Category Archives: New Zealand

Simon Pound talks to Vignesh Kumar, a partner in venture capital fund Global from Day 1, about helping local companies scale for global success.

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Local venture capital fund Global from Day 1 recently announced the close of its third fund a $130m infusion of capital to invest in New Zealand companies wanting to scale to be worldwide successes. This total includes $45m from Elevate, a New Zealand Government initiative to supercharge the local venture scene. Its the largest investment that fund has made.

In the New Zealand context thats a big fund, and Gd1, as they are generally called, are one of the longest running specialist VC firms here. Theyve moved from their first fund specialising in seed, or investments very early on in a company, through to fund two for companies a little further on, to this third fund designed to help local companies that have found initial traction for their product or service or idea, and want to scale to be emerging global leaders.

To do the global bit, the company has partnered with a bunch of global experience across finance, marketing, venture, operations and hardware. Their hardware expert, Vignesh Kumar, was a hardware scaling leader at Apple.

That Apple experience and a background at Fisher and Paykel Healthcare has helped Vignesh build a big network of companies hes advised, invested in and supported through his work at the commercialisation agency Return on Science, and as a board member at Kiwinet, the consortium of the leading research and commercialisation agencies in New Zealand.

To talk about the VC world and partnering in Gd1, his personal purpose and what Apple was like, he joined Business is Boring via Zoom this week for a chat.

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Business is Boring: The former Apple leader helping New Zealand companies go global - The Spinoff

A rampant New Zealand scored five tries as they eventually ran away to a 39-0 victory over a defensively dogged Argentina in their Rugby Championship clash at the Cbus Super Stadium on the Gold Coast Sunday.

The scoreline did not fully reflect the All Blacks' dominance with the Pumas producing a heroic defensive effort that included more than 200 tackles.

In the opening match of a double-header with Australia against South Africa to follow - the All Blacks secured their third bonus point in as many matches to stay top of the championship table.

"We're delighted. They're a tough team to play and history shows that they're hard to score tries against," All Blacks coach Ian Foster said, adding there was still plenty to work on."Clearly we left a few opportunities on the park and some of our decision making, particularly in the second half, I think we got a little flustered in the attacking 22 and threw away a little bit."

New Zealand were determined not to be caught napping as they were last year when Los Pumas beat the All Blacks for the first time.

And Rieko Ioane, a late addition to the New Zealand starting line-up when Anton Lienert-Brown was sidelined by a troublesome hamstring, was gifted the opening try of the match in the first 10 minutes.

As the All Blacks swept towards the line, Bautista Delguy attempted an intercept but could only knock the ball back over the line and Ioane pounced for the try.

With New Zealand enjoying nearly 70 percent possession for most of the first half, only an exceptional Argentina rearguard kept the scoreline to 7-0 after 30 minutes.

The Pumas stayed competitive, despite being starved of possession, winning scrum penalties, stealing two lineouts and winning 13 turnovers.

As much as the All Blacks dominated possession and territory they could not break the resolute Argentinian defence and eventually resorted to a Beauden Barrett penalty in the 33rd minute to move the scoreboard.

Jordie Barrett was denied a try when he fielded a cross-kick but came down on the dead ball line.

Santiago Cordero intercepted a pass from Ioane to an unmarked George Bridge and Asafo Aumua was held up over the line.

Then, in the closing stages of the first half Sevu Reece and Dalton Papalii added tries for the All Blacks with Pablo Matera, one of Argentina's most effective tacklers, in the sin bin after referee Nic Berry warned about repeated infringements.

With Matera still off the field at the start of the second half, Beauden Barrett stepped around three tacklers before flicking a one-handed pass to Luke Jacobson for a fourth try.

But with the All Blacks so dominant, impatience took over and several attacks at the line fell short before Jacobson scored his second after replacement prop Carlos Muzzio was yellow carded as Argentina again suffered disciplinary problems.

They gave away 23 penalties in their last Test against South Africa and then 18 against the All Blacks and coach Mario Ledesma could not hide his disappointment.

"It's difficult to get any grasp of the game when you're being so undisciplined," he said.

But Ledesma said that overall he was proud of the effort.

"Normally when you play like that against the All Blacks and you give them 70 percent territory and possession and that many penalties and two yellow cards, normally the score is much higher," he said.

