The Royal Commission concluded:

The case for vaccine requirements of all kinds weakened in early 2022 with the arrival of the Omicron variant since vaccination was now much less effective in preventing COVID-19 transmission and immunity waned over time. While beneficial to the individual concerned, vaccination now offered less protection to others and the public health case for requiring it was weak.

In our view, some workplace, occupational and other vaccine requirements were applied too broadly and remained in place for too long, which caused harm to individuals and families and contributed to loss of social capital.

I agree with this conclusion. In the early days the vaccines did help prevent transmission, which did justify some of the coercive measures on the grounds they protected others. But once it became clear that with the dominant Omicron variant there was little impact on transmission, the government should have changed policies.

Basically they did not follow the science. The science changed as the virus mutated, but the Government did not want to be seen to be changing course – so they put perception above reality.

The NZDF announced:

Chief of Navy Rear Admiral Garin Golding stood up a Court of Inquiry following the incident in order to understand the facts of what occurred.

“The direct cause of the grounding has been determined as a series of human errors which meant the ship’s autopilot was not disengaged when it should have been,” Rear Admiral Golding said.

“The crew did not realise Manawanui remained in autopilot and, as a consequence, mistakenly believed its failure to respond to direction changes was the result of a thruster control failure.

“Having mistakenly assessed a thruster control failure, standard procedures should have prompted ship’s crew to check that the ship was under manual control rather than in autopilot. This check did not occur. Remaining in autopilot resulted in the ship maintaining a course toward land, until grounding and eventually stranding.”

So a $150 million ship sunk because no one thought to check if the autopilot was off!!!

This is beyond embarrassing. It is a huge people failure or training failure or both.

Rear Admiral Golding said given human error was identified as the cause, a separate disciplinary process would need to be commenced once the Court of Inquiry had concluded.

I can only imagine multiple officers will go through the disciplinary process.

As I covered in March, DOC had been keeping Cathedral Cove closed for over a year, despite it being very simple to safely access it.

The previous Labour Ministers did nothing to get it reopened. They allowed DOC to talk about it being closed for many many years.

But Tama Potaka told DOC to find a way to get it open before summer, and they have. He announced:

The Government has delivered on its promise to restore public walking access to the popular Mautohe Cathedral Cove in time for Summer 2024-2025.

It is great to have the second most popular tourist attraction in NZ re-opened. Go and enjoy it.

1 News reported:

One of those receiving a Jobseeker benefit is Napier woman Suzzy Fairbairn.

A former truck driver, she’s spent the last nine months looking for work but has had no success.

To demonstrate that there were no jobs for truck drivers in Hawke’s Bay they showed a search for jobs:

But as readers will notice, they misspelt “truck drivers” as “truck drivbers”. Even worse they ignored the prompt saying to check for spelling errors, they were so keen to show how it is all the fault of the Government that there are no jobs available.

If there was no spelling error, Seek would show 62 jobs for truck drivers in Hawke’s Bay.

Very, very sloppy.

Joe Biden announced:

Today, I signed a pardon for my son Hunter. From the day I took office, I said I would not interfere with the Justice Department’s decision-making, and I kept my word even as I have watched my son being selectively, and unfairly, prosecuted. 

He kept his word up until when he didn’t keep his word, and made the most venal pardon in the history of pardons.

Trump was rightfully attacked for his tramping of norms. All those who attacked Trump for doing so, should show integrity and attack Biden for this shattering of norms.

I wonder if it is time for a constitutional amendment to remove the pardon power from the presidency. Once it has been used to pardon family members, it can only keep going downhill.

It is worth noting that Biden didn’t just pardon his son for the offences he has been charged with. He has pardoned him for any and all crimes Hunter may have committed since 2014.

The Herald reported:

The Government has $115 million at risk from the collapse of SolarZero.

Finance Minister Nicola Willis said she was seeking urgent advice on the SolarZero situation. She had no further comment.

NZ Green Investment Finance – a “green investment bank” created by the previous Government to fund environmentally-friendly businesses – made a $145m debt facility available to SolarZero, as well as facilitating $220m in credit lines from international private lenders First Sentier Investors, Natixis Investment Managers and Société Générale.

There are scores of investment funds that are looking to invest tens of billions of dollars in green energy firms. If SolarZero couldn’t attract enough investors willing to risk their own money, taxpayers should not have been forced to invest in it.

