After a massive backlash, I doubt there was any other choice



https://www.msn.com/en-nz/news/national/...390d&ei=10


"Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey has told a Rural Health Conference he is committed to keeping the Suicide Prevention Office open after he was caught off guard by a ministry proposal to close the office, disestablish a number of roles and subsume the function of the office into a broader team.
The proposed closure of the office was the first topic raised with Doocey during a Q and A session following his speech opening the conference this morning.
Doocey, the country’s first ever Mental Health Minister, was caught unaware by the proposal and maintains that his understanding is that the office is not to be closed.
"Its not my understanding of what the ministry has proposed I was never briefed about that,” he said.

The ministry yesterday released a statement confirming the disestablishment of the Director of the office along with two other roles, while the remaining two would be absorbed into the wider Community Clinical and Mental Health team.
The minister reiterated that the restructure unveiled by the ministry yesterday was at this stage just a proposal.

"That’s what yesterday was. A proposal. And you can see how I responded to that proposal pretty quickly. They are proposals at the moment," he said.
"Let’s be very clear the Suicide Prevention Office will remain open."


His commitment comes as prominent mental health advocate Jazz Thornton issued a direct challenge to the government on AM on Friday morning.
"Christopher Luxon, if you shut down the Suicide Prevention Office, you will be telling people that are struggling with suicidal thoughts all around this country that their lives are worth less than your tax cuts - point blank obvious, that's what you're saying," she said."

What a complete & utter culo the man is.


He's telling schools to mark those taking part as absent.

"Associate Minister of Education David Seymour says students protesting against the climate crisis should be marked absent by schools.
Hundreds of students, some as young as 10, are marching to Parliament today as part of the school strike for climate. Protests are also being held in Auckland and Christchurch.
Seymour called it “unacceptable” for students to protest during school time.
“If students feel strongly about sending a message, they could have marched on Tuesday when there was a nationwide teacher-only day, or during the upcoming school holidays.
“My expectation is that schools will treat students protesting today as explained but unjustified absences.”


His nibs can 'expect' all he wants; I hope schools have more understanding & more sense. He seems completely out of touch on virtually everything, including the fact that its going to be these kids who will have to live with the consequences of both our actions & those of the generations who came before us.
Total pito.

Also worth a read:

https://www.scientificamerican.com/artic...m-history/

Very Interesting:

https://www.scientificamerican.com/artic...e-in-2024/

This tragedy has prompted a very different reaction from authorities to that in America.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-68712104

[b]"A child has been killed and two others seriously wounded in a shooting at a school in Finland, police say.[/b]
Police said all three victims were 12 and that a suspect, also aged 12, had fled but was later detained.
Parents told Finnish media that the shooting had taken place in a classroom at Viertola school in Vantaa, to the north of the capital, Helsinki.
Authorities have now opened an investigation into murder and attempted murder.

Children under the age of 15 are not criminally liable in Finland, so the suspect has not been remanded in custody and will be placed in the care of social services after further questioning.
The suspect is understood to have used a gun licensed to a close relative. Gun ownership is widespread in Finland and children over 15 can have licences to use other people's firearms.

Prime Minister Petteri Orpo described the shooting as deeply upsetting and said it was evident too many young people struggled with their mental health: "We have to be able to tackle these issues sooner."
President Alexander Stubb spoke of his shock. A day of mourning will take place in Finland on Wednesday.


Education Minister Anna-Maja Henriksson was on the verge of tears when she told a news conference that what had happened was a great tragedy. Her thoughts were with the "12-year-old who will never come home from school again".
It was shocking that a child of 12 could get hold of a gun, she said, and once the government had a complete picture, it would consider whether further measures needed to be taken to protect Finland's schools."

