"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
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Have a story to share about St Paul’s, but today just picturesPopular novels written at this desk by a young man who managed to bootstrap himself out of father’s imprisonment and his own young life in a workhouse Read more ...
The list of former National Party Ministers being given plum and important roles got longer this week with the appointment of former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett as the chair of Pharmac. The Christopher Luxon-led Government has now made key appointments to Bill English, Simon Bridges, Steven Joyce, Roger Sowry, ...
Newsroom has a story today about National's (fortunately failed) effort to disestablish the newly-created Inspector-General of Defence. The creation of this agency was the key recommendation of the Inquiry into Operation Burnham, and a vital means of restoring credibility and social licence to an agency which had been caught lying ...
Holding On To The Present:The moment a political movement arises that attacks the whole idea of social progress, and announces its intention to wind back the hands of History’s clock, then democracy, along with its unwritten rules, is in mortal danger.IT’S A COMMONPLACE of political speeches, especially those delivered in ...
Stuck In The Middle With You:As Christopher Luxon feels the hot breath of Act’s and NZ First’s extremists on the back of his neck and, as he reckons with the damage their policies are already inflicting upon a country he’s described as “fragile”, is there not some merit in reaching out ...
The unpopular coalition government is currently rushing to repeal section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act. The clause is Oranga Tamariki's Treaty clause, and was inserted after its systematic stealing of Māori children became a public scandal and resulted in physical resistance to further abductions. The clause created clear obligations ...
Buzz from the Beehive The government’s official website – which Point of Order monitors daily – not for the first time has nothing much to say today about political happenings that are grabbing media headlines. It makes no mention of the latest 1News-Verian poll, for example. This shows National down ...
It Takes A Train To Cry:Surely, there is nothing lonelier in all this world than the long wail of a distant steam locomotive on a cold Winter’s night.AS A CHILD, I would lie awake in my grandfather’s house and listen to the traffic. The big wooden house was only a ...
Packing A Punch: The election of the present government, including in its ranks politicians dedicated to reasserting the rights of the legislature in shaping and determining the future of Māori and Pakeha in New Zealand, should have alerted the judiciary – including its anomalous appendage, the Waitangi Tribunal – that its ...
Dead Woman Walking: New Zealand’s media industry had been moving steadily towards disaster for all the years Melissa Lee had been National’s media and communications policy spokesperson, and yet, when the crisis finally broke, on her watch, she had nothing intelligent to offer. Christopher Luxon is a patient man - but he’s not ...
Chris Trotter writes – New Zealand politics is remarkably easy-going: dangerously so, one might even say. With the notable exception of John Key’s flat ruling-out of the NZ First Party in 2008, all parties capable of clearing MMP’s five-percent threshold, or winning one or more electorate seats, tend ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Polling shows that Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has the lowest approval rating of any mayor in the country. Siting at -12 per cent, the proportion of constituents who disapprove of her performance outweighs those who give her the thumbs up. This negative rating is ...
Luxon will no doubt put a brave face on it, but there is no escaping the pressure this latest poll will put on him and the government. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political ...
This is a re-post from The Climate Brink by Andrew Dessler In the wake of any unusual weather event, someone inevitably asks, “Did climate change cause this?” In the most literal sense, that answer is almost always no. Climate change is never the sole cause of hurricanes, heat waves, droughts, or ...
Something odd happened yesterday, and I’d love to know if there’s more to it. If there was something which preempted what happened, or if it was simply a throwaway line in response to a journalist.Yesterday David Seymour was asked at a press conference what the process would be if the ...
Hi,From time to time, I want to bring Webworm into the real world. We did it last year with the Jurassic Park event in New Zealand — which was a lot of fun!And so on Saturday May 11th, in Los Angeles, I am hosting a lil’ Webworm pop-up! I’ve been ...
Education Minister Erica Standford yesterday unveiled a fundamental reform of the way our school pupils are taught. She would not exactly say so, but she is all but dismantling the so-called “inquiry” “feel good” method of teaching, which has ruled in our classrooms since a major review of the New ...
