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- Muller off to a shaky start
We all know that many so-called journalists and political commentators in New Zealand work directly or indirectly for political parties or for certain political factions. This was obviously the case when pundit for hire Matthew Hooton launched a campaign against then National Party leader, Simon Bridges, over their numerous polling ...38 mins ago - National’s Army Is On The Move.
4 hours ago - Climate Change: Still not serious
New National Party leader Todd Muller has been interviewed about his policies, and has promised to restart offshore fossil fuel exploration if elected: The Bay of Plenty MP rolled former leader Simon Bridges last week, but says the party has not changed its stance on previous promises. "That is ...5 hours ago - Hard News: Lately in cannabis
Anyone who keeps an eye on evidence around cannabis and public health will be familiar with the Christchurch Health and Development Study. It's one of two local longitudinal studies frequently cited with respect to cannabis and youth development. But in a new article in the New Zealand Medical Journal, it is ...6 hours ago - Labour betrays its traditions – and the most vulnerable – with two-tier welfare payments
In the age of covid we are Jacinda’s team of five million, except for some. There has rarely been a more blatant case of discrimination against beneficiaries than Grant Robertson’s announcement yesterday that people who have lost their jobs because of the coronavirus will receive weekly payments of $490 per week for 12 weeks and $250 per week for part time ...7 hours ago - Our response to mosque attacks honours lessons learned 75 years agoIt was 75 years ago this month that Germany surrendered and the Allies celebrated VE (Victory in Europe) Day. Millions of people around the world had been killed and many more injured or captured. It was an end to war not just for Europeans, but their allies too, in countries across Africa. But its impact is ...7 hours ago
- Level 2 days
Well, we are out of lockdown, essentially. I did end up getting the wage subsidy while we were on levels 3 and 4 but I would have been fine if we didn’t. The first day of level 2, the Thursday, the office opened again for the people who weren’t able ...19 hours ago - A weird reappointmentA couple of weeks ago, Parliament reappointed Peter Boshier as Chief Ombudsman for another five years. There's nothing weird about the reappointment - it was recommended by the Officers of Parliament Committee, and Boshier is generally recognised as having done a good job in office (though at the same time, ...1 day ago
- Labour doesn’t care about the already poorThe government has announced another income support scheme for people affected by the economic aftershocks of the pandemic: a $490 a week tax-free payment for the newly unemployed, which you can get even if you have a working partner. Which is great, because its supporting people who need help, but ...1 day ago
- The Green listThe Greens have released their party list, and it contains a few surprises. The one that's getting all the news is that the membership are clearly fans of Chlöe Swarbrick, and she has worked hard to earn that. But they've also favoured incumbent protection over new blood, and in the ...1 day ago
- When scientists get political: Lead fluoride-IQ researcher launches emotional attack on her scientif...
age credit: Science and Politics – Skeptically.org It seems impossible to keep politics out of science. It’s a pity because politics can end up forcing science to produce the results desired by ... 1 day ago- When can COVID-19 be Declared Eliminated from NZ? New Modelling Study
Prof Nick Wilson, Dr Matthew Parry, Dr Ayesha Verrall, Prof Michael Baker, Prof Martin Eichner (author details*) This blog details a recent modelling study we conducted. In it we estimated that it would take between 27 and 33 days of no new detected cases of COVID-19 for there to be ...1 day ago- Honeycreepers in Hawaii
The 2015 Schol Bio paper included a question about a group of birds known as honeycreepers, specifically, the 56 species endemic to the Hawaiian islands. (Or, were endemic: 18, or perhaps 19, are still living; the others are extinct.) Students who’ve already had a look at this paper as part of ...1 day ago- 2020 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming Digest #21
Story of the Week... Toon of the Week... Climate Feedback Article Review... Coming Soon on SkS... Climate Feedback Claim Review... SkS Week in Review... Poster of the Week... Story of the Week... What a Week’s Disasters Tell Us About Climate and the Pandemic Extreme weather presents an even bigger threat ...1 day ago- Guest post: So, just who is Todd Muller?
A guest post by Hamish Price.“A leader is a dealer in hope.”— Napoléon BonaparteCatholics have a name for potential successors to a dead pope. Papabile. The small coterie of distinguished cardinals who have what it takes to step up. Todd Muller has always been one.I first met Muller at a National ...2 days ago- 2020 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #21
A chronological listing of news articles linked to on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week: Sun, May 17 through Sat, May 23, 2020 Editor's Choice More than 80 killed in India and Bangladesh as Cyclone Amphan heaps misery on coronavirus-hit areas A man salvages items from ...2 days ago- Guest Post: So that’s the leadership sorted. What now for National?
Two poor political polls within the same week had seen National for the first time in over a decade dropping major support in the face of a competent and assured COVID-19 health response from the Coalition government. Step forward the relatively unknown Todd Muller, who by Friday afternoon had secured ...3 days ago- Radiation: Views of the Week
SUNDAY MAY 24The Luminaries (TVNZ 1, 8.30pm). There are an awful lot of indeterminate accents in The Luminaries; even lead Eve Hewson seems undecided about being Irish, and she is Irish. Fair play, accents can go badly wrong, so perhaps not over-egging was a consideration. Marton Csokas, always impeccable, and Himesh Patel ...3 days ago- Bye bye Bridges
Let’s be honest; Simon Bridges was a disaster of a political leader. If he wasn’t attempting to criticise the Government’s perfectly good policy initiatives that the public generally supported, he was fudging his lines after getting caught out in yet another lie. When Jami-Lee Ross said Bridges “is a flawed individual ...3 days ago- What the 2020 Budget Forecasts Mean
The media treat budgets as bit of a circus: lots of theatre and soon forgotten. For a serious economist they show how a team of economists is thinking about the wider economy. The 2020 Budget Economic and Fiscal Update (BEFU) was the most difficult forecasting exercise in the history of ...4 days ago- Fightback against job losses
Air NZ shed 1,300 workers, Fletchers about to sack 1000. Economists Strateg.Ease predict over 12,400 jobs gone by March next year in central Auckland alone. Here’s Don Franks during the 2008 election campaign when he stood for the Workers Party. He’s talking about fightback strategies, ideas that he believes are ...4 days ago- The new leader of the National party!
4 days ago- Hard News: Speaking as equals: the rise of Know Your Stuff
Five years ago, Know Your Stuff didn't have a name. They were just a group of people from the festival community who began testing party drugs onsite because they'd seen the consequences of people taking substances they couldn't identify or didn't understand. They didn't want to see people in their ...4 days ago- Labour is still underfunding our health system
Last week, an article on Newsroom made it clear how the funder / provider split - a core part of our public service - was used to enable underfunding. The government holds the purse strings, but dumps responsibility for its decisions on providers, so they get the blame for poor ...4 days ago- Monitoring and Forecasting the COVID-19 Pandemic in New Zealand Including the Successful Impact of t...
Dr Jaijus Pallippadan-Johny1, Dr John McDermott2, Rodney Jones1 and Michael Duddin1 (1 Wigram Capital Advisors, Auckland; 2Motu Economic and Policy Research, Wellington) In this blog, we introduce our modelling approach to estimating the transmissibility of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, the cause of the COVID-19 pandemic. We demonstrate the usefulness of ...4 days ago- Leaders Without Power
The Illusions Of Power: Does Jacinda Ardern, like Abraham Lincoln, wake in the dark watches of the night still enveloped in the terrors of life-and-death decision-making? Maybe – maybe not. She’s a twenty-first century prime minister, not so susceptible, perhaps, to the deep religious feeling and romanticism that was such ...4 days ago- Pharaoh Bridges swamped by pestilence and poor polls
Well, that seals it. The supposedly more National sympathetic One News-Colmar Brunton poll has tonight delivered Simon Bridges’ National Party a worst result than the Newshub-Reid Research three days agoi.On tonight’s numbers Labour sits at an “unprecedented” 59 percent, while National has slumped 17 percent to 29 percent. Anything in ...5 days ago- Simon Bridges scraps hard for relevance and his leadership on a few fronts: 24 hours until decision ...