AFP

related news

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Dominant New Zealand overwhelm Argentina in Rugby Championship - Buenos Aires Times

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) Immigration officers feared him. So, too, did prosecutors, prison officials and police. They thought he could launch a terror attack at any moment. Even the prime minister wanted him deported.

Yet, in the end, nobody in New Zealand was able to stop an extremist inspired by the Islamic State group from walking free from prison in July. Seven weeks later, he grabbed a knife at an Auckland supermarket and began stabbing shoppers, injuring seven in a frenzied attack.

Court records, interviews and agency accounts explain how years of red flags werent enough to stop him.

___

October 2011: Ahamed Aathil Samsudeen, 22, arrives in New Zealand from Sri Lanka on a student visa. The following month, he withdraws from his studies and makes a claim for refugee status.

April 2012: Immigration officials decline his refugee claim, saying they found inconsistencies and an unreliable medical report. He appeals, and an immigration tribunal takes a fresh look at the case.

December 2012: Samsudeen, a Tamil Muslim, tells the tribunal that if hes sent back home, hell face persecution because of a falling out between his father and a former colonel from the Tamil Tigers insurgent group.

He says that once, several armed men kidnapped him and his father, stripping them, cutting them, burning them with cigarettes and beating them unconscious.

A psychologist tells the tribunal that Samsudeen is a damaged young man whos suffering post-traumatic stress disorder and depression.

The tribunal concludes that while parts of Samsudeens story are superficially unsatisfactory, that its best to give him the benefit of the doubt. It grants him refugee status, and he later becomes a permanent resident of New Zealand.

April 2016: Samsudeen is noticed by police and intelligence agencies. Hes been posting his support for the Islamic State on Facebook, including graphic videos, as well as support for terror attacks in Paris and Brussels. Police speak twice to Samsudeen at his home. He apologizes, saying hes closed down his Facebook page.

But he soon reopens the account and keeps posting. He describes stabbing enemies and cutting off their heads.

Exactly what causes Samsudeens descent into extremism remains unclear.

His brother describes him as spending too much time online and suffering from mental health problems. Samsudeens mother says that at one point in New Zealand, her son fell from a great height, and that neighbors from Syria and Iran helped him recover but also brainwashed him.

A roommate tells police that Samsudeen wants to travel to Syria to fight for the Islamic State group and, failing that, wants to kill somebody with a knife.

May 2017: Police arrest Samsudeen at Auckland Airport with a backpack, a few thousand dollars and a ticket to Singapore. They believe he is trying to get to Syria to join the Islamic State.

At his apartment, police find a hunting knife with a long blade. Samsudeen says its for protection. They also find extremist videos and photos of him posing with a gun.

Hes jailed on various charges, including distributing the videos, possessing the knife and credit card fraud. He will spend most of the next four years behind bars.

August 2017: Worried about the threat Samsudeen poses, immigration authorities reexamine his refugee application. They find fabricated statements from his family to support his claim and an embellished medical report. They begin a protracted process to cancel his refugee status.

May 2018: Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern asks officials about his immigration status and options for him to be deported. The following month, Samsudeen pleads guilty to five charges and is released on bail.

August 2018: He pays cash for another hunting knife the same model as the one police found the previous year. Police search his home again and find a ninja throwing star weapon and more Islamic State videos, including some showing extreme violence.

Hes also been posting his support for terrorism on Facebook again. After just six weeks of freedom, Samsudeen is back behind bars, facing new charges that are similar to the earlier ones.

February 2019: Immigration authorities finally cancel Samsudeens refugee status on the basis of fraud. Two months later, hes served with a deportation notice. Samsudeen appeals once more to the independent tribunal. More than two years later, the hearing was still pending.

June 2020: In prison, staff believe he has potentially violent extremist views, but he refuses to meet with a prison psychologist or engage with an imam. He repeatedly throws feces and urine at corrections officers. He argues with officers, punching two of them, and assaults another staffer. Corrections officials decide to move him to a maximum security prison.

July 2020: Prosecutors try to charge Samsudeen with terrorism. They argue theres evidence that he bought the knife with the intention of killing people and to further an ideological cause.

But a judge doesnt think the act of buying a knife is enough.

The judge also finds that New Zealands anti-terror laws dont specifically cover plots. That could be an Achilles heel, the judge acknowledges, adding that it is not open to a court to create an offense ... the issue is for Parliament.

