@vto, +1, the unethical commodification of domestic housing in what has proved to be nothing more than a capitalist pyramid scheme is a wake up call..or so you would think, burning the planet down around us in the last hundred years in the name of unsustainable growth and accumulation is be a wake up call…or so you would think…
unfortunately many people have been entrapped into believing that free market liberalism is the only path..they either cannot or will not think or try to imagine a world out side of the safe ideological parameters that has been created around them…and to them if you do you are nothing more than a heretic…which is why they are more and more being accurately described as free market fundamentalists.
Compounding this extraordinary situation is the collapse in migration. Since the pandemic, from April 2020, net immigration has averaged just 495 people a month – one tenth of the pre-pandemic rate. We have built large numbers of houses and apartments and yet we have few people arriving to fill them. So what explains the housing catastrophe of the past four years if it is not the traditional issues of high migration and low rates of building?
Here, the Government takes centre stage. In 1989, the then Labour Government changed the Reserve Bank Act to focus monetary policy on keeping prices stable. It recognised that previous monetary policies under Robert Muldoon had made property speculators rich through borrowing to buy property in times of high inflation.
The current Labour Government, then in coalition with NZ First, decided to revert to a formulation of the act similar to that under Muldoon. After receiving advice from Treasury – and, indirectly, from Treasury's advisers – it widened the act to include a new task for the Reserve Bank: to achieve "maximum sustainable employment" in addition to its price-stability mandate. The amended act came into force in December 2018.
I have seen no record that Treasury warned the Government that this change would lead to asset-price rises, including house prices. This is despite existing studies, including one of my own, showing that setting a "dual mandate" would lead to a ratcheting up of asset prices. The advice also ignored the Muldoon-period experience of property owners getting rich as a result of monetary policy settings that benefit those owning property.
Monetary policy under the amended Reserve Bank Act has lived up to the predictions: it has sparked huge increases in the wealth of property owners at the expense of Māori and Pacific peoples and at the expense of the young. House prices have risen by a staggering 44 per cent in less than three years since the amended act came into force.
Even more unbelievably, house prices have risen by 30 per cent in just 16 months since the pandemic lockdown started, despite rampant house building and virtually zero net migration. Housing supply constraints and high migration – which traditionally push up house prices – have not been the culprits on this occasion.
from the linked article above – it is quite sad that this article is behind a paywall.
"high migration – which traditionally push up house prices – have not been the culprits on this occasion."
Not true. Speculation in land is driven by expectations.
The expectation that we will return to high immigration fueling housing inflation, is a large part of the willingness to ,,"invest" in housing, and the banks concentration on housing and other land lending.
We will soon see those who benefit from soaring land prices, joining those who want wages to remain low and the endless supply of cheap offshore workers to continue, in pushing for the return of our previous ridiculously high levels of immigration and temporary visa’s.
Lets say i am a speculator and i want to make guaranteed money. What would i invest in?
Housing.
A. People will always prefer even the worst hovel to a tent in a ditch. Funfact: the tent in the ditch aka freedom camping is slowly but surely 'illegalized' for all but high paying tourists in the future – when we allow tourists back in.
B. I don't even need money to buy these houses, i just need to own one, and then thanks to the fake 'equity' i get another loan and another loan and thus it was ever so. The tenant will pay the loans as they always did.
C. low credits available to those that have 'equity' and can borrow money at the lowest cost ever. Thanks Government. Could not have done it without you.
Handing cheap credit lines to people with wealth in assets and bank balances who have looked at a and b and decided that no matter how shitty live on this planet will be in the next 50+ odd years, people will still need a house and people will pay what ever is asked for that 'house'.
And the cheap credit line of last year to the rich and wealthy – went only there. And guess what they bought with that cheap money? Houses. After all YOU will rent one if the only option is to live in a ditch, or hey, in a tax payer funded Motel for the unhoused.
And in the meantime, my little glorified Gardenshed that i bought a few years ago, literally in the last 10 month doubled in QV. Can't make that shit up. Seriously.
So yeah, blame the migrants that can't come in the country and have not been able to come here for some 18+ month now, it must be them. Can't be something else.
So yeah, blame the migrants that can’t come in the country and have not been able to come here for some 18+ month now, it must be them. Can’t be something else.
True that, but currently and probably for the next 2 odd years migration will be hindered by Covid, closed borders and MIQ requirements for the most part.
The article that i exerpted about clearly states this
"high migration – which traditionally push up house prices – have not been the culprits on this occasion."
so next to high migration there are other factors and currently migration IS NOT the main issue – as those that come in are actually Kiwis, and at 454 per month, not even that many. Many people may go through MIQ, but not many stay. Most leave after a visit to the whanau.
But housing generally will still be an issue for many years, simply because we have not build to demand, we have now issues re building materials, availability of tradies etc.
If the shoe fits, Sabine, it is not sarcasm, but a truthful observation. Can you handle the truth, Sabine? It seems you’re struggling to accept it sometimes …
So yeah, people stopped having babies for some18+ months now, it must be them. Can’t be something else.
It appears you may have missed the points here, Incognito.
Sabine's comment "So yeah, blame the migrants that can't come in the country and have not been able to come here for some 18+ month now, it must be them. Can't be something else." was very obviously sarcasm.
However, you appear to have taken it as genuine, with your comment "As usual, you’re quick to judge and criticise and your clearly haven’t thought deeply about this. "
Then you appear to have taken Sabine's reference to sarcasm as applying to your comment, calling your comment "a truthful observation".
Have I got that sequence of events correct?
[I’m quite familiar with Sabine’s commenting style, thank you.
I’m also quite familiar with her reckons here, thank you.
Sarcasm does not get her off the hook and does not make her immune against push-back. If Sabine wants to join or have a genuine and constructive debate, she knows what and how to do it, what works well and what does not.
Has Sabine gone shy or is she lost for words?
How familiar are you with Sabine?
How fucking stupid do you think I am?
I cannot stand dishonesty and slyness.
You have one chance to come clean and apologise for trying to deceive us or you will receive a permanent ban and I am sure you do not need an explanation as to why – Incognito]
[I’m quite familiar with Sabine’s commenting style, thank you.
I’m also quite familiar with her reckons here, thank you.
Sarcasm does not get her off the hook and does not make her immune against push-back. If Sabine wants to join or have a genuine and constructive debate, she knows what and how to do it, what works well and what does not.
Has Sabine gone shy or is she lost for words?
How familiar are you with Sabine?
How fucking stupid do you think I am?
I cannot stand dishonesty and slyness.
You have one chance to come clean and apologise for trying to deceive us or you will receive a permanent ban and I am sure you do not need an explanation as to why – Incognito]
Quite a bit to unpack there, I must have hit a nerve. You have not actually answered the question either.
You know full well that 95% of her post was factual and accurate, yet ignore that and fixate on the one line that was obvious sarcasm. If you know her style, you would know that sarcasm is part of that style.
How Fucking stupid do I think you are? I don't know yet, I havn't met you.
How familiar am I with Sabine? Extremely, thank you. She has mentioned her firefighter partner? Yep, that's me.
I have absolutely no idea to what you are referring in your last two paragraphs regarding deceiving you. If you are accusing me of something, at least have the decency of actually accusing me of something, not hiding behind dishonesty and slyness.
There is Dirty Politics, false/fake accounts, astroturfing, AI bots, imposters, spammers, sock puppets, et cetera, and this site has had its fair share of this deceptive sly shit. So, when a new commenter arrives on this site, goes straight into bat for another one as you did, it raises a big flag, and I check them out. My findings tell me that my hunch was correct: this is a commenter who cannot be trusted to be open and honest. That’s the nerve you hit; it is a nerve of this site, because we value honesty and transparency here as much as we do in our politicians and officials, for example.
Much false propaganda and other conspiracy BS contain truths, so making something “95% […] factual and accurate” is not a strong argument. In fact, it is weak and reads like an admission of ignorant BS masquerading as sarcasm.
I’m sure you are capable of unpacking the rest of the luggage by yourself.
Blaming those who want to many at once to keep wages low and house prices high
But saying that the willingness to spend so much on houses, has nothing to do with the expectation that immigration settings will, "return to normal" no matter what Government is in, is denying reality
Answer: people who believe that simplistic reductionist ‘common sense’ will solve all complex problems. They know it all, they can solve everything, and they’re never wrong. Arm-chair ‘experts’ in everything. And just wait for their protests when you challenge them …; pathetic people.
Nothing wrong with reductionism provided the interaction of the constituent pieces is considered…indeed reductionism could be deemed a requirement of good analysis
people who believe that simplistic reductionist ‘common sense’ will solve all complex problems.
Sounds like the currently ascendant Woke ideologues … although, in their case, enacting a crude, cartoonish & ultimately self-interested ideology rather normative notions of common sense.
If forced to choose, I think I’d go for the common folk wisdom of the majority, grounded as it is in widely agreed & instinctive notions of ethics, morality & human rights … over the self-interested moral posturing of an affluent Woke Establishment that aims to systematically scapegoat.
"high migration – which traditionally push up house prices – have not been the culprits on this occasion."
Not true. Speculation in land is driven by expectations.
And yes speculation in land is driven by the expectations that YOU and YOUR family and their children and so on and so forth will need a place to live. I might remind You that currently we have 4368 homeless kids – they will grow up and want families of their own, we have 24000 odd people on housing lists couch surfing or car sleeping etc. And that is what we have now. Never mind what we will have next year. Or in the years after that.
So the speculators that drove the house prices up by 30% since the first lockdown are homegrown for the most part, cashed up by cheap loans courtesy of the governments monetary politics of the last year.
And that does not touch on the fact that the country up and down has a fair share of empty properties – be that for speculation, or because they need work to be rendered habitable, that we seemingly are not building for what the markets needs but what is bringing in the highest profit, that the stock that we build is subpar – see leaky buildings, apartment blocks etc, and we might start scratching on the surface of all the shenanigans that keep some people very rich, and others permanently and generationally kept in a poverty and homeless trap despite working and being kiwis.
I know it is a bit to nuanced for some to comprehend.
But blaming immigrants as against blaming those who are responsible for some of the highest per capita immigration levels in the OECD, mostly to keep themselves rich and give an illusion of economic growth, are two different things.
Immigration, and the resulting asset appreciation and lower wages, is part of the “shenanigans” that keep some very rich, and way too many below the poverty line.
Exactly. It's a greed driven immigration policy that's to blame. Immigrants themselves are acting rationally on the individual level. But that doesn't take away from the fact that 4800 new humans per month, mostly going to Auckland, is a huge contributing factor to the housing shortages
There are lots of NZ houses (~400 dwellings per 1000 people, with ~7% of dwellings vacant), and new houses are currently being built relatively quickly (~1.7% increase in the last year?) But I don’t want to share.
There is a shortage of 'affordable' houses, in part because these get snapped up as investments by the wealthy. A new 3-bedroom house (nothing special; offers over $949,000) on a subdivided section (<400 m2) in my modest Palmerston North Street sold in a matter of weeks.
And Grimes' point is that current monetary policy is making that situation worse. Except for the speculators, who are quite happy with plenty of cheap money.
This article probably reflects the unease with any change is reserve bank policy more than any kind of meaningful forecast of the economy (or causal explanation of what has occurred in the economy).
The reality of central bank inflation first policy implementations (e.g ignoring employment even when employment was part of their mandate) is discussed here.
To summarize the reality, the RBNZ is not able to force the economies inflation rate using monetary policy. They may believe that they can but the monetary policy leaver is not really connected to the economy in that way. The policy does have a history of tightening interest rates well before inflation has been observed resulting in losses of employment however. Its been much less effective with the only partially counted in CPI price of housing and countering that however. This applies even during the 2000s when interest rates were quite high and house price growth was still surging ahead. Its also worth noting in this regard that one major component of inflation is wage growth and so being effective in limiting inflation and wage growth but ineffective in limiting house price growth for several decades may result in wide disparity between housing (and rental) costs.
Its also worth understanding how the discussion is miss-leading with its explanation of the economies response to monetary policy (and its implication of QE as a problem). The simple reality is QE was just a way for the RBNZ to fund the governments deficit, nothing more, nothing less. It didn't impact house prices unless your counter factual was the country locking down without a wage subsidy (yes, this would likely have put the country in recession and probably have crashed house prices). But the counter factual should be, the government paying much more on its borrowing but still issuing a wage subsidy, and this would have resulted in similar house price rises (and larger profits to banks and higher interest on low risk savings). The house price rises are caused by people being willing to get into long term debt to get into the property market, banks backing them doing that, and to some extent the lock down helped there by taking away the smashed avocado forcing them to save and still providing them with income during lockdown which went unspent (which is why NZers savings rates were way up across the lockdown). Additionally this kind of commentary usually thinks about a fixed pool of savings being loaned into different areas depending on their relative profitability. In the economy areas of spending and investment are additive however so the housing market collapsing will simply leave a spending hole in the economy if rates are put up to that extent.
Its not necessarily obvious but banks and institutional investors find a high interest rate environment more profitable for their activities and a low interest rate environment less easy. This is probably one of the reasons this kind of commentary has been asking for a high interest rate environments return since circa 2010, with encouraging governments to stop spending because they think that might be the way to get there.
A great guy, Ed was a union man. He visited the National Distribution Union (now FIRST) one time in the 90s when he was in NZ. NDU at the time incorporated Actors Equity.
Pundit and film maker Michael Moore said about him today…
“When I was making my first film, “Roger & Me”, I was broke, so I wrote to some famous people to ask for help. Only one responded: Ed Asner.
“I don’t know you, kid, but here’s 500 bucks,” said the note attached to the check. “Sounds like it’ll be a great film. I was an autoworker once.”
Imagine, we are all vaccinated, but can still get it, and maybe even die of it, should we keep the border closed for a little longer until something better comes along? And if that don't work, a little longer?
Yes, with the current vaccine and variants, vaccinated people can still get it and maybe even die from it.
But the risks of severe illness and death in vaccinated people people appear to be way below other risks we commonly accept as routine in everyday life. So once everyone that wants vaccination has received it, I'm happy to ease the restrictions we now have. The re-opening guidelines the government published just before our current outbreak seem entirely reasonable to me.
All plans subject to change in response to new information and new circumstances, of course.
The point is that some will even ask for closed borders if all were vaccinated.
And once we are all vaccinated, we still can get it, we still can get ill of it, we still can die of it. And / or another mutation will make Delta look like Alpha.
This whole Idea that if we just do this one thing and it – Covid – will go away is just meh.