The National Party are quite simply a party out of time… Literally, insofar as the 2020 Election is concerned, and certainly in terms of their ideological positioning which has grown far more trenchantly extreme in the last few years in particular, under the leadership of both Simon Bridges, and Paula ...5 days ago- Hard News: Psychedelic science: Microdosing and more
At last year's Splore festival Listening Lounge sessions, one of the most popular discussions was the one on psychedelic therapy. So for this year's festival, I brought back two of the participants from that panel – Dr Will Evans and Amadeus Diamond – and was delighted to be able to ...5 days ago- Microcopter money in Palmerston?
The government is reportedly looking at "helicopter money" - giving cash directly to people to spend - as a way of stimulating the economy in the wake of the pandemic. But its not just central government: Palmerston North City Council is looking at the same thing, though on a much ...5 days ago- Does National Still Need A Street-Fighting Man?
5 days ago- Skeptical Science New Research for Week #20, 2020
68 Articles Physical science of global warming & effects A conceptual model for anticipating the impact of landscape evolution on groundwater recharge in degrading permafrost environments Empirical models for predicting water and heat flow properties of permafrost soils Circulation and tides in a cooler upper atmosphere: dynamical effects ...5 days ago- Recession hits Māori and Pasifika harder. They must be part of planning New Zealand’s COVID-19 re...
Tahu Kukutai, University of Waikato; Helen Moewaka Barnes, Massey University; Tim McCreanor, Massey University, and Tracey Mcintosh As schools and businesses reopen and attention shifts to the longer-term repercussions of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is critical that Māori be involved in decision making more equitably than has so far happened. ...6 days ago- Free speech in pandemic and postmodern times
Dane Giraud from The Free Speech Coalition talks with Redline writer and editor Daphna Whitmore on cancel culture, gender ideology, postmodernism and irrationalism. They look at the free speech implications of issues like the Twitter mob, the Government’s proposed emergency police powers, and the Israel-Palestine conflict. The Free Speech interview ...6 days ago- Why we need to focus on increased consumption as much as population growth
Climate Explained is a collaboration between The Conversation, Stuff and the New Zealand Science Media Centre to answer your questions about climate change. If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, please send it to climate.change@stuff.co.nz Almost every threat to modern humanity can be traced simply ...6 days ago- Submit!
The Finance and Expenditure Committee is holding an inquiry into the COVID-19 Public Health Response Act 2020 which was rushed through Parliament last week, and has called for submissions. Submissions are due by Sunday, 28 June 2020. You can either submit online through the form above, or by posting dead ...6 days ago- Climate Change: Ambition in Spain
While the world is currently struggling with the pandemic, we have another crisis to deal with as well: climate change. Fortunately, not everyone has forgotten about it, with Spain announcing ambitious plans to go net-zero by 2050: Under the law, which still needs to be approved by Parliament, the government ...6 days ago- New study touted by anti-fluoridation campaigners actually indicates fluoridation is safe
Children used in this study were from Lintingkou town (a normal-fluoride/control area) and Dakoutun town (a high-fluoride area) in Baodi district of Tianjin, China. The towns are 25 km apart. Anti-fluoridation activists on ... 6 days ago- The Virus and The Election
When we see how the pandemic is being handled in the rest of the world, we can thank our lucky stars that we live here, in New Zealand, and under our current government, led by Jacinda Ardern. The latest polls suggest that this is exactly how Kiwis feel. But the ...6 days ago- Why a “mouth and nose” lockdown with masks might help avoid a “full body” lockdown at home
Prof Nick Wilson, Dr Sophie Febery, Dr Ling Chan, Dr Jennifer Summers, Prof Michael Baker The concepts of an Alert Level system, household “bubbles”, and social event size limits are all valuable pandemic control measures. Nevertheless, better “source control” of COVID-19 at various Alert Levels by requiring masks in ...6 days ago- COVID-19 Shows that Research Institutions Need Stronger Scientific Integrity Policies
This is a repost from the Climate Science Legal Defense Fund blog, by CSLDF Executive Director Lauren Kurtz The COVID-19 pandemic illuminates the crucial role scientists at university, state, and local laboratories in the United States and abroad play in protecting public health and safety—and shows that global research must be done ...7 days ago- Church, State and the weight of capitalism.
Arguments by religious folk that they are being discriminated against under the Level 2 pandemic restrictions in NZ, which limit church services to ten people or less when schools, restaurants, malls and other service outlets are allowed to host many more people under voluntary self-distancing protocols, got me to think ...1 week ago- Disaster leisureism!
Now that the initial wave has passed, and we are (hopefully) safe in our national bubble, the government is thinking about how to keep the economy ticking over, and how to salvage the bits (like tourism) that are now useless. And for that particular industry, she has mentioned a great ...1 week ago- Poll disaster for National
There’s been a lot of conjecture concerning the reasons behind the National Party’s fall to 30% in the latest Newshub-Reid Research poll. Some commentators have correctly ascertained that the current leader, Simon Bridges, has been consistently getting his tone wrong! Others believe that the shift in support is all about ...1 week ago- Hard News: Back on the road
It probably was too good to last. The blessed peace on the roads that I wrote about here began eroding even before we left Level 4 of the Covid-19 restrictions – and on day one of Level 3, with the tradies rushing to catch upon their work, the double-cab utes ...1 week ago- Conceding Nothing – To The Undemanding Non-Voter.
Missing From The Electoral Action: The radical Left's last forlorn hope, the "Missing Million", is generally despised by mainstream New Zealand and mistrusted by the respectable members of their own communities. They have moved well beyond the reach of conventional electoral politics.TO SAY the Left’s reaction to Grant Robertson’s “Recovery ...1 week ago- Prostituting women – an essential service?
by Don Franks As we face new unknowns against Covid 19, there’s something reassuring about level 2’s basic rules. “Physical distancing- keep your distance when out and about. Two metres in public and in retail stores, like supermarkets. One metre in most other environments like workplaces, cafes, restaurants, and gyms.” ...1 week ago- Experts are back in fashion – now more than ever we need to question them
Richard Shaw, Massey University Once upon a very different time, British cabinet minister Michael Gove sneered that “people have had enough of experts from organisations with acronyms saying that they know what is best and getting it consistently wrong.” But that was then and this is now. One or two ...1 week ago- Failing to protect the environment, again
From its name, you would think the Environmental protection Authority was there to protect the environment. But we've had another reminder that nothing could be further from the truth, with its decision to allow a toxic, burned-out Korean fishing boat to be dumped at sea: The ship's owner, Dong Won ...1 week ago- 2020 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming Digest #20
Story of the Week... El Niño/La Niña Update... Toon of the Week... Graphic of the Week... Climate Feedback Article Review... Coming Soon on SkS... Climate Feedback Claim Review... SkS Week in Review... Poster of the Week... Story of the Week... The Largest Arctic Science Expedition in History Finds Itself on Increasingly ...1 week ago- Building the bridges to the future
In a previous post I noted that futures thinking usually tries to identify what people think will change and what they think needs to change. As lockdown constraints ease, we are seeing a lot of opinions about both. There is no shortage of shovel ready points of view ...
1 week ago- A pandemic parable
And so it came pass that a great plague swept the face of all the Earth. Some say it came from the East, others say it came from gloomy caverns of the bat or jungles of the civet. From whence it came, who can say? But come it did.In the ...1 week ago- 2020 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #20
A chronological listing of news articles linked to on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week: Sun, May 10 through Sat, May 16, 2020 Editor's Choice These 6 books explore climate change science and solutions Recent books about climate change tackle science and offer visions of the ...1 week ago- A matter of definition.
Recent reports have surfaced that hospital officials in some US localities are inflating the CV-19 death count by classifying anyone who dies in their care who is not the victim of an accident or other obvious non-viral cause as a CV-19 victim. Apparently this is because the US public health ...1 week ago- Some belated scrutiny
On Wednesday morning, Parliament passed the COVID-19 Public Health Response Act 2020. Because it was passed under urgency, the Act did not receive the usual select committee scrutiny. But today the government moved a motion to have it scrutinised by the Finance and Expenditure Committee, with a report-back date of ...2 weeks ago- Is the New Zealand State Equal To Covid-19’s Economic Challenge?
