The Herald reports:

Staff at a public agency who refuse to get vaccinated could be put on paid special leave for up to a month.

Government vaccine requirements started applying to some public sector employees today, including certain roles at children’s ministry Oranga Tamariki.

Any health practitioner working for OT is supposed to have had their first jab by today, and their second by New Year’s Day.

But those who refuse will either be redeployed, or put on special leave.

The vaccine rule also applied to all staff whose work required them to be present at an OT secure residence.

It’s not immediately clear how many other agencies were offering paid special leave as an option for people who refused vaccines or redeployment.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said she did not believe it would be very widespread.

This suggests she doesn’t know.

I’m not sure you need a vaccine mandate for OT staff. But if you have one, you don’t reward those who refuse by giving them a month’s paid holiday at taxpayer’s expense.

ABC reports:

Republican congressional candidates currently hold their largest lead in midterm election vote preferences in ABC News/Washington Post polls dating back 40 years, underscoring profound challenges for Democrats hoping to retain their slim majorities in Congress next year. …

As things stand, if the midterm elections were today, 51% of registered voters say they’d support the Republican candidate in their congressional district, 41% say the Democrat. That’s the biggest lead for Republicans in the 110 ABC/Post polls that have asked this question since November 1981. Indeed, it’s only the second time the GOP has held a statistically significant advantage (the other was +7 points in January 2002) and the ninth time it’s held any numerical edge at all.

The generic polls tend to always lean towards the Democrats. So to have the Republicans 10 points up is very very significant. As the report states, this is the biggest gap over 110 polls.

TVNZ have released the latest One News Colmar Brunton poll. Key details are:

Party Vote

• Labour 41% (-2% from last poll)
• National 28% (+2%)
• Greens 9% (+1%)
• ACT 14% (nc)
• Maori 1% (-1%)
• NZ First 3% (nc)

Seats

• Labour 53 (-12 from election)
• National 36 (+3)
• Greens 12 (+2)
• ACT 18 (+8)
• Maori 1 (-1)

Preferred PM

• Jacinda Ardern 39% (-5%)
• Judith Collins 5% (nc)
• David Seymour 11% (nc)
• Christopher Luxon 4% (+1%)
• Chloe Swarbrick 2% (+1%)
• Simon Bridges 2% (nc)
• Winston Peters 1% (nc)

Approval Ratings

• Judith Collins 25% approve, 57% disapprove = -31% (-12%) net approval

On this poll the CL parties have 65 seats and the CR parties 54 seats. If the CR parties can gain 5% or so over the next two years, they would be in a position to govern.

Stuff reports:

Mutually agreed rules between the Mongrel Mob and Black Power around gang conflicts in Hawke’s Bay have been abandoned, police say.

A summary of facts presented to court following the guilty pleas of two Mongrel Mob members in Napier District Court on Thursday revealed the gangs’ shift from previously held “rules”.

“The use of firearms has become prevalent and the previous mutually agreed rules around conflict between gangs (no open conflict amongst other members of the community and the targetting of family homes) are no longer being adhered to,” the summary stated. …

The summary said the incident was the 13th gang-related shooting to have occurred in Hawke’s Bay since July 1, 2020.

13 gang related shootings in Hawke’s Bay in 15 months and the Government is giving almost $3 million to the local Mongrel Mob for so called drug rehabilitation. Its offensive.

A survey of 597 people in Napier, undertaken before the shooting in February, revealed that 44 per cent of locals felt the city was not a safe place to live, with gangs being their biggest concern.

Yet the Government gave the gangs money.

The Herald reports:

Two pensioners claim they’ve fielded death threats from their state housing neighbours, including a Black Power gang member who allegedly threatened to slit an 82-year-old’s throat and watch him “bleed out”.

And though they feel terrorised in their long-time home, the couple say Kāinga Ora is powerless to evict the offending tenants despite a prolonged campaign of intimidation and fear.

Police have been called to the Whangārei property about 20 times since the family moved into it earlier this year. The pensioners – aged 69 and 82, who live in the neighbouring Kāinga Ora house – say they are at breaking point and suffering constant anxiety.

