.
9.50 mins long, mary. Hope you like the soundtrack.
All I had to video my stream denizens with initially was 2 small 3G mobiles, with only 2 megapixel cameras. This meant I had to get up really close to the creatures I’ve filmed – within a foot or two. But being THAT close to my subjects makes it feel very rewarding that, over time, they’ve learned to accept my presence & relax & just behave very normally around me.
I didn’t realise that eels are fish. I originally thought they were a separate biological family of aquatic life. But they ARE fish, just with a highly specialised body shape, perfectly suited to navigating rivers, streams & smaller waterways.
What’s captivated me in this video (eventually 3 NZ Native Longfin eels turned up together) is that it shows how much eels have achieved mastery of their environment.
They have an elegant & graceful way of undulating thru te wai, forwards, backwards, circling, doing head-over-tail loops, all the while sniffing, & exploring the stream bed. Elivira Longfin even stands on her tail in deep water at my Eel Spot, like a dolfin, to get her head out of the water when I feed her.
But they are also capable of instantly shifting to Great White Shark-like bursts of raw speed & strength. I call them my river sharks.
The fluffy little yellow & black duckling attrition rate in my stream is about 95%. I’ve seen Elvira suddenly roar up out of the depths right into the middle of a gaggle of ducklings swimming along upstream with their mum. She completely missed getting any that time, but I suspect the bigger eels like Ella & Elvira (four-footers) do take at least some of the baby waterbirds.
The stream's just over my fence. I go thru my gate and climb 20 feet down the periwinkle-covered stream bank, and, even in my city suburb it's private & peaceful down there.
The birdlife here is wonderful too. As I type, I have a male tui singing its heart out in a pittosporum tree over the fence outside my kitchen, after he's visited the bowl of sugar-water I put out every day for them. And to think I lived here for 6 years, going across the bridge to catch the train to work and home again and never even gave it a glance. Until I retired.
I'm in no hurry to move from Pookden Manor & Gezza's (bird) Cafe.
pretty interesting what we see when we slow down and have the time to notice.
I've got frogs locally, they've just started singing in the past few weeks, not sure exactly where. Someone must have a pond, but a decent sized one by the sound of them.
Thanks Gez. Nothing kinder to the spirit than to be relaxingly nurtured by nature. Watching the eels cruising about in their stream to the great music of Albertross by Fleetwood Mac, was almost hypnotic. I felt myself drifting.
From memory (and I do stand to be corrected here), your opening piece of music Change Is Gonna Come was originally written and sung by the late Sam Cooke circa 1964, the same year he died. It depicted the era perfectly, when racism and hate was running rife in the USA, particularly in the southern states. Cooke a coloured man himself, put a lot of emotion into that that piece of music, because he experienced the hate and discrimination of the time. You can hear and feel it. Even today when I hear it, the song still brings a tear to my eye, as it did all those years ago when I first heard it. IMO Cooke's song was and still is up there with some of the best protest songs to come out of the 1960s, up there with Bob Dylan, Peter Paul & Mary, Joan Baez, Judy Collins et al.
Sorry I prattled on there. I got carried away with my past … hee hee. Many thanks for the great video and your stories of the critters you live with. Delightful.
You didn’t prattle on at all, mary. A very worthwhile & well-written read.
I knew that Sam Cooke wrote Change Is Gonna Come, but I didn’t know the background to it, & was very interested to learn about it. Seal also did a version of it. I particularly like the brief sax solo in Aaron Neville’s version – very ethereal, to my ears anyway.
I note David Seymour's comments regarding the vaccination code being used for Maori in Auckland has not hurt his standing in the polls and may have boosted his personal support and that for the ACT party.
Wouldn't be surprised. It was an obvious naked appeal to the Māori-bashing element in our society. It put me right off him tho. I thought he was doing ok – better than Collins – as Opposition leader contended up until then.
Yes, he IS doing well. And I don’t think that’s a bad thing. National needs to get itself sorted with s credible leader. This might be the impetus for them to bite the bullet & fire Collins.
It doesn’t change present representation in Parliament but it does give Seymour even more oxygen in the media. That said, Seymour must be hyperventilating constantly while Labour and Green Ministers are breathing through the nose and doing their part in governing this country.
Even David Seymour should be able to understand basic maths: 10-15% is very good for a minor party, and completely useless for winning elections.
Shane Reti called Seymour's comments "disgraceful". That's the deputy leader of the only friends ACT can ever hope to have. If Seymour keeps this up, he could win the war on the Right. Ardern would just have to settle for winning a landslide.
If the move away from the Center Left continues over the next 2 years then the election in 2023 will be much closer than you suggest. Labour and The Greens combined is only 51% at the moment.
Seymour is riding on the fact that people are presently seeing his outward persona, as shilled by the media, who are desperately siezing on anything, that can get their favoured right wing Governmant to poll better. Even had to wheel out Key and Henry.
Like Dunne, and United Future, after the public had a good look at them, once everyone sees the morally bankrupt and truly frightening philosophy and polices behind ACT, I’m sure that they will be back to voting numbers that fit in a telephone booth.
Of course racist dog whitles are always good for a percentage of the vote, but ACT has little substance or widely supported policy beyond that.
Asset thefts/sorry sales, privatisation, are not very popular with most people. We are constantly reminded of how much damage it does, with every power bill.
Neither is cutting welfare.
As we have seen recently, even New Zealands right wing are rather keen on State funded welfare. The main compliant has been they are not getting enough of it.
To name just two of ACT’s philosophical policy positions.
Racism “scares” most people these days. We are getting past it. Even National MP’s are finding their Māori side. The times when a Brash could go up 20%by making racist noises, are gone. Fortunately.
Asset sales are not a major part of ACT policies. The last time they made a big deal of them was the proposal to sell off Land corp land to help fund conservation.
True, hope I'm largely immune to the racist dog whistles emitted by Seymour and his ilk. Who knows, maybe he'll recruit a few more Nat voters to his cause, but will it be enough two years hence?
The politics of race [14 July 2013]
A retired Napier businessman, Tom Johnson, has become its [The Pakeha Party's] unofficial spokesman, recently telling regional media that he "didn't want to become a second-class citizen in my own country". Johnson was campaign chairman for National MP Chris Tremain during the Brash years and 1law4all's links to Brash don't end there. One of its advisers has been creative genius John Ansell, the man behind National's most controversial advertising campaign since Muldoon's Dancing Cossacks – the infamous Iwi/Kiwi billboards used in the 2005 campaign.
Ansell again become involved with Brash during his ill-fated stint as Act Party leader in 2011 but the pair parted ways, apparently because Ansell's views were too extreme, even for Brash.
Ah yes, who remembers the Pakeha Party and their motto "Whatever Maori get we want it to" (sic) – if only they'd wanted Māori life expectancy; that would have cut down the dog whistling a bit.
Not just one but a range. ACT has provided a number of alternatives that the government could follow to such issues as the Housing crisis, 3-waters, and dealing with Covid-19.
The point of being (in) Opposition is to Act as an alternative government. This means you need to come up with policies that differentiate. Such policies can and must then be scrutinised and criticised. ACT (still) is a long way off from its goal; the Greens have achieved it, more or less.
Gosman ACT are thriving in a centre right vacuum where the greens are competing with a party twice the size of National.
Once National finds a credible leader ACT 's high point will drift back to its base. which will be bigger because of the shambles of National. But ACT's purist straitjacket economic policy will affect Nationals ability to garner moderate swing voters.
Anyway, as I have pointed already, the Greens do their bit governing this country; they are not in Opposition and not actively campaigning like ACT and National. All Government proposals and policies are heavily scrutinised, in Parliament, in the media, and in public. Once cannot treat bullet points and slogans in the same way and this is the Key difference between ACT & National and Labour & the Greens.
I look forward to the polished turd that is National’s peer-reviewed Covid-19 policy or will it be Key’s non-peer-reviewed bullet shit.
I expect a fair number of moderate folk find a determination to repeal the firearms act and waltz down the US path of weekly school shootings not to be the future they are looking for.
A determination not to have an arms register, and a promise of "the world's best firearm laws" with no details whatsoever lets the reader put anything they please into that policy void.
It pleases me to assign an outcome consistent with the unworkable antisocial tendencies that characterize ACT policies in general – splendid stuff in a margin of error party dying for a few mouse-clicks, but not to be mistaken for responsible policy from a serious party.
There is plenty of detai. For example here is the detail on the various category of firearms that ACT would introduce.
Create new classes of firearms that are simple to understand and administer. For example:
– Class 1 for bolt/lever/pump actions and .22 rimfire or smaller semi-automatics
– Class 2 for all other semi-automatics (with sporting use allowed)
– Class 3 for pistols (pistol clubs)
– Class 4 for collectors
– Class 5 for theatrical
– etc.
What about that is unclear or suggestive of a free for all?
ACT’s bottom line is to repeal this year’s Arms Legislation Act, … and freedom.
A little nod there to US style gun-nut-jobbery – but no actual suggestion of what this apparently important reform would entail.
Yes, some categories, but little or nothing about how they might be restricted or policed. This is of course politically common – the actual nuts can infer that open slather will be available, the rational folk will presume rational rules, but the policy remains unwritten.
The best firearms policy in the world is an extravagant claim, and its authors have no record of any of their other policies being considered the best in the world. Why would their firearms policy be any better? Had ACT confined themselves to plausible or verifiable claims about their firearms policy they would not have lost credibility as they have in this case.
Ummm… read the rest of the policy. They set out as range of actions NONE of which suggest an open slather on gun control. All repealing the gun laws introduced last year would do is take us back to a position we were before. ACT policy is then to introduce a more nuanced law with broader support especially among lawful gun owners.
ACT policy is then to introduce a more nuanced law
With the nuances helpfully elided so that they cannot be discussed.
The best policy in the world – without even bothering to scrutinize gun policies worldwide. This is the kind of magical thinking that also characterizes their economic policies.
ACT’s bottom line is to repeal this year’s Arms Legislation Act, including the threat of a firearm register, then set about making the world’s best firearm laws that balance public safety, firearms control, and freedom.
I can’t do the thinking for you, especially not when your rapid-fire commenting consumes about 98% of the oxygen entering into your brain with the remaining 2% in charge of your essential bodily functions such as keeping you upright and alive.
There is more at play here than Parliamentary party politics, new gen voters will potentially outnumber boomers in 2023 and definitely in 2026 and beyond.
Existential matters like COVID and Climate Disaster (heard of tipping points Gosman) will likely become the main concerns.
And yet The Greens have made no significant gains since the election last year despite your suggestion that the political environment is ripe for them.
Existential matters like COVID and Climate Disaster (heard of tipping points Gosman) will likely become the main concerns.
Don’t know about you, but the daily 1 pm press conference/release is my daily concern feed. My mental wellbeing rises and falls with the numbers of new cases, positives who were infectious in the community, and other Covid trivia. We live in interesting times.
Covid is in no way an existential matter. Even in countries where it is running rampant it is only impacting in any significant way a small percentage of the population. That is not stating it isn't a serious public health issue. However it is no way a threat to humanity's continued survival.
With one strawman you fob off the concerns (AKA “fears”) of many Kiwis and the global and local impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the wellbeing and existence of many people. You’re as unfit to comment on these sorts of things as ACT and National are unfit to govern NZ. Grow up.
Do you honestly think the Covid-19 pandemic threaten the existence of humanity? It has a mortality rate of less than 5% (and much less than 1% for vaccinated people). On what basis do you claim it is an existential threat?
Don’t Act like a dimwit troll, thanks. You can read English and it is not hard to understand my comment. When did you stop beating your wife and fucking your pig?
There are various strands that link COVID and Climate Change which is why I referenced both in regards of “existential”.
Denial blanks it out for some perhaps. But science is onto it and there are links between climate driven species extinction, change of habitats and behaviour, interaction with humans, and virus transmission between species for starters.
Viruses seem immediate and push the concern button right now, while Climate Change can seem more a “slow armageddon” but both will kill many humans make no mistake.
Dr Shane Reti would say that, as the National Māori MP, and he might even mean it, but then again, National would do just about anything to form a Government in 2023 and Dr Reti is not likely to be its Leader.
I disagree with the left wing narrative on that issue. I am pointing out that all the people who were arguing that it was horribly racist of him to do that and he would lose support as a result were wrong based on the outcome of this poll.
I don't recall reading that he was horribly racist AND would lose support.
I remember reading and thinking it:
1 was racist
2 would appeal to racists
3 could be another hurdle now to getting more people vaccinated once they find out they were made fun of and thought to be nothing but ACT political fodder.
His rise has more to do with the turmoil in the Nats than any inherent favouring of ACTs policies. .
ACT would have received the wooden stake treatment years ago from NZ electors, but NZ National kept the tumour masquerading as that party’s heart ticking, via multi year Epsom electorate deals.
And now years later ACT has adapted to the toxic modern political environment–Trump style, supporting gun lovers, racists and Incels–while National has not so well.
Does anyone remember Colin James poll of polls? it would be hard to run one now given the paucity of credible and regular political polls. So it is more difficult to discern whether ACT rising is the right vote jiggling about or something new.
It is quite clear given the recent polling results that the combined center right vote is around 40% and the combined center left vote is in the low 50's. It is also clear that ACT has increased it's share of the vote from 8 % to the mid teens whereas National is stuck in the mid 20's, the Greens are no better than where they were at the last election, and Labout has slipped back to being below 50%.
