Jacqui Dean looks to be just another M.P. compromised by her support of the alcohol industry……
‘When questioned by Māori Party MP Tariana Turia, on why she was unwilling to take the same prohibitory line on smoking cigarettes and drinking alcohol as she took on BZP, Ms Dean said Alcohol and tobacco have been with our society for many, many years; It is estimated that alcohol-related conditions account for 3.1% of all male deaths and 1.41% of all female deaths in New Zealand.
Dean’s Otago electorate is also home to approximately 5% of New Zealand’s wine production, described by the New Zealand Wine Growers Association as a new but aggressively expanding wine area, which is now New Zealand’s seventh largest wine region.’
There are so many ways that our standard of living and health is being decimated by the government and Treasury introduced neolib and freemarket systems. Alcohol has been around for ever but there was so much reaction about its affects in early NZ that it was banned, then reintroduced with control over hours, then after neolib some outlets could open 24/7. Alcohol can ruin people's will to work and stick to the tasks of their role in life, it also spreads to affect the family who adapt to the eccentricities of the addicted one, and the bad affects continue down generations.
So alcohol in excess taking us down. Further down the post Treetop 4.1 talks about micro businesses failing, and the bad affect on those trying to cope with that. I think small business failure is very high -within three years most have either gone bust, or found it was an expensive lesson as to what they shouldn't do, or they sell out, probably at a loss. No way should people draw on their Kiwisaver. It is interesting that Bill English made serious throat-clearing noises about people saving to impress the old-fashioned ignorant of economics, or old people for whom that idea worked until we had National hyperinflation. But actually the economy feeds off people spending, not people saving, and it keeps many so short on wages they have to borrow to get through till the next payday, so there is business profit to the lenders of that money which can not be more than 100% on the actual loan. Kind eh. So National lie about money and people still soak it up as long the end is blaming the poor for their circumstances.
She made it sound like the last 9 years. But I guess itll the standard nat method of tell a big porky defend it for a bit then back away quietly knowing that those less engaged will repeat the lie for them
You're onto National bwaghorn. I hadn't actually understood the whole process. But doesn't work for Labour. Promising thousands of houses in three years must have been industry-hype, but the Minister concerned with those funny-business people needs to be wary; these people are not your friends, and you are like innocent Mole going through the Wildwood with evil weasels watching, smirking with their pocket calculators red hot.
Since the Tea Party receded into history, then got Trumped, the latest hot trend in rightist politics in the US seems to be the one pioneered by an online anonymist: Q.
The insurgent QAnon movement is causing headaches for the Republican Party leadership, who appear to be unwilling to condemn the group for fear of losing much-needed votes, but are also unwilling to give direct credence to a conspiracy theory-driven movement that is loaded with political baggage.
For those who haven’t gone down the rabbit hole themselves, the broad QAnon narrative is a classic “new world order” conspiracy theory with an interactive and online twist. In QAnon world, the whole planet is controlled by a cabal of satan-worshipping pedophiles. Many QAnon adherents bizarrely believe that this cabal tortures children to extract a substance known as adrenochrome, which they purport (incorrectly) contains hallucinogenic and anti-aging properties. This cabal supposedly controls everything worth controlling, including politicians, the media, and entertainment.
Trump is believed to be battling this cabal with the help of a group of military intelligence officials known as “Q Team”. The QAnon faithful hold that these military intelligence officials are releasing coded messages about the operation to defeat the cabal on simple messageboards. The posts from the anonymous entity known as “Q” started on the infamous 4chan board, but now Q posts exclusively on 8kun. QAnon followers believe that by decoding these imageboard posts, they can learn the truth of this dramatic, secret war of good vs. evil.
At his Park Avenue penthouse — 62 floors high and with a sparkling nighttime view of the Manhattan skyline — billionaire Peter Thiel last fall introduced to his friends an immigration hardliner who he would back with over $1 million to try and transform the Republican Party. https://www.vox.com/recode/2020/7/27/21333636/peter-thiel-kris-kobach-kansas-senate-primary
Jesus would be thrilled that his followers are becoming so successful in infiltrating the US political establishment.
While QAnon followers aiming for national offices tend to draw the most attention, QAnon followers are also running for state offices. There are currently 12 known state-level candidates who have endorsed or given credence to the conspiracy theory or promoted QAnon content.
Looks like history repeating itself. Conservatives have been there & done that before, almost two centuries ago.
The first third party in the United States, the Anti-Masonic Party, was dedicated to the proposition that freemasons were running a shadow government and were secretly plotting to control the world. Though the Anti-Masonic Party was short lived, at their peak in 1833 they controlled 10.5% of the House of Representatives.
There's a lot of truth in the Q conspiracy– America *is* controlled by a cabal of crooks– but their solution (Trump) is wishful thinking in the extreme.
Looks like a sustained attempt by the chemical industry to poison nature is coming to an end, finally, here.
Between 1962 and 1987, the site was used by Ivon Watkins, later Ivon Watkins Dow, which mademost of the 2,4,5-T used in New Zealand at the Paritutu site. A byproduct of 2,4,5-T is dioxin, a known cause of cancer. Agent Orange, made of 2,4,5-T, was used in the Vietnam War as a defoliant.
Ivon Watkins Dow later became Dow Agrosciences, which became Corteva Agriscience in June last year following the 2017 merger between industrial giants DuPont and Dow Chemicals.
Climate Justice Taranaki spokeswoman Catherine Cheung said Corteva must decommission and remediate the site. "We don’t want to have contaminated land. It needs to be done properly.’’
I live just below the bottom of those photos in the report, around half a kilometer from their boundary, just far enough away to be free from paranoia.
If they sell their huge unused land-holding and subdivide, it may become the choice real estate option in New Plymouth: particularly the ocean view side, a millionaire's row in waiting. I'm right on the city edge, look out the back window to the countryside across the way & mountain above. Native frogs in my back yard come up from the stream in between suburb & countryside – glad to see the last of the agri-poisoners!
Dennis, taking in the photo, I envy you your home location, and I join with you in celebrating the exit of the blot on the lovely landscape. I hope the land is restored to health.
My cousin was born with a cleft palate which possibly comes from being exposed to the chemicals at the plant (her parents lived near there around the turn of the 1970's). The first 20 years of her life was spent in and out of hospital getting it fixed up.
Weir says the generally available statistics reveal 2000 businesses are liquidated every year in this country. “Around 45,000 [businesses] start in New Zealand yearly but about the same disappear. So while the number of businesses that officially fall into liquidation is relatively small relative to start-ups, most simply give up and disappear for reasons only the owners will know.”
When you really look at the stats you have to wonder why the politicians are so caught up on the idea that its small business that drives NZ.
This is classic Crusher. She's talking to the deep base who might not bother voting, not to someone who's been laid off because of covid.
Even if she gets to be PM (highly doubtful), I doubt the policy will start many more businesses than she crushed cars. $20K is just seed capital, the prospective business person then has to go and get a bank to support them, so has to have a pretty good business plan. You'd be looking at $100K finance package for a business that's going to do as well or better than wages. If the business plan is good enough to get the banks attention, then it wouldn't matter if the $20K was in cash or KiwiSaver, it's still an asset and the bank might prefer it being in KiwiSaver.
It effectively liquidates part of the person's Kiwisaver so it becomes an asset the bank now has access to. Pretty clear who would benefit from such a move.
In many cases it will be $20k into the pocket of some franchise owner – while the poor 'mark' who bought the franchise, will drive themselves slowly insane trying to scratch a living under impossible conditions.
They gave an example of a plumber who has been laid off. How stupid is that. They would only have been laid off because there is not enough work yet they are supposed to risk their retirement savings competing with their former boss in the same market.
And most plumbers aren't employees once they get past their training anyway. There's a shortage of them (this seems to be a recurring issue) and they tend to be well paid and independent.
Are you suggesting that people should not even try? I know you are quoting your % from an article you have read once in the past, but I'd really like to know what type of business/venture makes up that 70%.
Its not a question of not trying but accepting that things aren't going to get better simply because someone became self-employed on a down in the market.
But we do have to consider that National governs for the rich and those rich people are looking at those funds and thinking of how nice it would be if they were in their pockets instead of those of the poor. And so National invents some BS rhetoric that sounds good but will only work to shift those funds from the poor to the rich.
A 0% interest loan from the government would do it. Throw in freely available mentors and ongoing financial assistance (still at 0%) until its an obvious make/break and we'll probably get some good businesses going.
In fact, all business loans should be direct from government and be at 0% with no fees.
Mainstreamers inhabit a psychosocial head-space: normalcy. Representative democracy allows them to impose their hegemony on the rest of us via the binary format of National & Labour, here.
As Laing puts it: "The condition of alienation, of being asleep, of being unconscious, of being out of one’s mind, is the condition of the normal man. Society highly values its normal man. It educates children to lose themselves and to become absurd, and thus to be normal. Normal men have killed perhaps 100,000,000 of their fellow normal men in the last 50 years."
Mainstreamers exhibit their normalcy by empowering their political reps, trained by the education system, so the cause and effect relation between that and the hundred million of them who got eliminated in consequence, during the first half of the 20th century, never becomes clear to them. Normalcy is a fog in culture that persists.
Those who transcend normalcy see through the fog to the deeper reality that encompasses all. The sleep of normalcy Laing refers to above can then lead to awakening from the normal. BLM, woke, etc.
The Laingian concept of hypersanity, though modern, has ancient roots. Once, upon being asked to name the most beautiful of all things, Diogenes the Cynic (412-323 BCE) replied parrhesia, which in Ancient Greek means something like "uninhibited thought," "free speech," or "full expression."
Diogenes used to stroll around Athens in broad daylight brandishing a lit lamp. Whenever curious people stopped to ask what he was doing, he would reply: ‘I am just looking for a human being’ — thereby insinuating that the people of Athens were not living up to, or even much aware of, their full human potential.
Following Laing & the mid-20th century human potential movement, hippies became the spearhead of a cultural transformation that swept through western civilisation. Psychedelic drugs were used to decondition us. Normalcy evaporated.
Then a younger generation said "Nah! Too weird." They went back to the future via Thatcher, Reagan & Rogernomics. Normal transmission resumed. Good little consumer citizens, doing what they're told. When Diogenes was asked
where he came from, he replied: "I am a citizen of the world" (cosmopolites), a radical claim at the time, and the first recorded use of the term "cosmopolitan."
Some folks see the big picture, naturally. Some need intervention, such as from psychedelics, then they see it. The pandemic is producing intervention in normalcy, and imposing it on the masses. Only survivors will make the transition and become hypersane. The contagion curve shows no sign of levelling off.
The culling process (shown by the death numbers) remains a slow build. Gaia is patient, tolerant of slow learners – but eventually they will run out of time. Normal is the loser's option…
It may get recycled somewhat during the election campaign. Voters are meant to be cognizant that Labour or National will win. Trouble is, when they get so busy copying each other all the time, poor normal folk get bewildered and find it hard to identify the winner. In normalcy, I mean. The PM seems an abnormal blip on their mental horizon, so expect them to spot her as a winner.
Of course, politics is a contest of ideas and the general election is the Olympic Games of (NZ) politics. I wonder who will win the gold glitter this time. Life is all but an enduring competition trying to outdo your fellow humans. In the end, you die anyway. Such is life.
"The pandemic is producing intervention in normalcy, and imposing it on the masses."
Yes. People respond in lots of different ways to being forced awake. I had had some hopes for NZ that we would step up a bit more on this front. Maybe that is happening it's just not being reflected in the mainstream institutions yet. Is suspect that every community now has more people preparing and future proofing their lives. The election will be telling. Which way will NZ jump?
So JLR tables/doesn’t table 65,000 Nat donation transactions and details one Inner Mongolian donation of 150,000 dollars from a Chinese company with no known connections to NZ and not a word from the media that I have heard.
Does the deafening silence mean the media is actually doing a bit more research or just ignoring it?
Weren't there already media stories months ago about that donation? Which would be why he was safe to mention it without triggering the threatened lawyering.
“By its actions the Green Party has demonstrated to voters that its word cannot be trusted. That is fatal.”
“When a party can’t keep its word or commitments to its government partners, freely given, voters are entitled to view that party as untrustworthy,’ Peters said.
Ironic from Peter's now he is sabotaging the Coalitions deals.
NZ first will be last at the election.
Peter's is making a bigger Dick of himself every day the polls reflect his demise.He is out of touch with his messaging no ones listening.Back to the past ideas.
I wonder if the govt considered charging all returnees for meals. Food is something they would have had to pay for if not in isolation, so a charge of say $50 for for 3 meals a day would not seem unreasonable.
Interesting there hasn't been too much comparison with paying for returnees accom + food + power with how much benes or min wage workers make and have to live on.
All things considered, $285/day for the taxpayer to cover MIQ costs isn't that high.
That's accommodation, food, security, army costs, healthcare and the rest of whatever additional costs there are.
I have often opined on Twitter that while Citizens shouldn't be charged for returning, I'm not sure we should apply the same logic to permanent residents unless they are ordinarily resident in NZ.
Permanent Residents are citizens of another country. I'm not sure of just how many PR visas have been issued to people who then promptly buggered off overseas, but if I'm reading DIA figures correctly, it looks like 500k PR visas issued in the last 5 years alone. I can't find figures for prior to 2015. If the last 5 years is anything to go by, that's a lot of PRs coming back to NZ after they haven't set foot in NZ for many years since they got their PR visa.
