Politics Central

National is calling for the Government to move Covid-19 quarantine and managed isolation facilities away from central Auckland as a way to safeguard New Zealand largest city from future lockdowns.
Chris Bishop, the party's spokesman for Covid-19 response, says this could be in the form of a purpose-built facility on the outskirts of Auckland.
There are currently 5583 people in managed isolation facilities and 76 in quarantine, many are housed in facilities within the Auckland CBD.
Hotels in the central city currently being used for MIQ are the Pullman, Stamford Plaza, Rydges, M Social and the Grand Millennium.

The National Party's spokesman for Covid-19 response Chris Bishop. Photo / NZME
"The recent Pullman hotel cases showed just how much risk Auckland is at of another community outbreak because of the ingrained problems with MIQ," Bishop says.
"New Zealand can't afford to keep yo-yoing in and out of lockdown and Auckland's economy can't afford to keep bleeding more than $30 million per day."
Bishop said the Victoria government was currently planning a cabin-style hub outside Melbourne's CBD to replace its MIQ hotels following a recent outbreak that led to a lockdown.
"This facility will likely be a village of single-storey pre-fabricated structures with separate ventilation systems for each room. Returnees share the facility but not the same roof," he said.
"Having ample fresh air reduces the risk of airborne transmission among returnees, while the isolated location makes it harder for the virus to find its way into heavily-populated urban areas where it can spread faster."
National believes a similar facility should be built on vacant land near Auckland Airport, Bishop says and is calling for urgent investigations to begin.
The cost could be covered by contributions from the Government, private sector, and payments by returning New Zealanders."A purpose-built facility may prove expensive but its cost will be dwarfed by the economic hit of putting Auckland into more lockdowns," Bishop said.
"The Government should act now to get ahead of the problem before another Covid-19 outbreak forces yet another lockdown. We have had more than enough wake-up calls."
Professors of Public Health at the University of Otago Nick Wilson and Michael Baker had called for the closure of MIQ facilities in Auckland "to protect such a key economic centre" and eliminate shared-space use in the facilities.
"It's clear that New Zealand will need MIQ facilities for some time to come with mass vaccination unlikely until the end of the year," Bishop says.
"We have done well to keep Covid-19 from taking hold but this has come at great cost. Maintaining this effort will require innovative thinking, particularly as the virus mutates.
Bishop said if done right, the new facility could be converted into housing once it has finished serving its initial purpose.