It's voters deserting National (obvs) but it's also the general "anti" vote, which has always been there. Winston was the vehicle for decades, and while NZF support is not negligible, he can't get one-tenth of Seymour's coverage outside Parliament.
For the "bugger you lot" vote, there's no JLR, no religious Right, no options at all really.
National down – Good.
Labour down – Not so Good.
Greens the same, – Bad,
Act up – Tragic
.
What has happened to the Green Party?
(Or not happened)
Like a fly trapped in amber.
I am guessing that the Green Party poll results are showing that their core support is staying loyal, but they are not building support or reaching any new voters.
Tragic and unexplainable when the approaching climate crisis has never been more apparent.
James Shaw can say it is because the pandemic has dominated the headlines and sucked up all media attention.
OK. I suppose. Why haven't the Green Party got anything to say about the pandemic?
I would have thought that there was a lot of positive stuff a Green Party could say, about the government's pandemic response. That mightn't be newsworthy, I 'spose
But I would have thought that there are a lot of conclusions that the Green Party could draw from the government's tremendous response to the covid crisis that they could demand be applied to the climate crisis.
They do have things to say about the pandemic. They are wanting to spend even more taxpayers money of boosting benefits even more and slapping rent controls on. People aren't buying it because they don't like it.
But even that has had little more than a paragraph in the media.
So. How could the public take a position on something they don't know about.
I love the tax payers money bit. When even ACT supporters and the tax Dodgers union are taking "tax payer money".
As those on welfare are generally on it for less than two years and are tax payers for the rest of their lives. Surely that is "returning more of tax payers money" back to the tax payers.
No man has landed on Mars either. FFS, you are such a simpleton commenter who sucks up way too much oxygen here, as usual. You’re a poster boy for ACT and National alike.
The difference is that David Seymour is firmly in the opposition and comfortably so, while the Greens are in the dilemma of not wanting to upset Labour too much, after all they need Labour to get into Government in the future. Which would be the next election. I would not expect them to do much until about a year before election, when they will again be trumping their stellar manifestos to entice people to consider them. Not sure it will work for them, considering the results of the Green Party in Germany.
One of the more interesting points in the German election is the numbers of first voters, who preferred by a very slim margin the FDP to the Greens. 23% vs 22%. The Greens could not even convince the first and young voters to flock to them in large numbers.
The difference is that David Seymour is firmly in the opposition….
David Seymour is in the Right opposition.
I had been hoping that the Green Party could have acted more of a Left opposition to the government. Praising the government when they are doing good, which I think they should do more of. But also giving the government their honest critique when they think the government are letting the environment and climate down. Which I also think they should do more of
What I find unforgiveable is their silence, especially on the pressing matters of the day.
Yes, and it is his right to be where he wants to be on the line of politicals identities that exists between left and right. And it seems that plenty enough people in this country consider him and his party as valid an option as the green party. Go figure.
….it seems that plenty enough people in this country consider him and his party as valid an option as the green party. Go figure.
Nature abhors a vaccume.
The rise of Trump is proof positive.
The Right will move into the political vaccume created by the failure of the Left, (and Centreleft), to address the major issues of the day,
Be it war, be it climate justice, be it inequity.
When liberal half measures dealing with these issues, don't cut it. The Right move in to fill the space with their simplistic narrative. It is immigrants, it is foreigners, or Muslims or Jews, or George Soros and Bill Gates.
Pick your Right Wing conspiracy theory, and run with it, no matter how outrageous or untrue.
Many commentators spend a lot time speculating on when Judith Collins will be replaced as leader of the National Party.
That’s not how it works.
Judith Collins will not be replaced as leader of the National Party. Collins is biding her time, hoping the Left's half measures in addressing climate change or poverty or even failure to 'eliminate' the virus out of fear of upsetting the banksters and financial markets, opens up space for a right wing narrative to gain a foothold.
All Collins needs to do then, is to channel her inner Trump.
The Nats. know or sense this. Which is why Judith Collins will remain their leader for the forseeable future.
The rise of an effete Right Wing nobody like Seymour is an indicator. When the time is right, Collins will overtake Seymour in Right Wing malice.
Until then, Collins is contnet to let Seymour have his brief moment in the sun.
Compared to the Green Party silence, David Seymour has an opinion on everything. subject you care to mention. And doesn't hesitate to voice it, [sic]
Everybody has an opinion, when prompted, and the TS commentariat is proof of this, but Seymour is not the ‘people’s hero’ nor is he a visionary leader, but he does promote himself rather successfully as a thought & opinion leader and some kind of ‘freedom fighter’. Seymour reminds me of someone and that didn’t end well. Mind you, Seymour and ACT MPs are not burdened with any real governing responsibility; they can say/tweet whatever they like.
Act is still mainly being treated as in their lonely past, as though Seymour is their only MP. They have yet to work out how to allow the other MP's to front issues for which they are the spokesperson, without revealing how nutty they are.
DR RENEE LIANG has written much of what I couldn't put my finger on re Key's piece. A stinging, factual critique on Newsroom.
But Key’s piece is riddled with errors at both policy and scientific level. It was careless and cheap. It disrespected a huge number of people who have been working hard for all of us. It was deeply disappointing, and it may yet do us enormous unseen harm. Let me explain…..
……John Key’s statement that "we each make our choices and live with the consequences" betrays his white privilege. It is all the more galling that the people who have been working the hardest throughout our pandemic response are those working to care for Māori, Pasifika and migrant groups. They know their people and should be the ones advising on strategy, not a rich private citizen with far too many reckons. Key’s suggestion of offering an incentive of $25 is not only simplistic, it is insulting. ….
No. Once vaccination has reached a certain level the ACT party is stating we should not fear opening up and dealing with any outbreaks like most of the rest of the World are now doing. It is this fear of allowing even one case of Covid-19 in the community regardless of the level of our vaccination rate and public health capacity which is what needs to be addressed.
What certain vaccination level is that? Is he proposing we hold a referendum?
One of the things which has made NZ’s Covid response so successful is that we didn’t isolate the vulnerable only. Isolating the vulnerable, othering them, reminds me of cruel totalitarian despot behaviour.
If your solution is never to open up the borders and manage outbreaks only via lockdowns I think you will find people will grow tired of that ESPECIALLY when they see the rest of the World just getting on with living with the virus as they do with any virus that become endemic. The government will start bleeding more and more support if they continue to promote that as the policy and that is why they are slowly distancing themselves from it.
"Except ACT's policy is to increase funding for Public health by 50%"
That caught my eye, so I looked on ACT's website. They mean "Public Health" as in the small public health part of the total health budget, nothing to do with ICU staff, frontline hospitals etc.
Prominent in their health plan is intent to increase the share funnelled off (i.e. transferred from the general public to the wealthy few) as private profit. Apart from that, the overall plan for NZ is to cut spending, cut taxes while at the same time, paying for it all with supposed "savings" (aka cuts).
All the dead people overseas feel no fear no longer. Some didn’t even know what hit them. Some were in denial till the very last moment. Kiwis are sensible enough to be cautious and sceptical of calls to drop the elimination strategy and open up too soon, as recent surveys suggest. Quite a few countries had to backtrack from relaxing the rules too much too soon even though they had high vaccination levels. NZ is not frozen by fear; we’re buying time and saving lives, and learning from mistakes made overseas and there were many quite costly mistakes. Personally, I don’t fear dying from Covid-19 but I do fear losing others to Covid-19, here in NZ and overseas. That is my personal fear.
That one case of Covid-19 has turned into well over 1000 and still rising. Had we ignored the initial identified case we would be looking at a figure well above 10,000 and probably some deaths thrown in for good measure.
And I'm getting heartily sick of the "mis-truths" about our "slow" levels of vaccination. I remember the government chosing Pfizer around 12 months ago because it was recognised as the best. They were one of the first to order sufficient quantities to cover the entire population… and the South Pacific countries for which we share responsibility.
Pfizer was still gearing up production 12 months ago and quite rightly gave precedence to those countries whose rates of Covid cases were going through the roof. Therefore our internationally acknowledged success rate at keeping Covid at bay had an unfortunate consequence… we had to wait longer for sufficient doses to be made available for the rapid roll-out programme to begin.
Medsafe approved the Pfizer vaccine on 3 February 2021, which is less than 7 months ago. I think we have come a long since. Gosman is not thick, but he can be a little disingenuous when he wants to be.
Stand corrected. Too lazy to check. I seem to remember the govt. were talking up the Pfizer vaccine towards the end of 2020 with the expectation of Medsafe approval. 😉
So, they're into conspiracy theories now. I think there will be quite a few ex ACT Party members from the early days who will be glad they got the hell out of it.
The authors of a study of vaccine effectiveness against SS-CoV-2 transmission and infection among household and other close contacts conclude:
"Our study showed that the COVID-19 vaccines not only protect the vaccinee against SS-CoV-2 infection, but also offer protection against transmission to close contacts after completing the full schedule. This finding underscores the importance of full vaccination of close contacts of vulnerable persons."
"As our study used data not primarily collected for research purposes, it has some important limitations" and the dominant strain in the population at the time was Alpha.
Nevertheless, the study supports current government policy. The challenge is how to reach those close contacts and obtain their consent.
Dr Liang's summation on Newsroom of facts relating to Covid should be publicised far and wide. Brilliant rebuttal of John Key's superficial recent outburst which was obviously well orchestrated for his own selfish reasons.
Newsroom also quotes Pfizer's rebuttal of $40 million that Key said could have been paid to get earlier stocks of vaccine.
Key is still up to his smile and wave, spray and walk away tricks.
Oh dear Gosman – you heartlessly believe that it doesn't matter if hundreds die, hundreds are hospitalised. Please read Newsroom's published article by Dr Liang and grow some empathy and concern for your fellow New Zealanders. It is a brilliant condemnation of how superficial your hero is.
And also please read Pfizer's rebuttal of Key's claim we should have paid $40 million for early deliveries of vaccines. I know in Key's world money buys anything. But even you must have been aware of the greater need for vaccines by other countries ahead of here.
I am well aware it is not a silver bullet. Vaccinated people can still catch the virus and still pass it on as we have been told. But the effects of Covid are far less and will hopefully prevent hospitalisation and death. If this was not the case, I would not bother getting my second jab.
You missed the point that even with some level of protection by the vaccine, this protection is not absolute, not permanent, different in people with vulnerabilities (e.g. age and/or other conditions), affects unvaccinated children, et cetera. More vaccination probably and hopefully means fewer restrictions to keep the numbers down of people requiring medical care and/or hospitalisation. The vaccine alone won’t be enough though unless you're willing to accept the consequences.
If everyone that gets it is only 80% or 85% of the eligible population (12 and over), then there will indeed be hundreds dying and thousands hospitalised when covid runs rampant. If not thousands dying, and tens of thousands of hospitalisations.
Polling suggests that "definitely not" are about 7% and that number seems fairly stable over time. "probably not" are around 13%. To get to vaccination coverage rates high enough to not have overwhelming hospitalisations and deaths, somehow most of those "probably not" need to be turned into "OK I did it".
Personally I think it's time the government started showing a bit of "kindness" to those of us that have shown a bit of respect to the community along with their self-care and actually got vaccinated, and turned a bit of mongrel loose on the “yet-to-be vaccinated”.
Too early to let the dogs out yet; there are already feral dogs running rampant and barking at each and every tree. With puppies you need to house-train them first and make sure they are properly socialised or they’ll become aggressive bullies pissing & shitting everywhere and on everything. Make sure the puppy has all its vaccinations before it goes to puppy training and make sure it is micro-chipped and ‘fixed’. Then you’re good to go with your puppy and become a responsible fully-licensed dog owner who will experience much rewarding joy with and from your canine companion.
There will always be some "definitely nots" that will never get vaccinated. I guess it is their choice and their risk. Unfortunately if they do then end up sick they will expect hospital treatment (that's another discussion). I've had my first jab and am all for getting as many people as possible to have it.
The virus has forced an absolute choice – vaccinations or lockdowns. The large majority of the community have chosen vaccination.
It's utterly fkn unpalatable that lockdowns are lasting a lot longer than necessary because of some that choose not to be vaccinated (or are dragging it out). Those that choose not to vaccinate should have to live the lockdown life for themselves, not force it onto the rest of us.
Bring on the vaccination passports and make them apply widely and enforce them hard.
Death happens to 100% of us who have ever been alive.
Vaccination brings the risks of severe illness and premature death from covid down to a level similar to other routine risks we accept in everyday life.
If that risk is too high for you, go ahead and live your life sheltering yourself from it. But if you want me to live the rest of my life under lockdown conditions because you're afraid of covid even though you're vaccinated, or you don't want vaccinate yourself, you can fuck right off.
We simply don't know what the risk of "severe illness and premature death" with a vaccinated population will look like until we see the Northern Hemisphere winter. Israel's example is not promising.
You need to get this mantra of "it'll be like flu" out of your head. It might be like flu (500 deaths a year), but I would be sceptical. Would you tolerate a virus that kills, say, 3-4000 a year? 5000 a year? We literally don't know how many people endemic Covid kills.
We all die from something eventually. Covid is here to stay, we need to choose how we are going to deal with that fact. Life has changed. There is no going back to a pre-covid morbidity and mortality environment, just as there is no going back to a pre-covid international travel and economic environment. Permanently curtailing our actual Bill of Rights rights is just not palatable, especially not for something as mild as covid is in vaccinated people.