It'd be nice to have the PR visa time bound requiring people to apply for citizenship after a set period like many other nations do.
The Ministry of Health is planning to fast-track the approval process for a Covid-19 vaccine, and won't rule out offering a supplier indemnity from any potential claims resulting from its use.
I have viewed a number of things online of late that bring vaccines into question.
These are 3 main ones below.
Kennedy said “it’s not hypothetical that vaccines cause injury, and that injuries are not rare. The vaccine courts have paid out four billion dollars” over the past three decades, “and the threshold for getting back into a vaccine court and getting a judgment – [the Department of Health and Human Services] admits that fewer than one percent of people who are injured ever even get to court.”
He mentioned another reason not to trust blindly any company currently producing vaccines in the United States. Each one of the four vaccine producers “is a convicted serial felon: Glaxo, Sanofi, Pfizer, Merck.”
“In the past 10 years, just in the last decade, those companies have paid 35 billion dollars in criminal penalties, damages, fines, for lying to doctors, for defrauding science, for falsifying science, for killing hundreds of thousands of Americans knowingly.”
Kennedy Jr is a long-term peddler of misinformation, misrepresentation and all-around bullshit that's just opportunistically using the increased interest in vaccines to grab more clicks. FFS, Kennedy is still a supporter of Andrew Wakefield, the proven fraudster willing to falsify data that played games with vulnerable kids' health apparently just to line his pockets from lawsuits. Kennedy's own family strongly repudiates his views and actions.
If a vaccine becomes available for use in New Zealand, it will have already undergone field trials involving tens of thousands of volunteers that will be very closely monitored. Because of our COVID-free status, we're likely to be a long way down the list to get supplies, so there will have been millions of people already vaccinated elsewhere in the world. So, there's very little to be concerned about here in NZ.
If it weren't for the gratuitous risk the unvaccinated pose to the very few people that have genuine medical reasons to not get particular vaccines, I'd be very much in favour of idiots sucked in by anti-vax bullshit to just let the disease cull themselves out of the herd
It seems most likely that covid vaccines will be released on scale because of the pandemic and bypass some of the usual processes in developing meds. This is likely to cause harm. It's ok to have a conversation about that potential harm and what it means. Downplaying that or out right denying is unhelpful, and will fuel the other side. Either side of the pro-anti debate taking dogmatic or fundamentalist positions won't serve us.
In this case, The Chairman is mindlessly posting clickbait by a repeatedly debunked proven bullshit artist without applying even the most rudimentary credibility checking. In this case, Kennedy is full of misrepresentations, distortions, partial truths and all the other tricks of those with intent to mislead.
It really gets tiresome seeing the same misinformation posted again and again. A brief search of something like anti-vax debunked brings up tons of articles examining the claims made and showing the actual facts of the matter. It's very basic level "ability to assess information credibility".
Personally I'm done with coddling the feels of idiots that see something then spread it around mindlessly. That kind of bullshit just helps the malicious among us get traction.
As for determining genuine medical reason, there are things like allergies to components, being immunosuppressed, previous reactions etc etc. Basic skills in navigating around information sources and assessing their credibility finds it very easily. Here's the CDC brief guidelines:
Two anti-vaxers that I know of for sure. Three more I don't know for sure either way, but are susceptible to the same bullshit clusters of beliefs and misinformation, and inability to try to fact-check, that seem to go hand-in-hand with anti-vax, so they're probables. I've lost count of how many have expressed concerns or hesitancy and then been pointed to accurate information, and then gone on to embrace vaccination.
Given my social circles and family tend to be in facts/evidence oriented occupations that value skepticism and consideration of alternatives highly, I consider those numbers of anti-vaxxers and hesitants fairly high.
My point here would be that ridicule and ostracisation is radicalising people away from science. I know these communities quite well, not from an outside, finger pointing, we can force you to change pov, but they're just normal parts of my community. Telling them they're stupid doesn't change them, it entrenches their views.
NZ is on the cusp of a number of radicalisations, and we really should be paying attention to this. Treating people who have concerns about the covid vaccine like shit won't make them more likely to accept the need for vaccination.
Myself, at the start of the pandemic I started off thinking a covid vax would be one of the few I might need in my remaining lifetime. Now I'm more cautious, not because of conspiracy theories, but because I can see it will be rushed and that there will be a disability cost and that we will vaccinate before having a good understanding of the disease, and pro-mandate people arguing that disability doesn't matter can in fact get fucked. If you want to solve the problem of lowered uptake, then address the valid concerns and support them being resolved in other ways. People mostly want to feel safe and secure, attend to that and it will get easier.
Anyone that has a genuine medical reason not to get vaccinated is one of the people vaccine programmes are trying to protect. But if you are genuinely one of those people, and you still choose to amplify anti-vax messages, I can take a darwinian view of that. I'm just disgusted on behalf of those with genuine medical reason not to be vaccinated that are put at unnecessary risk by that kind of stupidity.
As for valid concerns, one of the anti-vaxers main techniques is to take an absolutely miniscule number of problems and blow them way out of proportion. Furthermore, of the very very small number of reported reactions, a tiny proportion of those have any long-term effects and the vast majority fall into the category of short term discomfort.
Then there's the attribution problem where many of the long term problems blamed on vaccination aren't in fact due to vaccination, or at worst were an underlying latent problem that would very likely have occurred at some time due to illness, but the mild immune system stimulation that usually accompanies an effective vaccine happened to be the trigger.
I can't be arsed actually trying to put a number to it, but I'd guess the chances are pretty good that for any rural resident the drive to and from the clinic is way riskier than the vaccination.
you still haven't said who decides what is genuine. Is it the MoH? My GP? The CDC? Who? And how do they determine that? It's fine if you can't answer that, but having faith in an ideological position isn't good enough for health policy.
I'm not amplifying anti-vax messages, I'm saying that anti-vax and pro-mandatory vax position are both problematic and making the situation worse. That you can't tell the difference between what I am talking about and antivaxers basically supports my point there.
Exactly weka. Any medical intervention has risk attached and should only be pursued after careful thought. Both my children had most vaccinations but their are enough cases of damage to make you look carefully at what you are exposing your children too. To say we should blindly follow what we we are told is the right path has led to pain and guilt for some parents. Dogmatism when all you are trying to do is what is right by your children is never helpful
One of the big problems is that adverse reaction reporting has not been handled well historically. Even now, people are minimising adverse reactions as an acceptable cost, but the knowledge on this is foggy and messy.
Any Covid-19 vaccine will be different in that the most sensitive target population are the elderly, not children. Most clinical trials are done with healthy volunteers and elderly will be poorly represented if at all in such trials. This may have implications for assessing efficacy as well as risks of side effects (adverse events) occurring.
do you think there will be an initial vaccine for elderly people rather than one for the whole population? So more like a flu vaccine rather than a measles one?
Short answer is that I don’t know. I’d focus on the most vulnerable people first (i.e. mostly the elderly but also diabetics, etc.), i.e. a targeted roll out. For ‘herd immunity’ a much larger section of the population would need to be vaccinated. I have no idea if two vaccines would make sense from a medical PoV and/or logistically and economically. Interesting question though 🙂
we also don't know yet if it's possible to have a vaccine to immunise most of the population against covid, and how long that will last. If it ends up being like the flu vaccine then the conversation changes a bit.
So many extremely interesting things still being discovered about the illness and how it effects people's immunity, CV system, nervous system etc. I'm not seeing a good understanding yet about chronic illness from covid, and think there is good reason for caution with the vaccine. If we're vaccinating to 'go back to normal', I think we need to have a very robust discussion about all the costs of that.
As for determining genuine medical reason, there are things like allergies to components, being immunosuppressed, previous reactions etc etc. Basic skills in navigating around information sources and assessing their credibility finds it very easily. Here's the CDC brief guidelines:
So you have position that only genuine medical reasons are valid for not vaccinating, but you don't have a position on how that should be assessed in NZ? Or are you saying that the state should take the CDC list and apply it irrespective of individual clinical assessment?
I'm guessing I'm not on the CDC list. My GP has told me in the past to not get a flu vaccine. There will be many people in my situation who don't fit into your philosophical position on vaccines who would be at risk from the kind of mandates I suspect you would prefer. Medical science isn't infallible, and taking hardline positions makes good health care harder not better.
It may be that taking hardline positions makes good health care harder (but I'd like to see evidence of that before I accept it as likely fact), but any harmful effects will be tiny in relation to the harmful outcomes caused by the spreading of lies and misinformation that's currently going on, as exemplified by the anti-vax mob. 83 pointlessly dead Samoans being just one illustration of this.
Sure, I understand that the pro-mandated vax crowd are happy enough to sacrifice others on principle without actually designing good systems that might mitigate that. I equally understand why some parts of the community will say fuck you to that position.
I'd like to see some evidence that anti-vaxers were responsible for the Samoan deaths. Instead of say the NZ and Samoan govts, or the MoH in NZ. Or neoliberalism for that matter. It's pretty easy to point fingers.
Afaik, in NZ, the MoH position is that the number of intentional non-vaccinators is less of a problem than the number of people who don't vaccinate because of lack of access or awareness. The whole anti-anti-vax stuff occludes this.
Samoan children hospitalised with measles died after catching MRSA.
(A pity the article is behind the paywall..) It is an interesting read and goes a long way to explaining how a usually mild illness with an historic death rate of 1 in 10,000 cases had such a devastating impact in Samoa.
speaks of how The risk of any further outbreaks of vaccine preventable diseases of childhood is declining as immunisation coverage improves.
The most recently available (2014) estimates of vaccination coverage range from just above 90% for three doses of diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis (DTP),oral poliomyelitis (OPV)vaccine and the first dose of measles-rubella (MR) vaccinedown to 78% for a second dose of MR.
Tragically, in July 2018, two infants were killed when almost inexplicably nurses mixed the MMR vaccine with a muscle relaxant.
The government halted the vaccination program and the previously rising rates of vaccination plummeted. A vacuum demands to be filled, and in swooped the anti- European medicine brigade.
I've had a look for other reports suggesting the Samoan deaths were due to MRSA and found nothing other than the link to your paywalled Herald report. So for now, the credibility on that looks low.
But I'm trying hard to work out what you're trying to suggest here, Rosemary.
Best I can get to is you think that 83 kids dying that had measles (and maybe got MRSA at the hospital they went to for treatment) that were infected with measles because they weren't vaccinated, probably because of anti-vaxxer activity leveraging off a previous medical operator error (no fault whatsoever of the vaccine), that makes spreading around anti-vax misrepresentation and distortion all good?
@weka: There's a plethora of credible articles reporting that anti-vaxers had a significant role in Samoa's low vaccination rate, and a complete absence of anything credible saying the opposite.
The Samoan government suspended the country’s vaccination programme for 10 months, despite advice from the WHO that the country immediately restart the programme. By 2018, only 31% of infants had been vaccinated.
“When you pause for 10 months that’s enough time for thousands of kids [without immunity] to accumulate,” said Jose Hagan, regional immunisation specialist for the WHO.
…
“It’s really hard to know how much to attribute to the anti-vaxxer messaging,” said Hagan. “They’ve certainly been extremely active in Samoa, for perplexing reasons. They’re flying all the way to Samoa to spread this message.”
While these events played a part in reducing the immunity level; health experts and government sources in Samoa have told the Guardian that once the disease arrived on Samoa’s shores, its impact was worse than it needed to be because of mismanagement.
the thing that really bothers me, and it's why I have some understanding of the anti-vaxer position, is the blind faith that mainstream medicine is the best we can do and that mostly it's all good. I'd really like pro-mandatory vax people to spend some time looking at the very large body of evidence of where medical science has fucked up.
It seems most likely that covid vaccines will be released on scale because of the pandemic and bypass some of the usual processes in developing meds.
My understanding is that they're not so much bypassing the usual processes, as doing some of them in sync and speeding up the process and intervals between the stages.
E.g. different vaccines have different types of construction facility. Normally you wouldn't invest in building a factory unless the thing passed all trial phases, and then a business case was made for it (because capitalism).
But they know how to mass produce each vaccine early on in the development, so Gates is building something like seven factories for the seven most promising vaccines in development. Some, maybe all, of those will fail trials at some stage. But if one is shown to be effective and safe, millions of doses could be produced in short order.
And business plans in this case are pretty quick beyond calculating production costs, because we know the objective is to treat almost everyone, and there's solid funding for that goal.
But I haven't heard they're nixing the I, II, & III trials, which are the main safety and efficacy safeguards?
I would have thought time was a critical component of trials. Not for building factories but for seeing adverse effects, as well as allowing for appropriate processes between lab and human society.
I haven't checked to see who these two scientists are, but some interesting points in this article,
Some vaccines are fast-tracking through the regulatory system before studies are completed and with minimal details of experimental results being released. Executives of a big pharmaceutical company whose vaccine is among those closest to the finish line recently sold their stocks after releasing “positive results” that were superficial, partial and that included three of eight healthy young volunteers experiencing severe adverse events.
Events like this are causing the public to become skeptical. A promising vaccine should have solid data to back it up. Those touting vaccines against COVID-19 that are in clinical trials should be asked to provide comprehensive details and results of their study. This enables objective and rigorous evaluations by the broader scientific community. A lack of complete transparency would be cause for concern.