We should accept that this is gonna be around for a while now, and hopefully at the very best we get better at managing it.
And with that in mind, we might want to flesh out our Lockdown rules a bit more – who can work etc, how to distribute food to everyone if we had a complete melt down with essential workers ill en masse, education – there are still kids that can't have online education due to material issues, and so on and so forth.
But i would also not be surprised if we do nothing of the sort, and just pretend that we will go back to what was normal on a lovely day in March 2020.
And once we are all vaccinated, we still can get it, we still can get ill of it, we still can die of it. And we can still infect others…
This message is not getting through. At all. Very scary that even spokespeople on the wireless think that being vaccinated somehow casts a spell of complete immunity and safety.
[I was interested in finding out who those numpties were who “think that being vaccinated somehow casts a spell of complete immunity and safety”. So, I clicked on your link and listened, and listened again, but I could not find the part where they stated what you claimed they stated!?
Therefore, it seems that you fabricated nonsense to suit your narrative about some mythical “message”, which you referred to three times, is not getting through.
It is tiring and tedious when people make up shit to spin their own shit and I’d like to think that we ought to and can do better here on this site.
So, please explain yourself or withdraw and apologise for spinning lies here – Incognito]
You still have a better then before chance of not dying.
Which is absolutely awesome for the approximately 30 % of people who have been able to have both jabs.
These people need to realise that they cannot consider themselves and others 'safe' from infection or infecting until all New Zealanders who want the jab have had it.
So the question is, who wants to get vaccinated, with attendant tiny risk of short-term problems, and have their immune system all trained up and ready to fight and have the best chance of beating the virus before it turns into a full-blown round of covid.
And who wants to internalise some really complicated misinformation inside their head so they end up facing the virus with a completely naive immune system, thereby massively increasing their risk of full-blown covid and huge risk of death and debilitating long-term problems.
That really is the risk-reward trade-off. Tiny risk of short-term issues from the vaccination, versus huge risk of debilitating long-term problems or even death from the actual disease. As well as potential restrictions on privileges previously taken for granted if someone refuses the free, very safe, and very effective precaution of getting vaccinated to protect the community as well as oneself.
All very interesting, and you really ought to be running the country's vaccination publicity campaign.
But none of what you say addresses the very real issue that the message that the jabs do not confer immunity to the virus is not getting out.
While over 50% of Kiwis who want to be vaccinated have yet not been able to…all your talk of 'refusing' and 'choice' and 'risk' etc is moot.
The lucky nearly thirty percent who have been able to be vaccinated need to be reminded that they can still infect the unvaccinated and potentially cause serious illness and death.
[More explaining to do for you. You said this:
But none of what you say addresses the very real issue that the message that the jabs do not confer immunity to the virus is not getting out.
A week ago, I banned another commenter for one month for making the exact same claim and their refusal to clearly explain what they meant. Spreading false information is on par with not self-correcting, elaborating when requested, or not providing any information at all and thereby creating a vacuum of innuendo that fills up quickly with conspiracy BS.
So, how the jabs work then, if not through immunity? Do the injected microchip and nanobots create a 5G anti-virus force field?
I assume the jabs do something, yes? Or is it just another elaborate scam by Big Pharma to make insane profits without care for lives?
Please explain clearly what you meant or take a month off too – Incognito]
What is your basis for asserting "the message that the jabs do not confer immunity to the virus is not getting out"?
As far as I'm aware, two of our recent cases (Warkworth rest home worker and Auckland Hospital nurse) have been breakthrough cases. In both cases, from published information about their actions, it appears both were fully aware they could still become infected and infectious, and acted appropriately with that awareness.
If you have any evidence of anyone in New Zealand that has been vaccinated has been acting in an irresponsible way that suggests they believe their vaccination status absolutely completely protects them from infection, please link.
Both the UK and Israel have high rates of vaccination and currently have some of the highest amounts of active cases they've seen since the start of the pandemic.
Given that, you would have to sceptical of the immunity they provide.
How they were "opened up" way before vaccination levels were high enough to justify it.
A lesson NZ seems to be heeding.
Even so, in Israel, The UK and USA, the pandemic has become mostly a ," pandemic if the unvaccinated" as the vaccinated rarely get seriously ill with Covid.
In the case of the UK, wouldn't that be the fault of a botched government response, like ending insufficient lock downs and keeping borders open when covid was still running rampant?
Israel is only about 67% with at least one dose of vaccine, and the UK is only about 70% with at least one dose. Full vaccination rates are a bit lower in both countries.
And yet, despite active cases increasing in some countries with medium-to-high vaccination rates, the % of Covid cases that result in death is down, and the residual tragic Covid deaths are heavily skewed towards the unvaccinated.
Dr. Ahmed Elhaddad, an intensive care unit doctor in Florida, told CNN's Pamela Brown on Saturday that he's frustrated and "tired of seeing people die and suffer because they did not take a vaccine."
He said the Delta variant is "eating" people's lungs, which eventually leads to their collapse.
"We're seeing the patients die faster with this (Delta) variant," said Elhaddad, who is the ICU medical director at Jupiter Medical Center.
…
"This round, we're seeing the younger patients — 30-, 40-, 50-year-olds — and they're suffering. They're hungry for oxygen, and they're dying. Unfortunately, this round they're dying faster," he said.
Elhaddad noted that his ICU does not have a single Covid-19 patient who is vaccinated, nor did he see any vaccinated people die from Covid-19.
"There's no magic medicine. … The only thing that we're finding is that the vaccine is preventing death. It's preventing patients from coming to the ICU," Elhaddad said.
I do wonder at the choices of the deliberately unvaccinated who willingly subject themselves to greater risk of death, and work to recruit others to their cause. Imho the 'Covid antivaxx' fraternity is clearly a 'choose death cult'. Tragic pandemic deaths will be increasing weighted towards the unvaccinated; its natural selection.
The new study also found that unvaccinated people were nearly five times more likely to be infected with Covid than vaccinated people.
The data is in line with comments from federal and state health officials, who have been saying for weeks that millions of unvaccinated Americans have been putting themselves at serious risk.
“Let me be clear: There are cases where vaccinated people do get Covid-19, but they are far less common than unvaccinated people getting Covid-19. And most importantly, their conditions are far less severe,” he [Biden] said during a speech.
No doubt President Trump would have put it differently.
New report shows unvaccinated people are 15 times more likely to die from COVID-19; Adult ICU patients hit record highs [29 Aug.]
"The vast majority of people dying with COVID-19 are unvaccinated. If you are not vaccinated please don’t wait until it is too late," said Mandy K. Cohen, M.D., secretary of the NC Department of Health and Human Services. "The authorized and approved vaccines have been through rigorous clinical trials and met scientific standards. Millions of North Carolinians have been safely vaccinated."
" the message that the jabs do not confer immunity to the virus is not getting out."
I do believe this falsehood is widely accepted, and it's probably what is giving the simple minded the reason not to vaccinate.
There have been no cases of seriously illness or death in NZ in those who are vaccinated. Can you refer to any cases throughout the world where this is the case?
The vaccine does confer immunity. Ask any nurse working in a covid ward who are the patients who survive the virus.
It's those who have been vaccinated.
The other salient pint is that it's an air-borne virus contracted thru the nose or mouth and therefor easily be spread to anyone in the vicinity with the next exhalation.
No vaccination will preventing such a virus being spread.
Part of the problem is anti-vaxers misrepresenting the meaning of immunity, falsely mispresenting it as an all-or-nothing thing.Whereas immunity is better viewed as being a multi-dimensional continuum.
Anti-vaxers misrepresent immunity so they can fabricate a disinformation talking point against vaccines.
As soon as you see anti vaccers breathlessly repeating, "but vaccination doesn't stop you getting the virus" as if that is something we haven't known since the 1700's, they have already signalled they have no comprehension of how vaccination, and vaccine immunity, works.
No vaccination will prevent such a virus being spread.
I think that is actually what Rosemary was trying to say. Being vaccinated means I will not get as sick. I am still contagious if I do get infected. Masks and handwashing and bubbles of some sort will still be needed.
Rosemary is correct in that regard. However, there are vaccines that confer sterilizing immunity, e.g., against HPV. Unfortunately, none of the current Covid-19 vaccines appear to act like that.
The point I intended to make was that it's disingenuous to suggest the vaccine is not of much value because it doesn't guard against transmission particularly.
"Being vaccinated means I will not get as sick. I am still contagious if I do get infected. Masks and handwashing and bubbles of some sort will still be needed."
yeah, I think there's a semantic issue here. Some people taking being immune to mean they won't get the illness. That's not the case with the covid vaccine, so in that sense Rosemary is right. Others take immunity to mean what I would call partial immunity. Some level of immunity is provide by covid, but not in the way that many of us that grew up with vaccines understand (measles, polio etc).
We just need to increase nuance in language.
I'm also not sure that Rosemary is wrong about the messaging. I asked on twitter if people getting vaccinated were told at the time that they could still transmit the illness. Someone showed me this flyer they were given after they got vaccinated. This flyer doesn't tell people to keep on with all the other protocols because they can still transmit covid, which seems like a lost opportunity to say the least.
No, in my opinion, this is more than simply semantics. It is about being clear about meaning of words, but it is also about understanding the scientific/medical concepts and terms that are generally very well defined, for a reason, using them in their appropriate context, and explaining clearly what they are and what they are not, and using them in and as truthful and impartial information and conclusions. In other words, it is about avoiding confusion and misconceptions that could easily mislead other people and perpetuate the spread of mis- and dis-information.
This becomes a bigger issue when combined with strong bias and negative attitudes towards a certain position on a topic. It becomes an even bigger issue when the topic involves measures to control a pandemic that comprise delicate, sensitive, complex, difficult, and controversial decisions by Government.
We’re not all experts on immunology and we have to learn, make mistakes, admit to these, correct them and each other, and improve our thinking and communication. In turn, this will make for better debate, better questioning, better informed consent, and better decisions overall. Who wouldn’t want that?
The question would be, as posited by some commenters here: why would people choose to get vaccinated if it does not confer immunity? Would make for an interesting poll.
Another way of putting it: why would the NZ Government spend well over $1billion on a vaccine if it does not confer immunity?
Instead, why not just jab people with neutralising therapeutic antibodies (nAbs) against Covid-19 if vaccines ‘don’t confer immunity’?
Doesn’t this strike you as absurd questions? Unfortunately, some people would take them seriously and at face value and answer them accordingly.
I'm still unclear on what Rosemary meant. I thought she was talking about partial immunity. Are you saying that she believes that vaccines don't work at all?
I agree about clarity and its importance. I also think there are often two or more languages being used to talk about medicine, and we need more than just the science one. This is why I would like to see everyone in this sub thread explain what they mean by immunity. Not long paragraphs of technical detail, but coming in from the outside it looked like people talking past each other over the full vs partial thing. Am happy to be proved wrong on this (and Rosemary is the one that can clear up what she meant).
"This becomes a bigger issue when combined with strong bias and negative attitudes towards a certain position on a topic."
True, but I see it on many sides, including the people who have great faith in science. Rosemary and I have a largely unspoken shared understanding of how disability plays into the debate, not necessarily vaccine damage, but how the health system routinely fails people and how people with faith in the system often ignore this.
I also have experience with alternative medicine and see ignorance and bigotry expressed against that from the people that have more faith in science (I have faith in both to varying degrees 😇). That leads into a broader conversation about evidence and wellbeing, which is something I would love to have, but it doesn't happen here often because of the scoffing. Which I can't be bothered with.
Indeed, this is/was the point: what did/does Rosemary mean when she says that the vaccine doesn’t confer immunity to the virus, which essentially means that the vaccine is ineffective in mounting an immune response. If this were the case, it would never have been approved because of lack of efficacy. The ‘field trials’ (i.e., in real heterogeneous populations) also speak of effectivity of the vaccine. So, Rosemary’s assertion is utterly wrong and misleading.
Rosemary could have clarified and qualified here assertion, her claim of fact, but so far she has refused. Not good enough, as far as I’m concerned when it comes to Covid vaccination.
I hear you and respect Rosemary and your concerns about disability and the failures of the health system in NZ. I also hear you about the issue of alternative science. However, none of those issues apply here; it is/was not about pitching one faith against another.
Doesn’t this strike you as absurd questions? Unfortunately, some people would take them seriously and at face value and answer them accordingly.
Probably, but I'm not sure why you are tying them to Rosemary. Are you suggesting that her comments are a problem because people reading might misconstrue them in ways that affirm their beliefs about anti-vax?
Ok. Well that's useful to know and helps me understand what you are doing and saying better. I disagree, I don't think commenters, or authors, can be held responsible for other people that they don't even know, misinterpreting their words through a series of mental gymnastics that the writer has no input on.
I mean, the whole point of what we do in comments here is hash out ideas, good, bad and ugly ones. If someone says something that's wrong or a problem or not understood, it's on the rest of us to point that out.
I would feel differently if someone put up an anti-vax post full of misinformation.
When a comment is vague and ambiguous, the onus is on the commenter to do better. In fact, the onus is on commenters to avoid this in the first place, and be as clear as they can be to avoid possible confusion and misinterpretation. When presenting information, the onus is on the presenter to make sure this information is sound and underpinned by sound sources. In other words, responsibility for interpretation does not solely rest with the reader/recipient and it is not a binary, it is a two-way street, as is all communication.
Smart people with an agenda know how to manipulate these things and when it comes to Covid-19 (or sex/gender ID/self-ID, or Climate Change, for example) we know how much these simple rules of engagement matter.
Lastly, an ‘anti-vax post’ doesn’t have to be “full of misinformation” to be problematic to me. Misleading posts often contain a lot of truth and a little of untruth. Once these gain a foothold they’ll get distorted and amplified further on various platforms. This is how mis- and dis-information spreads (e.g., Dirty Politics); it is my goal here to break the transmission chain and get the R0 number under 1.
"But none of what you say addresses the very real issue that the message that the jabs do not confer immunity to the virus is not getting out."
The fact that vaccinated people can still catch and spread the virus is widely reported in the media. I'm double-jabbed, I know I can still become infected and then pass to others, as does everyone else I know who is vaccinated.
?
Not that any of that detracts from the huge benefits of being vaccinated.
I've said below I think this is a semantics issue. Perhaps a solution here is to use phrases: partial immunity and full immunity. Those are lay persons terms. Happy to use medical terms as well if they're pointed out.
