Put the adults in charge

[departed 155]

My blood is really starting to boil at the massive and permanent damage being inflicted on NZ by a bunch of socialists with no idea how the real world operates.  In particular I don't know how the racing industry will ever recover.  The NZ Herald has a couple of stories running right now about the pathetic tax package for business that will do nothing about putting money in the pockets of small business owners to enable them to survive during this lockdown and hopefully emerge further down the track able to resume their businesses.  How is playing around with tax going to help pay the rent, the mortgage, the power bills, the feed bills, and put food on the table?  Then we have former finance minister Stephen Joyce stating what should be crystal clear - that it is pie in the sky fantasy to think you can eliminate the virus.  Until a vaccine is available, it just isn't possible.  And a vaccine may never be found.  It isn't available for HIV or the common cold.  And you cannot keep your borders closed indefinitely.  In the meantime what is being done to the country is pointless and will not achieve the results Ardern thinks she can get.  If NZ ever goes back into stage 2, the country will be well and truly stuffed by then.  There will be mass unemployment, mass bankruptcy and Covid-19 will be replaced by suicide as a major cause of death.

Here in Victoria we can still do the drive through at Maccas or KFC if we want.  Bunnings and many other shops are still open.  In the regional area where we live, most shops are open.  We can buy magazines at the supermarket or newsagents.  Most importantly, we still have one or two racemeetings EVERY DAY.  Yes, the public are excluded.  Trainers can't even leg their jockeys up or enter the mounting yard.  There is no catering on course- you bring your own food and drinks.  But we are still racing, and that is the main thing.  The horses are being fed and cared for, and trainers can keep afloat. 

What I find amazing is that with a population of a million or so more than NZ, we have lower rates of new infections than NZ.  Yesterday we had no new cases and we have been in the single figures for most of the last week.  NZ still has 10-20 new cases a day.  And that is after 3 weeks of total lockdown.  Why is no-one asking why there are still this many new cases?  We haven't been in total lockdown but we are getting fewer cases.  Why aren't you guys jumping up and down demanding answers?  NZ is going to seriously regret having this seriously out of her depth virtue signaller par extraordinaire in charge when people with serious business and real life experience are needed.

[Gruff 2,793]

Good to see some people are still wide awake. 

[Red Rum 1,833]

18 minutes ago, departed said:

My blood is really starting to boil at the massive and permanent damage being inflicted on NZ by a bunch of socialists with no idea how the real world operates.  In particular I don't know how the racing industry will ever recover.  The NZ Herald has a couple of stories running right now about the pathetic tax package for business that will do nothing about putting money in the pockets of small business owners to enable them to survive during this lockdown and hopefully emerge further down the track able to resume their businesses.  How is playing around with tax going to help pay the rent, the mortgage, the power bills, the feed bills, and put food on the table?  Then we have former finance minister Stephen Joyce stating what should be crystal clear - that it is pie in the sky fantasy to think you can eliminate the virus.  Until a vaccine is available, it just isn't possible.  And a vaccine may never be found.  It isn't available for HIV or the common cold.  And you cannot keep your borders closed indefinitely.  In the meantime what is being done to the country is pointless and will not achieve the results Ardern thinks she can get.  If NZ ever goes back into stage 2, the country will be well and truly stuffed by then.  There will be mass unemployment, mass bankruptcy and Covid-19 will be replaced by suicide as a major cause of death.

Here in Victoria we can still do the drive through at Maccas or KFC if we want.  Bunnings and many other shops are still open.  In the regional area where we live, most shops are open.  We can buy magazines at the supermarket or newsagents.  Most importantly, we still have one or two racemeetings EVERY DAY.  Yes, the public are excluded.  Trainers can't even leg their jockeys up or enter the mounting yard.  There is no catering on course- you bring your own food and drinks.  But we are still racing, and that is the main thing.  The horses are being fed and cared for, and trainers can keep afloat. 

What I find amazing is that with a population of a million or so more than NZ, we have lower rates of new infections than NZ.  Yesterday we had no new cases and we have been in the single figures for most of the last week.  NZ still has 10-20 new cases a day.  And that is after 3 weeks of total lockdown.  Why is no-one asking why there are still this many new cases?  We haven't been in total lockdown but we are getting fewer cases.  Why aren't you guys jumping up and down demanding answers?  NZ is going to seriously regret having this seriously out of her depth virtue signaller par extraordinaire in charge when people with serious business and real life experience are needed.

I think it is starting to get to point where life needs to move on a small bit and it appears it will or the economy will be a waste ground. Hospitals hardly overun so thats one acheivement of the lockdown .However racing was in the cack here way before this virus , any industry that has muppets miss calculating 3.8 mill in some bonus bet double up fiasco when money was tight anyway probably needs a kick up the back side and some accountants maybe retrained if iam being kind . Unfortunately those at the lower income scale will cop it .

Racing will need to be leaner , I've got no idea whatsoever how it will end but it's no good blaming all racings problems on this. 

[barryb 2,064]

Don't disagree with a large portion of what you say, however there  are a few key facts that need to be mentioned before we compare Victoria v NZ. Firstly as the graph below shows, Australia is significantly further down the track in time since its first infection compared to NZ, so you would expect strategies of containment to be showing better results if they were working. NZ includes in all its figures those whom the testing is negative but display the classic symptoms, does Victoria?. The economic impacts are going to be more noticeable in 6 - 12 months as to which strategy was more effective. Either way NZ & Australia are going to be much better placed than say the UK or USA whom to start with operated a much softer mitigation strategy. Whilst I dislike Jacinda and her lot as much as you do, its worth noting that not a single member of Parliament was opposed to the 4 week lockdown.

[MisterEd 328]

1 hour ago, departed said:

Yesterday we had no new cases and we have been in the single figures for most of the last week.

Dubious. How many have been tested? Some North Korean reporting going on there for sure!

[Archer 296]

Nice to see Ted has another name ....  

[tripple alliance 1,026]

4 hours ago, barryb said:

, proven wrong , not even close Don't disagree with a large portion of what you say, however there  are a few key facts that need to be mentioned before we compare Victoria v NZ. Firstly as the graph below shows, Australia is significantly further down the track in time since its first infection compared to NZ, so you would expect strategies of containment to be showing better results if they were working. NZ includes in all its figures those whom the testing is negative but display the classic symptoms, does Victoria?. The economic impacts are going to be more noticeable in 6 - 12 months as to which strategy was more effective. Either way NZ & Australia are going to be much better placed than say the UK or USA whom to start with operated a much softer mitigation strategy. Whilst I dislike Jacinda and her lot as much as you do, its worth noting that not a single member of Parliament was opposed to the 4 week lockdown.

Correct , members of parliament all agreed BASED ON NOW DISCREDITED predictions .

Fourteen thousand fatalities. Two-thirds of the population infected.

Up to 32,000 needing hospital care. Four thousand Kiwis potentially needing ventilators.

The numbers constantly flowing out of New Zealand's best modelling teams are big and scary, to say the least.