We also know that a lot of covid research is being released as preprints and not standing up to scrutiny. That alongside the huge issues that medical research has had with its peer review process in the past few decades, I'd say the rationales for caution are sound. The economic and financial pressures are going to be huge too, as well as career ones. Big potential for problems.
But the executives selling their stocks after an overtly positive announcement that had some not-so-positive details? Yeah, they don't think the company will be selling millions of doses of that vaccine. They think it won't finish the trials.
The time factor is always there – some things can't be rushed, cultures only grow at a regular rate, some reactions can take time to develop. But some things can be sped up with more work hours (overtime or additional staff), and some things (like building a factory and doing a trial) can be done at the same time without compromising safety.
The preprint issue is a common route in fast-evolving situations: if lots of people are facing the same unknown situation, knowing what others have tried as soon as possible is better than waiting for reviewer number 3 to argue why the wrong bayesian equation for confidence intervals was used. It was extremely effective during the 20(14?) ebola epidemic.
Bear in mind it's a global pandemic. We're not talking about a research paper into a condition which 5 people in the world have. We can sit back and ruminate upon these issues as an intellectual exercise because we aren't facing the same problems as most of the rest of the planet. If they produce a vaccine that actually has a genuine mortality rate, it could still be preferable to letting the damned covid have its way.
regulators decide if the vaccine's effectivenes and safety meet levels to be approved for general use – and they might take the current pandemic into account when doing that math.
Health officials decide if it gets added to the schedule, and for whom.
Funders, including employers, decide whether to pay for people to be vaccinated.
Governments will take the externalities into account when deciding whether vaccines should be mandatory (I doubt it, but dolt45 taught me never say never), or whether unvaccinated people will be in mandatory isolation to protect themselves and others, or whether it looks like enough people will get the jab to protect the decliners so who cares about them.
In NZ, I wouldn't be surprised if we kept the border controls and didn't vaccinate using the first vaccine to be released, at least for a few months. But in a place really hard-hit by covid-19, I would be equally unsurprised if they threw the first vaccine available at everyone possible, as long as the adverse reactions were at least an order of magnitude below what covid causes. If only to let the crematoria get some downtime.
I mean, it's not anything new in that regard, so we pretty much know the answers along the likely front of vaccine efficacy vs disease adversity, and the available supplies.
If there's a reasonable vaccine and a rando case comes up in a year or two, chances are the govt'll just vaccinate the people most at risk – known close contacts like family and any cops or medical staff who attended, alongside all the standard testing. There might even be a local lockdown. But what with the clusterfuck on the rest of the planet, there likely simply won't be enough stock to be lining up schoolkids and so on throughout the country on an annual basis (or however long the protection lasts).
They would probably also jab high-risk professions, e.g. border staff and people working in the isolation centres.
When global pandemic controls get it in hand, and more supplies are available, it's quite possible the MoH will enable GPs to prescribe/administer it, but pharmac won't fund routine administering like with the flu vaccine.
It'll be like if you want to travel to some parts of the planet 8 months ago, you have the option to drop $x00 on various shots for diseases endemic in those areas, but the govt won't give you those vaccines for free. can't remember the specifics, but a colleague went off the beaten track in Asia a few months ago and shots were an issue.
BUT
it might get added to the vaccine schedule in future years if covid isn't eradicatable, and just becomes endemic. So same as MMR or what have you.
If a vaccine becomes available for use in New Zealand, it will have already undergone field trials involving tens of thousands of volunteers that will be very closely monitored. Because of our COVID-free status, we're likely to be a long way down the list to get supplies, so there will have been millions of people already vaccinated elsewhere in the world. So, there's very little to be concerned about here in NZ.
So. The above being true, why would our government not expect the pharmaceutical company to be liable for any injury caused by their product?
Harm from a vaccine is currently one of the things ACC covers, so if the government did indemnify a vaccine manufacturer it would appear to make absolutely zero difference to any individuals within New Zealand. Any liability issue would appear to be between the government or ACC or Pharmac or Medsafe, and the manufacturer.
If it did happen, it wouldn't be the first time. From The Chairman's link:
The Ministry did not rule out offering indemnity to a vaccine supplier, as has happened previously.
Documents obtained under the Official Information Act show the previous Labour government accepted liability when it sourced a bird flu vaccine.
In May 2007, the Ministry of Health obtained 100,000 vaccines from Baxter Healthcare, at a cost of up to $3.4 million.
But as part of the purchase, the government had to provide indemnity to Baxter.
Exactly! The indemnity issue is not a health & safety one but a commercial/business decision so that companies feel free to register their product for the NZ market as it lowers their exposure to financial risk/liability in case something goes awry in a previously untested population (think Māori and Pacific Islanders who may have confounding risk factors).
With the policy the Nats are putting out it is obvious they have realised they have no way of winning the treasury benches this election or next.
The transport policy was just ridiculous. probably undoable given the geology of the Brynderwyns and Kaimais. And uncosted. So not a real policy at all. If they go into 2023 with it, general laughter all around.
The raiding Kiwisaver is just as silly, nonsense really. 70-80% of small busineses fail in the first few years. So no business and a big dent in your retirement savings.
As for the charging of all Kiwis returning. Typical punitive stuff. And given our Bill of rights, probably unenforceable.
Mugabe was an huge fan of cricket, apparently the white administration played cricket radio commentaries from all around the world into his cell 24 hours a day for years. Hated the game beforehand but realised he had to understand it and love it to stop it from having the effect they wanted.
It’s taken 12 years, and required a change to Parliament’s archaic rules, but a group of female MPs have come together to ban female genital mutilation, in all forms. A cross-party group threw aside party allegiances and joined forces to bring New Zealand’s laws around FGM in line with international guidelines. They created a joint Member’s Bill – a way for MPs to have new laws debated outside the Government programme.
Wall said FGM was “part of our legacy of sexual violence, sexual abuse, sexual exploitation”. “I think this is what Parliament's all about. It's about bringing positive change, and community-driven change in a way that de-politicised it. “For us, it was about being clear that any form of violence against women, we have to do everything we can to eliminate it and to stand up and say, these practices are archaic, and they will not be tolerated in New Zealand.”
National’s Anne Tolley took the idea first to Mallard, and then Parliament’s powerful business committee, which makes decisions on proceedings in the House. She’s now hoping for a permanent change to Standing Orders, the rules that govern Parliament.
“We went to the Speaker and asked if could we break with history basically, and have the bill in the name of four members to represent cross party. We are proposing that we change the Standing Orders to allow this to happen more often. So that if we want to do this, again, people don't have to go through that process of convincing the Speaker and taking it to the business committee and getting their approval. That it would just be a matter of course. There are cross party groups in a number of areas, working on mental health, on suicide, so [there are] a number of things that they would be able to put forward.”
Wall and Tolley are members of the Inter-Parliamentary Union, a global organisation of national parliaments. Tolley said she would be taking the idea to the forum.
Good to see this. The use of lateral thinking by parliamentarians is particularly welcome! Cross-party consensus is rare and I hope they succeed with their initiative to make it easier to get – and also in the international arena. Well done, all involved! 👍
Heron must be the most naive bugger in the universe. He didn't check Boags computer because he took her word, she said the bloody stuff came off her computer FFS.
Walker did it to show he wasn't racist, oh FFS he has form so he is.
And where is the howl from the media about why we are still paying Walker. I'm afraid it really grates on this taxpayer that we are tossing him apparently some $60000 to hang around until the election doing who knows what if anything for the electorate. Any other job -he'd have been down the road long time ago.
And an MP throwing a wobbly and leaking info because someone called him a racist, is completely childish.
Also I'm annoyed at the muller puff piece in yesterday's herald. Apparently his mental health difficulties are a result of hamish walkers actions. He won't be returning to Parliament this year but is another nat that is happy to take the pay packet
I don't believe for a moment that the leak was because he was upset over being called racist. This was pure dirty politics aimed at discrediting the government. The 'gosh I was so upset at being called racist' is pure smoke screen and a more 'palatable' story than the truth.
I laughed out loud at the story saying that he just coincidentally called Boag and she just happened to have something on hand to help…bollocks. Why is this story not featured in NZ Herald or Stuff today?
RadioNZ on Walker and his excuse for lacking probity and responsibility that is owed to people and their personal information.
He childishly lashed out because?… Spoilt baby syndrome? Outgoing National MP Hamish Walker told an inquiry he leaked personal Covid-19 patient details to the media due to the "distress of being labelled a racist".
Hamish Walker is still cited giving a misleading excuse to Heron QC and then Heron QC has not appeared to investigate this false justification for its flaws in the reports written findings. Heron's following analysis in the report seems to unwittingly validate Walker instead.
Walker was able to still state along the lines that being distressed about being called a racist because of his actions, ie. from "firing off a press statement warning up to 11,000 people were headed for Southland from India, Pakistan, Korea",
Walker to Heron then finger points deflecting to Boag and a ghost constituent of his.
( NB. The email is only about " confirmed COVID 19 cases as of 9.00am 2 July 2020. ( not the 11,000 Walker needed to validate his claim) Further, the email footer has the Privacy Act prohibitions and the title in caps MEDICAL IN CONFIDENCE )
Again to the investigator, (Heron), Walker MP, is able to still justify his illicit actions using his anger as a motive- similar to his earlier expressions to the media. " Calling me a racist is Labour's default tactic when they are unable to defend their blatant failures. It's not about race," ;
"It's about the countries these Kiwis are coming from.( re NIMBY xenophobia of Koreans, Pakastanis and Indians).
However, the smack in the face flaw is that even now we are to believe that Walker just wanted evidence to prove countries of origins. Walker stated that he was following up a constituent's concern he only " intended to identify the countries the returning New Zealanders were coming from."
The fact is millions of people could already have told Boag and Walker WHERE the confirmed and probable cases came from WITHOUT breaching the law and compromising individual's privacy and safety !!!! For months, then and still anyone can follow origins on a globally accessible public database.
"I've long been struck by the intensity of right-wing anger against relatively trivial regulations, like bans on phosphates in detergent and efficiency standards for lightbulbs," Krugman writes. "It's the principle of the thing: many on the right are enraged at any suggestion that their actions should take other people's welfare into account." According to Krugman, far-right Republicans equate irresponsibility with "freedom." "This rage is sometimes portrayed as love of freedom," Krugman observes. "But people who insist on the right to pollute are notably unbothered by, say, federal agents teargassing peaceful protesters. What they call 'freedom' is actually absence of responsibility."
Hi,I am just going to state something very obvious: American police are fucking crazy.That was a photo gracing the New York Times this morning, showing New York City police “entering Columbia University last night after receiving a request from the school.”Apparently in America, protesting the deaths of tens of thousands ...
Winston Peters’ much anticipated foreign policy speech last night was a work of two halves. Much of it was a standard “boilerplate” Foreign Ministry overview of the state of the world. There was some hardening up of rhetoric with talk of “benign” becoming “malign” and old truths giving way to ...
Graham Adams assesses the fallout of the Cass Review — The press release last Thursday from the UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls didn’t make the mainstream news in New Zealand but it really should have. The startling title of Reem Alsalem’s statement — “Implementation of ‘Cass ...
This open-for-business, under-new-management cliché-pockmarked government of Christopher Luxon is not the thing of beauty he imagines it to be. It is not the powerful expression of the will of the people that he asserts it to be. It is not a soaring eagle, it is a malodorous vulture. This newest poll should make ...
The latest labour market statistics, showing a rise in unemployment. There are now 134,000 unemployed - 14,000 more than when the National government took office. Which is I guess what happens when the Reserve Bank causes a recession in an effort to Keep Wages Low. The previous government saw a ...
Three opinion polls have been released in the last two days, all showing that the new government is failing to hold their popular support. The usual honeymoon experienced during the first year of a first term government is entirely absent. The political mood is still gloomy and discontented, mainly due ...
National's Finance Minister once met a poor person.A scornful interview with National's finance guru who knows next to nothing about economics or people.There might have been something a bit familiar if that was the headline I’d gone with today. It would of course have been in tribute to the article ...
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Chris Trotter writes – IT’S A COMMONPLACE of political speeches, especially those delivered in acknowledgement of electoral victory: “We’ll govern for all New Zealanders.” On the face of it, the pledge is a strange one. Why would any political leader govern in ways that advantaged the huge ...
Bryce Edwards writes – The list of former National Party Ministers being given plum and important roles got longer this week with the appointment of former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett as the chair of Pharmac. The Christopher Luxon-led Government has now made key appointments to Bill ...
TL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 10:06am on Wednesday, May 1:The Lead: Business confidence fell across the board in April, falling in some areas to levels last seen during the lockdowns because of a collapse in ...
Over the past 36 hours, Christopher Luxon has been dong his best to portray the centre-right’s plummeting poll numbers as a mark of virtue. Allegedly, the negative verdicts are the result of hard economic times, and of a government bravely set out on a perilous rescue mission from which not ...
Auckland Transport have started rolling out new HOP card readers around the network and over the next three months, all of them on buses, at train stations and ferry wharves will be replaced. The change itself is not that remarkable, with the new readers looking similar to what is already ...
