Very cool to see journalists still going back to Orwell to remind us that "The present political chaos is connected with the decay of language." (Orwell, 1941)
The whole article starts off on the wrong premise by not understanding the difference in the meaning of conservative in the normal sense i.e. resistant to change to the term conservative in the political sense i.e. favouring private enterprise, private ownership, traditional social mores and smaller government.
Somewhat ironic that an article quoting Orwell's commentary on the use of language would not fundamentally understand that words in English particularly can have multiple meanings.
The political conservative has never ever been resistant to change – just as long as it is change that favours their conservative outlook.
The left moves much more slowly ironically unless they are moving to the right as we saw in the 80's. Indeed it is the left that are conservative in the first meaning of the word.
It would be a much better article if it outlined that the public often don't understand the difference between the two meanings. Something that plays well into the hands of the right – conservative, prudent – the imagery they invoke.
Liz Truss typifies how quickly they move when wish. John Key's "never waste a crisis", Judith Collin's "double down".
I think what you are pointing towards is the intersection in the word "conservative" between broad left and right, namely: that point at which the world is saved through conservation.
I don't think the article was trying to get that far.
The same article transposed onto New Zealand conditions would have to track the splintering language that mirrors the splintering of epistemic trust through COVID, revealing deep and unruly activism. That's somewhat different to the US context.
Nah just the difference between the noun and the adjective.
The noun belongs to the right.
The adjective belongs to the left.
It is why despite regular stitching of governments we had continuously moved right since the mid-80's and people can't conceive of a return eg implementing WEAG recommendations or indeed believing they have done the job eg Grant Roberson believing he has reversed benefit damage done by Ruth Richardson.
Well that lovely binary is just not true in practise here, and betrays a kind of unjustified woolly righteousness.
Otherwise we'd see for example no national parks formed under National, or Treaty agreements, or cycleways, or major constitutional advancement, or Predator Free efforts, or big public transport facilities, whereas in practise most of them are initiated under National and by National.
In fact it's the current government that is the first for a while to initiate no new national parks. And the only big PT investment Labour-Greens can claim is the North Shore Busway extension.
If we cannot see the future, or if we cannot be sure of how a particular policy will turn out, then the true conservative is a person who prefers to err on the side of caution. However the modern political conservative tends to support privilege.
In America, the term neo-conservative refers to one who believes that because America is strong enough, militarily, to do whatever it likes, she should in fact act accordingly if it's in her interests to do so.
This is where we are now. Gender Identity ideology is shifting cultural norms so that rape culture is being sanctioned. Women said no to mixed sex toilets because we know what we are talking about. Capitalism lapped up GI ideology because it’s cheaper to have mixed sex toilets than single sex ones. People working in schools are either believing in GI ideology or they’re too scared to oppose it out of fear for their jobs or losing friends.
Every day there are multiple examples of this in my twitter feed. No Debate means the general public don’t know how far it’s gone, although awareness and MSM coverage is improving.
GI ideology is regressive, harms all people and society, but women and girls the most.
Trans people have the same human rights as everyone else in liberal countries and these should be upheld. Removing the rights of women and girls is not an acceptable way to do that.
Many many people the world over really don't see girls or women as more then a comfort person. Born to provide comforts, sexual comforts, nice clean house comforts, cooked foods and sandwiches comfort, and for those that still have use for it – b irthing body comforts. that is it. The only difference in the future between the taliban / religious enforces in the west and else where is that were they like to cover their comfort providers under a bedsheet we would have them run around naked or barey dressed. The mindset is the same.
The answer still stands, those not born into a male body are they even human?
porn teaches the young men, liberal adoption of GI ideology (eg mixed sex toilets) gives them easier access. It's not rocket science. This is a well known phenomena that appears to be increasing because men are now allowed in spaces that were previously female only. Google (or better yet, twitter search) for Primark to see how this is playing out in department store and other changing rooms.
At what point did liberals stop understanding that predatory men will take advantage of situations? Some liberals don't care because the needs of some TW to access female spaces is more important than protecting women and girls. But I don't think that's most liberals, so it's mindboggling what the thinking is.
But what's newly alarming is the mix of that and the school's response: it's not such a big deal because she had her underwear on. This is straight out of rape culture minimalisation that we've been fighting for decades, and now liberals are saying it's not a big deal 🚩 Liberals are saying this.
It's the mix of those three things – porn, GI ideology, liberal's dropping boundaries that is dangerous.
GI ideology has strong connections with porn of course, via sex/kink positivity and 'sex work is work' positions, as well as queer theory's ideas around transgression/good, boundaries/bad. Lots of TW doing porn, lots of AGPs doing fetishes, and increasingly in public. I doubt that most people are aware of the very fast shift in cultural mores that is happening.
Your comment above re capitalism bears repeating, and I think goes further than just having cheaper toilets. GI as a kind of religion (i.e., whatever I thinks is true is the truth) plays right into the hands of the masters of communication, the tech lords. There is a continual push to get us all online even more, into their crappy "metaverses", where they can extract even more data and money from us.
"Come to us, you can be whatever you want and no one can tell you, or even THINK you, any different. If the meat-world rejects you, there's always room for you in the meta. Just… enter you details…" Ugh.
It was feminists who insisted for decades there was little difference between the sexes and women could do anything that men could do. More than this that male-only spaces and roles had to be dismantled.
some feminists fought for equal rights by arguing that women can do the same jobs as men, and this is true by and large. It was in an era where women were actively locked out of many jobs and thus from taking full part in society, and it made sense at the time to use this tactic. There have always been feminists who argued that men and women are different.
men's clubs were targeted as discriminatory because they were bastions of male power where the old boy's network functioned. Again, women were prevented from taking full part in society because of this arrangement. This is basic power relations 101. I have no problems with men's space generally, nor do many other feminists as evidenced by the rise of men's sheds. Noticeably men's sheds don't generally exclude women where they are community facility. Because we're no longer living in the 60s and 70s with a bunch of men in charge who thought there was something wrong with sharing power with women. Men are free to organise their own spaces, and afaik this right is protected under legislation in both the UK and NZ (for now at least, it won't survive if gender ideology trumps sex entirely).
feminists have been pushing back against transfeminine male transgression into women's space for decades. I first became aware of it in the 90s, but it was going on a lot longer than that. You are woefully uninformed, but I see quite happy to still bring out your antipathy towards feminism when it suits you. Nothing new about that either.
