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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 ...
The little pakehaBy chrismiller
11 hours ago

A weird reappointment
A 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, ...
No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
17 hours ago

Labour doesn’t care about the already poor
The 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 ...
No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
21 hours ago

The Green list
The 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 ...
No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
22 hours 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 ...
Open ParachuteBy Ken
23 hours 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 ...
SciBlogsBy Public Health Expert
23 hours 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 ...
SciBlogsBy Alison Campbell
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 ...
PunditBy admin
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 ...
Skeptical Science
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 ...
PunditBy admin
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 ...
Public Address
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 ...
The Jackal
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 ...
PunditBy Brian Easton
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 ...
RedlineBy Daphna
4 days ago

The new leader of the National party!
One of these MPs is the new leader of the National party. Can you pick which? (Source: Office of the Clerk/Parliamentary Service) National has chosen its new leader, and as expected, it is an old bald white man. Totally representative of modern New Zealand, then. But its not ...
No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
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 ...
Public Address
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 ...
No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
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 ...
SciBlogsBy Public Health Expert
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 ...
Bowalley Road
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 ...
PunditBy Tim Watkin
4 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 ...
exhALANtBy exhalantblog
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 ...
Public Address
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 ...
No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
5 days ago

Does National Still Need A Street-Fighting Man?
Eyes Left! On the face of it, the election of Todd Muller and Nikki Kaye is a no-brainer. New Zealanders are clearly in no mood for a “dirty little street-fighter” and, if the polls are any indication, resent strongly Bridges’ implication that they are. To be at all competitive with ...
Bowalley Road
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 ...
Skeptical Science
5 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 ...
RedlineBy Daphna
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 ...
SciBlogsBy Guest Author
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 ...
No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
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 ...
No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
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 ...
Open ParachuteBy Ken
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 ...
Bryan GouldBy Bryan Gould
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 ...
SciBlogsBy Public Health Expert
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 ...
Skeptical Science
6 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 ...
KiwipoliticoBy Pablo
7 days 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 ...
No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
7 days 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 ...
The Jackal
7 days 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 ...
Public Address
7 days 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 ...
Bowalley Road
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.” ...
RedlineBy Daphna
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 ...
SciBlogsBy Guest Author
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 ...
No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
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 ...
Skeptical Science
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 ...
SciBlogsBy Robert Hickson
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 ...
PunditBy Rex Ahdar
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 ...
Skeptical Science
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 ...
KiwipoliticoBy Pablo
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 ...
No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
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. ...
Bowalley Road
2 weeks ago

The Day Labour Came Home.
Home Boy: "We can also draw the lessons of the past as to what not to do in response to a major economic shock. In this case Mr Speaker I can draw on the experiences of my own life. As the economic carnage of the 1980s and 1990s wreaked havoc in ...
Bowalley Road
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 ...
PunditBy Tim Watkin
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 ...
Local Bodies
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 ...
No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
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 ...
exhALANtBy exhalantblog
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 ...
SciBlogsBy Siouxsie Wiles
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 ...
SciBlogsBy Guest Author
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 ...
Bowalley Road
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 ...
Open ParachuteBy Ken
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 ...
Skeptical Science
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 ...
RedlineBy Daphna
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 ...
RedlineBy Daphna
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 ...
No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
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 ...
No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
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 ...
SciBlogsBy Andreea Calude
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 ...
SciBlogsBy Guest Author
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 ...
PunditBy Tim Watkin
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 ...
SciBlogsBy Helen Petousis Harris
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 ...
Skeptical Science
2 weeks ago

Plandemic – effective fact-free marketing
And now for a new professionally edited conspiracy video with scary music. Before COVID-19 emerged the world already had a problem with information overload – an infodemic. Misinformation had gained a wide forum on many social media platforms, increasing the reach, polarisation, and overall confusion of the population (a misinfodemic). ...
SciBlogsBy Helen Petousis Harris
2 weeks ago

