Stuff reports:

The head of Oranga Tamariki and two senior judges intervened in a part-heard Family Court hearing into the future care of a five-year-old girl in Hawke’s Bay, earning a sharp rebuke from the presiding judge, who said their actions were inappropriate and any communication would be “a breach of judicial independence”.

Sir Wira Gardiner, who was the acting chief executive of Oranga Tamariki at the time, communicated with the Chief District Court Judge Heemi Taumaunu and the Principal Family Court Judge Jackie Moran, who serve as the Heads of Bench, to relay his concerns about the behaviour of Judge Peter Callinicos.

Judge Callinicos was hearing a case in the Family Court in Napier involving Oranga Tamariki staff who wanted to remove a young Māori girl from the Pākehā couple who had cared for her for the past three years, over concerns that they could not meet her cultural needs.

Sir Wira appeared to have been concerned about the way the judge questioned social workers during the first part of the hearing, held in March. He claimed that Judge Callinicos had “bullied” Oranga Tamariki staff giving evidence at the hearing, according to documents obtained by Stuff.

It is hard to understate how serious this is.

A court case was underway to the detriment of a government agency,. The acting head of the agency contacted the Chief DIstrict Court Judge to complain about the Judge, while the case was still underway.

Firstly it was quite wrong for the Acting CE of Oranga Tamariki to approach the Chief District Court Judge.

But that pales in comparison to the actions pf the Chief District Court Judge who actually tried to intervene in the case. That is behaviour unacceptable from the most junior judge, let alone the Chief District Court Judge.

The full nature and extent of the discussions is unknown. They involved meetings between the Heads of Bench and Oranga Tamariki in late April and early May, as well as a phone call and letters.

The Heads of Bench did not tell Judge Callinicos of the communications until later, according to court minutes.

When they contacted Judge Callinicos to convey the concerns, he reminded them that it was inappropriate for them to approach a presiding judge to discuss any aspect of a part-heard case. They should refrain from doing so as it was a breach of appropriate judicial independence and judicial conduct, he said.

This is incredible. The only response from the Chief District Court Judge should have been to tell OT that their approach was inappropriate any issues around the Judge’s handling of a current case should be raised in open court by lawyers, or later by way of appeal

But instead the CDCJ met with OT on multiple occasions, and tried to pressure the Judge to go easier on the OT staff.

Judge Callinicos, thankfully, did the right thing and resisted the pressure, and basically told off the CDCJ for breaching judicial independence.

The fact that the CDCJ could not work out for himself that his actions amounted to judicial misconduct must call into question whether he can continue is his role.

Either the Attorney-General should refer this issue to the Judicial Conduct Commissioner, or the Commissioner should launch an investigation on his own initiative.

Stuff reports:

There is a brewing standoff over whether Parliament should come back next week under level 4, with Judith Collins saying if Breakfast TV could be filmed she couldn’t see why Parliament shouldn’t sit.

Collins said she was fine with the House being suspended for a week but didn’t see why it should stay out of action throughout level 4.

“It’s quite alright for Parliament not to sit next week, but Parliament should sit the week after. We are a democracy,” Collins said.

Of course Parliament should sit. It can be done with reduced numbers and hours, but it it vital the Government remains accountable to Parliament.

He said a decision would not be made on the House until after Cabinet met on Monday.

It’s understood the Prime Minister will then use her powers under Standing Order 55 to suspend Parliament for that week, if advised to do so by Health Director General Dr Ashley Bloomfield.

It is totally inappropriate to use the DG of Health for cover, for what is a political decision.

“Other countries in the Western World have been able to operate Parliament during pandemics.”

“Why do we have Breakfast TV? Why do we have The Project on but we can’t have Parliament on in level 4? It’s hard for me to accept that Breakfast TV and The Project are more important to the democracy of New Zealand than a Parliament.”

Exactly.

Michael Morrah reports:

Newshub can reveal more than 3000 hospital workers in Auckland – the epicentre of the Delta outbreak – still haven’t had a single vaccine jab.

It comes as a nurse with COVID-19 was infectious for four days while at work at Auckland City Hospital, and staff were exposed to an infected patient at North Shore Hospital.

Hospital staff are part of vaccination group 2. They are deemed high-risk and have been able to get a vaccine since March.

There should have been a simple policy in place from earlier this year – all DHB staff must be vaccinated due to the nature of their jobs.

The Herald reports:

Immigration Minister Kris Faafoi held a virtual meeting with counterparts from other Five Eyes countries on Wednesday, where the plight of Afghan refugees was discussed.