Yes. If every government in the world had acted like ours in Feb-Mar 2020 and been successful – then the future might look different. But that was never going to happen. We have mounted a brilliant holding operation until effective vaccines became available. The murderous lunacy of other governments in not even attempting to do the same is amazing.
The future looks like very high rates of vaccination, protecting the most vulnerable, and some residual public health measures such as mask-wearing and maybe occasional lock-downs if local outbreaks get out of control. The intentionally unvaccinated remain a reservoir of infection for the rest of us and will be a potential drain on our healthcare resources. How we treat them will be a difficult problem – do we respect their choices or abandon them? And if we get a variant that out-runs vaccine development, then we go back to square one.
The intentionally unvaccinated remain a reservoir of infection for the rest of us and will be a potential drain on our healthcare resources.
Yup. And treating them has a devastating psychologically effect on the healthcare professionals trying to keep them alive. Because refusing the vaccine is so cluelessly pointless, and all the suffering and waste of resource is so easily and cheaply preventable.
If I were dictator, sometime about when the vaccination curve starts to level off, I'd put up big tents in the far corner of hospital parking lots and paint "Unvaccinated Covid Patient Wards" on them in big letters, and let it be known that three meals a day would be supplied and that's it as far as care provided. And barricade myself against the medical ethicists coming for me with torches and pitchforks.
If a variant emerges that evades the vaccine, we'll always have the option of closing up again for a while until we get a new vaccine that works against the new variant. With mRNA vaccine technology now having proven itself, and production facilities fully ramped up, it shouldn't take anywhere near as long as it has for the first round.
The natural history of the disease and response to treatment in unvaccinated patients will become clearer and it will be useful experience for the teams managing them. Those who refuse treatment will add to information on the unmodified disease and provide opportunities for further research.
At around 3.20 the discussion turns to the vaccination status of truck drivers and in the absence of a vaccine mandate a company can choose to hire vaccinated drivers and/or send only vaccinated drivers across internal borders. The interviewer belaboured the point… as if a vaccinated driver crossing an internal border was somehow safer than an unvaccinated driver… when we all know that all of us should take precautions regardless of our vaccine status. Because vaccinated people can still infect others especially with the Delta variant.
The 'casting a spell of immunity' was my take on it and I apologise for missing the mark humour wise.
However…it seems to me to be highly presumptive to place the employment security of unvaccinated truck drivers (or any worker come to that) in jeopardy when, given the low level of vaccination in the country, the fact that they may be unvaccinated is most likely through no fault of their own.
However…it seems to me to be highly presumptive to place the employment security of unvaccinated truck drivers (or any worker come to that) in jeopardy when, given the low level of vaccination in the country, the fact that they may be unvaccinated is most likely through no fault of their own.
I see where you're coming from. Seems to me that if drivers on 'cross-Covid alert level' routes refuse the offer of a Covid vaccine, then they could be obliged (during a global pandemic) to accept clearly signalled employment consequences, e.g. re-assignment. It's a matter of choice.
Truckies block Gold Coast highway protesting Covid-19 rules [30 August] News footage showed federal One Nation senator Pauline Hanson and her advisor James Ashby at the protest.
…
Federal Employment Minister Stuart Roberts said the health orders were tough, but the truckies shouldn’t be inconveniencing thousands of people to make a point.
He said truck drivers are important, but personal liberty needs to be balanced with public good.
“Vaccination seems to be the way for us to be able to get through this, to get back out of lockdown and to get ourselves back to the freedoms that we love here in Australia.
“The rest of the world is doing it. Sure, there is carnage left, right and centre, but there is carnage left, right and centre here.
“No-one wants it, it isn’t a perfect situation. I have taken the decision to get vaccined, get it done. It isn’t necessarily what I want to do, but it’s the only way to move forward.”
Will be interesting to follow up on whether the protest that Brock and other NSW truckies have staged cuts any ice with the QLD and federal govts.
As the company I work for do essential work, all staff were given the option of getting the covid jab back in June. I would have no issue if those who refused (unless on medical grounds) were kept from entering the workplace until they complied, if that were ever enforceable.
The current outbreak is the biggest challenge that NZ has faced. Everyone is affected. It is about the government looking after the people they govern and the people and resources they need to manage the pandemic.
Vaccination has been proven to reduce death and hospitalisation. Unfortunately break through cases of Covid occur in vaccinated people.
Crisis time is most likely to occur with the Delta strain and crisis measures are required.
I would like to know what the crisis measures are which the government will use?
Closing the MIQ facilities cannot occur, they are needed for Covid positive community cases. Not everyone can isolate at home due to lack of space. Access to food could be an issue for some. Access to health care would be easier in MIQ.
The bubble with Australia and the Olympic games required spaces in MIQ. Had these spaces not have been required, returning expats or essential workers the country needs, more would have had entry into NZ. Reuniting families of essential workers with NZ working visas would probably have occurred.
Prof. Rod Jackson explains the situation well in this mornings interview on RNZ….at the point it is deemed our health system can cope (based on analysis of vaccine rates) we will ease restrictions on our border
Bearded git is starting to get irritated by a simple spelling mistake and already is using the FFS language, wow! Hate to see you get really ittitated .. I bet you are a barrel of laughs to be locked down with.
"I tire of the trope that genius rides shotgun with madness, but few people were as weird or cast as long a shadow as Lee Perry," tweeted producer Steve Albini.
"His records were shocking and became talismans for anybody who ever tried to manifest the sound in their head. Requiescat."
The USA are the modern masters at creating terrorism and terrorists….
"Nine members of one family were killed in the US drone strike targeting a vehicle in a residential neighbourhood of Kabul, according to a relative of those killed reported by CNN. The overall civilian death toll remains unclear."
….though it has to be said that from what we are learning about this 20 year conflict, it was nothing more than a way to funnel money into the pockets of the usual capitalist pigs…so killing children and civilians and enraging/radicalizing more men would be right up their ally.
“War Is a Racket”: The US War in Afghanistan Validates General Smedley Butler
Was the Afghanistan War a failure? Not for the top five defense contractors and their shareholders.
"These numbers suggest that it is incorrect to conclude that the Taliban’s immediate takeover of Afghanistan upon the U.S.’s departure means that the Afghanistan War was a failure. On the contrary, from the perspective of some of the most powerful people in the U.S., it may have been an extraordinary success. Notably, the boards of directors of all five defense contractors include retired top-level military officers."
Exactly right. So how long will it be, before the next US War of aggression and profit will be leveled at the next victim Country in line?
The US being military regime with an economy based on the misery of war
Their gunsights are still on Cuba, Bolivia, Ecuador, Venezuela, and Iran. All of those countries have committed the capital crime of conducting an independent foreign policy.
The danger is, now that the US is a laughing stock, they will try for a war they think they could actually win, but of course they will fail again like all unjust wars do. When will they ever learn, they are just not competent at war.
"Nine members of one family were killed in the US drone strike targeting a vehicle in a residential neighbourhood of Kabul, according to a relative of those killed reported by CNN. The overall civilian death toll remains unclear."
Did anyone really believe the msm reports that the operation was completely successful and the only casualties were the intended targets?
[Crikey! Yesterday, Lprent gave you a stern warning about posting links without explanation or commentary and today you do it again, thumbing your nose at Moderation here, with a YT clip of over 40 min that appears to off-topic too.
He covers the video of police confronting a guy with L4 rules because he was filming an arrest they were conducting (Weka posted the tweet with the video yesterday, but the videos got taken down), and a couple of other instances where cops relied on what they thought their powers were, rather than what they actually were.
It's not a histrionic "fascism gone made" comment, and covers that some of these powers are needed at this time. But cops gonna be coppin', and will always push the extent of their authority.
Although on that theme, I reckon the cops who didn't like being filmed would have found some other reason to demand details and threaten arrest. They're good at that…
Yes they has been overreach, guidelines clearly say ypu can drive a short distance ie to a local park for exercise. My elderly parents were threatened with fines and were told driving to the park 5min drive away walks was a breach. Shook them up a bit.
Before anyone wants to say they should of walked to they park they're old, the street they live on is very steep and slippery in winter whereas the local park is large and dead flat.
Former Green Party candidate and climate change activist Luke Wijohn has filmed police threatening him with arrest after he came across a group of officers pinning a man to the ground in Wellington.
As usual, Kathryn Ryan's foreign correspondent this morning was horrible
RNZ National, Monday 30 August 2021, 9:50 a.m.
Over the years, listeners to Nine to Noon have been afflicted at ten to ten each day with a hit of what is often shameless propaganda from some of the most bloody-minded propagandists on the planet. The line-up of grotesques masquerading as "foreign correspondents" has included U.K. correspondents Matthew Parris, who is an ex-Tory M.P., and Dame Ann Leslie ("Arrrrgggh! Every year we have to listen to the militant rabble rousingof the teacher unions!"); U.S. correspondent Jack Hitt who, on the very day that Chelsea Manning's show trial in Maryland began, chose to witter on about Game of Thrones instead [1]; and Israeli correspondent Irris Makler, who is possibly the most brutally dishonest of the lot of them. [2]
This morning, listeners were subjected to yet another dim and dismal addition to Ryan's dim and dismal line up: "our Latin America correspondent, the BBC's Katie Watson." She was not as shamelessly partisan as Dame Ann or Irris Makler; her problem—and ours—was that her "report" was at about the level of a substandard Year 10 student's Social Studies homework.
First topic for the once-over-lightly this morning was Brazil. Watson stated that Jair Bolsonaro "won" the 2019 election because "people were fed up with the Workers' Party." She did not mention—and, crucially, Ryan did not press her on this—that the most popular politician in the country, Luiz Inácio da Silva, had been imprisoned on trumped-up charges and that his successor Dilma Roussef had been ousted in a farcical judicial coup, following an avalanche of disinformation and character assassination by the right wing political establishment and its media accomplices, to be replaced by the Iago figure of Michel Temer.
That assault against democracy happened in 2016—Standardisti may recall spectators at the Rio Olympics waving "FORA TEMER" protest signs during some events. But Katie Watson's "report" rigorously excluded any context, and she talked as if Bolsonaro had won a normal democratic election.
Topic 2 was Venezuela; Watson spoke of the "opposition leader Juan Guaidó" as if he were a normal democratic politician; she chose not to mention the fact that he has zero credibility and even less support in Venezuela. [3] He is supported, however, by the Washington political class and its media servants like Katie Watson.
Last but not least was a "feel good" story about swamp rats in Argentina. Unlike the first two items, this one had some actual substance to it.
Morrissey Can you remember that meeting jon key had with Dilma Roussef around Olympic game time in Rio,Re:escapee with wig,his name alludes me but live on Tv,Key made an idiot of himself,again to the world.
Looking for link,not sure I'll make friends replaying it though.
In the short term some gaffs seemed to add to the inexplicable 'Key mystique', but there may have been a growing awareness that he was a political dilettante – PM only to further his own interests.
"Working for my rich mates.", or as US President George 'Dubya' Bush put it:
He was going to treat the Chilean premier—another decent South American woman targeted by the extreme right wing impeachment weapon—to his trademark wit. She wisely cancelled the meeting.
“Yeah I’ll just let her know that, y’know [snicker, grin] there’s someone could be out there, ha ha ha ha!, from New Zealand [snicker] she may not want to invite round for lunch!” [snicker, grin]
—New Zealand prime minister JOHN KEY, asked what he’d say to Chilean premier Michelle Bachelet regarding murderer and paedophile Phillip John Smith, who absconded to Chile. Bachelet subsequently cancelled the planned meeting.
Thanks for that post Morrissey, you are the best and most reliable interpreter around these parts of RNZ's sad decent into it's current role as New Zealand very own guard dog for the neo liberal status quo…much like The Guardian, keep up the good work.
Is anyone else getting unsolicited calls from an outfit offering to 'train' them in derivatives trading? Some decidedly non-local voices – it reminds me of the various 'microsoft' and 'spark' scam callers we had a few years back, this kind of thing:
I get them all the time, all from overseas but sometimes showing a NZ number. You can assume whatever number they show is fake anyway. Got to the point that I dump any unfamiliar number to voicemail. They never leave a message
NSW mismanagement of covid with their half arse lockdowns….case were rising as of yesterday
numbers look better for Auckland today…..but less testing over the w/e
i note the govt are now releasing covid no’s. before the 1pm presser. Methinks that is what most people tune in for, so therefore less likely to watch at 1pm and therefore avoid the media “holding them to account” aka desperately finding any small issue to blow out of proportion…but just my reckond
I overlook a testing station its been a ghost town for the last 4 days prior to that it was packed hundereds of cars 6am queues etc… cases will fall purely based on less testing.
we-ell not necessarily, if the bulk of tests are due to an abundance of caution rather than likely contact or symptoms. We might find that the ones being cautious leave it, while the ones who are really worried or have been instructed to get tests still test at a similar rate.
80 to 50 is a big jump, sure. But not out of the realm of hope – in march/april last year it went up pretty smoothly and then went from 89 to 67, and kept going down.
Sure there's definitely truth to that and im sure the test return time which had pushed out 4-5 days is now shortening,
I'd love to know how many people with Delta are asymptomatic was talked about alot with the first waves of Covid esp even of our current cases it would he interesting to know. Really high test numbers esp given how many places of interest there are I hope pick up those asymptomatic cases that could be very problematic and likely to become more prevalent as vacc rates increase.
We need to keep test numbers very high and fast return at home type tests would be really useful in that regard.
“More can be added to this litany of unhappiness but for the moment the point is this: the era of liberal internationalism has come to an end as both a practical objective and a foreign policy theory. It remains to be seen what will emerge in its stead once the repercussions of the pandemic and US decline fully filter throughout the global community. But therein lies a basis for hope, because in a multipolar world in which no one actor can impose its vision of the “proper” order of things and yet the need for international cooperation is more apparent than ever, perhaps the makings of more equitable and balanced global society can be made.”
Things are going to get a lot worse before they get better. The COVID vaccine debacle worldwide shows us that international cooperation is along way away.
If Pablo can't figure out things worth fighting for, he's not much use as a commentator on any international conflict.
Pablo might want to focus on which conflicts are likely to come before the UN Security Council: Actions with Respect to Peace, Breaches of the Peace, and Acts of Aggression.
Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations provides the framework within which the Security Council may take enforcement action. It allows the Council to "determine the existence of any threat to the peace, breach of the peace, or act of aggression" and to make recommendations or to resort to non-military and military action to "maintain or restore international peace and security".
That is a clear warning, surely, to the regimes in Washington, London, and Tel Aviv, as well as their vassals in Ottawa and Canberra.
