Dr Oliver Hartwich nzinitiative.org.nz The Prime Minister has declared this year’s election, now postponed until October, a “COVID election.” That is an unfortunate framing. Though dealing with COVID is crucial for the country’s short- to mid-term future, there are plenty of other attention-deserving issues
I think I’ve got my finger on why the government fails at everything they touch with the exception of PR where, to the country’s detriment, they excel. The government is understaffed. We know it because Chris Hipkins is swamped with four ministerial portfolios, three select committees and the
Chris Hipkins has admitted that he hasn’t yet bothered to read the Ministry of Health’s testing strategy. Wait! What? There are two strategies for testing? How can there be a Government testing strategy that is different from the Ministry of Health’s testing strategy? So, let’s get
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The scale of the disaster unleashed by the Andrews government’s botched hotel quarantine scheme just keeps unrolling, from one mind-boggling idiocy to another. After refusing Commonwealth assistance (especially Australian Defence Force personnel), the Victorian government handed the scheme to private contractors – something no other state did. Then, it
The Ardern Cult of Personality is steaming the undies of the media elite, from Melbourne to London. But, then again, so did Hugo Chavez. Jacinda Ardern came along at just the right time, really: cashed-up lefties who once cheered on the Venezuelan socialist desperately needed a new idol. After
A memorable line from Ron Howard’s Apollo 13 comes when lead flight director Gene Kranz learns that the CO2 scrubbers for the Command and Lunar modules use different-shaped cartridges. “Tell me this isn’t a government operation,” he mutters in exasperation. The Australian and New Zealand responses to
It may be a disaster for most of us, but COVID-19 – or, more correctly, government responses to it – has been a big winner for a chosen few. I’m not talking about the bennies being gifted a windfall of double payments for keeping on doing what they were (sitting
Press Release: Plan B The serology tests on Wednesday being demanded by experts as necessary to track the mystery resurgence of COVID-19 have been banned by the Ministry of Health. Simon Thornley, epidemiologist with the Covid Plan B group, has criticised health commentators as hypocritical in calling for serology
Govt’s coronavirus response, border policy, political fallout Peter Dunne: Labour will be watching and checking everything and keeping its fingers crossed like never before Tim Watkin (RNZ): Test fail: Is Labour bordering on trouble? Keith Rankin (Evening Report): Epidemic Costs and Responses: Coronavirus and Tuberculosis Brent Edwards (NBR): The
Brooke van Velden ACT Deputy Leader Did you watch David Seymour’s speech in Parliament on Tuesday? It’s been viewed more than 35,000 times and had Mike Hosking and Peter Williams raving. Here it is in case you missed it. David forensically examined the many failures of the
Sadly Green co-leader Marama Davidson did not read my recent informative post on the different types of mask wearers and what the way they wear their mask tells us about them. I have now updated the slideshow inside the article to include a photo of Marama. (You’re welcome)
There are few things that bring down governments faster than incompetence, arrogance and hubris. When all three are in evidence the downfall is assured. We’ve now had a second week of spectacularly bad headlines for the government. Never before has this Government had such a long streak of bad
“When a tsunami appears, skip the paperwork and ‘get out of the way” Chris Hipkins Health Minister Chris Hipkins has not apologised to New Zealanders for the Government breaking the law for 9 days by locking them down and forcing businesses to close illegally. Instead, today’s face of the