After the meeting, the UK announced it will take 20,000 refugees in recognition of the “debt of gratitude” the UK owes Afghanistan, said Prime Minister Boris Johnson. …

The UK is the second Five Eyes country to pledge to resettle more Afghan refugees. This week, Canada promised to settle more than 20,000 Afghans from groups it considers likely targets of the Taliban. …

Faafoi’s office said there haven’t been any discussions about a separate refugee system for Afghan nationals in conjunction with other partner countries beyond the United Nations refugee programme. New Zealand had no plans to change its current intake.

This is appalling inaction. There are hundreds of thousands of Afghans who are fleeing the Taliban. Already there are stories of executions and torture.

In 2015 the Key Government announced it would take in 600 Syrian refugees (above the normal quota) in response to the humanitarian disaster in Syria. In 2000 the Shipley Government took in 400 refugees from Kosovo above quota.

This is not, or should not, be about politics. It should be about doing the right thing.

Sir Michael Cullen has died of cancer, aged 76. It was well known he had terminal cancer.

Dr Cullen, as he was most well known as, was one of New Zealand’s most substantive politicians of the last 80 years. You didn’t have to agree with him, to appreciate his talent as both a parliamentarian and a Minister.

His two major legacies will be KiwiSaver which has over $62 billion in it and the Cullen Fund which has over $45 billion in it.

I recall working as an opposition staffer in the early 2000s and often Cullen would have half the staff in the leader’s office in fits of laughter as he skewered some poor National MP who was trying to take him on.

Cullen was no saint (but who is), but he was regarded as a very good Minister to work for. Many of his former staff speak highly of him.

My thoughts are with his family, friends and colleagues.

Vice reports:

Nathan J. Robinson, editor-in-chief of the socialist magazine Current Affairs, has fired most of its staff for trying to start a worker co-op, workers wrote in a letter posted on Twitter on Wednesday morning. 

“We, the former full and part-time staff, write to you with deep sadness and disappointment about the recent events that have occurred at Current Affairs,” a letter signed by five fired staffers said.

“On August 8th, editor-in-chief Nathan J. Robinson (author of Why You Should Be a Socialist) unilaterally fired most of the workforce to avoid an organizational restructuring that would limit his personal power. Yes, we were fired by the editor-in-chief of a socialist magazine for trying to start a worker co-op.”  

They should not be surprised. Off memory I can’t think of a single communist or socialist country that has free and independent trade unions. In almost every case they have puppet unions that actually represent the state, not workers.

So the editor-in-chief of the socialist magazine is merely following decades of tradition by crushing an independent union.

The Herald reports:

National is calling on the Government to order Pfizer booster shots as soon as possible, or else be left at the back of the global queue.

The call goes against advice from the World Health Organisation (WHO), which says evidence is not yet conclusive they will be needed, and wealthy countries buying them up will “exacerbate inequities” preventing some countries even getting their first doses.

Party Covid-19 spokesman Chris Bishop told TVNZ’s Q+A it was important New Zealand did not get left behind with booster shots, as a potential back-up if needed, as it had with the current global rollout.

Australia had “ordered millions” of booster doses, and so too the European Union and United States, Bishop said.

Many OECD countries are going to start rolling out booster shots in September, and we’ve not even ordered any yet.

We absolutely should order boosters now, so we can start rolling them out later this year.

Stuff reports:

A Defence Force Hercules headed to Afghanistan to evacuate New Zealand citizens and Afghan allies will take three days to reach the Middle East, in a high risk but “manageable” mission.

An Air Force C130 Hercules departed Auckland at about 10.20am on Thursday, carrying some of the nearly 80 Defence Force staff who have been deployed on the mercy mission.

So it will get there nine days after it became apparent the Taliban were about to take over.

Newshub reports:

A pregnant Kiwi woman stuck in the United States fears she’ll have to pay $100,000 to give birth there, after continuously being denied an emergency spot in managed isolation and quarantine (MIQ). 

Bergen Graham is 26 weeks pregnant and stuck in America. There are complications, and she has three letters from doctors saying she needs to get back home. But her sixth application for an emergency spot in MIQ has just been declined. 

This is again crazy. We have 40% of rooms empty most days.

Stuff reports:

A Labour Party volunteer has breached the stay at home guidance to deliver party political leaflets in support of Police Minister Poto Williams.

The local volunteer broke the lockdown announced by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, who is the leader of the Labour Party, to drop off a stack of leaflets to a Parklands address in Christchurch East, Williams’ electorate, on Wednesday.

Michelle McKay,​ who lives at the address, said she heard a knock on the door just after 2.30pm. She said her daughter had agreed to drop the pamphlets off several months ago but had since moved out of home.

“We are relying on a team of five million, and you have this idiot doing this. I just don’t get it,” she said.

