwards. ...
Australia, Canada and New Zealand today issued the following statement on the need for an urgent ceasefire in Gaza and the risk of expanded conflict between Hizballah and Israel. The situation in Gaza is catastrophic. The human suffering is unacceptable. It cannot continue. We remain unequivocal in our condemnation of ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today reminded all State and faith-based institutions of their legal obligation to preserve records relevant to the safety and wellbeing of those in its care. “The Abuse in Care Inquiry’s report has found cases where records of the most vulnerable people in State and faith‑based institutions were ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says the Government’s online safety website for children and young people has reached one million page views. “It is great to see so many young people and their families accessing the site Keep It Real Online to learn how to stay safe online, and manage ...
Tēnā tātou katoa, Ngā mihi te rangi, ngā mihi te whenua, ngā mihi ki a koutou, kia ora mai koutou. Thank you for the opportunity to be here and the invitation to speak at this 50th anniversary conference. I acknowledge all those who have gone before us and paved the ...
New Zealand’s payroll providers have successfully prepared to ensure 3.5 million individuals will, from Wednesday next week, be able to keep more of what they earn each pay, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis and Revenue Minister Simon Watts. “The Government's tax policy changes are legally effective from Wednesday. Delivering this tax ...
An experimental vineyard which will help futureproof the wine sector has been opened in Blenheim by Associate Regional Development Minister Mark Patterson. The covered vineyard, based at the New Zealand Wine Centre – Te Pokapū Wāina o Aotearoa, enables controlled environmental conditions. “The research that will be produced at the Experimental ...
The Coalition Government has confirmed the indicative regional breakdown of North Island Weather Event (NIWE) funding for state highway recovery projects funded through Budget 2024, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Regions in the North Island suffered extensive and devastating damage from Cyclone Gabrielle and the 2023 Auckland Anniversary Floods, and ...
Indonesia’s Foreign Minister, Retno Marsudi, will visit New Zealand next week, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “Indonesia is important to New Zealand’s security and economic interests and is our closest South East Asian neighbour,” says Mr Peters, who is currently in Laos to engage with South East Asian partners. ...
He aha te kai a te rangatira? He kōrero, he kōrero, he kōrero. The government has reaffirmed its commitment to supporting the aspirations of Ngāti Maniapoto, Minister for Māori Development Tama Potaka says. “My thanks to Te Nehenehenui Trust – Ngāti Maniapoto for bringing their important kōrero to a ministerial ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has thanked outgoing Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority, Janice Fredric, for her service to the board.“I have received Ms Fredric’s resignation from the role of Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority,” Mr Brown says.“On behalf of the Government, I want to thank Ms Fredric for ...
The Government is proposing legislation to overturn a Court of Appeal decision and amend the Marine and Coastal Area Act in order to restore Parliament’s test for Customary Marine Title, Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith says. “Section 58 required an applicant group to prove they have exclusively used and occupied ...
Regulation Minister David Seymour says that opposition parties have united in bad faith, opposing what they claim are ‘dangerous changes’ to the Early Childhood Education sector, despite no changes even being proposed yet. “Issues with affordability and availability of early childhood education, and the complexity of its regulation, has led ...
After receiving more than 740 submissions in the first 20 days, Regulation Minister David Seymour is asking the Ministry for Regulation to extend engagement on the early childhood education regulation review by an extra two weeks. “The level of interest has been very high, and from the conversations I’ve been ...
The Coalition Government is investing $802.9 million into the Wairarapa and Manawatū rail lines as part of a funding agreement with the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA), KiwiRail, and the Greater Wellington and Horizons Regional Councils to deliver more reliable services for commuters in the lower North Island, Transport Minister Simeon ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced his intention to appoint a Crown Manager to both Hawke’s Bay Regional and Wairoa District Councils to speed up the delivery of flood protection work in Wairoa."Recent severe weather events in Wairoa this year, combined with damage from Cyclone Gabrielle in 2023 have ...
Mr Speaker, this is a day that many New Zealanders who were abused in State care never thought would come. It’s the day that this Parliament accepts, with deep sorrow and regret, the Report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care. At the heart of this report are the ...
For the first time, the Government is formally acknowledging some children and young people at Lake Alice Psychiatric Hospital experienced torture. The final report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care “Whanaketia – through pain and trauma, from darkness to light,” was tabled in Parliament ...
The Government has acknowledged the nearly 2,400 courageous survivors who shared their experiences during the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Historical Abuse in State and Faith-Based Care. The final report from the largest and most complex public inquiry ever held in New Zealand, the Royal Commission Inquiry “Whanaketia – through ...
With a week to go before hard-working New Zealanders see personal income tax relief for the first time in fourteen years, 513,000 people have used the Budget tax calculator to see how much they will benefit, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis. “Tax relief is long overdue. From next Wednesday, personal income ...
Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden says a bill that has passed its first reading will improve parental leave settings and give non-biological parents more flexibility as primary carer for their child. The Regulatory Systems Amendment Bill (No3), passed its first reading this morning. “It includes a change ...
Two Bills designed to improve regulation and make it easier to do business have passed their first reading in Parliament, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. The Regulatory Systems (Economic Development) Amendment Bill and Regulatory Systems (Immigration and Workforce) Amendment Bill make key changes to legislation administered by the Ministry ...
New legislation paves the way for greater competition in sectors such as banking and electricity, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly says. “Competitive markets boost productivity, create employment opportunities and lift living standards. To support competition, we need good quality regulation but, unfortunately, a recent OECD report ranked New ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says lotteries for charitable purposes, such as those run by the Heart Foundation, Coastguard NZ, and local hospices, will soon be allowed to operate online permanently. “Under current laws, these fundraising lotteries are only allowed to operate online until October 2024, after which ...
The Coalition Government is accelerating work on the new four-lane expressway between Auckland and Whangārei as part of its Roads of National Significance programme, with an accelerated delivery model to deliver this project faster and more efficiently, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “For too long, the lack of resilient transport connections ...
Sir Don McKinnon will travel to Viet Nam this week as a Special Envoy of the Government, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced. “It is important that the Government give due recognition to the significant contributions that General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong made to New Zealand-Viet Nam relations,” Mr ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says newly appointed Commissioner, Grant Illingworth KC, will help deliver the report for the first phase of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into COVID-19 Lessons, due on 28 November 2024. “I am pleased to announce that Mr Illingworth will commence his appointment as ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters travels to Laos this week to participate in a series of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)-led Ministerial meetings in Vientiane. “ASEAN plays an important role in supporting a peaceful, stable and prosperous Indo-Pacific,” Mr Peters says. “This will be our third visit to ...
Construction of a new mental health facility at Te Nikau Grey Hospital in Greymouth is today one step closer, Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey says. “This $27 million facility shows this Government is delivering on its promise to boost mental health care and improve front line services,” Mr Doocey says. ...
New Zealand is committing nearly $50 million to a package supporting sustainable Pacific fisheries development over the next four years, Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones announced today. “This support consisting of a range of initiatives demonstrates New Zealand’s commitment to assisting our Pacific partners ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour says proposed changes to the Education and Training Amendment Bill will ensure charter schools have more flexibility to negotiate employment agreements and are equipped with the right teaching resources. “Cabinet has agreed to progress an amendment which means unions will not be able to initiate ...
In response to serious concerns around oversight, overspend and a significant deterioration in financial outlook, the Board of Health New Zealand will be replaced with a Commissioner, Health Minister Dr Shane Reti announced today. “The previous government’s botched health reforms have created significant financial challenges at Health NZ that, without ...
Minister for Space and Science, Innovation and Technology Judith Collins will travel to Adelaide tomorrow for space and science engagements, including speaking at the Australian Space Forum. While there she will also have meetings and visits with a focus on space, biotechnology and innovation. “New Zealand has a thriving space ...
Climate Change Minister Simon Watts will travel to China on Saturday to attend the Ministerial on Climate Action meeting held in Wuhan. “Attending the Ministerial on Climate Action is an opportunity to advocate for New Zealand climate priorities and engage with our key partners on climate action,” Mr Watts says. ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is travelling to the Solomon Islands tomorrow for meetings with his counterparts from around the Pacific supporting collective management of the region’s fisheries. The 23rd Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Committee and the 5th Regional Fisheries Ministers’ Meeting in Honiara from 23 to 26 July ...
The Government today launched the Military Style Academy Pilot at Te Au rere a te Tonga Youth Justice residence in Palmerston North, an important part of the Government’s plan to crackdown on youth crime and getting youth offenders back on track, Minister for Children, Karen Chhour said today. “On the ...
The Government has welcomed news the NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) has begun work to replace nine priority bridges across the country to ensure our state highway network remains resilient, reliable, and efficient for road users, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says.“Increasing productivity and economic growth is a key priority for the ...
Acting Prime Minister David Seymour has been in contact throughout the evening with senior officials who have coordinated a whole of government response to the global IT outage and can provide an update. The Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet has designated the National Emergency Management Agency as the ...
New Zealand and Japan will continue to step up their shared engagement with the Pacific, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “New Zealand and Japan have a strong, shared interest in a free, open and stable Pacific Islands region,” Mr Peters says. “We are pleased to be finding more ways ...
New developments in the heart of North Island forestry country will reinvigorate their communities and boost economic development, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones visited Kaingaroa and Kawerau in Bay of Plenty today to open a landmark community centre in the former and a new connecting road in ...
President Adeang, fellow Ministers, honourable Diet Member Horii, Ambassadors, distinguished guests. Minasama, konnichiwa, and good afternoon, everyone. Distinguished guests, it’s a pleasure to be here with you today to talk about New Zealand’s foreign policy reset, the reasons for it, the values that underpin it, and how it ...
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 ...
Andy Christiansen, one half of the experimental rock-pop duo TRiPS, shares the tunes inspiring the band’s perfect weekend and new release. “Good speakers, good food, good music, no distractions”: that’s all you need to enjoy the psychedelic stylings of TRiPS, a new band formed by Fly My Pretties’ Barnaby Weir ...