And I was pointing out years ago that if the boot was on the other foot – that if you reversed the sexes in most feminist argument – you would not like it.
there might be a few thousand 'feminists' the rest of us are just women who do not want men in female prisons, female changing rooms, female awards, and so one.
most of us women abhor the idea to castrate a boy in order to have him live in the correct body of a 'female' because he likes sparkles, music, and spinny the dress.
most of us women abhor the idea to sterilize girls, have their teets yeeted by some demented surgeon for good money in the name of fucking kindness.
and frankly RL this is the laziest comment you could make.
Women are not feminists. Some women are. Some men pretend to be. Most of us women really just wanted to keep our jobs once we got pregnant, really just wanted to not need the permission of the hubby to by something and have some money in the bank account, the right to sign a lease – residential or commercial without Daddies signature or that of the hubby, or gasp even buy a house on our own.
As you will remember if you actually care, non of these things were a given, and we now have young girls suffering for it.
You are laughing at women, because some 'feminists' such as Deborah Russel, Mme KereKere and even the good leader of teh Labour Party the Person Jacinda Ardern are pushing this through law into our schools and public spaces here.
Your contempt for women and girls seems to be endless.
You seem to have forgotten that I am one of the relatively few left wing males on this site to have openly and full-heartedly supported your position from the outset.
If you want to interpret this as contempt – that's entirely on you.
You seem to have forgotten that I am one of the relatively few left wing males on this site to have openly and full-heartedly supported your position from the outset.
Once again your crude dogmatic insularity confuses the:
(1) scapegoating, elite self-interest, blatant discriminatory policies, authoritarianism & cultural extremism of the Upper-Middle Woke Vanity Project
with
(2) genuine Social Democratic principles of universalism, egalitarianism, equality under law, individual human rights, democracy, free expression of ideas.
And fwiw, as a person who no longer has defintion that i can refer to when talking about myself, my body, my issues, heck who no longer even has the right to shit and piss in a toilet without male bodies hanging out for shits n giggles on the grounds of 'girl brain' and 'imagination' and 'getting a boner cause i get to wear womans face and the things who no longer have a word to define themselves are not allowed to say shit about it ' i am over that.
Seriously, you are one of the better commentators here. Please stop this Rightwing / Left wing bullshit about hte 'femminists'.
this affects us because we are removed from law, from text books, from public record so that men can have euphoria boners.
So fucking desperatly tired of this bullshit that harms us, our children, our elders. And as a consequence will in the future harm every male that wants to live as a male. Because they are gunning for you too.
Heck, we make castrating boys into female clad eunuchs a virtue. Go figure.
And fwiw, define 'left'. This is supported by left, right and the middle. Why? Why would that be?
And I was pointing out years ago that if the boot was on the other foot – that if you reversed the sexes in most feminist argument – you would not like it.
Only because you don't understand the argument.
But let's test it and see. I already gave the example of men's clubs. What's the reverse? There isn't one, because women don't have an old boys network that they exclude men from. You've been running these arguments for years, but you still don't have an actual argument.
of course we have social networks, that's not what I said. I also don't think women are powerless.
But you said "if you reversed the sexes in most feminist argument" that I wouldn't like it. Yet you still haven't made an argument or presented any evidence. It's just this vague assertion based on not understanding feminist analysis of power and how it functions in our societies.
apparently not. Like I said, vague reckons and implied whatevers but no actual argument. Which is fine, it's simply a derail so best to leave it alone.
Blaming "feminists" in the way you have, assumes that all who label themselves as feminists have the same perspective. As you know, that is demonstrably not true. There are many issues where those who call themselves feminists vehemently disagree.
weka, adequately addresses the issues regarding access to places where power and authority resided, rather than an all-out infringement on men's ability to create their own single-sex spaces.
If you can put those assertions you list aside for the moment, do you honestly not see any issues with the dismantling of safeguarding processes and boundaries for single-sex spaces?
Why would be have gaps under doors in gender neutral toilets? I have no problem having gender neutral toilets but the design has to be suitable. I also think there should always be separate same sex toilets as well – particularly in schools.
Female, male, disabled and gender neutral should be the modern standard. If you dispense with the first two then each stall should be independent with its own hand-basin etc e.g. similar to a public toilet. Just slapping a new sign on existing facilities is poor decision making and reminds me of the early days of slapping signs on standard toilets and calling them the disabled toilet even though you couldn't turn a wheelchair around to get out. We are a bit more mature now about disabled facilities.
How much of the gap under the door is classist e.g. the poorer the community the more likely / bigger the gap?
The schools response sucks. Far too many women develop anxiety over time from this sort of behaviour.
What country is this in – it would not be usual for an 11 year old to be starting secondary school in NZ?
Why would be have gaps under doors in gender neutral toilets?
Because it's cheaper. Neoliberal capitalism loves gender ideology for a reason.
I have no problem having gender neutral toilets but the design has to be suitable. I also think there should always be separate same sex toilets as well – particularly in schools.
are you suggesting that schools build mixed sex toilets alongside the single sex ones?
What's happening in the UK is that mixed sex toilets are increasingly replacing single sex ones. And guess what, they're converting women's toilets into mixed sex and keeping men's toilets.
Female, male, disabled and gender neutral should be the modern standard. If you dispense with the first two then each stall should be independent with its own hand-basin etc e.g. similar to a public toilet. Just slapping a new sign on existing facilities is poor decision making and reminds me of the early days of slapping signs on standard toilets and calling them the disabled toilet even though you couldn't turn a wheelchair around to get out. We are a bit more mature now about disabled facilities.