May 2021: With Samsudeens release from prison looming, immigration officials look at options for keeping him behind bars until hes deported. But after considering legal advice, they come to a startling conclusion: Samsudeen probably cant be deported after all. He could face torture or death if hes sent back to Sri Lanka, and therefore would qualify to stay in New Zealand as a so-called protected person.

It appears to be a Catch-22: Samsudeens extremism and crimes in New Zealand have potentially exposed him to worse treatment back in Sri Lanka and have consequently protected him from being sent there.

July 13, 2021: Despite the concerns of many, from the prime minister down, a judge releases Samsudeen, sentencing him to a years monitoring under the care of an Auckland mosque leader, after a jury finds him guilty of more minor charges. The judge rejects a call from prosecutors for him to wear a GPS tracker.

Police assign some 30 officers to tail Samsudeen day and night. He knows hes being followed.

Sept. 3, 2021: Samsudeen catches a train from the mosque in the Auckland suburb of Glen Eden to a mall in New Lynn. At a Countdown supermarket, he grabs a shopping cart and walks the aisles for about 10 minutes.

Undercover officers have been following him for 53 days straight. Theyre stationed just outside the supermarket, hanging back more than usual because a coronavirus outbreak that began the previous month means there are new social distancing requirements and fewer shoppers, making their presence more obvious.

Samsudeen grabs a kitchen knife from a store shelf and begins stabbing shoppers while chanting Allahu akbar meaning God is great. People begin running and screaming.

The officers confront Samsudeen within a couple of minutes of the attack beginning. Police say Samsudeen charges at them with the knife and they shoot him dead.

In all, five shoppers have been stabbed and two more injured in the chaos.

Since the attack, two victims remain hospitalized in intensive care units while two more are in general wards, and all are in stable condition. Three more are recovering at home.

Ardern, the prime minister, vows to hurry new anti-terror laws, which were already in the works, to address the gap in prosecuting those who plot an attack. Shes also examining whether changes are needed to deportation laws and policies.

The rest is here:

New Zealand feared an extremist but found no way to stop him - Associated Press

Bruce, a disabled alpine parrot from New Zealand, may just be one of the most unique birds in the world. He comes from good stock the Kea, the only alpine parrot, is considered to be among the most intelligent birds. When they arent dismantling tourists cars, stealing passports or occasionally killing sheep, they are known to weigh up probabilities to help them make choices.

But Bruce, who is missing the top part of his beak, has done something that has yet to be recorded anywhere else he intentionally uses pebbles, in lieu of his beak, to preen himself.

Just as a human may scour the shop shelf for the right hairbrush, Bruce scratches about until he finds the perfect-sized pebble to dislodge mites and dirt hiding in his green and red plumage. Kea have been observed using tools such as sticks to disengage pest-traps, but what Bruce does is exceptional because it is the first evidence of tool use by a Kea for the purpose of self-care.

The study of Bruce, who is housed at the Willowbank Wildlife Reserve in Christchurch, has been published in the journal Scientific Reports. Although anecdotal reports exist for self-care tool use in pet parrots, this form of tool use is rare in the wild, the University of Auckland researchers say.

The reports lead author, and PhD student at the universitys School of Psychology, is Amalia Bastos a big Kea fan who has chosen to focus her research on the parrot because of their massive personalities.

What makes Bruces tool use more impressive, Bastos says, is that he did not have another bird to teach him he figured it out on his own.

Kea do not regularly display tool use in the wild, so to have an individual innovate tool use in response to his disability shows great flexibility in their intelligence, she says. Theyre able to adapt and flexibly solve new problems as they emerge.

Bruce was found at Arthurs Pass in 2013, when he was still a juvenile, with the upper half of his beak missing. The researchers do not know how he sustained his injury, but it is thought to be the result of an accident with a pest trap. He was brought to the South Island wildlife hospital, where he was nursed back to health before settling into his current home.

Bastos describes Bruce as a bossy bird who knows what he wants. He pushes the other birds around with his feet. He is doing quite well.

His use of pebbles to preen was first noted by keepers at Willowbank in late 2019 and caught the attention of the researchers. We needed to show that he was doing this intentionally, Bastos says.