Sufficient Leverage? Years of underfunding and down-scaling, and countless restructurings, have routinely wiped away decades of institutional memory. Grant Robertson's 2020 Budget has engaged the levers of government action - but do they still work?THE FINANCE MINISTER would appear to have pulled hard on every economic lever he could find. ...2 weeks ago- The Day Labour Came Home.
2 weeks ago- Grant ‘Mr Lucky’ Robertson gets to be the ultimate big spender, keeping NZ on life suppo...
Grant Robertson could consider himself the luckiest Finance Minister of all time. While the Prime Minister has talked about “jobs, jobs, jobs” and the Leader of the Opposition has asked where is the “plan, plan, plan”, Robertson might have been lying in bed at night thinking “lucky, lucky, lucky”. Because ...2 weeks ago- Will Job Budget Address Inequities?
The Covid-19 lockdown has enabled us to examine work, social inequities and essential infrastructure from some useful perspectives.The first observation was regarding our ability to manage a national health crisis. I remember an interview recently with a surgeon who became emotional when describing his relief that we had managed to ...2 weeks ago- The timid budget
The government is currently delivering the Budget. There's some good stuff in there - an extension of the wage subsidy scheme to stop people from starving, a billion dollars for green jobs, almost two billion for free retraining, and finally feeding the kids with a school lunch program. Plus I ...2 weeks ago- Budget Week is here again, as we ease into a “Level 2 world” and the road ahead in New Zealand
New Zealand eases back into Level 2, whereby more is opening up in the overall Economy, and things are looking to get back to a state of “semi-normal”. And the country is not only heading into Thursday this week with a new optimism in that regard, but… the 2020 Budget ...2 weeks ago- Simple rules to play it safe at alert level two
Today Aotearoa New Zealand wakes up in alert level two. It’s no secret that I would have preferred for us to stay at level three for another week or so. That’s because I’m worried we don’t quite yet know how effective level three has been at keeping us on our ...2 weeks ago- Law in order?
Nik Green Governments around the world have restricted the activities of their citizens in the fight against COVID-19 under various laws and powers. Over the past couple of weeks, the legality of the restrictions New Zealand has put in place has been questioned by law professors Claudia Geiringer and Andrew ...2 weeks ago- Go Hard, Jacinda. More Importantly, Go Early!
Jacinda's "Simple Proposition": No prime minister in the past 65 years has placed such an opportunity before the New Zealand people. We cannot afford to let it slip through our fingers. Jacinda’s offer must be taken up: by every union, every charity, every NGO, every church, and every citizen with ...2 weeks ago- No relationship of bone cancer to fluoridation – another new study the anti-fluoride brigade will ...
Anti-fluoride activists claim that water fluoridation causes nine cancer proved wrong, yet again. Image credit: Four myths about water fluoridation and why they’re wrong A new study confirms, yet again, that osteosarcoma, a type of bone ... 2 weeks ago- Skeptical Science New Research for Week #19, 2020
65 Articles Physical science of global warming & effects Observed Climatological Relationships of Extreme Daily Precipitation Events with Precipitable Water and Vertical Velocity in the Contiguous United States Carbon Thaw Rate Doubles when Accounting for Subsidence in a Permafrost Warming Experiment Observations & observational methods of global warming ...2 weeks ago- Professor Jane Kelsey: emergency powers are really hard to get off the books
“When governments rush through emergency powers they do so with a level of overkill … and then they remain on the books and they are really hard to get off the books”. Listen to professor of law Jane Kelsey: https://www.facebook.com/plugins/video.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fmoanatribe%2Fvideos%2F600886377195388%2F&show_text=0&width=560 ...2 weeks ago- Police powers don’t serve public health
Daphna Whitmore The COVID19 Bill has been rammed through parliament today giving the government and police extraordinary powers. Attorney-General David Parker wants us to think of it as a “bespoke piece of legislation”. How quaint and charming. There was no Select Committee oversight of the legislation and it was passed ...2 weeks ago- Return on investment
Earlier this year, Radio New Zealand revealed that NZ First had received tens of thousands of dollars in secret donations from the racing industry. Secret donations are bad enough, but it was particularly stinky because Winston Peters is Minister of Racing. And yesterday, he paid them back, with $72.5 million ...2 weeks ago- The police, privacy, and public trust
At the moment, Parliament is debating giving the police a warrantless entry power for homes and marae to enforce gathering restrictions. Its obviously open to abuse - and we know similar powers for warrantless entry and search under the Misuse of Drugs Act are regularly abused - so it requires ...2 weeks ago- What is your COVID-19 hashtag?
A typological silver-lining If you are anything like me, maybe a little guilt is setting in about now, regarding the little amount of progress you may have achieved lately. As our country – and indeed so much of the wider World – is in a lockdown of some form or ...2 weeks ago- What caused major climate change in the past?
Climate Explained is a collaboration between The Conversation, Stuff and the New Zealand Science Media Centre to answer your questions about climate change. If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, please send it to climate.change@stuff.co.nz Earth had several periods of high carbon dioxide levels in ...2 weeks ago- NZ’s economy has been on ice, but it’s about to unfreeze and it will hurt
As we celebrate the potential for haircuts and a meal out with friends from Thursday, we are also about to get a brutal reminder that the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic will last a long time, as Finance Minister Grant Robertson delivers what is se to be one of the ...2 weeks ago- COVID-19 vaccine safety – are vital steps being skipped?
Five months into the COVID-19 pandemic the conversation is shifting to vaccines. One of the key concerns voiced by some experts and public are that in the rush to get vaccines deployed, safety will be compromised. Here I outline, in part, the COVID-19 vaccine safety landscape of activities. First, let ...2 weeks ago- FLICC-Poster – a successful collaboration between klimafakten and SkS
We already have the FLICC-taxonomy and its history, but now we also have the FLICC-Poster! This poster is the result of a successful collaboration between us and our German language partnersite klimafakten.de. Our partnership goes back to 2011 when Klimafakten started out with German translations of several of our rebuttals ...2 weeks ago- New Zealand joins global search for COVID-19 vaccine
Rt Hon Winston Peters, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Foreign Affairs Hon Megan Woods, Minister of Research, Science and Innovation Hon Dr David Clark, Minister of Health Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters, Research, Science and Innovation Minister Megan Woods, and Health Minister David Clark today announced a COVID-19 vaccine strategy, ...5 hours ago - Budget 2020: Five things to know
Budget 2020 is about rebuilding together, supporting jobs, getting business moving and the books back into the black. It’s an integral part of our COVID-19 economic response, and our plan to grow our economy and get New Zealand moving again. Here’s a quick look at the five top things you ...1 day ago - Coalition Government approves essential upgrades on Ōhakea Air BaseThe Coalition Government has approved $206 million in essential upgrades at Ōhakea Air Base. Defence Minister Ron Mark said the money would be spent on improving old infrastructure. He said safety issues would be addressed, as well as upgrades to taxiways, accommodation and fresh, storm and waste water systems. "This ...5 days ago
- Attributable to the Rt Hon Winston PetersRt Hon Winston Peters, Leader of New Zealand First “I am not persisting with this case just for myself, but for all people who have had their privacy breached. Privacy of information is a cornerstone of our country’s democracy. Without it our society truly faces a bleak future. We now ...7 days ago
- Forestry Minister Shane Jones moves to protect sawmillsForestry Minister Shane Jones has introduced a Bill to Parliament that he says will "force more transparency, integrity and respect" for the domestic wood-processing sector through the registration of log traders and practice standards. The Forests (Regulation of Log Traders and Forestry Advisers) Amendment Bill had its first reading in ...1 week ago
- Green MP joins international call to cancel developing countries’ debt
Green MP Golriz Ghahraman is joining over 300 lawmakers from around the world in calling on the big banks and the IMF to forgive the debt of developing countries, in the wake of the COVID crisis. ...1 week ago - Forestry Minister Shane Jones swipes back at billion trees criticsForestry Minister Shane Jones says concerns that carbon foresters are planting pine trees that will never be harvested are the result of "misinformation". "The billion tree strategy is an excellent idea, unfortunately from time to time it's tainted by misinformation spread by the National Party or their grandees, hiding in scattered ...1 week ago
- Budget boost for refugee families a win for compassionThe Green Party welcomes funding in the budget to reunite more refugees with their families, ensuring they have the best chance at a new life in Aotearoa New Zealand. ...1 week ago