I've seen pictures of mixed sex toilets in the UK in a school where the area outside the toilet cubicle is open to the main hall. This is a facility designed by people absolutely clueless about women's needs.
I values women's space highly, and single sex toilets for females give women the opportunity to connect without being around men. I don't want to see that lost because a very small % of the school are trans. We can address their needs without removing women's.
How much of the gap under the door is classist e.g. the poorer the community the more likely / bigger the gap?
bloody good poin.
The schools response sucks. Far too many women develop anxiety over time from this sort of behaviour.
Indeed. Some women/girls stay home when they have their periods. Some hold on and don't go to the toilet. This was the argument for making toilets cross sex or mixed sex, that trans people were having medical problems from holding on. It's an indictment of how much sexism and misogyny we still have that society didn't listen to women who said if you make toilets mixed sex the same thing will happen to women.
See my link above from the Mail.
What country is this in – it would not be usual for an 11 year old to be starting secondary school in NZ?
UK. But it's normal here for intermediate and high school to be in the same building. What we don't know about NZ is if the push for mixed sex facilities is replacing women's/girls' toilets or being provided alongside.
"mixed sex facilities is replacing women's/girls' toilets or being provided alongside."
This is a 'reckon', but I highly doubt that there will be any new toilets built/installed – it's a major cost, and schools will be prioritizing other building projects.
It's a heck of a lot cheaper (in $$$ terms) to just change the signage.
There exists in such a case a certain institution or law; let us say, for the sake of simplicity, a fence or gate erected across a road. The more modern type of reformer goes gaily up to it and says, “I don’t see the use of this; let us clear it away.” To which the more intelligent type of reformer will do well to answer: “If you don’t see the use of it, I certainly won’t let you clear it away. Go away and think. Then, when you can come back and tell me that you do see the use of it, I may allow you to destroy it.”
I'm aware of at least one person advising schools saying alongside. It took ages for this to sink in for disabled toilets. What I would not like to see is disabled toilets suggested as the alternative – not only for their space but also to avoid the notion of treating gender issues as a disability. Already seen that happen in workplaces – "just used the disabled toilet".
"if you make toilets mixed sex the same thing will happen to women."
Pretty obvious.
I suspect/know schools need much better guidance from above as well as specific funding to address. Individual boards will just produce a wide variation and religious schools are unsurprisingly resistant as are some individual principals.
Yes, we have a lot of mixed sex toilets in NZ eg in small cafes where there is only one toilet. But they didn't replace women's toilets generally. In this conversation we are talking about where women and girls need single sex toilets and those are being removed. You may feel better, but many women and girls don't. This about politics.
Actually, filming someone in the school toilets, regardless of gender, should be an automatic suspension offence. As should sharing that film on social medial. And (depending on the student's history) might result in expulsion/exclusion (whatever the latest buzz word is).
It's illegal (you have a presumption of privacy in a toilet cubicle) – and there are multiple cases of adult offenders being convicted for similar offences.
The school's response is negligent.
The suspension should continue until there is a Board of Trustees hearing into why the student should be allowed to return to the school, and what protections will be put in place to prevent re-offending.
It's possible all those things did happen, and the school still gave the message to the girl that it wasn't such a big deal because she had her undies up.
Mercer Gas Station and malls now has a 'gender neutral' toilets.
Men
Disabled
Gender Neutral
the “Womens” is now the neutral toilet. There is no more ” Womens” left. And please don’t ask for pictures, because i actually have taken them and will happily post them here.
So men can use the Mens, the mixed sex and the disabled toilet. Women well who gives a flying fuck?
All that was changed was the sign on the door. The stalls are open to the top and bottom and a tall man can have a good view over the stalls if they cared. Any one can put a camera under your toilet.
That is here in NZ. Just another country in which we pretend that anyone and their dog and pony show is a women/girl by stating so.
I'd like to see legislation introduced which requires banks to refund the money, unless they can prove that the account holder has been negligent (freely sharing passwords) or has actively chosen to transfer the money (it's not the bank's fault if you choose to send money to a 'Nigerian prince', even after being warned).
It seems as though the banks are also being hoist by their own petard of online-only services. In the 'old' days, if I wanted to change anything about my account (name, contact details, address, etc.) – I would need to physically go into a branch and produce ID. Now, all I need to do is send the details via an app. Opening up a giant hole in their security and fraud-prevention operations (once they have your account details & password – through phishing or other methods (phone cloning it looks like, here) – it's trivial for a fraudster to change the contact details – and you'll never know)
When I think about the hoops I have to go through in order to transfer money overseas – while these fraudsters happily waltz through the banks' security systems unimpeded…..
As more and more services become online-only – we should, rightly, be concerned over the security of those online systems – and their ability to protect our online identity (and, in this case, cash)
Ukraine is launching a rapid counter-offensive in the Kherson Oblast down the banks of the Dnipro at the moment causing a lot of very worried Russians.
The pace things are going, there is a high risk that a lot of Russians could be surrounded, and will find it very difficult to withdraw across the Dnipro.
Things rapidly falling apart for Putin at the moment.
The more successful the Ukrainians become, the more likely it will be that the Russians will resort to nuclear weapons. It would be in Europe’s interests to bring the parties to the peace table, However Russia won’t voluntarily give up the territories it has won and Ukraine won’t stop fighting until it has regained those territories.
I don't think the Russians will bother with tactical nukes. Most military opinion I have seen doesn't think they are very good for the job there. And the NATO has made it very clear to them that there will be specific non-nuclear but very destructive action they will take if Russia goes down that path.
The biggest risk is if Putin goes completely off the wall and decides to launch nukes at the rest of the world because he sees military defeat in Ukraine as on the same level as nukes being launched at Russia.
There is no evidence for now that weapons are being moved into position or being prepared for such strikes. US intelligence, which has been extraordinarily precise so far can be expected to pick up any details (or at least the Russian would need to assume that). No effort has been made to explain to the Russian public why such strikes might be necessary. After all Putin still insists that this is a limited operation and has refused to put the country on a war footing. As we have seen Russian figures talk garrulously about scenarios for nuclear use against NATO countries but not Ukraine. We can also assume that neither of Putin’s recent interlocutors – Xi and Modi – would be enthused. This is a scenario largely generated in the West trying to anticipate contingencies that have yet to be reached.