Celebrating our quadrennial opportunity to become experts in a bunch of sports we never normally watch.The games of the XXXIII Olympiad are upon us. Paris will host this year’s showcase of sporting and athletic prowess, which means some late-night and early-morning viewing for us in Aotearoa.But what sports ...
The photograph is striking and beautiful, but also disturbing – a reminder that my love for John was often entangled in shame.The Sunday Essay is made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand.In the spring of 1980, in Dunedin, shortly before his death, someone took a photograph ...
Get to know Babushka, our latest Dog of the Month. This feature was offered as a reward during our What’s Eating Aotearoa PledgeMe campaign. Thank you to Babu’s humans, Jo and Isabel, for their support. Dog name: Babushka (Babu for short) Age: 2Breed: Border Collie X poodleIf rescued, ...
Pacific Media Watch A Lebanese photojournalist who was severely wounded during an Israeli air strike in south Lebanon carried the Olympic torch in Paris this week in honour of her peers who have been wounded and killed in the field — especially in Gaza and Lebanon. Christina Assi of Agence ...
The first report in a five-part web series focused on the 15th Triennial Conference of Pacific Women taking place in the Marshall Islands this week.SPECIAL REPORT:By Netani Rika in Majuro Women continue to fight for justice 70 years after the first nuclear tests by the United States caused ...
Christopher Luxon has joined with Australia and Canada's leaders in voicing support for US President Joe Biden's ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The 2022 election brought the “teal wave” into parliament. The next election will test whether teals, who occupy what were Liberal seats, and other independents can maintain their momentum. Joining us on the Podcast ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Musgrave, Senior lecturer in Pharmacology, University of Adelaide Pixavri/Shutterstock A major Federal Court class action has been dismissed this week after Justice Michael Lee ruled there was not enough evidence to prove the weedkiller Roundup causes cancer. Plaintiff Kelvin ...
In The Week in Politics: politicians have to decide what to do about child abuse, Health NZ is booked in for major surgery and Darleen Tana returns. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clare Corbould, Associate Professor, Contemporary Histories Research Group, Deakin University Mainstream media are surprisingly muted at the prospect of the world’s most powerful nation being led for the first time by a woman – specifically a woman of colour, Vice President Kamala ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rebecca Bennett, PhD Student, Associate Research Fellow, Deakin University Last week, a drone delivery company called Wing (owned by Google’s parent company, Alphabet) started operating in Melbourne. Some 250,000 residents in parts of the city’s eastern suburbs can now order food from ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jonathan Foo, Lecturer, Physiotherapy, Monash University pikselstock/Shutterstock In the next 40 years in Australia, it’s predicted the number of Australians aged 65 and over will more than double, while the number of people aged 85 and over will more than triple. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Katrina Grant, Research Associate, Power Institute for Arts and Visual Culture, University of Sydney Jonas Åkerström’s 1790 work, Session of the Accademia dell’Arcadia on August 17 1788.Nationalmuseum/Cecilia Heisser Ever wondered whether you’d have a better chance at winning an Olympic gold ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alexandra Jones, Program Lead, Food Governance, George Institute for Global Health wavebreakmedia/Shutterstock On Thursday, Australian and New Zealand food ministers at state, federal and national levels met to thrash out what’s next for health star ratings on packaged foods. Now, after ...
The Abuse in Care report found many Pacific survivors lost their connections to their culture and language, resulting in trauma that has been carried from generation to generation. ...
In the regulatory review, ECC intends to suggest that ERO focus on curriculum delivery reviews rather than the Ministry, because it’s not efficient or effective to have two agencies with radically different approaches climbing over each other. ...
Te Rūnanga Nui o Ngā Kura Kaupapa Māori invites the current government to work in partnership with them to develop a pathway forward, including the development of a parallel pathway and meaningful policy and strategy for Kura Kaupapa Māori ...
If you haven’t started watching yet, Tara Ward begs you to reconsider. This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. In the world of New Zealand reality television, we have many gems in our crown. There’s the delicious second season of the Celebrity Treasure ...
A new poem by Fiona Kidman. The clothes of the dead I did not keep my mother’s furry red beret for long nor the stringy scarves that adorned the necks of my aunts, although I have kept tag ends of gold, the rings and trinkets they wore, the brooches no ...
The government’s announcement that it will re-open the foreshore and seabed controversy by changing the rules on recognising centuries-old Māori customary title for a third time goes against the rule of law and New Zealand values,” Mr Tipa says. ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 Lioness by Emily Perkins (Bloomsbury, $25) Roarrrr! Perkins’ brilliant, award-winning, Marian-Keyes anointed, darkly funny, long ...
The 2004 Act vested ownership of the foreshore and seabed in the Crown, extinguishing any Māori claims to ownership and causing widespread outrage and protests among Māori communities. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Antje Deckert, Associate Professor (Criminology), Auckland University of Technology Getty Images Despite the connection between institutional harm and gang membership made clear in this week’s mammoth royal commission abuse-in care report, the government seems unlikely to soften its “get tough on ...
From Lewis Clareburt in the swimming to the start of the rowing – the first seven days of Paris 2024 promise to be big for New Zealand. There are few events that bring the country together quite like an Olympic Games. Nothing quite matches the excitement of getting up in ...
Groundbreaking local science just showed up in the most surprising of places: the season finale of The Kardashians. In the season five finale of The Kardashians last night, several members of the family gathered together in one of their signature empty, cream-coloured rooms to hear test results that had been ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Amin Saikal, Emeritus professor of Middle Eastern and Central Asian Studies, Australian National University The Middle East is on the brink of a possibly devastating regional war, with hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah reaching an extremely dangerous level. Washington has engaged in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Laura Elizabeth Eades, Rheumatologist, Monash University Lupus is an inflammatory autoimmune illness, where the body’s immune system mistakenly attacks itself. Lupus can affect virtually any part of the body, although it most commonly affects the skin, joints and kidneys. The symptoms ...
A law firm that specialises in working with survivors of abuse in State care is disappointed that the Government fails to recognise that its boot camps can be directly compared to previous boot camps from the 1990s and 2000s. ...
Dying is a natural part of life, like updating your Wof or seeing your hairdresser, but without the word-of-mouth recs that help guarantee a good service. What if we changed that? Dying Reviews received by The Spinoff have had the names of organisations redacted while Hospice NZ collects further data. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jonti Horner, Professor (Astrophysics), University of Southern Queensland Mike Lewinski/Flickr, CC BY On any clear night, if you gaze skywards long enough, chances are you’ll see a meteor streaking through the sky. Some nights, however, are better than others. At ...
Despite having no bars or other designated spaces for lesbians, Auckland boasts a small but mighty lesbian museum. So how did it get here? The past 18 months has brought increasing hostility towards the queer community across Aotearoa. Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull’s anti-trans rally in Tamaki Makaurau last March led to a ...
Poneke Antifascist Coalition has invited Wellingtonians to stand in solidarity with the Kanak people at 12pm today outside the French Embassy in Wellington. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Layton, Visiting Fellow, Strategic Studies, Griffith University Drones are the signature technology of the Ukraine war. A few miniature aircraft designs were used in the war’s early days, but an incredible array of drones have now evolved. There are different types, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Slee, Associate Professor, Clinical Academic Neurologist, Flinders University Francisco Gonzelez/Unsplash Migraine is many things, but one thing it’s not is “just a headache”. “Migraine” comes from the Greek word “hemicrania”, referring to the common experience of migraine being predominantly ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lee White, Senior Lecturer and Horizon Fellow, School of Social and Political Sciences, University of Sydney Australia was slow to introduce minimum building standards for energy efficiency. The Nationwide House Energy Rating Scheme (NatHERS) only came into force in 2003. Older homes ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Steven Sherwood, Professor of Atmospheric Sciences, Climate Change Research Centre, UNSW Sydney The past century of human-induced warming has increased rainfall variability over 75% of the Earth’s land area – particularly over Australia, Europe and eastern North America, new research shows. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tony Heynen, Program Coordinator, Sustainable Energy, The University of Queensland A temporary stadium in the Champ-de-Mars, ParisEkaterina Pokrovsky/Shutterstock As Paris prepares to host the Olympic and Paralympic Games, the sustainability of the event is coming under scrutiny. The organisers have promoted ...
A night of karaoke and community in a pub that feels like a memory. You’d barely even notice it, unless you knew to look. Tucked away behind a liquor store on busy Constable Street is the capital’s last great pub. Newtown Sports Bar is an emblem of the pub culture ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Wright, Professor in Marine Geology, University of Canterbury Louise Corcoran/Getty Images The decline in the number of doctoral candidates at New Zealand universities is a worrying sign for the country’s effort to build a knowledge-based economy. Aotearoa New Zealand’s ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Laurie Berg, Associate Professor, University of Technology Sydney defotoberg/Shutterstock Migrant worker exploitation is entrenched in workplaces across Australia. Tragically, a deep fear of immigration consequences means most unlawful employer conduct goes unreported. On Wednesday, however, the government officially launched a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Vaughan Cruickshank, Senior Lecturer in Health and Physical Education, University of Tasmania Paris is about to host its third summer Olympics. While we don’t yet know what the legacy of this year’s games will be, let’s take the opportunity to reflect on ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Hugh Breakey, Deputy Director, Institute for Ethics, Governance & Law, Griffith University In the wake of the assassination attempt on former US President Donald Trump, there were calls from bothsides of US politics, as well as internationally, to reduce the brutal, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Keith Rathbone, Senior Lecturer, Modern European History and Sports History, Macquarie University Two high-profile assaults on Australians in Paris have raised concerns about security ahead of the Olympic Games. On Saturday evening, a young woman was allegedly sexually assaulted by a ...
Dying is inevitable and, so it seems, is it costing a lot, writes Stewart Sowman-Lund in today’s extract from The Bulletin. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here.The cost of dying ...