They set out to watch Bruce over nine days. There were five main observations that proved he was acting with intention: in over 90% of instances where Bruce picked up a pebble, he then used it to preen; in 95% of instances where Bruce dropped a pebble, he retrieved this pebble, or replaced it, in order to resume preening; Bruce selected pebbles of a specific size for preening rather than randomly sampling available pebbles in his environment; no other kea in his environment used pebbles for preening; and when other individuals did interact with stones, they used stones of different sizes to those Bruce preened with.

Because Bruces behaviour is consistent and repeated, it is regarded as intentional and innovative, Bastos says. It is Bruces own unique tool-use, and this is the first scientific observation of that.

Bruce has also devised a way to eat a range of foods, despite his disability. The keepers provide Bruce with soft foods, which could be eaten without an upper bill, but he has also learned to eat harder foods by pressing them up against hard objects.

Hell pick up a piece of carrot and push it against a hard piece of metal or rock and use that to scrape with his lower bill, which again is a feeding behaviour we havent seen in the other birds, Bastos says. Its not tool use but it is another interesting way he has adapted to his disability.

Bastos says it is important to examine rare behaviours like this through repeated observations to ensure accurate reporting. This paper also provides a new framework through which we can provide robust evidence for rare behaviours.

There are two main theories as to why Kea are particularly intelligent birds. The first, Bastos says, is that they are highly social, which requires more complex interaction. The second is that their feeding habits have had to adapt in harsh alpine environments, pushing them to innovate.

According to New Zealands Department of Conservation, Kea today are nationally endangered, with only about 3,000 to 7,000 birds remaining in the country.

More here:

'He has adapted': Bruce the disabled New Zealand parrot uses tools for preening - The Guardian

Banks and post offices in New Zealand have been hit by a cyber offensive, according to reports, consisting of sustained DDoS attacks against a number of critical online services.

The onslaught appear to be a continuation of distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) blitzes against Vocus, the nation's third-largest ISP, as we reported last week.

The NZ Herald wrote that Kiwibank, ANZ, NZ Post and weather forecaster MetService had all been targeted but appeared to have recovered.

The Government Communications Security Bureau, declined to comment beyond telling the newspaper: "We are aware that malicious cyber actors can follow what is reported publicly, and may change their behaviour based on media reporting of their activity."

Other local media outlets repeated NZ government figures' guarded statements, which did not include the reasons why so many institutions had been targeted for DDoSes.

Local cybersecurity agency NZ-CERT added to the general air of mystery, saying in a statement on its website that it was "aware of a DDoS attack targeting a number of New Zealand organisations. We are monitoring the situation and are working with affected parties where we can."

Back in July, New Zealand formally attributed the malicious activities of APT40 to the Chinese Ministry of State Security, with NZ security minister Andrew Little urging China to end "this type of malicious activity, which undermines global stability and security".

Little was joining the UK and the US in that attribution, which included the infamous Hafnium Microsoft Exchange Server vuln exploitation campaign and also named industrial espionage operation APT31 as a Chinese state theft campaign.

Research published by FireEye in 2019 into APT40's actions included a list of targeted nation states and New Zealand was not one of them, though a lot can change in two years.

Current affairs magazine The Diplomat, which focuses on the Asia-Pacific region, characterised Little's attribution as "unusually forthright" while in an interview with the UK's Guardian newspaper foreign minister Nanaia Mahuta warned in May that New Zealand could find itself "in the eye of the storm" if China's cyber cold war with Australia spilled southeast.

The diplomatic silence of New Zealand's establishment on the identity or motivations of such a wide-ranging set of DDoSes over a relatively lengthy period of time could be an indicator that they hope to quietly placate the attacker behind the scenes.

In May, NZ hospitals were targeted with a cyber attack albeit that was ransomware deployed by common-or-garden extortionists.

While it's not impossible that a non-state actor could have randomly decided to mess about with NZ's digital infrastructure for the lulz, the odds of the current attacker being better resourced than the average botnet-wielding script kiddie seem good, judging by their scale and effect.

Here is the original post:

New Zealand DDoS wave targets banks, post offices, weather forecasters and more - The Register

Sport

12 Sep, 2021 04:00 AM2 minutes to read

The Silver Ferns also took on the New Zealand Men last year. Photo / Photosport

The Silver Ferns will take on the New Zealand Men's Invitational team in a three-match series next month, following the postponement of the Constellation Cup againt Australia due to Covid-19.

The three-day series will see the Silver Ferns go up against the New Zealand Men on three straight days from the 10th to 12th of October at Globox Arena, Claudelands in Hamilton.