I can't figure out now whether action in the UN Security Council in terms of mandated intervention is now worse than inaction. Maybe I'm having a minor theo-political crisis and just need to open another Penfolds GSM.
Also addressing a man made existential threat is the upcoming People's Inquiry .
The online public hearing begins on the 2nd September.
This is a public hearing, everyone is welcome to attend and listen to survivors, advocates, scientists, researchers share their oral testimony on the impacts of toxic chemicals and poisons.
I am concerned by the recent announcements by the Government that they cannot maintain the current rate of vaccinations, and that our next big shipment of Pfizer isn't due till late October.
Frankly, I think they have made a mistake not choosing to use other vaccines alongside Pfizer. We should be able to maintain that pace through the use of other vaccines. The sooner people are vaccinated the sooner our economy can start to open back up.
Which is key to everyone's wellbeing. I hope these questions are asked…
Obviously introducing a new vaccine could complicate the roll-out – but I'm sure those risks could be mitigated, especially if they are actually potentially having to dial down capacity in some areas due to the shortage.
Those would be the areas I would propose another vaccine could be implemented, also Janssen is only one shot which would simplify things a bit, you wouldn't been to worry about them being booked back in for the wrong vaccine etc.
I kind of expected that mentioning of the economy would open me up to being framed negatively.
What I mean to say is that opening back up is where we want to be in terms of citizens being able to do the things they value – see their families, get back to work, access healthcare, travel, go shopping, move house etc. The economy is not an end in itself.
IIRC, there were good reasons to go exclusively with Pfizer. That hasn't changed. Not least of which is the Pfizer is arguably the best-performing of the four vaccines we did an early sign-up for, with lowest risks of adverse events.
Now that we have a good argument that our need has become somewhat more urgent, I reckon there's a good chance Pfizer will be able to flip a few more our way a bit sooner.
After all, the crazy high rate of vaccine refusal in the US means there's probably tens of millions of doses that Pfizer had penciled in for sale in the US that they'll be looking for alternate customers for.
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"Mr McGowan [WA Premier] fired back at a press conference earlier today. I really find it odd that [the federal Treasurer] says things like this, Mr McGowan said.“NSW is in a catastrophic situation and he’s worried about people flying to Bali. Perhaps instead of attacking us they should show a bit of gratitude and appreciation for what Western Australia has done. Over the course of last 19 months we kept all have our industries open. We kept our mining industry open and COVID free, we poured countless billions of dollars into the federal treasury, which they are now pouring countless billions of dollars into NSW.”
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Zoom is a video conferencing service that allows you to share your screen, webcam, and audio with other participants. In addition to sharing your own audio, you can also share the audio from your computer with other participants. This can be useful for playing music, sharing presentations with audio, or ...
Building your own computer can be a rewarding and cost-effective way to get a high-performance machine tailored to your specific needs. However, it also requires careful planning and execution, and one of the most important factors to consider is the time it will take. The exact time it takes to ...
Sleep mode is a power-saving state that allows your computer to quickly resume operation without having to boot up from scratch. This can be useful if you need to step away from your computer for a short period of time but don’t want to shut it down completely. There are ...
Introduction Computer-Assisted Translation (CAT) has revolutionized the field of translation by harnessing the power of technology to assist human translators in their work. This innovative approach combines specialized software with human expertise to improve the efficiency, accuracy, and consistency of translations. In this comprehensive article, we will delve into the ...
In today’s digital age, mobile devices have become an indispensable part of our daily lives. Among the vast array of portable computing options available, iPads and tablet computers stand out as two prominent contenders. While both offer similar functionalities, there are subtle yet significant differences between these two devices. This ...
A computer is an electronic device that can be programmed to carry out a set of instructions. The basic components of a computer are the processor, memory, storage, input devices, and output devices. The Processor The processor, also known as the central processing unit (CPU), is the brain of the ...
Voice Memos is a convenient app on your iPhone that allows you to quickly record and store audio snippets. These recordings can be useful for a variety of purposes, such as taking notes, capturing ideas, or recording interviews. While you can listen to your voice memos on your iPhone, you ...
Laptop screens are essential for interacting with our devices and accessing information. However, when lines appear on the screen, it can be frustrating and disrupt productivity. Understanding the underlying causes of these lines is crucial for finding effective solutions. Types of Screen Lines Horizontal lines: Also known as scan ...
Right-clicking is a common and essential computer operation that allows users to access additional options and settings. While most desktop computers have dedicated right-click buttons on their mice, laptops often do not have these buttons due to space limitations. This article will provide a comprehensive guide on how to right-click ...
Powering up and shutting down your ASUS laptop is an essential task for any laptop user. Locating the power button can sometimes be a hassle, especially if you’re new to ASUS laptops. This article will provide a comprehensive guide on where to find the power button on different ASUS laptop ...
Dell laptops are renowned for their reliability, performance, and versatility. Whether you’re a student, a professional, or just someone who needs a reliable computing device, a Dell laptop can meet your needs. However, if you’re new to Dell laptops, you may be wondering how to get started. In this comprehensive ...
Two-thirds of the country think that “New Zealand’s economy is rigged to advantage the rich and powerful”. They also believe that “New Zealand needs a strong leader to take the country back from the rich and powerful”. These are just two of a handful of stunning new survey results released ...
In today’s digital world, screenshots have become an indispensable tool for communication and documentation. Whether you need to capture an important email, preserve a website page, or share an error message, screenshots allow you to quickly and easily preserve digital information. If you’re an Asus laptop user, there are several ...
A factory reset restores your Gateway laptop to its original factory settings, erasing all data, apps, and personalizations. This can be necessary to resolve software issues, remove viruses, or prepare your laptop for sale or transfer. Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to factory reset your Gateway laptop: Method 1: ...
“You talking about me?”The neoliberal denigration of the past was nowhere more unrelenting than in its depiction of the public service. The Post Office and the Railways were held up as being both irremediably inefficient and scandalously over-manned. Playwright Roger Hall’s “Glide Time” caricatures were presented as accurate depictions of ...
Roger Partridge writes – When the Coalition Government took office last October, it inherited a country on a precipice. With persistent inflation, decades of insipid productivity growth and crises in healthcare, education, housing and law and order, it is no exaggeration to suggest New Zealand’s first-world status was ...
Rob MacCulloch writes – In 2022, the Curriculum Centre at the Ministry of Education employed 308 staff, according to an Official Information Request. Earlier this week it was announced 202 of those staff were being cut. When you look up “The New Zealand Curriculum” on the Ministry of ...
Chris Bishop’s bill has stirred up a hornets nest of opposition. Photo: Lynn Grieveson for The KākāTL;DR: The six things that stood out to me in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, poverty and climate from the last day included:A crescendo of opposition to the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill is ...
Monday left me brokenTuesday, I was through with hopingWednesday, my empty arms were openThursday, waiting for love, waiting for loveThe end of another week that left many of us asking WTF? What on earth has NZ gotten itself into and how on earth could people have voluntarily signed up for ...
Hello! Here comes the Saturday edition of More Than A Feilding, catching you up on the past week’s editions.State of humanity, 20242024, it feels, keeps presenting us with ever more challenges, ever more dismay.Do you give up yet? It seems to ask.No? How about this? Or this?How about this?Full story Share ...
Determining the hardest sport in the world is a subjective matter, as the difficulty level can vary depending on individual abilities, physical attributes, and experience. However, based on various factors including physical demands, technical skills, mental fortitude, and overall accomplishment, here is an exploration of some of the most challenging ...
The allure of sport transcends age, culture, and geographical boundaries. It captivates hearts, ignites passions, and provides unparalleled entertainment. Behind the spectacle, however, lies a fascinating world of financial investment and expenditure. Among the vast array of competitive pursuits, one question looms large: which sport carries the hefty title of ...
Introduction Pickleball, a rapidly growing paddle sport, has captured the hearts and imaginations of millions around the world. Its blend of tennis, badminton, and table tennis elements has made it a favorite among players of all ages and skill levels. As the sport’s popularity continues to surge, the question on ...
Abstract: Soccer, the global phenomenon captivating millions worldwide, has a rich history that spans centuries. Its origins trace back to ancient civilizations, but the modern version we know and love emerged through a complex interplay of cultural influences and innovations. This article delves into the fascinating journey of soccer’s evolution, ...
Tinting car windows offers numerous benefits, including enhanced privacy, reduced glare, UV protection, and a more stylish look for your vehicle. However, the cost of window tinting can vary significantly depending on several factors. This article provides a comprehensive guide to help you understand how much you can expect to ...
The pungent smell of gasoline in your car can be an alarming and potentially dangerous problem. Not only is the odor unpleasant, but it can also indicate a serious issue with your vehicle’s fuel system. In this article, we will explore the various reasons why your car may smell like ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
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. ...
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. ...
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. ...
The National Government’s proposed changes to the Residential Tenancies Act will mean tenants can be turfed from their homes by landlords with little notice, Labour housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty said. ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson is calling on all parties to support a common-sense change that’s great for the planet and great for consumers after her member’s bill was drawn from the ballot today. ...
A significant milestone has been reached in the fight to strike an anti-Pasifika and unfair law from the country’s books after Teanau Tuiono’s members’ bill passed its first reading. ...
New Zealand has today missed the opportunity to uphold the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment, says James Shaw after his member’s bill was voted down in its first reading. ...
Today’s advice from the Climate Change Commission paints a sobering reality of the challenge we face in combating climate change, especially in light of recent Government policy announcements. ...
Minister for Disability Issues Penny Simmonds appears to have delayed a report back to Cabinet on the progress New Zealand is making against international obligations for disabled New Zealanders. ...
The Government’s newly announced review of methane emissions reduction targets hints at its desire to delay Aotearoa New Zealand’s urgent transition to a climate safe future, the Green Party said. ...
The Government must commit to the Maitai School building project for students with high and complex needs, to ensure disabled students from the top of the South Island have somewhere to learn. ...
Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey and his Government colleagues have made a meal of their mental health commitments, showing how flimsy their efforts to champion the issue truly are, says Labour Mental Health spokesperson Ingrid Leary. ...
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 ...
“China remains a strong commercial opportunity for Kiwi exporters as Chinese businesses and consumers continue to value our high-quality safe produce,” Trade and Agriculture Minister Todd McClay says. Mr McClay has returned to New Zealand following visits to Beijing, Harbin and Shanghai where he met ministers, governors and mayors and engaged in trade and agricultural events with the New ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has completed a successful trip to Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines, deepening relationships and capitalising on opportunities. Mr Luxon was accompanied by a business delegation and says the choice of countries represents the priority the New Zealand Government places on South East Asia, and our relationships in ...
New Zealand is demonstrating its commitment to reducing global greenhouse emissions, and supporting clean energy transition in South East Asia, through a contribution of NZ$41 million (US$25 million) in climate finance to the Asian Development Bank (ADB)-led Energy Transition Mechanism (ETM). Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Climate Change Minister Simon Watts announced ...
The Government is today releasing a list of organisations who received letters about the Fast-track applications process, says RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop. “Recently Ministers and agencies have received a series of OIA requests for a list of organisations to whom I wrote with information on applying to have a ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today announced the appointment of Wellington Barrister David Jonathan Boldt as a Judge of the High Court, and the Honourable Justice Matthew Palmer as a Judge of the Court of Appeal. Justice Boldt graduated with an LLB from Victoria University of Wellington in 1990, and also holds ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford will lead the New Zealand delegation at the 2024 International Summit on the Teaching Profession (ISTP) held in Singapore. The delegation includes representatives from the Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) Te Wehengarua and the New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) Te Riu Roa. The summit is co-hosted ...
A stopbank upgrade project in Tairawhiti partly funded by the Government has increased flood resilience for around 7000ha of residential and horticultural land so far, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones today attended a dawn service in Gisborne to mark the end of the first stage of the ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters will represent the Government at Anzac Day commemorations on the Gallipoli Peninsula next week and engage with senior representatives of the Turkish government in Istanbul. “The Gallipoli campaign is a defining event in our history. It will be a privilege to share the occasion ...
Science, Innovation and Technology and Defence Minister Judith Collins will next week attend the OECD Science and Technology Ministerial conference in Paris and Anzac Day commemorations in Belgium. “Science, innovation and technology have a major role to play in rebuilding our economy and achieving better health, environmental and social outcomes ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with the President of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The Prime Minister was accompanied by MP Paulo Garcia, the first Filipino to be elected to a legislature outside the Philippines. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon and President Marcos Jr discussed opportunities to ...
The Government has announced that $20 million in funding will be made available to Westport to fund much needed flood protection around the town. This measure will significantly improve the resilience of the community, says Local Government Minister Simeon Brown. “The Westport community has already been allocated almost $3 million ...
The Government is proud to support the first ever Repco Supercars Championship event in Taupō as up to 70,000 motorsport fans attend the Taupō International Motorsport Park this weekend, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. “Anticipation for the ITM Taupō Super400 is huge, with tickets and accommodation selling out weeks ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced an increase to the Rates Rebate Scheme, putting money back into the pockets of low-income homeowners. “The coalition Government is committed to bringing down the cost of living for New Zealanders. That includes targeted support for those Kiwis who are doing things tough, such ...
The Coalition Government is investing in a project to boost survival rates of New Zealand mussels and grow the industry, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones has announced. “This project seeks to increase the resilience of our mussels and significantly boost the sector’s productivity,” Mr Jones says. “The project - ...
Benefit figures released today underscore the importance of the Government’s plan to rebuild the economy and have 50,000 fewer people on Jobseeker Support, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “Benefit numbers are still significantly higher than when National was last in government, when there was about 70,000 fewer ...
The Government’s commitment to doubling New Zealand’s renewable energy capacity is backed by new data showing that clean energy has helped the country reach its lowest annual gross emissions since 1999, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand’s latest Greenhouse Gas Inventory (1990-2022) published today, shows gross emissions fell ...
The Government is bringing the earthquake-prone building review forward, with work to start immediately, and extending the deadline for remediations by four years, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “Our Government is focused on rebuilding the economy. A key part of our plan is to cut red tape that ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and his Thai counterpart, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, have today agreed that New Zealand and the Kingdom of Thailand will upgrade the bilateral relationship to a Strategic Partnership by 2026. “New Zealand and Thailand have a lot to offer each other. We have a strong mutual desire to build ...
RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop and Transport Minister Simeon Brown have today announced the Coalition Government’s intention to extend port coastal permits for a further 20 years, providing port operators with certainty to continue their operations. “The introduction of the Resource Management Act in 1991 required ports to obtain coastal ...
