05:00, May 05 2021
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Deputy PM Grant Robertson: he will establish a new unit to support policy delivery.
EDITORIAL: The Government’s new “implementation unit’’ is easily portrayed as farcical. To be embedded in the potent Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, the unit will “monitor and support’’ the progress of key initiatives. All of which makes it an interventionist tool and a target for reproach and mockery. Not just a small bullseye target, but a veritable dartboard of them. Naturally the central focus for the dart-throwers is that it looks a lot like an abject admission of the truth behind the frequent charges that the Government too often has failed to deliver on its policies, as evidenced by the failures of KiwiBuild and light rail initiatives.
Federal VAERS database a critical research tool, breeding ground for misinformation
PolitiFact explores the federal governmentâs Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System.
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Student registered nurse Camille Endicio prepares Pfizer COVID-19 vaccination syringes at a mobile COVID-19 clinic on Tuesday in Los Angeles. [ AL SEIB | Los Angeles Times ]
By Gabrielle Settles, PolitiFact
Published 3 hours ago
An Instagram post says: â6,000% Increase in Reported Vaccine Deaths 1st Quarter 2021 Compared to 1st Quarter 2020.â
An article from a media outlet called The Daily Expose carried the headline: âNumber of women to lose their unborn child after having the COVID vaccine increases by 366% in just six weeks.â
Matthew Hooton: Judith Collins speech raises important issues for Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern
2 May, 2021 05:00 AM
7 minutes to read
National leader Judith Collins, with list MPs Nicola Willis and Chris Bishop. Photo / Mark Mitchell
NZ Herald
Those hoping for crude race-baiting in Judith Collins big speech were disappointed. The National leader s address was more moderate, serious and considered than expected. Building on inquiries by Act, Collins raised important questions about the Government s He Puapua working group report, which outlines a detailed plan for New Zealand s most sweeping constitutional transformation since 1840. Collins speech may betray political desperation, as Māori Crown Relations Minister Kelvin Davis claims.
Heather SImpson is vaccinated against COVID-19 at Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas.
Tara Haelle
Heather Simpson dressed up as measles for Halloween in 2019 because it was, as she told her growing following on social media, the “least scary thing I could think of.” The Dallas mom was then a full-fledged anti-vaccine influencer, drawing tens of thousands of likes and comments on her Facebook posts that denied the safety and necessity of childhood vaccinations.
But today most of the thousands who recirculated those posts have abandoned and shunned her. On a mid-April afternoon, Simpson battled traffic into downtown Dallas to reach Baylor University Medical Center for her first dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine against COVID-19. Clad in jeans and a black “Kiss Me I’m Vaccinated” T-shirt and a mask the upbeat thirty-year-old said she wouldn’t back out, despite her anxiety.
Audrey Young: Labour s manifesto now has the teeth it lacked last term
29 Apr, 2021 05:00 PM
4 minutes to read
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern emerges from her home on election night having secured an outright majority. Photo / Jackson Meecham
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern emerges from her home on election night having secured an outright majority. Photo / Jackson Meecham
OPINION:
The implementation of Labour s manifesto this term is so much simpler with a clear majority than it was last term in a three-way Government arrangement. Everything in it can expect to be implemented over the next three years - and under MMP that is not a given.