Written By: - Date published: 9:49 am, April 26th, 2012 - 72 comments
You’d think we’d draw some obvious conclusions from the Arctic melt. Apparently not though. We’re in a hole, but we’re going to keep digging…
Written By: - Date published: 4:30 pm, April 13th, 2012 - 33 comments
Christchurch has declared itself a fracking free zone. Symbolic gesture? Perhaps – but this was how Nuclear Free New Zealand got started…
Written By: - Date published: 12:29 pm, April 5th, 2012 - 77 comments
Green Party MPs Catherine Delahunty and Gareth Hughes invite you to a series of hui to discuss the Government’s broad “drill it, mine it” agenda for Aotearoa – what’s happening, what does it mean to our environment and communities and how do we stop it.
Written By: - Date published: 2:39 pm, March 22nd, 2012 - 14 comments
John Key was busy last night working for the causes of Aussie miner Bathurst, “officiating” at the opening of their lobbying office, and pressuring DoC to give them concessions to the Denniston plateau and help them destroy a unique ecosystem. How much more of him can NZ’s “clean, green” image take?
Written By: - Date published: 9:51 pm, March 13th, 2012 - 16 comments
The trailers for John Key’s Thursday speech are calling it for a ” new super-Ministry” under the command of Steven Joyce. Merger isn’t the issue – the policy direction is. If Joyce just stays focussed on roads of national significance, mines and oil wells of national significance, and casinos of national significance it will be another waste of time reshuffle. If it becomes genuinely high quality export focussed, then it may prove worthwhile. Fingers crossed.
Written By: - Date published: 11:21 am, February 26th, 2012 - 68 comments
While most of us talk about “saving the world” some people act.
Written By: - Date published: 7:28 am, December 8th, 2011 - 51 comments
Is the John Key Party actively trying to trash New Zealand’s fragile “100% Pure” brand?
Written By: - Date published: 8:40 am, December 3rd, 2011 - 103 comments
Quite apart from the broken promise, isn’t it the job of a “Conservation” Minister to, you know, conserve? Instead of leading the mining charge?
Written By: - Date published: 3:23 pm, November 19th, 2011 - 8 comments
It’s a year since the explosion at Pike River killed 29 men. Just people like you and me doing their job. It seems some semblance of justice may be delivered to those who let this disaster happen. But the lasting legacy must be a change of culture and regulations to put people’s lives before companies’ profits. So no more suffer the fate of the Pike River 29.
Written By: - Date published: 9:14 am, November 15th, 2011 - 9 comments
NoRightTurn reviews the joke that is National’s energy policy: “National has released its energy policy. The short version? “Drill it, mine it, sell it”. Yes, seriously. A bright, shiny future, funded by magic money put in the ground by Leprechauns. Which we haven’t discovered yet. Its like basing your household budget on winning the lottery.”
Written By: - Date published: 8:37 pm, November 10th, 2011 - 20 comments
Charges have been laid over the Pike River tragedy.
Written By: - Date published: 10:08 am, November 7th, 2011 - 67 comments
We live in a time of inter-related crises of the environment and the capitalist economic system. So, I guess it’s not surprising to see Labour becoming more environmentally aware at the same time as the Greens propose economic policies that would normally be out of Labour’s playbook. Don’t worry about them becoming too alike, welcome the solid platform for a new government.
Written By: - Date published: 10:07 am, October 21st, 2011 - 16 comments
More protests in Tauranga. Simon Bridges blames “out of towners”.
Written By: - Date published: 1:19 pm, October 19th, 2011 - 40 comments
The Nats are clearly at panic stations. They’re trying to minimise the Rena disaster by comparing the number of dead animals to those killed by other means. As one emailer put it: “it’s like saying the Christchurch earthquake was no big deal because more people die of cancer”. Meanwhile, Key visits oiled birds and says they’re the price of economic ‘progress’.
Written By: - Date published: 10:22 am, October 18th, 2011 - 41 comments
Written By: - Date published: 1:55 pm, October 14th, 2011 - 55 comments
Labour has announced it will put a moratorium on deepsea oil drilling until it’s proven safe. Good. Basic precautionary principle. Clearly necessary given the piss-poor handling of a relatively small spill. Besides, there’s no rush to dig this stuff up. It’s not going anywhere and we can only extract it once. Will only become more valuable over time.
Written By: - Date published: 11:29 am, October 13th, 2011 - 30 comments
The Rena disaster has put the spotlight on the environmental risks of National’s deepsea oil drilling plans. Yes, they’re not the same thing. In fact, an oil spill from a drilling platform or one of the ships serving it is more likely than from a freighter plowing into a well-known reef.* And there’s a hell of a lot more oil involved.