Completed reads for April: The Difference Engine, by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling Carnival of Saints, by George Herman The Snow Spider, by Jenny Nimmo Emlyn’s Moon, by Jenny Nimmo The Chestnut Soldier, by Jenny Nimmo Death Comes As the End, by Agatha Christie Lord of the Flies, by ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
Have a story to share about St Paul’s, but today just picturesPopular novels written at this desk by a young man who managed to bootstrap himself out of father’s imprisonment and his own young life in a workhouse Read more ...
The list of former National Party Ministers being given plum and important roles got longer this week with the appointment of former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett as the chair of Pharmac. The Christopher Luxon-led Government has now made key appointments to Bill English, Simon Bridges, Steven Joyce, Roger Sowry, ...
Newsroom has a story today about National's (fortunately failed) effort to disestablish the newly-created Inspector-General of Defence. The creation of this agency was the key recommendation of the Inquiry into Operation Burnham, and a vital means of restoring credibility and social licence to an agency which had been caught lying ...
Holding On To The Present:The moment a political movement arises that attacks the whole idea of social progress, and announces its intention to wind back the hands of History’s clock, then democracy, along with its unwritten rules, is in mortal danger.IT’S A COMMONPLACE of political speeches, especially those delivered in ...
Stuck In The Middle With You:As Christopher Luxon feels the hot breath of Act’s and NZ First’s extremists on the back of his neck and, as he reckons with the damage their policies are already inflicting upon a country he’s described as “fragile”, is there not some merit in reaching out ...
The unpopular coalition government is currently rushing to repeal section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act. The clause is Oranga Tamariki's Treaty clause, and was inserted after its systematic stealing of Māori children became a public scandal and resulted in physical resistance to further abductions. The clause created clear obligations ...
Buzz from the Beehive The government’s official website – which Point of Order monitors daily – not for the first time has nothing much to say today about political happenings that are grabbing media headlines. It makes no mention of the latest 1News-Verian poll, for example. This shows National down ...
It Takes A Train To Cry:Surely, there is nothing lonelier in all this world than the long wail of a distant steam locomotive on a cold Winter’s night.AS A CHILD, I would lie awake in my grandfather’s house and listen to the traffic. The big wooden house was only a ...
Packing A Punch: The election of the present government, including in its ranks politicians dedicated to reasserting the rights of the legislature in shaping and determining the future of Māori and Pakeha in New Zealand, should have alerted the judiciary – including its anomalous appendage, the Waitangi Tribunal – that its ...
Dead Woman Walking: New Zealand’s media industry had been moving steadily towards disaster for all the years Melissa Lee had been National’s media and communications policy spokesperson, and yet, when the crisis finally broke, on her watch, she had nothing intelligent to offer. Christopher Luxon is a patient man - but he’s not ...
Chris Trotter writes – New Zealand politics is remarkably easy-going: dangerously so, one might even say. With the notable exception of John Key’s flat ruling-out of the NZ First Party in 2008, all parties capable of clearing MMP’s five-percent threshold, or winning one or more electorate seats, tend ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Polling shows that Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has the lowest approval rating of any mayor in the country. Siting at -12 per cent, the proportion of constituents who disapprove of her performance outweighs those who give her the thumbs up. This negative rating is ...
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This is a re-post from The Climate Brink by Andrew Dessler In the wake of any unusual weather event, someone inevitably asks, “Did climate change cause this?” In the most literal sense, that answer is almost always no. Climate change is never the sole cause of hurricanes, heat waves, droughts, or ...
Something odd happened yesterday, and I’d love to know if there’s more to it. If there was something which preempted what happened, or if it was simply a throwaway line in response to a journalist.Yesterday David Seymour was asked at a press conference what the process would be if the ...
Hi,From time to time, I want to bring Webworm into the real world. We did it last year with the Jurassic Park event in New Zealand — which was a lot of fun!And so on Saturday May 11th, in Los Angeles, I am hosting a lil’ Webworm pop-up! I’ve been ...
Education Minister Erica Standford yesterday unveiled a fundamental reform of the way our school pupils are taught. She would not exactly say so, but she is all but dismantling the so-called “inquiry” “feel good” method of teaching, which has ruled in our classrooms since a major review of the New ...
Exactly where are we seriously going with this government and its policies? That is, apart from following what may as well be a Truss-Lite approach on the purported economic “plan“, and Victorian-era regression when it comes to social policy.Oh it’ll work this time of course, we’re basically assured, “the ...
Hey Uncle Dave, When the Poms joined the EEC, I wasn't one of those defeatists who said, Well, that’s it for the dairy job. And I was right, eh? The Chinese can’t get enough of our milk powder and eventually, the Poms came to their senses and backed up the ute ...
Polling shows that Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has the lowest approval rating of any mayor in the country. Siting at -12 per cent, the proportion of constituents who disapprove of her performance outweighs those who give her the thumbs up. This negative rating is higher than for any other mayor ...
Buzz from the Beehive Pharmac has been given a financial transfusion and a new chair to oversee its spending in the pharmaceutical business. Associate Health Minister David Seymour described the funding for Pharmac as “its largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff”. ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Many criticisms are being made of the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill, including by this writer. But as with everything in politics, every story has two sides, and both deserve attention. It’s important to understand what the Government is trying to achieve and its ...
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Yesterday marked 10 years since the first electric train carried passengers in Auckland so it’s a good time to look back at it and the impact it has had. A brief history The first proposals for rail electrification in Auckland came in the 1920’s alongside the plans for earlier ...
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You make people evil to punish the paststuck inside a sequel with a rotating castThe following photos haven’t been generated with AI, or modified in any way. They are flesh and blood, human beings. On the left is Galatea Young, a young mum, and her daughter Fiadh who has Angelman ...
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We all know something’s not right with our elections. The spread of misinformation, people being targeted with soundbites and emotional triggers that ignore the facts, even the truth, and influence their votes.The use of technology to produce deep fakes. How can you tell if something is real or not? Can ...
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It is all very well cutting the backrooms of public agencies but it may compromise the frontlines. One of the frustrations of the Productivity Commission’s 2017 review of universities is that while it observed that their non-academic staff were increasing faster than their academic staff, it did not bother to ...
Buzz from the Beehive Two speeches delivered by Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters at Anzac Day ceremonies in Turkey are the only new posts on the government’s official website since the PM announced his Cabinet shake-up. In one of the speeches, Peters stated the obvious: we live in a troubled ...
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Lindsay Mitchell writes – One of reasons Oranga Tamariki exists is to prevent child neglect. But could the organisation itself be guilty of the same?Oranga Tamariki’s statistics show a decrease in the number and age of children in care. “There are less children ...
David Farrar writes: Graeme Edgeler wrote in 2017: In the first five years after three strikes came into effect 5248 offenders received a ‘first strike’ (that is, a “stage-1 conviction” under the three strikes sentencing regime), and 68 offenders received a ‘second strike’. In the five years prior to ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has surprised everyone with his ruthlessness in sacking two of his ministers from their crucial portfolios. Removing ministers for poor performance after only five months in the job just doesn’t normally happen in politics. That’s refreshing and will be extremely ...
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The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
Te Pāti Māori is disgusted at the confirmation that hundreds are set to lose their jobs at Oranga Tamariki, and the disestablishment of the Treaty Response Unit. “This act of absolute carelessness and out of touch decision making is committing tamariki to state abuse.” Said Te Pāti Māori Oranga Tamariki ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi, and Mema Paremata mō Tāmaki-Makaurau, Takutai Tarsh Kemp, will travel to the Gold Coast to strengthen ties with Māori in Australia next week (15-21 April). The visit, in the lead-up to the 9th Australian National Kapa haka Festival, will be an opportunity for both ...
The Green Party has today launched a step-by-step guide to help New Zealanders make their voice heard on the Government’s democracy dodging and anti-environment fast track legislation. ...
New Zealand lost a true legend when internationally renowned disability advocate Sir Robert Martin (KNZM) passed away at his home in Whanganui last night, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. “Our Government’s thoughts are with his wife Lynda, family and community, those he has worked with, the disability community in ...
Good evening – Before discussing the challenges and opportunities facing New Zealand’s foreign policy, we’d like to first acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. You have contributed to debates about New Zealand foreign policy over a long period of time, and we thank you for hosting us. ...
From today, passengers travelling internationally from Auckland Airport will be able to keep laptops and liquids in their carry-on bags for security screening thanks to new technology, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Creating a more efficient and seamless travel experience is important for holidaymakers and businesses, enabling faster movement through ...
People with an interest in the health of Northland’s marine ecosystems are invited to a public meeting to discuss how to deal with kina barrens, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones will lead the discussion, which will take place on Friday, 10 May, at Awanui Hotel in ...
Kiwi exporters are $100 million better off today with the NZ EU FTA entering into force says Trade Minister Todd McClay. “This is all part of our plan to grow the economy. New Zealand's prosperity depends on international trade, making up 60 per cent of the country’s total economic activity. ...
There are heartening signs that the extractive sector is once again becoming an attractive prospect for investors and a source of economic prosperity for New Zealand, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The beginnings of a resurgence in extractive industries are apparent in media reports of the sector in the past ...
The return of the historic Ō-Rākau battle site to the descendants of those who fought there moved one step closer today with the first reading of Te Pire mō Ō-Rākau, Te Pae o Maumahara / The Ō-Rākau Remembrance Bill. The Bill will entrust the 9.7-hectare battle site, five kilometres west ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has announced 25 new high-speed EV charging hubs along key routes between major urban centres and outlined the Government’s plan to supercharge New Zealand’s EV infrastructure. The hubs will each have several chargers and be capable of charging at least four – and up to 10 ...
The coalition Government will not proceed with the previous Government’s plans to regulate residential property managers, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “I have written to the Chairperson of the Social Services and Community Committee to inform him that the Government does not intend to support the Residential Property Managers Bill ...
The Government has announced an independent review into the disability support system funded by the Ministry of Disabled People – Whaikaha. Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston says the review will look at what can be done to strengthen the long-term sustainability of Disability Support Services to provide disabled people and ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith has attended the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva and outlined the Government’s plan to restore law and order. “Speaking to the United Nations Human Rights Council provided us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while responding to issues and ...
The Government and Rotorua Lakes Council are committed to working closely together to end the use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua. Associate Minister of Housing (Social Housing) Tama Potaka says the Government remains committed to ending the long-term use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua by the ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay heads overseas today for high-level trade talks in the Gulf region, and a key OECD meeting in Paris. Mr McClay will travel to Riyadh to meet with counterparts from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). “New Zealand’s goods and services exports to the Gulf region ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford has outlined six education priorities to deliver a world-leading education system that sets Kiwi kids up for future success. “I’m putting ambition, achievement and outcomes at the heart of our education system. I want every child to be inspired and engaged in their learning so they ...
The new NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) App is a secure ‘one stop shop’ to provide the services drivers need, Transport Minister Simeon Brown and Digitising Government Minister Judith Collins say. “The NZTA App will enable an easier way for Kiwis to pay for Vehicle Registration and Road User Charges (RUC). ...
Whānau with tamariki growing up in emergency housing motels will be prioritised for social housing starting this week, says Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka. “Giving these whānau a better opportunity to build healthy stable lives for themselves and future generations is an essential part of the Government’s goal of reducing ...
Racing Minister Winston Peters has paid tribute to an icon of the industry with the recent passing of Dave O’Sullivan (OBE). “Our sympathies are with the O’Sullivan family with the sad news of Dave O’Sullivan’s recent passing,” Mr Peters says. “His contribution to racing, initially as a jockey and then ...
Assalaamu alaikum, greetings to you all. Eid Mubarak, everyone! I want to extend my warmest wishes to you and everyone celebrating this joyous occasion. It is a pleasure to be here. I have enjoyed Eid celebrations at Parliament before, but this is my first time joining you as the Minister ...
Associate Health Minister David Seymour has announced Pharmac’s largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff. “Access to medicines is a crucial part of many Kiwis’ lives. We’ve committed to a budget allocation of $1.774 billion over four years so Kiwis are ...
Hon Paula Bennett has been appointed as member and chair of the Pharmac board, Associate Health Minister David Seymour announced today. "Pharmac is a critical part of New Zealand's health system and plays a significant role in ensuring that Kiwis have the best possible access to medicines,” says Mr Seymour. ...
Hundreds of New Zealand families affected by Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) will benefit from a new Government focus on prevention and treatment, says Health Minister Dr Shane Reti. “We know FASD is a leading cause of preventable intellectual and neurodevelopmental disability in New Zealand,” Dr Reti says. “Every day, ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones today attended the official opening of Kaikohe’s new $14.7 million sports complex. “The completion of the Kaikohe Multi Sports Complex is a fantastic achievement for the Far North,” Mr Jones says. “This facility not only fulfils a long-held dream for local athletes, but also creates ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters’ engagements in Türkiye this week underlined the importance of diplomacy to meet growing global challenges. “Returning to the Gallipoli Peninsula to represent New Zealand at Anzac commemorations was a sombre reminder of the critical importance of diplomacy for de-escalating conflicts and easing tensions,” Mr Peters ...
Ambassador Millar, Burgemeester, Vandepitte, Excellencies, military representatives, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen – good morning and welcome to this sacred Anzac Day dawn service. It is an honour to be here on behalf of the Government and people of New Zealand at Buttes New British Cemetery, Polygon Wood – a deeply ...