Today’s announcement that inflation is down to 4 per cent is encouraging news for Kiwis, but there is more work to be done - underlining the importance of the Government’s plan to get the economy back on track, acting Finance Minister Chris Bishop says. “Inflation is now at 4 per ...
Refreshed health guidance released today will help parents and schools make informed decisions about whether their child needs to be in school, addressing one of the key issues affecting school attendance, says Associate Education Minister David Seymour. In recent years, consistently across all school terms, short-term illness or medical reasons ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is streamlining high-level oceans management while maintaining a focus on supporting the sector’s role in the export-led recovery of the economy. “I am working to realise the untapped potential of our fishing and aquaculture sector. To achieve that we need to be smarter with ...
Associate Agriculture Minister Mark Patterson is speaking at the International Wool Textile Organisation Congress in Adelaide, promoting New Zealand wool, and outlining the coalition Government’s support for the revitalisation the sector. "New Zealand’s wool exports reached $400 million in the year to 30 June 2023, and the coalition Government ...
The Government is making legislative changes to make it easier for new early learning services to be established, and for existing services to operate, Associate Education Minister David Seymour says. The changes involve repealing the network approval provisions that apply when someone wants to establish a new early learning service, ...
Changes to the Resource Management Act will align consenting for coal mining to other forms of mining to reduce barriers that are holding back economic development, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The inconsistent treatment of coal mining compared with other extractive activities is burdensome red tape that fails to acknowledge ...
Trade, Agriculture and Forestry Minister Todd McClay has concluded productive discussions with ministerial counterparts in Beijing today, in support of the New Zealand-China trade and economic relationship. “My meeting with Commerce Minister Wang Wentao reaffirmed the complementary nature of the bilateral trade relationship, with our Free Trade Agreement at its ...
Asia Pacific Report Students and activist staff at Australia’s University of Sydney (USyd) have set up a Gaza solidarity encampment in support of Palestinians and similar student-led protests in the United States. The camp was pitched as mass graves, crippled hospitals, thousands of civilian deaths and the near-total destruction of ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James B. Dorey, Lecturer in Biological Sciences, University of Wollongong Australian teddy bear bees are cute and fluffy, but get a look at that massive (unbarbed) stinger! James Dorey Photography Most of us have been stung by a bee and we ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jen Roberts, Senior Lecturer, School of Humanities and Social Inquiry, University of Wollongong Aussie~mobs/FlickrVictor Farr, a private in the 1st Infantry Battalion, was among the first to land at Anzac Cove just before dawn on April 25 1915. Victor Farr ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gregory Moore, Senior Research Associate, School of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences, The University of Melbourne Gregory Moore I had the good fortune to care for the sugar gum at The University of Melbourne’s Burnley Gardens in Victoria where I worked for ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Hawkins, Senior Lecturer, Canberra School of Politics, Economics and Society, University of Canberra BagzhanSadvakassov/Upsplash, CC BY-SA Australia’s inflation rate has fallen for the fifth successive quarter, and it’s now less than half of what it was back in late 2022. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rachel Ong ViforJ, ARC Future Fellow & Professor of Economics, Curtin University Just when we think the price of rentals could not get any worse, this week’s Rental Affordability Snapshot by Anglicare has revealed low-income Australians are facing a housing crisis like ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Meighen McCrae, Associate Professor of Strategic & Defence Studies, Australian National University American and Australian stretcher bearers working together near the front line during the Battle of Hamel in 1918.Australian War Memorial While the AUKUS alliance is new, the Australian-American partnership ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tracey Holmes, Professorial Fellow in Sport, University of Canberra When the news broke last weekend that 23 Chinese swimmers had tested positive to a banned drug in early 2021 and were allowed to compete at the Tokyo Olympic Games six months later ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Cally Jetta, Senior Lecturer and Academic Lead; College for First Nations, University of Southern Queensland Australian War MemorialAboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised this article contains names and images of deceased people, as well as sensitive historical information ...
RNZ News Melissa Lee has been ousted from New Zealand’s coalition cabinet and stripped of the Media portfolio, and Penny Simmonds has lost the Disability Issues portfolio in a reshuffle. Climate Change and Revenue Minister Simon Watts will take Lee’s spot in cabinet. Simmonds was a minister outside of cabinet. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Lindenmayer, Professor, Fenner School of Environment and Society, Australian National University laurello/Shutterstock Some reports and popular books, such as Bill Gammage’s Biggest Estate on Earth, have argued that extensive areas of Australia’s forests were kept open through frequent burning by ...
Analysis - Christopher Luxon framing the demotion of two ministers as the portfolios getting "too complex" is a charitable way of saying they weren't up to the job. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra With Jim Chalmers’s third budget on May 14, Australians will be looking for some more cost-of-living relief – beyond the tax cuts – although they have been warned extra measures will be modest. As ...
Analysis: Melissa Lee has lost the media portfolio and her spot in Cabinet after multiple failed attempts to find solutions for a media industry in crisis. On Wednesday, the Prime Minister announced Lee would be losing her spot in Cabinet along with her media and communications ministerial portfolio. The job ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Simon Wilmot, Senior Lecturer, Film, Deakin University Among the many Australian who served during the second world war, there is a small group of people whose stories remain largely untold. These are the Muslim men and women who, while small in number, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kelly Saunders, PhD Candidate, University of Canberra There has been much analysis and praise of Justice Michael Lee’s recent judgement in Bruce Lehrmann’s defamation case against Channel Ten. Many people were openly relieved to read Lee’s “forensic” and “nuanced” application of law ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kathy Gibbs, Program Director for the Bachelor of Education, Griffith University zEdward_Indy/Shutterstock Around one in 20 people has attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). It’s one of the most common neurodevelopmental disorders in childhood and often continues into adulthood. ADHD is diagnosed ...
The Fairer Future coalition of anti-poverty groups say Whaikaha must be properly funded going forward, and that to argue that poor financial management of the new Ministry is a red herring by the Prime Minister. ...
The Taxpayers’ Union is today congratulating Hon. Paul Goldsmith on his appointment as Minister for Media and Communications and urges him to rule out state intervention in the private media sector. ...
Asia Pacific Report The West Papuan resistance OPM leader has condemned Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and US President Joe Biden, accusing their countries of “six decades of treachery” over Papuan independence. The open letter was released today by OPM chairman Jeffrey P Bomanak on the eve of ANZAC Day ...
Welcome to The Spinoff Books Confessional, in which we get to know the reading habits and quirks of New Zealanders at large. This week: writer and one of Time Magazine’s 100 most influential people of 2024, Lauren Groff.The book I wish I’d writtenIf I wish I’d written a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Fechner, Research Fellow, Social Marketing, Griffith University mavo/Shutterstock Imagine having dinner at a restaurant. The menu offers plant-based meat alternatives made mostly from vegetables, mushrooms, legumes and wheat that mimic meat in taste, texture and smell. Despite being given that ...
“Three Strikes is a dead-end policy proposed by a dead-end government. The Three Strikes law ignores the causes of crime, instead just brutalising people already crushed by the cost of living.” ...
By Don Wiseman, RNZ Pacific senior journalist An Australian-born judge in Kiribati could well face deportation later this week after a tribunal ruling that he should be removed from his post. The tribunal’s report has just been tabled in the Kiribati Parliament and is due to be debated by MPs ...
With its clear mandate for police use, political nuances, and nuanced public trust, Denmark's insights provide valuable considerations for Australia and New Zealand. ...
Books editor Claire Mabey reviews poet Louise Wallace’s debut novel. A famous poet once said to me that he’s always suspicious when a poet publishes a novel. I never really understood why but maybe it’s something to do with cheating on your first form. Louise Wallace is a poet. She’s ...
For a few months at the turn of the millennium, TrueBliss burned bright as the biggest pop stars in the country. Alex Casey chats to two superfans who still hold the flame. During a humble backyard wedding in Nelson, 1999, one of the cordially invited guests had to excuse themselves ...
How will the recent wave of job cuts impact ethnic diversity in the media? In November last year, I was working a very busy day in the newsroom of a large online news site, interviewing whānau about their concerns over the imminent closure of one of the few puna reo ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ruth Knight, Researcher, Queensland University of Technology Have you ever felt sick at work? Perhaps you had food poisoning or the flu. Your belly hurt, or you felt tired, making it hard to concentrate and be productive. How likely would you be ...
Despite heavy criticism and an ongoing select committee process, the Police Minister says the Government will forge ahead with a ban on gang patches. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sam Whiting, Lecturer – Creative Industries, University of South Australia Shutterstock Everyone has a favourite band, or a favourite composer, or a favourite song. There is some music which speaks to you, deeply; and other music which might be the current ...
A new survey says ‘outlook not great’ for those charged with building infrastructure, while RMA changes delight farmers and depress environmentalists, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. First RMA changes announced ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Olli Hellmann, Associate Professor of Political Science, University of Waikato Getty Images When New Zealanders commemorate Anzac Day on April 25, it’s not only to honour the soldiers who lost their lives in World War I and subsequent conflicts, but also ...
A leaked document shows the Canterbury/Waitaha arm of health agency Te Whatu Ora is scurrying to save $13.3 million by July. The “financial sustainability target”, which was “allocated” to Waitaha, is consistent with what’s happening in other districts, says Sarah Dalton, executive director of the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists. ...
A look at the state of the previous government’s affordable housing scheme, and what could come next.Remind me: What’s KiwiBuild again?First announced in 2012, KiwiBuild was a flagship policy of the Labour Party heading into both its 2014 and 2017 election campaigns. With Jacinda Ardern as prime minister, ...
Labour in opposition will be shocked to learn which party had six years in power but squandered any chance to make real change. Grant Robertson’s valedictory speech was a predictably entertaining trip down memory lane. The acid-tongued incoming Otago University chancellor administered a sick burn to the coalition government. He ...
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ffs
Arthur Grimes: Government has caused housing crisis to become a catastrophe – NZ Herald
imo it is the capitalisation of anything and everything in our society which is primarily responsible for all this
capitalism – it aint a social system to run a society on, it is a bunch of tools designed to pull the wealth of that society in one direction.
ever played monopoly and witnessed the end result?
wake up people
Capital is a tool which enhances a workers productivity. Capitalism is a system in which capital is considered a source of income in its own right.
@vto, +1, the unethical commodification of domestic housing in what has proved to be nothing more than a capitalist pyramid scheme is a wake up call..or so you would think, burning the planet down around us in the last hundred years in the name of unsustainable growth and accumulation is be a wake up call…or so you would think…
unfortunately many people have been entrapped into believing that free market liberalism is the only path..they either cannot or will not think or try to imagine a world out side of the safe ideological parameters that has been created around them…and to them if you do you are nothing more than a heretic…which is why they are more and more being accurately described as free market fundamentalists.
need money to read it. How ironic.
from the linked article above – it is quite sad that this article is behind a paywall.
"high migration – which traditionally push up house prices – have not been the culprits on this occasion."
Not true. Speculation in land is driven by expectations.
The expectation that we will return to high immigration fueling housing inflation, is a large part of the willingness to ,,"invest" in housing, and the banks concentration on housing and other land lending.
We will soon see those who benefit from soaring land prices, joining those who want wages to remain low and the endless supply of cheap offshore workers to continue, in pushing for the return of our previous ridiculously high levels of immigration and temporary visa’s.
Lets say i am a speculator and i want to make guaranteed money. What would i invest in?
Housing.
A. People will always prefer even the worst hovel to a tent in a ditch. Funfact: the tent in the ditch aka freedom camping is slowly but surely 'illegalized' for all but high paying tourists in the future – when we allow tourists back in.
B. I don't even need money to buy these houses, i just need to own one, and then thanks to the fake 'equity' i get another loan and another loan and thus it was ever so. The tenant will pay the loans as they always did.
C. low credits available to those that have 'equity' and can borrow money at the lowest cost ever. Thanks Government. Could not have done it without you.
Handing cheap credit lines to people with wealth in assets and bank balances who have looked at a and b and decided that no matter how shitty live on this planet will be in the next 50+ odd years, people will still need a house and people will pay what ever is asked for that 'house'.
And the cheap credit line of last year to the rich and wealthy – went only there. And guess what they bought with that cheap money? Houses. After all YOU will rent one if the only option is to live in a ditch, or hey, in a tax payer funded Motel for the unhoused.
And in the meantime, my little glorified Gardenshed that i bought a few years ago, literally in the last 10 month doubled in QV. Can't make that shit up. Seriously.
So yeah, blame the migrants that can't come in the country and have not been able to come here for some 18+ month now, it must be them. Can't be something else.
As usual, you’re quick to judge and criticise and your clearly haven’t thought deeply about this. Always good idea to start with underlying data and take it from there. See whether you can get your head around this: https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/300309438/migration-dries-up-record-drop-in-numbers-moving-to-nz
Speculation is driven by expectations.
The speculators who can afford houses expect the current drop in immigration to be temporary.
True that, but currently and probably for the next 2 odd years migration will be hindered by Covid, closed borders and MIQ requirements for the most part.
The article that i exerpted about clearly states this
so next to high migration there are other factors and currently migration IS NOT the main issue – as those that come in are actually Kiwis, and at 454 per month, not even that many. Many people may go through MIQ, but not many stay. Most leave after a visit to the whanau.
But housing generally will still be an issue for many years, simply because we have not build to demand, we have now issues re building materials, availability of tradies etc.
Expectations are certainly a key factor.
Sarcasm Incongito. I shall add a s/ tag the next time. 🙂
If the shoe fits, Sabine, it is not sarcasm, but a truthful observation. Can you handle the truth, Sabine? It seems you’re struggling to accept it sometimes …
So yeah, people stopped having babies for some18+ months now, it must be them. Can’t be something else.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/126095878/births-driving-new-zealand-population-growth-for-the-first-time-since-2013
It appears you may have missed the points here, Incognito.
Sabine's comment "So yeah, blame the migrants that can't come in the country and have not been able to come here for some 18+ month now, it must be them. Can't be something else." was very obviously sarcasm.
However, you appear to have taken it as genuine, with your comment "As usual, you’re quick to judge and criticise and your clearly haven’t thought deeply about this. "
Then you appear to have taken Sabine's reference to sarcasm as applying to your comment, calling your comment "a truthful observation".
Have I got that sequence of events correct?
[I’m quite familiar with Sabine’s commenting style, thank you.
I’m also quite familiar with her reckons here, thank you.