The government took Joyce Harris's first baby and sent her off to a girls' home. Half a century on - and out of oceans of hurt - it asked her to be a mother figure. ...
It’s the deadliest fictional town in the country, but which death has been the most bonkers? Alex Casey looks back at 10 seasons of The Brokenwood Mysteries to find out. Warning: The following ranking story contains famous New Zealand actors appearing to be dead (not alive). The Spinoff has been ...
Water cremation is the biggest thing to happen to the death industry in the last 100 years. Alex Casey meets the people trying to bring it to Aotearoa. Through a set of mirrored doors down the industrial end of Christchurch’s St Asaph Street, death is getting a new lease on ...
Anyone fighting the damming of the Lee River near Nelson?
This article is very pertinent; Song of Water featuring on Dark Mountain.
https://dark-mountain.net/song-of-water/
Here are some snippets.
"Testimonies given by traditional medicine people in these sacred site cases pointed out that climate change is not the problem, but a symptom of the problem; that species extinction is not the problem, but a symptom of the problem; that in fact all the environmental problems that now threaten the human species are only symptoms of the underlying problem. In half a dozen different court cases across the country, traditional people testified time and again that the air, the water and the land are sacred elements at the core of their religions that must not be desecrated, while the government and business interests made the case that these life-supporting systems can be closed down when there’s a financial incentive to do so. "
"Time after time, tribal members testified that their worldview recognises the Earth as a numinous presence upon which the fate of the human species depends. On the other side, government lawyers relied on the dominant paradigm of Earth as a soulless material resource, disconnected from the fate of the human species. "
"The final legal standoff unfolded amidst the ancient redwood forests of the Pacific Northwest, which many consider the crown jewel of North American ecosystems. Even for unbelievers, the overwhelming scale and beauty of 2,000 year-old trees towering 350 feet overhead silences mental chatter and raises the volume on the ineffable. The local Yurok, Karok, Tolowa and Hupa peoples possess a distinct cosmology and an entire way of life centred on listening to that voice. While much of their spiritual life-way remains mystical and secret, they have publicly revealed that their dances, ceremonies and prayers are directed toward maintaining the stability of the Earth and the renewal of all life. A recent scientific study confirmed what these people have long known – redwood forests exert a strong stabilising effect on the climate because they store at least three times more carbon above ground than any other type of forest."
"The Kootenai case was resolved in an entirely different way. The tribe had a charismatic spokesman in medicine man Pat Lefthand, who thought that Kootenai Falls could speak for itself. He invited the judge to accompany him on a personal encounter with the site, and as the two men walked beside the river, Pat recounted his tribe’s history and described some of their spiritual practices. Then he suggested that the judge sit on one of the rocks below the falls and contemplate the beauty that surrounded him. The lawyer Steve Moore, who represented the tribe along with Walter Echohawk, said that ‘there’s an irrefutable presumption that a license will be granted by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. In the past 40 years, only three applications out of thousands have been denied.’ Yet in that moment of listening to the waters that had inspired countless generations of traditional people, the judge had a change of heart. Upon returning to the courtroom, he refused to grant the utility’s permit to build the dam."
"The answer may emerge if Americans in the mainstream culture can begin relating to the spirit of their particular places, as opposed to bringing foreign spiritual practices to those places. The traditional life-ways of the Native Nations based on observations of natural phenomena have persisted throughout centuries of oppression, and remain to this day as guideposts for our imperilled civilization. At this late hour, as wildfires ravage the west, floods inundate the south and east coasts, and heat waves stifle the cities, the people and the courts would do well to listen to them."
Climate change and the media (Skeptical Science)
https://skepticalscience.com/news.php?n=4474
"As part of its launch, the media consortium, which included The Guardian of the U.K., published a Hertsgaard and Pope essay in The Nation entitled “The media are complacent while the world burns.”
In that piece, the two authors put forward a series of “preliminary suggestions” under such sub-headlines as:
Their provocative and entreaty-filled ideas amount to the proverbial clarion call to action, in this case for the enfeebled news media to come to the aid of an endangered and in many ways politically immobilized planet, ours."
Bill said this years ago.
The only way out is to stop, stop enabling a system which distroy's.
Stop working, stop buying stuff, withdraw your support.
Good start, but is that enough, Adam?
In which case why don't more of you do this?
It's a suggestion for journalists, Gosman.
I'm not sure that Adam's a journalist. I'm a columnist, and do do "this".
I'm meaning the "Stop working, stop buying stuff, withdraw your support. "stuff. I presume that is not related to just Journalists.
More of us are doing this.
Do you think fewer of us are?
Now gossy has buggered off.
Yes I do think it enough Robert Guyton, late stage capitalism can no longer operate without consumption. Massive consumption, and whilst it can handle about 15% (very rough figure) being weak consumers, it could not handle an extra 5% to 10% actively not participating. If we ever got that % of the population to not consume goods and services for a week or more – our economy as it is constructed, will be stretched to breaking point. That said, I'm also in no doubt that gossy and the die hard devotees of liberalism would start calling for violence at that point.
you do realise the result?….what will be the first thing demanded in a recession?
P.S…. Bill was right but I suspect that he decided he was wasting his time
obviously very few as we still have growth
The dam was overwhelmingly resisted by most of the Tasman District. It was one of those issues that crossed over , as the reasons for protesting the dam were many
Environmental, social,(the many paying the costs, the few reaping the profits of irrigation)ratepayers finding yet another big idea to pay for, the arrogance of the council and in particular the mayor, riding roughshod over the wishes of the people of Tasman.
We'd won, when suddenly the council pulled out of its hat a mystery investor, thus reducing the costs to the ratepayers…actually all residents of Tasman , as those who pay rent also indirectly pay rates)
This swung the vote, and a terrible precedent has been created.
The costs will rise astronomically and now we're stuck with it, a problem that could have been avoided if the council in previous years hadn't wildly over allocated water in the first place
Waikoropupu Springs has had better luck with strong advocacy from local iwi
Mr Kempthorne is a deeply Christian man…
Mr Kempthorne is not standing for Council again. His job is done…
So I hear. He doesn't love the Lee River.
Lolz too true and there be my opportunity to add some more info…
The council didn't listen to the people re the dam, they then leveraged the unusually long dry spell to enforce their choice. Interestingly during the water restrictions growers and farmers on the Waimea Plains still irrigated, during the middle of the day (yup wtf!). Think I might have mentioned on here at the time when I saw.
I really, really hope we have a big clean out of councillors at this years election and get some who do listen to the public over a few farmers and growers who appear to not want to change their business methods to factor in the changing climate.
kempthorne gave up months ago and tells lies. Many complaints are made about the council. As well there are many, many complaints made about the lack of response from kempthorne and his admin when people approach them with issues. Those are facts.
Apparently kempthorne is just a puppet now and his deputy and now mayoral candidate tim king has been running it for some time. That's a fact too.
My advice to anyone in the Tasman District is, if you really want change and god knows we need it, don't vote for any of the 'old guard'. Many members of the TDC have been there for decades and done sweet fa.
tim king has been there for around 19 yrs, no way I'd be voting for him to be mayor, he is part of the problem.
On the upside, I do hear good things about the CEO, apparently she is lovely and gets things done.
Certainly at this end one turncoat and one stubborn would-not-listen is for the chop
Problem is trying to find good candidates willing to stand
It is getting scary, we could lose the US democracy sooner, rather than later.
Scary stuff Adam.
Too late, the US already doesn't abide by any agreement or international law, or national sovereignty and so on and so forth that it doesn't want to already.
Old men talk, young men die.
https://twitter.com/Zeddary/status/1132691788773376006
Jesus, the parallels with 1930's Europe are frightening.
And increasing on a daily basis. Another one – Trump using emergency powers to carry out operational business, aka the arms sales to Saudi Arabia. Hitler did this too.
There will be another example before the week is out.
Maybe it's worth running a tally
The future is here
All those foul polluted rivers and beaches in all those other countries? That is us tomorrow.
That's why a price on carbon AND a price on pollution is required. Firstly to get access to land, men and material and 2nd to allocate those resources to areas that lack built up infrastructure. A lot of the pollution, espesseially out on the ocean dosnt have easy access to a ready made workforce close to towns with all the amenities a workforce would expect. With out this financial and structure or function climate policy ends up being haphazard, volinteery and ineffective,
ya fink
Perhaps if the West Coast local government had greater sources of revenue like from say the impact of mining and forestry investment then perhaps they could afford to clean up the rivers.
Perhaps if people living on the West Coast loved the land, they wouldn't have chucked their waste into a hole dug into it. If they loved the land, they wouldn't mine it, nor would they fell the forests.
Except the West Coast doesn't have an awful lot else going for it to attract people and investment. Sure Tourism is nice and everything but it tends to be on the lower return side of economic activity.
Eventually, they'll explore sustainable activities to support their people and the environment they live in; at least, that's my wish. Clinging to destructive behaviours is not a long-term solution.
investment investment growth growth… how tedious are those cries…
we dont need all that… many people are quite happy having their breakfast in the morning and going about their daily activities. This idea that all must put shoulder to the grindstone to build big business and get growth growth growth – pffttt – it is a myth rapidly being exposed. It is only to support the financial 'system'.
thanks gossie – your rwnj solution – create more and worse pollution so we don't worry about the lesser. Brilliant work doofus.
Care to explain how else the West Coast can afford to clean up these rivers then?
Perhaps you should reflect on what will happen to their tourism if they don't.
ready – take money from something else and use it to clean it up or don't clean it up and continue with the other uses of the money and accept the consequences. This is a local and national strategy that could do it. DO NOT double down and dig more hole. cut down more trees or hide the truth of our dirty polluting life. Front up and get it sorted.
What will you take more of from on the West Coast given it is already struggling on the economic front?
Their reluctance to adopt new ideas?