- How Budget 2020 is supporting jobsThis year’s Budget is about rebuilding New Zealand together in the face of COVID-19. Jobs are central to how we’re going to do that.There’s a lot of targeted investment for employment in this year’s Budget, with announcements on creating new jobs, training people for the jobs we have, and supporting ...2 weeks ago
- Winston Peters says China didn’t want NZ to go into lockdownSpeaking to Stuff's Coronavirus NZ podcast, Foreign Minister Winston Peters revealed China tried to dissuade New Zealand from going into lockdown. “Without speaking out of turn, they wanted a discussion as to why we were doing it, because they thought it was an overreaction,” Mr Peters told Stuff’s Coronavirus NZ podcast. He also ...2 weeks ago
- Changes made to Overseas Investment Act to protect New Zealand assetsThe Coalition Government is making changes to the Overseas Investment Act to ensure New Zealand assets don't fall into the hands of foreign ownership in the economic aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. Associate Minister of Finance David Parker announced the Act will be amended to bring forward a national interest ...2 weeks ago
- Winston Peters: Trans-Tasman bubble to help tourism industry make swift recoveryA quick start to a trans-Tasman bubble could see the tourism industry make a swift recovery, according to Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters. "I believe tourism will turn around dramatically faster than people think," Mr Peters told reporters after Thursday's Budget. "Why? Because I think the Tasman bubble is [going ...2 weeks ago
- Rt. Hon Winston Peters: Budget SpeechRt Hon Winston Peters, Leader of New Zealand First Please check against delivery https://vimeo.com/418303651 Budget 2020: Jobs, Business and Balance Introduction Acknowledgements to all Cabinet colleagues, and party ministers Tracey Martin, Shane Jones and Ron Mark, Under-Secretary Fletcher Tabuteau and to caucus colleagues. Thank you for your support, your ...2 weeks ago
- Jacinda Ardern’s 2020 Budget SpeechRead Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern's Budget 2020 Speech. ...2 weeks ago
- Budget 2020: Next steps to end family and sexual violenceThe 2020 Budget includes significant support to stabilise New Zealand’s family violence services, whose work has been shown to be so essential throughout the COVID-19 lockdown. ...2 weeks ago
- Investment in housing gives more people access to the home they deserveThe Green Party says huge new investment in public and transitional housing will get thousands more families into the warm, safe homes they deserve. ...2 weeks ago
- Budget 2020: Huge investment in green nature based jobs jump starts sustainable COVID recoveryThe Green Party says the $1.1 billion environmental investment in this year’s budget to create thousands of green jobs will help jump start a sustainable recovery from the COVID crisis. ...2 weeks ago
- Grant Robertson’s 2020 Budget SpeechRead Minister of Finance Grant Robertson's Budget 2020 Speech. ...2 weeks ago
- Winston Peters tells struggling migrant workers ‘you should probably go home’Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters said today the Coalition Government told foreigners at the start of the Covid-19 crisis that if their circumstances had changed dramatically, they should go home. "And 50,000 did," Mr Peters said. Official advice to Cabinet revealed there is potentially 380,000 foreigners and migrant workers in ...2 weeks ago
- New Zealand First welcomes today’s Alert Level 2 announcementRt Hon Winston Peters, Leader of New Zealand First New Zealand First welcomes the decision today to go to Alert Level 2 from midnight Wednesday, says Leader Rt Hon Winston Peters. Alert Level 2 will mean a return to work for the vast majority of New Zealand’s businesses. A return ...2 weeks ago
- Nurses to be protected after amendment to First Responders BillNurses now look set to get more protection from violence at work, under a proposed new law. This after NZ First MP Darroch Ball's "Protection for First Responders Bill", which introduces a six-month minimum sentence for assaults on first responders, will now also cover emergency department healthcare workers. The ...2 weeks ago
- Nurses to get more protection, added to ‘First Responders’ legislationDarroch Ball MP, New Zealand First Law and Order Spokesperson An amendment to the ‘Protection of First Responders Bill’ is being tabled which will see emergency department healthcare workers included in the legislation. “During this COVID-19 crisis we have seen reports of violence and specifically increased incidents of spitting towards ...2 weeks ago
- Shane Jones: Northland port could be economic havenInfrastructure Minister Shane Jones is breathing new life into the proposal to move Auckland's port to Whangārei to help in the economic recovery post Covid-19 pandemic. If New Zealand First was returned in the September general election, Minister Jones said a priority would be development of an "economic haven" at Northport, ...2 weeks ago
- PGF grant for Ventnor memorialThe plan to build a memorial to the SS Ventnor, and those who were lost when it sank off the Hokianga coast in 1902, has been granted $100,000 from the Provincial Growth Fund. Originally planned for a site near Rāwene cemetery, the memorial will now be built at the new Manea ...3 weeks ago
- 75th anniversary of V.E DayRt Hon Winston Peters, New Zealand First Leader Leader of New Zealand First, Rt Hon Winston Peters said: “Today is the 75th anniversary of VE Day – marking the end of World War II in Europe." Millions died in the six years of war, and families were torn apart. 75 years ...3 weeks ago
- Week That Was: Getting the job doneFrom the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, our Government has committed to providing calm, clear, and consistent communication, including regular press conference updates from the Prime Minister. While New Zealand is at Alert Level 3, we're making sure that New Zealanders are kept informed and up-to-date with all the latest ...3 weeks ago
- Winston Peters responds to Simon Bridges’ ‘my sweetheart’ commentNew Zealand First leader Winston Peters spoke to The Country's Jamie Mackay. A day earlier, National Party leader Simon Bridges was on the radio show and referred to the Deputy Prime Minister as, "my sweetheart Winston". Mr Peters swiftly dismissed the question of whether Bridges had changed his mind about ...3 weeks ago
- Foreign Minister makes four diplomatic appointments
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters today announced four diplomatic appointments: New Zealand’s Ambassador to Belgium, High Commissioners to Nauru and Niue, and Ambassador for Counter-Terrorism. “As the world seeks to manage and then recover from COVID-19, our diplomatic and trade networks are more important than ever,” Mr Peters said. “The ...2 hours ago - Mycoplasma bovis eradication reaches two year milestone in good shapeNew Zealand’s world-first plan to eradicate the cattle disease Mycoplasma bovis is on track the latest technical data shows, says Agriculture and Biosecurity Minister Damien O’Connor. “Two years ago the Government, DairyNZ and Beef + Lamb New Zealand and industry partners made a bold decision to go hard and commit ...6 hours ago
- New payment to support Kiwis through COVIDFurther support for New Zealanders affected by 1-in-100 year global economic shock 12-week payment will support people searching for new work or retraining Work programme on employment insurance to support workers and businesses The Government today announced a new temporary payment to support New Zealanders who lose their jobs due ...1 day ago
- PGF reset helps regional economiesThe Provincial Growth Fund will play a vital role in New Zealand’s post-COVID-19 recovery by creating jobs in shorter timeframes through at least $600 million being refocused on projects with more immediate economic benefits, Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones has announced. The funding is comprised of repurposed Provincial Growth ...2 days ago
- Government exempts some home improvements from costly consentsGovernment exempts some home improvements from costly consents Homeowners, builders and DIYers will soon have an easier time making basic home improvements as the Government scraps the need for consents for low-risk building work such as sleep-outs, sheds and carports – allowing the construction sector to fire back up quicker ...2 days ago
- Concern at introduction of national security legislation for Hong KongForeign Affairs Minister Winston Peters says the New Zealand Government has reacted with concern at the introduction of legislation in China’s National People’s Congress relating to national security in Hong Kong. “We have a strong interest in seeing confidence maintained in the ‘one country, two systems’ principle under which Hong ...3 days ago
- Samoa Language Week theme is perfect for the post-COVID-19 journeyThe Minister for Pacific Peoples Aupito William Sio, says the theme for the 2020 Samoa Language Week is a perfect fit for helping our Pacific communities cope with the unfolding COVID-19 crisis, and to prepare now for the journey ahead as New Zealand focuses on recovery plans and rebuilding New ...3 days ago
- Adult kakī/black stilt numbers soarA nearly 40-year programme to protect one of New Zealand’s most critically endangered birds is paying off, with a record number of adult kakī/black stilt recently recorded living in the wild, the Minister of Conservation Eugenie Sage announced today. “Thanks to the team effort involved in the Department of Conservation’s ...4 days ago