If the choice is living in perpetual lockdown, or even the threat of lockdowns as frequent as Auckland has had over the last 18 months, versus 3000 to 5000 slightly premature deaths per year, then I would choose the deaths as the price of regaining our Bill of Rights freedom of movement, freedom of association, freedom of peaceable assembly and freedom of religion. Lockdowns really do fuck with people's lives that badly.
But from a balanced look at the actual data that's out there, it wouldn't be 3000 to 5000 deaths per year in a population of 5 million vaccinated people. It might be 300 deaths in a population of 4 million vaccinated plus 3000 deaths out of 1 million unvaccinated. That's the unvaccinateds choice.
When it comes to "Israel's example", two points:
First, Israel is not a highly-vaccinated population. It's only at about 65% of the population vaccinated.
Second, when analysed with an understanding of Simpson's Paradox, the data in Israel still points to very high vaccine effectiveness. The apparent decline in effectiveness is an artefact of vaccination rates among different age groups and when the different age groups were vaccinated. But the depth of analysis needed to understand it makes it easy for anti-vaxers to pop out misleading simplistic anti-vaccine soundbites.
We know that among vaccinated populations, covid does not sicken and kill enough people to justify the disruption to people's lives caused by extended lockdowns. That we don't know the exact number over an extended period does not justify keeping the extended lockdowns, because we know the number is low enough to get rid of lockdowns for the vaccinated.
In counties where Trump received at least 70% of the vote, the coronavirus has killed about 47 out of every 100,000 people since the end of June. In counties where Trump won less than 32% of the vote, the number is about 10 out of 100,000. (New York Times)
Or maybe Repugnants are less likely to get vaccinated.
@Macro yeah, but that's US weird darwinism. Here is NZ it's some different groups that are vaccine hesitant. With different obstacles to getting vaccinated.
A majority of UK deaths right now are fully vaccinated people… so you're talking over 500 fully vaccinated deaths a week. That works out at a good 1500 NZ vaccinated deaths a year… and we have yet to see Northern Hemisphere Winter:
Fact is, vaccines (while excellent) are a risk reduction measure, not a replacement for other tools, and pretending that it's a binary choice (rather than a mixture of both) is nonsense. By scrapping lockdown, you're sentencing plenty of vaccinated people to death. And I truly love how you describe killing elderly people as "slightly premature deaths."
BTW Israel is highly vaccinated among adults by Western standards.
Jimmy Look up Israel covid stats, and Britain has figures that already look like 52000 a year dying.
Those who are not vaccinated or compromised are not protected.
Children are not able to be vaccinated yet, so it is dire, and we are watching this as we vaccinate our population knowing so many will still be at risk.
I have had two serious viral illnesses in my life. They often leave serious results and can return in another guise.
We are still learning about this foe. It is dangerous as it mutates. A few more months of planning and trials seems sensible. Anything else seems reckless.
“But even you must have been aware of the greater need for vaccines by other countries ahead of here.”
So what has changed that our need now over rides the need by other countries? Should we still not wait for the planned delivery of our vaccines and not paid to push the process along. Many here have commented that our success is well above most countries. Should not the vaccines we have purchased be directed to countries where the need is greater? I think there now is a political motivation, that protection political capital is far more important than saving lives within other countries.
Fiji has administered enough doses to cover 54.8% of the pop. but I gather they are in greater need than us & this from their govt. that they are restricted by supply !!!
"Due to the limited global supply and high global demand for COVID-19 vaccines, Fiji’s vaccines have been prioritized and provided to those who are considered most vulnerable to COVID-19."
Our family is forever grateful to Labour and Jacinda Ardern for the decisions made so far. We have been extremely fortunate, and it has not been without sacrifice.
Seymour is using Key's strategies. Smile, say want he thinks will appeal to a faction, and look harmless. Sadly the gullible and the racists read into his comments their positions.
Like Key he would have a faithful group to do the dirty work. Once again no journalist calls Seymour out. It was really pleasing to see journalists call out Key's rubbish.
Apathy lets these slimy beggars get away with so much.
Thing is, sooner or later ACt will have to do more than backseat drive and utter banal platitudes. They're going to have to "act" on their true nature, and see if that gets them 15% of the vote.
Another public slap down for the former prime minister of reckons, Jong Kee:
Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer has categorically denied former prime minister John Key’s claim that New Zealand could have paid $40 million for earlier access to its Covid-19 vaccine, saying the notion is “incorrect and baseless”.
This is in reply to a comment I feel love a few days ago. My apologies in advance I feel love, because I can no long find your comment, so I am going from memory of what you said. feel free to correct me.
My memory is you said that Trans people don't see the Standard as a safe place and that SUFW have organised or had intention that that should happen.
Let me assure you this isn't the case. SUFW have been too busy writing submissions and taking a case to the high court when there meetings were shut down. The commenters on the Standard who come from a Gender Critical, for want of a better term, position are long time regulars who comment on a range of issues. The likes of Sabine, Weka, Rosemary and Francesca. I suspect not too many SUFW followers know of the Standard because if their intention was to make the Standard "unsafe" for transs, there would have been a bombardment of over 200 new commenters. The one new commenter I am aware of is Joanne Perkins, who is trans and her comments have been welcomed by gender critical commenters.
Myself, I have been commeting on the Standard from around 2013. And for the record, I have never had a moderator warn me about my comment, been threatened by a ban or received a ban.
But you reminded me about the issue of safe spaces and I would urge everyone to read the link below. It is written by Paul Letham a cousellor who works with LBGT and is gay himself.
"i became a counsellor a decade ago for several reasons, the main one being that I wished to work within the broader LGBT community. That has always been my raison d'etre, my mission, my kaupapa"
"Much is made nowadays of "safe spaces" for minorities to helter in. Well if you want the ultimate safe space to shelter in, its a therapist's couch"
"go to the Rainbow Youth website and search for the word gay or lesbian in the search bar found to the upper left. You will find nothing"
I have always known and experienced the Standard as a place of robust and rigourous debate and discussion Ad. Sometimes it gets abusive, but usually the moderators pull people up on this. This is the nature of the Standard.
How do you imagine this "damage" might not have been done????? Gender Critical Women shutting up?
I would recomend you read the article I posted on Shadow box about safe spaces.
It’s already got a reputation as a place unsafe for trans people, which was probably the SUFWs plan, which is sad, as there are few safe places for them anyway, a “left” wing blog shouldn’t be.
You make the assumption that what I Feel Love said was accurate, even though they provided no examples, just stated it as if it was arguably true.
I am sure there is discomfort for some (not all) in reading the discussions on TS, because the No Debate policy has made it unnecessary to develop the skills for the "robust debate" TS is known for.
So much easier to say it is "unsafe" without providing examples, and to not listen or engage with integrity.
You have the grace to take I Feel Love's comment at face value. I consider it to be manipulative rather than informative when it is provided without examples. At least then, the discussion can move forward if concrete concerns are raised.
I believe many commenters here have tried to engage honestly. Discomfort may come from an unwillingness to do so, rather than comments being written intended to harm.
Suspect Ad has sprayed and walked away.. but maybe I do him a diservice………………I don't know if his intention was to induce guilt, but it is a dumpy sort of thing to say, especially if he doesn't follow up with a response, particularly to Weka who challenged him on the numbers of posts on BMDRR etc
to put safety into perspective, I remember long heated threads during the Assange debates where regular male commenters were arguing that having sex with a sleeping woman was ok and we had to not only argue against why that wasn't true but point to the NZ legislation on the matter. I had many women thank me and others for pushing back against the rape culture stuff because they felt they couldn't. Safety here doesn't mean that everyone gets to feel great or comfortable, it means that there are boundaries in place so that women can take part in the debate. If there is hostility towards women eg women that have been raped and want to talk about the politics of that, that creates an 'unsafe' environment and lots of women will just stay away.
I count at least five women authors, all feminists, who have stopped writing here because of the problems in the culture.
I worked hard as a commenter and then as an author over a number of years to create spaces here that a range of women would find easier to be in. It's been an uphill battle. What I loved about the Women's Space posts was that all of a sudden women were commenting.
Safety as a place where people's politics are never challenged is not TS. How to tell the difference between that and the safety I talk about above is not always easy, but I haven't seen much in the way of aggression or hostility to trans people here. It's obvious that arguing the politics is hard for some trans people. Whether that is harder than what women have to do I don't know, but obviously having a feminist writing here makes a difference, as does numbers. People can say it's unsafe here but I don't see many people doing the mahi to change that. For my part, I'm moderating here to try and make the place easier for trans people to take part in the debate, but that's not a matter of not discussing GCF etc. I'm open to people talking to me about how that moderation might be improved, but again, I'm not seeing much in the way of stepping up and doing the mahi.
I actually think that TS is one of the few online spaces where a relatively evenhanded debate can take place. It's certainly in stark contrast to somewhere like twitter.
If I was Trans I wouldn't come here to face the barage of accusations, lumping them in as predators, men in frocks, men in wigs etc. Even above, Anker talks about "not agreeing with the Trans Ideology" what is that? the ideology of wanting to be accepted and acknowledged, how disgusting of them /sarc. None of you need bother answering, the question is rhetorical. Maybe the Woman's Space is the best and safest place for your conversations on this topic (yes, I know its open mike) There would be less chance of offence being taken on either side.
Link to comments that accuse all trans people as predators, or those that refer to transwomen as you describe. When you do find them, we can then discuss or deride as fits.
You may then discover the word transphobic is used more often (inaccurately), when commentators have the audacity to say anything about the possible impact on women's rights. Or we can muse on the appropriation of existing language to mean something else (which is not only arrogant, it pollutes discussion – perhaps intentionally?}
"Anker talks about "not agreeing with the Trans Ideology" what is that? the ideology of wanting to be accepted and acknowledged, how disgusting of them /sarc. " Sarc indeed. Once again, provide links to back up your accusations, or we can just recognise them for the hyperbolic misdirections that they are.
Current Trans Activist Ideology will include such statements as:
Transwomen are women. Transmen are men.
Gender identity superceeds biological sex in regards to single sex spaces.etc.
If you really need to be informed then you haven't given the time and effort necessary to contribute meaningfully to this topic.
But nothing in your comment is a contribution really, is it?
You just couldn't refrain from giving any commentator who seeks reassurances for the impact on the rights of women and girls a telling off… again. Which included an instruction not to reply. Nothing of substance intended or included.
red blooded one trans ideology is separate from people who identify as transgender.
It is a theorectical construct that claims gender identity, an internal feeling trumps biology or the material reality of sex. It developed out of the theoretical writing of Judith Butler an academic.
So it is like criticizing marxism. Not all transgender people accept trans ideology. There was a trans women from the UK giving a submission to the BMDRR sub committee who said she didn't believe in the concept of gender identity. She had just transition from being a man to living as a women. She said she knows she is not a woman
If you don't know what gender identity ideology is, there's probably no way for you to understand what is being discussed /shrug. Doubly so if you don't want people to talk to you about it and explain.
red blooded one trans ideology is separate from people who identify as transgender.
It is a theorectical construct that claims gender identity, an internal feeling trumps biology or the material reality of sex. It developed out of the theoretical writing of Judith Butler an academic.
So it is like criticizing marxism. Not all transgender people accept trans ideology. There was a trans women from the UK giving a submission to the BMDRR sub committee who said she didn't believe in the concept of gender identity. She had just transition from being a man to living as a women. She said she knows she is not a woman
Thanks Weka. For some reason I missed this debate on the Standard. I understand what you say on it feeling unsafe for women here. I mean holy F..k. No wonder women left the site!
On another note did you know Elizabeth Kerekere has posted a picture on her FB pageof the SUFW spokewoman and a talked about hate groups submitting?
Of course senior Labour MPs immediately dissassociated themselves from a democratic membership decision–just as social democratic parties often do. As in the NZ Labour Party, the “Parliamentary wing” generally lords it over the ordinary members.
Dear Renters, A bad day for you, labours new legislation as outlined by David Parker is about to make your life a lot harder. You might want to call your labour MP and talk them through the real life consequences of this crap piece of policy.
"The Residential Tenancies Act changes will enable restrictions against residential tenancy terminations to be switched on and off by ministerial order – making the new changes flexible and responsive," Associate Housing Minister Poto Williams said.
"This is about future-proofing tenancy law and provides much-needed certainty and clarity for landlords and tenants," Williams said.
no, not that, the other piece of legislation – the one that will result in an even greater shortage of rental properties and a significant rise in rental costs – renters should be fuming about this.
New houses will be exempt for 20 years from changed tax rules aimed at cooling the housing market, but developers of long-term rental developments may be given an incentive.
The government has clarified which properties will be exempt from its move to stop property investors being able to offset interest on loans on residential properties against other income.
The policy, including an extension of the brightline test for taxing gains on investment properties, was unveiled in March, but details on finer points were lacking.
Your sarcasm is unable to conceal your limited thinking.
Previous to this policy there was little incentive for developers to build properties for the rental market specifically, now is there is one. It won't happen overnight (obviously) but I thought you people liked market incentives and tax write-offs to change behaviour? One of the alternative options was on the ballot in Berlin: Expropriation.
Public anger has been growing in Berlin over tenant rights and affordable housing, which were a major issue in the election campaign in the traditionally left-leaning German capital.
The group that initiated the referendum declared victory and called on the city senate to draft a law to expropriate and socialize large housing groups. Campaigners hope the city will take control of some 240,000 apartments.