It is a serious question and one that Environmentalists generally avoid. Previously Tourism was meant to be the great saviour of the West Coast in terms of jobs. However Tourist related jobs tend to be low value and low pay. Now I understand it is meant to be IT related which is at least higher value and higher paid. However I am yet to be convinced that it is a viable option given IT workers tend to like to work in larger more cosmopolitan cities than what the West Coast has to offer.
Gosman "Care to explain how else the West Coast can afford to clean up these rivers then? "
Answer: They can;t afford to clean it up. So stop cleaning it up. Very very simple. So very simple. Stop.
If someone else wants to clean it up then go for it.
This is called reality.
Gosman – why do you hold "environmentalists" responsible for finding solutions to the West Coast's predicament? It's not they, whoever "they" are who are, demanding change there, it's reality itself, speaking through circumstance (a gouged out refuse dump) and the wider world (coal, it's just not on!). The Coast and coasters will have to figure it out themselves, local solutions to local problems, they know best their own circumstances, or they must ask for help in solving their dilemma.
Aye!
Unfortunately Robert a lot of coasters don't like "greenies". Their local Council reflects this too. It is this very attitude that had led to this problem in the first place, in the same way this very attitude led to the Waiho bridge being taken out in the same storm due to their attitude to rivers and stopbanks… the attitude is mired in colonial pioneering days..
Until this attitude to "green" changes then coasters wont "figure out" how to deal with these such problems. Their current answer is more of the same, so they will almost certainly simply dig another hole in the ground, probably beside the last one.
Are you thinking local robert.
Tell us your position on the waste tender.
https://www.odt.co.nz/regions/southland/group-pushing-retain-waste-contract
Here is something interesting to mull on…
I walked the coast immediately north of this river (the rubbish flows north generally) just a month ago.
Didn't see any rubbish, despite this being the main beach rubbish zone.
None.
Probably because the current runs South……
I always think local, poission. If those good folk are being managed fairly and the business systems are sound, then I wish them all the best and hope they'll keep their jobs; they deserve and benefit greatly from their involvement and engagement in the industry. Though my own council is not part of the decision-making trio of ICC, GDC and SDC, we have discussed this issue at length and depth.
VTO, yes 🙂 strongly agree, very very well said…
maureen pugh is one of them..check out this recent pic she tweeted…. unbelievable.
https://twitter.com/MaureenPughNat/status/1128806955110158337
you give yourself away with the word 'take'
Museum etiquette says, don't do anything you can't undo; don't create stores of waste in vulnerable environments if you can't manage the consequents.
So dirty up the rivers (and cut down trees and gouge vast craters into the landscape) so you can afford to clean them up afterward, while still dirtying them? That's almost Pythonesque in its genius. Your reasoning skills are woefully underrated, Gossie.
Trash as raw material for artworks, including found object art. A positive engagement with their new environment,
https://seeinganewsidetothesea.home.blog/2019/03/01/ocean-pollution-as-an-artfo
Fun fact… maureen pugh was Mayor of Westland District Council and enforced a massive rate hike, driving the Council into quite a bit of debt.
If there's not enough money in the coffers….why is that maureen? She doesn't like talking about it lollz.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/135864/dozens-attend-westland-protest-over-rates-hike
As well West Coast Regional Council do not believe in climate change….and with mine owners on that Council I doubt they would be asking any mine/forestry owners for revenue to solve such issues as said clean up.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/environment/climate-news/110223334/west-coast-regional-council-wants-proof-of-humancaused-climate-change-before-supporting-zero-carbon-bill
It seems that RNZ has just noticed (again) that New Zealand has a two tier Health system, well worry not….I have a very simple solution that I will guarantee will fix ALL the problems in our two tier health system and would within three election cycles bring NZ the best public health care system in the world…
Every politician who has a portfolio in a sitting Government, including their direct family (spouse and children) including the Prime Minister has to use the public health care system while in government and for five years after…there you go problem solved.
Umm… how would you enforce this law?
Where there is a will there is a way… maybe mandated by citizen driven popular consensus that forces the politicians to be seen as having enough faith in our public health care system that they actually use it themselves…seems only fair and sensible to me.
Why let people make decisions on something so fundamentally important to the fabric of our society, yet they don't want to use that system themselves? in fact it turns out they trust that system to take care of them and their family so little, that they use a parallel system that they do trust, and can afford to pay for…seems a little strange to me.
Part of it is technology. The latest cutting-edge MRI machine, plus all the training and techs to use it, is going to cost your hospital muy mucho dinero, and the cost has to be made up somehow. Same with the upgrades to other older equipment. The armies of paper-shuffling functionaries, who exist for no other intelligible reason than to administer the 4,567,345,798,001.2 new regulations, only pumps up the cost even more. Some times it's best to hand it over to the private sector than give it to. A bureaucracy.
In the book "Viking Economics" the author wrote of the Scandinavian economies in at least some of which the rich supported their health system and were happy to pay the tax required to fund it. It was a public good and they were part of the public. Similarly, their children went to public schools; fee paying-schools were not permitted. Consequently, the schools and hospitals are very good.
Another way to enforce compliance is to make avoidance a worse option. In London, pollution in the Thames was greatly reduced by the simple rule that water you took for use from the river was sourced downstream from your outflow into the river.
In other words, you got back some part of what you put in.
That idea could apply to taxes and public services.
Popular consensus would also ensure that tax compliance would increase as the Scandinavian model encouraged payment and use of taxation-sourced services. I'm sure there that tax avoiders amongst the well-off would be socially sanctioned at least.
"Viking Economics: How the Scandinavians Got It Right-and How We Can, Too" by George Lakey.
Does anyone wonder about the sustained attack on Pharmac?
Here we have a great system where medicines are purchased on our behalf after due diligence. We should be praising Pharmac for their economical operations. Not condemn them.
So who is likely to profit by condemning Pharmac, and why?
I agree, it comes down to governmental fiscal priorities, and you can be sure that if those same politicians who are being all hardarse on the spending now, had that health system as their and their families primary provider, that there would be no problem at all with funding, for all facets of decaying health care system…none whatsoever.
Can you imagine baby Neve having to wait for a month screaming to have her teeth seen too…I think not.
I understand Pharmac is an autonomous body who make their own decisions around the funding or otherwise of medicines etc. and the government has no input into those decisions. So what has the sarky inference about the families of politicians got to do with Pharmac? They have no more influence than any other person.
I think you have used ianmac's contribution to throw some dirt at Jacinda and the Lab. led govt., knowing full well they are not responsible for the deterioration of Public Health services in NZ. One thing we do know, this government will over time be able to turn it around just as they have done in the past.
One thing we do know, this government will over time be able to turn it around just as they have done in the past.
Now that statement absolutely demands evidence. Citations please.
(Because Jacinda Ardorn (?) put ‘growth’ at the top of the list of government priorities this morning. A lot of ‘look at what we’ve already acheived’, as well as a reminder that ‘the middle’ has benefited. Oh dear…we were having Key flashbacks.) https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/2018697036/long-waits-for-children-s-dental-work-not-acceptable-ardern
Anne, Pharmac can only spend what they are allocated to spend….that amount being dictated by the sitting government. and by extension the mother of baby Neve.
Hardly snarky. more a case of what is good for the gander is good for the goose.
Thing is, the funding can't be open-ended, so there has to be a cap on it, and any cap you put on it is an arbitrary figure. So, the current cap is an arbitrary figure and could be raised if the government chose to prioritise that over other spending.
But suppose the government actually did raise the current cap: the cap would now be higher, but it would still be an arbitrary figure and would still fail to cover all the expenditure that people would like to see, which in turn would mean we'd still regularly have sob stories in the media about so-and-so who's being heartlessly murdered by the government.
There is no way for society to give everyone everything they want – well, not outside of Iain Banks novels, at least.
I would actually like to see some data on that – this isn't a "links or it didn't happen" argument, it's just that if we set some criteria to reasonable treatment options, then what would the total cost be?
Like if (just for the sake of discussion) we adopted a spreadsheet function that would see if the efficacy and QALY probability was less than a million dollars for each likely QALY. Then one to two million was in a minister's discretion, and more than that was in a "not recommended".
So is there any indication that such a system would cost like $50billion a year as everyone demanded the most extreme but marginally-beneficial intervention (or trebled their use of viagra), or would it just be an achievable goal to reach towards? Or does pharmac actually already overreach that hypothetical criteria of "reasonable treatment"?
I don't have an issue with pharmac, but it is always good to do the math before we argue something is unaffordable.
Oh sure, I'd never argue that there's no point in increasing the funding because you can't increase it to infinity dollars. I just don't see it as being possible to increase it to a point where there'd be no wailing about the government killing people.
true true
@Psycho Milt
While there may be no way for society to give everyone everything they want and funding can't be open-ended, we could and should be doing more.
Unfortunately, at the end of the day, the Government deems other matters are a higher priority.
And for good reason, many are questioning the Government's spending priorities and avenues being taken for new sources of revenue. For example, should we really be gifting so much in foreign aid when we can't look after our own? Should the Government be taxing offshore property investors to bolster revenue, thus expenditure to improve well-being?
@Psycho Milt, All I am saying is that it would be very interesting to see were that mysterious cap would be if the people who made those decisions used that same service themselves…quite a bit higher i would hazard a guess.
Thanks Adrian, that's clear. And I like your thinking @6 – would concentrate the 'political mind'!
And mac1 @6.1.1.2 had a good suggestion on how to improve water quality.
I like these ideas.
It would be an interesting experiment, yes. I expect you're right – if John Key had had to send his family to the public health and education systems, they would have been funded at a level fit for the scions of merchant bankers (he probably would have stripped the social welfare system to pay for it, mind).
Does anyone wonder about the sustained attack on Pharmac?
You know of course that Natrad veteran Guyon (love him or hate him ) Espiner has recently been diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes… https://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/tv-radio/107071227/radio-new-zealand-presenter-guyon-espiner-has-type-one-diabetes …?