- Waikato-Tainui settlement story launched on 25th anniversary of Treaty signingThe story of the Waikato-Tainui Treaty process and its enduring impact on the community is being told with a five-part web story launched today on the 25th anniversary of settlement, announced Associate Arts, Culture and Heritage Minister Carmel Sepuloni. “I am grateful to Waikato-Tainui for allowing us to help capture ...4 days ago
- Taita College to benefit from $32 million school redevelopmentTaita College in the Hutt Valley will be redeveloped to upgrade its ageing classrooms and leaky roofs, Education Minister Chris Hipkins announced today. “The work is long overdue and will make a lasting difference to the school for generations to come,” Chris Hipkins said. “Too many of our schools are ...4 days ago
- Redeployment for workers in hard-hit regionsThe Government is allocating $36.72 million to projects in regions hard hit economically by COVID-19 to keep people working, Economic Development Minister Phil Twyford and Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones announced today. Projects in Hawke’s Bay, Northland, Rotorua and Queenstown will be funded from the Government’s $100 million worker ...4 days ago
- $35m to build financial resilience for New ZealandersA $35m boost to financial capability service providers funded by MSD will help New Zealanders manage their money better both day to day and through periods of financial difficulty, announced Social Development Minister Carmel Sepuloni. “It’s always been our position to increase support to key groups experiencing or at risk ...5 days ago
- New District Court Judge appointedDunedin barrister Melinda Broek has been appointed as a District Court Judge with Family Court jurisdiction to be based in Rotorua, Attorney-General David Parker announced today. Ms Broek has iwi affiliations to Ngai Tai. She commenced her employment in 1996 with Scholefield Cockroft Lloyd in Invercargill specialising in family and ...5 days ago
- $206 million investment in upgrades at Ohakea Air Force BaseThe Coalition Government has approved a business case for $206 million in upgrades to critical infrastructure at Royal New Zealand Air Force Base Ohakea, with the first phase starting later this year, Defence Minister Ron Mark announced today. The investment will be made in three phases over five years, and ...5 days ago
- Review of CAA organisational culture releasedTransport Minister Phil Twyford today released the Ministry of Transport’s review of the organisational culture at the Civil Aviation Authority. Phil Twyford says all employees are entitled to a safe work environment. “I commissioned this independent review due to the concerns I had about the culture within the CAA, and ...5 days ago
- New Board appointed at Stats NZEnsuring that Stats NZ’s direction and strategy best supports government policy decisions will be a key focus for a new Governance Advisory Board announced today by the Minister for Statistics, James Shaw. The new Governance Advisory Board will provide strategic advice to Stats NZ to ensure it is meeting New ...5 days ago
- New Principal Environment JudgeEnvironment Judge David Kirkpatrick of Auckland has been appointed as the Principal Environment Judge, Attorney-General David Parker announced today. Judge Kirkpatrick was appointed an Environment Judge in February 2014. From December 2013 to July 2016 he was Chair of the Auckland Unitary Plan Independent Hearings Panel. Prior to appointment he ...6 days ago
- Digital connectivity boost for urban maraeA programme to connect marae around the country to the internet has received $1.4 million to expand to include urban marae in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch, Broadcasting, Communications and Digital Media Minister Kris Faafoi and Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones announced today. The funding for the Marae Connectivity Programme ...6 days ago
- Govt increases assistance to drought-stricken Hawke’s Bay farmersThe Government will provide $500,000 to the Hawke’s Bay Mayoral Drought Relief Fund to help farmers facing one of the worst droughts in living memory, says Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor. “Yesterday afternoon I received a letter from Hawke's Bay's five local Government leaders asking me to contribute to the Fund. ...7 days ago
- Investment in New Zealand’s historyBudget 2020 provides a major investment in New Zealand’s documentary heritage sector, with a commitment to leasing a new Archives Wellington facility and an increase in funding for Archives and National Library work. “Last year I released plans for a new Archives Wellington building – a purpose-built facility physically connected ...1 week ago
- Driving prompt payments to small businessesGovernment Ministers are asking significant private enterprises to adopt prompt payment practices in line with the state sector, as a way to improve cashflow for small businesses. The Ministers of Finance, Small Business, Commerce and Consumer Affairs have written to more than 40 significant enterprises and banking industry representatives to ...1 week ago
- Rotorua tourist icon to be safeguardedMaori Arts and Crafts will continue to underpin the heart of the tourism sector says Minister for Maori Development Nanaia Mahuta. “That’s why we are making a core investment of $7.6 million to Te Puia New Zealand Māori Arts and Crafts Institute, over two years, as part of the Government’s ...1 week ago
- $14.7m for jobs training and educationThe Government is funding more pathways to jobs through training and education programmes in regional New Zealand to support the provinces’ recovery from the economic impacts of COVID-19, Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones and Employment Minister Willie Jackson have announced. “New Zealand’s economic recovery will be largely driven by ...1 week ago
- Is it time to further recognise those who serve in our military?Minister for Veterans Ron Mark has announced the launch of a national conversation that aims to find out whether New Zealanders think there should be a formal agreement between service people, the Government, and the people of New Zealand. “This year marks the 75th anniversary of the end of World ...1 week ago
- Paving the way for a fully qualified early learning workforceThe Government’s drive to improve the quality of early childhood education (ECE) is taking another step forward with the reintroduction of a higher funding rate for services that employ fully qualified and registered teachers, Education Minister Chris Hipkins has announced. “Research shows that high-quality ECE can improve young people’s learning ...1 week ago
- Sport Recovery Package announcedThe Sport and Recreation sector will receive a multi-million dollar boost as part of the COVID-19 response funded at Budget 2020. Grant Robertson says the Sport and Recreation Sector contributes about $5 billion a year to New Zealand’s GDP and employs more than 53,000 people. “Sport plays a significant role ...1 week ago
- Major boost in support for caregivers and childrenA major increase in funding and availability of support will improve the incomes and reduce the pressure on 14,000 caregivers looking after more than 22,000 children. Children’s Minister Tracey Martin says that caregivers – all those looking after someone else’s children both in and outside the state care system – ...1 week ago
- Great Walks recovery on track for summerVital conservation and visitor infrastructure destroyed by a severe flood event in Fiordland earlier this year is being rebuilt through a $13.7 million Budget 2020 investment, announced Minister of Conservation Eugenie Sage. “This investment will mean iconic Great Walks such as the Routeburn track and the full length of ...1 week ago
- Māori – Government partnership gives whānau a new housing dealThe Government is investing $40 million in a partnership with Māori to get more whānau into warm, dry and secure accommodation, Associate Minister for Housing (Māori Housing) Hon Nanaia Mahuta says.. “We are partnering with Māori and iwi to respond to the growing housing crisis in the wake of COVID-19. ...1 week ago
- Keeping New Zealanders Safe In The WaterKeeping New Zealanders safe in the water Our lifeguards and coastguards who keep New Zealanders safe in the water have been given a funding boost thanks to the 2020 Budget, Minister for the Community and Voluntary Sector Poto Williams has announced. The water safety sector will receive $63 million over ...1 week ago
- Legal framework for COVID-19 Alert Level referred to select committeeThe COVID-19 Public Health Response Act 2020, which set a sound legal framework ahead of the move to Alert level 2, has been referred to a parliamentary select committee for review. Attorney-General David Parker said the review of the operation of the COVID-19 specific law would be reported back to ...2 weeks ago
- New Zealand condemns shocking attacks on hospital and funeral in AfghanistanForeign Affairs Minister Winston Peters says New Zealand condemns the targeting of civilians in two terrorist attacks in Afghanistan earlier this week. “The terrorist attacks on a hospital in Kabul and a funeral in Nangarhar province are deeply shocking. The attacks were deliberate and heinous acts of extreme violence targeting ...2 weeks ago
- Government to close tobacco tax loopholeThe Government will close a loophole that allowed some people to import cigarettes and loose leaf tobacco for manufacturing cigarettes and ‘roll your owns’ for sale on the black market without excise tax being paid, says Minister of Customs Jenny Salesa. The legislation, which doesn’t affect duty free allowances for ...2 weeks ago