[…]
Postscript
The day after this post was published, Putin made a speech in which he announced military mobilisation. His description of the origins of the course of the war can be left to another day. It is an extension of the delusional analysis which he has been promoting since the start of this disastrous war. The mobilisation announced will, I suspect, aggravate rather than solve the problems faced by Russian forces at the front. I will consider these in my next post. His main statement on nuclear weapons, however, is wholly in line, with my analysis.
The German Energiewende was built on ideology not decarbonisation,replacement of Nuclear with Russian Gas,which would of allowed reduction of coal generation.
Grid replacement from the north for wind (offshore) which needs 12256km of new grid line has only completed over the last 6 years 16% with another 6 % permitted ( German planning can take 10yrs) meaning only half of its target can be reached in 2035.
Harbeck the German minister says now the two reactors will be needed this and next year,remembering that the storage this year was mostly by Russian gas.
No plan b here,as price caps on gas imports will mean no gas imports,so subsidy is the option with around 200b euro so far,which is on borrowed debt now with a trade imbalance.
I recall reading somewhere that while converting from coal to natural gas is a good thing, and responsible for much of the developed world cutting back on their carbon intensity over the past two decades – there was always one nasty gotcha that few people talked about – fugitive emissions.
The numbers I saw suggested that you only needed gas leaks in the order of 2 -3% of total use for the methane contribution to CC to exceed the CO2 gains from the coal use reduction. And considering that the Nord Stream sabotage is probably the largest every man-made methane release ever …
Using gas instead of coal,reduced emissions by being more efficient,fewer secondary emissions such SO2,etc,balanced by fugitive emissions,flaring and underestimation.
The IEA data and satellite measurement show that FF methane emissions are 70% greater then national government reporting and growing.
Also the emissions from flaring are also 5x greater then certification efficiency certification shows.( flaring thought to be a cheaper method,then capping or short term storage.
The fix here can be both cheap and profitable ,the wasted gas being around the annual needs of Europe.The other part of the problem is that the total global load of CH4 changes ie the amount of biogenic production reduces to meet the excess loads identified in the global accounts.
The other thing is, that, due to Russia cutting the gas supply, Germany is now turning back on coal generation. From an emissions perspective, nuclear would have been better.
In the case of solar, that depends where you are. In Germany, and similar parts of Europe, it isn't very good due to less sunlight, though Italy and France are OK, as is most of New Zealand. Especially good in Australia for obvious reasons.
Solar works at 20-30% efficiency even in cloudy conditions. The technology is getting better rapidly.
Nuclear proponents always lie massively about construction costs and decomissioning costs which makes nuclear power far more expensive than the figures often quoted.
Rest assured, like everywhere else, the empty suits in the German Green Party, the SPD and the FDP, will have a warm house, good food and no hardship. That is for their constituency that they have no care about.
But, i am sure the German Green will feel very green, so green, deepest green, whilst they sit warm, munching on a imported vegan strudel of sorts telling the plebs that all of this is Putins fault for not just giving the west Russias resources for free and on demand. How dare the pesky Russians pretend that they are a sovereign nation and not a supplier to Capitalism Inc.
Anyone not predicting that Russia has Europe by the balls is dumb at best and malevolent at worst and should not be anywhere in risk assessment and government. Btw, Donald Trump of all people warned them. Go figure.
Looks like there is finally movement on the Northland Drydock, better late than never I suppose.
With the 2 new Interlslander Ferries on order, the Pirates (RNZN) new Fleet Support Ship & the Landing Support Ship can't use the existing facilities in Auckland.
Plus the Planned the Southern Ocean Patrol Vessel which is going to be a biggie, the new Landing Ships & Frigate/ OPV Replacements.
The planning process for this, probably should've started already given the short to long economic development to Northland. Especially if KiwiRail pull their finger out of their freckle & build the branch line to Northport, which might see container traffic move from Auckland etc?
My biggest concern is atm, will the Greens shit can this project given its Anti Defence Stance incl Maintenance & Manufacturing?
Then we have National's Tax Cuts & it's stance against building critical Infrastructure apart from roads & cutting Public Services like Defence etc.
Very interesting point about the new ferry craft not being able to use Calliope, since they are in sea trials and work on the port upgrades for Wellington and Picton is under active negotiation.
The two new Interlslander Ferries are 50% bigger, so even if the NZ MoD/ RNZN got all the approvals to upgrade Devonport & the Drydock.
It was going to be a very tight fit, so probably going for a new greenfield site like Northport would be a better option long term.
Given that the NZ MoD/RNZN no longer owns the Married Quarters around the Devonport Area and the planned new Fleet means the Navy would have to eventually move out of Auckland sooner or later.
The now cancelled Southern Ocean Patrol Vessel was almost as big ie length & if not more beamer (width of the ship) as the current in service Frigates. And this due to the changing environmental conditions down in the Southern Ocean due to CC.
As the current in service OPV's are no longer fit for purpose to go down Sth & L421 the Landing Support Ship, they've got to pick the right time to supply Campbell Is given the design limitations & CC in the Southern Ocean nowadays.
The Pirates are going to need bigger ships in coming the decade weather the public, treasury & politicians like it or not.
"The two new Interlslander Ferries are 50% bigger, so even if the NZ MoD/ RNZN got all the approvals to upgrade Devonport & the Drydock."
A big *if* – the Devonportugese are very, very NIMBY when it comes to infrastructure development. I'm sure the Navy would have been geared up for multiple appeals to the Environment court.
An alternative site (well outside of Auckland's built-up area) looks like a much quicker option.
Ron Mark, had the NZ MoD & RNZN Scoping for possible future Base for the the Pirates from Northport, to staying in the Auckland Area, the Sounds & Port Chalmers for the Southern Ocean Patrol Vessels.