Stuff reports:

Labour leader Chris Hipkins knows his party has a fight on its hands to win back support in Auckland, and he says being more visible in New Zealand’s biggest city will help with that.

Labour suffered significant losses in Auckland during last year’s election, winning just six electorates – half the number from 2020. What were assumed as safe seats, like New Lynn and Mt Roskill, fell into the hands of National.

Visiting Auckland is not the same as having front bench MPs in Auckland. The composition of Labour’s front bench is:

• Auckland 2
• Wellington 4
• Christchurch 1
• Provincial 2

Labour’s party vote in the general Auckland electorates under MMP has been:

1. 2020: 50.0%
2. 2002: 42.4%
3. 2005: 41.8%
4. 1999: 39.1%
5. 2017: 36.8%
6. 2008: 32.5%
7. 2011: 30.4%
8. 2014: 27.7%
9. 2023: 25.9%

So their 2023 result was the worst ever for them in Auckland in the history of MMP.

Hipkins is now making regular visits to Auckland. He says he understands there was a perception that Labour was too Wellington-focussed and he has to change that.

He thinks it was only a perception?

The Ministry of Health announced:

The Ministry of Health is today releasing an evidence brief and position statement on the use of puberty blockers for gender identity issues and outlining a more cautious approach to their use.

The evidence brief shows a lack of good quality evidence to back the effectiveness and safety of puberty blockers when used for this purpose.

Their finding was:

Overall, the evidence brief found significant limitations in the quality of evidence for either the
benefits or risks (or lack thereof) of the use of puberty blockers. This means there is insufficient basis
to say that puberty blockers are safe or reversible (or not) for use as an intervention for gender
dysphoria in adolescents.

Their position on use now is:

Noting that the Government has signalled an intent to consider regulating puberty blocker
prescribing in gender-affirming care, clinicians should exercise caution in prescribing.
Clinicians who initiate puberty blockers should be experienced in providing gender-affirming
care and be part of an interprofessional team offering a full range of supports to young
people presenting with gender-related issues.

Back in early 2023 I blogged:

I do think people aged under 18 who are firm about wanting to change their gender identity should generally be able to start treatment before they are 18, but decisions on individual cases should reflect the individual circumstances, and not just be treated as an automatic yes.

The two major factors are the age of the young person, and the severity of the treatment. The younger someone is, the more caution you should apply to starting treatment. A 12 year old is not the same as a 17 year old.

Also taking hormone blockers is different to having sex change surgery.

The problem is that in many countries, it was an automatic “yes” to every gender dysphoric child, and in fact staff who raised concerns were shunned and pushed out. Some of the stories from the UK and US were horrifying.

As I have said before I am no fan of Candace Owens. I think she is a grifter who peddles conspiracy theories and has promoted many deeply anti-semitic things.

But if enough New Zealanders wish to pay money to hear from her, they should be able to do so. The decision by Immigration NZ prevents them from being able to do so.

As a matter of reality, these bans will actually make her more popular and amplifier her views even more. I would much rather have her at a live public event where she can be challenged and have to respond, than have more people subscribing to her podcasts (which are broadcast only) because of the bans.

And while I don’t like her views, she is far from a fringe figure. She has interviewed one on one the President-Elect of the United States. Her YouTube channel has over 3 million subscribers and almost half a billion views. On Instagram she has over 5 million followers, Twitter 6 million and almost a many on Facebook. That is more than the entree NZ media combined.

Banning Candace Owens doesn’t hurt her. It is wonderful for her – she gets to be the victim. It gets her more and more followers. It makes her voice more powerful.

I hope Owens appeals the ban, and if it goes to a Minister they make a decision that treats NZers as adults, not children.

News.com.au reports:

A police officer has been found guilty of the manslaughter of a 95-year-old woman after he said “bugger it” and fired his service Taser at her in a rural nursing home. 

Clare Nowland died of injuries sustained when Senior Constable Kristian White, 34, discharged the weapon at her chest in the Yallambee Lodge nursing home in Cooma on May 17 last year. 

The jury heard he issued several warnings as she approached him with both hands on her walking frame and holding a knife, before he said “bugger it” and fired the weapon at her. 