- $62 million package to support families through the Family CourtThe Coalition Government has made a significant $62 million investment from the COVID-19 Response and Recovery Fund to start the reform of the Family Court and enable it to respond effectively to the increased backlog caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Today Justice Minister Andrew Little introduced the Family Court (Supporting ...2 weeks ago
- Tailored help supports new type of job seeker – reportThe Government’s expanded services to support people into jobs will help an emerging cohort of New Zealanders impacted by COVID-19. The impacted group are relatively younger, have a proportionately low benefit history and have comparatively higher incomes than most who seek support, as captured in a report published today from ...2 weeks ago
- A modern approach to night classesNew funding to boost Government-funded Adult and Community Education (ACE) will give more than 11,000 New Zealanders more opportunities to learn, Education Minister Chris Hipkins said. “This includes a modern approach to rebuilding night classes, which were slashed in the middle of our last economic crisis in 2010,” Chris Hipkins ...2 weeks ago
- Christchurch Call makes significant progressSignificant progress has been delivered in the year since the Christchurch Call to Action brought governments and tech companies together in Paris with a single goal to eliminate terrorist and violent extremist content online, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardent says. On its first anniversary, Ardern and French President Emmanuel Macron as ...2 weeks ago
- Christchurch Call: One year AnniversaryJoint statement: the Right Honourable Jacinda Ardern Prime Minister of New Zealand and His Excellency Emmanuel Macron President of the French Republic. One year since we launched, in Paris, the Christchurch Call to Action, New Zealand and France stand proud of the progress we have made toward our goal to eliminate terrorist ...2 weeks ago
- Budget 2020: Jobs and opportunities for the primary sector$19.3 million to help attract and train recently unemployed New Zealanders and grow the primary sector workforce by 10,000 people. $128 million for wilding pine and wallaby control, providing hundreds of jobs. $45.3m over four years to help horticulture seize opportunities for future growth. $14.9 million to reduce food waste ...2 weeks ago
- New registration system for forestry advisers and log tradersA new log registration scheme and practice standards will bring us one step closer to achieving ‘value over volume’ in our forestry sector, Forestry Minister Shane Jones says. New legislation introduced as part of Budget 2020 will require forestry advisers, log traders and exporters to register and work to nationally ...2 weeks ago
- The poorest Australians are twice as likely to die before age 75 as the richest, and the gap is wide...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tim Adair, Principal Research Fellow, Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, University of Melbourne People living in socially disadvantaged areas and outside major cities are much more likely to die prematurely, our new research shows. The study, published in the journal ...35 mins ago - Open, honest and effective: what makes Jacinda Ardern an authentic leaderSource: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrei Alexander Lux, Lecturer in Leadership and Organisational Behaviour, Edith Cowan University The qualities that have made Jacinda Ardern New Zealand’s most popular prime minister in a century were on display this week as she took an earthquake in her stride during ...35 mins ago
- New bill comes with online takedown powers
The Government has introduced a bill that will allow it to issue takedown notices and create internet filters, with a focus on combatting terrorism and violent extremism. ...45 mins ago - Let’s Not Divide NZers With An Unfair Two-tier Benefit System
Child Poverty Action Group is calling on the Coalition Government not to let COVID-19 divide our country into those who deserve support and those who don’t - whilst also ignoring the needs of our most vulnerable children. The recently announced COVID-19 ...1 hour ago - National’s Stance On Benefit Payments HypocriticalFor the party with a long established record of cutting benefits, aiming for balanced budgets and promoting strict fiscal responsibility, National’s bleating about unemployment benefit payments being unfair is the ultimate in hypocrisy. National is crying crocodile ...1 hour ago
- The government says artists should be able to access JobKeeper payments. It’s not that simpleSource: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Guy Morrow, Lecturer in Arts & Cultural Management, University of Melbourne This week, Australia’s finance minister Mathias Cormann told ABC radio he didn’t “accept [the] proposition” workers in the arts and entertainment industry were missing out on wage subsidies through the government’s ...2 hours ago
- National, Greens decry Labour’s ‘unfair’ new jobseeker benefit
It's not often the Greens and National see eye to eye on welfare, but both are critical of the government's new relief payment for some unemployed. ...2 hours ago - Emily Writes: On coming ‘home’ to school and our community
In the fifth part of a new series that shares the stories of families learning from home during lockdown, Emily Writes puts faith in her community as her son returns to school. He knew school would be opening the following week and we’re not quite sure how. Maybe the excitement and ...2 hours ago - ANZASW Statement: Government’s Latest Relief Payment Unfair To Those On Job-seekers BenefitANZASW Is Deeply Concerned With The Government’s New Relief Payment That Was Announced Yesterday (25th May). Up To $490 A Week Will Be Available To New Zealand Citizens And Residents Who Have Lost A Full- Time Job Work As A Result Of COVID-19 While They ...2 hours ago
- Seeing is believing: how media mythbusting can actually make false beliefs strongerSource: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Eryn Newman, Lecturer, Australian National University As the COVID-19 pandemic has swept the world, politicians, medical experts and epidemiologists have taught us about flattening curves, contact tracing, R0 and growth factors. At the same time, we are facing an “infodemic” – an ...3 hours ago
- Why the coronavirus shouldn’t stand in the way of the next wage increaseSource: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michael Keating, Visiting Fellow, College of Business & Economics, Australian National University In the early 1970s, when rising inflation and unemployment tore through the economy, someone coined the aphorism “one man’s wage increase is another man’s job” (unfortunately, most of the talk ...3 hours ago
- How a taiao-based model could lead NZ to sustainable economic recoveryCould a taiao values approach to our economy be the key to bridging the gap between protecting our environment and prospering as people? Dr Amanda Black from the Bio-Protection Research Centre explains how.Aotearoa has been economically dependent on our primary sector for generations. But in this new Covid-19-framed world, that ...3 hours ago
- Newsletter: New Zealand Politics Daily – May 26 2020Editor’s Note: Here below is a list of the main issues currently under discussion in New Zealand and links to media coverage. Today’s content Redundancy scheme Susan Edmunds (Stuff): Opinion: Unemployment payment scheme shows Govt knows benefits insufficient Rachel Sadler (Newshu): Auckland Action Against Poverty says Government’s Income Relief Payments create ‘two ...4 hours ago
- Racing Industry In TattersNew Conservative Racing Spokesman, Lachie Ashton, calls for a commission of inquiry into the Racing Industry Transition Agency (RITA), the New Zealand Racing Board (NZRB) and the Racing Integrity Unity (RIU) following twenty years of poor management that ...4 hours ago
- Why Trump’s Make America Great Again hat makes a dangerous souvenir for foreign politiciansSource: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dominic O’Sullivan, Adjunct Professor, Faculty of Health and Environmental Sciences, Auckland University of Technology, and Associate Professor of Political Science, Charles Sturt University It looked just like any posed political picture. The politician, in this case the National Party’s newly elected leader, ...4 hours ago
- NZ to join search for Covid-19 vaccine
New Zealand will put $37 million towards the global pursuit for a Covid-19 vaccine, including $15 million for domestic research and potential manufacturing, Marc Daalder reports New Zealand has thrown its hat into the vaccine R&D ring. On Tuesday, Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters, Minister of Research, Science and Innovation ...4 hours ago - Sold for a buck: Why Stuff and other huge businesses change hands for $1When Stuff’s parent company Nine sold up in a management buyout, the sale price for the whole business was $1. So what does it actually mean when businesses are sold for a buck?When local media giant Stuff was sold earlier this week to CEO Sinead Boucher, one of the biggest ...4 hours ago
- National Party MPs contradict each other over diversity in front benchThe new National Party leader has defended the lack of diversity on his front bench, saying there are plenty of talented Māori in the wider caucus. ...5 hours ago
- WATCH: Under Cover: Nadia Reid and Reb FountainUnder Cover is a new series that brings New Zealand musicians together via video link to bond, chat, and play each other’s songs. The second episode features Nadia Reid and Reb Fountain.In this episode of Under Cover, produced in collaboration with RNZ Music, Nadia Reid and Reb Fountain discuss changing ...5 hours ago
- Beehive beneficence brings some cheer to workers made redundant by Covid-19 – but then comes a cho...