Say what you like, just wait to see what happens over the next 24 months. There will be bugger all increase in supply and the downtrodden renters will be paying more in rental costs, it is economics 101.
Justifying this brilliantly thought out piece of legislation to renters heading into the next election will be one hell of task.
Just take a look at the current situation in Tauranga, a massive shortage of homes to buy or rent, no prospect of supply catching up with demand for at least ten years, no additional land to build on etc, etc.
This is farcical piece of legislation is going to hurt a lot of traditional labour voters.
Its a law like gravity: whenever a right-wing government is elected, they start attacking democracy. And now, after talking to their Republican and Tory and Fidesz chums at the International Democracy Union forum in Wellington, National is doing it here, announcing plans to remove election-day enrolment. Or, to put it ...
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Hi,I know it’s been awhile since there’s been any Webworm merch — and today that all changes!Over the last four months, I’ve been working with New Zealand artist Jess Johnson to create a series of t-shirts, caps and stickers that are infused with Webworm DNA — and as of right ...
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The Government needs to be clear with the people of the Nelson Marlborough region about the changes it is considering for the Nelson Hospital rebuild, Labour health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall said. ...
Ministers must front up about which projects it will push through under its Fast Track Approvals legislation, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
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. ...
The Minister Responsible for RMA Reform, Chris Bishop, today released his decision on twenty recommendations referred to him by the Wellington City Council relating to its Intensification Planning Instrument, after the Council rejected those recommendations of the Independent Hearings Panel and made alternative recommendations. “Wellington notified its District Plan on ...
Rape Awareness Week (6-10 May) is an important opportunity to acknowledge the continued effort required by government and communities to ensure that all New Zealanders can live free from violence, say Ministers Karen Chhour and Louise Upston. “With 1 in 3 women and 1 in 8 men experiencing sexual violence ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour has today announced that the Government will be delivering a more efficient Healthy School Lunches Programme, saving taxpayers approximately $107 million a year compared to how Labour funded it, by embracing innovation and commercial expertise. “We are delivering on our commitment to treat taxpayers’ money ...
New research on the impacts of extreme weather on coastal marine habitats in Tairāwhiti and Hawke’s Bay will help fishery managers plan for and respond to any future events, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. A report released today on research by Niwa on behalf of Fisheries New Zealand ...
Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Winston Peters will lead a broad political delegation on a five-stop Pacific tour next week to strengthen New Zealand’s engagement with the region. The delegation will visit Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, New Caledonia, and Tuvalu. “New Zealand has deep and ...
There has been a material decline in gas production according to figures released today by the Gas Industry Co. Figures released by the Gas Industry Company show that there was a 12.5 per cent reduction in gas production during 2023, and a 27.8 per cent reduction in gas production in the ...
Defence Minister Judith Collins tonight announced the recipients of the Minister of Defence Awards of Excellence for Industry, saying they all contribute to New Zealanders’ security and wellbeing. “Congratulations to this year’s recipients, whose innovative products and services play a critical role in the delivery of New Zealand’s defence capabilities, ...
Welcome to you all - it is a pleasure to be here this evening.I would like to start by thanking Greg Lowe, Chair of the New Zealand Defence Industry Advisory Council, for co-hosting this reception with me. This evening is about recognising businesses from across New Zealand and overseas who in ...
It is a pleasure to be speaking to you as the Minister for Digitising Government. I would like to thank Akolade for the invitation to address this Summit, and to acknowledge the great effort you are making to grow New Zealand’s digital future. Today, we stand at the cusp of ...
New Zealand is urging both Israel and Hamas to agree to an immediate ceasefire to avoid the further humanitarian catastrophe that military action in Rafah would unleash, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “The immense suffering in Gaza cannot be allowed to worsen further. Both sides have a responsibility to ...
A new online data dashboard released today as part of the Government’s school attendance action plan makes more timely daily attendance data available to the public and parents, says Associate Education Minister David Seymour. The interactive dashboard will be updated once a week to show a national average of how ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced Rosemary Banks will be New Zealand’s next Ambassador to the United States of America. “Our relationship with the United States is crucial for New Zealand in strategic, security and economic terms,” Mr Peters says. “New Zealand and the United States have a ...
The Government is considering creating a new tier of minerals permitting that will make it easier for hobby miners to prospect for gold. “New Zealand was built on gold, it’s in our DNA. Our gold deposits, particularly in regions such as Otago and the West Coast have always attracted fortune-hunters. ...
Minister for Trade Todd McClay today announced that New Zealand and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) will commence negotiations on a free trade agreement (FTA). Minister McClay met with his counterpart UAE Trade Minister Dr Thani bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi in Dubai, where they announced the launch of negotiations on a ...
New Zealand Sign Language Week is an excellent opportunity for all Kiwis to give the language a go, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. This week (May 6 to 12) is New Zealand Sign Language (NZSL) Week. The theme is “an Aotearoa where anyone can sign anywhere” and aims to ...
Six tertiary students have been selected to work on NASA projects in the US through a New Zealand Space Scholarship, Space Minister Judith Collins announced today. “This is a fantastic opportunity for these talented students. They will undertake internships at NASA’s Ames Research Center or its Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), where ...
New Zealanders will be safer because of a $1.9 billion investment in more frontline Corrections officers, more support for offenders to turn away from crime, and more prison capacity, Corrections Minister Mark Mitchell says. “Our Government said we would crack down on crime. We promised to restore law and order, ...
The OECD’s latest report on New Zealand reinforces the importance of bringing Government spending under control, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The OECD conducts country surveys every two years to review its members’ economic policies. The 2024 New Zealand survey was presented in Wellington today by OECD Chief Economist Clare Lombardelli. ...
The Government has delivered on its election promise to provide a financially sustainable model for Auckland under its Local Water Done Well plan. The plan, which has been unanimously endorsed by Auckland Council’s Governing Body, will see Aucklanders avoid the previously projected 25.8 per cent water rates increases while retaining ...
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 ...
The Minister Responsible for GCSB and the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security have been notified of this review, and have been provided a finalised Terms of Reference. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Minglu Chen, Senior Lecturer, Government and International Relations, University of Sydney Robert Way/Shutterstock As the past few years have illustrated so clearly, the Australia-China relationship is complicated. As such, it is crucial for Australians to develop a more nuanced understanding of ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mariana Campbell, Research Lecturer, Conservation, Charles Darwin University Marilyn Connell Australian freshwater turtles are facing an alarming trend. Almost half of these species are listed as vulnerable, endangered or critically endangered. The Mary River turtle (Elusor macrurus) is one of Australia’s ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Debbie Passey, Digital Health Research Fellow, The University of Melbourne Algorithms have become integral to our lives. From social media apps to Netflix, algorithms learn your preferences and prioritise the content you are shown. Google Maps and artificial intelligence are nothing without ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Josephine Barbaro, Associate Professor, Principal Research Fellow, Psychologist, La Trobe University Unsplash We’ve come a long way in terms of understanding that everyone thinks, interacts and experiences the world differently. In the past, autistic people, people with attention deficit hyperactive disorder ...
PNG Post-Courier Papua New Guinea’s deputy opposition leader James Nomane has accused the government of “reckless economic management” that has forced devaluation to manage loan repayments in foreign currency and placate the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Prime Minister James Marape “must stop lying to the people of Papua New Guinea”, ...
Welcome to The Spinoff Bookseller Confessional, in which we get to know Aotearoa’s booksellers. This week: Jane Arthur, author of Brown Bird, and former bookseller at Good Books.The book I wish I’d writtenI have been working on not comparing myself to others. On accepting that what I can ...
The final decision on the Wellington District Plan makes it official: High-density housing is legal across most of Wellington. Housing minister Chris Bishop has announced his decision on the Wellington District Plan, approving a series of amendments to radically upzone most of Wellington, allowing tens of thousands of new townhouses ...
Analysis by Dr Bryce Edwards – Democracy Project (https://democracyproject.nz)Political scientist, Dr Bryce Edwards. “Follow the money” is the classic directive to journalists trying to understand where power and influence lie in society. In terms of uncovering who influences various New Zealand political parties and governments, it therefore pays to ...
RNZ News As Israel presses ahead with strikes in Rafah and seizing the Rafah crossing from Egypt, aid agencies are sounding the alarm of a “catastrophic humanitarian situation”. Rafah was “significant” because it was the only part in Gaza that had not been terribly damaged by the conflict, United Nations ...
With funding set to be scrapped for the Hamilton-Auckland commuter train, Te Huia enthusiast Georgie Dansey argues for it to be thrown a lifeline. It’s 5.45am and the chain of my crappy old bike falls off slugging up the one hill in Hamilton. I contemplate yeeting the bike into the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anna Cooke, Honorary Fellow, School of the Environment, The University of Queensland We feel ecological grief when we lose places, species or ecosystems we value and love. These losses are a growing threat to mental health and wellbeing globally. We all see ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Shauna Brail, Associate Professor, Institute for Management & Innovation, University of Toronto A shift to hybrid and remote work continues to affect worker presence in Toronto’s downtown.(Shutterstock) Downtown Toronto, the core of Canada’s largest city, continues to reel from the lingering ...
Responding to an Auditor-General's report slamming failures in the administration of the 2023 General Election, Taxpayers’ Union Policy and Public Affairs Manager, James Ross, said: ...
Productivity apps now make up a big chunk of the software market. But do they work? And why do they all have AI integrations?Despite being firmly on the record as a physical planner fan, I sometimes dream of something better than my pretty diary and its scrawled, ugly, interior ...
The Taxpayers’ Union says the Beehive need to lead by example, following reports of more than $50,000 spent upgrading video conferencing equipment and furniture in the Prime Minister’s office. Taxpayers’ Union Campaign Manager, Connor Molloy, ...
An objective list of the 50 most powerful people in New Zealand, as judged by the Spinoff Editorial Board. It’s power list season, baby, and we want in on the action. Sure, there’s the rich list and the powerful “c-suite” list and the young people with power (hmmm) but here, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Thalia Anthony, Professor of Law, University of Technology Sydney ShutterstockThis article contains information on deaths in custody and the names of deceased people, and describes ongoing colonial violence towards Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. First Nations people in Australia ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alex Simpson, Senior Lecturer in Criminology, Macquarie University Netflix Baby Reindeer’s phenomenal success has much to do with its writer and lead, Richard Gadd, who plays Donny in a tender semi-autobiographical account of sexual abuse, harassment and stalking. Gadd’s story has ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clare Collins, Laureate Professor in Nutrition and Dietetics, University of Newcastle KarolinaGrabowska/Pexels If you didn’t have food allergies as a child, is it possible to develop them as an adult? The short answer is yes. But the reasons why are much ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Paul Moon, Professor of History, Auckland University of Technology Ans Westra, self-portrait, c. 1963. National Library ref AWM-0705-F They try but invariably fail – those writers who believe they are capable of encapsulating in prose or verse the essence of ...
Stewart Sowman-Lund looks at the growing concern around the world in this extract from The Bulletin. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. What’s all this? When Covid-19 arrived on our shores in early 2020, some argued we were too slow, or crucially, ill-prepared for a pandemic. So ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Franco Montalto, Professor of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering and Director, Sustainable Water Resource Engineering Laboratory, Drexel University Water runs into a storm drain in a Los Angeles alley on Aug. 19, 2023, during Tropical Storm Hilary.Citizen of the Planet/Universal Images ...
The inquest into the death of Gore toddler Lachlan Jones has turned up a new witness who says he saw two teenagers and a small child in a high vis vest in the area where the boy’s body was found the day he died. Lachie’s body was discovered face up ...
Stories from the tenancy trenches, featuring spider infestations, cupboard rats and same-sex discrimination. Lucy’s brother was living in a damp 1930s building in Mt Eden where “he had to tie the cupboard doors closed so the rats didn’t get in”. Although he shared custody of his six-year-old son, his property ...
Simeon Brown, Chris Luxon, and Wayne Brown climbed into a hole and announced a plan to solve Auckland’s water woes. This is how it’ll work. New Zealand’s pipes are munted. They’re cracked and leaking, and struggling to handle all the extra poos excreted by our rising population. It’s a big, ...
I knew Taika Waititi quite well when he was a kid. His mother lived in a tall narrow house in Aro St, and my youngest sister had a similar house two doors along. They were both single mums, they each had a son aged seven. Taika and my nephew Stepan ...
Opinion: “As time passes, knowledge of the circumstances of the August 2016 outbreak will fade and its immediate impact will be lost.” This statement is from the 2017 report of the Official Inquiry into the Havelock North campylobacteriosis outbreak. The then National-led government established the inquiry after the outbreak left ...
Opinion: Nicholas Khoo looks at two key points in the high-stakes foreign policy pact debate – and asks if NZ can engage with as little drama as possible. The post Where to next for the Aukus ruckus? appeared first on Newsroom. ...
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Opinion: ‘Reference-class forecasting’ is at the heart of improving pricing a project and identifying the expected timeframe but it doesn’t appear to be in use here The post ‘Think fast and act slowly’ is failing big projects appeared first on Newsroom. ...
What do a sombrero in Argentina and cognitive driving tests have in common? Don’t worry, we’re not setting up a bad joke. Hinengaro Clinic dementia clinician Gregory Winkelman has the answer on today’s episode of The Detail. “We ask a patient’s spouse or son or daughter: If you went to ...