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For 13 years, lawyer Megyn Kelly was one of Fox News' most prominent hosts, including hosting the primetime news show The Kelly File for just over three years.
She left in early-2017 after tense moments for Donald Trump on the election campaign pushed her further into the global spotlight.
After speaking out on sexual harassment at Fox and a tenure with NBC, Kelly now hosts her own podcast - The Megyn Kelly Show
In a wide-ranging discussion with The Weekend Collective, Kelly discussed the freedom of getting her podcast, her time with Fox, the pros and cons of working there, her conflict with Trump, the insurrection on Capitol Hill, the impeachment trial, and the future of the Republican Party.
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New data suggests that it may be seven years before the world is normal again after Covid.
The research from Bloomberg says that because of unexpected disruptions the timeline is hard to pin down exactly.
Another factor to consider is that different countries will take different amounts of time to gain herd immunity.
The US, for example, is predicted to have herd immunity just in time for the New Year 2022.
Israel meanwhile is expected to have 75 percent coverage within months. 
Otago University epidemiologist Micheal Baker told The Weekend Collective that the report may have failed to consider some factors.
"[One] thing that I think the Bloomberg paper is pessimistic about, it didn't factor in the massive upscaling that is occurring with production all around the world."
He says that vaccines need to be distributed evenly to prevent the pandemic dragging on.
"We have new tools coming out with vaccines that we know can protect populations, and there is a bit of a vaccine nationalism coming in."
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The Government's handling of managed isolation and visa processes has been described as "inconsistent".
A last-minute flip by managed isolation officials has given hope too the family of a New Zealand man stuck in Japan with brain cancer.
46-year-old Trev Ponting had his application for emergency spots in MIQ turned down on Friday.
But after media interest in his case, his family found out last night that the decision has been reversed.
The same day the story was made public, the Government prevented the Le Laperouse cruise ship from docking.
It was approved to operate sub-Antarctic tours with only New Zealand passengers, but it began making its way here before the crew's visas were approved, and 61 out of 90 have been declined twice.
Earlier in the week, Australian kids group The Wiggles were granted MIQ spots, after failing to secure them before selling out multiple shows across New Zealand in a tour coming this March. 
Former National Party minister turned public policy advisor Steven Joyce told The Weekend Collective that some of the decisions have been ad-hoc and tone-deaf.
"If it gets publicity, then it tends to get overturned. It seems that the answer is kick up the public fuss."
He says that the Government appears to be acting very reactively to issues at the border, and given that Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has said the border will be closed for the rest of 2021, he wants to see improvements to the system. 
"I know stacks and stacks of companies all over the country who desperately need key people in the country to do particular work," citing Ports of Auckland as one. 
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Contradicting his secretary of state and other top officials, President Donald Trump on Saturday suggested without evidence that China — not Russia — may be behind the cyber espionage operation against the United States and tried to minimize its impact.
In his first comments on the breach, Trump scoffed at the focus on the Kremlin and downplayed the intrusions, which the nation's cybersecurity agency has warned posed a "grave" risk to government and private networks.
"The Cyber Hack is far greater in the Fake News Media than in actuality. I have been fully briefed and everything is well under control," Trump tweeted. He also claimed the media are "petrified" of "discussing the possibility that it may be China (it may!)."
There is no evidence to suggest that is the case. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said late Friday that Russia was "pretty clearly" behind the operation against the United States.
"This was a very significant effort and I think it's the case that now we can say pretty clearly that it was the Russians that engaged in this activity," Pompeo said in the interview with radio talk show host Mark Levin.
Officials at the White House had been prepared to put out a statement Friday afternoon that accused Russia of being "the main actor" in the hack, but were told at the last minute to stand down, according to one U.S. official familiar with the conversations who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss private deliberations.
It is not clear whether Pompeo got that message before his interview, but officials are now scrambling to figure out how to square the disparate accounts. The White House did not immediately respond to questions about the statement or the basis of Trump's claims. The State Department also did not respond to questions about Pompeo's remarks.
Throughout his presidency, Trump has refused to blame Russia for well-documented hostilities, including its interference in the 2016 election to help him get elected. He blamed his predecessor, Barack Obama, for Russia's annexation of Crimea, has endorsed allowing Russia to return to the G-7 group of nations and has never taken the country to task for allegedly putting bounties on U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan.
Pompeo in the interview said the government was still "unpacking" the cyberespionage operation and some of it would likely remain classified.
"But suffice it to say there was a significant effort to use a piece of third-party software to essentially embed code inside of U.S. government systems and it now appears systems of private companies and companies and governments across the world as well," he said.
Though Pompeo was the first Trump administration official to publicly blame Russia for the intrusion, cybersecurity experts and other U.S. officials have been clear over the past week that the operation appears to be the work of Russia. There has been no credible suggestion that any other country — including China — is responsible.
Democrats in Congress who have received classified briefings have also affirmed publicly that Russia, which in 2014 hacked the State Department and interfered through hacking in the 2016 presidential election, was behind it.
It's not clear exactly what the hackers were seeking, but experts say it could include nuclear secrets, blueprints for advanced weaponry, COVID-19 vaccine-related research and information for dossiers on government and industry leaders.
Russia has said it had "nothing to do" with the hacking.
While Trump downplayed the impact of the hacks, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency has said it compromised federal agencies as well as "critical infrastructure." Homeland Security, the agency's parent department, defines such infrastructure as any "vital" assets to the U.S. or its economy, a broad category that could include power plants and financial institutions.
One U.S. official, speaking Thursday on condition of...