The National Consensus
As we awaited confirmation that we would move to Level 2, my wife and I reviewed our experience of lockdown so far. We reached similar conclusions – that the lockdown had been a bore and a bind, but that we have been – living where we do – among the ...
Bryan GouldBy Bryan Gould
2 weeks ago

Lockdown: the effect on children’s learning and wellbeing
Ron Crawford Lockdown hasn’t seemed too bad. I’m well set up to work from home, it’s been easy for me to take a walk on our nearby beach, and the weather has been mostly calm and sunny.
Beach bubble – James Soligo I’ve noticed many families enjoying the opportunity to ...
SciBlogsBy Guest Author
2 weeks ago

The Crowd That Booed.
Social Distancing: Student protesters make their way carefully around the working class. Dunedin 1994. Photo Otago Daily Times.IT WAS THE LARGEST CROWD I had ever addressed – and it booed me. In 1990 the Labour Government of Geoffrey Palmer (look him up!) announced that university tuition fees would rise from ...
Bowalley Road
2 weeks ago

Legal Beagle: Parliamentary Privilege, and the summonsing of Crown legal advice
The Epidemic Response has apparently resolved to call on the Director-General of Health, Commissioner of Police and Solicitor-General to provide it copies of relevant material, including legal advice prepared for the government. It is not clear whether summonses have been signed, and served on them, but this appears to be ...
Public Address
2 weeks ago

The COVID-19 Bill
With the move to level 2 later in the week, the government has to legislate urgently to provide a legal framework. So, tomorrow we'll be seeing a bill introduced and passed under all-stages urgency, without a select committee process. Because that has never gone wrong before. But in a token ...
No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
2 weeks ago

New review finds fluoride is not a developmental neurotoxicant at exposure levels relevant to fluori...
Proper consideration of the best science shows community water fluoridation does not have a negative effect on child IQ. Image credit: Africa Studio / Shutterstock.com A new extensive review of the scientific literature has ...
Open ParachuteBy Ken
2 weeks ago

The pause that depresses
Murray Sherwin The die is cast. We won’t see the official numbers for quite a while, but it is already apparent that New Zealand is headed into the sharpest and deepest recession in 100 years. We know we will experience unemployment at, and perhaps above, levels not seen since the ...
SciBlogsBy Guest Author
2 weeks ago

Older posts

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 ...
Labour Blog
18 hours ago

Coalition Government approves essential upgrades on Ōhakea Air Base
The 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 ...
NZ First News
5 days ago

Attributable to the Rt Hon Winston Peters
Rt 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 ...
NZ First Press Release
6 days ago

Forestry Minister Shane Jones moves to protect sawmills
Forestry 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 ...
NZ First News
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. ...
Greens
1 week ago

Forestry Minister Shane Jones swipes back at billion trees critics
Forestry 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 ...
NZ First News
1 week ago

Budget boost for refugee families a win for compassion
The 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. ...
Greens
1 week ago

How Budget 2020 is supporting jobs
This 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 ...
Labour Blog
2 weeks ago

Winston Peters says China didn’t want NZ to go into lockdown
Speaking 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 ...
NZ First News
2 weeks ago

Changes made to Overseas Investment Act to protect New Zealand assets
The 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 ...
NZ First News
2 weeks ago

Winston Peters: Trans-Tasman bubble to help tourism industry make swift recovery
A 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 ...
NZ First News
2 weeks ago

Rt. Hon Winston Peters: Budget Speech
Rt 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 ...
NZ First Press Release
2 weeks ago

Jacinda Ardern’s 2020 Budget Speech
Read Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern's Budget 2020 Speech. ...
Labour Blog
2 weeks ago

Budget 2020: Next steps to end family and sexual violence
The 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. ...
Greens
2 weeks ago

Investment in housing gives more people access to the home they deserve
The Green Party says huge new investment in public and transitional housing will get thousands more families into the warm, safe homes they deserve. ...
Greens
2 weeks ago