Exactly where are we seriously going with this government and its policies? That is, apart from following what may as well be a Truss-Lite approach on the purported economic “plan“, and Victorian-era regression when it comes to social policy.Oh it’ll work this time of course, we’re basically assured, “the ...
Hey Uncle Dave, When the Poms joined the EEC, I wasn't one of those defeatists who said, Well, that’s it for the dairy job. And I was right, eh? The Chinese can’t get enough of our milk powder and eventually, the Poms came to their senses and backed up the ute ...
Polling shows that Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has the lowest approval rating of any mayor in the country. Siting at -12 per cent, the proportion of constituents who disapprove of her performance outweighs those who give her the thumbs up. This negative rating is higher than for any other mayor ...
Buzz from the Beehive Pharmac has been given a financial transfusion and a new chair to oversee its spending in the pharmaceutical business. Associate Health Minister David Seymour described the funding for Pharmac as “its largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff”. ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Many criticisms are being made of the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill, including by this writer. But as with everything in politics, every story has two sides, and both deserve attention. It’s important to understand what the Government is trying to achieve and its ...
TL;DR: Here’s my top 10 ‘pick ‘n’ mix of links to news, analysis and opinion articles as of 10:10am on Monday, April 29:Scoop: The children's ward at Rotorua Hospital will be missing a third of its beds as winter hits because Te Whatu Ora halted an upgrade partway through to ...
span class=”dropcap”>As hideous as David Seymour can be, it is worth keeping in mind occasionally that there are even worse political figures (and regimes) out there. Iran for instance, is about to execute the country’s leading hip hop musician Toomaj Salehi, for writing and performing raps that “corrupt” the nation’s ...
Yesterday marked 10 years since the first electric train carried passengers in Auckland so it’s a good time to look back at it and the impact it has had. A brief history The first proposals for rail electrification in Auckland came in the 1920’s alongside the plans for earlier ...
Right now, in Aotearoa-NZ, our ‘animal spirits’ are darkening towards a winter of discontent, thanks at least partly to a chorus of negative comments and actions from the Government Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on ...
You make people evil to punish the paststuck inside a sequel with a rotating castThe following photos haven’t been generated with AI, or modified in any way. They are flesh and blood, human beings. On the left is Galatea Young, a young mum, and her daughter Fiadh who has Angelman ...
The Government is again adding to New Zealand’s growing unemployment, this time cutting jobs at the agencies responsible for urban development and growing much needed housing stock. ...
With Minister Karen Chhour indicating in the House today that she either doesn’t know or care about the frontline cuts she’s making to Oranga Tamariki, we risk seeing more and more of our children falling through the cracks. ...
The Labour Party is saddened to learn of the death of Sir Robert Martin, a globally renowned disability advocate who led the way for disability rights both in New Zealand and internationally. ...
Labour is calling for the Government to urgently rethink its coalition commitment to restart live animal exports, Labour animal welfare spokesperson Rachel Boyack said. ...
Today’s Financial Stability Report has once again highlighted that poverty and deep inequality are political choices - and this Government is choosing to make them worse. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to do more for our households in most need as unemployment rises and the cost of living crisis endures. ...
Unemployment is on the rise and it’s only going to get worse under this Government, Labour finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds said. Stats NZ figures show the unemployment rate grew to 4.3 percent in the March quarter from 4 percent in the December quarter. “This is the second rise in unemployment ...
The New Zealand Labour Party welcomes the entering into force of the European Union and New Zealand free trade agreement. This agreement opens the door for a huge increase in trade opportunities with a market of 450 million people who are high value discerning consumers of New Zealand goods and ...
The National-led Government continues its fiscal jiggery pokery with its Pharmac announcement today, Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall says. “The government has increased Pharmac funding but conceded it will only make minimal increases in access to medicine”, said Ayesha Verrall “This is far from the bold promises made to fund ...