Distinguished guests - It is an honour to return once again to this site which, as the resting place for so many of our war-dead, has become a sacred place for generations of New Zealanders. Our presence here and at the other special spaces of Gallipoli is made ...
Mai ia tawhiti pamamao, te moana nui a Kiwa, kua tae whakaiti mai matou, ki to koutou papa whenua. No koutou te tapuwae, no matou te tapuwae, kua honoa pumautia. Ko nga toa kua hinga nei, o te Waipounamu, o te Ika a Maui, he okioki tahi me o ...
Paul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. “Our Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...
Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...
Overseas models for regulating the oil and gas sector, including their decommissioning regimes, are being carefully scrutinised as a potential template for New Zealand’s own sector, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. The Coalition Government is focused on rebuilding investor confidence in New Zealand’s energy sector as it looks to strengthen ...
Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell has today released the Report of the Government Inquiry into the response to the North Island Severe Weather Events. “The report shows that New Zealand’s emergency management system is not fit-for-purpose and there are some significant gaps we need to address,” Mr Mitchell ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith is today travelling to Europe where he’ll update the United Nations Human Rights Council on the Government’s work to restore law and order. “Attending the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva provides us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while ...
Associate Agriculture Minister, Mark Patterson, formally reopened the world’s largest wool processing facility today in Awatoto, Napier, following a $50 million rebuild and refurbishment project. “The reopening of this facility will significantly lift the economic opportunities available to New Zealand’s wool sector, which already accounts for 20 per cent of ...
Hon Andrew Bayly, Minister for Small Business and Manufacturing At the Southland Otago Regional Engineering Collective (SOREC) Summit, 18 April, Dunedin Ngā mihi nui, Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Ko Whanganui aho Good Afternoon and thank you for inviting me to open your summit today. I am delighted ...
The Government is delivering on its commitment to bring back the Three Strikes legislation, Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee announced today. “Our Government is committed to restoring law and order and enforcing appropriate consequences on criminals. We are making it clear that repeat serious violent or sexual offending is not ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has today announced four new diplomatic appointments for New Zealand’s overseas missions. “Our diplomats have a vital role in maintaining and protecting New Zealand’s interests around the world,” Mr Peters says. “I am pleased to announce the appointment of these senior diplomats from the ...
New Zealand is contributing NZ$7 million to support communities affected by severe food insecurity and other urgent humanitarian needs in Ethiopia and Somalia, Foreign Minister Rt Hon Winston Peters announced today. “Over 21 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance across Ethiopia, with a further 6.9 million people ...
Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Paul Goldsmith is congratulating Mataaho Collective for winning the Golden Lion for best participant in the main exhibition at the Venice Biennale. "Congratulations to the Mataaho Collective for winning one of the world's most prestigious art prizes at the Venice Biennale. “It is good ...
The Government is reforming financial services to improve access to home loans and other lending, and strengthen customer protections, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly and Housing Minister Chris Bishop announced today. “Our coalition Government is committed to rebuilding the economy and making life simpler by cutting red tape. We are ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nick Chartres, Senior Research Fellow, Faculty of Medicine & Health, University of Sydney shutterstockAhmet Misirligul/Shutterstock You go to the gym, eat healthy and walk as much as possible. You wash your hands and get vaccinated. You control your health. This is ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jacqueline Hendriks, Research Fellow and Lecturer, Curtin University Children and young people may be seeing news headlines about men murdering women or footage of people rallying to call for action. Perhaps they or their friends have even gone to the protests. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jessica Balanzategui, Senior Lecturer in Media, RMIT University ABC “Bluey mania” shows no sign of abating. Bluey’s season finale, The Sign, was the most viewed ABC program of all time on iView. A “hidden” follow-up episode, aptly named The Surprise, created ...
Labour market figures came in softer than the Reserve Bank had forecast, but they won’t be enough to move the needle on interest rates, writes Catherine McGregor in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. Unemployment ...
The campaign will engage the community and encourage submissions on the bill to the New Zealand government by the closing submission deadline of Friday 31st of May 2024 4pm. ...
The paper raises concerns about declining trust in New Zealand's political institutions and democratic processes, and the role that the overuse of Parliamentary urgency plays in that. ...
The Urban Habitat Collective was an attempt to built an innovative new form of apartment building in Wellington. Here’s why it failed, and why the idea could still work, writes co-founder Bronwen Newton. When we started the Urban Habitat Collective in November 2018, we thought we were starting a revolution, ...
Two decades ago this week, a controversial law that attempted to define ownership of the foreshore and seabed prompted a formidable display of outrage and kōtahitanga as 15,000 marched to parliament. Jamie Tahana looks back.‘Hīkoi, hīkoi,” they chanted by the thousands as the biggest Māori march in a generation ...
Loading…(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){var ql=document.querySelectorAll('A,DIV,A[data-quiz],DIV[data-quiz]'); if(ql){if(ql.length){for(var k=0;k<ql.length;k++){ql[k].id='quiz-embed-'+k;ql[k].href="javascript:var i=document.getElementById('quiz-embed-"+k+"');try{qz.startQuiz(i)}catch(e){i.start=1;i.style.cursor='wait';i.style.opacity='0.5'};void(0);"}}};i['QP']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){(i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)})(window,document,'script','https://take.quiz-maker.com/3012/CDN/quiz-embed-v1.js','qp'); Got a good quiz question?Send Newsroom your questions. The post Newsroom daily quiz, Thursday 2 May appeared first on Newsroom. ...
Why has New Zealand slipped from third to 12th on Quality of Death Indexes over the past decade or so? Hospice New Zealand Chief Executive Wayne Naylor has a list of reasons. “We don’t have a current national strategy – the Government hasn’t renewed our 2001 strategy, so we don’t ...
While women’s sport is exploding in Aotearoa and around the world, you still don’t hear a lot of talk about athletes and their periods, RED-S, breastfeeding and visible panty-lines. SASS (Suze and Sez Sports)Talk isn’t afraid to have that kōrero.LockerRoom founder Suzanne McFadden and Olympian broadcaster Sarah ...
On an unusually hot night in January 2019, a little boy’s lifeless body was found face up in a small town’s sewage oxidation pond. To the police, it was an open and shut case: three-year-old Lachlan Jones had run away from his home in the Southland town of Gore, climbed ...
A Labour Party Member’s Bill aims to plug a culpability gap between manslaughter and health and safety breaches The post New push for corporate killing laws appeared first on Newsroom. ...
Terence O’Brien had the rare and no doubt undesired distinction of rising to one of the most exalted positions in New Zealand diplomacy, then being unceremoniously recalled to Wellington without explanation just when his career was at its zenith. What is perhaps more surprising is that he appears to have ...
Rongotai MP Julie Anne Genter has apologised in Parliament after National accused her of intimidating and attacking one of its ministers in the House. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The Prime Minister and state and territory leaders met on Wednesday as the national cabinet to discuss a crisis gripping Australia – the horrific number of women murdered this year. The killings have shocked ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Radhika Raghav, Teaching Fellow, School of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Otago Netflix Indian director Sanjay Leela Bhansali is known for his big-budget Bollywood production, featuring grand sets, star casts, meticulously choreographed dance sequences and lavish costumes, jewellery and furnishings. ...
Sir Robert devoted his life to disability rights after living in institutions in his younger years, says Kaihautū Tika Hauātanga | Disability Rights Commissioner Prudence Walker. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anastasia Powell, Professor, Family and Sexual Violence, RMIT University Violence against women is not a women’s problem to solve, it is a whole of society problem to solve; and men in particular have to take responsibility. Those were the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jessica Allen, Senior Lecturer in Chemical and Renewable Energy Engineering, University of Newcastle Snapshot freddy/ShutterstockPlans to revive an old coal-fired power station using bioenergy are being considered in the Hunter region of New South Wales. Similar plans for the station ...
Responding to the long-awaited release of judges’ special allowances, including free air travel and hotels for spouses, generous sabbaticals, and access to limousines, Taxpayers’ Union spokesman Alex Murphy said: “In what world does your employer ...
Analysis - The United States has unveiled plans to boost the weapons trade with Australia and the UK, on the same day that Winston Peters is expected to sketch NZ's position on AUKUS. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrea Carson, Professor of Political Communication, Department of Politics, Media and Philosophy, La Trobe University Since Australia’s First Nations Voice to Parliament referendum in October 2023, diverse commentaries have sought to explain why it failed. But what does an analysis of media ...
Lawyers representing two iwi as well as the Māori Women’s Welfare League on Wednesday asked the Court of Appeal to overturn last week’s High Court decision on the Waitangi Tribunal’s decision to summons Children’s Minister Karen Chhour. The Tribunal is currently investigating the Government’s decision to repeal section 7AA of ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The Albanese government will introduce legislation to ban deepfake pornography and provide more funding for the eSafety Commission to pilot age-assurance technologies. The contribution of internet sites to gender-based violence was one major issue ...
Average ordinary time hourly earnings, as measured by the Quarterly Employment Survey (QES), increased 5.2 percent in the year to the March 2024 quarter, according to figures released by Stats NZ today. Annual wage cost inflation, as measured by the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dimitrios Salampasis, FinTech Capability Lead | Senior Lecturer, Emerging Technologies and FinTech, Swinburne University of Technology Clem Onojeghuo/Unsplash In the digital era, the job market is increasingly becoming a minefield – demanding and difficult to navigate. According to the Australian Bureau ...
As of the March 2024 quarter, we can now look back on 20 years of data related to youth not in employment, education, or training (NEET), as collected by the Household Labour Force Survey (HLFS), according to figures released by Stats NZ today. "The ...
Thousands of workers attended public events in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch today to celebrate International Workers’ Day (May Day), but union representatives are urging caution and vigilance over the Government’s blatantly "anti-worker" ...
The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 4.3 percent in the March 2024 quarter, compared with 4.0 percent in the previous quarter, according to figures released by Stats NZ today. ...
The PSA is warning the Government that the sensitive information of New Zealanders held by various agencies will fall into the wrong hands if the latest round of proposed cuts goes ahead. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Talitha Best, Professor of Psychology, CQUniversity Australia Victoria Rodriguez/Unsplash How do sugar rushes work? – W.H, age nine, from Canberra What a terrific question W.H! Let’s explore this, starting with some of the basics. What is sugar? ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Karinna Saxby, Research Fellow, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne MART PRODUCTION/Pexels Increasing income support could help keep women and children safe according to new work demonstrating strong links between financial insecurity and domestic violence. ...
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 ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark A Gregory, Associate Professor, School of Engineering, RMIT University The telecommunications industry faces a major shakeup following the release of the post-incident report on last November’s 12-hour Optus outage. Telecommunications companies will have to share more information with customers during future ...
Welcome to The Spinoff Bookseller Confessional, in which we get to know Aotearoa’s booksellers. This week: Eden Denyer, bookseller at Unity Books Auckland.Weirdest question/request you’ve had on the shop floorA mother came in looking for anything we might have on Alaskan bison as that was her little boy’s ...
NZCTU Economist Craig Renney said new data released by Statistics New Zealand shows the need for Government to act now, with unemployment rising from 3.4% to 4.3%. ...
The outpouring of anger over Maiki Sherman’s hyperbolic presentation of this week’s ‘nightmare’ poll is itself an overreaction, argues Stewart Sowman-Lund. Politicians love nothing more than to pretend they don’t care about polls. This week, deputy prime minister Winston Peters said he didn’t give a “rat’s derriere” about a TVNZ ...
Asia Pacific Report Ngāti Kahungunu in Aotearoa New Zealand’s Hawkes Bay region has become the first indigenous Māori iwi (tribe) to sign a resolution calling for a “ceasefire in Palestine”, reports Te Ao Māori News. Reporter Te Aniwaniwa Paterson talked to Te Otāne Huata, who has been organising peace rallies ...
By Dale Luma in Port Moresby “We want grants and not concessional loans,” is the crisp message from Papua New Guinea businesses directly affected by the Black Wednesday looting four months ago. The businesses, which lost millions after the January 10 rioting and looting, say they need grants as part ...
Happy May Day. Join a union. Q: What’s worse than a staff break room where the only place to sit and have a cup of tea is on a teetering stack of old pornography magazines? A: Your boss replacing the magazine stacks with chairs that are “heartily encrusted with ...
By Koroi Hawkins, RNZ Pacific editor Former opposition leader Matthew Wale has been announced as the second prime ministerial candidate ahead of the election in Solomon Islands tomorrow. He will face off against former foreign affairs minister Jeremiah Manele, who was announced by the Coalition for National Unity and Transformation ...
We get but one birthday a year – why not make it last as long as possible by scheduling as many meals with friends and family as you can? This is an excerpt from our weekly food newsletter, The Boil Up. How do you celebrate your birthday? Do you celebrate at ...
A Koi Tū discussion paper released today proposes sweeping changes to New Zealand’s media industry. The principal’s key author, Gavin Ellis, explains how journalists have a key role to play in making others value their role in society. This is an abridged version of a piece first published on knightlyviews.com ...