A great deal of disgruntlement was generated by the one press statement to be released from the Beehive yesterday. The Government announced the COVID Income Relief Payment, a $570 million temporary programme to support New Zealanders who lose their jobs due to the global COVID-19 pandemic – it will help ...6 hours ago - Cannabis crop could contribute $490m a year to government coffersNew research shows a legal cannabis industry could raise about $490 million per year if taxed at 25 percent. ...6 hours ago
- NZ Trade Balance (April) ReleaseThe NZ Trade Balance for April has just been released. They came in very close to expectations: NZ Trade Balance: Trade Balance (Apr) $1267mio surplus Consensus $1235mio surplus - Imports (Apr) $5.26bio Consensus $5.30bio - Exports (Apr) $3.99bio ...6 hours ago
- Lockdown made us rethink how we value productivity – so let’s make the most of itOver lockdown, school, home and the office all merged into one place, affecting how we worked and when. The NZIER public good team explains why we need to rethink how we measure productivity.How productive was your lockdown? Now we’re in level two, it’s the perfect time to pause and reflect on ...7 hours ago
- Let’s hope Europe’s economic policies are better than its approach to lockdown
So just how effective were the different lockdown policies implemented by Europe’s diverse states? Bloomberg has tried to make a comparison using an index complied by the Blavatnik School of Government at the University of Oxford. “While not a gauge of whether the decisions taken were the right ones, nor ...8 hours ago - “We are on the right side of history”: COHA Exclusive Interview with Venezuelan Foreign Minister...Source: Council on Hemispheric Affairs – Analysis-Reportage By Roger D. Harris Corte Madera, California As Venezuelan Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza spoke to COHA Friday night, five Iranian oil tankers headed to Venezuela in defiance of Washington. Within hours the first tanker arrived through the Caribbean where an armada of US ...8 hours ago
- Rich and poor don’t recover equally from epidemics – target: rebuild fairlyANALYSIS: By Ilan Noy of Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington Since the Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004, disaster recovery plans are almost always framed with aspirational plans to “build back better”. It’s a fine sentiment – we all want to build better societies and economies. But, as ...8 hours ago
- The deserving and the undeserving: The two-tier benefits as seen by a beneficiaryA tax free payment of $490 a week would be life-changing for people like me, writes beneficiary Eamonn Marra.The government’s decision to give those made redundant by Covid-19 $490 tax free a week for 12 weeks is a good one. When you lose your job your income stops but your ...8 hours ago
- Dominic Cummings went to Durham in lockdown, and bared his arse at BritainThe chief propagandist of rage against the privileged Westminster elite has proved himself the epitome of the privileged Westminster elite, writes Elle Hunt from London.He is the prime minister’s top adviser, he unambiguously broke the rules around lockdown, and people have already been fired for less. But I never really ...8 hours ago
- Third time’s the charm for Joe Biden: now he has an election to win and a country to saveSource: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Bruce Wolpe, Non-resident Senior Fellow, United States Study Centre, University of Sydney At age 77, in his twilight years, the third time was the charm for Joe Biden. He prevailed over a field of 24 Democrats from across the political spectrum and ...9 hours ago
- If you took to growing veggies in the coronavirus pandemic, then keep it up when lockdown endsSource: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrea Gaynor, Associate Professor of History, University of Western Australia The COVID-19 pandemic produced a run on the things people need to produce their own food at home, including vegetable seedlings, seeds and chooks. This turn to self-provisioning was prompted in part ...9 hours ago
- Coronavirus recovery: public transport is key to avoid repeating old and unsustainable mistakesSource: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Hussein Dia, Professor of Future Urban Mobility, Swinburne University of Technology The coronavirus pandemic has affected our cities in profound ways. People adapted by teleworking, shopping locally and making only necessary trips. One of the many challenges of recovery will be to ...9 hours ago
- P is for Pandemic: kids’ books about coronavirusSource: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Shih-Wen Sue Chen, Senior Lecturer in Writing and Literature, Deakin University With remarkable speed, numerous children’s books have been published in response to the COVID-19 global health crisis, teaching children about coronavirus and encouraging them to protect themselves and others. Children’s literature ...9 hours ago
- National has a ‘fresh start’ and will run the ruler over all policies, Willis saysMP Nicola Willis jumped from number 45 to 14 on the party's list in leader Todd Muller's caucus reshuffle. ...9 hours ago
- Live updates, May 26: Boris Johnson’s aide refuses to resignFor all The Spinoff’s latest coverage of Covid-19 see here. Read Siouxsie Wiles’s work here. New Zealand is currently in alert level two – read The Spinoff’s giant explainer about what that means here. For official government advice, see here.The Spinoff’s coverage of the Covid-19 outbreak is funded by The Spinoff Members. To support this ...9 hours ago
- Business Wrap: Is China vs US Cold War II?
Markets are nervous as China vs US 'Cold War II' rhetoric grows over Beijing's tighter controls on Hong Kong. ...10 hours ago - Government Move In The Right DirectionNew Conservative supports the idea of scrapping consent requirements for small, low risk building as proposed by the government. "This is a step in the right direction of reducing government control and removing barriers for productivity," ...10 hours ago
- The Bulletin: Criticism over new ‘two-tier’ welfare paymentsGood morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Criticism over new ‘two-tier’ welfare payments, National announces reshuffle, and a day of differing fortunes in the media world.The government has announced a brand new income support scheme for those who have lost work – but in many ways, it ...10 hours ago
- Fish & Game council embraces Feds, ungags boss
Fish & Game is extending an olive branch to Federated Farmers, against the advice of its chief executive. David Williams reports The national Fish & Game council continues to try and cleanse itself of a tough stance against agricultural pollution, demanding a softer line from staff on public statements as ...11 hours ago - Green Party says Labour broke promise to overhaul welfare systemThe Greens have accused Labour of breaking a core promise to overhaul the welfare system, a commitment made in 2017 during negotiations to form a government. ...12 hours ago
- Green Party says govt broke promise to overhaul welfare systemThe Greens have accused Labour of breaking a core promise to overhaul the welfare system, a commitment made in 2017 during negotiations to form a government. ...12 hours ago
- Green Party ‘won’t give up’ pushing for benefits increaseThe Greens have accused Labour of breaking a core promise to overhaul the welfare system, a commitment made in 2017 during negotiations to form a government. ...12 hours ago
- Scoring victories for women in cricket
David Leggat meets the two women who've collected national cricket honours traditionally won by men. Among the 26 New Zealand Cricket awards handed out this year over video linkup - celebrating the great, the good, the promising and the honest servants of the game - there were two which stood out ...12 hours ago - Los Angeles is burning: part 1
New Zealand writer Anna Rankin thinks her way through the craziness and desperation of Los Angeles, in the first of a two-part essay. It occurs to me this evening as I sit in the heat of my Los Angeles apartment beside a window, which faces the almond-pale stucco of the ...12 hours ago - Hamish Coney: Before and after
The exhibition Split Level View Finder: Theo Schoon and New Zealand Art at Te Uru Waitakere Contemporary Gallery in Titirangi opened in early March, a week before the world changed. The gallery is open again - Hamish Coney suggests a post lockdown visit might provide a lens through which to ...12 hours ago - What do we want to leave for our children?
