Dave

There is an announcement post here: https://lemmy.nz/post/25124710

We drew this last time:

Any suggestions for what we could draw this time? I'm happy to put together a template, it would be nice to have some new ideas for this year.

New Zealanders with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) will now have easier access to diagnosis and medication after the government changed prescribing rules.

But there is still so much we don’t know about ADHD in Aotearoa. And while these changes will help many, easier access to medication alone won’t fill the gaps in other supports people with ADHD need to live well.

From February 2026 trained GPS and nurse practitioners will be able to diagnose and treat ADHD. Under the current system, only paediatricians or psychiatrists can make the diagnosis. GPs and nurse practitioners then provide followup care.

The current process – which is both time-consuming and expensive – has been widely criticised. The government’s changes are expected to at least partially address these issues.

Worldwide estimates suggest ADHD in adults ranges from 2.5% to 3.4% of most populations. But England’s 2023 Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey found 13.9% of adults met criteria warranting clinical assessment. Only 0.5% had been professionally diagnosed.

Recent research found 0.6% of the adult population in New Zealand was receiving drug treatment for ADHD. Based on a conservative estimate of 2.6% of adults with ADHD, this shows a large “treatment gap” exists.

Māori and Pacific peoples are less likely to receive ADHD medications. These inequities begin early. Tamariki Māori screened for ADHD at age four are less likely to receive medication than their non-Māori peers.

There are also substantial differences in the age of diagnosis across sociodemographic groups. These inequities raise serious concerns about access and systemic bias.

International research shows untreated ADHD is linked to worse mental and physical health, higher mortality, and reduced life expectancy.

ADHD prevalence is also five times higher among youth prisoners and ten times higher among adult prisoners compared to the general population. In Australia, ADHD’s social and economic costs are estimated at A$20.42 billion per year, or $25,071 per person.

Adult women were overrepresented in the sample, constituting 83% of the 689 participants, with over 80% reporting being diagnosed after age 24, reflecting global trends of underdiagnosis in early age among women.

Growing evidence shows many of the negative outcomes of ADHD are mitigated by treatment with medication. One study from Sweden found a significant association between initiating ADHD medication treatment and lower mortality.

However, medication is only part of the solution. Strategies focused on the strengths of people with ADHD can have huge benefits for the individual, their whānau and communities. Particularly when they receive timely diagnosis, treatment and necessary accommodations.

Researchers argue that while ADHD medications provide effective treatment, they should never be the only form of treatment offered.

Expanding prescribing authority is a vital step, but this alone will do little to increase access to psychological and allied health supports to ensure the right care can be provided to people with ADHD.

Hundreds of citizen scientists are set for a stint of bird spotting as the annual New Zealand Garden Bird Survey gets underway on Saturday.

It's the 19th time that Te Tatauranga o ngā Manu Māra o Aotearoa has been held.

From now until 6 July people were encouraged to get out in their garden or go to a local park and look at and listen for birds for one hour, on one day, and record the highest number of each species they notice.

How to take part in the New Zealand Garden Bird Survey:

1. Visit the NZ Garden Bird Survey website to get started.

2. Select a garden or a local park.

3. Choose any ONE day between 28 June and 6 July.

4. Look and listen for birds on that day for ONE hour.

5. For each species, record the HIGHEST number seen or heard at one time.

6. Submit the results online via the NZ Garden Bird Survey website's Take Part page.

Apologies for the bit of downtime. I’ve just updated Lemmy.nz to 0.19.12 as well as updating pict-rs which handles images.

We have upgraded two Lemmy versions (previously we were on 0.19.10, now we are on 0.19.12).

The first is 0.19.11. The release notes are here.

For 0.19.12, the release notes are here.

Some changes:

• The Lemmy developers added a donation dialogue for donating to them.
• When registration applications are approved (or denied), you will now get an email (yay!)
• Various accessibility changes and a new theme originally used on the instance Rblind.com

There are also heaps of minor changes mentioned in the release notes linked above.

Please let me know if you find anything not working right!

A pair of fishers are likely to face charges after being caught with more than 1800 pāua in Porirua.

The pāua was seized by fishery officers based in Wellington earlier this week.

"While inspecting a vessel shortly after it landed at Titahi Bay on Tuesday afternoon, fishery officers discovered 1863 pāua, which had already been shucked," Fisheries New Zealand regional Manager Phil Tasker said.

The estimated retail value of the pāua was approximately $25,000.

Tasker said it was one of the biggest hauls of illegally harvested pāua in recent times.

"There is a maximum daily limit of five pāua per fisher in this area, which gives some context to the scale of this offending, and the potential damage it could do to the pāua population."

He said it was incredibly disappointing to see offending of this scale.

"This fishery is a shared resource, and the rules are there to protect its sustainability for everyone. Our message for those who think they can steal this shared resource is that we will pursue offending and there will be consequences."

Inland Revenue is warning that unless what the government spends its money on changes, taxes will need to increase in the coming years to cope with an ageing population.

"A core driver of these fiscal pressures is that New Zealand's population is ageing."

By 2060, a quarter of the population will be older than 65.

"This means that the amount the government needs to spend on superannuation and health care will increase if the government maintains current policy settings.

"In its last Long-term Fiscal Statement, the Treasury predicted that government expenditure will exceed government revenue by 13.3 percent of GDP by 2061 if the government takes no response to rising fiscal pressures," IRD said.

That would mean either that existing taxes would need to be levied at a higher rate - such as higher levels of income tax or GST - or there would need to be new taxes implemented.

It said New Zealand taxed a more limited set of capital gains than most other OECD countries. It could be possible to broaden that scope.

"The absence of a general approach to taxing capital gains can provide an incentive for individuals to reduce their tax liability by undertaking activities that are not taxed rather than those that are taxed.