The Government’s spending cuts are again targeting support for Māori with proposed reform of the agency charged with advising on Māori wellbeing and development. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Douglas, Honorary Senior Lecturer, UNSW Aviation., UNSW Sydney The history of budget jet airlines in Australia is a long road littered with broken dreams. New entrants have consistently struggled to get a foothold. Low-cost carrier Bonza has just become the industry’s ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rosalind Dixon, Director, Gilbert + Tobin Centre of Public Law, UNSW Sydney Australia is finally having a sustained conversation about violence against women and what we can do about it. It is more than time. Australian women and girls continue to experience ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stephen Duckett, Honorary Enterprise Professor, School of Population and Global Health, and Department of General Practice and Primary Care, The University of Melbourne stockfour/Shutterstock Preliminary bulk billing data released this week shows a 2.1% rise in bulk billing up to March. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Samantha Schulz, Senior Lecturer, University of Adelaide Australia is once again grappling with how we can stop gendered violence in our country. Protests over the weekend show there is enormous community anger over the number of women who are dying and National ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Martin, Visiting Fellow, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University AnastasiaDudka/Shutterstock What if the government was doing everything it could to stop thieves making off with our money, except the one thing that could really work? That’s how it ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Erin Harrington, Senior Lecturer in English and Cultural Studies, University of Canterbury The Conversation It seems to be a time of old favourites. This month our experts have recommended two new seasons – the second season of Alone Australia (although ...
Jacqui dean just claimed national built 30 000 state houses. !!
On news hub
Did she raise her eyebrow?
No when challenged she stood her ground !!!
Bat shit crazy stuff coming out of national these days.
Jacqui Dean looks to be just another M.P. compromised by her support of the alcohol industry……
‘When questioned by Māori Party MP Tariana Turia, on why she was unwilling to take the same prohibitory line on smoking cigarettes and drinking alcohol as she took on BZP, Ms Dean said Alcohol and tobacco have been with our society for many, many years; It is estimated that alcohol-related conditions account for 3.1% of all male deaths and 1.41% of all female deaths in New Zealand.
Dean’s Otago electorate is also home to approximately 5% of New Zealand’s wine production, described by the New Zealand Wine Growers Association as a new but aggressively expanding wine area, which is now New Zealand’s seventh largest wine region.’
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacqui_Dean
There are so many ways that our standard of living and health is being decimated by the government and Treasury introduced neolib and freemarket systems. Alcohol has been around for ever but there was so much reaction about its affects in early NZ that it was banned, then reintroduced with control over hours, then after neolib some outlets could open 24/7. Alcohol can ruin people's will to work and stick to the tasks of their role in life, it also spreads to affect the family who adapt to the eccentricities of the addicted one, and the bad affects continue down generations.
So alcohol in excess taking us down. Further down the post Treetop 4.1 talks about micro businesses failing, and the bad affect on those trying to cope with that. I think small business failure is very high -within three years most have either gone bust, or found it was an expensive lesson as to what they shouldn't do, or they sell out, probably at a loss. No way should people draw on their Kiwisaver. It is interesting that Bill English made serious throat-clearing noises about people saving to impress the old-fashioned ignorant of economics, or old people for whom that idea worked until we had National hyperinflation. But actually the economy feeds off people spending, not people saving, and it keeps many so short on wages they have to borrow to get through till the next payday, so there is business profit to the lenders of that money which can not be more than 100% on the actual loan. Kind eh. So National lie about money and people still soak it up as long the end is blaming the poor for their circumstances.
Could be true… does she mean since 1936?
She made it sound like the last 9 years. But I guess itll the standard nat method of tell a big porky defend it for a bit then back away quietly knowing that those less engaged will repeat the lie for them
Report https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2020/07/national-housing-spokesperson-jacqui-dean-falsely-claims-they-built-30-000-state-homes-when-last-in-power.amp.html?__twitter_impression=true
fact check & Labour responds https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2020/07/nz-election-2020-jacinda-ardern-says-it-would-be-fantastic-if-national-s-false-housing-claims-were-true.amp.html
You're onto National bwaghorn. I hadn't actually understood the whole process. But doesn't work for Labour. Promising thousands of houses in three years must have been industry-hype, but the Minister concerned with those funny-business people needs to be wary; these people are not your friends, and you are like innocent Mole going through the Wildwood with evil weasels watching, smirking with their pocket calculators red hot.
Since the Tea Party receded into history, then got Trumped, the latest hot trend in rightist politics in the US seems to be the one pioneered by an online anonymist: Q.
Ah, good vs evil, where the christians come in. "Thiel is a self-described Christian", and kiwi since 2011 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Thiel#New_Zealand_citizenship)
Jesus would be thrilled that his followers are becoming so successful in infiltrating the US political establishment.
Looks like history repeating itself. Conservatives have been there & done that before, almost two centuries ago.
Jesus wouldn't recognize them on the street.
And when he did he would kick their asses all over the park.
There's a lot of truth in the Q conspiracy– America *is* controlled by a cabal of crooks– but their solution (Trump) is wishful thinking in the extreme.
Also, the Q propaganda is first-rate. Example
An alternative spelling is Putin.
Looks like a sustained attempt by the chemical industry to poison nature is coming to an end, finally, here.
I live just below the bottom of those photos in the report, around half a kilometer from their boundary, just far enough away to be free from paranoia.
If they sell their huge unused land-holding and subdivide, it may become the choice real estate option in New Plymouth: particularly the ocean view side, a millionaire's row in waiting. I'm right on the city edge, look out the back window to the countryside across the way & mountain above. Native frogs in my back yard come up from the stream in between suburb & countryside – glad to see the last of the agri-poisoners!
Dennis, taking in the photo, I envy you your home location, and I join with you in celebrating the exit of the blot on the lovely landscape. I hope the land is restored to health.
Thanks, Molly, yes it'll be an interesting space to watch for a while, I suspect!
My cousin was born with a cleft palate which possibly comes from being exposed to the chemicals at the plant (her parents lived near there around the turn of the 1970's). The first 20 years of her life was spent in and out of hospital getting it fixed up.
Collins cashing in your super to start a business.
SStupid idea considering 70% of businesses go broke in the first year,Desperate and Dumb
I would like to know the percentage of small established businesses which are failing.
A failed small business just does not have a financial affect, it has mental consequences as well.
https://nzbusiness.co.nz/article/fail-expos%C3%A9
When you really look at the stats you have to wonder why the politicians are so caught up on the idea that its small business that drives NZ.
Does being self employed count as a business?
If not why not?
Yes, small business are business the employ zero (self employed) to 20 employees
Interestingly the zero group comprises 372,429 businesses, 71% of all small businesses, and small businesses are 29% of all businesses.
I am learning a lot today with the links about small business.
How to save a business from failing and what is a small business.
"But it's our money!" is the RW argument. I'd like to see KS untouchable to all Partys meddling.
This is classic Crusher. She's talking to the deep base who might not bother voting, not to someone who's been laid off because of covid.
Even if she gets to be PM (highly doubtful), I doubt the policy will start many more businesses than she crushed cars. $20K is just seed capital, the prospective business person then has to go and get a bank to support them, so has to have a pretty good business plan. You'd be looking at $100K finance package for a business that's going to do as well or better than wages. If the business plan is good enough to get the banks attention, then it wouldn't matter if the $20K was in cash or KiwiSaver, it's still an asset and the bank might prefer it being in KiwiSaver.
It effectively liquidates part of the person's Kiwisaver so it becomes an asset the bank now has access to. Pretty clear who would benefit from such a move.
Deep down under it is the fact that right wingers think your a loser if you're an employee.
They want us all self employed and scrapping for every cent .
In many cases it will be $20k into the pocket of some franchise owner – while the poor 'mark' who bought the franchise, will drive themselves slowly insane trying to scratch a living under impossible conditions.
To be brutally honest if your at the point where you need to bust kiwi saver your probably not cut out to run you own business,
Brutal but honest.
They gave an example of a plumber who has been laid off. How stupid is that. They would only have been laid off because there is not enough work yet they are supposed to risk their retirement savings competing with their former boss in the same market.
And most plumbers aren't employees once they get past their training anyway. There's a shortage of them (this seems to be a recurring issue) and they tend to be well paid and independent.
If you have the qualifications and you are a half way decent plumber you would be out on your own anyway.
Are you suggesting that people should not even try? I know you are quoting your % from an article you have read once in the past, but I'd really like to know what type of business/venture makes up that 70%.
Its not a question of not trying but accepting that things aren't going to get better simply because someone became self-employed on a down in the market.
But we do have to consider that National governs for the rich and those rich people are looking at those funds and thinking of how nice it would be if they were in their pockets instead of those of the poor. And so National invents some BS rhetoric that sounds good but will only work to shift those funds from the poor to the rich.
where's all the "wealth creators"?
Trying to syphon up all the wealth that everyone else created as per normal.
There has to be a better way of getting 20K for a start up other than partially/fully gutting Kiwi saver.
A 0% interest loan from the government would do it. Throw in freely available mentors and ongoing financial assistance (still at 0%) until its an obvious make/break and we'll probably get some good businesses going.
In fact, all business loans should be direct from government and be at 0% with no fees.
R.D. Laing, the Scottish psychiatrist, introduced hypersanity more than half a century ago. https://www.psychologytoday.com/nz/blog/hide-and-seek/201908/hypersanity
Mainstreamers inhabit a psychosocial head-space: normalcy. Representative democracy allows them to impose their hegemony on the rest of us via the binary format of National & Labour, here.
Mainstreamers exhibit their normalcy by empowering their political reps, trained by the education system, so the cause and effect relation between that and the hundred million of them who got eliminated in consequence, during the first half of the 20th century, never becomes clear to them. Normalcy is a fog in culture that persists.
Those who transcend normalcy see through the fog to the deeper reality that encompasses all. The sleep of normalcy Laing refers to above can then lead to awakening from the normal. BLM, woke, etc.
Following Laing & the mid-20th century human potential movement, hippies became the spearhead of a cultural transformation that swept through western civilisation. Psychedelic drugs were used to decondition us. Normalcy evaporated.
Then a younger generation said "Nah! Too weird." They went back to the future via Thatcher, Reagan & Rogernomics. Normal transmission resumed. Good little consumer citizens, doing what they're told. When Diogenes was asked
Some folks see the big picture, naturally. Some need intervention, such as from psychedelics, then they see it. The pandemic is producing intervention in normalcy, and imposing it on the masses. Only survivors will make the transition and become hypersane. The contagion curve shows no sign of levelling off.
The culling process (shown by the death numbers) remains a slow build. Gaia is patient, tolerant of slow learners – but eventually they will run out of time. Normal is the loser's option…
Winners vs. losers; a nice dichotomy I had not heard in a while.
It may get recycled somewhat during the election campaign. Voters are meant to be cognizant that Labour or National will win. Trouble is, when they get so busy copying each other all the time, poor normal folk get bewildered and find it hard to identify the winner. In normalcy, I mean. The PM seems an abnormal blip on their mental horizon, so expect them to spot her as a winner.
Of course, politics is a contest of ideas and the general election is the Olympic Games of (NZ) politics. I wonder who will win the gold glitter this time. Life is all but an enduring competition trying to outdo your fellow humans. In the end, you die anyway. Such is life.
Nice. I've got a lot of time for Laing.
"The pandemic is producing intervention in normalcy, and imposing it on the masses."
Yes. People respond in lots of different ways to being forced awake. I had had some hopes for NZ that we would step up a bit more on this front. Maybe that is happening it's just not being reflected in the mainstream institutions yet. Is suspect that every community now has more people preparing and future proofing their lives. The election will be telling. Which way will NZ jump?
So JLR tables/doesn’t table 65,000 Nat donation transactions and details one Inner Mongolian donation of 150,000 dollars from a Chinese company with no known connections to NZ and not a word from the media that I have heard.
Does the deafening silence mean the media is actually doing a bit more research or just ignoring it?
Weren't there already media stories months ago about that donation? Which would be why he was safe to mention it without triggering the threatened lawyering.
Probably ignoring it. The MSM is, generally, supportive of National.
Watch the Garner interview with Dean, he's really trying to help her out but her BS even he can't let go by (even if he still slags off Labour).
Winnie, no sense of irony. https://i.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/300069404/dead-rat-spit-back-up-green-party-vote-to-repeal-waka-jumping-law-with-national-infuriating-winston-peters
Peters is singing for his last supper and it’ll be his swan song unless we have a rogue poll on 19 Sep.
Ironic from Peter's now he is sabotaging the Coalitions deals.
NZ first will be last at the election.
Peter's is making a bigger Dick of himself every day the polls reflect his demise.He is out of touch with his messaging no ones listening.Back to the past ideas.
I wonder if the govt considered charging all returnees for meals. Food is something they would have had to pay for if not in isolation, so a charge of say $50 for for 3 meals a day would not seem unreasonable.
…$50 for for 3 meals a day would not seem unreasonable.
Shopping wisely, one can feed an adult for a whole week on fifty bucks. Not including alcohol.
Interesting there hasn't been too much comparison with paying for returnees accom + food + power with how much benes or min wage workers make and have to live on.
It is a middle class 'problem', for sure. Which is why both Lab and Nats are addressing it in election year.
All things considered, $285/day for the taxpayer to cover MIQ costs isn't that high.
That's accommodation, food, security, army costs, healthcare and the rest of whatever additional costs there are.
I have often opined on Twitter that while Citizens shouldn't be charged for returning, I'm not sure we should apply the same logic to permanent residents unless they are ordinarily resident in NZ.