Written By: - Date published: 9:00 am, September 9th, 2011 - 25 comments
Interesting to see the truth coming out about the NZ media’s hero Peter Whittall. Pike River was very much Whittall’s baby. 29 of his employees died in the mine he designed and ran. I’d be interested to hear from a journo the story of why the NZ media chose to portray this as an unavoidable accident, and exonerated the company from the start.
Written By: - Date published: 12:21 pm, September 7th, 2011 - 25 comments
“Just keep to your promises. I was at some of the family meetings where you promised off camera to parents who were in tears that you would do your utmost to try to get the men out. Money was not a problem. Those same parents have gone home and cradled their kids that are crying. Do what you say and just pull your finger out and do it.”
Written By: - Date published: 11:48 am, August 22nd, 2011 - 43 comments
Pike River had lax safety systems. Profits came first. The workforce was highly casualised to weaken the bargaining power of the union. The boss, Peter Whittall, will end up getting the blame. Labour says it will restore miners’ power over their safety by bringing back check inspectors. It’s now up to the Nats to explain why they won’t.
Written By: - Date published: 12:31 pm, August 18th, 2011 - 30 comments
Nats have announced 6 more DoL safety inspectors for mines and oil drilling. Up from 2 now (only one position filled). Sounds good but DoL’s failure at Pike River was systematic, not just about numbers. Where’s the stronger safety standards? Why aren’t they bringing back worker-elected check inspectors? The miners want them. Why don’t the Nats listen?
Written By: - Date published: 7:28 am, July 14th, 2011 - 36 comments
A former chief inspector of coal mines yesterday told the Pike River inquiry that the underlying cause of the disaster was the weakening of mining regulations in the 1990s. Yet another example of the frequent and costly failures of deregulation. RIP the Pike River miners.
Written By: - Date published: 8:19 am, July 3rd, 2011 - 41 comments
Bravo France, the first country in the world to ban fracking. But for every step forward in this world, we seem to take two steps backwards…
Written By: - Date published: 12:25 pm, June 30th, 2011 - 81 comments
Two years ago, this government sparked the biggest protests in a generation when it tried to open up the most precious parts of our conservation estate to mining. The policy got canned but the agenda has continued below the surface. Now, 100 DoC staff have been sacked while the MED unit for oil drilling and mining will nearly double its staff.
Written By: - Date published: 11:35 pm, June 15th, 2011 - 8 comments
Fascinating programme on TVOne Sunday this week – see it here and here – contrasting the Australian approach to mining with the disaster at Pike River. The key difference was the existence of union safety check inspectors. Australia use them, we don’t.
Written By: - Date published: 7:53 am, June 11th, 2011 - 52 comments
A little over a year ago the biggest single protest march in this country since 1938 put the final nail in the coffin of the Nats’ amateur hour plans to mine our most precious conservation land. Or so we thought…
Written By: - Date published: 8:46 am, April 15th, 2011 - 22 comments
Even the supporters of Deep Sea Oil Drilling admit it is risky. Like the two rats in the old advertisement discussing the odds of going for a cheezel set in a trap, Petrobras and the Herald editor discuss the advantages of Deep Sea Oil, in the columns of the Herald.
Written By: - Date published: 7:15 am, April 12th, 2011 - 138 comments
Protest action by Greenpeace has disrupted prospecting activities in the Raukumara Basin by Brazilian petrochemical giant Petrobras. John Key has come out swinging for Big Business, and wants to send in the navy to sort out the protesters. But Greenpeace has it right. We shouldn’t be drilling for oil…
Written By: - Date published: 11:00 am, March 26th, 2011 - 42 comments
Jenny argues that with the ink barely dry the new Foreshore and Seabed legislation is beginning to have effects. Oil drilling companies are rushing to take advantage. She argues that the Maori Party’s support gives the mining and oil companies the confidence they need to proceed with their plans to exploit the Seabed and Foreshore.
Written By: - Date published: 10:44 am, January 26th, 2011 - 20 comments
Good news for families of the Pike River miners. The Police have shown them video proving their mens bodies are still intact. It raises questions about the government’s actions. Why was this footage previously withheld? Why were the Nats spinning that there was nothing left to recover? And why was the recovery really abandoned so hastily?
Written By: - Date published: 11:58 am, January 20th, 2011 - 25 comments
The dearth of solid information on the Pike River situation and the contradictory statements from the government have naturally led to suspicion that we’re not being told the whole story. The government has been caught flat-footed by the blowback. Now, finally, the Police are going to release their technical information, allowing independent assessments.
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