Wellington long jumper Phoebe Edwards is back and she’s having fun again. Until this year, Edwards, a top athlete in her teens, had never competed as a senior athlete in New Zealand. In March, the 26-year-old won a national long jump title in a lifetime best of 6.28m after ...
After replacing a fifth of their caucus in just four months, the Greens’ opportunity to reset, reshuffle and refocus on the Government is quickly slipping away The post Persistent Green Party scandals delay caucus reset appeared first on Newsroom. ...
ANALYSIS:By Olli Hellmann, University of Waikato When New Zealanders commemorate Anzac Day today on April 25, it’s not only to honour the soldiers who lost their lives in World War I and subsequent conflicts, but also to mark a defining event for national identity. The battle of Gallipoli against ...
By Robin Martin, RNZ News reporter A New Zealand local authority, Whanganui District Council, has passed a motion calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, condemnation of all acts of violence and terror against civilians on both sides of the conflict and the immediate return of hostages. It comes as ...
Asia Pacific Report The Aotearoa chapter of the Women’s International league for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) has appealed to the New Zealand government to call out Israel over the “cruel and barbaric use of force” in Gaza and demand a permanent ceasefire. The league’s open letter was sent to Prime ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The Albanese government will invest $566 million over a decade on data, maps and other tools to promote exploration and development in Australia’s resources industry. The project will fund “the first comprehensive map of what’s ...
Asia Pacific Report Following an open letter by Auckland University academics speaking out in support of their students’ right to protest against the genocidal Israeli war on Gaza, a group of academics at Otago University have today also called on New Zealand academic institutions to “repair colonial violence” and end ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Linda J. Graham, Professor and Director of the Centre for Inclusive Education, Queensland University of Technology Ryan Tauss/ Unsplash, CC BY Two male students have been expelled from a Melbourne private school for their involvement in a list ranking female students. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Martin, Visiting Fellow, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University The Reserve Bank is now assuming Australians will see no interest rate cuts this year – and quite possibly none before the next federal election, due next May. That’s ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Hayward, Emeritus Professor of Public Policy, RMIT University The Victorian budget offered more of the same on Tuesday, with the only change being how the budget papers were packaged. The usual shrink wrap was gone, hinting at savings in the pages ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The Coalition is demanding extensive amendments to the government’s legislation targeting non-citizens who refuse to co-operate with their removal. In a dissenting report to the senate inquiry into the legislation, the Coalition says it ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Vanita Yadav, Senior Research Fellow, Urban Transformations Research Centre, Western Sydney University Brett Boardman/Belvoir The complex and grappling issue of violence against women takes centre stage in the soul-stirring solo dance drama Nayika: A Dancing Girl. During a dinner conversation ...
Disruption to patient care from a nationwide junior doctors strike is bordering on unsafe, a senior doctor claims, despite what health officials say. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sarah Diepstraten, Senior Research Officer, Blood Cells and Blood Cancer Division, Walter and Eliza Hall Institute Ground Picture/Shutterstock The anti-cancer drug abemaciclib (also known as Vernezio) has this month been added to the Australian Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) to treat certain ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dominic McAfee, Postdoctoral researcher, marine ecology, University of Adelaide Robbie Porter, OzFish Unlimited Around Australia, hundreds of people are coming together to help a once-prized, but decimated and largely forgotten marine ecosystem. They’re busy restoring Australia’s native oyster and mussel reefs. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sara Webb, Lecturer, Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing, Swinburne University of Technology Austin Human/Unsplash How does Earth stop meteors from hitting Earth and hurting people? –Asher, 6 years 11 months, New South Wales Alright, let’s embark on a meteor ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rory Mulcahy, Associate Professor of Marketing, University of the Sunshine Coast Professional sports organisations regularly promote and develop initiatives to support diversity, equity and inclusion. While sport has the power to change attitudes by sparking conversations about political issues and social ...
Comment: The weekly Monday post-Cabinet press conference is a useful forum for observing Christopher Luxon and how he is developing into the job of Prime Minister. He attempts to convey the impression of a man of action, speaking fast, delivering memorised National Party strategies in a connect-the-slogans kind of way, ...
Double votes, missing ballot boxes, tired tech and stressed staff: how tick-tallying went astray at last year’s election. Cast your mind back to November 2023, that bleary-eyed post-election period duringwhichwewaited, andwaited, for a coalition deal to be hammered out. A distraction from the hotel-hopping of our ...
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9.50 mins long, mary. Hope you like the soundtrack.
All I had to video my stream denizens with initially was 2 small 3G mobiles, with only 2 megapixel cameras. This meant I had to get up really close to the creatures I’ve filmed – within a foot or two. But being THAT close to my subjects makes it feel very rewarding that, over time, they’ve learned to accept my presence & relax & just behave very normally around me.
I didn’t realise that eels are fish. I originally thought they were a separate biological family of aquatic life. But they ARE fish, just with a highly specialised body shape, perfectly suited to navigating rivers, streams & smaller waterways.
What’s captivated me in this video (eventually 3 NZ Native Longfin eels turned up together) is that it shows how much eels have achieved mastery of their environment.
They have an elegant & graceful way of undulating thru te wai, forwards, backwards, circling, doing head-over-tail loops, all the while sniffing, & exploring the stream bed. Elivira Longfin even stands on her tail in deep water at my Eel Spot, like a dolfin, to get her head out of the water when I feed her.
But they are also capable of instantly shifting to Great White Shark-like bursts of raw speed & strength. I call them my river sharks.
The fluffy little yellow & black duckling attrition rate in my stream is about 95%. I’ve seen Elvira suddenly roar up out of the depths right into the middle of a gaggle of ducklings swimming along upstream with their mum. She completely missed getting any that time, but I suspect the bigger eels like Ella & Elvira (four-footers) do take at least some of the baby waterbirds.
Fantastic stuff Gezza! Being able to connect with nature regularly like that is a such a joy.
Thank you, weka. Much appreciated.
The stream's just over my fence. I go thru my gate and climb 20 feet down the periwinkle-covered stream bank, and, even in my city suburb it's private & peaceful down there.
The birdlife here is wonderful too. As I type, I have a male tui singing its heart out in a pittosporum tree over the fence outside my kitchen, after he's visited the bowl of sugar-water I put out every day for them. And to think I lived here for 6 years, going across the bridge to catch the train to work and home again and never even gave it a glance. Until I retired.
I'm in no hurry to move from Pookden Manor & Gezza's (bird) Cafe.
pretty interesting what we see when we slow down and have the time to notice.
I've got frogs locally, they've just started singing in the past few weeks, not sure exactly where. Someone must have a pond, but a decent sized one by the sound of them.
Thanks Gez. Nothing kinder to the spirit than to be relaxingly nurtured by nature. Watching the eels cruising about in their stream to the great music of Albertross by Fleetwood Mac, was almost hypnotic. I felt myself drifting.
From memory (and I do stand to be corrected here), your opening piece of music Change Is Gonna Come was originally written and sung by the late Sam Cooke circa 1964, the same year he died. It depicted the era perfectly, when racism and hate was running rife in the USA, particularly in the southern states. Cooke a coloured man himself, put a lot of emotion into that that piece of music, because he experienced the hate and discrimination of the time. You can hear and feel it. Even today when I hear it, the song still brings a tear to my eye, as it did all those years ago when I first heard it. IMO Cooke's song was and still is up there with some of the best protest songs to come out of the 1960s, up there with Bob Dylan, Peter Paul & Mary, Joan Baez, Judy Collins et al.
Sorry I prattled on there. I got carried away with my past … hee hee. Many thanks for the great video and your stories of the critters you live with. Delightful.
You didn’t prattle on at all, mary. A very worthwhile & well-written read.
I knew that Sam Cooke wrote Change Is Gonna Come, but I didn’t know the background to it, & was very interested to learn about it. Seal also did a version of it. I particularly like the brief sax solo in Aaron Neville’s version – very ethereal, to my ears anyway.
I note David Seymour's comments regarding the vaccination code being used for Maori in Auckland has not hurt his standing in the polls and may have boosted his personal support and that for the ACT party.
Wouldn't be surprised. It was an obvious naked appeal to the Māori-bashing element in our society. It put me right off him tho. I thought he was doing ok – better than Collins – as Opposition leader contended up until then.
😠 Grrr! *contender
He quite obviously is doing ok. ACT is the highest it has been in a Colmar-Brunton poll.
Yes, he IS doing well. And I don’t think that’s a bad thing. National needs to get itself sorted with s credible leader. This might be the impetus for them to bite the bullet & fire Collins.
It doesn’t change present representation in Parliament but it does give Seymour even more oxygen in the media. That said, Seymour must be hyperventilating constantly while Labour and Green Ministers are breathing through the nose and doing their part in governing this country.
Stupidly racist dog whistling, works well with stupid racists for gaining votes.
Even David Seymour should be able to understand basic maths: 10-15% is very good for a minor party, and completely useless for winning elections.
Shane Reti called Seymour's comments "disgraceful". That's the deputy leader of the only friends ACT can ever hope to have. If Seymour keeps this up, he could win the war on the Right. Ardern would just have to settle for winning a landslide.
If the move away from the Center Left continues over the next 2 years then the election in 2023 will be much closer than you suggest. Labour and The Greens combined is only 51% at the moment.
Seymour is riding on the fact that people are presently seeing his outward persona, as shilled by the media, who are desperately siezing on anything, that can get their favoured right wing Governmant to poll better. Even had to wheel out Key and Henry.
Like Dunne, and United Future, after the public had a good look at them, once everyone sees the morally bankrupt and truly frightening philosophy and polices behind ACT, I’m sure that they will be back to voting numbers that fit in a telephone booth.
Of course racist dog whitles are always good for a percentage of the vote, but ACT has little substance or widely supported policy beyond that.
What specific policy from ACT is going to scare off the voters?
Asset thefts/sorry sales, privatisation, are not very popular with most people. We are constantly reminded of how much damage it does, with every power bill.
Neither is cutting welfare.
As we have seen recently, even New Zealands right wing are rather keen on State funded welfare. The main compliant has been they are not getting enough of it.
To name just two of ACT’s philosophical policy positions.
Racism “scares” most people these days. We are getting past it. Even National MP’s are finding their Māori side. The times when a Brash could go up 20%by making racist noises, are gone. Fortunately.
???
Don't you even look at ACT's policies or aims?
I thought you were a supporter?
To be fair my comment involving the questions marks was made before you edited your one from just stating Assets
Asset sales are not a major part of ACT policies. The last time they made a big deal of them was the proposal to sell off Land corp land to help fund conservation.
Those philosophical ACT policy positions certainly scare this voter. Not keen on their leader’s racist dog whistling – no doubt it appeals to racists.
You are hardly representative of a swing voter though I suspect.
True, hope I'm largely immune to the racist dog whistles emitted by Seymour and his ilk. Who knows, maybe he'll recruit a few more Nat voters to his cause, but will it be enough two years hence?
Ah yes, who remembers the Pakeha Party and their motto "Whatever Maori get we want it to" (sic) – if only they'd wanted Māori life expectancy; that would have cut down the dog whistling a bit.
The same one that is sinking National.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/300417332/covid19-nz-act-says-time-to-give-up-on-getting-to-zero-cases-and-on-lockdowns-and-fear
What specific policy from ACT do you suppose has increased support from the voters?
Not just one but a range. ACT has provided a number of alternatives that the government could follow to such issues as the Housing crisis, 3-waters, and dealing with Covid-19.
The point of being (in) Opposition is to Act as an alternative government. This means you need to come up with policies that differentiate. Such policies can and must then be scrutinised and criticised. ACT (still) is a long way off from its goal; the Greens have achieved it, more or less.
And that is why the Greens are doing so well while ACT is languishing….oh wait a minute… perhaps your analysis is wrong.
Try harder.
Try answering my question to you below.
Done
Gosman ACT are thriving in a centre right vacuum where the greens are competing with a party twice the size of National.
Once National finds a credible leader ACT 's high point will drift back to its base. which will be bigger because of the shambles of National. But ACT's purist straitjacket economic policy will affect Nationals ability to garner moderate swing voters.
What alternative policy of The Greens has been scrutinised in any meaningful way?
In the 2020 Election Campaign, you mean?
Anyway, as I have pointed already, the Greens do their bit governing this country; they are not in Opposition and not actively campaigning like ACT and National. All Government proposals and policies are heavily scrutinised, in Parliament, in the media, and in public. Once cannot treat bullet points and slogans in the same way and this is the Key difference between ACT & National and Labour & the Greens.
I look forward to the polished turd that is National’s peer-reviewed Covid-19 policy or will it be Key’s non-peer-reviewed bullet shit.
I expect a fair number of moderate folk find a determination to repeal the firearms act and waltz down the US path of weekly school shootings not to be the future they are looking for.
Not as simple as that because gangs.
That is not a policy of the ACT party
A determination not to have an arms register, and a promise of "the world's best firearm laws" with no details whatsoever lets the reader put anything they please into that policy void.
It pleases me to assign an outcome consistent with the unworkable antisocial tendencies that characterize ACT policies in general – splendid stuff in a margin of error party dying for a few mouse-clicks, but not to be mistaken for responsible policy from a serious party.
There is plenty of detai. For example here is the detail on the various category of firearms that ACT would introduce.
– Class 1 for bolt/lever/pump actions and .22 rimfire or smaller semi-automatics
– Class 2 for all other semi-automatics (with sporting use allowed)
– Class 3 for pistols (pistol clubs)
– Class 4 for collectors
– Class 5 for theatrical
– etc.