This is cruel despicable treatment of the pensioners. Every New Zealander, but especially vulnerable elderly, should be able to feel safe in their home.

The gang member responsible should be in prison, not in a state house.

In response to multiple complaints about the tenants’ antisocial behaviour, Kāinga Ora has halved the couple’s rent, paid for them to attend weekly counselling sessions and arranged for a security firm to visit the property five times a day due to safety concerns – costing taxpayers more than $5000.

So the pensioners are terrified, the taxpayer is footing extra bills and who is suffering no consequence? You got it – the gang members.

Kāinga Ora had offered to find the couple alternative accommodation but they did not feel they should be forced to move as a result of their neighbours’ behaviour.

The woman said a Kāinga Ora tenancy manager admitted the agency was powerless to evict antisocial tenants due to a “directive” that protected state housing clients.

She was disgusted that people enjoying a taxpayer-funded property could terrorise residents without consequence or fear of eviction.

“We are now having to leave because my husband’s life has been threatened and she has threatened to kill me. It’s appalling.

“It’s a privilege to have one of these homes and they’ve just abused the system.

The directive of course comes from the Labour Government. Everyone should be disgusted that the Government allows this sort of behaviour from state house tenants. Any other landlord would have evicted the wrong doers months ago,

Kāinga Ora denies there is any such directive but admits evictions are a last resort reserved for “extreme” cases.

So this case is not extreme enough? Are they waiting for an actual killing?

While the agency had the legal right to evict tenants, this could result in worse long-term outcomes for clients and their families.

The blunt translation of this is that Kainga Ora doesn’t give a f**k about the community. It allows its tenants to terrorise neighbours with no consequences. Their behaviour is shameful.

Lord Ashcroft did a huge poll in August of 5,000 New Zealanders. I’m going to summarise various findings in a series of posts on both Kiwiblog and my Patreon. I thought I would start with the section on what we think of various would leaders. Respondents could rate them from +50 to -50 so a score of 0 is neutral. The average scores in order are:

1. Barack Obama 23.9
2. Michelle Obama 21.6
3. The Queen 20.1
4. Emma Watson 12.9
5. JK Rowling 12.8
6. Angela Merkel 9.1
7. Taylor Swift 7.3
8. Joe Biden 7.3
9. Richard Branson 7.3
10. Oprah Winfrey 7.3
11. Justin Trudeau 6.9
12. Kamala Harris 6.8
13. Beyonce 6.4
14. Malala Yousafzai 4.6
15. Elon Musk 3.6
16. Bernie Sanders 1.6
17. Prince Charles 1.1
18. Emmanuel Macron 0.9
19. Greta Thunberg -1.7
20. Mark Zuckerberg -1.8
21. Sheryl Sandberg -2.0
22. Jeff Bezos -4.6
23. Scott Morrison -5.3
24. Boris Johnson -5.3
25. Meghan Markle -5.9
26. Xi Jingping -16.4
27. Vladimir Putin -20.4
28. Donald Trump -29.4

Interesting that the score for some are so out of alignment with how they are viewed in their own countries. Trudeau, Biden and Macron are all quite unpopular at home. I think this reflects the nature of how the NZ media report on those countries.

National and Labour voters did not always differ on how they saw the leaders. Obama was rated positively by both. Sanders was negative by National voters though. Trump had very low scores with both. Boris was mildly positive with National voters.

Also of interest is how massively popular JK Rowling is. If you lived on Twitter you would think she is despised, but 74% of NZers have a favourable opinion of her and only 20% unfavourable.

Nicola does an excellent job explaining everything that has gone on with Kainga Ora. Well worth taking the time to view.

The Herald reports:

Rotorua’s seven deputy chief executives have gone more than seven months without job descriptions – a situation an employment lawyer says is ‘unusual’.

Rotorua Lakes Council has also created 10 new director or manager roles at tier three – the level below deputy chief executive.

A local government change management expert says he cannot see the justification for the organisational realignment or why it has taken so long to develop job descriptions.

The deputy chief executives were appointed on March 29 as part of an “organisational realignment”, which the council says is ongoing.