Came as a shock, and I'm guessing Espiner was forced to dive into the turbid waters that is diabetes in NZ.
And being a journalist with an inquiring mind he will have done the Dr Google thing to see what is the gold standard international management program for both common types of diabetes that are so prevalent in NZ.
Then I guess Pharmac slithered into the picture…and really…what do y'all expect?
It is a system that has had its day in its current form.
It is still operating like its 1999…
Guyon intervied Pharmac head Ms Fitt this morning… https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/2018697040/pharmac-under-pressure-to-stump-up-for-more-medicines
You could very well be right ianmac and there is a conspiracy afoot…someone will profit!
Or it could simply be that sick folk do google, and the fact that other countries are funding these pharmaceuticals for their citizens cannot be hidden.
People want to live. Mothers want to see their kids grow.
Humans.
Yeah, diabetes is a good one (and also something I know about, so am happy to comment on it).
Years ago now, Pharmac decided to change the blood glucose meter it was subsidising because there was a much cheaper one available. There was outrage, particularly from the parents of diabetic children. How dare Pharmac force them to use this inferior Korean product, thereby threatening their children's health, just to save money? Wouldn't someone please, please think of the children?
Eventually my old meter crapped out and I had to get one of the cheapo new ones. It was notably flimsier and more cheaply-built than the old one, but when I gave it a drop of blood it told me what my blood glucose level was, which is the whole point of the damn thing. Since then, the health-threatened children have grown up without dying from having to use a cheap appliance and people have accepted that yes, actually the Koreans are perfectly capable of designing and building a functional blood glucose meter.
Also since then, Pharmac's had all money it saved on blood glucose meters available for other purposes. If it had instead listened to all the bleaters with so little drama in their lives they need to invent some, that money wouldn't have been available. Also since then, I'm suspicious of any attempts to undermine Pharmac, because none of it comes from a good place.
Also since then, I'm suspicious of any attempts to undermine Pharmac, because none of it comes from a good place.
Pray tell, oh Wise One, from where are the attempts to undermine Pharmac coming from?
And you, with you're wee anecdote about how for the greater good you sucked up using the inferior quality blood sugar meter and didn't die!!!!, are effectively calling Kay (and anyone else who could literally die because of Pharmac's reckless decisions) she is a 'bleater' inventing issues.
Sir, you are an arsehole.
… where are the attempts to undermine Pharmac coming from?
"None of it" was too strong a term, given that I've made no serious study of Pharmac's opponents. However, the following are fairly obvious:
1. Pharmaceutical companies and their lobbyists.
2. Libertarian ideologues.
3. Irrational people who are outraged that the government won't spend a fortune to extend their grannie's life by a few months at the expense of other illness sufferers.
4. Irrational people who are convinced that well-intentioned public officials are actually involved in a nefarious plot to save money at illness sufferers' expense.
There may be other variants, but I haven't noticed them. And none of the above attempts to undermine Pharmac come from a good place.
Wow Psycho Milt did you really need to double down on being an arsehole?
Throwing in you being a sexist arsehole was a nice touch though.
NB: (disagrees with Adam) != Arsehole
Or middle class wanker.
Must suck to be a no hope under achiever.
At least you haven’t been told to fuck off back to your own country.
So much for “you are us” 🙄
Boo hoo poor little the al1ne, got caught out being a middle class wanker – again…
No more middle class than you are an accomplished debater.
As for wanker, we're probably neck and neck, though as I wouldn't be openly racist in this current, or any climate for that matter, you finally get to win at something. Well done, champ. lol
What no threats of violence this time?
I know I'm a wanker, but you chump, sheesh. Do you actually hold onto the belief that adding a ‘lol’ makes a comment funny – sad.
And this coming from the prat who thinks it's ok to call someone a "crippled cunt"
What racism, your ultra dumb belief that 'tory land' is a physical reality. Oh please – you sad little prat, crawl back under the party hack rock you crawled out off.
Actually I think it's not right to call someone that, just like it's not right to tell someone to fuck off back to their own country, but you did it, so tough shit all round you nasty little man.
OH poor baby fails at idiom again.
I told you to fuck off back to tory land. Why is that so hard for you to understand?
Let me help – It's a special place populated with Tory prat's, an ideological nirvana for the likes of you.
I'm English, tories are in the UK, and now you're wriggling like a maggot with it's arse cut off.
Listen fucknut, it's quite clear I think you're a nonsense waste of space. I find you overly simplistic, quite uneducated and not much more than a walking slogan machine on repeat. What more do you want me to say apart from be more careful who you racially target next?
Just to be clear, you didn't actually say "piss off to tory land", your actual quote was "Piss off back to the tory land you come from", which is quite different in meaning.
Seriously didn't know your were a POME, that is funny.
Well any way, piss off back to the tory land ( not somthing I ever heard england being called ) you came from, you faux lefty.
Or to clarify my comment for the 3rd time, it's an attack on your politics you muppet.
Sheesh how many times do I have to explain it to you, before I get it through your thick skull. Sorry your so dumb, or is that to much of a complex slogan for you.
You are a bit like your faux racism claim, you are full of shit.
Nice, see you missed your sexist comments, and went with a poor me.
Good points PM, especially 1 and 2. Pharmac is not trying to make a profit. Pharmaceutical companies and neoliberals, on the other hand…
Well said Psycho.
Tendering for things such as blood glucose meters is where PHARMAC adds value, the years of delays prior to funding a gliptin and the complete lack of funding for flozins and other pharmaceutical interventions diabetes is where they add no value and arguably add cost to Vote Health in NZ.
I'm in two minds about the meters. I've lived with type I diabetes for half my life (I'm 52) and the meter is part of that. On the one hand, the Korean ones aren't as accurate as the old ones (and definitely not as accurate as the expensive American one I used on a recent drug trial). On the other hand, measuring blood sugar levels to a critical amount only matters if you don't have a good blood sugar control, and that's been something that most of the time I've been blessed with the right numbers on. Others are not so lucky. Or maybe my Aspergers and strict routine helps with that. Who knows. Add me to the list of people who haven't been badly affected by the change in blood sugar meters. I too am suspicious of attempts to badmouth Pharmac.
I have heard from an insider, a few years back that Pharmac is a joke compared with other 'drug agencies' on the planet, was told it was almost 3rd world in comparison. Said person was extremely well versed to make the claim.
The below Al Jazeera doco may be of interest, food for thought… Dec 2018
https://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/specialseries/2018/12/trustwho-business-global-health-181205092342434.html
Would said person prefer his/her employer setting whatever price they liked cinners?
Said person loves the salary and perky lifestyle so is happy to turn a blind eye. Sad but true.
Does anyone wonder about the sustained attack on Pharmac?
It's not a sustained attacked, it finally the media doing the job of the media and informing the public about the inner workings of our drug funding agency, an agency which affects all of us at some point, and how it operates (or doesn't) is literally a matter of life and death for a lot of NZers. Plus if there's one thing this investigation has showed, it's the arrogant attitude of their CEO which has got me even more angry than this, which I am currently caught up in, so this "sustained attack" is rather personal, as these other stories are to many other people.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/in-depth/390615/guyon-espiner-investigates-pharmac-switches-epilepsy-drug-against-medsafe-advice
I'm not going to try and explain just how more complicated the background to this decision is, or the consequences, but I can assure you that if you believe that all decisions to defund brands and force people to switch brands for the sole reason of saving money in the drug budget is a good thing, then sorry, you are sadly mistaken. Maybe Pharmac can boast about their savings but will you be happy about the very real world consequences, ie avoidable costs to the health system, people losing their jobs (and stop paying taxes/forced onto a benefit) drivers licences, heaven forbid having a seizure behind the wheel (brand changes can and do cause breakthrough seizures in fully controlled people- do you want to be in the car they crash into? The Transport Agency don’t have a problem with this btw, you might want to have a word with them about this); read the article again- this condition kills people. Pharmac are completely ignoring Medsafe and best international practice.
I'm in total freak out mode because in 4 months time I face the choice of literally starving to pay to stay on my brand ($90/week) or be forced to switch brands which I won't tolerate because I have a history of not tolerating brain drug brand switches. So what do you propose I do? If I don't stay on this drug I will die, and it's the only epilepsy drug on the market I can tolerate. I am far from the only one in the situation.
The Minister of Health is deliberately ignoring our letters, he is not making an comment about this. Ultimately Pharmac funding is on the government, of course it is. I don't know why the frozen capping, more people coould be out there being productive (read;taxpaying ) members of society if they were able to access medications that are currently denied. So yeah the prioroties are all screwed up. Rant over.
Thank you Kay. Real world experience beyond price.
(And I'll wager there are any number of examples of adverse effects from Pharmac pulling funding for a particular brand of drug in favour of a cheap generic. I have a couple I'll share if necessary.)
I can only assume that those here who do not understand why the sustained attack on Pharmac have no health and disability issues at all. Or have been living in caves…
Ya reckon?
https://twitter.com/publicaddress/status/1133090178971475968
The plot thickens
joe90, yes I have heard that certain campaigns against Pharmac are engineered by the pharmaceutical industry, and if necessary I will stipulate exactly which of Pharmac's decisions I am talking about.
Most often I base my opinions on my own lived experience with having to mitigate the adverse effects of some of Pharmac's decisions…and on accounts from others with similar experiences. I have no reason to doubt these people.
We all need to be able to sort the wheat from the chaff.
Wow that's interesting and unsettling, dang!
I'm surprised that Russel Brown of all people wasn't aware that particular tactic has been used by Big Pharma in NZ for many years now. I was very aware of it many years ago. Can't remember exactly where I heard it. We'd be completely naive not to think Pharma doesn't employ all sorts in attempts to influence sales.
I haven't got any time for Pharma's tactics, or their behaviour in general, especially their price gouging whenever they can get away with it (especially in the US). I certainly don't like the fact that it's profits first and foremost, distantly trailed by the public good.