Curtain raiser matches will also be played between NZA and the NZ Under-21 teams, giving the wider high performance squads valuable experience on court.

Netball NZ chief executive Jennie Wyllie said she was looking forward to watching New Zealand's top talent on show.

"We're really pleased to be able to confirm this series in such challenging and uncertain times and is a wonderful opportunity to see the depth of talent we have in this country across both the women's and men's game," she said.

Silver Ferns head coach Dame Noeline Taurua said the series was another opportunity to develop players across the board.

"The Cadbury Netball Series with the inclusion of New Zealand teams has been a really successful event for the entire programme in helping players gain experience out there on court," she said.

"With Commonwealth Games next year and then Netball World Cup in 2023 we need to keep growing both on and off court. Match experience is crucial in building towards our upcoming international events, but also going forward beyond that."

New Zealand Men's and Mixed Netball Association President Junior Tana said the Cadbury Netball Series was an exciting opportunity.

"We are really excited to be able to get some of our elite men's players out on court after Covid led to the postponement of our 2021 Men's Nationals," he said.

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"We always love these dual gender clashes as they push our athletes to new extremes and add to the development of both sides.

"Horekau he tma i k atu i Ng Kaponga hei hoa whawhai m mtou i Aotearoa nei hei whakapakari ake i mtou pukenga. [There's no more worthy opponents than the Silver Ferns in New Zealand to grow and develop our skills]."

Netball New Zealand will continue to monitor the current Covid-19 alert levels and tickets for the series will be opened if and when NZ moves to alert Level 1.

The Silver Ferns will also host England in Christchurch in a three-test series on September 20, 22 and 24.

Read the original post:

Netball: Silver Ferns to take on New Zealand Men's team in three-match series - New Zealand Herald

Scientists have shot down calls from New Zealanders overseas who want fewer border restrictions, warning such action right now would risk another Delta outbreak.

Photo: RNZ/ Marika Khabazi

Nearly 16,000 people have signed a Grounded Kiwis petition calling for more managed isolation and quarantine (MIQ) facilities and alternative options, like self-isolation, for fully vaccinated travellers.

University of Melbourne epidemiologist Tony Blakely. Photo: Billy Wong/University of Auckland

University of Melbourne epidemiologist Tony Blakely, who was born in New Zealand, acknowledged it was "not very nice" to be locked out of one's country, but it was an unfortunate reality.

"Yeah, it is tough. This is a one-in-100 year pandemic."

Blakely said Auckland's current Covid-19 outbreak was clear evidence of the danger of relaxing restrictions or opening up the border too early.

"The risk from bringing [too many] people back at the moment, until you've got your vaccine coverage higher, is real.

"It's a serious threat. You don't want it."

University of Otago epidemiologist professor Michael Baker agreed, saying the more people returning, the higher the risk of an outbreak and then lockdown.

"We need high vaccine coverage before we change our settings at the border," Baker said.

"The price of failure is so high now ... we know how incredibly disruptive, dangerous, and expensive a lockdown is."

Baker said, per capita, New Zealand already brought in more than twice the number of travellers as Australia.

Michael Baker. Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone

"In the short-to-medium-term, it's hard to see there being more options for bringing more people across the border.

"Unfortunately, [New Zealanders abroad] are going to have to be patient."

Both professors advocated for purpose-built MIQ facilities as the optimal solution, but said border restrictions could ease once New Zealand's vaccination level was high enough.

"The good news is New Zealand, along with other countries, is really increasing vaccination coverage," Blakely said.

"The risk of bringing you back ... will be so much less in December, before Christmas."

For months, the number of people trying to come home has far outstripped the number of MIQ spots available - about 4000 rooms a fortnight. The problem has only worsened since the Delta outbreak with a temporary freeze imposed on any new spaces being allocated.

Travellers can apply for an emergency space, but Grounded Kiwis spokesperson Alexandra Birt said the threshold was too high.

Birt said it was unhelpful to tell New Zealanders "in really desperate situations" to be patient.

"A lot of these people have no jobs, they have no livelihoods, they're stuck overseas. There's no way they can just be patient and wait. They need to get back."

She said the group did not want to put New Zealand's safety at risk and did not believe that would occur with a "risk-based approach".

"This is not about abolishing MIQ or anything crazy like that," Birt said.