What about that is unclear or suggestive of a free for all?
ACT’s bottom line is to repeal this year’s Arms Legislation Act, … and freedom.
A little nod there to US style gun-nut-jobbery – but no actual suggestion of what this apparently important reform would entail.
Yes, some categories, but little or nothing about how they might be restricted or policed. This is of course politically common – the actual nuts can infer that open slather will be available, the rational folk will presume rational rules, but the policy remains unwritten.
The best firearms policy in the world is an extravagant claim, and its authors have no record of any of their other policies being considered the best in the world. Why would their firearms policy be any better? Had ACT confined themselves to plausible or verifiable claims about their firearms policy they would not have lost credibility as they have in this case.
Ummm… read the rest of the policy. They set out as range of actions NONE of which suggest an open slather on gun control. All repealing the gun laws introduced last year would do is take us back to a position we were before. ACT policy is then to introduce a more nuanced law with broader support especially among lawful gun owners.
When a white supremacist murdered 51 people. Great.
ACT policy is then to introduce a more nuanced law
With the nuances helpfully elided so that they cannot be discussed.
The best policy in the world – without even bothering to scrutinize gun policies worldwide. This is the kind of magical thinking that also characterizes their economic policies.
You didn't read further than the start of the policy quite obviously.
On the contrary – I think I've put more time into it than its authors. Tragic really.
Actually, it is.
https://www.act.org.nz/firearms
Could you let us know the last election National won by alienating the centre ground? Cheers.
Hey Gosman, you're rushing around everywhere repeating the same talking point but you haven't answered this.
Everything else you say is meaningless until you can.
No party wins elections by alienating the centre. I'm not sure what your point is though.
I think you do.
Nope I don't. Perhaps you could elucidate for me.
I can’t do the thinking for you, especially not when your rapid-fire commenting consumes about 98% of the oxygen entering into your brain with the remaining 2% in charge of your essential bodily functions such as keeping you upright and alive.
Heh–“only 51%”.
There is more at play here than Parliamentary party politics, new gen voters will potentially outnumber boomers in 2023 and definitely in 2026 and beyond.
Existential matters like COVID and Climate Disaster (heard of tipping points Gosman) will likely become the main concerns.
And yet The Greens have made no significant gains since the election last year despite your suggestion that the political environment is ripe for them.
Of course media almost totally ignoring the Greens, and constantly publishing Seymour's and Collins every brain fart, has nothing to do with it?
The Greens have made a couple of invidious compromises, but Labour is recovering a part of their vote they haven't had since The Great Betrayal.
Don’t know about you, but the daily 1 pm press conference/release is my daily concern feed. My mental wellbeing rises and falls with the numbers of new cases, positives who were infectious in the community, and other Covid trivia. We live in interesting times.
Covid is in no way an existential matter. Even in countries where it is running rampant it is only impacting in any significant way a small percentage of the population. That is not stating it isn't a serious public health issue. However it is no way a threat to humanity's continued survival.
Kaboom!
You have just blown any credibility you had left.
With one strawman you fob off the concerns (AKA “fears”) of many Kiwis and the global and local impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the wellbeing and existence of many people. You’re as unfit to comment on these sorts of things as ACT and National are unfit to govern NZ. Grow up.
Do you honestly think the Covid-19 pandemic threaten the existence of humanity? It has a mortality rate of less than 5% (and much less than 1% for vaccinated people). On what basis do you claim it is an existential threat?
Don’t Act like a dimwit troll, thanks. You can read English and it is not hard to understand my comment. When did you stop beating your wife and fucking your pig?
There are various strands that link COVID and Climate Change which is why I referenced both in regards of “existential”.
Denial blanks it out for some perhaps. But science is onto it and there are links between climate driven species extinction, change of habitats and behaviour, interaction with humans, and virus transmission between species for starters.
Viruses seem immediate and push the concern button right now, while Climate Change can seem more a “slow armageddon” but both will kill many humans make no mistake.
Dr Shane Reti would say that, as the National Māori MP, and he might even mean it, but then again, National would do just about anything to form a Government in 2023 and Dr Reti is not likely to be its Leader.
And you're proud of that? Yech.
I disagree with the left wing narrative on that issue. I am pointing out that all the people who were arguing that it was horribly racist of him to do that and he would lose support as a result were wrong based on the outcome of this poll.
It was horribly racist, and of course he didn't lose support.
Who said he would (I don't mean on here)? Nobody who has seen it happen again again before … works for a minority, but not for a win.
I don't recall reading that he was horribly racist AND would lose support.
I remember reading and thinking it:
1 was racist
2 would appeal to racists
3 could be another hurdle now to getting more people vaccinated once they find out they were made fun of and thought to be nothing but ACT political fodder.
His rise has more to do with the turmoil in the Nats than any inherent favouring of ACTs policies. .
lol
well over 100 comments when I opened my computer earlier, thought something interesting had happened.
Turned out to be Gosman dreaming of Prime Minister Seymour being thrown into office via a wave of racist support.
Is there a poll of polls graph anywhere?
One with trend lines.
.
What about here?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opinion_polling_for_the_next_New_Zealand_general_election
Thanks 😀
what we really need is one of those flow graphs that show not just where voters are going but where they’re coming from. UK polling has used them
ACT would have received the wooden stake treatment years ago from NZ electors, but NZ National kept the tumour masquerading as that party’s heart ticking, via multi year Epsom electorate deals.
And now years later ACT has adapted to the toxic modern political environment–Trump style, supporting gun lovers, racists and Incels–while National has not so well.
Does anyone remember Colin James poll of polls? it would be hard to run one now given the paucity of credible and regular political polls. So it is more difficult to discern whether ACT rising is the right vote jiggling about or something new.
It is quite clear given the recent polling results that the combined center right vote is around 40% and the combined center left vote is in the low 50's. It is also clear that ACT has increased it's share of the vote from 8 % to the mid teens whereas National is stuck in the mid 20's, the Greens are no better than where they were at the last election, and Labout has slipped back to being below 50%.
It's voters deserting National (obvs) but it's also the general "anti" vote, which has always been there. Winston was the vehicle for decades, and while NZF support is not negligible, he can't get one-tenth of Seymour's coverage outside Parliament.
For the "bugger you lot" vote, there's no JLR, no religious Right, no options at all really.
Except National is pretty much on the same amount of the vote they got at the last election.
Good, and somebody should tell Judith who was going to step down as Leader if the result was as shambolic as it was indeed.
Poll results:
National down – Good.
Labour down – Not so Good.
Greens the same, – Bad,
Act up – Tragic
.
What has happened to the Green Party?
(Or not happened)
Like a fly trapped in amber.
I am guessing that the Green Party poll results are showing that their core support is staying loyal, but they are not building support or reaching any new voters.
Tragic and unexplainable when the approaching climate crisis has never been more apparent.
James Shaw can say it is because the pandemic has dominated the headlines and sucked up all media attention.
OK. I suppose. Why haven't the Green Party got anything to say about the pandemic?
I would have thought that there was a lot of positive stuff a Green Party could say, about the government's pandemic response. That mightn't be newsworthy, I 'spose
But I would have thought that there are a lot of conclusions that the Green Party could draw from the government's tremendous response to the covid crisis that they could demand be applied to the climate crisis.
That sort of gutsy demand might be newsworthy.
But silence,
Also; this sort of thing doesn't inspire much confidence;
Climate Change; Anatomy of a Mistake
Where is Marama Davidson?
I thought the Green Party had a dual leadership?
No wonder the Green Party can't lift there poll ratings, their public profile during this administration has been non-existant.
Meantime ACTs rise in the polls is tragic.
Compared to the Green Party silence, David Seymour has an opinion on everything. subject you care to mention. And doesn't hesitate to voice it,
They do have things to say about the pandemic. They are wanting to spend even more taxpayers money of boosting benefits even more and slapping rent controls on. People aren't buying it because they don't like it.
You mean you don't like it.
But even that has had little more than a paragraph in the media.
So. How could the public take a position on something they don't know about.
I love the tax payers money bit. When even ACT supporters and the tax Dodgers union are taking "tax payer money".
As those on welfare are generally on it for less than two years and are tax payers for the rest of their lives. Surely that is "returning more of tax payers money" back to the tax payers.
Not just me. The electorate hasn't warmed to their proposals hence why they have not increased their support since the last election.
No man has landed on Mars either. FFS, you are such a simpleton commenter who sucks up way too much oxygen here, as usual. You’re a poster boy for ACT and National alike.
And businesses are not demanding financial support from Government AKA the Taxpayer? You’re so one-eyed you cannot even see it.
The difference is that David Seymour is firmly in the opposition and comfortably so, while the Greens are in the dilemma of not wanting to upset Labour too much, after all they need Labour to get into Government in the future. Which would be the next election. I would not expect them to do much until about a year before election, when they will again be trumping their stellar manifestos to entice people to consider them. Not sure it will work for them, considering the results of the Green Party in Germany.
One of the more interesting points in the German election is the numbers of first voters, who preferred by a very slim margin the FDP to the Greens. 23% vs 22%. The Greens could not even convince the first and young voters to flock to them in large numbers.
David Seymour is in the Right opposition.
I had been hoping that the Green Party could have acted more of a Left opposition to the government. Praising the government when they are doing good, which I think they should do more of. But also giving the government their honest critique when they think the government are letting the environment and climate down. Which I also think they should do more of
What I find unforgiveable is their silence, especially on the pressing matters of the day.
So disappointing.
Certainly been disappointing No Right Turn… the response James Shaw gave to an OIA request around Carbon pricing was um below par…
Something along the lines of Im not going to release those documents or the names of said documents because they're already in the public domain 😂.
Jeez could at least give the guy the titles so he knows where to look to get the information he wants…
The deathy silence from the Greens on Homelessness and Emergency accomodation has been disappointing.
Yes, and it is his right to be where he wants to be on the line of politicals identities that exists between left and right. And it seems that plenty enough people in this country consider him and his party as valid an option as the green party. Go figure.
Nature abhors a vaccume.
The rise of Trump is proof positive.
The Right will move into the political vaccume created by the failure of the Left, (and Centreleft), to address the major issues of the day,
Be it war, be it climate justice, be it inequity.
When liberal half measures dealing with these issues, don't cut it. The Right move in to fill the space with their simplistic narrative. It is immigrants, it is foreigners, or Muslims or Jews, or George Soros and Bill Gates.
Pick your Right Wing conspiracy theory, and run with it, no matter how outrageous or untrue.
Many commentators spend a lot time speculating on when Judith Collins will be replaced as leader of the National Party.
That’s not how it works.
Judith Collins will not be replaced as leader of the National Party. Collins is biding her time, hoping the Left's half measures in addressing climate change or poverty or even failure to 'eliminate' the virus out of fear of upsetting the banksters and financial markets, opens up space for a right wing narrative to gain a foothold.
All Collins needs to do then, is to channel her inner Trump.
The Nats. know or sense this. Which is why Judith Collins will remain their leader for the forseeable future.
The rise of an effete Right Wing nobody like Seymour is an indicator. When the time is right, Collins will overtake Seymour in Right Wing malice.
Until then, Collins is contnet to let Seymour have his brief moment in the sun.
Everybody has an opinion, when prompted, and the TS commentariat is proof of this, but Seymour is not the ‘people’s hero’ nor is he a visionary leader, but he does promote himself rather successfully as a thought & opinion leader and some kind of ‘freedom fighter’. Seymour reminds me of someone and that didn’t end well. Mind you, Seymour and ACT MPs are not burdened with any real governing responsibility; they can say/tweet whatever they like.
Act is still mainly being treated as in their lonely past, as though Seymour is their only MP. They have yet to work out how to allow the other MP's to front issues for which they are the spokesperson, without revealing how nutty they are.
DR RENEE LIANG has written much of what I couldn't put my finger on re Key's piece. A stinging, factual critique on Newsroom.
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/covid-is-not-a-choice-for-sick-children-sir-john
Lovely. Keys is a portrait of white privilege in New Zealand. Good to see someone unafraid to boldly state that fact.
Keys sees the world through a tiny lens focussed only on the interests of himself and those close to him.
Dr Liang shows us what he wants to hide.
ACT lays out its death plan.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/300417332/covid19-nz-act-says-time-to-give-up-on-getting-to-zero-cases-and-on-lockdowns-and-fear
Pretty sure this plan will create more fear, not less.
How will it create more fear?
More Covid in the community, more pressure on hospitals, more sickness, more death.
More fear.
No. Once vaccination has reached a certain level the ACT party is stating we should not fear opening up and dealing with any outbreaks like most of the rest of the World are now doing. It is this fear of allowing even one case of Covid-19 in the community regardless of the level of our vaccination rate and public health capacity which is what needs to be addressed.
What certain vaccination level is that? Is he proposing we hold a referendum?
One of the things which has made NZ’s Covid response so successful is that we didn’t isolate the vulnerable only. Isolating the vulnerable, othering them, reminds me of cruel totalitarian despot behaviour.
Oh, it’s ACT.
If your solution is never to open up the borders and manage outbreaks only via lockdowns I think you will find people will grow tired of that ESPECIALLY when they see the rest of the World just getting on with living with the virus as they do with any virus that become endemic. The government will start bleeding more and more support if they continue to promote that as the policy and that is why they are slowly distancing themselves from it.
Gosman you obviously don't have children or grandchildren.