If a police officer can’t disarm a 48 kg 95 year old on a walker without using a taser, they should not be a police officer.

It is a just verdict.

The Herald reports:

During that time, Chambers took a lead role marshalling the troops during the Covid-19 pandemic, and was later put in charge of the operation to remove the vaccine mandate protesters occupying the Parliament precinct in early 2022.

The stand-off ended with a mass eviction on March 22, 2022, which descended into a remarkable scene in New Zealand: a riot with police officers being attacked with makeshift weapons like cobblestones, and returning fire with sponge rounds, while protesters set fire to the grounds.

“It was really, really tough,” Chambers said. “The whole issue around Covid mandates had divided the country. New Zealand Police reflects the community so within our own ranks we had different views on what we should and shouldn’t do,” Chambers said.

“But as police officers, we’ve got a job to do. Everyone put aside their personal views and got on with the job. I was so proud of everyone.”

In the fortnight leading up to that watershed moment, Chambers would leave the confines of Police National Headquarters and head down Molesworth St to walk around the occupied grounds of Parliament each day.

He spoke with staff to canvas their thoughts, but also to get a visceral sense of what it felt like on the ground.

“No doubt it was a tense environment. We hadn’t seen this kind of division since the Springbok Tour in 1981,” Chambers said.

“But the vast majority of the people at the protest were there for the right reasons. They were good people, it was only a small few that came with a different purpose in mind.

Nice to have the new Commissioner say this. As someone who visited it, and actually had my staff do a poll of participants who were there, I agree with the Commissioner. It’s a shame that Government Ministers called them scum, rather than acknowledging this.

Of course those who violently resisted eviction were not good people, but again they were a small minority.

NewstalkZB report:

Santa and his elves must wear seatbelts for Christchurch’s Christmas parade following new health and safety advice – a move labelled by some city councillors as “woke nonsense” and “over the top”. 

Christchurch’s Christmas Show Parade director Jason Reekers said an audit of the parade’s floats recommended installing seatbelts on some of them. 

This included Santa in his sleigh and the elves, Reekers confirmed. Other floats have also had safety bars installed. 

Reekers said there was an “extremely low” safety risk but said no one had fallen off a float in the 75 years the parade has been running. 

“With today’s health and safety rules and with WorkSafe the way they are, once we’ve had something brought to our attention, if we don’t show that we’ve done mitigation, then we’ll be held liable. 

“So, we kind of get put between a rock and a hard place.” 

This is the consequence of a safety at all costs mantra.

It is inane that a flat which moves at 5 km/hr needs seatbelts. Are they worried one of the fake reindeer will panic and storm off?

A group of economists have written to Nicola Willis complaining about the modest fiscal restraint imposed on the public sector. Grant Robertson grew government expenditure by $76 billion/year or a massive 7.6% of GDP, leaving NZ with a structural deficit. Many were champions of his policies or worked for him, and now they complain his successor is not going to carry on a policy of spend and borrow.

Chris Bishop had the best response, being:

Nicola Willis is currently in Antarctica, I suspect there is a greater chance of her taking advice from a penguin rather than three hand-picked economists who used to work for Grant Robertson

We had their policies for six years. It was a disaster that left us with a structural deficit, more debt, worse public services, a recession and high inflation.

It is no surprise that the Government is reducing the number of public health staff members, when they are spending their time on opposing resource consent applications for a McDonalds in Wanaka, rather than oh preventing the current whooping cough epidemic.

Around half the public health staff (those who deal with infectious diseases) do amazing work, but around half seem to be taxpayer funded lobbyists who lobby the Government that employs them, or local governments.

Their opposition to the McDonalds resource consent application is particularly terrible, as they raise numerous issues that are irrelevant to whether an application should be granted, and the other issues are ones in which they have no expertise.

Their grounds of opposition include:

• People may litter
• People might drive to McDonalds
• Some residents are opposed
• there is no evidence a McDonalds will create a prosperous, resilient, and equitable economy
• there is no cultural impact assessment
• the jobs it creates will be low paying
• it might compete with local businesses
• Multi national corporations and trans national corporations are bad for planetary health and future generations

I’m not sure what is more staggering – the many issues that are irrelevant to a resource consent application, or the many issues that are outside the realm of public health. It is a garbage objection, funded by taxpayers.