Sarcasm does not get her off the hook and does not make her immune against push-back. If Sabine wants to join or have a genuine and constructive debate, she knows what and how to do it, what works well and what does not.
Has Sabine gone shy or is she lost for words?
How familiar are you with Sabine?
How fucking stupid do you think I am?
I cannot stand dishonesty and slyness.
You have one chance to come clean and apologise for trying to deceive us or you will receive a permanent ban and I am sure you do not need an explanation as to why – Incognito]
See my Moderation note @ 11:03 am.
Quite a bit to unpack there, I must have hit a nerve. You have not actually answered the question either.
You know full well that 95% of her post was factual and accurate, yet ignore that and fixate on the one line that was obvious sarcasm. If you know her style, you would know that sarcasm is part of that style.
How Fucking stupid do I think you are? I don't know yet, I havn't met you.
How familiar am I with Sabine? Extremely, thank you. She has mentioned her firefighter partner? Yep, that's me.
I have absolutely no idea to what you are referring in your last two paragraphs regarding deceiving you. If you are accusing me of something, at least have the decency of actually accusing me of something, not hiding behind dishonesty and slyness.
You reckon?
There is Dirty Politics, false/fake accounts, astroturfing, AI bots, imposters, spammers, sock puppets, et cetera, and this site has had its fair share of this deceptive sly shit. So, when a new commenter arrives on this site, goes straight into bat for another one as you did, it raises a big flag, and I check them out. My findings tell me that my hunch was correct: this is a commenter who cannot be trusted to be open and honest. That’s the nerve you hit; it is a nerve of this site, because we value honesty and transparency here as much as we do in our politicians and officials, for example.
Much false propaganda and other conspiracy BS contain truths, so making something “95% […] factual and accurate” is not a strong argument. In fact, it is weak and reads like an admission of ignorant BS masquerading as sarcasm.
I’m sure you are capable of unpacking the rest of the luggage by yourself.
Whose blaming immigrants?
Blaming those who want to many at once to keep wages low and house prices high
But saying that the willingness to spend so much on houses, has nothing to do with the expectation that immigration settings will, "return to normal" no matter what Government is in, is denying reality
Answer: people who believe that simplistic reductionist ‘common sense’ will solve all complex problems. They know it all, they can solve everything, and they’re never wrong. Arm-chair ‘experts’ in everything. And just wait for their protests when you challenge them …; pathetic people.
Nothing wrong with reductionism provided the interaction of the constituent pieces is considered…indeed reductionism could be deemed a requirement of good analysis
You missed the adjective!?
When is reductionism no longer reductionism?
did you say simplistic
Indeed, I did, which applies to most reductionism on display here on this site, wouldn’t you agree?
When is reductionism no longer reductionism?
When entropy is minimal.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludwig_Boltzmann#/media/File:Zentralfriedhof_Vienna_-_Boltzmann.JPG
Lovely, but can we perhaps stay within the context of the relatively mundane topic of housing & immigration? That would be grand.
I'd agree that the display of simplistic thinking extends to the response to KJT.
.
Sounds like the currently ascendant Woke ideologues … although, in their case, enacting a crude, cartoonish & ultimately self-interested ideology rather normative notions of common sense.
If forced to choose, I think I’d go for the common folk wisdom of the majority, grounded as it is in widely agreed & instinctive notions of ethics, morality & human rights … over the self-interested moral posturing of an affluent Woke Establishment that aims to systematically scapegoat.
it seems you did.
And yes speculation in land is driven by the expectations that YOU and YOUR family and their children and so on and so forth will need a place to live. I might remind You that currently we have 4368 homeless kids – they will grow up and want families of their own, we have 24000 odd people on housing lists couch surfing or car sleeping etc. And that is what we have now. Never mind what we will have next year. Or in the years after that.
So the speculators that drove the house prices up by 30% since the first lockdown are homegrown for the most part, cashed up by cheap loans courtesy of the governments monetary politics of the last year.
And that does not touch on the fact that the country up and down has a fair share of empty properties – be that for speculation, or because they need work to be rendered habitable, that we seemingly are not building for what the markets needs but what is bringing in the highest profit, that the stock that we build is subpar – see leaky buildings, apartment blocks etc, and we might start scratching on the surface of all the shenanigans that keep some people very rich, and others permanently and generationally kept in a poverty and homeless trap despite working and being kiwis.
I know it is a bit to nuanced for some to comprehend.
But blaming immigrants as against blaming those who are responsible for some of the highest per capita immigration levels in the OECD, mostly to keep themselves rich and give an illusion of economic growth, are two different things.
Immigration, and the resulting asset appreciation and lower wages, is part of the “shenanigans” that keep some very rich, and way too many below the poverty line.
Exactly. It's a greed driven immigration policy that's to blame. Immigrants themselves are acting rationally on the individual level. But that doesn't take away from the fact that 4800 new humans per month, mostly going to Auckland, is a huge contributing factor to the housing shortages
There are lots of NZ houses (~400 dwellings per 1000 people, with ~7% of dwellings vacant), and new houses are currently being built relatively quickly (~1.7% increase in the last year?) But I don’t want to share.
https://www.oecd.org/els/family/HM1-1-Housing-stock-and-construction.pdf
There is a shortage of 'affordable' houses, in part because these get snapped up as investments by the wealthy. A new 3-bedroom house (nothing special; offers over $949,000) on a subdivided section (<400 m2) in my modest Palmerston North Street sold in a matter of weeks.
Liked the recent effective illustration of part of the problem you posted.
Well said.
Speculation is not the only driver of demand. A lot of people just want some where to live.
Whoever said it was the only one.
However most people who ,just want a house to live in," either have one, usually with a huge mortgage, or cannot bloody well afford one.
And Grimes' point is that current monetary policy is making that situation worse. Except for the speculators, who are quite happy with plenty of cheap money.
Anyone with more than 5 houses should be forced to sell within 6 months, or have their stuff confiscated without compensation
Along with other points.
Which as we have just discussed are more self justification on his part than reality.
Not sure where you get the ‘self justification’ bit from. He’s only repeating the criticisms he’s levelled before. Time is simply proving him right.
This article probably reflects the unease with any change is reserve bank policy more than any kind of meaningful forecast of the economy (or causal explanation of what has occurred in the economy).
The reality of central bank inflation first policy implementations (e.g ignoring employment even when employment was part of their mandate) is discussed here.
http://bilbo.economicoutlook.net/blog/?p=48077
To summarize the reality, the RBNZ is not able to force the economies inflation rate using monetary policy. They may believe that they can but the monetary policy leaver is not really connected to the economy in that way. The policy does have a history of tightening interest rates well before inflation has been observed resulting in losses of employment however. Its been much less effective with the only partially counted in CPI price of housing and countering that however. This applies even during the 2000s when interest rates were quite high and house price growth was still surging ahead. Its also worth noting in this regard that one major component of inflation is wage growth and so being effective in limiting inflation and wage growth but ineffective in limiting house price growth for several decades may result in wide disparity between housing (and rental) costs.
Its also worth understanding how the discussion is miss-leading with its explanation of the economies response to monetary policy (and its implication of QE as a problem). The simple reality is QE was just a way for the RBNZ to fund the governments deficit, nothing more, nothing less. It didn't impact house prices unless your counter factual was the country locking down without a wage subsidy (yes, this would likely have put the country in recession and probably have crashed house prices). But the counter factual should be, the government paying much more on its borrowing but still issuing a wage subsidy, and this would have resulted in similar house price rises (and larger profits to banks and higher interest on low risk savings). The house price rises are caused by people being willing to get into long term debt to get into the property market, banks backing them doing that, and to some extent the lock down helped there by taking away the smashed avocado forcing them to save and still providing them with income during lockdown which went unspent (which is why NZers savings rates were way up across the lockdown). Additionally this kind of commentary usually thinks about a fixed pool of savings being loaned into different areas depending on their relative profitability. In the economy areas of spending and investment are additive however so the housing market collapsing will simply leave a spending hole in the economy if rates are put up to that extent.
Its not necessarily obvious but banks and institutional investors find a high interest rate environment more profitable for their activities and a low interest rate environment less easy. This is probably one of the reasons this kind of commentary has been asking for a high interest rate environments return since circa 2010, with encouraging governments to stop spending because they think that might be the way to get there.
R.I.P Ed Asner
https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2021/aug/29/ed-asner-dies-lou-grant-mary-tyler-moore
A great guy, Ed was a union man. He visited the National Distribution Union (now FIRST) one time in the 90s when he was in NZ. NDU at the time incorporated Actors Equity.
Pundit and film maker Michael Moore said about him today…
“When I was making my first film, “Roger & Me”, I was broke, so I wrote to some famous people to ask for help. Only one responded: Ed Asner.
“I don’t know you, kid, but here’s 500 bucks,” said the note attached to the check. “Sounds like it’ll be a great film. I was an autoworker once.”
That was the eulogy RNZ should have run,….thanks TM.
Yes Barfly, he could act.
I reckons that there is a serious case to be argued for completely shutting the boarders to nz till we have every one vaccinated , that wants to be .
Most will accept it due to the fact that lockdowns are the not the way to live .
Close the miq s till next year.
Imagine, we are all vaccinated, but can still get it, and maybe even die of it, should we keep the border closed for a little longer until something better comes along? And if that don't work, a little longer?
Yes, with the current vaccine and variants, vaccinated people can still get it and maybe even die from it.
But the risks of severe illness and death in vaccinated people people appear to be way below other risks we commonly accept as routine in everyday life. So once everyone that wants vaccination has received it, I'm happy to ease the restrictions we now have. The re-opening guidelines the government published just before our current outbreak seem entirely reasonable to me.
All plans subject to change in response to new information and new circumstances, of course.
That is not the point that i was making.
The point is that some will even ask for closed borders if all were vaccinated.
And once we are all vaccinated, we still can get it, we still can get ill of it, we still can die of it. And / or another mutation will make Delta look like Alpha.
This whole Idea that if we just do this one thing and it – Covid – will go away is just meh.
We should accept that this is gonna be around for a while now, and hopefully at the very best we get better at managing it.
And with that in mind, we might want to flesh out our Lockdown rules a bit more – who can work etc, how to distribute food to everyone if we had a complete melt down with essential workers ill en masse, education – there are still kids that can't have online education due to material issues, and so on and so forth.
But i would also not be surprised if we do nothing of the sort, and just pretend that we will go back to what was normal on a lovely day in March 2020.
And once we are all vaccinated, we still can get it, we still can get ill of it, we still can die of it. And we can still infect others…
This message is not getting through. At all. Very scary that even spokespeople on the wireless think that being vaccinated somehow casts a spell of complete immunity and safety.
[I was interested in finding out who those numpties were who “think that being vaccinated somehow casts a spell of complete immunity and safety”. So, I clicked on your link and listened, and listened again, but I could not find the part where they stated what you claimed they stated!?
Therefore, it seems that you fabricated nonsense to suit your narrative about some mythical “message”, which you referred to three times, is not getting through.
It is tiring and tedious when people make up shit to spin their own shit and I’d like to think that we ought to and can do better here on this site.
So, please explain yourself or withdraw and apologise for spinning lies here – Incognito]
You still have a better then before chance of not dying.
And that also is a point that must be stressed.
You still have a better then before chance of not dying.
Which is absolutely awesome for the approximately 30 % of people who have been able to have both jabs.
These people need to realise that they cannot consider themselves and others 'safe' from infection or infecting until all New Zealanders who want the jab have had it.
This message is not getting through.
Indeed.
So the takeaway should be that at some point in the next wee while, everyone can expect to come into contact with SARS-CoV-2.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/coronavirus/300394158/covid19-infectious-disease-expert-warns-well-all-catch-covid19-eventually
So the question is, who wants to get vaccinated, with attendant tiny risk of short-term problems, and have their immune system all trained up and ready to fight and have the best chance of beating the virus before it turns into a full-blown round of covid.
And who wants to internalise some really complicated misinformation inside their head so they end up facing the virus with a completely naive immune system, thereby massively increasing their risk of full-blown covid and huge risk of death and debilitating long-term problems.
That really is the risk-reward trade-off. Tiny risk of short-term issues from the vaccination, versus huge risk of debilitating long-term problems or even death from the actual disease. As well as potential restrictions on privileges previously taken for granted if someone refuses the free, very safe, and very effective precaution of getting vaccinated to protect the community as well as oneself.
All very interesting, and you really ought to be running the country's vaccination publicity campaign.
But none of what you say addresses the very real issue that the message that the jabs do not confer immunity to the virus is not getting out.
While over 50% of Kiwis who want to be vaccinated have yet not been able to…all your talk of 'refusing' and 'choice' and 'risk' etc is moot.
The lucky nearly thirty percent who have been able to be vaccinated need to be reminded that they can still infect the unvaccinated and potentially cause serious illness and death.
[More explaining to do for you. You said this:
A week ago, I banned another commenter for one month for making the exact same claim and their refusal to clearly explain what they meant. Spreading false information is on par with not self-correcting, elaborating when requested, or not providing any information at all and thereby creating a vacuum of innuendo that fills up quickly with conspiracy BS.
So, how the jabs work then, if not through immunity? Do the injected microchip and nanobots create a 5G anti-virus force field?
I assume the jabs do something, yes? Or is it just another elaborate scam by Big Pharma to make insane profits without care for lives?
Please explain clearly what you meant or take a month off too – Incognito]
What is your basis for asserting "the message that the jabs do not confer immunity to the virus is not getting out"?
As far as I'm aware, two of our recent cases (Warkworth rest home worker and Auckland Hospital nurse) have been breakthrough cases. In both cases, from published information about their actions, it appears both were fully aware they could still become infected and infectious, and acted appropriately with that awareness.
If you have any evidence of anyone in New Zealand that has been vaccinated has been acting in an irresponsible way that suggests they believe their vaccination status absolutely completely protects them from infection, please link.
The ,"jabs" do confer immunity in the majority of cases. That is the point of having them.
It is how vaccines work.
Immunity is not the same, as not getting the virus.
Both the UK and Israel have high rates of vaccination and currently have some of the highest amounts of active cases they've seen since the start of the pandemic.
Given that, you would have to sceptical of the immunity they provide.
That has already been covered.
How they were "opened up" way before vaccination levels were high enough to justify it.
A lesson NZ seems to be heeding.
Even so, in Israel, The UK and USA, the pandemic has become mostly a ," pandemic if the unvaccinated" as the vaccinated rarely get seriously ill with Covid.