Do I condone these 'planted' stories? Well, they are declared as sponsored in the fine print. If they weren't that would be another issue. Probably ethically a bit dubious, but at the same time they're making a point aren't they? I don't suffer from extreme allergies but I've been made aware about this funding argument over epipens. I don't care if that was a sponsored article if it bought this story to light and got the proper media interested. Is it any different to the cut and paste press released that the MSM frequently print as "News" hoping we won't notice?
The situation I'm currently caught up in (read above)- we're not considered "sexy" enough to have drug companies want to write promo pieces to promote access to their brand new drugs, and there are an awful lot of new generation epilepsy drugs that are not even close to being available in NZ. Cynical, but that's how it works. But with Pharmac (and by extension successive governments) playing Russian Roulette with our lives, and the general population clearly not giving a damn until they're personally affected, then yeah, promote away. Get the unenlightened thinking. maybe they'll sign a petition. Even write to their MP. You know, think about their fellow man, even if the end result is zilch.
Beat me to it Kay.![yes yes](https://cdn.ckeditor.com/4.11.3/full-all/plugins/smiley/images/thumbs_up.png)
You'd think the drug manufacturers would cut their prices to the bone in a more tangible show of sympathy really wouldn't you.
"it's the arrogant attitude of their CEO "
She did point out that the figures quoted re the low ranking of NZ were provided by a lobby group. A hint perhaps that we should exercise a little scepticism?
ianmac….this has been going on forever. It does not detract from the fact that Pharmac has on more than one occasion made funding decisions that have risked/costs the lives of New Zealanders.
Big Pharma exploiting the suffering of New Zealanders to force Pharmac's arm does not excuse Pharmac's callous treatment of patients who have come to rely on proven medication….or to deny funding to patients for medication with proven efficacy in other jurisdictions.
Could it be that Pharmac is high on on it's successes. It has so very carefully constructed this hard- arse persona in its battle against the pharmaceutical companies that is has lost sight of what its actual purpose is?
It does not detract from the fact that Pharmac has on more than one occasion made funding decisions that have risked/costs the lives of New Zealanders.
No, it doesn't. However, given that it's impossible for what is effectively a rationing system for health care funding not to make decisions that risk/cost the lives of New Zealanders, what conclusion are you wanting us to draw from that?
I draw the conclusion that Public Servic CEO who have this type of attitude and no concept of the real world have NO right to be in the role:
What does Pharmac chief executive Sarah Fitt make of people taking desperate measures to fund their own medicine? "I don't think it is a two-tiered system," she says.
"We have to make the decisions about what are the best uses of the medicines we've got. If people choose to go and fund medicines themselves then that is their choice … It's like having elective surgery on insurance – you can choose whether to do that rather than going to the hospital system."
But what if you are a low-income earner? "Yeah, that's not going to be a choice. Absolutely," she says.
Believe it or not, most of us have no problem with the concepts of budget caps, even rationing. We're even intelligent enough to see some of the pros of the Pharmac system alongside the cons. But when you can't get a straight answer out of them, they send out form emails as a reply to everything, they blatently lie to support their claims for defunding drugs, you experience the joke that is their consultation process, the Ministers refuse to get involved, it's impossible to get important information because everything is deemed 'commercially sensitive'- how the hell is anyone meant to be supportive of the system anymore, yet alone have anymore confidence? Having such a patronising arrogant CEO is not helping them one bit.
'Having such a patronising arrogant CEO is not helping them one bit.'
Heh….. you should have met her as head pharmacist at Auckland Hospital – some of my colleagues and myself had some interesting run ins with her.
Psycho Milt. Person who demands to be taken seriously on this particular issue because of …diabetes.
Yeah, diabetes is a good one (and also something I know about, so am happy to comment on it).
Have you checked your privilege lately?
Psycho Milt. Person who demands to be taken seriously on this particular issue because of …diabetes.
1. What demand?
2. Yes, I know something about that particular subject: diabetes. I don't recall claiming particular knowledge of other subjects.
Have you checked your privilege lately?
Shorthand for: no, I don't have any counter-arguments but I do find you very annoying.
@AdrianT. Of course – and the same for requiring politician’s families to use the public education system.
That way we wouldn't have got Billy ("kiwis are pretty useless") English advocating for larger class sizes in public schools while packing his own kids off to private schools that advertise smaller class sizes as one of their advantages.
Why allow politicians the perverse incentive of being able to ghettoize systems they are rich enough to avoid? Sounds like a "moral hazard" and I recall how hot Billy Boy was on the plebs being susceptible to moral hazards.
Worthy people like Billy don't experience moral hazards, they simply have a wider range of choices, due no doubt to their inherent superiority. Billy was elitist trash in a way (Saint) John Key never was.
You give the phrase "kiwis are pretty useless" as being a direct quote from Bill English. Can you please provide a source for those exact words?
You know there are two hilarious things about Bill English's famous "young people these days are useless" claim… Both of which burst all of his hubris…
One. If they are useless at that age it is Bill English's own generation that has raised them. Ha ha, fucking useless parents are Bill English's lot.
Two. If they are useless at that age it is Bill English's own policies that they were raised under too, being born in the 1990's, post-neoliberalism intro, Ruth Richardson and Jim Bolger, all of which Bill English was a full blown cog. Ha ha, fucking useless Bill English policies.
So to Bill English – you cock-sucker, piss off back to Uselessville. Dont try raising kids again – they end up useless
Well. We see how you indulge in debate, don't we?
What on earth have you been imbibing?
Yes, sorry, but sometimes it is what is required. This aint tiddly winks though – it is real life with real consequences. So, sorry but not sorry.
Any comment on the uselessness of Bill English's generation at raising children, or Bill English's useless 1990's and beyond policies??
Evening Alwyn – how are you this fine day?
The "quote" was inexact and deliberately so – but it was absolutely true to the elitist spirit of the actual comment English made.
It was more a nickname than a quote I suppose – such as:
Alwyn “seething with rage that the plebs are taking over” on the Standard
Alwyn reckons quotes are more about setting the tone than anything else – AB, you’re on safe ground I reckon.
The other tier in the health system are the medical insurance schemes that provide top tier service for those that can pay the premium and meet the criteria. Remove the blood sucking insurance industry out of the health system and…….problem solved.
"Remove the blood sucking insurance industry out of the health system and…….problem solved.'
In some countries that may have a grain of truth in NZ it's not the case at all.
How about this Eco Maori? I think this a positive step.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/international/pacific-news/390705/100-canoes-by-christmas
ONE HUNDRED CANOES BY CHRISTMAS
8:28 am today
Sally Round, RNZ Pacific Journalist @RoundSally sally.round@rnz.co.nz
One hundred canoes by Christmas. That's the aim of one of the Pacific's most ambitious traditional boat building projects.
Team leaders for the 100 Traditional Sailing Canoes project, Adi Tulia Nacola (L) and traditional boat builder from Lau, Amena Photo: Supplied
Fiji's Uto ni Yalo Trust is not only reviving ancient construction and navigation techniques, it's also aiming to help remote villages ditch diesel, catch bigger fish and entice tourists to their shores.
Volunteers from around the country are busy at the trust's workshop near Suva building the craft, according to Trust Vice President Dwain Qalovaki.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/390692/auckland-measles-hospital-rates-at-half-of-patients
In the Auckland region a third of our confirmed cases are Pacific, 43 percent European, 15 percent Māori and the balance are Asian."
Europeans high with measles in Auckland. That is a change-around from the usual. More poor families amongst Europeans than has been thought?
The stats are high for under 4 then 15-29 togther forming 68% of cases. Are there many young adult pakeha getting sick, finished school but not in secure training or employment?
Jacinda has done good for NZ and the world with policies of kindness.
Perhaps there is hope for us. Chris Trotter feels positive.
https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2019/05/28/coming-home/
If our Prime Minister has done nothing else …
Here's hoping those words do not come back and bite Trotter in the bum.
Yeah, well. I don't much like been called a dog by the woke trying to control and spin the narrative to signal to every one how outraged they are.
Who called you a dog, Sam?
Maybe someone left off the ‘er spaniel’ bit
Seems more a Bitzer than a spaniel, but I get your drift.
he could be a spamiel or perhaps a spamoyed – hard to call.
We're making jokes at Sam's expense, unwarranted lampooning, but I reckon he won't mind; heart as big as a horse, like Hercules Morse!
you should never put the horse before the jockey.
unless the horse is called jockey and the jockey called horse – imagine – here comes horse on jockey round the bend and jockey and horse and horse and jockey… whew that woke me up!
Puts me in mind of the fact that the Zucker brothers (of Airplane! fame) bought three race horses over four years and called them "All pink", "Ol pink", and "Awl pink" respectively.
They intructed the jockey to run next to the inside rail, and it was still four years before the announcer calling the race yelled out "It's awl pink on the inside!"
Greywarshark and Rosmary are being very shy. That's unlike them. Normally they'd jump at the chance to signal how hard they can feel
And still I ask, who called you a dog, Sam?
I'm not going to say because I had assumed the person would slinked off. The person even had a farewell pitty party. So I wonder if I play it cool whether this person will stay true to its word or if there word ain't worth shit. My money is on there credibility being worth dog shit.
Well, I'm with you, Sam; calling someone a dog, or saying their ideas "aren't worth shit" or their credibility is, "dog-shit" is not acceptable.
It's distasteful and counter to good debate.
I'm sure you agree.
I'm not sure I do agree with all that. I'm happy to honour what ever agreement pseudo agreement or what ever. But change it, modify the conditions in what ever way and I'll fight harder than most.
Are you just going to sit there while your woke brethren eat from your shit sandwich?
Sam. I find the best way to deal with mosquitoes is to assume they are not the slightest bit interested in me and ignore them. And usually they go on to bother someone else.
Im more of a bug zapper kind of guy
I could be persuaded to use a solar power bug zapper
Could be an 'ignore the fuckknuckle' policy spambam.