"It's about a risk-based approach - taking into account factors like where someone's returning from, if they're fully vaccinated, if they've had Covid already."

Birt said she understood the need for New Zealand to boost its vaccination rates, but noted the roll-out had been very slow to ramp up.

The government has been exploring the possibility of opening new MIQ facilities, notably in Rotorua, but has shown little appetite to do so at scale, citing workforce constraints and community push-back.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern last month laid out plans to ease open the border next year once vaccination rates were high enough, including self-isolation for some low-risk travellers.

Ardern yesterday told reporters the timetable had not been derailed.

"If anything, of course, we're seeing our vaccination programme really speed up, and the quicker we can move through that, the more flexibility it does give."

Go here to read the rest:

Travellers to New Zealand 'a serious threat' to another Delta outbreak - RNZ

OPINION: There has been a bit of discussion lately about which groups in New Zealand should have been given the vaccine first.

I guess there are a bunch of factors the decision-makers considered including vulnerability, susceptibility, geographical location, and plain fairness. Its a tough call and criticism from some has been harsh.

That criticism has included assertions of racism. Even before the vaccine roll-out, there were claims from academics and some community leaders that our health system is racist, and thats why we have ethnicity-related health disparities.

In fact, last September an issue of the New Zealand Medical Journal featured this issue.

READ MORE:* Language Matters: Change is the only constant* Boris Johnson's most senior black adviser quits in row over 'divisive' race report* Reaching out an initiative too far in facilitation of language change

Before going further, Id suggest that many hard-working health or medical workers would be surprised and probably upset if they were called racists or said to exhibit racist behaviour.

To look at this a bit further its worth understanding what race and racist mean.

Race, is variously defined (by the Shorter Oxford Dictionary) as groups or tribes of people from common stock or ancestry, groups of persons connected by common descent or origin, and one of the great divisions of mankind, having certain physical peculiarities in common.

Ethnicity, according to Statistics NZ, is a measure of cultural affiliation. It is not a measure of race, ancestry, nationality, or citizenship. It is self-perceived and people can belong to more than one ethnic group.

So, from my reading the difference between race and ethnicity is that the latter is the group you identify with in a social and cultural context, and is something you can change. Race, on the other hand, seems to have more of a biological definition, related to the expression of the genes you inherited from your parents and unchangeable.

That makes a racist someone who treats, or even thinks of other people in a different way based on what they look like or their ancestry. Political, social, and economic discrimination based on race is one example; its called apartheid.

Stuff

Steve Stannard is a former professor of Exercise Physiology at Massey University, and holds degrees in agricultural science and human nutrition.

Not for a moment do I think that there is not racism in New Zealand, and Im sure deep down I might have a particular thought on how people who look different might behave at times. If you werent the same, youd probably be lying. And there may indeed be racist attitudes and behaviours within our health sector.

Having said that, in New Zealand, to my knowledge, we only collect data relating to self-identified ethnicity, not indices related to race. I am certainly not aware of any modern studies that connect race to measures of health.

So when I read academic articles concluding racism in the New Zealand health sector but the data cited relates to self-identified ethnicity I start to wonder about the validity of the study methodology.

Nevertheless, data does point to unequitable health outcomes experienced by different ethnicities from their interaction with the New Zealand health system. However, there are also ethnic-related inequalities in health status on entry into that system.

The effectiveness of our health system should be related to the change in health that occurs from experience in New Zealand health, not solely the health status of a person as they finish.

This is critical, because if the issue is that health is worse when initially engaging with our health system, then the problem likely lies with prevention and diagnostic opportunity rather than what goes on once someone is being treated.

If that were the case, extra resource would need to be directed at health promotion, education, and access to appropriate diagnostic opportunity for that ethnic group rather than, for example, putting extra resource into the tail end of treatment.

Simply bleating that the New Zealand health system is inequitable is not helpful for those seeking improved health as they pass through. Nor is using the term racist when in fact race is not considered as an independent variable in any research which actually measures health status or health outcomes.

The word racist carries such a weighty connotation I cant help thinking that headlines containing the word, particularly from academia, are there only to attract attention and more government funding.

As far as the vaccine roll-out goes, anyone who is likely to be hit harder by Covid-19 or anyone who might easily pass it on to someone who will be hit harder should be encouraged to get a jab as soon as possible regardless of their self-identified ethnicity or what they might look like. Because that is ultimately whats best for the team of 5 million.