"This can reduce government's ability to raise more revenue in a way that is progressive."

Last weeks thread here

Welcome to this week’s casual kōrero thread!

This post will be pinned in this community so you can always find it, and will stay for about a week until replaced by the next one.

It’s for talking about anything that might not justify a full post. For example:

• Something interesting that happened to you

• Something humourous that happened to you

• Something frustrating that happened to you

• A quick question

• A request for recommendations

• Pictures of your pet

• A picture of a cloud that kind of looks like an elephant

• Anything else, there are no rules (except the rule)

So how’s it going?

ACT Party Leader David Seymour is defending the Regulatory Standards Bill getting only 30 hours of public submissions allocated.

Speaking to media, Seymour said the bill was "probably the most consulted on bill this century" given it would be the bill's fourth time through the house.

But, Labour's Regulation spokesperson Duncan Webb said it was the "most rejected bill we've ever seen" and Seymour wanted to "slip it through under the radar".

Toop said it was a "travesty" that there would only be 30 hours for people to be heard in by Select Committee and the bill would insert "far-right ideology" into the law making process.

"I don't believe there's ever been a bill in this Parliament where every single written submission has been heard. A lot of people make written submissions and they ask not to be heard. That's normal." Seymour said.

Labour's Duncan Webb said the bill had so far been "rejected every time" and Seymour did not want the bill to go through a full process.

TL;DR if you haven't already, please fill in the Lemmy.nz Census (even if your account is on another instance). Skip any questions you aren't comfortable answering! Literally any!

This is a reminder post to please fill in the 2025 Lemmy.nz census survey if you haven't already.

You can see the previous post here.

None of the questions are mandatory. They cover questions about where you're from in the country/world, who you are (demographic info), how you use Lemmy and the fediverse, and some extras at the end. Skip anything you're not comfortable answering.

Everyone is welcome! If a question doesn't apply to you then just skip it. Nothing is mandatory so skip anything you don't want to answer.

I worked with Lemmy.ca to try to get a good set of questions that they will also use (with tweaks to suit their audience and learnings from ours).

Let me know if you have any questions!

Answer the Lemmy.nz 2025 Census

This will be the final reminder post.

https://lastplacecomics.com/local-voltron/

A British billionaire with links to offshore tax havens and a history of controversial political donations has been granted New Zealand residence, and he’s been meeting with government ministers in Wellington.

Peter de Putron had a packed schedule for his trip to Wellington late last year. At 10am on Monday, December 2, the British billionaire met with Todd McClay in the forestry minister’s office at the Beehive, then was back at parliament at 2pm to catch up with finance minister Nicola Willis. That evening, he had dinner with science, technology and innovation minister Judith Collins at Jardin Grill at the Sofitel Wellington (Shed 5, the first choice, was booked out). At 11am the next morning, he returned to parliament for a meeting with associate finance minister David Seymour.

Four ministers in 25 hours.

De Putron’s meeting with Seymour the following morning had been set up by Lewis, who emailed Seymour’s deputy chief of staff on October 10. “Wondering if David would be keen to meet if schedules align (its less ministerial and more as ACT leader)?” he wrote. “It would be purely a meet and greet but Peter [redacted text] so could have some insights that might be of interest to David… He expects to significantly expand his New Zealand investments over the next few years, and is building a portfolio across multiple sectors and regions.”

“Significantly expand his New Zealand investments” is a line that is likely to have made Seymour’s eyes light up.

Just two days after Lewis reached out, Seymour announced a shake-up of our overseas investment policy settings, which he said were “the worst in the developed world” – so restrictive that wealthy offshore investors were giving New Zealand the cold shoulder, he lamented. Change was coming, though: a shake-up of the Overseas Investment Act to fast-track the assessment process, with “yes” being the default message sent to international investors unless a clear risk to New Zealand was identified.

Often described as secretive, de Putron keeps out of the public eye. While his wife Hayley de Putron pops up in society snaps with the likes of Carole Middleton (mother of Catherine, Princess of Wales), not a single photo of him can be found online, but he has links to everything from Formula 1 (US court documents suggest he is the ultimate owner of the Williams F1 team, with employees referring to him as ODL or “our dear leader”), to fuel to, in New Zealand at least, forestry.

According to the MPI briefing prepared for McClay, de Putron is the sole shareholder of a company called New Zealand Forest Industries (NZFI) Ltd, through which he owns 830 hectares of commercial pine forest and 230 hectares of native bush in the Marlborough Sounds. Overseas Investment Office documents released to The Spinoff, however, suggest his land holdings total closer to 1,780 hectares. According to the documents, de Putron acquired NZFI Ltd when his British Virgin Islands-registered holding company, Issoria Offshore Ltd, was granted permission to acquire NZFI Ltd’s Singapore-registered parent company, NZFI Sing, in July 2019. NZFI Ltd owned a 1,116-hectare forest at Te Whanganui/Port Underwood in the Marlborough Sounds known as Underwood Forest. Consent was also granted for the purchase of Hakahaka Forest, a smaller “bolt-on” block immediately next to Underwood. Later that year, two further consents were granted for NZFI Ltd to acquire another unnamed block adjoining Hakahaka, as well as Whataroa Forest across the bay.

With what’s looking likely to be a tightly fought election just over a year away, the quiet quest for influence over our elected officials is likely to ramp up, and de Putron will be far from the only cashed-up client working with lobbyists to secure a spot in the diaries of our leaders. Even if the mysterious billionaire does return to New Zealand to make his presence (and feelings) known to our politicians, we may never put a face to the name. While the caricature of globetrotting billionaires may often be one of headline-grabbing interjections and flamboyance, many of the most powerful – and effective – of their number prefer to operate as invisibly as possible.