This afternoon’s interim Waitangi Tribunal report must be taken seriously as it affects our most vulnerable children, Labour children’s spokesperson Willow-Jean Prime. ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
Te Pāti Māori is disgusted at the confirmation that hundreds are set to lose their jobs at Oranga Tamariki, and the disestablishment of the Treaty Response Unit. “This act of absolute carelessness and out of touch decision making is committing tamariki to state abuse.” Said Te Pāti Māori Oranga Tamariki ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters discussed the need for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, and enhanced cooperation in the Pacific with German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock during her first official visit to New Zealand today. "New Zealand and Germany enjoy shared interests and values, including the rule of law, democracy, respect for the international system ...
The Minister Responsible for RMA Reform, Chris Bishop today released his decision on four recommendations referred to him by the Western Bay of Plenty District Council, opening the door to housing growth in the area. The Council’s Plan Change 92 allows more homes to be built in existing and new ...
Thank you, John McKinnon and the New Zealand China Council for the invitation to speak to you today. Thank you too, all members of the China Council. Your effort has played an essential role in helping to build, shape, and grow a balanced and resilient relationship between our two ...
The Government is modernising insurance law to better protect Kiwis and provide security in the event of a disaster, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly announced today. “These reforms are long overdue. New Zealand’s insurance law is complicated and dated, some of which is more than 100 years old. ...
The coalition Government is refreshing its approach to supporting pay equity claims as time-limited funding for the Pay Equity Taskforce comes to an end, Public Service Minister Nicola Willis says. “Three years ago, the then-government introduced changes to the Equal Pay Act to support pay equity bargaining. The changes were ...
Structured literacy will change the way New Zealand children learn to read - improving achievement and setting students up for success, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “Being able to read and write is a fundamental life skill that too many young people are missing out on. Recent data shows that ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay says Canada’s refusal to comply in full with a CPTPP trade dispute ruling in our favour over dairy trade is cynical and New Zealand has no intention of backing down. Mr McClay said he has asked for urgent legal advice in respect of our ‘next move’ ...
The rights of our children and young people will be enhanced by changes the coalition Government will make to strengthen oversight of the Oranga Tamariki system, including restoring a single Children’s Commissioner. “The Government is committed to delivering better public services that care for our most at-risk young people and ...
The Government is making it easier for minor changes to be made to a building consent so building a home is easier and more affordable, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on making it easier and cheaper to build homes so we can ...
New Zealand lost a true legend when internationally renowned disability advocate Sir Robert Martin (KNZM) passed away at his home in Whanganui last night, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. “Our Government’s thoughts are with his wife Lynda, family and community, those he has worked with, the disability community in ...
Good evening – Before discussing the challenges and opportunities facing New Zealand’s foreign policy, we’d like to first acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. You have contributed to debates about New Zealand foreign policy over a long period of time, and we thank you for hosting us. ...
From today, passengers travelling internationally from Auckland Airport will be able to keep laptops and liquids in their carry-on bags for security screening thanks to new technology, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Creating a more efficient and seamless travel experience is important for holidaymakers and businesses, enabling faster movement through ...
People with an interest in the health of Northland’s marine ecosystems are invited to a public meeting to discuss how to deal with kina barrens, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones will lead the discussion, which will take place on Friday, 10 May, at Awanui Hotel in ...
Kiwi exporters are $100 million better off today with the NZ EU FTA entering into force says Trade Minister Todd McClay. “This is all part of our plan to grow the economy. New Zealand's prosperity depends on international trade, making up 60 per cent of the country’s total economic activity. ...
There are heartening signs that the extractive sector is once again becoming an attractive prospect for investors and a source of economic prosperity for New Zealand, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The beginnings of a resurgence in extractive industries are apparent in media reports of the sector in the past ...
The return of the historic Ō-Rākau battle site to the descendants of those who fought there moved one step closer today with the first reading of Te Pire mō Ō-Rākau, Te Pae o Maumahara / The Ō-Rākau Remembrance Bill. The Bill will entrust the 9.7-hectare battle site, five kilometres west ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has announced 25 new high-speed EV charging hubs along key routes between major urban centres and outlined the Government’s plan to supercharge New Zealand’s EV infrastructure. The hubs will each have several chargers and be capable of charging at least four – and up to 10 ...
The coalition Government will not proceed with the previous Government’s plans to regulate residential property managers, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “I have written to the Chairperson of the Social Services and Community Committee to inform him that the Government does not intend to support the Residential Property Managers Bill ...