In the case of the UK, wouldn't that be the fault of a botched government response, like ending insufficient lock downs and keeping borders open when covid was still running rampant?
Israel is only about 67% with at least one dose of vaccine, and the UK is only about 70% with at least one dose. Full vaccination rates are a bit lower in both countries.
So no, not "high rates of vaccination".
https://ourworldindata.org/covid-vaccinations
And yet, despite active cases increasing in some countries with medium-to-high vaccination rates, the % of Covid cases that result in death is down, and the residual tragic Covid deaths are heavily skewed towards the unvaccinated.
I do wonder at the choices of the deliberately unvaccinated who willingly subject themselves to greater risk of death, and work to recruit others to their cause. Imho the 'Covid antivaxx' fraternity is clearly a 'choose death cult'. Tragic pandemic deaths will be increasing weighted towards the unvaccinated; its natural selection.
No doubt President Trump would have put it differently.
" the message that the jabs do not confer immunity to the virus is not getting out."
I do believe this falsehood is widely accepted, and it's probably what is giving the simple minded the reason not to vaccinate.
There have been no cases of seriously illness or death in NZ in those who are vaccinated. Can you refer to any cases throughout the world where this is the case?
The vaccine does confer immunity. Ask any nurse working in a covid ward who are the patients who survive the virus.
It's those who have been vaccinated.
The other salient pint is that it's an air-borne virus contracted thru the nose or mouth and therefor easily be spread to anyone in the vicinity with the next exhalation.
No vaccination will preventing such a virus being spread.
Part of the problem is anti-vaxers misrepresenting the meaning of immunity, falsely mispresenting it as an all-or-nothing thing.Whereas immunity is better viewed as being a multi-dimensional continuum.
Anti-vaxers misrepresent immunity so they can fabricate a disinformation talking point against vaccines.
Yes.
As soon as you see anti vaccers breathlessly repeating, "but vaccination doesn't stop you getting the virus" as if that is something we haven't known since the 1700's, they have already signalled they have no comprehension of how vaccination, and vaccine immunity, works.
I think that is actually what Rosemary was trying to say. Being vaccinated means I will not get as sick. I am still contagious if I do get infected. Masks and handwashing and bubbles of some sort will still be needed.
Rosemary is correct in that regard. However, there are vaccines that confer sterilizing immunity, e.g., against HPV. Unfortunately, none of the current Covid-19 vaccines appear to act like that.
The point I intended to make was that it's disingenuous to suggest the vaccine is not of much value because it doesn't guard against transmission particularly.
"Being vaccinated means I will not get as sick. I am still contagious if I do get infected. Masks and handwashing and bubbles of some sort will still be needed."
Yes, I think most of us understand that.
yeah, I think there's a semantic issue here. Some people taking being immune to mean they won't get the illness. That's not the case with the covid vaccine, so in that sense Rosemary is right. Others take immunity to mean what I would call partial immunity. Some level of immunity is provide by covid, but not in the way that many of us that grew up with vaccines understand (measles, polio etc).
We just need to increase nuance in language.
I'm also not sure that Rosemary is wrong about the messaging. I asked on twitter if people getting vaccinated were told at the time that they could still transmit the illness. Someone showed me this flyer they were given after they got vaccinated. This flyer doesn't tell people to keep on with all the other protocols because they can still transmit covid, which seems like a lost opportunity to say the least.
https://twitter.com/epidote250/status/1431831041795264516?s=20
No, in my opinion, this is more than simply semantics. It is about being clear about meaning of words, but it is also about understanding the scientific/medical concepts and terms that are generally very well defined, for a reason, using them in their appropriate context, and explaining clearly what they are and what they are not, and using them in and as truthful and impartial information and conclusions. In other words, it is about avoiding confusion and misconceptions that could easily mislead other people and perpetuate the spread of mis- and dis-information.
This becomes a bigger issue when combined with strong bias and negative attitudes towards a certain position on a topic. It becomes an even bigger issue when the topic involves measures to control a pandemic that comprise delicate, sensitive, complex, difficult, and controversial decisions by Government.
We’re not all experts on immunology and we have to learn, make mistakes, admit to these, correct them and each other, and improve our thinking and communication. In turn, this will make for better debate, better questioning, better informed consent, and better decisions overall. Who wouldn’t want that?
The question would be, as posited by some commenters here: why would people choose to get vaccinated if it does not confer immunity? Would make for an interesting poll.
Another way of putting it: why would the NZ Government spend well over $1billion on a vaccine if it does not confer immunity?
Instead, why not just jab people with neutralising therapeutic antibodies (nAbs) against Covid-19 if vaccines ‘don’t confer immunity’?
Doesn’t this strike you as absurd questions? Unfortunately, some people would take them seriously and at face value and answer them accordingly.
I'm still unclear on what Rosemary meant. I thought she was talking about partial immunity. Are you saying that she believes that vaccines don't work at all?
I agree about clarity and its importance. I also think there are often two or more languages being used to talk about medicine, and we need more than just the science one. This is why I would like to see everyone in this sub thread explain what they mean by immunity. Not long paragraphs of technical detail, but coming in from the outside it looked like people talking past each other over the full vs partial thing. Am happy to be proved wrong on this (and Rosemary is the one that can clear up what she meant).
"This becomes a bigger issue when combined with strong bias and negative attitudes towards a certain position on a topic."
True, but I see it on many sides, including the people who have great faith in science. Rosemary and I have a largely unspoken shared understanding of how disability plays into the debate, not necessarily vaccine damage, but how the health system routinely fails people and how people with faith in the system often ignore this.
I also have experience with alternative medicine and see ignorance and bigotry expressed against that from the people that have more faith in science (I have faith in both to varying degrees 😇). That leads into a broader conversation about evidence and wellbeing, which is something I would love to have, but it doesn't happen here often because of the scoffing. Which I can't be bothered with.
Indeed, this is/was the point: what did/does Rosemary mean when she says that the vaccine doesn’t confer immunity to the virus, which essentially means that the vaccine is ineffective in mounting an immune response. If this were the case, it would never have been approved because of lack of efficacy. The ‘field trials’ (i.e., in real heterogeneous populations) also speak of effectivity of the vaccine. So, Rosemary’s assertion is utterly wrong and misleading.
Rosemary could have clarified and qualified here assertion, her claim of fact, but so far she has refused. Not good enough, as far as I’m concerned when it comes to Covid vaccination.
I hear you and respect Rosemary and your concerns about disability and the failures of the health system in NZ. I also hear you about the issue of alternative science. However, none of those issues apply here; it is/was not about pitching one faith against another.
Probably, but I'm not sure why you are tying them to Rosemary. Are you suggesting that her comments are a problem because people reading might misconstrue them in ways that affirm their beliefs about anti-vax?
Yes!
Ok. Well that's useful to know and helps me understand what you are doing and saying better. I disagree, I don't think commenters, or authors, can be held responsible for other people that they don't even know, misinterpreting their words through a series of mental gymnastics that the writer has no input on.
I mean, the whole point of what we do in comments here is hash out ideas, good, bad and ugly ones. If someone says something that's wrong or a problem or not understood, it's on the rest of us to point that out.
I would feel differently if someone put up an anti-vax post full of misinformation.
When a comment is vague and ambiguous, the onus is on the commenter to do better. In fact, the onus is on commenters to avoid this in the first place, and be as clear as they can be to avoid possible confusion and misinterpretation. When presenting information, the onus is on the presenter to make sure this information is sound and underpinned by sound sources. In other words, responsibility for interpretation does not solely rest with the reader/recipient and it is not a binary, it is a two-way street, as is all communication.
Smart people with an agenda know how to manipulate these things and when it comes to Covid-19 (or sex/gender ID/self-ID, or Climate Change, for example) we know how much these simple rules of engagement matter.
Lastly, an ‘anti-vax post’ doesn’t have to be “full of misinformation” to be problematic to me. Misleading posts often contain a lot of truth and a little of untruth. Once these gain a foothold they’ll get distorted and amplified further on various platforms. This is how mis- and dis-information spreads (e.g., Dirty Politics); it is my goal here to break the transmission chain and get the R0 number under 1.
"But none of what you say addresses the very real issue that the message that the jabs do not confer immunity to the virus is not getting out."
The fact that vaccinated people can still catch and spread the virus is widely reported in the media. I'm double-jabbed, I know I can still become infected and then pass to others, as does everyone else I know who is vaccinated.
?
Not that any of that detracts from the huge benefits of being vaccinated.
See my Moderation note @ 11:21 am.
I've said below I think this is a semantics issue. Perhaps a solution here is to use phrases: partial immunity and full immunity. Those are lay persons terms. Happy to use medical terms as well if they're pointed out.
Yes. If every government in the world had acted like ours in Feb-Mar 2020 and been successful – then the future might look different. But that was never going to happen. We have mounted a brilliant holding operation until effective vaccines became available. The murderous lunacy of other governments in not even attempting to do the same is amazing.
The future looks like very high rates of vaccination, protecting the most vulnerable, and some residual public health measures such as mask-wearing and maybe occasional lock-downs if local outbreaks get out of control. The intentionally unvaccinated remain a reservoir of infection for the rest of us and will be a potential drain on our healthcare resources. How we treat them will be a difficult problem – do we respect their choices or abandon them? And if we get a variant that out-runs vaccine development, then we go back to square one.
The intentionally unvaccinated remain a reservoir of infection for the rest of us and will be a potential drain on our healthcare resources.
Yup. And treating them has a devastating psychologically effect on the healthcare professionals trying to keep them alive. Because refusing the vaccine is so cluelessly pointless, and all the suffering and waste of resource is so easily and cheaply preventable.
If I were dictator, sometime about when the vaccination curve starts to level off, I'd put up big tents in the far corner of hospital parking lots and paint "Unvaccinated Covid Patient Wards" on them in big letters, and let it be known that three meals a day would be supplied and that's it as far as care provided. And barricade myself against the medical ethicists coming for me with torches and pitchforks.
If a variant emerges that evades the vaccine, we'll always have the option of closing up again for a while until we get a new vaccine that works against the new variant. With mRNA vaccine technology now having proven itself, and production facilities fully ramped up, it shouldn't take anywhere near as long as it has for the first round.
The natural history of the disease and response to treatment in unvaccinated patients will become clearer and it will be useful experience for the teams managing them. Those who refuse treatment will add to information on the unmodified disease and provide opportunities for further research.
See my Moderation note @ 10:13 am.
At around 3.20 the discussion turns to the vaccination status of truck drivers and in the absence of a vaccine mandate a company can choose to hire vaccinated drivers and/or send only vaccinated drivers across internal borders. The interviewer belaboured the point… as if a vaccinated driver crossing an internal border was somehow safer than an unvaccinated driver… when we all know that all of us should take precautions regardless of our vaccine status. Because vaccinated people can still infect others especially with the Delta variant.
The 'casting a spell of immunity' was my take on it and I apologise for missing the mark humour wise.
However…it seems to me to be highly presumptive to place the employment security of unvaccinated truck drivers (or any worker come to that) in jeopardy when, given the low level of vaccination in the country, the fact that they may be unvaccinated is most likely through no fault of their own.
I see where you're coming from. Seems to me that if drivers on 'cross-Covid alert level' routes refuse the offer of a Covid vaccine, then they could be obliged (during a global pandemic) to accept clearly signalled employment consequences, e.g. re-assignment. It's a matter of choice.
Will be interesting to follow up on whether the protest that Brock and other NSW truckies have staged cuts any ice with the QLD and federal govts.
As the company I work for do essential work, all staff were given the option of getting the covid jab back in June. I would have no issue if those who refused (unless on medical grounds) were kept from entering the workplace until they complied, if that were ever enforceable.
The current outbreak is the biggest challenge that NZ has faced. Everyone is affected. It is about the government looking after the people they govern and the people and resources they need to manage the pandemic.
Vaccination has been proven to reduce death and hospitalisation. Unfortunately break through cases of Covid occur in vaccinated people.
Crisis time is most likely to occur with the Delta strain and crisis measures are required.
I would like to know what the crisis measures are which the government will use?
Some merit in that with fauchi's indication that more than 90% may still not be sufficient.
It may well come down to do as best you can then open up with those that choose no vax taking their chances.
It's new turf and personal responsibility is just that… personal.
Closing the MIQ facilities cannot occur, they are needed for Covid positive community cases. Not everyone can isolate at home due to lack of space. Access to food could be an issue for some. Access to health care would be easier in MIQ.
The bubble with Australia and the Olympic games required spaces in MIQ. Had these spaces not have been required, returning expats or essential workers the country needs, more would have had entry into NZ. Reuniting families of essential workers with NZ working visas would probably have occurred.
Prof. Rod Jackson explains the situation well in this mornings interview on RNZ….at the point it is deemed our health system can cope (based on analysis of vaccine rates) we will ease restrictions on our border
https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/ninetonoon/audio/2018810236/cabinet-considers-tougher-restrictions-under-level-4
An ICU bed with Covid, I had not thought about the extra resources required until mentioned in the audio link.
Consider the legacy blojo, gladyator, trump etc are all leaving their health systems with long covid.
Lack of ICU staff and resources is why NZ went into our first tight lockdown last year like we did. Still a major weak point.
Largely agree bwag but it is BORDERS FFS not boarders.
(Sorry this spelling has been seen on TS several times now and it is starting to irritate)
Noted ,but I'm going to blame that little spell checking goblin in my ph,
Bearded git is starting to get irritated by a simple spelling mistake and already is using the FFS language, wow! Hate to see you get really ittitated .. I bet you are a barrel of laughs to be locked down with.
Ittitated? WTF?
Glad you got the deliberate mistake BG .. and I appreciate the smile .. hope you have a fabulous day ..
.
Just boarders ? … what about renters & people who own their own home ?
RIP Lee Scratch Perry
https://www.npr.org/2021/08/29/1032226388/reggae-lee-scratch-perry-dies
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8sj_pkwbNc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JE4ja5oErfA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aT1nOKCaGy8
That is so sad.
The term gets overused but Perry was a true original.
I never tire if hearing songs with his prints on them.
There is an interesting BBC doco in the net somewhere about The Upsetter.
The USA are the modern masters at creating terrorism and terrorists….
"Nine members of one family were killed in the US drone strike targeting a vehicle in a residential neighbourhood of Kabul, according to a relative of those killed reported by CNN. The overall civilian death toll remains unclear."
https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2021/aug/29/afghanistan-live-news-terror-attack-highly-likely-in-next-24-36-hours-says-biden-last-uk-troops-leave-kabul
….though it has to be said that from what we are learning about this 20 year conflict, it was nothing more than a way to funnel money into the pockets of the usual capitalist pigs…so killing children and civilians and enraging/radicalizing more men would be right up their ally.