This is beyond a farce. You should have job descriptions before you establish the roles, not afterwards. And certainly not seven months afterwards.

Its wasteful for a tiny Council to have seven Deputy CEs in the first place, and as it has taken more than seven months to do job descriptions for them, the conclusion is the Council is dysfunctional.

Matthew Hooton writes:

Recent protests have been dominated by a hotchpotch of weirdos whose comparisons of Ardern with the worst mass murderers are as offensive as they as stupid. Ardern is not a Hitler, Stalin or Mao. But she is increasingly governing like a second-term Robert Muldoon or Helen Clark, which is surely bad enough — especially given what followed in their third terms, with moves like the Clutha Development (Clyde Dam) Empowering Act and the Electoral Finance Act.

Actually I would say she is more like a third term Clark or Muldoon, than a second term one.

A stench of bewilderment, detachment from reality, confusion and lack of candour has joined the old odour of incompetence that has surrounded Ardern’s Government since it first became obvious in early 2018 that it had no idea how to go about delivering its signature promise to build 100,000 KiwiBuild homes.

With a handful of exceptions like David Parker, the criticism that this is a government of student politicians rings true. It is not just that they don’t know how business produces goods and services to generate revenue to pay wages and returns on investment, but that most have never even thought about how the paper and toner gets in the photocopier in the university library, or how the campus gets cleaned at night.

It must be nice to have never worked in a business that had to perform well or face closure. A career path from student union to political advisor to MP is much easier.

For her part, Ardern never told anyone her Government was moving from quarantining sick people in hospital or the Jet Park to self-isolation at home — until media noticed the numbers from the Ministry of Health didn’t add up.

As of yesterday, 1230 people with Covid were self-isolating at home, despite Health Minister Andrew Little saying the system was designed to cope with no more than 120. Most of those allowed to self-isolate are unvaccinated.

Despite this, Ardern persists with her Government’s cruel and unjustified lottery system denying tens of thousands of New Zealanders their rights as citizens to return home, even if they have already had Covid, are double-vaccinated and consistently test negative for the disease.

The madness continues.

Radio NZ reports:

Auditor-General John Ryan has criticised the Health Ministry for failing to deal with potential conflicts of interest in its handling of the $50 million Covid-19 saliva testing contract, which was pushed through without an adequate procurement process.

Ryan said enquiries by his office revealed there was no procurement plan or independent audit before the contract was awarded to the Asia Pacific Healthcare Group in May.

Four of the five panel members indicated potential conflicts of interest, including past and current employment relationships with organisations tendering for the contract.

As if this wasn’t bad enough, the Government is about to pass a law allowing it to confiscate the assets of private testing labs.

Mt Hobson Academy to offer Nationwide Private School Online Option

Background

Through posting here and other media work we receive a lot of direct feedback and support from the good people on Kiwiblog. A number have asked recently about options for teachers and learners given current and future disruptions.

Model Background

The last two years have been incredibly disruptive in both days in school and the quality of teaching and learning in New Zealand. Children/young people deserve high quality academic options and we offer them. Over the last 19 years children who have been through our teaching and learning programme for at least one year have achieved Level 1 NCEA at 96% and thrived from there into a full-range of further study and employment/career options.

Cognition Education has this to say about our model:

“In summary we find and conclude that in both schools, the management and staff are actively involved in continuous development, and the delivery, of a unique programme of teaching and learning which is based on a comprehensive ‘local’ curriculum that is aligned with the New Zealand Curriculum, and which provides for the personalised needs of priority learners ‘many of whom have been failed by the current education system’.”

The next two years remains uncertain for education in NZ. November 15 2021 sees a vaccine mandate come in that will result in some very good teachers no longer able to work in person to person schools. When child vaccines become available some families will choose for their child to have them, others not. Some may prefer their children not to be in classes with children who are not vaccinated. Will the government mandate?

We will be able to provide high quality education and predictability through all of those circumstances.

Who: Mt Hobson Academy Online (Villa Education Trust)

Leadership: Karen Poole (CEO), Dr Bruce Knox (Qualifications Guidance), Alwyn Poole (Villa Education Trust), and two others to be announced.