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The Government has been criticised for leaving two major announcements to the week before Christmas. 
On Thursday, the Government announced it is buying the land at Ihumātao from Fletchers for $30 million under a deal that will see it used for some housing – and could eventually see it passed into the ownership of tangata whenua.
Then on Friday, a prepared by the COVID-19 Surveillance and Testing Strategy advisory group, co-chaired by Heather Simpson and Sir Brian Roche, slated the Ministry of Health for bad communication around the criteria for testing, and keeping ministers in the dark about concerns raised by other government departments.
Former Minister Peter Dunne told The Weekend Collective that all Governments do it, but this year was particularly bad with the Covid report and the Ihumātao decision.
He says that they held the Covid report until this week, and it looks like media management in its highest form. 
"Particularly with the Covid issue as it's flared up again in Australia right now, we need to be absolutely certain that we've got the best systems in place in New Zealand to manage this, and I think delaying the report gives a little bit of anxiety that perhaps we don't." 
He says both of these issues were live all year and they should have come out earlier. 
Dunne agreed that the Covid report, which was finished several months ago, should have been released much earlier. 
"I think particularly when the Prime Minister herself said she had never taken politicos into account when making any decision on Covid. They acted politically."
He says that releasing the Ihumātao deal this week also raises the suspicions about potential consequences. 
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The hopes of millions of Britons that Covid-19 restrictions would be eased over Christmas were dashed on Saturday, after scientists warned a new strain of the virus is spreading more quickly than others.
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced a series of stricter coronavirus restrictions, tightening rules around household mixing that were due to be relaxed over Christmas in England, while leaders in Scotland and Wales also introduced more stringent measures. The UK has among the highest Covid death rates in Europe, with more than 67,000 fatalities, and over 2 million cases.
The PM broke the news that London, and large parts of southern and eastern England, where cases are surging, will enter Tier 4 restrictions, similar to a lockdown, on Sunday.
"The spread is being driven by the new variant of the virus," Johnson said in a hastily called press conference. "It appears to spread more easily and may be up to 70% more transmissable than the earlier strain."
England's chief medical officer, Professor Chris Whitty, warned Saturday that a newly identified variant of Covid-19 "can spread more quickly" than previous strains of the virus.
"This is now spreading very fast," Johnson warned. "It is with a very heavy heart that I say we cannot continue with Christmas as planned."
Johnson outlined that in Tier 4 areas under the toughest restrictions, there will be no possibility for household mixing over Christmas. In areas under lower alert levels in England, Scotland and Wales, mixing will now be permitted only on Christmas Day.
Alert Level 4 restrictions will be brought forward to apply across Wales from midnight, the country's First Minister Mark Drakeford announced Saturday, meaning that "festive bubbles" can be formed only on Christmas Day, PA Media reported. Under Alert Level 4, people must stay at home except for very limited purposes, and must not meet other households or people they do not live with, while many businesses are required to close.
Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon on Saturday said a strict travel ban would be implemented throughout the Christmas period north of the border, warning that people from Scotland should not visit other parts of the UK, and vice versa.
"In order to reduce the risk of more of the coronavirus strain being imported into Scotland, we intend to maintain a strict travel ban between Scotland and the rest of the UK," Sturgeon said.
Meanwhile, the toughest level of coronavirus restrictions will be applied to all of mainland Scotland for three weeks from December 26, she added.
No changes in restrictions in Northern Ireland, which is set to go into lockdown on Boxing Day, were announced.
Critics lambast Johnson's handling of pandemic
As recently as this week, Johnson reiterated his pledge to relax rules over the Christmas period, allowing up to three households to mix for five days. But as of Saturday, the entire nation is being asked not to travel and those under the highest level of restrictions, will not be allowed to travel abroad except for work purposes.
Keir Starmer, leader of the opposition Labour Party, criticized the government's handling of the crisis, saying: "Many people will be heartbroken by the news that their Christmas plans are being ripped up.
"I'm really frustrated because I raised this with the Prime Minister on Wednesday, and he dismissed that. He went on to tell people to have a 'merry little Christmas,' only three days later, to rip up their plans," he said on Sky News.
Experts urgently seek clarity on new strain of the virus
According to Whitty, the new variant is responsible for 60% of infections in London, which have nearly doubled in the last week.
Earlier, he said "urgent work" is underway to establish whether the new strain, prevalent in the southeast of England, can cause a higher mortality rate.
"There is no current evidence to suggest the new strain causes a...