Budget 2020: Huge investment in green nature based jobs jump starts sustainable COVID recovery
The 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. ...
Greens
2 weeks ago

Grant Robertson’s 2020 Budget Speech
Read Minister of Finance Grant Robertson's Budget 2020 Speech. ...
Labour Blog
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 ...
NZ First News
2 weeks ago

New Zealand First welcomes today’s Alert Level 2 announcement
Rt 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 ...
NZ First Press Release
2 weeks ago

Nurses to be protected after amendment to First Responders Bill
Nurses 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 ...
NZ First News
2 weeks ago

Nurses to get more protection, added to ‘First Responders’ legislation
Darroch 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 ...
NZ First Press Release
2 weeks ago

Shane Jones: Northland port could be economic haven
Infrastructure 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, ...
NZ First News
2 weeks ago

PGF grant for Ventnor memorial
The 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 ...
NZ First News
3 weeks ago

75th anniversary of V.E Day
Rt 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 ...
NZ First Press Release
3 weeks ago

Week That Was: Getting the job done
From 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 ...
Labour Blog
3 weeks ago

Winston Peters responds to Simon Bridges’ ‘my sweetheart’ comment
New 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 ...
NZ First News
3 weeks ago

Time to pay essential heroes a decent wage, says Green Party
The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed just how much we rely on our essential workers. The Green Party are proposing a package that ensures they are paid a dignified wage so they do not live in poverty. ...
Greens
3 weeks ago

New payment to support Kiwis through COVID
Further 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 ...
BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
23 hours ago

PGF reset helps regional economies
The 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 ...
BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
2 days ago

Government exempts some home improvements from costly consents
Government 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 ...
BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
2 days ago

Concern at introduction of national security legislation for Hong Kong
Foreign 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 ...
BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
3 days ago

Samoa Language Week theme is perfect for the post-COVID-19 journey
The 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 ...
BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
3 days ago

Adult kakī/black stilt numbers soar
A 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 ...
BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
3 days ago

Waikato-Tainui settlement story launched on 25th anniversary of Treaty signing
The 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 ...
BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
4 days ago

Taita College to benefit from $32 million school redevelopment
Taita 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 ...
BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
4 days ago

Redeployment for workers in hard-hit regions
The 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 ...
BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
4 days ago

$35m to build financial resilience for New Zealanders
A $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 ...
BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
5 days ago

New District Court Judge appointed
Dunedin 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 ...
BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
5 days ago

$206 million investment in upgrades at Ohakea Air Force Base
The 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 ...
BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
5 days ago

Review of CAA organisational culture released
Transport 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 ...
BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
5 days ago

New Board appointed at Stats NZ
Ensuring 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 ...
BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
5 days ago

New Principal Environment Judge
Environment 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 ...
BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
6 days ago

Digital connectivity boost for urban marae
A 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 ...
BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
6 days ago

Govt increases assistance to drought-stricken Hawke’s Bay farmers
The 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. ...
BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
7 days ago

Investment in New Zealand’s history
Budget 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 ...
BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
7 days ago

Driving prompt payments to small businesses
Government 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 ...
BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
7 days ago

Rotorua tourist icon to be safeguarded
Maori 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 ...
BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
7 days ago

$14.7m for jobs training and education
The 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 ...
BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
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 ...
BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
1 week ago

Paving the way for a fully qualified early learning workforce
The 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 ...
BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
1 week ago

Sport Recovery Package announced
The 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 ...
BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
1 week ago

Major boost in support for caregivers and children
A 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 – ...
BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
1 week ago

Great Walks recovery on track for summer
Vital 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 ...
BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
1 week ago

Māori – Government partnership gives whānau a new housing deal
The 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. ...
BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
1 week ago

Keeping New Zealanders Safe In The Water
Keeping 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 ...
BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
1 week ago

Legal framework for COVID-19 Alert Level referred to select committee
The 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 ...
BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
2 weeks ago

New Zealand condemns shocking attacks on hospital and funeral in Afghanistan
Foreign 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 ...
BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
2 weeks ago