Where: NZ wide online with regional academic/adventure camps 1 per term and local grouping.

Years: Years 5 – 10: Run the Innovative Education Project Based and Core Curriculum.

                Years 11 – 13: Full NCEA provision.

Contacts:

1. To express interest as a teacher/educator who may look to work with us – vaccinated or not: [email protected]
2. To express interest as a family to be a part of this high quality, Private School, option:

       [email protected]

We have more information available upon request. We will ensure the cost is as reasonable as is feasible.

Please note: The Mt Hobson Academy has full in-person learning in Auckland for up to 40 Year 11-13 students (www.mthobson.school.nz)

Five Australian states or territories have actually had fewer Covid-19 cases than NZ, and four of them fewer fatalities per million. It is great we have not had the numbers of NSW and Victoria but would be even better to be a Queensland or Western Australia.

Bruce Cotterill writes:

As I’ve reflected on those things, there is one that stands out. It’s something we’ve always had in this country. Something our forefathers fought for. It’s something we’ve now lost.

In Auckland we are struggling without it.

It’s called freedom. I’m missing our freedom.

Sure, I can do my work from home. It’s not ideal. Not as productive as I’d prefer. Some things take longer. Recruitment is riskier when you can’t meet the candidates.

Negotiations take longer when you can’t sit around a table and work through the issues. Building cultures and business planning is almost impossible on a Zoom call. But we’re getting by.

But freedom. That’s a different story. Freedom to do what we want. A morning coffee with a colleague. A beer with some mates. A swim at the local pool. A barbecue with friends. A visit to my mum. Perhaps a weekend away. Or even the ability to jump on a plane and have a holiday.

A break from the madness, if you like.

Sadly, I have come to the conclusion that this is a government that has become increasingly comfortable taking our freedoms away. You see, the more you do something, the more comfortable you become doing it. After a while, it becomes automatic. Even if what you are doing is wrong, it becomes acceptable in your own mind.

I think this is right. The extraordinary threat of the pandemic did require an extraordinary response, but the Government has now come to see these measures as normal day to day tools to be used. How else could they come up with an idea to allocate Aucklanders a designated time they can take their vacation?

By Wednesday it was worse. Laughable, even. When discussing the prospect of Christmas holidays, Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins suggested one of the options being considered was vaccinated holidaymakers could be allocated a time slot advising them when they can travel out of Auckland for their Christmas holiday.

Excuse me? This is not even laughable. It is disgraceful. North Korea, here we come.

I think these complacent politicians living in their Wellington bubbles need to hear a few facts. So I’m hoping they’re reading this.

You see, while those making the decisions that affect our lives are collecting their pay cheques every month, there are many New Zealanders who are not. Their businesses are on hold indefinitely. Their busiest time of the year is about to pass them by. And even if they can go back to work one day, their debt and stress levels are unthinkable. It’s no wonder these people are at breaking point.

Small business owners can spend years or decades building up their business to a position where it has sufficient cash reserves, and then they have to see 20 years of hard work wiped out in a few months.

And I have no doubt that one of the greatest tragedies in all of this mess lies in the group of New Zealanders who want to come home, but can’t. We’re not hearing enough of their stories.

Apparently, we have to make room in our MIQ system for criminals who are deported from other countries, and the entourages accompanying our government ministers on their overseas jaunts.

But the average, law-abiding Kiwi who just wants to come home? We put them into a poorly organised raffle every week. There are 30,000 such people. Kiwis. Our people.

I really can’t comprehend why the Government doesn’t allow fully vaccinated NZers who have tested negative to return home immediately and self-isolate. Even if say 2 returnees a day had Covid, that pales compared to the 150+ cases a day Auckland has.

Curbing freedoms is becoming more and more a feature of this government. It started with the daily updates. “Tune in at 1 o’clock and hear from the single source of the truth,” they said. Lockdowns. Confiscating water assets. Centralising healthcare. Centralising education.