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US Covid-19 hospitalizations hit a record high for the seventh day in a row Saturday with 108,487 patients in hospitals around the country, according to the Covid Tracking Project.
And the number of Covid-19 cases reported in the United States reached more than 16 million after the country added 1 million cases in just four days, according to Johns Hopkins University data.
It took the nation more than eight months to reach 8 million cases but less than two months to double that, as the number of new cases continues to soar.
The record hospitalizations come as a US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advisory committee voted Saturday to recommend the Pfizer and BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine for patients 16 and older.
CDC Director Dr. Robert Redfield must accept the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices' (ACIP) recommendation before vaccinations can begin. That is expected to happen within hours.
The vaccine couldn't come at a more dire moment.
On Friday, as the US Food and Drug Administration authorized the Pfizer vaccine for emergency use, the US recorded more than 3,300 Covid-19 deaths -- the most ever in one day, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. More than 231,700 new cases were reported, another pandemic high.
There have been more than 100,000 Covid-19 patients in hospitals every day since December 2.
Dr. Peter Szilagyi, a pediatrician at the University of California Los Angeles and a member of the CDC's advisory committee, said he voted in favor of the vaccine "because of the clear evidence of its efficacy/safety profile and benefit/risk profile, based on our evidence and policy framework."
"I know we're going to have very tough and hard times ahead because of the surge and a limited vaccine supply," Szilagyi said immediately following the committee's vote. "But I am really hopeful that this is the beginning of the end of the coronavirus pandemic."
Vaccines will be delivered to 145 facilities on Monday
The emergency use authorization (EUA) is a "significant milestone," FDA Commissioner Dr. Stephen Hahn said in a statement Friday. He said it comes after an "open and transparent review process that included input from independent scientific and public health experts and a thorough evaluation by the agency's career scientists."
An EUA stops short of a full approval. Pfizer would have to file a separate application for its vaccine to be fully licensed by the FDA.
But the EUA "holds the promise to alter the course of this pandemic in the United States," said Dr. Peter Marks, director of the FDA's Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research.
Once the vaccines leave Pfizer's Kalamazoo facility, they'll be bound for 636 locations across the country, Gen. Gustave Perna, chief operating officer of the federal government's vaccine initiative Operation Warp Speed, said in a news conference Saturday.
"We expect 145 sites across all the states to receive the vaccine on Monday, another 425 sites on Tuesday, and the final 66 sites on Wednesday, which will complete the initial delivery of the Pfizer orders for the vaccine," Perna added.
But it will be months before most Americans will get one. Advisers to the CDC have recommended health care workers and long-term care facility residents be first in line.
In a news conference Saturday morning, Hahn praised FDA scientists working around the clock to review the vaccine.
"I will absolutely take this Covid-19 vaccine pending availability and distribution," he said, "because I have complete trust and confidence in the FDA's career staff's evaluation."
"Science and data guided the FDA's decision," he said.
That said, the FDA's "work evaluating the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine does not end with this authorization," Hahn told reporters.
Additional review is needed, and a full approval is not expected for months.
Of course, Pfizer and BioNTech's vaccine is just one...

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At the same time Speaker Trevor Mallard was being sued for defamation, he changed the rules so other MPs could also have theirs covered by the taxpayer without disclosing it publicly.
National and Act leaders yesterday said they no longer had confidence in the Speaker after he revealed he'd cost the taxpayer more than $330,600 settling a case after incorrectly calling a former Parliamentary staffer a rapist.
It has also now come to light that the rules for when MPs can claim legal costs when they're being sued were expanded by the Speaker in August so damages and settlements can come from the public purse.
Those applications have to be signed off by the party leader, the Speaker and chief executive of Parliamentary Service.
It brings the rules for ordinary MPs in line with ministers; however, only ministers are subject to public disclosure rules under the Official Information Act. Other MPs and Parliamentary Services are exempt from having to disclose when legal costs are claimed.
Mallard's case was handled by Deputy Speaker Anne Tolley and it was considered that because the Speaker is the Minister responsible for Parliamentary Services, the same rules should apply as for ministers.
The process for Mallard's legal costs was signed off by Tolley rather than Cabinet.
Former Attorney-General Chris Finlayson told The Weekend Collective that it doesn't seem that Mallard has done any harm here.
"Most of the work on this issue was done by the Anne Tolley, so I don't think that Mr Mallard altered the rules to suit himself."
He says it would be helpful to clarify what Tolley's role was.
On the ongoing issues, which has sparked calls for Mallard to go, Finlayson says that those calls from National and ACT are a "non-issue". 
"Labour's the majority in the House, and any vote of no confidence will be sort of ritualistic rubbish."
He says that MPs can make comments under Parliamentary privilege, but any comments made outside of the Chamber leave the MP open to being sued. 
"I don't have a lot of patience for MPs who leave the Chamber and make all sorts of wild allegations against people. And if people sue them for defamation, then it's their bad luck."

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The delays on a Cook Islands travel bubble is causing a headache for the country.
Quarantine-free travel between our two countries is hoped to be set up by the end of March next year.
Before the pandemic more than 160-thousand people visited the island each year - most of them Kiwis.
The head of the Cook Islands Chamber of Commerce and Private Sector says the wait is frustrating.
Fletcher Melvin told The Weekend Collective they're desperate for tourism to return.
"The disappointing part of this is we still don't have a firm date and from what we can see there's no real reason around it," noting that the country remains Covid free.
Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins says we're getting ready to open up - but there're still some logistics and outbreak planning matters to be ticked off.
He says that includes arrangements with airlines and airports.
"One of the issues we're working through with the airlines now is making sure that any air crews working in safe travel zones are segregated from air crews working in the hot zones if you like."

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