The healthworkers in this country don't matter to you.As they will face a massive increase in workload and stress after years of under funding.
With ACT's policies they will have even lower funding.
Except ACT's policy is to increase funding for Public health by 50%
When you put it like that, David, I’d vote for you too in the blink of an eye
If so to private providers.
So, as we all know. Cuts to the actual frontline.
"Except ACT's policy is to increase funding for Public health by 50%"
That caught my eye, so I looked on ACT's website. They mean "Public Health" as in the small public health part of the total health budget, nothing to do with ICU staff, frontline hospitals etc.
Prominent in their health plan is intent to increase the share funnelled off (i.e. transferred from the general public to the wealthy few) as private profit. Apart from that, the overall plan for NZ is to cut spending, cut taxes while at the same time, paying for it all with supposed "savings" (aka cuts).
Darn, I knew there was a catch! I take back my vote; Winston it is then.
Speaking of the rest of the world… you might have noticed the corpses piling up overseas.
We don't know the death toll of endemic covid, and won't until we see the upcoming Northern Hemisphere Winter.
All the dead people overseas feel no fear no longer. Some didn’t even know what hit them. Some were in denial till the very last moment. Kiwis are sensible enough to be cautious and sceptical of calls to drop the elimination strategy and open up too soon, as recent surveys suggest. Quite a few countries had to backtrack from relaxing the rules too much too soon even though they had high vaccination levels. NZ is not frozen by fear; we’re buying time and saving lives, and learning from mistakes made overseas and there were many quite costly mistakes. Personally, I don’t fear dying from Covid-19 but I do fear losing others to Covid-19, here in NZ and overseas. That is my personal fear.
Exactly.
Jesus you're thick Gosman @7.1.1.1.
That one case of Covid-19 has turned into well over 1000 and still rising. Had we ignored the initial identified case we would be looking at a figure well above 10,000 and probably some deaths thrown in for good measure.
And I'm getting heartily sick of the "mis-truths" about our "slow" levels of vaccination. I remember the government chosing Pfizer around 12 months ago because it was recognised as the best. They were one of the first to order sufficient quantities to cover the entire population… and the South Pacific countries for which we share responsibility.
Pfizer was still gearing up production 12 months ago and quite rightly gave precedence to those countries whose rates of Covid cases were going through the roof. Therefore our internationally acknowledged success rate at keeping Covid at bay had an unfortunate consequence… we had to wait longer for sufficient doses to be made available for the rapid roll-out programme to begin.
Medsafe approved the Pfizer vaccine on 3 February 2021, which is less than 7 months ago. I think we have come a long since. Gosman is not thick, but he can be a little disingenuous when he wants to be.
Stand corrected. Too lazy to check. I seem to remember the govt. were talking up the Pfizer vaccine towards the end of 2020 with the expectation of Medsafe approval. 😉
It was not meant as a correction, merely additional background info 🙂
Long covid's not nice.
From the ACT policy document today:
The Government’s response has used fear as a tool. The Prime Minister has referred to
the virus as ‘killer,’ ‘deadly,’ and ‘tricky.’
Also, the PM has controlled the world's media and medical professionals and made them say bad things about poor little Covid … apparently.
Thank goodness these fools were nowhere near the decision-making.
So, they're into conspiracy theories now. I think there will be quite a few ex ACT Party members from the early days who will be glad they got the hell out of it.
The authors of a study of vaccine effectiveness against SS-CoV-2 transmission and infection among household and other close contacts conclude:
"Our study showed that the COVID-19 vaccines not only protect the vaccinee against SS-CoV-2 infection, but also offer protection against transmission to close contacts after completing the full schedule. This finding underscores the importance of full vaccination of close contacts of vulnerable persons."
https://www.eurosurveillance.org/content/10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2021.26.31.2100640
"As our study used data not primarily collected for research purposes, it has some important limitations" and the dominant strain in the population at the time was Alpha.
Nevertheless, the study supports current government policy. The challenge is how to reach those close contacts and obtain their consent.
Dr Liang's summation on Newsroom of facts relating to Covid should be publicised far and wide. Brilliant rebuttal of John Key's superficial recent outburst which was obviously well orchestrated for his own selfish reasons.
Newsroom also quotes Pfizer's rebuttal of $40 million that Key said could have been paid to get earlier stocks of vaccine.
Key is still up to his smile and wave, spray and walk away tricks.
Yes Reality.
Good to see however the fundamental issue for me is that it was published in the first place.
Sir failed flag along with all the other opinionators spinning BS in a pandemic.
Grannys a blog more than a serious news outlet now
I see that Kiwibank seem to be having problems again. My wife and I are not able to access our accounts to make internet payments.
Yes KBank OK earlier. But not now.
Oh dear Gosman – you heartlessly believe that it doesn't matter if hundreds die, hundreds are hospitalised. Please read Newsroom's published article by Dr Liang and grow some empathy and concern for your fellow New Zealanders. It is a brilliant condemnation of how superficial your hero is.
And also please read Pfizer's rebuttal of Key's claim we should have paid $40 million for early deliveries of vaccines. I know in Key's world money buys anything. But even you must have been aware of the greater need for vaccines by other countries ahead of here.
Surely once everyone that wants the vaccine has it, there will not be hundreds die or getting hospitalised. The vaccine drastically reduces that.
You didn’t read the article by paediatrician Dr Liang, did you?
Can you get through your head that the vaccine is not a silver bullet? Or do you prefer to deny reality and inconvenient facts?
I am well aware it is not a silver bullet. Vaccinated people can still catch the virus and still pass it on as we have been told. But the effects of Covid are far less and will hopefully prevent hospitalisation and death. If this was not the case, I would not bother getting my second jab.
You missed the point that even with some level of protection by the vaccine, this protection is not absolute, not permanent, different in people with vulnerabilities (e.g. age and/or other conditions), affects unvaccinated children, et cetera. More vaccination probably and hopefully means fewer restrictions to keep the numbers down of people requiring medical care and/or hospitalisation. The vaccine alone won’t be enough though unless you're willing to accept the consequences.
The vaccine in itself,whilst reducing severity,does not reduce risk from behavioral choice.Important thread.
https://twitter.com/yaneerbaryam/status/1442160150266138626?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1442160150266138626%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fpublish.twitter.com%2F%3Fquery%3Dhttps3A2F2Ftwitter.com2Fyaneerbaryam2Fstatus2F1442160150266138626widget%3DTweet
If everyone that gets it is only 80% or 85% of the eligible population (12 and over), then there will indeed be hundreds dying and thousands hospitalised when covid runs rampant. If not thousands dying, and tens of thousands of hospitalisations.
Polling suggests that "definitely not" are about 7% and that number seems fairly stable over time. "probably not" are around 13%. To get to vaccination coverage rates high enough to not have overwhelming hospitalisations and deaths, somehow most of those "probably not" need to be turned into "OK I did it".
Personally I think it's time the government started showing a bit of "kindness" to those of us that have shown a bit of respect to the community along with their self-care and actually got vaccinated, and turned a bit of mongrel loose on the “yet-to-be vaccinated”.
Too early to let the dogs out yet; there are already feral dogs running rampant and barking at each and every tree. With puppies you need to house-train them first and make sure they are properly socialised or they’ll become aggressive bullies pissing & shitting everywhere and on everything. Make sure the puppy has all its vaccinations before it goes to puppy training and make sure it is micro-chipped and ‘fixed’. Then you’re good to go with your puppy and become a responsible fully-licensed dog owner who will experience much rewarding joy with and from your canine companion.
There will always be some "definitely nots" that will never get vaccinated. I guess it is their choice and their risk. Unfortunately if they do then end up sick they will expect hospital treatment (that's another discussion). I've had my first jab and am all for getting as many people as possible to have it.
See Israel for what happens when you let the plague run through even a vaccinated population. It isn't pretty.
Covid Vaccines are good, of course, but thinking they make you bullet-proof is a recipe for disaster.
The virus has forced an absolute choice – vaccinations or lockdowns. The large majority of the community have chosen vaccination.
It's utterly fkn unpalatable that lockdowns are lasting a lot longer than necessary because of some that choose not to be vaccinated (or are dragging it out). Those that choose not to vaccinate should have to live the lockdown life for themselves, not force it onto the rest of us.
Bring on the vaccination passports and make them apply widely and enforce them hard.
What part of "vaccinated people can still die from this thing," don't you understand?
Death happens to 100% of us who have ever been alive.
Vaccination brings the risks of severe illness and premature death from covid down to a level similar to other routine risks we accept in everyday life.
If that risk is too high for you, go ahead and live your life sheltering yourself from it. But if you want me to live the rest of my life under lockdown conditions because you're afraid of covid even though you're vaccinated, or you don't want vaccinate yourself, you can fuck right off.
We simply don't know what the risk of "severe illness and premature death" with a vaccinated population will look like until we see the Northern Hemisphere winter. Israel's example is not promising.
You need to get this mantra of "it'll be like flu" out of your head. It might be like flu (500 deaths a year), but I would be sceptical. Would you tolerate a virus that kills, say, 3-4000 a year? 5000 a year? We literally don't know how many people endemic Covid kills.
We all die from something eventually. Covid is here to stay, we need to choose how we are going to deal with that fact. Life has changed. There is no going back to a pre-covid morbidity and mortality environment, just as there is no going back to a pre-covid international travel and economic environment. Permanently curtailing our actual Bill of Rights rights is just not palatable, especially not for something as mild as covid is in vaccinated people.
If the choice is living in perpetual lockdown, or even the threat of lockdowns as frequent as Auckland has had over the last 18 months, versus 3000 to 5000 slightly premature deaths per year, then I would choose the deaths as the price of regaining our Bill of Rights freedom of movement, freedom of association, freedom of peaceable assembly and freedom of religion. Lockdowns really do fuck with people's lives that badly.
But from a balanced look at the actual data that's out there, it wouldn't be 3000 to 5000 deaths per year in a population of 5 million vaccinated people. It might be 300 deaths in a population of 4 million vaccinated plus 3000 deaths out of 1 million unvaccinated. That's the unvaccinateds choice.
When it comes to "Israel's example", two points:
First, Israel is not a highly-vaccinated population. It's only at about 65% of the population vaccinated.
Second, when analysed with an understanding of Simpson's Paradox, the data in Israel still points to very high vaccine effectiveness. The apparent decline in effectiveness is an artefact of vaccination rates among different age groups and when the different age groups were vaccinated. But the depth of analysis needed to understand it makes it easy for anti-vaxers to pop out misleading simplistic anti-vaccine soundbites.
https://salthillstatistics.com/posts/109
We know that among vaccinated populations, covid does not sicken and kill enough people to justify the disruption to people's lives caused by extended lockdowns. That we don't know the exact number over an extended period does not justify keeping the extended lockdowns, because we know the number is low enough to get rid of lockdowns for the vaccinated.
The virus obviously prefers Repugnants.
In counties where Trump received at least 70% of the vote, the coronavirus has killed about 47 out of every 100,000 people since the end of June. In counties where Trump won less than 32% of the vote, the number is about 10 out of 100,000. (New York Times)
Or maybe Repugnants are less likely to get vaccinated.
@Macro yeah, but that's US weird darwinism. Here is NZ it's some different groups that are vaccine hesitant. With different obstacles to getting vaccinated.
A majority of UK deaths right now are fully vaccinated people… so you're talking over 500 fully vaccinated deaths a week. That works out at a good 1500 NZ vaccinated deaths a year… and we have yet to see Northern Hemisphere Winter:
COVID-19 vaccine surveillance report – week 38 (publishing.service.gov.uk)
Fact is, vaccines (while excellent) are a risk reduction measure, not a replacement for other tools, and pretending that it's a binary choice (rather than a mixture of both) is nonsense. By scrapping lockdown, you're sentencing plenty of vaccinated people to death. And I truly love how you describe killing elderly people as "slightly premature deaths."
BTW Israel is highly vaccinated among adults by Western standards.
Who says it's one or tother?
The virus does.
Jimmy Look up Israel covid stats, and Britain has figures that already look like 52000 a year dying.
Those who are not vaccinated or compromised are not protected.
Children are not able to be vaccinated yet, so it is dire, and we are watching this as we vaccinate our population knowing so many will still be at risk.
I have had two serious viral illnesses in my life. They often leave serious results and can return in another guise.
We are still learning about this foe. It is dangerous as it mutates. A few more months of planning and trials seems sensible. Anything else seems reckless.
“But even you must have been aware of the greater need for vaccines by other countries ahead of here.”
So what has changed that our need now over rides the need by other countries? Should we still not wait for the planned delivery of our vaccines and not paid to push the process along. Many here have commented that our success is well above most countries. Should not the vaccines we have purchased be directed to countries where the need is greater? I think there now is a political motivation, that protection political capital is far more important than saving lives within other countries.
Greater availability?
Fiji has administered enough doses to cover 54.8% of the pop. but I gather they are in greater need than us & this from their govt. that they are restricted by supply !!!
"Due to the limited global supply and high global demand for COVID-19 vaccines, Fiji’s vaccines have been prioritized and provided to those who are considered most vulnerable to COVID-19."
https://www.health.gov.fj/covid-vaccine/vaccine-faqs/
https://graphics.reuters.com/world-coronavirus-tracker-and-maps/countries-and-territories/fiji/
More like thousands die.
grow some empathy and concern for your fellow New Zealanders
The only time tory's show empathy is when some rich prick looses some momey.