Permanent Residents are citizens of another country. I'm not sure of just how many PR visas have been issued to people who then promptly buggered off overseas, but if I'm reading DIA figures correctly, it looks like 500k PR visas issued in the last 5 years alone. I can't find figures for prior to 2015. If the last 5 years is anything to go by, that's a lot of PRs coming back to NZ after they haven't set foot in NZ for many years since they got their PR visa.
It'd be nice to have the PR visa time bound requiring people to apply for citizenship after a set period like many other nations do.
The proposed charge does not come anywhere near covering the costs. It is political theatre.
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/covid-quarantine-fees-about-emotion-not-economics
Keeps the hotels ticking . So they aren't getting the wage subsidies or laying off staff .
But of a work scheme in disguise.
500,000 is a staggering number, but it would be good to see analysis of time spent in NZ.
"It'd be nice to have the PR visa time bound requiring people to apply for citizenship after a set period like many other nations do."
This seems reasonable.
IFL, I suspect returnees wouldn't be expected to live on rice and beans.
darklol. Yet we expect thousands of others too.
Obviously not! Rice & beans. Also, are the detainees spending it all on alcohol, ciggies, drugs & pokies?
So who is going to be the bridesmaid NZ First or the Greens?
When it comes to NZ First they may not even make it to the after party?
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/422321/government-may-provide-indemnity-to-nz-supplier-of-covid-19-vaccine
I have viewed a number of things online of late that bring vaccines into question.
These are 3 main ones below.
https://youtu.be/dBvY9x2Nma0
https://youtu.be/zH2i7VeoSZE
Kennedy Jr is a long-term peddler of misinformation, misrepresentation and all-around bullshit that's just opportunistically using the increased interest in vaccines to grab more clicks. FFS, Kennedy is still a supporter of Andrew Wakefield, the proven fraudster willing to falsify data that played games with vulnerable kids' health apparently just to line his pockets from lawsuits. Kennedy's own family strongly repudiates his views and actions.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/116449847/the-disgraced-antivaxx-doctor-the-supermodel-and-the-measles-epidemic
https://arstechnica.com/science/2019/11/robert-f-kennedy-jr-is-the-single-leading-source-of-anti-vax-ads-on-facebook/
https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2019/05/08/robert-kennedy-jr-measles-vaccines-226798
https://www.sciencealert.com/anti-vaxxers-seize-virus-moment-to-spread-fake-news
If a vaccine becomes available for use in New Zealand, it will have already undergone field trials involving tens of thousands of volunteers that will be very closely monitored. Because of our COVID-free status, we're likely to be a long way down the list to get supplies, so there will have been millions of people already vaccinated elsewhere in the world. So, there's very little to be concerned about here in NZ.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/world/422197/covid-19-moderna-pfizer-start-decisive-vaccine-trials-eye-year-end-launches
https://www.news-medical.net/news/20200705/Oxford-COVID-19-vaccine-trials-move-to-stage-3-human-trials.aspx
If it weren't for the gratuitous risk the unvaccinated pose to the very few people that have genuine medical reasons to not get particular vaccines, I'd be very much in favour of idiots sucked in by anti-vax bullshit to just let the disease cull themselves out of the herd
who decides what a genuine medical reason is?
It seems most likely that covid vaccines will be released on scale because of the pandemic and bypass some of the usual processes in developing meds. This is likely to cause harm. It's ok to have a conversation about that potential harm and what it means. Downplaying that or out right denying is unhelpful, and will fuel the other side. Either side of the pro-anti debate taking dogmatic or fundamentalist positions won't serve us.
We need to be able to have conversations that address skepticism about the safety and efficacy of vaccines without demonizing doubters.
https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2019/05/08/robert-kennedy-jr-measles-vaccines-226798
Funny how bad-faith artists that get called on their bullshit are quick to cry demonisation.
Ummm. Andre, buddy. That quote came from one of your links…the one denouncing Robert Kennedy.
In this case, The Chairman is mindlessly posting clickbait by a repeatedly debunked proven bullshit artist without applying even the most rudimentary credibility checking. In this case, Kennedy is full of misrepresentations, distortions, partial truths and all the other tricks of those with intent to mislead.
It really gets tiresome seeing the same misinformation posted again and again. A brief search of something like anti-vax debunked brings up tons of articles examining the claims made and showing the actual facts of the matter. It's very basic level "ability to assess information credibility".
Personally I'm done with coddling the feels of idiots that see something then spread it around mindlessly. That kind of bullshit just helps the malicious among us get traction.
As for determining genuine medical reason, there are things like allergies to components, being immunosuppressed, previous reactions etc etc. Basic skills in navigating around information sources and assessing their credibility finds it very easily. Here's the CDC brief guidelines:
https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/vpd/should-not-vacc.html
how many anti-vaxers do you know in real life Andre? How many people that aren't full on anti-vaxer but have concerns?
Two anti-vaxers that I know of for sure. Three more I don't know for sure either way, but are susceptible to the same bullshit clusters of beliefs and misinformation, and inability to try to fact-check, that seem to go hand-in-hand with anti-vax, so they're probables. I've lost count of how many have expressed concerns or hesitancy and then been pointed to accurate information, and then gone on to embrace vaccination.
Given my social circles and family tend to be in facts/evidence oriented occupations that value skepticism and consideration of alternatives highly, I consider those numbers of anti-vaxxers and hesitants fairly high.
My point here would be that ridicule and ostracisation is radicalising people away from science. I know these communities quite well, not from an outside, finger pointing, we can force you to change pov, but they're just normal parts of my community. Telling them they're stupid doesn't change them, it entrenches their views.
NZ is on the cusp of a number of radicalisations, and we really should be paying attention to this. Treating people who have concerns about the covid vaccine like shit won't make them more likely to accept the need for vaccination.
Myself, at the start of the pandemic I started off thinking a covid vax would be one of the few I might need in my remaining lifetime. Now I'm more cautious, not because of conspiracy theories, but because I can see it will be rushed and that there will be a disability cost and that we will vaccinate before having a good understanding of the disease, and pro-mandate people arguing that disability doesn't matter can in fact get fucked. If you want to solve the problem of lowered uptake, then address the valid concerns and support them being resolved in other ways. People mostly want to feel safe and secure, attend to that and it will get easier.
Anyone that has a genuine medical reason not to get vaccinated is one of the people vaccine programmes are trying to protect. But if you are genuinely one of those people, and you still choose to amplify anti-vax messages, I can take a darwinian view of that. I'm just disgusted on behalf of those with genuine medical reason not to be vaccinated that are put at unnecessary risk by that kind of stupidity.
As for valid concerns, one of the anti-vaxers main techniques is to take an absolutely miniscule number of problems and blow them way out of proportion. Furthermore, of the very very small number of reported reactions, a tiny proportion of those have any long-term effects and the vast majority fall into the category of short term discomfort.
Then there's the attribution problem where many of the long term problems blamed on vaccination aren't in fact due to vaccination, or at worst were an underlying latent problem that would very likely have occurred at some time due to illness, but the mild immune system stimulation that usually accompanies an effective vaccine happened to be the trigger.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/287411502_The_urban_myth_of_the_association_between_neurological_disorders_and_vaccinations
I can't be arsed actually trying to put a number to it, but I'd guess the chances are pretty good that for any rural resident the drive to and from the clinic is way riskier than the vaccination.
you still haven't said who decides what is genuine. Is it the MoH? My GP? The CDC? Who? And how do they determine that? It's fine if you can't answer that, but having faith in an ideological position isn't good enough for health policy.
I'm not amplifying anti-vax messages, I'm saying that anti-vax and pro-mandatory vax position are both problematic and making the situation worse. That you can't tell the difference between what I am talking about and antivaxers basically supports my point there.
Exactly weka. Any medical intervention has risk attached and should only be pursued after careful thought. Both my children had most vaccinations but their are enough cases of damage to make you look carefully at what you are exposing your children too. To say we should blindly follow what we we are told is the right path has led to pain and guilt for some parents. Dogmatism when all you are trying to do is what is right by your children is never helpful
One of the big problems is that adverse reaction reporting has not been handled well historically. Even now, people are minimising adverse reactions as an acceptable cost, but the knowledge on this is foggy and messy.
Any Covid-19 vaccine will be different in that the most sensitive target population are the elderly, not children. Most clinical trials are done with healthy volunteers and elderly will be poorly represented if at all in such trials. This may have implications for assessing efficacy as well as risks of side effects (adverse events) occurring.
https://theconversation.com/why-vaccines-are-less-effective-in-the-elderly-and-what-it-means-for-covid-19-141971
do you think there will be an initial vaccine for elderly people rather than one for the whole population? So more like a flu vaccine rather than a measles one?
Bit busy at the moment 🙁
Short answer is that I don’t know. I’d focus on the most vulnerable people first (i.e. mostly the elderly but also diabetics, etc.), i.e. a targeted roll out. For ‘herd immunity’ a much larger section of the population would need to be vaccinated. I have no idea if two vaccines would make sense from a medical PoV and/or logistically and economically. Interesting question though 🙂
we also don't know yet if it's possible to have a vaccine to immunise most of the population against covid, and how long that will last. If it ends up being like the flu vaccine then the conversation changes a bit.
So many extremely interesting things still being discovered about the illness and how it effects people's immunity, CV system, nervous system etc. I'm not seeing a good understanding yet about chronic illness from covid, and think there is good reason for caution with the vaccine. If we're vaccinating to 'go back to normal', I think we need to have a very robust discussion about all the costs of that.
So you have position that only genuine medical reasons are valid for not vaccinating, but you don't have a position on how that should be assessed in NZ? Or are you saying that the state should take the CDC list and apply it irrespective of individual clinical assessment?
I'm guessing I'm not on the CDC list. My GP has told me in the past to not get a flu vaccine. There will be many people in my situation who don't fit into your philosophical position on vaccines who would be at risk from the kind of mandates I suspect you would prefer. Medical science isn't infallible, and taking hardline positions makes good health care harder not better.
It may be that taking hardline positions makes good health care harder (but I'd like to see evidence of that before I accept it as likely fact), but any harmful effects will be tiny in relation to the harmful outcomes caused by the spreading of lies and misinformation that's currently going on, as exemplified by the anti-vax mob. 83 pointlessly dead Samoans being just one illustration of this.
Sure, I understand that the pro-mandated vax crowd are happy enough to sacrifice others on principle without actually designing good systems that might mitigate that. I equally understand why some parts of the community will say fuck you to that position.
I'd like to see some evidence that anti-vaxers were responsible for the Samoan deaths. Instead of say the NZ and Samoan govts, or the MoH in NZ. Or neoliberalism for that matter. It's pretty easy to point fingers.
Afaik, in NZ, the MoH position is that the number of intentional non-vaccinators is less of a problem than the number of people who don't vaccinate because of lack of access or awareness. The whole anti-anti-vax stuff occludes this.
83 pointlessly dead Samoans being just one illustration of this.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12333910
Samoan children hospitalised with measles died after catching MRSA.
(A pity the article is behind the paywall..) It is an interesting read and goes a long way to explaining how a usually mild illness with an historic death rate of 1 in 10,000 cases had such a devastating impact in Samoa.
As for spreading misinformation….
….this report from 2018
https://indopacifichealthsecurity.dfat.gov.au/sites/default/files/Samoa%20Report%20-Scoping%20Mission.pdf?v=1540363081
speaks of how The risk of any further outbreaks of vaccine preventable diseases of childhood is declining as immunisation coverage improves.
The most recently available (2014) estimates of vaccination coverage range from just above 90% for three doses of diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis (DTP),oral poliomyelitis (OPV)vaccine and the first dose of measles-rubella (MR) vaccinedown to 78% for a second dose of MR.
Tragically, in July 2018, two infants were killed when almost inexplicably nurses mixed the MMR vaccine with a muscle relaxant.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/world/south-pacific/117952035/nurses-fatal-vaccination-error-in-samoa-was-against-parents-wishes
The government halted the vaccination program and the previously rising rates of vaccination plummeted. A vacuum demands to be filled, and in swooped the anti- European medicine brigade.
The chronology is very important Andre.
I've had a look for other reports suggesting the Samoan deaths were due to MRSA and found nothing other than the link to your paywalled Herald report. So for now, the credibility on that looks low.
But I'm trying hard to work out what you're trying to suggest here, Rosemary.
Best I can get to is you think that 83 kids dying that had measles (and maybe got MRSA at the hospital they went to for treatment) that were infected with measles because they weren't vaccinated, probably because of anti-vaxxer activity leveraging off a previous medical operator error (no fault whatsoever of the vaccine), that makes spreading around anti-vax misrepresentation and distortion all good?
are you saying that low vax rates in Samoa in 2019 were due to anti-vaxers?
@weka: There's a plethora of credible articles reporting that anti-vaxers had a significant role in Samoa's low vaccination rate, and a complete absence of anything credible saying the opposite.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/dec/18/these-babies-should-not-have-died-how-the-measles-outbreak-took-hold-in-samoa
https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&q=samoa+measles+anti-vax
Best I can get to is you think that 83 kids dying that had measles …. makes spreading around anti-vax misrepresentation and distortion all good?
No, Andre, and do think you are deliberately misinterpreting the information supplied.