The Government has announced an independent review into the disability support system funded by the Ministry of Disabled People – Whaikaha. Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston says the review will look at what can be done to strengthen the long-term sustainability of Disability Support Services to provide disabled people and ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith has attended the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva and outlined the Government’s plan to restore law and order. “Speaking to the United Nations Human Rights Council provided us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while responding to issues and ...
The Government and Rotorua Lakes Council are committed to working closely together to end the use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua. Associate Minister of Housing (Social Housing) Tama Potaka says the Government remains committed to ending the long-term use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua by the ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay heads overseas today for high-level trade talks in the Gulf region, and a key OECD meeting in Paris. Mr McClay will travel to Riyadh to meet with counterparts from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). “New Zealand’s goods and services exports to the Gulf region ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford has outlined six education priorities to deliver a world-leading education system that sets Kiwi kids up for future success. “I’m putting ambition, achievement and outcomes at the heart of our education system. I want every child to be inspired and engaged in their learning so they ...
The new NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) App is a secure ‘one stop shop’ to provide the services drivers need, Transport Minister Simeon Brown and Digitising Government Minister Judith Collins say. “The NZTA App will enable an easier way for Kiwis to pay for Vehicle Registration and Road User Charges (RUC). ...
Whānau with tamariki growing up in emergency housing motels will be prioritised for social housing starting this week, says Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka. “Giving these whānau a better opportunity to build healthy stable lives for themselves and future generations is an essential part of the Government’s goal of reducing ...
Racing Minister Winston Peters has paid tribute to an icon of the industry with the recent passing of Dave O’Sullivan (OBE). “Our sympathies are with the O’Sullivan family with the sad news of Dave O’Sullivan’s recent passing,” Mr Peters says. “His contribution to racing, initially as a jockey and then ...
Assalaamu alaikum, greetings to you all. Eid Mubarak, everyone! I want to extend my warmest wishes to you and everyone celebrating this joyous occasion. It is a pleasure to be here. I have enjoyed Eid celebrations at Parliament before, but this is my first time joining you as the Minister ...
Associate Health Minister David Seymour has announced Pharmac’s largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff. “Access to medicines is a crucial part of many Kiwis’ lives. We’ve committed to a budget allocation of $1.774 billion over four years so Kiwis are ...
Hon Paula Bennett has been appointed as member and chair of the Pharmac board, Associate Health Minister David Seymour announced today. "Pharmac is a critical part of New Zealand's health system and plays a significant role in ensuring that Kiwis have the best possible access to medicines,” says Mr Seymour. ...
Hundreds of New Zealand families affected by Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) will benefit from a new Government focus on prevention and treatment, says Health Minister Dr Shane Reti. “We know FASD is a leading cause of preventable intellectual and neurodevelopmental disability in New Zealand,” Dr Reti says. “Every day, ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones today attended the official opening of Kaikohe’s new $14.7 million sports complex. “The completion of the Kaikohe Multi Sports Complex is a fantastic achievement for the Far North,” Mr Jones says. “This facility not only fulfils a long-held dream for local athletes, but also creates ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters’ engagements in Türkiye this week underlined the importance of diplomacy to meet growing global challenges. “Returning to the Gallipoli Peninsula to represent New Zealand at Anzac commemorations was a sombre reminder of the critical importance of diplomacy for de-escalating conflicts and easing tensions,” Mr Peters ...
Ambassador Millar, Burgemeester, Vandepitte, Excellencies, military representatives, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen – good morning and welcome to this sacred Anzac Day dawn service. It is an honour to be here on behalf of the Government and people of New Zealand at Buttes New British Cemetery, Polygon Wood – a deeply ...
Distinguished guests - It is an honour to return once again to this site which, as the resting place for so many of our war-dead, has become a sacred place for generations of New Zealanders. Our presence here and at the other special spaces of Gallipoli is made ...