Steve Stannard is a former Massey University academic and small business owner in Manawat.

Read the original post:

Accusations of a racist health system alarmist and unhelpful - Stuff.co.nz

National Party leader Judith Collins. Photo / Getty Images

Originally published on The Spinoff

OPINION: Judith Collins' bizarre attack on Siouxsie Wiles is something you'd expect from a troll on the internet, rather than a leader in waiting, argues Toby Manhire.

It's the hardest job in politics, or so the platitude goes. Leader of the opposition. Who'd want that? Jacinda Ardern got it right, maybe: take the gig 10 minutes before closing time.

But however thankless, ill-resourced and exhausting it might be to lead Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition, it's certainly not trivial. In a democracy, especially one in the midst of a crisis that has delivered extreme limitations on freedoms, however broad the support for those limitations might be, we need and deserve the scrutiny of opposition.

For that reason, I was personally in support of Judith Collins' decision to travel to Wellington to, you know, lead the opposition to the government amid another destabilising Covid outbreak. She should be there, questioning the government response. Speaking directly to the press gallery, which in turn disseminates that critique to the public. Articulating an alternative perspective.

Especially given the return of the 1pm show, during which the prime minister or her deputies have such lengthy and high-rating screen-time, it's not complicated: there is no more essential service than that delivered by the leader of the opposition.

Among her or his other tasks, the leader of the opposition presents to voters an alternative. Here, in this time when so many of us face pressure on our medical, emotional, social and financial health, is another vision. What do you think?

Well, here was the alternative presented today. According to reporting by Newshub, Judith Collins appeared on Zoom before a National-aligned Pacific New Zealand group. She was asked about a story by Cameron Slater, best known for running the now-defunct attack blog Whale Oil, which included a video of Siouxsie Wiles, the microbiologist, science communicator and a key contributor to The Spinoff. The video showed Wiles sitting on an Auckland beach with another person, one Slater's own enquiries revealed was in her bubble. The pair are without masks but a long way from any others. Wiles' bubble-friend goes a brief swim. Wiles does not.

Collins' assessment? "I think she's a big, fat hypocrite, actually." Just in case you thought that might be a loose sprinkler of words, rather than a deliberate, nasty, and precisely chosen phrase, she said it again:

"I watched that video, and I thought: big, fat hypocrite."

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Ladies and gentlemen, this is your leader of the opposition.

Briefly, about that video: Slater posted it on his Whale Oil 2.0 website hoping to embarrass Wiles. Enquiries placed to The Spinoff alleged that the person alongside her was a Spinoff staff member. You can hear him licking his lips.

In fact Wiles was with a friend and colleague who lives alone, and has joined her bubble. That friend (who has contributed a handful of pieces to The Spinoff over the years but is neither a journalist nor an employee) made a mistake in going for a short swim in level four. As Wiles has acknowledged, her friend should not have done that. The pair cycled to the beach, which is clearly within the rules.

Wiles should not be beyond criticism. She's said she regrets not stopping her friend from swimming. Argue around the edges of how far people can cycle from home by all means. But as far as Collins' response is concerned, the question is whether that's what you want to hear from someone auditioning for the role of prime minister.

Let me also say this: I'm biased. I've worked with Siouxsie for many years now as an editor. I admire her immensely her work as a microbiologist; her rare ability to express complex ideas in a way the less scientifically minded of us can grasp; her astounding work ethic, and accompanying lack of interest in personal gain; and her ability to carry on in the face of wave after wave of harassment and bullying.

Eighteen months and one day ago, Siouxsie's first collaboration with my friend and colleague Toby Morris was published on The Spinoff. It's been a privilege to watch the pair of them work. Both have worked 100 hour weeks, much more than once, because they're weird, and because they give a shit.

They've created work that has been viewed by hundreds of millions of people around the world. Because Siouxsie insisted from the start that the work should be released under a creative commons licence, it's been translated into dozens of languages. It's been repackaged and shared by public health authorities in the UK, Australia, Argentina, the Czech Republic, and a heap of other places. One of my favourites: a version of the "break the chain" animation, popped up in a campaign on Berlin bus-stops. The WHO used the pair for much of last year as key parts of its communication strategy.

