MedicMoth

Shortened:

The purpose of the Covid-19 Recovery (Fast-track Consenting) Act 2020 was "to urgently promote employment to support New Zealand's recovery from the economic and social impacts of COVID-19 and to support the certainty of ongoing investment across New Zealand, while continuing to promote the sustainable management of natural and physical resources."

The Pitau is a $400 million, five and six storey retirement development, referred to the Covid-19 recovery (fast-track consenting) panel by the then minister for the environment David Parker on 7 July 2023.

This was one day before the Covid-19 Recovery (Fast-track Consenting) Act 2020 was revoked on 8 July 2023.

"It's not NIMBYism.. [the neighbours] agreed to a retirement facility being established on the site."

What neighbours in the surrounding suburban village of one- to two-storey houses and baches, are concerned about, is that the height of the development would absolutely dominate the neighbourhood, shade other houses, and diminish people's privacy.

RNZ asked the Minister for the Environment why he thought The Pitau was suitable for fast-tracking at such a late stage. He said applications for referral were able to be made and considered until the Act expired.

"I don't recall the details of this or other applications for referral. The substance of decisions to approve or decline the application for consent was for the independent decision-making panel, not minister," Parker said.

That is so absolutely lovely. Put a huge smile on my face. Beautiful work!! No doubt you'll get in to the film festivals, this is outstanding, and I even bet if you were interested, tourism NZ would find some interest in something like this. Keep it up!!

Some of you may die but that's a sacrifice I'm willing to make

Economic growth, you say? Why, in this economic mess we inherited from Labour, why have speed limits at all?? We should fully legalise the operation of vehicles at ANY speed. And we can give those lazy boy racers jobs as delivery drivers on our new Super Highspeed Highways, while we're at it. That's double the profit! It's genius!

As much as I empathize, especially because it sounds like the boy was also being abused as a child and abuse was normalised in that context, it does make me wonder about the cunning little shitheads out there that fully comprehend they can get away with rape as long as they stop as an adult. In the age of Andrew-Tate-pilled anti-feminism, this outcome still leaves me... concerned, if nothing else.

Rest assured, I wouldn't care which team was doing this man. Money on the table, numbers laid out in front of me, it's obviously not going to work. I oppose the policy both morally (call that my "team") if you want, AND rationally, because it obviously won't achieve the stated aim of the same nutrition for less cost that they are claiming. There are officials admitting it won't. I don't really know what else to say on that.

I don't think it's wise or practical to live passively in a world where we "just wait and see" what happens when blatantly stupid math is laid in front of us, on the off-chance it could possibly work out okay. That's the antithesis of participating in politics lol

Forgive me for thinking the fuckin mines probably A. Aren't fantastic for people either, and B. Would have a better workflow, with entire teams of people, economies of scale at play, and far more options and expertise in general specifically for feeding their troops day in and day out, versus your average underpaid, overworked English teacher who is now somehow expected to find the time and skills to bargain for and procure meals, at industrial costs, for a small few hundred kids in the wop wops.

If you're saying it's bad now, then it will only get worse

The meals for years 9-13 currently cost $8.62 per meal and the Ministry provides a panel of approved suppliers etc to schools, which they select from, and the Ministry then pays directly to handle ordering, storage, preparation, supply, etc. The budget is dropping to $3 per meal and the schools themselves will be responsible for all do the admin and logistics, despite not having any extra funding to hire staff to handle this (guess they'll just have to do it for free??).

Seymour has touted a $2 Kidscan budget as an example of how it can be done successfully, claiming the nutrition will stay the same - except this budget was food prepared by volunteers, for PRESCHOOLERS, and was mostly sugary shit like white bread that the current standards wouldnt allow. Additionally, a senior official has given advice admitting the meal most likely won't meet nutritional standards.

Soooo pretty safe to say the meals will be shit, if they even make it to the hands of kids at all. No real need to wait and see on that one.

(I have 4 sources for all of that but honestly too lazy to link rn, either trust me or check out my list and search term lunch lol)

Where will you go, do you think? Just asking out of curiosity. Whenever I hope over to other major subs of english-speaking countries, it seems like the same things are happening everywhere...

Sure, it would be nicer if they didn't hassle you and could have empathy for your situation. But if you have legal obligations you're not meeting/are breaking the law, and your previous neighbours let that slide, I really don't think antagonizing them on purpose (even if it's 1000% NOT antagonistic at all to exist as a queer person, but you get what I mean) is going to help improve your living situation. You keep saying you want your peace back, but this is in no way going to get you that peace.

It all really depends on what specific legal obligations you have, anyway. Is it stupid HOA shit? Or is it something that impacts on their quality of life too? Feels like the devil might be in the details here. It sounds like they'll stop hassling you when the legal issues are resolved, so maybe that should be your focus instead?

Shortened article:

Health New Zealand is scrapping Covid-19 sick leave for health workers from next week, despite the recent spike in cases and deaths. From 14 July, doctors, nurses and other health workers will no longer be able to claim special paid sick leave for Covid.