Now is our chance to examine nature on our own urban doorstep, and to think ahead to what kind of nature we want to encourage and bequeath to our children, write James Beattie and Bruce Clarkson Across the globe, millions of people have been interacting with nature on their doorstep, ...12 hours ago - National doesn’t need a John Key 2.0
New National leader Todd Muller's message sounds like the party's old brand under John Key and Bill English. To solve its problems, the party will need to deliver a broad new campaign message that takes post-Covid needs into account. National has changed the messenger, but it also needs to change the message: It’s ...12 hours ago - Muller plays it safe with National reshuffle
Todd Muller’s first reshuffle as National Party leader was more about the return of a political veteran than any new stars, while an awkward exchange with deposed leader Simon Bridges offered a hint of a worst-case scenario With just over three months until advance voting begins, new National leader Todd ...12 hours ago - Bigger payouts for Covid beneficiaries could end up benefitting everyoneThere’s more to the finance minister’s controversial move than meets the eye, argues Max Rashbrooke.If you’re a current beneficiary, I can see how it looks like a slap in the face. Finance minister Grant Robertson yesterday announced that people rendered unemployed by the coronavirus will receive a 12-week benefit of ...12 hours ago
- How Muller-mentum could change the political landscapeNational has a new leader and it could upend parts of the political map that previously looked much more stable. So how could things change as a result?Under Simon Bridges, National needed to get exceptionally lucky to win the next election. While the party’s polling at the start of the ...12 hours ago
- The sale of Stuff sets the stage for a new independent media in New ZealandThe big media companies just want to get married. Duncan Greive makes the case for dozens of divorces instead.For the last few years, all the talk in New Zealand’s media has been of a need for consolidation. That our big for-profit media companies – TVNZ, Sky, MediaWorks, NZME and Stuff ...12 hours ago
- Travel in a post-Covid world
Sharon Brettkelly looks at what is likely to be a slow and stuttering return to international travel Stay at home. Don’t leave your region. Don’t leave the country. We’ve all got the message. The coronavirus epidemic has shut down global tourism, leaving airlines, travel companies and the tourism trade crippled. ...12 hours ago - Former PM O’Neill blames current government for ‘politicised’ arrestBy EMTV News Former Prime Minister Peter O’Neill says the National Executive Council of the then Papua New Guinea government approved the purchase of two heavy duty power generators for PNG Power to solve longstanding blackouts in Lae and Port Moresby. The allegation against him is that due process was ...15 hours ago
- Australian economy must come ‘out of ICU’: Scott MorrisonSource: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Scott Morrison says it is vital to get the Australian economy “out of ICU” and “off the medication” of government support “before it becomes too accustomed to it”. In speech on his government’s plans to ...17 hours ago
- Eden-Monaro byelection to be on July 4Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Speaker Tony Smith has announced July 4 for the byelection in the Labor NSW seat of Eden-Monaro, which will be the first electoral test between Scott Morrison and Anthony Albanese. For health reasons this will ...20 hours ago
- No post-Covid green ‘nirvana’
Our infrastructure minister says the Government's $3b infrastructure fund is not the way to usher in a post-Covid green nirvana. ...21 hours ago - National’s Amy Adams on returning as Covid-19 recovery leadCheckpoint - National MP Amy Adams has cancelled plans to retire from Parliament to instead take the number three spot in the party's shadow cabinet. ...22 hours ago
- Stuff chief executive Sinead Boucher restores NZ ownership for $1By RNZ News Stuff chief executive Sinead Boucher has purchased Stuff from its Australian owners Nine Entertainment for $1 to return the media company to New Zealand ownership. The sale is expected to be completed by May 31. “Our plan is to transition the ownership of Stuff to give staff ...22 hours ago
- Was lockdown the right choice?
In the face of multiple sources of uncertainty, what were policymakers to do? ...22 hours ago - Coronavirus lockdown made many of us anxious. But for some people, returning to ‘normal’ might b...Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Amy Dawel, Lecturer, Australian National University Many Australians have welcomed the gradual easing of coronavirus restrictions. We can now catch up with friends and family in small numbers, and get out and about a little more than we’ve been able to for ...23 hours ago
- Labour Undermining The Election By Keeping Us At Level 2...23 hours ago
- China is taking a risk by getting tough on Hong Kong. Now, the US must decide how to respondSource: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Hui Feng, ARC Future Fellow and Senior Research Fellow, Griffith University Beijing’s recent announcement it would authorise the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress – China’s rubber-stamp parliament – to draft a national security law for Hong Kong caught most off ...24 hours ago
- IrrigationNZ Congratulates David BennettIrrigationNZ wishes to congratulate David Bennett as he takes on the agricultural portfolio for the National Party. The announcement came today as new National Party Leader, Todd Muller, revealed the line-up of the new look National Party caucus. ...24 hours ago
- Behold, Saint Sinead of Stuff
The management buyout of Stuff turns out to be a 'manager buyout' as the chief executive takes on the momentous job of owning the publisher on her own. Tim Murphy says it is a hell of a task. Next Monday, Sinead Boucher should find herself the sole owner of Stuff, our biggest ...24 hours ago - China bypasses the govt in Canberra to engage in an infrastructural flirtation with VictoriaOur good friends from Beijing are at it again. China has done a deal with the state of Victoria under its “Belt and Road” project. Infrastructure and other projects are under consideration. This has fired up the Australian Federal government — and the United States. US Secretary of State Mike ...1 day ago
- Performers and sole traders find it hard to get JobKeeper in part because they get behind on their p...Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ann Kayis-Kumar, Senior Lecturer and Tax Clinic Director, School of Taxation & Business Law, UNSW Performers and sole traders find it hard to get JobKeeper in part because they are behind on their paperwork Are sole traders falling through the JobKeeper cracks? ...1 day ago
- MediaWorks takes razor to radio
MediaWorks is cutting its radio staff numbers despite being the biggest beneficiary of the Government’s media support package. But, as Mark Jennings writes, it has spared its struggling TV arm – at least for now. Staff at MediaWorks TV must be thankful the owners are still trying to sell that part of ...1 day ago - Keith Rankin Chart Analysis – Financial Signatures: JapanAnalysis by Keith Rankin. Surpluses and Deficits of Different Economic Sectors This new series of weekly charts looks at forty years of surpluses and deficits in different countries, showing what makes these countries tick, and why they were where they were – financially speaking – at the end of the ...1 day ago
- Apollo Foods moves on to the second course – and is served a $2.9m helping from the PGF
Apollo Foods Limited, incorporated in 2013 and based in Hastings, has become one of the early beneficiaries of the Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) since its administrators were given new marching orders – or should we say serving orders? Apollo Foods, at first blush, doesn’t seem desperately in need of a ...1 day ago - All Those Without Jobs Deserve Decent Income SupportToday’s announcement of an income relief payment goes in the right direction, but leaves behind those that most need help right now. “Unite Union welcomes extra support for some redundant workers. Hundreds of our members will be better off, but ...1 day ago
- NZ to move to full Level 2, with gatherings of 100
Jacinda Ardern announced on Monday that the country would move to the full Level 2, in which gatherings of up to 100 people are permitted, Marc Daalder reports From Friday, funerals, tangihanga and religious services will be permitted to operate with up to 100 people and will no longer have ...1 day ago - PM Jacinda Ardern reveals move to gatherings of 100 under alert level 2Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has revealed the government plans to allow gatherings of up to 100 from midday on Friday, 29 May. ...1 day ago
- Live: PM Jacinda Ardern and Ashley Bloomfield reveal whether level 2 rules changeWatch live: Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield joins Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern for today's post Cabinet press conference. ...1 day ago
- Never let a good crisis go to waste: How our food sector can save NZ’s economyThe world will always need food, and New Zealand is enviably positioned to capitalise on this, writes future foods expert Rosie Bosworth – but we need to take a few big steps first. It’s a bittersweet moment for New Zealand. As a nation we’ve collectively worked hard to successfully flatten the ...1 day ago
- Māori Party Co-leader Calls On Government To Lift Incomes Of All BeneficiariesMāori Party Co-leader calls on Government to lift incomes of all beneficiaries, not just those out of work from COVID-19 Māori Party Co-leader and Te Tai Hauāuru candidate Debbie Ngarewa-Packer is calling on the Government to double the incomes ...1 day ago
- NZ Covid Tracer won’t help open a travel bubble with Australia anytime soonAn Australian technology expert looks at the pros and cons of New Zealand’s contact tracing app, and compares it with the Australian version, COVIDSafe.New Zealanders finally have access to the government’s new tracing app to help people monitor their movements as lockdown continues to ease.As businesses can now open, the ...1 day ago
- When can COVID-19 be Declared Eliminated from NZ? New Modelling Study
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