Our family is forever grateful to Labour and Jacinda Ardern for the decisions made so far. We have been extremely fortunate, and it has not been without sacrifice.
Seymour is using Key's strategies. Smile, say want he thinks will appeal to a faction, and look harmless. Sadly the gullible and the racists read into his comments their positions.
Like Key he would have a faithful group to do the dirty work. Once again no journalist calls Seymour out. It was really pleasing to see journalists call out Key's rubbish.
Apathy lets these slimy beggars get away with so much.
Thing is, sooner or later ACt will have to do more than backseat drive and utter banal platitudes. They're going to have to "act" on their true nature, and see if that gets them 15% of the vote.
Key lying again claiming if we paid a premium pfizer would have delivered vaccines early.
Pfizer made a public statement that definitely no country can buy their way up the queue.
Looks like National are using a 2nd hand leader to pass on 2nd hand lies.
Pfizer calling John Key a liar priceless !
And KEY didnt return calls re the Pfizer story.
That means OK i lied!!!
Actually, at the end of the day, he couldn’t remember, but he got pretty close with getting the name of the company correct.
dickhead still thinks everything comes down to buying someone.
Another public slap down for the former prime minister of reckons, Jong Kee:
No doubt Surge-on woulda got the deal done.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/coronavirus/300417494/pfizer-rebuts-john-keys-vaccine-payment-claim
This is in reply to a comment I feel love a few days ago. My apologies in advance I feel love, because I can no long find your comment, so I am going from memory of what you said. feel free to correct me.
My memory is you said that Trans people don't see the Standard as a safe place and that SUFW have organised or had intention that that should happen.
Let me assure you this isn't the case. SUFW have been too busy writing submissions and taking a case to the high court when there meetings were shut down. The commenters on the Standard who come from a Gender Critical, for want of a better term, position are long time regulars who comment on a range of issues. The likes of Sabine, Weka, Rosemary and Francesca. I suspect not too many SUFW followers know of the Standard because if their intention was to make the Standard "unsafe" for transs, there would have been a bombardment of over 200 new commenters. The one new commenter I am aware of is Joanne Perkins, who is trans and her comments have been welcomed by gender critical commenters.
Myself, I have been commeting on the Standard from around 2013. And for the record, I have never had a moderator warn me about my comment, been threatened by a ban or received a ban.
But you reminded me about the issue of safe spaces and I would urge everyone to read the link below. It is written by Paul Letham a cousellor who works with LBGT and is gay himself.
"i became a counsellor a decade ago for several reasons, the main one being that I wished to work within the broader LGBT community. That has always been my raison d'etre, my mission, my kaupapa"
"Much is made nowadays of "safe spaces" for minorities to helter in. Well if you want the ultimate safe space to shelter in, its a therapist's couch"
"go to the Rainbow Youth website and search for the word gay or lesbian in the search bar found to the upper left. You will find nothing"
https://shadowbox.substack.com/p/a-small-cancellation?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=cta
Damage is done Anker.
I've done the one post supporting their legislative cause, nearly a dozen posts here against their cause.
You and Micky did a pro sex-self ID posts each (Micky maybe did two?).
I've done four gender critical posts (not all on self ID). Who wrote the other eight?
I have always known and experienced the Standard as a place of robust and rigourous debate and discussion Ad. Sometimes it gets abusive, but usually the moderators pull people up on this. This is the nature of the Standard.
How do you imagine this "damage" might not have been done????? Gender Critical Women shutting up?
I would recomend you read the article I posted on Shadow box about safe spaces.
Here's I Feel Love's comment,
. https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-26-09-2021/#comment-1818832
I agree it's an odd comment. Occasionally someone from Speak Up For Women comments here but it's not often.
But you know, it's not safe for women here either in that sense. We do what we can do.
I am curious……how would we make this blog safe for trans people? I suspect it is to agree with trans ideology……but many of us don't.
Again I would advise people to read the article I posted from the counsellors space.
You make the assumption that what I Feel Love said was accurate, even though they provided no examples, just stated it as if it was arguably true.
I am sure there is discomfort for some (not all) in reading the discussions on TS, because the No Debate policy has made it unnecessary to develop the skills for the "robust debate" TS is known for.
So much easier to say it is "unsafe" without providing examples, and to not listen or engage with integrity.
You have the grace to take I Feel Love's comment at face value. I consider it to be manipulative rather than informative when it is provided without examples. At least then, the discussion can move forward if concrete concerns are raised.
I believe many commenters here have tried to engage honestly. Discomfort may come from an unwillingness to do so, rather than comments being written intended to harm.
Bang on Molly. And I particularly want to acknowledge how responsive and welcoming you have been to Joanne Perkins
Joanne has taken the time to share her views as far as she is comfortable, providing some insight into her experiences.
It is very easy to engage with a commentator that speaks with clarity and good intention, as you try to create a space of trust and mutual respect.
Agree Molly,
Suspect Ad has sprayed and walked away.. but maybe I do him a diservice………………I don't know if his intention was to induce guilt, but it is a dumpy sort of thing to say, especially if he doesn't follow up with a response, particularly to Weka who challenged him on the numbers of posts on BMDRR etc
Love your straight talking Molly.
to put safety into perspective, I remember long heated threads during the Assange debates where regular male commenters were arguing that having sex with a sleeping woman was ok and we had to not only argue against why that wasn't true but point to the NZ legislation on the matter. I had many women thank me and others for pushing back against the rape culture stuff because they felt they couldn't. Safety here doesn't mean that everyone gets to feel great or comfortable, it means that there are boundaries in place so that women can take part in the debate. If there is hostility towards women eg women that have been raped and want to talk about the politics of that, that creates an 'unsafe' environment and lots of women will just stay away.
I count at least five women authors, all feminists, who have stopped writing here because of the problems in the culture.
I worked hard as a commenter and then as an author over a number of years to create spaces here that a range of women would find easier to be in. It's been an uphill battle. What I loved about the Women's Space posts was that all of a sudden women were commenting.
Safety as a place where people's politics are never challenged is not TS. How to tell the difference between that and the safety I talk about above is not always easy, but I haven't seen much in the way of aggression or hostility to trans people here. It's obvious that arguing the politics is hard for some trans people. Whether that is harder than what women have to do I don't know, but obviously having a feminist writing here makes a difference, as does numbers. People can say it's unsafe here but I don't see many people doing the mahi to change that. For my part, I'm moderating here to try and make the place easier for trans people to take part in the debate, but that's not a matter of not discussing GCF etc. I'm open to people talking to me about how that moderation might be improved, but again, I'm not seeing much in the way of stepping up and doing the mahi.
I actually think that TS is one of the few online spaces where a relatively evenhanded debate can take place. It's certainly in stark contrast to somewhere like twitter.
If I was Trans I wouldn't come here to face the barage of accusations, lumping them in as predators, men in frocks, men in wigs etc. Even above, Anker talks about "not agreeing with the Trans Ideology" what is that? the ideology of wanting to be accepted and acknowledged, how disgusting of them /sarc. None of you need bother answering, the question is rhetorical. Maybe the Woman's Space is the best and safest place for your conversations on this topic (yes, I know its open mike) There would be less chance of offence being taken on either side.
Link to comments that accuse all trans people as predators, or those that refer to transwomen as you describe. When you do find them, we can then discuss or deride as fits.
You may then discover the word transphobic is used more often (inaccurately), when commentators have the audacity to say anything about the possible impact on women's rights. Or we can muse on the appropriation of existing language to mean something else (which is not only arrogant, it pollutes discussion – perhaps intentionally?}
"Anker talks about "not agreeing with the Trans Ideology" what is that? the ideology of wanting to be accepted and acknowledged, how disgusting of them /sarc. " Sarc indeed. Once again, provide links to back up your accusations, or we can just recognise them for the hyperbolic misdirections that they are.
Current Trans Activist Ideology will include such statements as:
Transwomen are women. Transmen are men.
Gender identity superceeds biological sex in regards to single sex spaces.etc.
If you really need to be informed then you haven't given the time and effort necessary to contribute meaningfully to this topic.
But nothing in your comment is a contribution really, is it?
You just couldn't refrain from giving any commentator who seeks reassurances for the impact on the rights of women and girls a telling off… again. Which included an instruction not to reply. Nothing of substance intended or included.
Think about this.
red blooded one trans ideology is separate from people who identify as transgender.
It is a theorectical construct that claims gender identity, an internal feeling trumps biology or the material reality of sex. It developed out of the theoretical writing of Judith Butler an academic.
So it is like criticizing marxism. Not all transgender people accept trans ideology. There was a trans women from the UK giving a submission to the BMDRR sub committee who said she didn't believe in the concept of gender identity. She had just transition from being a man to living as a women. She said she knows she is not a woman
I'm using the term gender identity ideology now. This separates if from trans people as a class, and lays it squarely in politics instead.
Good idea. As much clarity as possible.
Gender identity ideology is good
If you don't know what gender identity ideology is, there's probably no way for you to understand what is being discussed /shrug. Doubly so if you don't want people to talk to you about it and explain.
red blooded one trans ideology is separate from people who identify as transgender.
It is a theorectical construct that claims gender identity, an internal feeling trumps biology or the material reality of sex. It developed out of the theoretical writing of Judith Butler an academic.
So it is like criticizing marxism. Not all transgender people accept trans ideology. There was a trans women from the UK giving a submission to the BMDRR sub committee who said she didn't believe in the concept of gender identity. She had just transition from being a man to living as a women. She said she knows she is not a woman
Thanks Weka. For some reason I missed this debate on the Standard. I understand what you say on it feeling unsafe for women here. I mean holy F..k. No wonder women left the site!
On another note did you know Elizabeth Kerekere has posted a picture on her FB pageof the SUFW spokewoman and a talked about hate groups submitting?
Did you know SUFW site was hacked and their membership/email database copied?
ooph, that's full on.
I received a notification a couple of weeks ago, as I am their email list for updates.
(Also on Green Party, Labour Party and National Party lists – although I think that has lapsed. Lazy way of staying informed).
Hey Molly wasn’t it about 4 weeks ago SUFW hacked?
Anker, If I could be bothered checking the date I would likely find out that you are correct.
A bit of a kick in the nuts for Keir Starmer…UK Labour Conference votes to call out Israel as an Apartheid State…
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/labour-conference-israel-palestine-apartheid-b1927830.html
Of course senior Labour MPs immediately dissassociated themselves from a democratic membership decision–just as social democratic parties often do. As in the NZ Labour Party, the “Parliamentary wing” generally lords it over the ordinary members.
Sturmer's compensated by nixing the 15 quid minimum wage.
MordorLa PalmaJust watched the 1pm presser – 8 new cases!
But what struck me most was how relaxed Jacinda appeared. A good sign – we really are getting on top of this latest outbreak?
I wish I could feel as optimistic.
Great to see Boris Johnson facing up to the gravity of his Brexit madness by putting the army on ert due to the acute fuel shortages.
Lots of empty supermarket shelves as well.
Hope they chuck him out.
World maps place Britain in Europe, yet somehow they thought they could leave!
They still haven’t sealed off the tunnel to the other side.
butbutbut it's a long term problem of not enough truckies…
/sarc
Is he going to ferry pensioners to the shops in tanks?
NO NO NO the stupid bastards deserve him.
Yes I feel a bit of that too.
Let's see how the polls track, but it's still a long time to 2024.
Maybe its boris' way of upping ev ownership.
Or encouraging walking and cycling as contributions to public health.
Remember carless days? It's so 1979.
https://nzhistory.govt.nz/media/photo/carless-days#:~:text=Carless%20days%20were%20introduced%20on,that%20vehicle%20on%20the%20road.
Dear Renters, A bad day for you, labours new legislation as outlined by David Parker is about to make your life a lot harder. You might want to call your labour MP and talk them through the real life consequences of this crap piece of policy.
You mean this?
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/business/452495/new-tenancy-clause-to-provide-certainty-clarity-for-renters-landlords
Love to hear how this will make renters 'life a lot harder'. Go on, enlighten me.
no, not that, the other piece of legislation – the one that will result in an even greater shortage of rental properties and a significant rise in rental costs – renters should be fuming about this.
This one?
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/452498/some-developers-may-be-offered-incentive-by-tax-rule-exemption
My rent has gone up every year regardless, this sounds like encouragement for more 'build-to-rent' developments, that means more supply not less.
yes, of course, hundreds, nay thousands of new homes will pop up over night and it will be nirvana for renters.
We have such an abundance of skilled tradesman, building materials and willing councils, it is going to be wonderful.
Your sarcasm is unable to conceal your limited thinking.
Previous to this policy there was little incentive for developers to build properties for the rental market specifically, now is there is one. It won't happen overnight (obviously) but I thought you people liked market incentives and tax write-offs to change behaviour? One of the alternative options was on the ballot in Berlin: Expropriation.
Say what you like, just wait to see what happens over the next 24 months. There will be bugger all increase in supply and the downtrodden renters will be paying more in rental costs, it is economics 101.
Justifying this brilliantly thought out piece of legislation to renters heading into the next election will be one hell of task.
Just take a look at the current situation in Tauranga, a massive shortage of homes to buy or rent, no prospect of supply catching up with demand for at least ten years, no additional land to build on etc, etc.
This is farcical piece of legislation is going to hurt a lot of traditional labour voters.
Actually Allan, the rising sea may remove stock in Tauranga and Papamoa.