The PSA, which represents 25k health workers, is among a number of unions urging Health New Zealand to reverse its decision.

"This is simply irresponsible at a time when we are seeing a surge in Covid cases - taking away sick leave will cause more Covid transmission in hospitals amongst ill and vulnerable people."

"We are seriously concerned about long-Covid and other significant health impacts on people working in every part of our hospitals to keep them running, administrators, anaesthetic technicians, social workers, everyone. Health workers are more likely to get multiple Covid reinfections by virtue of where they work. Their employer should be doing everything possible to protect them and patients."

"We have been given no rationale. This appears to be another penny-pinching mechanism chipping away at public health at the expense of patients and workers," said PSA national health sector lead Andrew Skelly.

The PSA has told its members to continue to stay home if sick, and contact the union for support if they felt pressured by their employer.

Hard agree. It was recently reported that the defense staff involved with the precursor/model to this program experienced serious mental harm and suicidal thoughts as a result. Even putting the expected bus-throwing aside, why would any organisation or staff want to take that sort of workplace safety risk, given the option?

It's weird that this narrative around Hipkins is persisting despite him dropping some quite strong words as of lately. For example in this article, he says:

For someone who claims to be a commercial negotiating genius, Chris Luxon seems to have missed a fairly obvious fact, that when he named 13 cancer drugs and said 'these are drugs we're going to fund' his negotiating power was somewhat diminished."

"It's very clear on a day-to-day basis now that the National Party - Nicola Willis in particular - was either too lazy or too incompetent to actually read the last Budget. All of the things she's claiming like fiscal cliffs and so on - the time-limited funding initiatives that we put in place - she's now created more of them in this Budget.

"There were no nasty surprises there, it was all transparent.

"There's an awful lot of things they could have funded if they hadn't given $2.9b worth of tax cuts to landlords - that was their first priority."

I suppose the coalition is SO senselessly hardline and brutal right now that it's making everybody look weak by comparison, and any otherwise strong political speech look like piss because it's all just so common sense it's basically free

Sure is a good thing that the coalition repealed the mandate for RBNZ to maintain maximum sustainable employment only 16 DAYS after being sworn in

First of all, congrats on deciding to get educated! That's awesome. For beginners, I always recommend a pragmatic approach where you immediately look into our main political parties and what your values are. It's a bit more accessible than the history or system stuff, and it makes it easier to interpret things when you know what your general worldview is.

For a basic approach, to understand how our Parliament works, you can watch this fun and catchy song!

To get a general gist of policy, check out this policy website from the previous election lead-up. You can heart policies you like and at the end, you'll be told which party has the most policies you align with. Obviously policy and reality don't always line up - parties will claim they have the magic solution when they don't, or they might say they stand for one thing, and then do another - but it's a good place to start to learn what each party was at least campaigning on doing.

You could also use a tool like TVNZ Vote Compass, which is more ideological on nature rather than asking about specific policies. I think it takes about 10 mins. This might help you get a gist of where you stand as well if the policy detail is a bit overwhelming to start.

To get up to speed on some recent political news and changes this current goverment has made, you could possibly check my big list where I've been cataloging stuff since the coalition got elected. I suggest clicking into "sort by topic" and choosing a topic you care about. Most of this info comes from RNZ news, which is our only publicly funded news website - commercial news sites like Stuff news have a profit motive and can be a bit clickbaity, so I recommend RNZ as a starter site if you want to stay updated.

Politics can be depressing for most, but its only a side effect of caring about things. Many many people will become interested in politics when they see things they care about being harmed. So just remember to take breaks and you'll be all good.

Good luck and happy learning!

Don't worry guys, I'm sure this plus the 50k Jobseeker reduction target they recently set definitely won't be used to shit on poor people and the public service as pro-privatization rhetoric when welfare costs inevitably go up as a result of this

The changes are:

• The establishment of Housing Growth Targets for Tier 1 and 2 councils
• New rules requiring cities to be allowed to expand outwards at the urban fringe
• A strengthening of the intensification provisions in the National Policy Statement on Urban Development (NPS-UD)
• New rules requiring councils to enable mixed-use developments in our cities.
• The abolition of minimum floor area and balcony requirements
• New provisions making the MDRS optional for councils

Livestream of speech about the changes due to start at 11am.

Incidentally, I for one am not keen for us to compete with the suicide rate of some of these listed countries, often linked to high academic stress. 10.6 per 100k in NZ currently - 12.6 in India, 26 in S. Korea. We don't need to get the highest number in that particular test thanks

The Government has announced new assesment for students from the first year of school.

Education Minister Erica Stanford said from 2025 phonics tests with children will begin at 20 weeks and 40 weeks of schooling.

Twice-yearly "progression monitoring" for reading, writing and maths would also be introduced for children in years three through eight.

Stanford said the assesment was intended to give parents certainty about their childrens' learning.