Government to close tobacco tax loophole
The 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 ...
BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
2 weeks ago

$62 million package to support families through the Family Court
The 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 ...
BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
2 weeks ago

Tailored help supports new type of job seeker – report
The 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 ...
BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
2 weeks ago

A modern approach to night classes
New 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 ...
BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
2 weeks ago

Christchurch Call makes significant progress
Significant 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 ...
BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
2 weeks ago

Christchurch Call: One year Anniversary
Joint 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 ...
BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
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 ...
BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
2 weeks ago

New registration system for forestry advisers and log traders
A 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 ...
BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
2 weeks ago

Finance Minister’s Budget 2020 s Budget Speech
Mr Speaker, I move that the Appropriation (2020/21 Estimates) Bill be now read a second time. From its very beginning this Coalition Government has committed to putting the wellbeing of current and future generations of New Zealanders at the heart of everything we do. There is no time in New ...
BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
2 weeks ago

Finance Minister’s Budget 2020 Budget Speech
Mr Speaker, I move that the Appropriation (2020/21 Estimates) Bill be now read a second time. From its very beginning this Coalition Government has committed to putting the wellbeing of current and future generations of New Zealanders at the heart of everything we do. There is no time in New ...
BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
2 weeks ago

Older posts

Dominic Cummings went to Durham in lockdown, and bared his arse at Britain
The 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 ...
The SpinoffBy Elle Hunt
22 mins ago

Third time’s the charm for Joe Biden: now he has an election to win and a country to save
Source: 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 ...
Evening ReportBy The Conversation
1 hour ago

If you took to growing veggies in the coronavirus pandemic, then keep it up when lockdown ends
Source: 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 ...
Evening ReportBy The Conversation
1 hour ago

Coronavirus recovery: public transport is key to avoid repeating old and unsustainable mistakes
Source: 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 ...
Evening ReportBy The Conversation
1 hour ago

P is for Pandemic: kids’ books about coronavirus
Source: 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 ...
Evening ReportBy The Conversation
1 hour ago

National has a ‘fresh start’ and will run the ruler over all policies, Willis says
MP Nicola Willis jumped from number 45 to 14 on the party's list in leader Todd Muller's caucus reshuffle. ...
Radio NZ – political
1 hour ago

Live updates, May 26: Boris Johnson’s aide refuses to resign
For 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 ...
The SpinoffBy The Spinoff
2 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. ...
Newsroom
2 hours ago

Government Move In The Right Direction
New 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," ...
Scoop politics
2 hours ago

The Bulletin: Criticism over new ‘two-tier’ welfare payments
Good 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 ...
The SpinoffBy Alex Braae
3 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 ...
Newsroom
4 hours ago

Green Party ‘won’t give up’ pushing for benefits increase
The 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. ...
Radio NZ – political
4 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, ...
Newsroom
4 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 ...
Newsroom
4 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 ...
Newsroom
4 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 ...
Newsroom
4 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 ...
Newsroom
4 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 ...
Newsroom
4 hours ago

Bigger payouts for Covid beneficiaries could end up benefitting everyone
There’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 ...
The SpinoffBy Max Rashbrooke
4 hours ago

How Muller-mentum could change the political landscape
National 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 ...
The SpinoffBy Alex Braae
4 hours ago

The sale of Stuff sets the stage for a new independent media in New Zealand
The 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 ...
The SpinoffBy Duncan Greive
4 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. ...
Newsroom
4 hours ago

Former PM O’Neill blames current government for ‘politicised’ arrest
By 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 ...
Evening ReportBy Asia Pacific Report
7 hours ago

Australian economy must come ‘out of ICU’: Scott Morrison
Source: 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 ...
Evening ReportBy The Conversation
9 hours ago

Eden-Monaro byelection to be on July 4
Source: 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 ...
Evening ReportBy The Conversation
12 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. ...
Newsroom
13 hours ago