But it all went quite very quickly after last election for some unknown reason, probably Covid19 Related more likely & possible cost as well?
The Big issue with Devonport is not so that the NZ MoD/ RNZN doesn't owned much land around the Base these days. But a lack of flat land around the existing drydock area & the Drydock being listed a Grade 1 Heritage Site.
As you said, if they got all the approvals, the Heritage Listed Site that being the Drydock Area would've been a major show stopper.
The NZ MoD & RNZN would've literally had to destroy the existing facilities & therefore leaving the Navy the nowhere to go to undertake minor refit or major refits while reconstruction was taking place.
I think one of the many dumbest decisions ever taken place during the great leap backwards in the 80's & 90's was when the Railways/ Interlslander Services were told to offloaded it's floating dock in Wellington.
Which has left NZ's heavy Ship repair in a perilous state since then & having to rely on the good services of the NZ MoD, Babcock International who managed the the Drydock on behalf of RNZN & RNZN itself.
And all those $5Million plus home owners don't actually want a nasty drydock area messing up their sea-views and creating noise pollution by actually working. And they have very deep pockets when it comes to Enviro court appeals (as well as a conviction that, if they can just delay long enough, the government will give up and go away).
A sufficiently tough government could push it through – but my pick is that they'd choose to use the political capital elsewhere.
The problem is that you either have to locate facilities in an existing sea-port (with all of the associated NIMBY issues), or you build a new one (with all of the associated environmental degradation issues).
In Auckland, I do wonder about Kauri Point. Existing Defence land (with a massive unbuilt-up area because of ammo storage.
Definitely accessible by ocean-going and navy ships (both ammo loading, and Chelsea tankers).
Of course, because it's un-built-on – there would be outcries about 'destroying' the natural heritage…..
No, I'm not suggesting co-locating the drydock with ammo storage. But you could certainly look at ammo storage elsewhere….[I'm tempted to say in the heart of Devonport, but will refrain]
They could store the bang in the old underground fuel bunkers that NIMBY's got closed down at Devonport which would be a bad thing btw😂
If & when Kauri Pt is closed down? I hope it's turned into a urban national park like Charles Darwin here in Darwin which btw was the old Bomb/ Ammo dump for Nth Oz.
This is why I have unfollowed a few of the Left people on twitter, they are just relentlessly hating on Labour with no perspective on where we came from. The perfect is too often the enemy of the good.
It's like nothing is ever good enough until we have a full on socialist purge.
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The Treasury has published a paper today on the global productivity slowdown and how it is playing out in New Zealand: The productivity slowdown: implications for the Treasury’s forecasts and projections. The Treasury Paper examines recent trends in productivity and the potential drivers of the slowdown. Productivity for the whole economy ...
Winston Peters’ comments about former Australian foreign minister look set to be an ongoing headache for both him and Luxon. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for subscribers features co-hosts and , along with regular guests on Gaza and ...
These puppet strings don't pull themselvesYou're thinking thoughts from someone elseHow much time do you think you have?Are you prepared for what comes next?The debating chamber can be a trying place for an opposition MP. What with the person in charge, the speaker, typically being an MP from the governing ...
The land around Lyme Regis, where Meryl Streep once stood, in a hood, on the Cobb, is falling into the sea.MerylThe land around Lyme Regis, around the Cobb that made it rich, has always been falling slowly but surely into the sea. Read more ...
Buzz from the Beehive Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters was bound to win headlines when he set out his thinking about AUKUS in his speech to the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. The headlines became bigger when – during an interview on RNZ’s Morning Report today – he criticised ...
The Post reports on how the government is refusing to release its advice on its corrupt Muldoonist fast-track law, instead using the "soon to be publicly available" refusal ground to hide it until after select committee submissions on the bill have closed. Fast-track Minister Chris Bishop's excuse? “It's not ...
As pressure on it grows, the livestock industry’s approach to the transition to Net Zero is increasingly being compared to that of fossil fuel interests. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / Getty ImagesTL;DR: Here’s the top five news items of note in climate news for Aotearoa-NZ this week, and a discussion above ...
The New Zealand Herald reports – Stats NZ has offered a voluntary redundancy scheme to all of its workers as a way to give staff some control over their “future” amidst widespread job losses in the public sector. In an update to staff this morning, seen by the Herald, Statistics New Zealand ...
On Werewolf/Scoop, I usually do two long form political columns a week. From now on, there will be an extra column each week about music and movies. But first, some late-breaking political events:The rise in unemployment numbers for the March quarter was bigger than expected – and especially sharp ...
David Farrar writes – The Herald reports: TVNZ says it is dealing with about 50 formal complaints over its coverage of the latest 1News-Verian political poll, with some viewers – as well as the Prime Minister and a former senior Labour MP – critical of the tone of the 6pm report. ...
Muriel Newman writes – When Meridian Energy was seeking resource consents for a West Coast hydro dam proposal in 2010, local Maori “strenuously” objected, claiming their mana was inextricably linked to ‘their’ river and could be damaged. After receiving a financial payment from the company, however, the Ngai Tahu ...
Alwyn Poole writes – “An SEP,’ he said, ‘is something that we can’t see, or don’t see, or our brain doesn’t let us see, because we think that it’s somebody else’s problem. That’s what SEP means. Somebody Else’s Problem. The brain just edits it out, it’s like a ...
Our trust in our political institutions is fast eroding, according to a Maxim Institute discussion paper, Shaky Foundations: Why our democracy needs trust. The paper – released today – raises concerns about declining trust in New Zealand’s political institutions and democratic processes, and the role that the overuse of Parliamentary urgency ...
This article was prepared for publication yesterday. More ministerial announcements have been posted on the government’s official website since it was written. We will report on these later today …. Buzz from the BeehiveThere we were, thinking the environment is in trouble, when along came Jones. Shane Jones. ...
New Zealand now has the fourth most depressed construction sector in the world behind China, Qatar and Hong Kong. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 8:46am on Thursday, May 2:The Lead: ...