Beyond stupidity.

Stuff reports:

New Zealand is not anywhere near close to a vaccination rate that would allow for a response to Covid-19 community cases that doesn’t involve lockdowns, experts have said.

Here’s the latest data showing the share of population who has received at least one dose:

11 OECD countries have vaccinated at least 70% of the population. 29 have vaccinated at least 50%. We remain bottom at 30%.

Steerpike at The Spectator writes:

The fall of Afghanistan has provoked much comment and soul-searching on both sides of the Atlantic. Along with the usual talking heads and thumping op-eds, the Taliban’s imminent victory has prompted some truly awful takes from some of the less distinguished figures in public life. Below is Mr Steerpike’s guide to some of the most tone-deaf, stunningly crass and just plain sinister responses to the fall of Afghanistan.

The list includes the UK Stop the War Coalition who wants reparations paid to the Taliban, the British Foreign Secretary for staying on holiday, Nancy Pelosi for praising Biden for what happened. But NZ makes it also:

New Zealand’s Prime Minister has ‘implored’ Taliban leaders to uphold human rights, telling a press conference ‘What we want to see is women and girls being able to access work and education’ which she insightfully noted ‘are things that have traditionally not been available to them where there has been governance by Taliban.’ The Taliban’s response is as yet unknown.

Oh dear.

The PM has announced Auckland and Coromandel into a Level 4 lockdown for at least seven days and the rest of New Zealand for at least three days, from midnight tonight.

This means:

• Vaccinations paused for two days (by good fortune I had my first shot today)
• All non-essential businesses to close.
• Masks likely to be mandatory in public
• All education facilities closed, including for children of essential workers
• People have 48 hours to return to their homes, if away from home
• One person per household can go to a local supermarket
• You can exercise locally but must maintain two metres distance from others

Newshub has details of the UMR poll in late July 2021.

Party Vote

• Labour 43% (-5% from last UMR poll)
• National 28% (+4%)
• ACT 13% (+2%)
• Greens 7% (-1%)
• NZ First 4.4% (-0.6%)
• Maori Party 1.7% (+0.2%)

Seats

• Labour 56 (-9 from election)
• National 36 (+3)
• ACT 17 (+7)
• Greens 9 (-1)
• Maori 2 (nc)

Preferred PM

• Jacinda Ardern 50% (-5%)
• David Seymour 14% (+2%)
• Judith Collins 11% (nc)

Covid-19 response

• Good 63%
• Poor 14%

Country Direction

• Right direction 62%

The key takeaway is that the gap between CL and CR parties closed in one month from 21% to 9%. That is a large and significant movement.

However a 9% gap is still a very decent lead, and National remains in the 20s, which is not a position you can form a Government from.

Seymour at 14% Preferred PM is significant. It has been a long time since a minor party leader polled so highly. According to my data series from Colmar Brunton, the last time a minor party leader was at 14% or higher was:

• Winston Peters in Oct 1996
• Jim Anderton in Feb 1996

So basically 25 years ago.

This image has made me tear up with conflicting emotions.

It is incredibly sad that tens of thousands of Afghanis are having to flee and leave behind their homes and possessions (and family and friends) to escape the Taliban.

But heart warming to see the common humanity as the crew of the Globemaster decided to stuff the rules and relegations and help as many as possible.

This would be a good time for New Zealand to announce we will take in a special quota of say 1,000 refugees from Afghanistan.

Quite extraordinary for the Minister of Health to attack the Cancer Society as being “completely off the planet” simply because they have complained that cancer treatment and waiting times is not one of the 12 health priorities Labour announced.

National made cancer patients starting treatment within 62 days as one of their health targets (which Labour abolished). This saw the percentage starting within four weeks lifting from 78% to 93%. It is now back at 85%.

The Cancer Society has commented:

“We are not ‘off the planet’, we are on the ground. Around the clock we are assisting those affected by cancer and in our work, we can clearly see that what we know of people’s experiences is not reflected in the new health system indicators. We’re worried this signals that cancer care is not considered a priority.”

“We know that the Government tracks lots of pieces of data about the performance of the public health system and cancer outcomes. But we’re concerned that a cancer treatment indicator is no longer included in the “top table” list of health system indicators, especially as the Government has said these reflect the Government’s priorities and areas where improvement is needed most. Cancer is New Zealand’s biggest killer and needs to be a priority.”

The Cancer Society exists to support all New Zealanders affected by cancer working within communities through services like supportive care nurses, transport to treatment and accommodation.

“We work tirelessly to ensure that the 71 New Zealanders who receive a diagnosis every day in Aotearoa can turn to us for support during one of the most difficult times of their lives.”