Frankly the proposed job cuts at Health New Zealand don’t go far enough, until their staff don’t have time to do stuff like this.

UPDATE: The Minister is not impressed and has said:

“Content within the submission, including observations about planetary health, landscape values, traffic and Te Tiriti do not match my over-arching view of what the NPHS should be spending its time on.

“Whooping cough, measles and raising immunisation rates are among the most pressing issues facing health today.

Absolutely. I suspect though the culture of political activism with NPHS is so well entrenched it will only change via massive structural and cultural change.

An OIA from the Taxpayers Union has found that Sport NZ has spent over $300,000 on two DEE surveys.

Putting aside the pros and cons of the subject matter, I was staggered by the cost. How could a fairly simple stakeholder survey cost $180,000?

Maybe I thought it was of 20,000 people over 1,000 organisations. Then I could halfway understand it.

But no it was a survey of 1,429 people over 109 organisations and produced a 39 page report.

I have done online stakeholder surveys of similar numbers for under $10,000. Now don’t get me wrong – this isn’t about me missing out. I generally never tender for government work as their typical RFPs are coma inducing, and we’re already at near full capacity. Its about whether taxpayers are getting $300,000 of value for a couple of surveys.

Atlas operative Ani O’Brien has cracked under the pressure and revealed all the dirty linen of the global overlords of the Atlas Network.

I am worried for her safety, after this whistleblowing. It’s devastating to Atlas.

The Herald reports:

The “captain’s call” could become a thing of the past, at least for the Labour Party, with members this weekend having the opportunity to vote on a rule change that would effectively ban them.

A “captain’s call” is an informal convention of New Zealand politics which allows a leader to decide a party’s policy, at least as long as they’re in the captain’s seat.

For over a year, Labour has been grappling with a particularly controversial captain’s call: Leader Chris Hipkins’ 2023 decision to rule out a capital gains tax and a wealth tax in 2023.  …

The Herald has obtained a proposed amendment, put up by region one of the party, which runs from just south of Auckland up to Northland, which would only allow a change to the party’s manifesto if the caucus and party policy council jointly agree − and even then, this can only be in “matter of great urgency”.

So a future Labour Party PM would be able to be over-ruled by the Party’s policy committee. This is an attempt to politically castrate Hipkins.

The council includes members of the caucus, the party’s out-of-Parliament operation, and five elected members. Currently, those elected members are: CTU chief economist Craig Renney and Toby Moore, both former advisers to former Finance Minister Grant Robertson, former MP Michael Wood and Former Hamilton West candidate Georgie Dansey, and Labour member Jo Spratt.

Michael Wood would become more powerful than he was as a Minister, and all without even having to be elected to office. No more problems with share portfolios.

This is a blatant attempt by the hard left faction led by Wood to either take power away from Hipkins, and give it to themselves.

Paul Goldsmith announced:

The Government is proposing two major changes to name suppression laws that will put the views of victims of sexual violence first, Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith says.

“We are committed to restoring law and order and these two proposed changes will help ensure the victims of crime are put at the heart of the justice system.

“The first change will ensure the courts cannot issue a permanent name suppression order for an adult convicted of a sexual offence, unless the victim agrees to it.

Excellent. Great to see laws that are pro-victim and make name suppression after conviction harder.

“The second change ensures victims of all sexual crimes, including intimate visual recording offences, are automatically given name suppression. 

“There is a legislative gap, which means some victims of sexual offences receive automatic name suppression and others do not. 

“For example, victims of intimate visual recording offences currently have to ask the court for name suppression. This only causes further distress, and many worry that their name or details will be published without their knowledge.

Also very sensible.

The Post does an annual review of key Ministers and gives them scores out of 10. The scores, in order, are:

• 10/10 – Chris Bishop
• 9/10 – Erica Stanford
• 8/10 – Simeon Brown, Mark Mitchell, Todd McClay, Winston Peters
• 7/10 – Paul Goldsmith, Shane Jones, David Seymour
• 6.5/10 – Judith Collins, Simon Watts
• 6/10 – Christoper Luxon, Nicola Willis, Tama Potaka, Matt Doocey, Brooke van Velden
• 5/10 – Louise Upston
• 3/10 – Shane Reti, Nicole McKee
• 0.5/10 – Casey Costello

These ratings are of course the views of the Post staff, not me.