It’s not hard to see that the arrogance that comes with such behaviour leads to a stifled democracy. While the locked-down people are tired and frustrated, our politicians place unelected representatives onto councils and boards, take control of newly centralised education and healthcare and rewrite school history curriculums. All such roads leading to further curbs on the freedoms of the people. …

A city of people who are tired and oppressed. A city of people whose freedoms have been eroded and livelihoods destroyed. People who are beyond frustrated and in many cases are now angry.

People who want their family members to come home and their kids to go to school.

People who have played their part, stayed home, and become vaccinated. People who are now being told, by an increasingly authoritarian government, whether and when they can have a Christmas holiday.

Many years ago I observed that an incompetent manager will often limit the opportunity for their team or their organisation by slowing things down to a pace that he or she can cope with. In other words, to control the pace to a level that suits their agenda. We are all learning now that an incompetent government can do the same.

When one party asserts control, another loses freedom.

An astute analysis.

Stuff reports:

The Government has appointed a working group for its Three Waters reforms to settle issues over how four new water entities will be run.

The group, announced by Local Government Minister Nanaia Mahuta, will consist of nine mayors – including Auckland’s Phil Goff, Christchurch’s Lianne Dalziel, Lower Hutt’s Campbell Barry, and Nelson’s Rachel Reese – and nine Māori representatives.

90% of Councils are against, so they stack the working group with Labour Party Mayors – Goff, Dalziel and Barry. Why have they done this?

As Labour Party members they are bound to vote in accordance with Labour Party policy as stated in Rule 95(e) of Labour’s constitution. Their job is not to represent their Councils to the Government, but to give cover to the Government when it proceeds with stealing their three waters assets.

If they vote against Labour, they risk not just deselection, but expulsion. So anyone who thinks this working group is going to come up with any substantial changes is dreaming.

Stuff reports:

Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from industries and households rose by 4.8 per cent in the June 2021 quarter, according to Stats NZ data.

This follows an earlier 1.4 per cent increase in the March quarter and was mainly due to a large increase in the use of coal to produce energy.

The largest contributors to the increase were electricity, gas, water, and waste services up 16 per cent; transport, postal, and warehousing up 19 per cent; and agriculture, forestry, and fishing up 0.9 per cent (seasonally adjusted).

Environmental economic accounts manager Stephen Oakley said the electricity, gas, water, and waste services sectors reached a record quarterly level of 2927 kilotonnes of GHG emissions (seasonally adjusted), up 412 kilotonnes on the March quarter.

“This is mainly due to a large increase in coal use for electricity generation,” he said. 

The Government announced two goals – net zero emissions and 100% renewable generation for electricity, and they are going backwards on both of them.

In June 2017 the greenhouse gas emissions for electricity, gas, water and waste was 2,029 kT. In June 2021 it was 2,927 kT – an increase of 44%.

That ban on further natural gas exploration is really going well, with coal imports at record levels.

The vast vast majority of those who get second or third strikes are hardened recidivist criminals. Labour is going to change the law so that they will get shorter sentences on their third and subsequent strikes and be eligible for parole despite a lifetime of offending and ignoring parole conditions.

The three strikes law actually saw reoffending rates drop. It did act as a deterrent for some, and for those it didn’t – it kept us safer from them by stopping the merry-go-round of short sentences and early releases.

Labour will regret repealing this law as more New Zealanders end up victims of serious recidivist criminals.

Pew Research has a political typology quiz. It is one of the better ones, as it got me pretty right. They classify you into one of nine groups:

1. Faith and Flag Conservatives
2. Committed Conservatives
3. Populist Right
4. Ambivalent Right
5. Stressed Sideliners
6. Outsider Left
7. Democratic Mainstays
8. Establishment Liberals
9. Progressive Left

I was classified Ambivent Right, which is described as:

Young and politically cross-pressured: Conservative on economics and issues of race and gender, less so on immigration, social issues

On issues ranging from the size of the federal government to views about business, gender and race, Ambivalent Right hold many views that are largely consistent with core conservative values. Yet they also hold more moderate stances on several social issues and differ from some other segments of the GOP coalition in taking a more internationalist view of foreign policy and a less restrictive position on immigration.