National’s Amy Adams on returning as Covid-19 recovery lead
Checkpoint - National MP Amy Adams has cancelled plans to retire from Parliament to instead take the number three spot in the party's shadow cabinet. ...
Radio NZ – political
14 hours ago

Stuff chief executive Sinead Boucher restores NZ ownership for $1
By 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 ...
Evening ReportBy Asia Pacific Report
14 hours ago

Was lockdown the right choice?
In the face of multiple sources of uncertainty, what were policymakers to do? ...
Newsroom
14 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 ...
Evening ReportBy The Conversation
15 hours ago

Labour Undermining The Election By Keeping Us At Level 2
...
Scoop politics
15 hours ago

China is taking a risk by getting tough on Hong Kong. Now, the US must decide how to respond
Source: 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 ...
Evening ReportBy The Conversation
16 hours ago

IrrigationNZ Congratulates David Bennett
IrrigationNZ 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. ...
Scoop politics
16 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 ...
Newsroom
16 hours ago

China bypasses the govt in Canberra to engage in an infrastructural flirtation with Victoria
Our 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 ...
Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
16 hours 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? ...
Evening ReportBy The Conversation
16 hours 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 ...
Newsroom
16 hours ago

Keith Rankin Chart Analysis – Financial Signatures: Japan
Analysis 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 ...
Evening ReportBy Keith Rankin
16 hours 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 ...
Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
17 hours ago

All Those Without Jobs Deserve Decent Income Support
Today’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 ...
Scoop politics
17 hours 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 ...
Newsroom
17 hours ago

PM Jacinda Ardern reveals move to gatherings of 100 under alert level 2
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has revealed the government plans to allow gatherings of up to 100 from midday on Friday, 29 May. ...
Radio NZ – political
17 hours ago

Live: PM Jacinda Ardern and Ashley Bloomfield reveal whether level 2 rules change
Watch live: Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield joins Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern for today's post Cabinet press conference. ...
Radio NZ – political
17 hours ago

Never let a good crisis go to waste: How our food sector can save NZ’s economy
The 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 ...
The SpinoffBy Rosie Bosworth
18 hours ago

Māori Party Co-leader Calls On Government To Lift Incomes Of All Beneficiaries
Māori 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 ...
Scoop politics
18 hours ago

NZ Covid Tracer won’t help open a travel bubble with Australia anytime soon
An 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 ...
The SpinoffBy Mahmoud Elkhodr
18 hours ago

Pay Cut Law Failure: Remuneration Authority Refuses To Use New Powers
The Remuneration Authority’s refusal to cut salaries for councillors and mayors paid under $100,000 makes a joke of the Government’s much-vaunted pay cut legislation, says the New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union . Taxpayers’ Union spokesman Jordan Williams ...
Scoop politics
19 hours ago

If you don’t benefit from DIY without having to jump consent hurdles, you might be in line for rep...
The way is being opened for householders to avoid council poohbahs and revenue grabbers. when they want to do a bit of do-it-yourself building work on their properties. It is being opened, too, for the promoters of projects promising to quickly employ plenty of people to get their snouts into ...
Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
19 hours ago

National leader Todd Muller reshuffles caucus: Adams rises, Tolley falls in new lineup
Senior National MP Amy Adams has backtracked on her retirement plans after a change of leadership last week and is ranked third in caucus following a minor reshuffle. ...
Radio NZ – political
19 hours ago

NZ Can Look To East Asia To Prepare For Next Pandemic
Wellington, 25 May 2020 - To prepare for the next virus pandemic, New Zealand has plenty to learn from the successes of three East Asian states, according to a summary report from The New Zealand Initiative. Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan all successfully ...
Scoop politics
19 hours ago

Fisheries New Zealand Looking For Feedback On New Catch Limits
Fisheries New Zealand starts consultation today on proposed changes to catch limits on a range of fisheries for the new fishing year beginning 1 October. The consultation is part of a regular cycle of catch limit reviews that take place twice each year ...
Scoop politics
19 hours ago

