On February 7th, Stuff decided to run an article comparing the current COVID outbreak with the Spanish Flu of 1919. Here is the most interesting part: As the coronavirus pandemic creeps into its third year, and the death toll in the United States reaches 900,000, the 1918 influenza pandemic
I feel absolutely sickened at what I am seeing at the Freedom Convoy protest in Wellington. This is not New Zealand; a young naked woman being dragged out of the crowd by her hair, thrown to the ground; four cops dealing to a slight young woman while they avoid a
I stopped giving to charity years ago but the final straw was, after donating $100 to the Red Cross for the Australian bushfires in 2020, learning that the charity decided to take its usual 10% for “administration fees”. In this case, those amounted to $10 million, in a country with
At long last, the truth is coming out. Where to from here, one wonders? As you can imagine, the hardy folk at ACC are tasked with investigating all claims thoroughly to avoid any benefit fraud. Vaccine injury falls under their jurisdiction, so ACC staff have, uniquely in NZ, been immersing
I have seen a number of articles recently that have suggested that we are expecting huge numbers of positive cases of Omicron in the next few weeks. Here is the headline from the first article from Newshub, published on January 27th: There’s that ‘modelling’ again. As an accountant, I
Let us not pretend that Charlotte Bellis is not totally responsible for the promised opening up of the borders that had been slammed shut indefinitely in December. For reasons I have constantly failed to understand, our ‘open and transparent government’ has ridden roughshod over New Zealand’s citizens for the
New Zealanders used to be a fantastic bunch of people. We looked after one another, we were mostly fair-minded and we were quite laid back about a lot of issues. We were famous, not just for No 8 wire, but also for our “She’ll Be Right” attitude to life.
Information Opinion Many of you on this site express frustration at an opposition that ‘does nothing’. They vote along with the government on anything to do with COVID, forcing us all to believe that, if they were in government, they would be doing exactly the same things. I don’t
There are few things that warm the cockles of my heart in this dystopian world, but the convoy of Canadian truckers in the snow has made me both smile and want to cry at the same time. Freedom Convoy 2022 was organised as a way for trucking companies, truck drivers
Yes, I know. Here comes the accountant in all her boring glory. But, try to bear with me on this, because it is important. It demonstrates yet another way in which the government is fudging the numbers, trying to make things look better than they really are. However, if you
The government is crowing about the drop in the number of people on the Jobseeker benefit, and, to be fair, it is the biggest drop since records began in 1996. With staff shortages everywhere though, I would be surprised if this were not the case; I cannot think of a
Yesterday, I was invited to a gathering of like-minded people, to have drinks and a general chat about the state of the country. Unfortunately, I was not able to make it, but I did canvass them with one question. Why did Jacinda cancel her wedding? None of these people are
When it comes to Omicron, New Zealand has an enormous advantage. We heard with trepidation about its arrival in South Africa late last year. Then the UK started reporting thousands of cases. Then Australia did the same. The numbers were eye-watering. Over 50,000 cases in Australia in a single
Remember the beginning of the pandemic when every man and his dog started buying up toilet paper? We laughed hysterically as Australians literally fought over toilet paper in the supermarket aisles. Every time there was an outbreak of the disease, everyone rushed to clear the shelves of toilet paper, flour
On his Bowalley Road blogsite, Chris Trotter raises the possibility that Jacinda will resign before Christmas. The reason he believes this is possible is obvious – COVID, particularly the Delta kind. Chris Trotter’s article is as well written and researched as we have come to expect of him, but I
When Scott Morrison addressed the media after Novak Djokovic’s deportation from Australia, here is what he said: “I welcome the decision to keep our borders strong and keep Australians safe,” Mr Morrison’s statement read. Was Djokovic really a danger to the ‘safety’ of Australians? Really? Here is the