Comparatively, in Auckland, Watercare charges $1.40 per cubic metre (1000 litres) for water piped to houses, while the rest of the country paid an average $1.60 per cubic metre.
“Water companies are getting the same water but paying bugger all for it,” said water campaigner Jen Branje from the Bung the Bore group.
https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2019/05/28/the-great-water-scam-3-things-we-are-not-being-told-about-china-taking-nz-water/
Alfred Ngaro won't start a new Christian party.
Brian's leather-clad mob must have scared him off.
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2019/05/alfred-ngaro-to-remain-national-party-mp-won-t-start-new-party.html
More like the focus group results came back in the negative
From "Mary Poppins"-
"Let's go fly a kite, up to the highest height.
Let's all go fly a kite."
Applies to both Alfred Ngaro, and to Simon Bridges today at midday who was reduced to putting out bits of what he claims to be the Budget, who won't reveal their provenance and who claims to be open and transparent in his politics. Pffft!
Ngaro heard Hannah Tamaki's interview.
End of story.
Oh boy…
https://twitter.com/sturdyAlex/status/1132895182247084037
yep we have climbed the mountain of survival from the darkest days in the cave, through war, pestilence, disease and bad luck – our genes have survived and replicated through generation to generation to bring us here today in all our wondrous glory, surrounded by artifacts and creations that previously would have been the dreams of kings and queens – and also we have this…
And this.
https://twitter.com/ushadrons/status/1133038059832958976
😵🙀💫
Jeanette Fitzsimons doing some of the heavy lifting at the Minerals Forum protest in Dunedin.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/better-business/113048205/protesters-at-coal-forum-in-dunedin
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/390707/protesters-block-delegates-from-mining-conference
This is what a Green Party person does.
Did she walk or ride her bicycle down from The Coromandel?
Or, and much more likely, did she travel down by plane? That would be what a Green Party person does. Look at the travel James Shaw does on his overseas jaunts for example.
Is it a requirement that anyone protesting mining or oil extraction must walk to the protest site, alwyn?
That would surely reduce the number of people able to protest to almost nil. Is that good for democracy, do you think; placing unreasonable barriers in front of a section of society? Those in favour of oil drilling would be able to drive to the site to support the drillers, I suppose you mean?
Ze plan ze plan would've prolly flown anyway wally.
How come there is so much violence in families in NZ? This good NZ Herald report written by Simon Collins in 2000 gives background to the injuries and death of a little boy. And the stepfather and his mother were so inured to violence that they thought the child would recover, and probably thought that heavy physical attack would 'larn' him.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/features/news/article.cfm?c_id=543&objectid=148625
Never again: how we all failed James Whakaruru
GPs saw James Whakaruru at least 30 times, but none told CYFS about his injuries because he went to at least six different doctors, and probably many more.
Dr Paddy Twigg, of the Paradigm group serving two-thirds of Hawkes Bay GPs, deplores this fragmentation and advocates the British system of "capitation," where state subsidies are based on each patient registering with a specific doctor. People are still free to change doctors, but their files go with them so no doctor has to treat them in a vacuum, except in an emergency. This system is encouraged in the Government's new primary care strategy.
The McClay report also recommends "consideration" of mandatory reporting, which would make it illegal not to report any suspected case of child abuse.
Social Services Minister Steve Maharey says overseas experience is that this merely increases the number of notifications without reducing the incidence of abuse.
But Dr Kelly says mandatory reporting is already in force in public hospitals, at least in Auckland, and helps doctors to resist pressure from families not to notify suspected abuses.
Guyon Espiner left his interviewing job with Radionz and has gone into long-form reporting for them on Pharmac. I think he is taking an extreme view that puts Pharmac's operations on the back foot and is in favour of the middle class who are becoming very demanding for expensive drugs that are not curative, and only slow down the disease. A new protocol is needed for life-extending drugs when there is a terminal disease. How long can they be funded for the individual, in what circumstances? I know someone who has a condition that has been treated and that allows this person to contribute significantly to society as a whole. But if the applicant is a woman and wants to be with her children till they grow up, how do we weigh that up, and all the other similar demands.
Meanwhile under our present societal system, people are unable to get their children's health needs attended to.
It seems an attack on government, not just shining a light on practices that are unsatisfactory or bad, for Guyon to undertake this. It is an emotional story, a story that will go to anybody's heart, and especially those of the middle class who are used to getting what they want.
We constantly hear what they do overseas, which may mean USA which is a basket case. Other countries aren't living on cow dung closest to a hostile neighbour, that only gives a brief Godfather smile when handed sufficient money. A story about a rational comparison between us and other better-managed nations may go into our dependence for most things on distant countries, and how we have run our skill set down because government doesn't care about what young NZs work at, if they can't cope they get put in prison, so they had better watch out.
I imagine the next story will go deep into how much roads cost us and why KiwiRail isn't properly funded. It will look at the huge trucks and how they make driving hard for cars, and vice versa. The drivers have a very demanding job.
After that there is the revelation of how much of our tourist money actually gets to NZs and how much is channelled off overseas. It will look at the cost in money and free volunteer hours tied up in regular searches, and the ongoing costs to NZs who are run into as tourists go into default and steer to the right instead of our left hand rule.
So, Greywarshark, Psycho Milt gets his diabetes treatment funded but Kay faces a future of no funding for the epilepsy drug that works for her.
So pleased you see the righteousness in this.
Rosemary, a hypothetical question. If you were an expert clinician advising Pharmac on whether to EITHER:
then what would you recommend? How would you decide? Surely not on the basis of any personal sympathy towards an individual (family member or friend) or group of individuals.
Nevertheless, it would be your job to make a recommendation, and that's not a job I would want [we want the best people working for Pharmac] – too close to the classroom Lifeboat Dilemma.
I choose to believe (without any evidence) that the staff of the non-profit Pharmac organisation are genuinely trying to get the best pharmaceutical value for money for as many New Zealanders as possible. I accept that I could be a mistaken in my belief – there are bad Pharmac advisors, poor GPs, poor surgeons, etc., working in NZ. But I believe they are a minority, and that those acting maliciously represent an even smaller minority.
As a user of Pharmac-funded medicines, I'd prefer to put the acid on the Government that sets Pharmac's funding cap. Was there more, less or about the same amount of acid directed towards the previous National governments (compared to the current coalition Government) re the Pharmac funding cap?
And, if you have evidence that Pharmac is doing a poor job and/or making bad decisions then definitely bring that to their attention (I would) – the more feedback they have on their decision-making processes and health outcomes, the more likely they are to make sound decisions in the future.
Well said Grey. And the post of reality from
joe90 @ 6.2.3.2
Vietnam? Better late than never. Good to see some decent help and caring exended.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/390731/vietnam-veterans-receive-health-wellbeing-support-decades-on
New Zealand defence force
1:14 pm today Vietnam veterans receive health, wellbeing support decades on
Andrew McRae, Reporter andrew.mcrae@rnz.co.nz
New Zealand Vietnam War veterans are calling for more help as they face health issues they say are related to their war service.
Vietnam veteran Jimmy Tainui, and his wife Maryanne. Photo: Supplied / NZDF
Veterans had the opportunity to attend a health and wellbeing expo in Auckland on Saturday which brought together a number of veteran support agencies.
About 300 Vietnam veterans and their families were there.
From New Zealand, 3000 served in Vietnam between 1965 and 1972, when 37 were killed and 187 were wounded.
The Israeli Knesset has passed a vote calling for a new election in September.
New issues the draft law and attempts at reducing the power of the Supreme Court in their political society (keep the PM safe).
Gaza can expect a good bombing in August then.
Pharmac …
Every dollar it gets in the money allocated for Health is a dollar less for Health Boards. For equipment and for staff, safe staffing levels and adequate pay and conditions. And for aged care homes and care for those in the home who need help. Mental health, dental health drug addiction programmes and affordable GP visits.
Within its budget, every call for a new drug/treatment regime availability requires of them the search for a cheaper option for existing treatment cover.
And every extra dollar to health is a dollar less for education, for housing and for welfare/disability.
So SPC are you suggesting that each Health Board should search for its own medicine supplies? Do you believe that it is a good thing that,
No (weaker negotiating position). It is neither a good thing, or a bad thing, but simply a fact that within a budget limit that each new drug treatment funded is only afforded if there is a saving on drug treatments already funded.
Seems there is little talk on here in regards to the political theater played out today.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/113055687/live-national-party-claims-its-got-leaked-budget-details
Looks like their (National) private spooks have entered the premises of the printers. The government should set those they trust on that lot next year.
"The government should set those they trust on that lot next year. ".
Is that why Lees-Galloway was working so late in his Office. Using his Ministerial discretion to issue Permanent Residency visas to members of the New York Mafia families. They should get on very well with quite a lot of the Prime Minister's friends. Winston and Shane will be at the head of the queue to welcome them.
Oops their private spooks have been hacking Treasury.
Wonder who leaked it or did someone create it? simon's feeling pretty pleased with himself. Takes the focus off his reluctance to release the report into their party culture.
Personally I really don't think it's going to cause any damage to the government as a result. A nat from work mentioned it and even he said no one believes anything simon says and that he would be waiting till Thursday for the real budget. Lolz I almost fell over when he brought it up.
Just heard on radiolive that they are interviewing bridges in the next hour… here's the link for a listen, not sure what time it's going to be on.
https://www.magic.co.nz/home.player.talk.html
That's the thing – so far there haven't been any surprises leaked, so nothing's been spiked or drawn out.
Looks like someone's side copy or early draft working numbers. It would be an issue if there were a massive change – e.g. a new levy or something that would unexpectedly skew an industry or the economy (like the 1984 announcement of floating the dollar was a gift to forex speculators). But at the moment it's a bit "meh".
The documents were printed as discussion documents a while ago. They were then collected and collated to become the Budget. The format/layout is different from the Cabinet documents.,
Interesting….
It seems I still can’t reply to posts from my iPad?