New leader eases tensions between National and NZ First
The animosity between National and NZ First shows signs of dissipating after new Opposition leader Todd Muller left the door open to working with Winston Peters and his MPs. ...
Radio NZ – political
19 hours ago

Amy Adams reverses retirement plans under Todd Muller
New National leader Todd Muller has revealed his new line-up for the 2020 election, with some detractors demoted, loyalists rewarded - and a somewhat surprising un-retirement Senior National MP Amy Adams has reversed her retirement plans following Simon Bridges’ ousting from the leadership, agreeing to serve as the party’s Covid-19 ...
Newsroom
19 hours ago

Be still, my beating wings: hunters kill migrating birds on their 10,000km journey to Australia
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Eduardo Gallo-Cajiao, PhD Candidate, The University of Queensland It is low tide at the end of the wet season in Broome, Western Australia. Shorebirds feeding voraciously on worms and clams suddenly get restless. Chattering loudly they take flight, circling up over Roebuck ...
Evening ReportBy The Conversation
20 hours ago

Would Muller Undo Labour’s Rental Property Errors?
Since any promises made by former National Party leader Simon Bridges are effectively void, the new leader, Todd Muller, should tell New Zealand’s 290,000 residential rental property owners whether he supports Labour's disastrous experiments or whether ...
Scoop politics
21 hours ago

New benefit leaves out migrants, existing beneficiaries
A new benefit for people who lost their job on or after March 1 due to Covid-19 leaves out existing beneficiaries and migrants, Marc Daalder reports The Government has effectively extended the Covid-19 wage subsidy to those who have lost their jobs due to the pandemic. A new Covid-19 Income ...
Newsroom
21 hours ago

Can’t resist splurging on online shopping? Here’s why
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian R. Camilleri, Senior Lecturer in Marketing, University of Technology Sydney The demand for online shopping has obviously increased since COVID-19 restrictions were put in place. But less obvious are the subtle psychological drivers behind our collective online shopping splurge. In fact, ...
Evening ReportBy The Conversation
21 hours ago

Why Hong Kong isn’t dead yet – ‘It’s not power, it’s political violence’
By Lokman Tsui in Hongkong This story is an edited version of a post published by the author on Facebook on Friday, May 22, reflecting on the possible consequences of the end of “One Country, two Systems” – a principle written into the Sino-British Joint Declaration in 1984 to safeguard ...
Evening ReportBy Asia Pacific Report
21 hours ago

Stuff bought by its CEO, MediaWorks announces mass layoffs in historic day for NZ media
Duncan Greive assesses an extraordinary morning for New Zealand’s media.In the space of a tumultuous half hour New Zealand’s media landscape has been utterly transformed, with Stuff CEO Sinead Boucher completing an audacious management buyout from its Australian owners Nine, while hundreds of staff are about to be laid off ...
The SpinoffBy Duncan Greive
21 hours ago

Former PPTA president Angela Roberts to run for Labour
Former PPTA president Angela Roberts has ended years of speculation announcing she's contesting the Taranaki-King Country seat for Labour at the September election. ...
Radio NZ – political
21 hours ago

Govt Income Relief Payment Creating Two-tiers Of Unemployed
Auckland Action Against Poverty welcomes the individualised Income Relief Payments for those being made redundant but warns that the Government is creating two-tiers of unemployed: those deserving of liveable incomes and those who do not. “ The ...
Scoop politics
22 hours ago

Shame, Embarrassment & Further Humiliation Key Factors To 94% Of Sexual Assaults Going Unreporte...
The latest New Zealand Crime and Victims survey of 8.000 Kiwis reveals that one in four people experience sexual assault in their lifetime but a staggering 94% of those assaults are not reported to the police. Shame, embarrassment, humiliation ...
Scoop politics
22 hours ago