Mai ia tawhiti pamamao, te moana nui a Kiwa, kua tae whakaiti mai matou, ki to koutou papa whenua. No koutou te tapuwae, no matou te tapuwae, kua honoa pumautia. Ko nga toa kua hinga nei, o te Waipounamu, o te Ika a Maui, he okioki tahi me o ...
Paul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. “Our Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...
Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...
Overseas models for regulating the oil and gas sector, including their decommissioning regimes, are being carefully scrutinised as a potential template for New Zealand’s own sector, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. The Coalition Government is focused on rebuilding investor confidence in New Zealand’s energy sector as it looks to strengthen ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Changes in the May 14 budget will cut the student debt of more than three million people, wiping more than $3 billion from what people owe. The government will cap the HELP indexation rate ...
Asia Pacific Report The prosecutor’s office at the International Criminal Court (ICC) has appealed for an end to what it calls intimidation of its staff, saying such threats could constitute an offence against the “administration of justice” by the world’s permanent war crimes court. The Hague-based office of ICC Prosecutor ...
By Patrick Decloitre, RNZ Pacific correspondent French Pacific desk A women’s union in New Caledonia has staged a sit-in protest this week to support senior Kanak indigenous journalist Thérèse Waia, who works for public broadcaster Nouvelle-Calédonie la Première, after a smear attack by critics. The peaceful demonstration was held on ...
New Zealand Food Safety is monitoring overseas recalls of Indian packaged spice products manufactured by MDH and Everest due to concerns over a cancer-causing pesticide. ...
By Stephen Wright and Stefan Armbruster of BenarNews Fiji’s ranking in a global press freedom index has jumped into the top tier of countries with free or mostly free media after its government last year repealed a draconian law that threatened journalists with prison for doing their jobs. Fiji’s improvement ...
We might be in Invercargill but all anyone can talk about is Gore. Specifically, Salford Street. That’s where three-year-old Lachlan Jones lived, south of the centre of town, between the A&P Showgrounds and the Mataura River. Roughly 1.2 km away from the single level home he lived in with his ...
MONDAY I lined up the latest round of civil servants from city hall against the wall, and signalled for the firing squad to drop their rifles. I stepped up onto a wooden crate to look at the office workers in the eye. But that didn’t feel right, so I found ...
Keen hiker and second-year MSc student Liam Hewson wears two hats when he’s in the great outdoors. “The scientist in me appreciates nature and goes, ‘Oh, there’s that thing and there’s another thing,’ but then the tramper and the outdoorsy person in me thinks, ‘Cool bush.’” Born and bred in ...
After a long and illustrious career as a goal kicker, Dan Carter’s favourite way to unwind is… kicking goals. Why can’t he get enough of it? And what it’s like to watch him do it for an hour straight? A semicircle of people wielding cameras and phones has formed in ...
Dame Susan Devoy takes us through her life in television, including late night ER debriefs, her proudest CTI moment and the show she watches in secret. Quite aside from her four world champion squash titles, Dame Susan Devoy will likely go down in history as one of the best Celebrity ...
Hera Lindsay Bird reveals the best places in Ōtepoti to score more for your apocalypse-prep book hoard.Sometimes I get the feeling I’ve been killed in a car crash, and this second half of my life is just the brain unspooling itself, like one of those episodes of a hospital ...
ThreeNow’s new murder mystery series takes us on a dark, damp journey into the Australian wilderness.This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. High Country is ThreeNow’s new Australian eight-part crime drama, set in a remote part of the Victorian highlands. It tells ...
Introducing a new way to read The Spinoff every weekend. After nearly 10 years of being an online magazine, we’re finally embracing the weekend liftout. Despite our best efforts to convince you otherwise, writers and editors at The Spinoff don’t work weekend. It is through the sheer power of technology ...
Tip one: let yourself be nurtured by this big old man. Tip two: don’t ask him to adopt you. So, you’ve arrived at your first session with a new therapist. He tells you to make yourself comfortable and you opt for the tweed armchair, hoping it makes you look like ...
I didn’t know books could open you back up; that there were books that stayed with you, where reading was like a chemical event. I knew nothing.The Sunday Essay is made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand.Not too long ago, I was listening to the American ...