McFlock@20.2.1, It all sounds very fishy to me and it could be a stitch up design to trip up old muppet face? His slogan IRT tanks for teachers is quite funny consider that the last true tank that the NZDF had was retired back in 1982 as they replace the old M41 Walker Bulldog Tank and replace it with the Scorpion Combat Vehicle Reconnaissance Track CRV(T). But in saying that the figure of $1.3B NZ begin bounced around atm, does roughly work out to be 5 new C130J models? the Government does need to pull its finger out of its digit as the old H models will run out of airframe hrs sometime after 2020- 2025.
The massive increase in the police vote could be to do with the buy back MSSA and non MSSA firearms?
The other one that sort of stands out is MPI, Bio Security and two other depts had their votes all combined, which to is a little weird and when one considers that all previous budgets under Labour and the “No Mates Party they all had separate votes?
Stop the prez!!! In Breaking Newz going forwud. Didja notiss hear Amy Ear Dums hez re-ummidged?
Oim thinking a little less Pulla en a bit more Enne T. Maybe even a bitter Meggie
Whoar! (not in a Phil Ure type of Whoar!!!!!!!!!)
Gee thanks Nacts.
I'm even more likely to donate to Labour now you've shown your dirtyleaking politics of ex-ede,lusk and co cannibalising NZers is alive and well.
Gordon Campbell, Werewolf on Scoop, has a positive feeling from looking at the European elections recently.
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL1905/S00142/gordon-campbell-on-europes-non-surrender-extremism.htm
In Spain, voters rejected the far right populist party Vox, which collapsed back to 6% from the 10% high it achieved only a fortnight ago in the Spanish general elections. On the radical left, Podemos saw its support decline to 10%, a sharp fall from the 18% they’d scored in the last European Parliament elections.
The decline of Podemos holds a cautionary message for the Green Party in New Zealand.
Now that Podemos is no longer an outsider party but is actively propping up the Socialist government of Pedro Sanchez, much of its support has been bleeding back to Sanchez and his PSOE party, which has long been Spain’s neo-liberal Third Way party of the centre-left.
In a further blow, radical left mayors in major cities (including the high profile administration of Ada Colau in Barcelona) lost their fights for re-election. In Spain as whole, the radical left is being marginalised by regional parties, and by the Establishment left.
bwaghorn
I thought you might be interested in this book written by a shepherd. It's on Trademe closes Sat 1/6 start price $9 plus postage? Might be some good 'yarns'.
https://www.trademe.co.nz/books/nonfiction/history/new-zealand/listing-2163155790.htm?rsqid=ca55f01c5c9c4b50982bbf8c58a4c1cd-001
LAST SHEPHERD – 5 Decades in the Wool Industry – Roger Buchanan
Kia ora The Am show.
The bowtie is good one day maybe I wear a tie the old saying is you must have the feathers to talk.
I have one eye vision its he tangata he tangata he tangata there is nothing wrong with Trevor Malard .
I agree with Chris simon should have reported the leak he would have gained mana from that action but know he leaked it now reap te wai in his face no one likes a cheater????
The midwest of America hurricane allie it's a bad tornado season condolence to all the people who are affected by this bad weather that is getting worse every year because of climate changes . a earthquake is not that scary.
I think all sports is good for te tamariki keeping fit helps sport is good for their mental health it helps the tamariki learn to interact with their pears m8. Losing is part of winning you have to lose a few times to become a winner
There you go the teachers have been moving the goal post in negotiations that alone tells a story our government has up the offer 2 times like I have said this needs to be conducted FAIRLY.
I don't see any reason for the financial minister to resign .
I have stated that everything on the internet can be hacked it's all about how much resource are put into hacking a system.
I did read a couple of weeks ago that the Sydney town water dam was half full lowest level in ten years they have cranked up their saltwater desalination plants.
Ka kite ano
Some Eco Maori music for the minute.
https://youtu.be/5Yj4j_lZMBo
Some Eco Maori music for the minute
https://youtu.be/Xo7WjnC8ekQ
Some Eco Maori music for the minute.
https://youtu.be/SoIKv3xxuMA
Kia ora Newshub
That is true Tom it nationals mess and Labour is cleaning it up.
simon looks hacked of his face is wet.
The head thing shows Eco Maori that synthetic drugs stuff you UP you end up doing dumb SHIT.
The mental health of our tamariki and tangata is very important you have to observe your mokopuna quite thoroughly to pick up the signs of problems.
The Tornadoes in America are huge climate change is giving tawhirimate more energy and mana.
That good on the boy who egged the Australian pollie he donated 100.00 to the Christchurch disaster relief fund.
If you look at America opeiod drug problems it will be the same in Aotearoa in ten years heaps of people listed to drugs what a waste.
Ka kite ano
Kia ora te ao Maori news.
I agree OUR tamariki education is very important it's a pitty the last government was running down state schools in a goal of privatizing education who cares about the tamariki not getting a good education I hope that a good agreement can be achieved.
I can see a lot of whanau struggling I think our government will deliver the best possible solution to our problems ma te wa .A lot of the problems that have occurred in Aotearoa is directly linked to the funding cuts joyce and did while national was in power .
ka kite ano
Kia ora The Am show.
Eco Maori agrees with Amanda on the hack issue.
, ,I,,, no I don't read the nutrition value on food I have a good Idea what good food looks like yes most of the fancy breakfast cereals are full of sugar just crap porridge is my favourite breakfast food.
That's the way you play it Duncan also everyone knows that the NZ governments budget is a state secret they are breaking the law targeting that DATA.
I agree with the numbers cruncher a hiccup in the world economy and NZ economy is due being conservative with the growth forecast is needed.
Its heating up on the American political scene I say no more
Lloyd boris and frage are shorting the British political seen I read that frages party doesn't even have sound policy WTF.
If it wasn't a hack it is national people left in Treasury that deliberately left the back door
I agree on the smoking issue more needed to be dune to help smokers
matthew hooton your creditability on this site thestandard is crap Eco Maori has a lot of respect for the leftist on this site I have learned a lot from them .Matthew was drooling trying to dent our Coalition Governments Mana with the hack leak left back door open. But NO you're national m8 will be warning the backbenchers for quite a few more years. LOL.
Asholes I know of a few I say to much money makes a Asholes. I agree we don't need people to behave like a Asholes if we don't accept that type of behavior it will go away just like one word Eco Maori has pushed to the back of our vocabulary te Elephant John I won't comment on that it's hot over there..With John Cleese in the film show it will be hilarious.
Simon and the lawyer good honest opinion I see European elections have given more power to the Green Partys times are changing.
You know the teeth are getting long when you forget the glasses and can't read the fine print I have that problem to .
I want to name a intelligent ashole who blinded a country with his power of control but I won't Ka kite ano P.S that GPS
Some Eco Maori music for the minute.
https://youtu.be/w5tWYmIOWGk
I think that some people should be supporting the students future and join the students climate change Global strike .We are only alive on Papatuanuku for a fraction of time when measured by geologic time and from the time life started it's a crying shame that humans can stuff up Papatuanuku in just 2 short life time. If we look after our tamariki future and stop burning carbon our tamariki future will be happy healthy and bright. If we carry on SHITTING In our own backyard burning carbon Our futures will Suffer the consequences of the greedy ruling class not wanting to let go of their POWER CARBON. Enough said
Greta Thunberg and leading youth strikers for climate action from across the world have called for all adults to join a global general strike on 20 September.
They are asking citizens to walk out of work just before a crucial UN summit at which nations are being urged to declare much stronger ambitions to tackle ka kite ano link below.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/may/23/we-need-everyone-youth-activists-call-on-adults-to-join-climate-strikes
Kia ora Newshub.
The Welbing budget looks good the mental health spend is up . Jacinda knows the tamariki need good nurturing as they will be looking after the country and us when we retire its logical to put the best care into our mokopuna the return on that investment will be 100 fold.
Very good investment into Railways its the most effective efficient way to transport goods and people it shealds the transport of our goods and people from oil prices shocks ka pai Winston
The walk cycle way on the Auckland harbor bridge will be good viewing for the public well over due.
Ka kite ano
Kia ora te ao Maori news.
Eco Maori has a sore face with the new funding for Maori and Pacific tangata we were left in the dark by national.
I say that the funding will improve tangata mental health and save the lives that are lost.
With the extra funding for te reo we will reach 25% of Maori understanding our Maori culture
Ka kite ano.
Kia ora The Am show.
Shamuvl I think you are correct the wellbeing budget is good well over due after the cuts of the last government.
The Westcoast has more hard tawhirimate /rain again it has always had a lot of rain but these days the west coast is getting extreme weather caused by Global warming.
I think sometimes John Clesse puts his foot in his —- any publicity is good publicity. Lucy you look and have a smilia character to a kiwi comedian people can you guess whom.
Mark I can give you advice on some good sleeping tonics that's the reason I started talking it.
Awesome that British scientists are advancing cancer research breakthroughs for radiation therapy.
The roads in Auckland are jammed up at rushhour times .We have heaps more cars a people nowadays I say it is very visionary our Coalition Governments big investment in massetransport Railways those moves will help save our environment.
Very good a ban on trampers around Tane Mahuta we have to do all we can to save him and his mokopuna.
New trade Mark cartoonists don't worry m8 you will still have plenty of putea for the holidays you just mite not be able to have refreshments in the Korua lounge not to much of a sacrifice so that the people under the bridge get good care ????????
Grant your budget is awesome m8 you can't keep everyone happy the national supporters will have the tissue flying again.
Kris give judy a tissue I agree the kiwi workers need to be nurtured and have good wairua to participate in our economy we have to stop just importing workers at the demise of good KIWIs. Investment in te tangata will give Aotearoa 100 fold returns.
Cool smoke free day everyone needs to stop this dumb habit its quite hard to QUIT but I will very soon for te mokopuna .
Good on the Porirua city council for paying all their workers the living WAGE. Ka kite ano