Hi,I am just going to state something very obvious: American police are fucking crazy.That was a photo gracing the New York Times this morning, showing New York City police “entering Columbia University last night after receiving a request from the school.”Apparently in America, protesting the deaths of tens of thousands ...
Winston Peters’ much anticipated foreign policy speech last night was a work of two halves. Much of it was a standard “boilerplate” Foreign Ministry overview of the state of the world. There was some hardening up of rhetoric with talk of “benign” becoming “malign” and old truths giving way to ...
Graham Adams assesses the fallout of the Cass Review — The press release last Thursday from the UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls didn’t make the mainstream news in New Zealand but it really should have. The startling title of Reem Alsalem’s statement — “Implementation of ‘Cass ...
This open-for-business, under-new-management cliché-pockmarked government of Christopher Luxon is not the thing of beauty he imagines it to be. It is not the powerful expression of the will of the people that he asserts it to be. It is not a soaring eagle, it is a malodorous vulture. This newest poll should make ...
The latest labour market statistics, showing a rise in unemployment. There are now 134,000 unemployed - 14,000 more than when the National government took office. Which is I guess what happens when the Reserve Bank causes a recession in an effort to Keep Wages Low. The previous government saw a ...
Three opinion polls have been released in the last two days, all showing that the new government is failing to hold their popular support. The usual honeymoon experienced during the first year of a first term government is entirely absent. The political mood is still gloomy and discontented, mainly due ...
National's Finance Minister once met a poor person.A scornful interview with National's finance guru who knows next to nothing about economics or people.There might have been something a bit familiar if that was the headline I’d gone with today. It would of course have been in tribute to the article ...
Rob MacCulloch writes – Throughout the pandemic, the new Vice-Chancellor-of-Otago-University-on-$629,000 per annum-Can-you-believe-it-and-Former-Finance-Minister Grant Robertson repeated the mantra over and over that he saved “lives and livelihoods”.As we update how this claim is faring over the course of time, the facts are increasingly speaking differently. NZ ...
Chris Trotter writes – IT’S A COMMONPLACE of political speeches, especially those delivered in acknowledgement of electoral victory: “We’ll govern for all New Zealanders.” On the face of it, the pledge is a strange one. Why would any political leader govern in ways that advantaged the huge ...
Bryce Edwards writes – The list of former National Party Ministers being given plum and important roles got longer this week with the appointment of former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett as the chair of Pharmac. The Christopher Luxon-led Government has now made key appointments to Bill ...
TL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 10:06am on Wednesday, May 1:The Lead: Business confidence fell across the board in April, falling in some areas to levels last seen during the lockdowns because of a collapse in ...
Over the past 36 hours, Christopher Luxon has been dong his best to portray the centre-right’s plummeting poll numbers as a mark of virtue. Allegedly, the negative verdicts are the result of hard economic times, and of a government bravely set out on a perilous rescue mission from which not ...
Auckland Transport have started rolling out new HOP card readers around the network and over the next three months, all of them on buses, at train stations and ferry wharves will be replaced. The change itself is not that remarkable, with the new readers looking similar to what is already ...
Completed reads for April: The Difference Engine, by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling Carnival of Saints, by George Herman The Snow Spider, by Jenny Nimmo Emlyn’s Moon, by Jenny Nimmo The Chestnut Soldier, by Jenny Nimmo Death Comes As the End, by Agatha Christie Lord of the Flies, by ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
Have a story to share about St Paul’s, but today just picturesPopular novels written at this desk by a young man who managed to bootstrap himself out of father’s imprisonment and his own young life in a workhouse Read more ...
The list of former National Party Ministers being given plum and important roles got longer this week with the appointment of former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett as the chair of Pharmac. The Christopher Luxon-led Government has now made key appointments to Bill English, Simon Bridges, Steven Joyce, Roger Sowry, ...
Newsroom has a story today about National's (fortunately failed) effort to disestablish the newly-created Inspector-General of Defence. The creation of this agency was the key recommendation of the Inquiry into Operation Burnham, and a vital means of restoring credibility and social licence to an agency which had been caught lying ...
Holding On To The Present:The moment a political movement arises that attacks the whole idea of social progress, and announces its intention to wind back the hands of History’s clock, then democracy, along with its unwritten rules, is in mortal danger.IT’S A COMMONPLACE of political speeches, especially those delivered in ...
Stuck In The Middle With You:As Christopher Luxon feels the hot breath of Act’s and NZ First’s extremists on the back of his neck and, as he reckons with the damage their policies are already inflicting upon a country he’s described as “fragile”, is there not some merit in reaching out ...
The unpopular coalition government is currently rushing to repeal section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act. The clause is Oranga Tamariki's Treaty clause, and was inserted after its systematic stealing of Māori children became a public scandal and resulted in physical resistance to further abductions. The clause created clear obligations ...
Buzz from the Beehive The government’s official website – which Point of Order monitors daily – not for the first time has nothing much to say today about political happenings that are grabbing media headlines. It makes no mention of the latest 1News-Verian poll, for example. This shows National down ...
It Takes A Train To Cry:Surely, there is nothing lonelier in all this world than the long wail of a distant steam locomotive on a cold Winter’s night.AS A CHILD, I would lie awake in my grandfather’s house and listen to the traffic. The big wooden house was only a ...
Packing A Punch: The election of the present government, including in its ranks politicians dedicated to reasserting the rights of the legislature in shaping and determining the future of Māori and Pakeha in New Zealand, should have alerted the judiciary – including its anomalous appendage, the Waitangi Tribunal – that its ...
Dead Woman Walking: New Zealand’s media industry had been moving steadily towards disaster for all the years Melissa Lee had been National’s media and communications policy spokesperson, and yet, when the crisis finally broke, on her watch, she had nothing intelligent to offer. Christopher Luxon is a patient man - but he’s not ...