According to the 2018 report there were no worries about the uptake of vaccinations in Samoa. None.
Then in July two Samoan babies were killed by incompetent nurses.
The Samoan government suspended the (previously lauded ) vaccination program.
More about the multiple factors that led to the tragic deaths from this measles outbreak.
https://www.noted.co.nz/currently/currently-world/samoa-measles-how-its-faring-after-the-epidemic
There are numerous articles and studies detailing the extreme prevalence of MRSA in Samoa. Go and do the research.
…
I didn't read through the whole article.
/shrug.
by all means pull out what you think is in the Guardian piece that supports your assertion.
thanks, I'd forgotten that part of it. Buy hey, let's blame it all on the small % of people in NZ who choose not to vaccinate against measles.
weka….the vaccination rates in Samoa only fell after the two babies were killed by the criminally incompetent nurses.
yes, I got that (had forgotten about that side of it). I was being sarcastic about Andre's argument.
the thing that really bothers me, and it's why I have some understanding of the anti-vaxer position, is the blind faith that mainstream medicine is the best we can do and that mostly it's all good. I'd really like pro-mandatory vax people to spend some time looking at the very large body of evidence of where medical science has fucked up.
My understanding is that they're not so much bypassing the usual processes, as doing some of them in sync and speeding up the process and intervals between the stages.
E.g. different vaccines have different types of construction facility. Normally you wouldn't invest in building a factory unless the thing passed all trial phases, and then a business case was made for it (because capitalism).
But they know how to mass produce each vaccine early on in the development, so Gates is building something like seven factories for the seven most promising vaccines in development. Some, maybe all, of those will fail trials at some stage. But if one is shown to be effective and safe, millions of doses could be produced in short order.
And business plans in this case are pretty quick beyond calculating production costs, because we know the objective is to treat almost everyone, and there's solid funding for that goal.
But I haven't heard they're nixing the I, II, & III trials, which are the main safety and efficacy safeguards?
I would have thought time was a critical component of trials. Not for building factories but for seeing adverse effects, as well as allowing for appropriate processes between lab and human society.
I haven't checked to see who these two scientists are, but some interesting points in this article,
https://theconversation.com/fast-covid-19-vaccine-timelines-are-unrealistic-and-put-the-integrity-of-scientists-at-risk-139824
We also know that a lot of covid research is being released as preprints and not standing up to scrutiny. That alongside the huge issues that medical research has had with its peer review process in the past few decades, I'd say the rationales for caution are sound. The economic and financial pressures are going to be huge too, as well as career ones. Big potential for problems.
Caution is reasonable.
But the executives selling their stocks after an overtly positive announcement that had some not-so-positive details? Yeah, they don't think the company will be selling millions of doses of that vaccine. They think it won't finish the trials.
The time factor is always there – some things can't be rushed, cultures only grow at a regular rate, some reactions can take time to develop. But some things can be sped up with more work hours (overtime or additional staff), and some things (like building a factory and doing a trial) can be done at the same time without compromising safety.
The preprint issue is a common route in fast-evolving situations: if lots of people are facing the same unknown situation, knowing what others have tried as soon as possible is better than waiting for reviewer number 3 to argue why the wrong bayesian equation for confidence intervals was used. It was extremely effective during the 20(14?) ebola epidemic.
Bear in mind it's a global pandemic. We're not talking about a research paper into a condition which 5 people in the world have. We can sit back and ruminate upon these issues as an intellectual exercise because we aren't facing the same problems as most of the rest of the planet. If they produce a vaccine that actually has a genuine mortality rate, it could still be preferable to letting the damned covid have its way.
yeah, let's not sit back and ruminate, but let's lay everything out on the table and look at it properly.
Mortality isn't the only issue here, but even there, who gets to decide?
Decide what?
regulators decide if the vaccine's effectivenes and safety meet levels to be approved for general use – and they might take the current pandemic into account when doing that math.
Health officials decide if it gets added to the schedule, and for whom.
Funders, including employers, decide whether to pay for people to be vaccinated.
Governments will take the externalities into account when deciding whether vaccines should be mandatory (I doubt it, but dolt45 taught me never say never), or whether unvaccinated people will be in mandatory isolation to protect themselves and others, or whether it looks like enough people will get the jab to protect the decliners so who cares about them.
In NZ, I wouldn't be surprised if we kept the border controls and didn't vaccinate using the first vaccine to be released, at least for a few months. But in a place really hard-hit by covid-19, I would be equally unsurprised if they threw the first vaccine available at everyone possible, as long as the adverse reactions were at least an order of magnitude below what covid causes. If only to let the crematoria get some downtime.
decide who should be vaccinated.
What we don't yet know is the efficacy of any vaccine, so a lot of this is kind of moot until we do know.
I mean, it's not anything new in that regard, so we pretty much know the answers along the likely front of vaccine efficacy vs disease adversity, and the available supplies.
If there's a reasonable vaccine and a rando case comes up in a year or two, chances are the govt'll just vaccinate the people most at risk – known close contacts like family and any cops or medical staff who attended, alongside all the standard testing. There might even be a local lockdown. But what with the clusterfuck on the rest of the planet, there likely simply won't be enough stock to be lining up schoolkids and so on throughout the country on an annual basis (or however long the protection lasts).
They would probably also jab high-risk professions, e.g. border staff and people working in the isolation centres.
When global pandemic controls get it in hand, and more supplies are available, it's quite possible the MoH will enable GPs to prescribe/administer it, but pharmac won't fund routine administering like with the flu vaccine.
It'll be like if you want to travel to some parts of the planet 8 months ago, you have the option to drop $x00 on various shots for diseases endemic in those areas, but the govt won't give you those vaccines for free. can't remember the specifics, but a colleague went off the beaten track in Asia a few months ago and shots were an issue.
BUT
it might get added to the vaccine schedule in future years if covid isn't eradicatable, and just becomes endemic. So same as MMR or what have you.
If a vaccine becomes available for use in New Zealand, it will have already undergone field trials involving tens of thousands of volunteers that will be very closely monitored. Because of our COVID-free status, we're likely to be a long way down the list to get supplies, so there will have been millions of people already vaccinated elsewhere in the world. So, there's very little to be concerned about here in NZ.
So. The above being true, why would our government not expect the pharmaceutical company to be liable for any injury caused by their product?
Harm from a vaccine is currently one of the things ACC covers, so if the government did indemnify a vaccine manufacturer it would appear to make absolutely zero difference to any individuals within New Zealand. Any liability issue would appear to be between the government or ACC or Pharmac or Medsafe, and the manufacturer.
If it did happen, it wouldn't be the first time. From The Chairman's link:
Exactly! The indemnity issue is not a health & safety one but a commercial/business decision so that companies feel free to register their product for the NZ market as it lowers their exposure to financial risk/liability in case something goes awry in a previously untested population (think Māori and Pacific Islanders who may have confounding risk factors).
Dude, you've omitted one of the leading alt-covid voices.
///
https://twitter.com/jfreewright/status/1288258615543914497
With the policy the Nats are putting out it is obvious they have realised they have no way of winning the treasury benches this election or next.
The transport policy was just ridiculous. probably undoable given the geology of the Brynderwyns and Kaimais. And uncosted. So not a real policy at all. If they go into 2023 with it, general laughter all around.
The raiding Kiwisaver is just as silly, nonsense really. 70-80% of small busineses fail in the first few years. So no business and a big dent in your retirement savings.
As for the charging of all Kiwis returning. Typical punitive stuff. And given our Bill of rights, probably unenforceable.
Judith has given up. And it shows.
“Heron Report” due at 11am today.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/northern-advocate/news/article.cfm?c_id=1503450&objectid=12352201
Zimbabwe just confirmed a $3.5b deal to compensate white farmers.
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/07/29/africa/zimbabwe-compensation-white-farmers/index.html
Now that would be a really interesting proposal to run in Taranaki – especially to get the European farmers off those Waitara blocks.
Fotunately Mugabe was "interred in a steel-lined coffin under a layer of concrete", to prevent him climbing back out. Well, the family did use a different excuse. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/09/29/robert-mugabe-buried-steel-coffin-encased-concrete-family-claims/
But, after the spinning, what's the bet he'll be having a go? "Goddam sonsa bitches, no way am I gonna let them get away with that!"
Mugabe was an huge fan of cricket, apparently the white administration played cricket radio commentaries from all around the world into his cell 24 hours a day for years. Hated the game beforehand but realised he had to understand it and love it to stop it from having the effect they wanted.
News from last night: https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/122286406/mps-reach-across-the-house-to-ban-female-genital-mutilation
Good to see this. The use of lateral thinking by parliamentarians is particularly welcome! Cross-party consensus is rare and I hope they succeed with their initiative to make it easier to get – and also in the international arena. Well done, all involved! 👍
Great stuff.
This is excellent news – thanks for passing that on Dennis F.
Heron must be the most naive bugger in the universe. He didn't check Boags computer because he took her word, she said the bloody stuff came off her computer FFS.
Walker did it to show he wasn't racist, oh FFS he has form so he is.
And where is the howl from the media about why we are still paying Walker. I'm afraid it really grates on this taxpayer that we are tossing him apparently some $60000 to hang around until the election doing who knows what if anything for the electorate. Any other job -he'd have been down the road long time ago.
And an MP throwing a wobbly and leaking info because someone called him a racist, is completely childish.
Also I'm annoyed at the muller puff piece in yesterday's herald. Apparently his mental health difficulties are a result of hamish walkers actions. He won't be returning to Parliament this year but is another nat that is happy to take the pay packet
I don't believe for a moment that the leak was because he was upset over being called racist. This was pure dirty politics aimed at discrediting the government. The 'gosh I was so upset at being called racist' is pure smoke screen and a more 'palatable' story than the truth.
I laughed out loud at the story saying that he just coincidentally called Boag and she just happened to have something on hand to help…bollocks. Why is this story not featured in NZ Herald or Stuff today?
RadioNZ on Walker and his excuse for lacking probity and responsibility that is owed to people and their personal information.
He childishly lashed out because?… Spoilt baby syndrome? Outgoing National MP Hamish Walker told an inquiry he leaked personal Covid-19 patient details to the media due to the "distress of being labelled a racist".
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/422343/covid-19-privacy-leak-was-deliberate-and-politically-motivated-ssc-inquiry-finds
It's how the elite treat each other, it's us below the stairs that are dragged out in handcuffs and our houses turned upside down.
And likewise, Heron took Woodhouse at his word. The mystery homeless man must find comfort in this, at least. They must have gone to school together.
WELL, BUGGAR ME !
Is someone short a weetbix from their box ?
Hamish Walker is still cited giving a misleading excuse to Heron QC and then Heron QC has not appeared to investigate this false justification for its flaws in the reports written findings. Heron's following analysis in the report seems to unwittingly validate Walker instead.
Walker was able to still state along the lines that being distressed about being called a racist because of his actions, ie. from "firing off a press statement warning up to 11,000 people were headed for Southland from India, Pakistan, Korea",
Walker to Heron then finger points deflecting to Boag and a ghost constituent of his.
( NB. The email is only about " confirmed COVID 19 cases as of 9.00am 2 July 2020. ( not the 11,000 Walker needed to validate his claim) Further, the email footer has the Privacy Act prohibitions and the title in caps MEDICAL IN CONFIDENCE )
Again to the investigator, (Heron), Walker MP, is able to still justify his illicit actions using his anger as a motive- similar to his earlier expressions to the media. " Calling me a racist is Labour's default tactic when they are unable to defend their blatant failures. It's not about race," ;
"It's about the countries these Kiwis are coming from.( re NIMBY xenophobia of Koreans, Pakastanis and Indians).
However, the smack in the face flaw is that even now we are to believe that Walker just wanted evidence to prove countries of origins. Walker stated that he was following up a constituent's concern he only " intended to identify the countries the returning New Zealanders were coming from."
The fact is millions of people could already have told Boag and Walker WHERE the confirmed and probable cases came from WITHOUT breaching the law and compromising individual's privacy and safety !!!! For months, then and still anyone can follow origins on a globally accessible public database.
https://www.health.govt.nz/our-work/diseases-and-conditions/covid-19-novel-coronavirus/covid-19-current-situation/covid-19-current-cases/covid-19-current-cases-details
Sorry Mr.Walker but BS# to you. Please also note In your time frame up to 2 July people came from … everywhere. Southland should be so lucky.
Loved this analysis by Paul Krugman
"I've long been struck by the intensity of right-wing anger against relatively trivial regulations, like bans on phosphates in detergent and efficiency standards for lightbulbs," Krugman writes. "It's the principle of the thing: many on the right are enraged at any suggestion that their actions should take other people's welfare into account." According to Krugman, far-right Republicans equate irresponsibility with "freedom." "This rage is sometimes portrayed as love of freedom," Krugman observes. "But people who insist on the right to pollute are notably unbothered by, say, federal agents teargassing peaceful protesters. What they call 'freedom' is actually absence of responsibility."
Everybody knows that my predictions are never wrong*, so here they are:
TV1/Colmar Brunton poll at 6 pm –
Lab 52 Nat 35 Greens 4 NZF 2 ACT 4 Others 3
(*except the rogue ones, they didn't count)
I reckon you’ll be about right apart from the Greens will probably be just over the threshold between 5 and 6%.