Ambivalent Right differ from other GOP-aligned groups with their support for legal abortion and less negative views of the impact of same-sex marriage. They also are distinct from other Republican-oriented groups in their views of Donald Trump. Whereas large majorities of each of the other Republican-oriented groups say they feel warmly toward Trump, Ambivalent Right are somewhat more likely to say they feel coldly toward the former president (46%) than warmly (34%). And most (63%) would not like to see Trump continue to be a major national political figure for many years to come.

Ambivalent Right have also largely rejected the unsubstantiated claim from Trump and others that Trump was the legitimate winner of the 2020 presidential election.

Ambivalent Right do not feel very warmly toward either Republicans or Democrats. On a “feeling thermometer” ranging from 0-100, where 100 represents the warmest feelings and 0 represents the coldest feelings, Ambivalent Right give Republicans an average rating of 43. Ambivalent Right are cooler toward Democrats, with an average rating of 34. 

I rated both parties negatively. One lot have abandoned democracy and the other lot are crazy.

Item 1: More international acclaim for our Prime Minister.

This time from the most popular pod-caster on the planet – Joe Rogan.

https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/entertainment/2021/11/joe-rogan-attacks-jacinda-ardern-for-shutting-down-covid-19-press-conference-interrupted-by-heckler.html

 Item 2: Issues with Education turn a governor election in Virginia.

Sleepy Joe got a 10% win in Virginia in the presidential election. A year later it has been turned around and Virginia now has a Republican Governor, Deputy Governor and Attorney General.

If you want to see what a true political speech looks like then this is worth a few minutes: https://www.wdbj7.com/2021/11/03/republican-winsome-sears-makes-history-first-woman-become-lieutenant-governor-virginia/

Item 3: For the record – I sent this to Auckland Principals last week.

“I read about the 1st XV decision re vaccines today.

It may turn out to be a VERY poor decision.

The unvaxxed death rates in Britain (for September)

U20 is zero – why would we consider vaxxing kids/teenagers?

20-30 less than 1/100,000

30-40 still less that 1/100,000

40-49 3.5 per 100,000

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1025358/Vaccine-surveillance-report-week-41.pdf

ps – the rates of people getting covid is much higher for the double vaxxed for most age groups.

The Principals are interfering in an invasive medical decision for young people. How much responsibility will they take when someone has a significant issue? Or dies?

A very close contact in Auckland spent the best part of the two days following her first jab in hospital with blood clots.

Heart issues are occurring in young men: https://www.reuters.com/world/us/cdc-heart-inflammation-cases-ages-16-24-higher-than-expected-after-mrna-covid-19-2021-06-10/“

Item 4: The lost of teachers, teacher aides and administrators.

November 15 in New Zealand will be interesting for education and those on the front-line respond to the Pfizer vaccine being “mandated”. Brilliant speech from the EU on that here:

I contacted the NZEI and PPTA about how they are standing for the 20% (their stats) of their members who are against the mandate and whether they would take the same compliant stand if Key/Parata had implemented the mandate. No response of course.

The next highly divisive moment will be when the child vaccine comes to NZ. Some parents will refuse to allow their children in the same classroom with the unvaccinated and may parents choose to avoid and vaccine which they will consider to be entirely unnecessary for their children.

Mt Hobson Academy – will be launching a nationwide online school from Years 1 – 13 on the 14^th of November

Item 5: The fishing in Russell has been incredible recently. Just the last two nights I brought these home from the wharf.

For Kiwiblog readers I am very happy to offer a 10% discount for you to stay at www.titorelodge.co.nz or www.baylight.co.nz. I will out 5% of what you pay to David Farrer’s site.

https://www.facebook.com/Wood2Water

Item 6: Two nations conquered by Brigadier General Kane Williamson

Afghanistan defeated! England defeated.

We should not under-estimate the defeat of England. In 1940 Germany attempted to defeat England. They have not played a cricket world championship since. They main problem was the quality of their attack. They really only had four bowlers and history shows that they were clearly limited. Apparently Hitler had only got one ball, Göring had two but very small, Himmler was similar and their spinner, Goebbels, had no balls at all. This was documented by historians Armstrong and Miller: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1DWJQkOJew&ab_channel=HatTrick