Former Olympic swimmer James Magnussen has already started training for the Enhanced games, though says he won’t start taking performance enhancing substances until about nine months out from the competition. The Australian world champion was the first athlete to be announced by Enhanced, but he says the organisation has had ...
Everyone thinks he’s dead. Every day they expect his body to be washed up along the coast. Most likely up Karitane way, the way the tide’s running. But nobody’ll be too surprised if his body’s never found. Even in death he wouldn’t have wished for such attention. He would have ...
Council members voted 21 to 4 in favour of Ahluwalia returning to the Laucala campus following a much-awaited meeting in Vanuatu this week. It comes as USP and its two unions — the Association of the University of the South Pacific Staff (AUSPS) and the Administration and Support Staff Union ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nicola Henry, Professor & Australian Research Council Future Fellow, Social and Global Studies Centre, RMIT University Shutterstock Following an emergency meeting of the National Cabinet this week, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has announced a raft of measures to tackle the problem ...
Analysis - A poll showing the opposition is more popular than the government raises questions, politicians go through their 'trial by pay rise' and a Green MP loses her cool in the debating chamber. ...
The entire stretch of Tokomaru Bay on the East Coast will be subject to a joint customary marine title for two hapū, and extending up to four miles out to sea. A High Court judge has found the two groups, who during the case settled a dispute over boundaries for ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Hall, Lecturer, Media & Cultural Studies, Edith Cowan University A longstanding feud between TikTok and Universal Music Group seems to have finally reached an end, with both parties signing a deal that will see Universal-backed music returned to the social media ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Siobhan O’Dean, Postdoctoral Research Associate, The Matilda Centre for Research in Mental Health and Substance Use, University of Sydney After several highly publicised alleged murders of women in Australia, the Albanese government this week pledged more than A$925 million over five years ...
Political parties have now fully disclosed the donations they received last year - with National getting more than double the cash of any other party. ...
A Pacific regionalism expert has called out New Zealand's Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters for withholding information from the public on AUKUS military pact. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Richard de Grijs, Professor of Astrophysics, Macquarie University Bruno Scramgnon/Pexels All systems are “go” for tonight’s launch of China’s next step in a carefully planned lunar exploration program. Placed on top of a powerful Long March 5 rocket, the Chang’e 6 ...
National returned a massive donation the day after a Newsroom story linked the donors to a property being investigated for operating unlawfully as a migrant workers’ hostel. The party’s 2023 donation filings, released on Friday, show it returned a $200,000 donation from Buen Holdings on August 23. That was the ...
Pacific Media Watch New Zealand has slumped to an unprecedented 19th place in the annual Reporters Without Borders World Press Freedom Index survey released today on World Press Freedom Day — May 3. This was a drop of six places from 13th last year when it slipped out of its ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Joshua Black, Political Historian and Administrator Officer, Australian Historical Association, Australian National University Australia has had its fair share of public record-keeping controversies in recent years. Some have been mere farce, as in the case of two formerly government-owned filing cabinets (containing ...
Heavenly Culture, World Peace, Restoration of Light (HWPL), a United Nations-affiliated organization dedicated to fostering peace through civilian-led initiatives, has issued a statement in response to the escalating conflict between Israel and Iran. ...
A poem by Tessa Keenan, from AUP New Poets 10. Mātou These days we are a photograph; one of a farm strewn with cows that used to be bright harakeke or swamp. The kids point at it and say the sun sits behind a smudge (left by someone at Christmas); ...
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 Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan (Faber & Faber, $25)The masterful Irish writer ...
Marriage and civil union statistics record the number of marriages and civil unions registered in New Zealand each year, and divorce statistics record the number of divorces granted in New Zealand each year. Key facts Marriages and civil unions In ...
Marriage and civil union statistics record the number of marriages and civil unions registered in New Zealand each year, and divorce statistics record the number of divorces granted in New Zealand each year. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lennon Y.C. Chang, Associate Professor of Cyber Risk and Policy, Deakin University Taiwan stands out as a beacon of democracy, innovation and resilience in an increasingly autocratic region. But this is under growing threat. In recent years, China has used a variety ...
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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.
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