What a body of work. Siouxsie Wiles' legacy is immense. Judith Collins' legacy? You tell me. Or, a better thought experiment: try to imagine her as the prime minister, leading the country in the face of a crisis.

I thought Judith Collins, under plenty of pressure, did a good job in her closing speech at the National Party conference the other day. I watched it from the mezzanine, and called it confident and assured. She was really good last Sunday on Q+A. She looked like someone who might even lead a party that would lead the country. She looked like a worthy successor to John Key and Bill English.

Sadly that was an aberration. The norm is the baffling shouting down the webcam at Indira Stewart on the country's most viewed breakfast television programme. The norm is the tin-eared hollering into a near empty House of Representatives. She's now drawing attention to the work of a discredited, malevolent, dirt-throwing attack blogger, which had been roundly ignored by credible media until that point. Worse maybe than all of that, as far as the expediencies of politics are concerned, she has proven herself completely unpredictable.

The National Party caucus is not short of talent. While Collins was hurling poison across the benches on the day the house resumed last week, Chris Bishop (recently demoted by Collins) opened his speech by celebrating the increased rates of vaccination and praising essential workers. Dr Shane Reti has been a conscience and critic on issues including the failure to fully include GPs in the Covid response. Erica Stanford has led the charge on the important, unsexy work of families split apart by the Covid immigration rules.

Simon Bridges was judged to have cocked up the National response in the first outbreak, but watch his performance on the epidemic response committee in 2020: there was a leader. Louise Upston has been asking timely and important questions about the wage subsidy. Matt Doocey has done a heap of mahi on mental health, and is asking hard, important questions on a sector where the government, in my view, has let us down really badly. Gerry Brownlee started a podcast, and it's pretty good!

Maybe Collins' is the hardest job in politics, and maybe that's because we find out who you are.

Janet Wilson, an experienced, smart and measured former journalist and communications expert, worked loyally and stoically alongside Collins through the agony of the last election campaign. So appalled has she been by the National leader's performance she recently described her as "Muldoonist", as paranoid, leading a party "floundering, saddled with endless entitleditis" and on a path to "irrelevance".

Senior members of John Key's slick ninth floor team talk privately, but with striking candour, and more than a little despair, about the state of the leadership today. And who can blame them? Key and Bill English and others must weep at the sight of a years-long project to cement National as the sensible voice of a modern middle New Zealand collapsing a little further with each spring-loaded outburst from Collins.

You can understand why National MPs might shrink from the idea of another destabilising leadership change. You can understand why those who see themselves as potential leaders might have been calculating that it would be best to wait until after the next election.

But when the door is unhinged so far from its frame that it's flown to another dimension, when your reputation as a party is so rapidly corroding, when your leader appears glued to the dirty politics poison of years past, when your leader is indistinguishable from a pseudonymous Twitter account ending in six random digits, when the country remains in a serious crisis that demands serious people, we're fast arriving at a point where National demanding anything but change at the top is not just foolish, it's irresponsible.

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The Spinoff: New Zealand urgently needs a serious opposition leader - New Zealand Herald

An Auckland couple flouted alert level 4 lockdown rules by crossing the border and flying to their holiday home in Wanaka, police say.

The couple a 26-year-old woman and 35-year-old man crossed the alert level 4 border using essential worker exemptions.

They then drove to Hamilton Airport, before flying to their holiday home in Wanaka.

A police spokesperson said the couple would be prosecuted after failing to return to their place of residence within the alert level 4 area after leaving for approved essential personal movement.

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The couple would be issued with a summons to appear in court in the coming week, police said.

Police said the event was one of a small number of disappointing incidents at Aucklands southern boundary recently.

Other incidents include a group of three who were stopped at the Mangatawhiri Road/State Highway 2 checkpoint on Saturday when they attempted to cross the boundary under the guise of essential workers.

The group presented checkpoint staff with a document containing the letterhead of an essential business.

However, following questioning by police they admitted they did not have an exemption and were issued a warning by police, before being sent home.

Police said the group could face enforcement action if they breached the rules again.

What is most frustrating for police is that these incidents detract from the overall high level of compliance shown to date by the public, said the spokesperson.

As of 5pm on Saturday, 61 people have been charged with a total of 71 offences in Auckland since the alert level 4 restrictions came into place.

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Covid-19: Auckland couple face prosecution after flying to holiday home in Wanaka, police say - Stuff.co.nz