Everything about politics
George If ever a person has had her shortcomings superseded by major events, it is our PM. The performance of her government over the last two and a half years has been appalling with her leadership being exposed as weak and ineffective. But amazingly this same person when confronted with
Barbara McKenzie stovouno.org Below is a TV commercial designed to promote the New Zealand Police as a force for good that is protecting the public by ‘shooting-down’ the COVID-19 virus. The advertisement shows a scene based on the spaghetti western ‘The Good, The Bad and the Ugly’
Live meetings of the Epidemic Response Committee of the New Zealand Parliament. The Epidemic Response Committee was established on 25 March 2020 to consider and report to the House on matters relating to the Government’s management of the COVID-19 epidemic. Learn more about this committee and browse committee
In her 4pm statement to the nation on Wednesday the Prime Minister (our single source of truth) said this: Our testing has scaled up and we have now tested over 85,000 New Zealanders, one of the highest testing rates per capita in the world. Where are we on the
Ian Harrison Principal Tailrisk economics Factual Statements Note these are not necessarily taken verbatim from the Prime Minister’s speech, but capture the substance of what was said. Transmission rate New Zealand’s current transmission is 0.48 compared to the world rate of 2.5. Assessment: False An assessment
ACT Party “Ministers’ appearances at the Epidemic Response Committee yesterday morning made clear that the Government hasn’t done any robust analysis of the number of business failures that will result from an extra week in lockdown”, says ACT Leader David Seymour. “Business owners are telling us that they can
After Simon Bridges‘ poor performance during the COVID-19 crisis, the poor showing in internal polling, and his Facebook balls up the other day, the slowing moving coup inside National has spluttered back into life. The word is that Mark Mitchell has decided to get off the sofa and start
These days you live and die politically on social media. It’s not ideal, but it is how it works. Yesterday Simon Bridges suffered death by more than a thousand cuts on Facebook after his message attacking the government went down about as well as a pork chop at a
Governments might like to boast about “going hard and early” in defiance of the plain facts, but the truth is that they dithered for too long once the fact of the Wuhan virus became known – and then panicked and brought the boot-heel down. Which might play well to the
Ananish Chaudhuri is Professor of Experimental Economics at the University of Auckland, New Zealand. covidplanb.co.nz An article published on Newsroom last week takes potshots at “contrarian” academics who have chosen to question received wisdom regarding how countries around the world, including New Zealand, are responding to COVID-19.
Dr Grant Morris is Associate Professor in Law, Victoria University of Wellington. covidplanb.co.nz New Zealand has changed dramatically in response to COVID-19. Fundamental rights and liberties have been curtailed to assist in suppressing the virus. From a legal history perspective, this is similar to what New Zealand
Live meetings of the Epidemic Response Committee of the New Zealand Parliament. The Epidemic Response Committee was established on 25 March 2020 to consider and report to the House on matters relating to the Government’s management of the COVID-19 epidemic. Learn more about this committee and browse committee
Sir Bob Jones nopunchespulled.com A few days back I forecast a revisionist backlash against the government’s ill-thought lockdown would occur, once the realisation of the absence of any sensible reasoning became evident. Then lo and behold, the very next day a group of New Zealand academics covering
It is becoming increasingly apparent that we have in this country a Government that lacks the transparency our “Dear Leader” Jacinda Ardern likes to bang on about. For whatever reasons, and I can think of a few, we, her supposed faithful and loving subjects, are not being given the full
Alex Davis theemperorsrobes.blogspot.com In late March, just days after first denying she was going to force the country into lockdown a lugubrious looking Jacinda Ardern waved around the “flatten the curve” graphic and told us that if COVID-19 was unchecked “our health system will be inundated and