Chris Trotter writes – New Zealand politics is remarkably easy-going: dangerously so, one might even say. With the notable exception of John Key’s flat ruling-out of the NZ First Party in 2008, all parties capable of clearing MMP’s five-percent threshold, or winning one or more electorate seats, tend ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Polling shows that Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has the lowest approval rating of any mayor in the country. Siting at -12 per cent, the proportion of constituents who disapprove of her performance outweighs those who give her the thumbs up. This negative rating is ...
Luxon will no doubt put a brave face on it, but there is no escaping the pressure this latest poll will put on him and the government. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political ...
This is a re-post from The Climate Brink by Andrew Dessler In the wake of any unusual weather event, someone inevitably asks, “Did climate change cause this?” In the most literal sense, that answer is almost always no. Climate change is never the sole cause of hurricanes, heat waves, droughts, or ...
Something odd happened yesterday, and I’d love to know if there’s more to it. If there was something which preempted what happened, or if it was simply a throwaway line in response to a journalist.Yesterday David Seymour was asked at a press conference what the process would be if the ...
Hi,From time to time, I want to bring Webworm into the real world. We did it last year with the Jurassic Park event in New Zealand — which was a lot of fun!And so on Saturday May 11th, in Los Angeles, I am hosting a lil’ Webworm pop-up! I’ve been ...
Education Minister Erica Standford yesterday unveiled a fundamental reform of the way our school pupils are taught. She would not exactly say so, but she is all but dismantling the so-called “inquiry” “feel good” method of teaching, which has ruled in our classrooms since a major review of the New ...
Exactly where are we seriously going with this government and its policies? That is, apart from following what may as well be a Truss-Lite approach on the purported economic “plan“, and Victorian-era regression when it comes to social policy.Oh it’ll work this time of course, we’re basically assured, “the ...
Hey Uncle Dave, When the Poms joined the EEC, I wasn't one of those defeatists who said, Well, that’s it for the dairy job. And I was right, eh? The Chinese can’t get enough of our milk powder and eventually, the Poms came to their senses and backed up the ute ...
Polling shows that Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has the lowest approval rating of any mayor in the country. Siting at -12 per cent, the proportion of constituents who disapprove of her performance outweighs those who give her the thumbs up. This negative rating is higher than for any other mayor ...
Buzz from the Beehive Pharmac has been given a financial transfusion and a new chair to oversee its spending in the pharmaceutical business. Associate Health Minister David Seymour described the funding for Pharmac as “its largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff”. ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Many criticisms are being made of the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill, including by this writer. But as with everything in politics, every story has two sides, and both deserve attention. It’s important to understand what the Government is trying to achieve and its ...
TL;DR: Here’s my top 10 ‘pick ‘n’ mix of links to news, analysis and opinion articles as of 10:10am on Monday, April 29:Scoop: The children's ward at Rotorua Hospital will be missing a third of its beds as winter hits because Te Whatu Ora halted an upgrade partway through to ...
span class=”dropcap”>As hideous as David Seymour can be, it is worth keeping in mind occasionally that there are even worse political figures (and regimes) out there. Iran for instance, is about to execute the country’s leading hip hop musician Toomaj Salehi, for writing and performing raps that “corrupt” the nation’s ...
Yesterday marked 10 years since the first electric train carried passengers in Auckland so it’s a good time to look back at it and the impact it has had. A brief history The first proposals for rail electrification in Auckland came in the 1920’s alongside the plans for earlier ...
Right now, in Aotearoa-NZ, our ‘animal spirits’ are darkening towards a winter of discontent, thanks at least partly to a chorus of negative comments and actions from the Government Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on ...
You make people evil to punish the paststuck inside a sequel with a rotating castThe following photos haven’t been generated with AI, or modified in any way. They are flesh and blood, human beings. On the left is Galatea Young, a young mum, and her daughter Fiadh who has Angelman ...
April has been a quiet month at A Phuulish Fellow. I have had an exceptionally good reading month, and a decently productive writing month – for original fiction, anyway – but not much has caught my eye that suggested a blog article. It has been vaguely frustrating, to be honest. ...
A listing of 31 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, April 21, 2024 thru Sat, April 27, 2024. Story of the week Anthropogenic climate change may be the ultimate shaggy dog story— but with a twist, because here ...
Hi,I spent about a year on Webworm reporting on an abusive megachurch called Arise, and it made me want to stab my eyes out with a fork.I don’t regret that reporting in 2022 and 2023 — I am proud of it — but it made me angry.Over three main stories ...
The new Victoria University Vice-Chancellor decided to have a forum at the university about free speech and academic freedom as it is obviously a topical issue, and the Government is looking at legislating some carrots or sticks for universities to uphold their obligations under the Education and Training Act. They ...
Do you remember when Melania Trump got caught out using a speech that sounded awfully like one Michelle Obama had given? Uncannily so.Well it turns out that Abraham Lincoln is to Winston Peters as Michelle was to Melania. With the ANZAC speech Uncle Winston gave at Gallipoli having much in ...
The Government is again adding to New Zealand’s growing unemployment, this time cutting jobs at the agencies responsible for urban development and growing much needed housing stock. ...
With Minister Karen Chhour indicating in the House today that she either doesn’t know or care about the frontline cuts she’s making to Oranga Tamariki, we risk seeing more and more of our children falling through the cracks. ...
The Labour Party is saddened to learn of the death of Sir Robert Martin, a globally renowned disability advocate who led the way for disability rights both in New Zealand and internationally. ...
Labour is calling for the Government to urgently rethink its coalition commitment to restart live animal exports, Labour animal welfare spokesperson Rachel Boyack said. ...
Today’s Financial Stability Report has once again highlighted that poverty and deep inequality are political choices - and this Government is choosing to make them worse. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to do more for our households in most need as unemployment rises and the cost of living crisis endures. ...
Unemployment is on the rise and it’s only going to get worse under this Government, Labour finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds said. Stats NZ figures show the unemployment rate grew to 4.3 percent in the March quarter from 4 percent in the December quarter. “This is the second rise in unemployment ...