Think about what that drop from 93% to 85% means for the 71 NZers a day diagnosed with cancer. It means six fewer New Zealanders a day start cancer treatment within 62 days. Over a year that means over 2,000 more New Zealanders waiting longer than 62 days to start treatment.

The politics of this are terrible for the Government. Having the Minister of Health attack the Cancer Society reminds me of when National in the late 1990s got into a fight with Plunket. Politicians never do well against iconic NZ charities.

I read a piece on Stuff this morning titled: I read a piece on Stuff this morning titled: Poor attendance and low NCEA results but parents are lining up to get children into alternative school

Here are some “highlights”:

Students can choose what they study and attendance is almost half the regional average

Less than 20 per cent of year 12 students regularly attended Ao Tawhiti Unlimited Discovery in term 1, while across the whole school it was under 40 per cent. The national average was 68.5 per cent. [Atrocious in itself.]

Ao Tawhiti Unlimited Discovery is a state-funded special character school, and despite its unconventional approaches to teaching is hugely popular.

Based in a purpose-built $30 million building in Mollett St, the school has a maximum role of 670, from year 1 to 13.

She said non-attendance “is a concern because of the link between attendance and achievement”, but the school’s special character means “students are central in directing their own learning” and can “learn any time and anywhere”.

The system of self-directed learning means years 7 to 13 students can opt in to five timetabled classes a week, or none.

The percentage with level 3 or above was below the regional (59.3 per cent) and national (59.1 per cent) figures.

Students with NCEA level 3 or above were:

• 2018 – 24 (40.7 per cent)
• 2019 – 24 (38.1 per cent)
• 2020 – 17 (25.8 per cent)

Helen Hurst, deputy secretary of sector enablement and support at the MoE, said “If regular attendance data for Ao Tawhiti starts to show high levels of unjustified absence and concerns about student achievement then we will identify what additional supports the school may need.” [How low would attendance and achievement need to go for the MoE to care?]

Comment

This school costs the taxpayer nearly $6m per year in operational costs, salaries and building maintenance plus another $1.5 million interest on $30m.

At least I now have more understanding of why the Ministry has currently turned down our Villa Education Trust application for a 480 student Designated Character school near a transport hub in Auckland.

We promised the wrong things:

– at least 90% of students fully attending.

– Level 1 NCEA being achieved at over 90% and UE at 60%.

– Well taught courses and high quality project work that extend the full NZ Curriculum.

– No capital cost to the tax payer through using lease premises.

– No new nett operations/salary costs because the money follows the students for those categories.

We have clearly misunderstood what education in NZ is/was about.

The Herald reports:

A teenager remembers being excited while getting rushed to hospital to give birth, not knowing her precious baby girl was already dead.

“We had prepped her room and everything … we couldn’t wait to share her with our big whānau,” the grieving woman says in a Health and Disability Commission (HDC) report released today.

Two years after losing their daughter, the teen couple have today won an apology from a midwife for failing to properly monitor their daughter’s growth during pregnancy and request suitable testing.

The couple, their whānau and the midwife have not been identified in the report citing privacy reasons.

An investigation by the country’s health watchdog revealed the midwife had not measured the fundal height at every visit. The fundal height is a measure of the size of the uterus used to assess fetal growth and development during pregnancy.

In the woman’s final weeks of her pregnancy, the woman developed severe swelling, headaches and elevated blood pressure.

In this situation, a midwife is meant to request a pre-eclampsia blood test and a urine analysis at each visit, but that did not happen.

So the midwife didn’t measure fetal growth or do any blood or urine tests.

When the woman was in labour, the midwife assessed her condition by telephone but didn’t recommend an in-person assessment, although it was warranted, the HDC report said.

She was then rushed to hospital.

The baby was delivered more than 14 hours after a specialist confirmed she did not have a heartbeat and had died.

An obstetrician documented that his impression was that the baby had probably died several days prior because of pre-eclampsia, the HDC report said.

This story is sad enough, but here is the part that makes me mad.

Before the HDC investigation findings, a review of the midwife’s care was conducted by the Midwifery Council of New Zealand (MCNZ). It found that while documentation was “brief at times”, the midwife had “met her professional responsibilities”.

The Midwifery Council once again shows it is more interested in protecting bad midwives, than upholding standards.

There’s a reason we’ve gone with an obstetrician for our maternity care. Not because there aren’t many great midwives. Hell, probably 95% of midwives do an amazing job.

But the Midwifery Council time and time again does not hold to account the say 5% who don’t do an amazing job, and don’t call for medical interventions when they are necessary.

You should not have the HDC coming to vastly different findings than the Midwifery Council.