“War Is a Racket”: The US War in Afghanistan Validates General Smedley Butler
https://www.globalresearch.ca/war-racket-us-war-afghanistan-validates-general-smedley-butler/5753880
Was the Afghanistan War a failure? Not for the top five defense contractors and their shareholders.
"These numbers suggest that it is incorrect to conclude that the Taliban’s immediate takeover of Afghanistan upon the U.S.’s departure means that the Afghanistan War was a failure. On the contrary, from the perspective of some of the most powerful people in the U.S., it may have been an extraordinary success. Notably, the boards of directors of all five defense contractors include retired top-level military officers."
https://theintercept.com/2021/08/16/afghanistan-war-defense-stocks/
Exactly right. So how long will it be, before the next US War of aggression and profit will be leveled at the next victim Country in line?
The US being military regime with an economy based on the misery of war
Their gunsights are still on Cuba, Bolivia, Ecuador, Venezuela, and Iran. All of those countries have committed the capital crime of conducting an independent foreign policy.
And Syria.
In the meantime stealing their oil.
The danger is, now that the US is a laughing stock, they will try for a war they think they could actually win, but of course they will fail again like all unjust wars do. When will they ever learn, they are just not competent at war.
I read somewhere that the only 'war' the USA has successfully won since WW2 has been the invasion of Grenada in 1983.
Small Caribbean islands had better watch out!
They rolled triumphantly over Panama six years after taking out the dire threat of Grenada. They named it, hilariously, "Operation Just Cause."
Yea, coz Cubans were helping build an airstrip, that invasion had a news black out put in place.
Did anyone really believe the msm reports that the operation was completely successful and the only casualties were the intended targets?
https://twitter.com/MuslimShirzad/status/1432067670141243394
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucY7JOfg6G4&t=1543s
[Crikey! Yesterday, Lprent gave you a stern warning about posting links without explanation or commentary and today you do it again, thumbing your nose at Moderation here, with a YT clip of over 40 min that appears to off-topic too.
Take a week off – Incognito]
Kerry's brief moment as a hero. What a sell out.
He never had what it takes to survive the mean streets of Northcote.
See my Moderation note @ 7:59 pm.
Andrew Geddis on Spinoff has an interesting comment on police overreach with covid rules.
He covers the video of police confronting a guy with L4 rules because he was filming an arrest they were conducting (Weka posted the tweet with the video yesterday, but the videos got taken down), and a couple of other instances where cops relied on what they thought their powers were, rather than what they actually were.
It's not a histrionic "fascism gone made" comment, and covers that some of these powers are needed at this time. But cops gonna be coppin', and will always push the extent of their authority.
Although on that theme, I reckon the cops who didn't like being filmed would have found some other reason to demand details and threaten arrest. They're good at that…
Yeh it didn't look much different to me from how they usually behave.
Yes they has been overreach, guidelines clearly say ypu can drive a short distance ie to a local park for exercise. My elderly parents were threatened with fines and were told driving to the park 5min drive away walks was a breach. Shook them up a bit.
Before anyone wants to say they should of walked to they park they're old, the street they live on is very steep and slippery in winter whereas the local park is large and dead flat.
As usual, Kathryn Ryan's foreign correspondent this morning was horrible
RNZ National, Monday 30 August 2021, 9:50 a.m.
Over the years, listeners to Nine to Noon have been afflicted at ten to ten each day with a hit of what is often shameless propaganda from some of the most bloody-minded propagandists on the planet. The line-up of grotesques masquerading as "foreign correspondents" has included U.K. correspondents Matthew Parris, who is an ex-Tory M.P., and Dame Ann Leslie ("Arrrrgggh! Every year we have to listen to the militant rabble rousingof the teacher unions!"); U.S. correspondent Jack Hitt who, on the very day that Chelsea Manning's show trial in Maryland began, chose to witter on about Game of Thrones instead [1]; and Israeli correspondent Irris Makler, who is possibly the most brutally dishonest of the lot of them. [2]
This morning, listeners were subjected to yet another dim and dismal addition to Ryan's dim and dismal line up: "our Latin America correspondent, the BBC's Katie Watson." She was not as shamelessly partisan as Dame Ann or Irris Makler; her problem—and ours—was that her "report" was at about the level of a substandard Year 10 student's Social Studies homework.
First topic for the once-over-lightly this morning was Brazil. Watson stated that Jair Bolsonaro "won" the 2019 election because "people were fed up with the Workers' Party." She did not mention—and, crucially, Ryan did not press her on this—that the most popular politician in the country, Luiz Inácio da Silva, had been imprisoned on trumped-up charges and that his successor Dilma Roussef had been ousted in a farcical judicial coup, following an avalanche of disinformation and character assassination by the right wing political establishment and its media accomplices, to be replaced by the Iago figure of Michel Temer.
That assault against democracy happened in 2016—Standardisti may recall spectators at the Rio Olympics waving "FORA TEMER" protest signs during some events. But Katie Watson's "report" rigorously excluded any context, and she talked as if Bolsonaro had won a normal democratic election.
Topic 2 was Venezuela; Watson spoke of the "opposition leader Juan Guaidó" as if he were a normal democratic politician; she chose not to mention the fact that he has zero credibility and even less support in Venezuela. [3] He is supported, however, by the Washington political class and its media servants like Katie Watson.
Last but not least was a "feel good" story about swamp rats in Argentina. Unlike the first two items, this one had some actual substance to it.
[1] https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-04062013/#comment-643309
[2] https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-18-01-2018/#comment-1437205
[3] https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/The-Making-of-Juan-Guaido-US-Regime-Change-Laboratory-At-Work-20190129-0021.html
Morrissey Can you remember that meeting jon key had with Dilma Roussef around Olympic game time in Rio,Re:escapee with wig,his name alludes me but live on Tv,Key made an idiot of himself,again to the world.
Looking for link,not sure I'll make friends replaying it though.
Phillip John Smith – child sex offender and murderer
https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/from-escape-to-capture-phillip-smith-s-8-days-on-the-run-6128823
In the short term some gaffs seemed to add to the inexplicable 'Key mystique', but there may have been a growing awareness that he was a political dilettante – PM only to further his own interests.
"Working for my rich mates.", or as US President George 'Dubya' Bush put it:
He was going to treat the Chilean premier—another decent South American woman targeted by the extreme right wing impeachment weapon—to his trademark wit. She wisely cancelled the meeting.
—New Zealand prime minister JOHN KEY, asked what he’d say to Chilean premier Michelle Bachelet regarding murderer and paedophile Phillip John Smith, who absconded to Chile. Bachelet subsequently cancelled the planned meeting.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/10730662/John-Keys-killer-paedophile-joke-falls-flat?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter
hurr hurr
Ta..that's the shithead.
Thanks for that post Morrissey, you are the best and most reliable interpreter around these parts of RNZ's sad decent into it's current role as New Zealand very own guard dog for the neo liberal status quo…much like The Guardian, keep up the good work.
Is anyone else getting unsolicited calls from an outfit offering to 'train' them in derivatives trading? Some decidedly non-local voices – it reminds me of the various 'microsoft' and 'spark' scam callers we had a few years back, this kind of thing:
Three arrested over 'phone scams' which has allegedly cost elderly thousands | Stuff.co.nz
I get them all the time, all from overseas but sometimes showing a NZ number. You can assume whatever number they show is fake anyway. Got to the point that I dump any unfamiliar number to voicemail. They never leave a message
Interesting, Stuart, that you placed this item about shonky derivatives traders directly under a discussion about John Key.
I presume that was deliberate?
numbers look better for Auckland today…..but less testing over the w/e
i note the govt are now releasing covid no’s. before the 1pm presser. Methinks that is what most people tune in for, so therefore less likely to watch at 1pm and therefore avoid the media “holding them to account” aka desperately finding any small issue to blow out of proportion…but just my reckond
I am liking the shape of the curve, but as you say; Anker, that may be due to reduced testing on Sunday.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/450347/covid-19-update-on-30-august-53-new-community-cases
Though isn't the press conference at 4pm today (with PAL announcement), rather than 1pm? Hence the early announcement of numbers (53 in community).
I overlook a testing station its been a ghost town for the last 4 days prior to that it was packed hundereds of cars 6am queues etc… cases will fall purely based on less testing.
we-ell not necessarily, if the bulk of tests are due to an abundance of caution rather than likely contact or symptoms. We might find that the ones being cautious leave it, while the ones who are really worried or have been instructed to get tests still test at a similar rate.
80 to 50 is a big jump, sure. But not out of the realm of hope – in march/april last year it went up pretty smoothly and then went from 89 to 67, and kept going down.
Here's hoping….
Sure there's definitely truth to that and im sure the test return time which had pushed out 4-5 days is now shortening,
I'd love to know how many people with Delta are asymptomatic was talked about alot with the first waves of Covid esp even of our current cases it would he interesting to know. Really high test numbers esp given how many places of interest there are I hope pick up those asymptomatic cases that could be very problematic and likely to become more prevalent as vacc rates increase.
We need to keep test numbers very high and fast return at home type tests would be really useful in that regard.
I think the last few days they have announced the approx numbers. But I could be wrong about their motivation in so doing.
I am keeping my fingers crossed that the 53 cases today means we are defeating Delta
Pablo well worth reading on foreign policy matters.
http://www.kiwipolitico.com/2021/08/9-11-forever-wars-and-the-end-of-liberal-internationalism/
Not sure I agree with his conclusion though.
“More can be added to this litany of unhappiness but for the moment the point is this: the era of liberal internationalism has come to an end as both a practical objective and a foreign policy theory. It remains to be seen what will emerge in its stead once the repercussions of the pandemic and US decline fully filter throughout the global community. But therein lies a basis for hope, because in a multipolar world in which no one actor can impose its vision of the “proper” order of things and yet the need for international cooperation is more apparent than ever, perhaps the makings of more equitable and balanced global society can be made.”
Things are going to get a lot worse before they get better. The COVID vaccine debacle worldwide shows us that international cooperation is along way away.
If Pablo can't figure out things worth fighting for, he's not much use as a commentator on any international conflict.
Pablo might want to focus on which conflicts are likely to come before the UN Security Council: Actions with Respect to Peace, Breaches of the Peace, and Acts of Aggression.
https://www.un.org/securitycouncil/content/repertoire/actions
There's a few out there that don't require the entire international multilateral system to collapse first.
Thanks for that, Ad.
That is a clear warning, surely, to the regimes in Washington, London, and Tel Aviv, as well as their vassals in Ottawa and Canberra.
I can't figure out now whether action in the UN Security Council in terms of mandated intervention is now worse than inaction. Maybe I'm having a minor theo-political crisis and just need to open another Penfolds GSM.
Also addressing a man made existential threat is the upcoming People's Inquiry .
The online public hearing begins on the 2nd September.
This is a public hearing, everyone is welcome to attend and listen to survivors, advocates, scientists, researchers share their oral testimony on the impacts of toxic chemicals and poisons.
I am concerned by the recent announcements by the Government that they cannot maintain the current rate of vaccinations, and that our next big shipment of Pfizer isn't due till late October.
Frankly, I think they have made a mistake not choosing to use other vaccines alongside Pfizer. We should be able to maintain that pace through the use of other vaccines. The sooner people are vaccinated the sooner our economy can start to open back up.
Which is key to everyone's wellbeing. I hope these questions are asked…
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/300394580/covid19-nz-chris-hipkins-admits-misinterpreting-vaccine-delivery-schedule-by-a-month?fbclid=IwAR04gf8LIupZguKcZypC_wO3nMZqvhGy3QXScM_WbJRfhbA9Y_eZwxKxBEI
Here’s the timeline of Medsafe approvals of Covid-19 vaccines in NZ: https://www.medsafe.govt.nz/COVID-19/status-of-applications.asp
IIRC, they said yesterday that a new vaccine would (could?) slow down the current vaccination roll-out.
I’m concerned that you think that opening up the economy is key to everyone’s wellbeing. You might want to elaborate on that.
Obviously introducing a new vaccine could complicate the roll-out – but I'm sure those risks could be mitigated, especially if they are actually potentially having to dial down capacity in some areas due to the shortage.
Those would be the areas I would propose another vaccine could be implemented, also Janssen is only one shot which would simplify things a bit, you wouldn't been to worry about them being booked back in for the wrong vaccine etc.
I kind of expected that mentioning of the economy would open me up to being framed negatively.
What I mean to say is that opening back up is where we want to be in terms of citizens being able to do the things they value – see their families, get back to work, access healthcare, travel, go shopping, move house etc. The economy is not an end in itself.
Yeah, nah.
IIRC, there were good reasons to go exclusively with Pfizer. That hasn't changed. Not least of which is the Pfizer is arguably the best-performing of the four vaccines we did an early sign-up for, with lowest risks of adverse events.
Now that we have a good argument that our need has become somewhat more urgent, I reckon there's a good chance Pfizer will be able to flip a few more our way a bit sooner.
After all, the crazy high rate of vaccine refusal in the US means there's probably tens of millions of doses that Pfizer had penciled in for sale in the US that they'll be looking for alternate customers for.
Trouble brewing between WA (which has implemented a highly successful Covid lockdown) and the federal government (which opposes lockdowns and supports a Boris-style opening of the borders) today. From the Sydney Morning Herald just now:
"Mr McGowan [WA Premier] fired back at a press conference earlier today. I really find it odd that [the federal Treasurer] says things like this, Mr McGowan said.“NSW is in a catastrophic situation and he’s worried about people flying to Bali. Perhaps instead of attacking us they should show a bit of gratitude and appreciation for what Western Australia has done. Over the course of last 19 months we kept all have our industries open. We kept our mining industry open and COVID free, we poured countless billions of dollars into the federal treasury, which they are now pouring countless billions of dollars into NSW.”
Link please
Oops here you go-I forgot. It's way down the pages.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/australia-news-live-nsw-covid-cases-continue-to-climb-as-victoria-braces-for-lockdown-extension-20210830-p58n05.html
cheers.
Popup Scotty and gladyator have fkd it and now want to drag the rest into their mess.
Watch that space as the rest of oz is pretty pissed with a PR focused PM and a state premier who lost control with the pathetic postcode approach etc
Does anyone know how the Covid patient is doing in Middlemore that was flown in from Fiji?