A 7.4 quake, the strongest in 25 years, has hit Taiwan, knocking buildings from their foundations & there have been landslides in the mountains. 



https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-68719996

[b]"A 7.4 magnitude earthquake struck off Taiwan's east coast on Wednesday, setting off tsunami warnings on the island and its neighbouring countries.[/b]
The epicentre is located about 18km (11mi) south of Taiwan's Hualien city, according to the US Geological Survey.
Multiple buildings have partially collapsed in Hualien and are shown leaning at precarious angles.
It is Taiwan's strongest earthquake in 25 years, said seismology officials.

In neighbouring Japan, tsunami waves of up to 3m were expected to reach large areas of its southwestern coast, said the Japan Meteorological Agency.
The agency has warned residents to remain "vigilant for aftershocks with similar intensity" for about a week.
The Philippines' seismology agency has also issued a tsunami warning.
Chinese state media said tremors were felt in parts of China's south-eastern Fujian province.
"The earthquake is close to land and it's shallow. It's felt all over Taiwan and offshore islands... It's the strongest in 25 years," said Wu Chien Fu, the director of Taipei's Seismology Centre."

I saw this article this morning:

COVID-19: Coroner can't tell if teen boy died from vaccine or virus https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zeala...virus.html (also in the Herald).

As well as the coroner's uncertainty on the actual cause of death - virus versus vaccine - it has some good basic data

"This is one of four deaths which had been reported to the Covid-19 Vaccine Independent Safety Monitoring Board as being possibly linked to the vaccine as of 2024."

"Overall, more than 13 million vaccines have been administered to people in New Zealand, and 3923 people have died as a result of the virus."

and "... the chances of contracting myocarditis as a result of a Covid-19 vaccine was about six per million people."

Its brilliant that we have them, but shameful that we need them. Successive govts should be thoroughly ashamed of themselves. 
But with one exception it seems that they lack the capacity.
AFAIK, Jim Bolger is the only former PM or MP, to have had the guts to publicly say they were wrong.

https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zeala...plete.html

"It's taken several years, thousands of volunteer hours and a whole lot of emotional hard slog – but the Southern Charity Hospital is now built.

Brian Bilston

https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=973...5340289295

She may have a point. It does seem that they have no compunction about continuing to muck up the planet, allowing mining companies to virtually buy their candidate in the election, if the article in the second link has it right.

https://www.1news.co.nz/2024/04/02/untet...tion-plan/

[b]"In response to the announcement, Green Party co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick said there were no surprises nor "meaningful solutions" in the Government's "bingo card for environmental destruction and trickle-down economics".[/b]
“Christopher Luxon is not in the boardroom anymore. The irony is these bullet points wouldn’t even hold up in the corporate world: vague, immeasurable and untethered from reality and evidence as they are.

“What on earth does raising the energy New Zealand brings to international relationships mean? For who precisely, and how in reality, does the Government want to ‘improve the rental market’?"
She said when someone showed you who they were you should believe them and the Government had shown that its focus was "squarely on gutting environmental, climate and social gains in order to line the pockets of a few at the top".
"They could at least be honest about it."


Really - 'be honest??!' A politician?? A Tory politician?!!




I recall the Welsh politician who helped set up the  Brit NHS, Nye Bevin, having some interesting - & colourful - thoughts on Tory Politicians...



https://newsroom.co.nz/2024/02/23/big-co...-campaign/


"It was the 1908 miners’ strike in Blackball on the West Coast that led to the birth of the Labour Party.


So there was a rich vein of irony last year when Stockton mine management stopped work, called a meeting and told all its 310 workers to vote for its own man instead.
“That certainly pisses me off, given the advocacy that I have undertaken for the mining industry on the Coast, through all my time in Parliament,” says Labour’s Damien O’Connor.



The veteran MP is smarting at a revelation in new disclosures published by the Electoral Commission: ASX-listed mining firm Bathurst Resources donated $32,600 to 29-year-old independent Patrick Phelps to fully fund his campaign for more mining on the West Coast. 
Candidate spending limits were $32,600 at last year’s election. So Bathurst, unhappy with a Labour policy banning more mining of conservation land, funded Phelps’ entire campaign – every last dollar. It gave him a far bigger war chest than the more established candidates."