COVID-19 Income Relief Payment Announcement Welcomed
The Council of Trade Unions is welcoming today's announcement from the Minister of Finance to provide individualised targeted financial support for working people who have been made redundant by their employers as a direct result of COVID-19. "The ...
Scoop politics
22 hours ago

New National Party leaders seized their ‘moment in history’ – Kaye
It was "a moment in history" brought about by National's poor polling that prompted last week's coup, new deputy leader Nikki Kaye says. ...
Radio NZ – political
22 hours ago

Relief payments for people who lost jobs due to Covid-19 announced
The payment will be $490 a week for 12 weeks for those who lost full-time work and $250 for part time workers. ...
Radio NZ – political
22 hours ago

Dairy farmers will be in the vanguard of NZ’s economic recovery – but it looks like they shouldn...
NZ’s dairy industry has a clear role to play as one of the country’s saviours in the battle to recover from the global impact of the Covid-19 pandemic — even if there is little evidence that ministers in the coalition government recognise its importance. The industry, as it has done ...
Point of OrderBy tutere44
23 hours ago

Newsletter: New Zealand Politics Daily – May 25 2020
Editor’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 National Party leadership change – commentary, analysis Richard Harman (Politik): Adams’ return signals what really lay behind Muller’s campaign John Armstrong (1News): Todd Muller is capable and qualified ...
Evening ReportBy Bryce Edwards
23 hours ago

“Pest” Wallabies Could Be Earning Money For NZ
Wallabies given a dishonourable mention in government’s recent budget as a pest needing money to combat them, could be earning valuable local and export dollars money by way of meat and hides says a hunters’ environmental advocacy the Sporting ...
Scoop politics
23 hours ago

Predator-Free Author Blasts DoC Bureaucrats
A conservationist and one of the instigators of Predator-Free New Zealand has blasted a national conservation organisation Forest and Bird and the Department of Conservation for creating a “tapestry of theft and deception” to sabotage the original concept ...
Scoop politics
23 hours ago

What the cycling boom means for Auckland independent T. White’s Bikes
As Covid-19 continues to force an immense shift toward online shopping, the kind of authentic, face-to-face experience offered at one Auckland bike shop is becoming all the more valuable.When you walk into T. White’s Bikes on central Auckland’s Symonds St, you’re left in no doubt that bike riding is a ...
The SpinoffBy Michael Andrew
1 day ago

Trans-Tasman bubble: Onus on Australia to sort internal travel first – PM
Restrictions on movement between Australia's states will need to be removed before a trans-Tasman bubble can be opened up, the prime minister says. ...
Radio NZ – political
1 day ago

Statement By 5G-free New Zealand Coalition
Regarding the recent damage to cellular phone towers, the 5G-FREE NEW ZEALAND group wishes to state clearly that we do not encourage or condone actions of violence or vandalism. 5G-FREE NEW ZEALAND aims to provide factual, evidence-based information ...
Scoop politics
1 day ago

Can’t resist splurging in online shopping? Here’s why
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian R. Camilleri, Senior Lecturer in Marketing, University of Technology Sydney The demand for online shopping has obviously increased since COVID-19 restrictions were put in place. But less obvious are the subtle psychological drivers behind our collective online shopping splurge. In fact, ...
Evening ReportBy The Conversation
1 day ago

Three years on from Uluru, we must lift the blindfolds of liberalism to make progress
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stan Grant, Vice Chancellors Chair Australian/Indigenous Belonging, Charles Sturt University The Uluru Statement from the Heart offered a new compact with all Australians that would reset our national identity and enhance our political legitimacy. But its poetic vision and pragmatism proved its ...
Evening ReportBy The Conversation
1 day ago

High-speed rail on Australia’s east coast would increase emissions for up to 36 years
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Greg Moran, Senior Associate, Grattan Institute Bullet trains are back on the political agenda. As the major parties look for ways to stimulate the economy after the COVID-19 crisis, Labor is again spruiking its vision of linking Melbourne, Sydney, Canberra and Brisbane ...
Evening ReportBy The Conversation
1 day ago

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