The New Zealand Labour Party welcomes the entering into force of the European Union and New Zealand free trade agreement. This agreement opens the door for a huge increase in trade opportunities with a market of 450 million people who are high value discerning consumers of New Zealand goods and ...
The National-led Government continues its fiscal jiggery pokery with its Pharmac announcement today, Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall says. “The government has increased Pharmac funding but conceded it will only make minimal increases in access to medicine”, said Ayesha Verrall “This is far from the bold promises made to fund ...
This afternoon’s interim Waitangi Tribunal report must be taken seriously as it affects our most vulnerable children, Labour children’s spokesperson Willow-Jean Prime. ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
Te Pāti Māori is disgusted at the confirmation that hundreds are set to lose their jobs at Oranga Tamariki, and the disestablishment of the Treaty Response Unit. “This act of absolute carelessness and out of touch decision making is committing tamariki to state abuse.” Said Te Pāti Māori Oranga Tamariki ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi, and Mema Paremata mō Tāmaki-Makaurau, Takutai Tarsh Kemp, will travel to the Gold Coast to strengthen ties with Māori in Australia next week (15-21 April). The visit, in the lead-up to the 9th Australian National Kapa haka Festival, will be an opportunity for both ...
The Minister Responsible for RMA Reform, Chris Bishop today released his decision on four recommendations referred to him by the Western Bay of Plenty District Council, opening the door to housing growth in the area. The Council’s Plan Change 92 allows more homes to be built in existing and new ...
Thank you, John McKinnon and the New Zealand China Council for the invitation to speak to you today. Thank you too, all members of the China Council. Your effort has played an essential role in helping to build, shape, and grow a balanced and resilient relationship between our two ...
The Government is modernising insurance law to better protect Kiwis and provide security in the event of a disaster, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly announced today. “These reforms are long overdue. New Zealand’s insurance law is complicated and dated, some of which is more than 100 years old. ...
The coalition Government is refreshing its approach to supporting pay equity claims as time-limited funding for the Pay Equity Taskforce comes to an end, Public Service Minister Nicola Willis says. “Three years ago, the then-government introduced changes to the Equal Pay Act to support pay equity bargaining. The changes were ...
Structured literacy will change the way New Zealand children learn to read - improving achievement and setting students up for success, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “Being able to read and write is a fundamental life skill that too many young people are missing out on. Recent data shows that ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay says Canada’s refusal to comply in full with a CPTPP trade dispute ruling in our favour over dairy trade is cynical and New Zealand has no intention of backing down. Mr McClay said he has asked for urgent legal advice in respect of our ‘next move’ ...
The rights of our children and young people will be enhanced by changes the coalition Government will make to strengthen oversight of the Oranga Tamariki system, including restoring a single Children’s Commissioner. “The Government is committed to delivering better public services that care for our most at-risk young people and ...
The Government is making it easier for minor changes to be made to a building consent so building a home is easier and more affordable, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on making it easier and cheaper to build homes so we can ...
New Zealand lost a true legend when internationally renowned disability advocate Sir Robert Martin (KNZM) passed away at his home in Whanganui last night, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. “Our Government’s thoughts are with his wife Lynda, family and community, those he has worked with, the disability community in ...
Good evening – Before discussing the challenges and opportunities facing New Zealand’s foreign policy, we’d like to first acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. You have contributed to debates about New Zealand foreign policy over a long period of time, and we thank you for hosting us. ...
From today, passengers travelling internationally from Auckland Airport will be able to keep laptops and liquids in their carry-on bags for security screening thanks to new technology, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Creating a more efficient and seamless travel experience is important for holidaymakers and businesses, enabling faster movement through ...
People with an interest in the health of Northland’s marine ecosystems are invited to a public meeting to discuss how to deal with kina barrens, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones will lead the discussion, which will take place on Friday, 10 May, at Awanui Hotel in ...
Kiwi exporters are $100 million better off today with the NZ EU FTA entering into force says Trade Minister Todd McClay. “This is all part of our plan to grow the economy. New Zealand's prosperity depends on international trade, making up 60 per cent of the country’s total economic activity. ...
There are heartening signs that the extractive sector is once again becoming an attractive prospect for investors and a source of economic prosperity for New Zealand, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The beginnings of a resurgence in extractive industries are apparent in media reports of the sector in the past ...
The return of the historic Ō-Rākau battle site to the descendants of those who fought there moved one step closer today with the first reading of Te Pire mō Ō-Rākau, Te Pae o Maumahara / The Ō-Rākau Remembrance Bill. The Bill will entrust the 9.7-hectare battle site, five kilometres west ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has announced 25 new high-speed EV charging hubs along key routes between major urban centres and outlined the Government’s plan to supercharge New Zealand’s EV infrastructure. The hubs will each have several chargers and be capable of charging at least four – and up to 10 ...
The coalition Government will not proceed with the previous Government’s plans to regulate residential property managers, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “I have written to the Chairperson of the Social Services and Community Committee to inform him that the Government does not intend to support the Residential Property Managers Bill ...
The Government has announced an independent review into the disability support system funded by the Ministry of Disabled People – Whaikaha. Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston says the review will look at what can be done to strengthen the long-term sustainability of Disability Support Services to provide disabled people and ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith has attended the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva and outlined the Government’s plan to restore law and order. “Speaking to the United Nations Human Rights Council provided us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while responding to issues and ...
The Government and Rotorua Lakes Council are committed to working closely together to end the use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua. Associate Minister of Housing (Social Housing) Tama Potaka says the Government remains committed to ending the long-term use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua by the ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay heads overseas today for high-level trade talks in the Gulf region, and a key OECD meeting in Paris. Mr McClay will travel to Riyadh to meet with counterparts from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). “New Zealand’s goods and services exports to the Gulf region ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford has outlined six education priorities to deliver a world-leading education system that sets Kiwi kids up for future success. “I’m putting ambition, achievement and outcomes at the heart of our education system. I want every child to be inspired and engaged in their learning so they ...
The new NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) App is a secure ‘one stop shop’ to provide the services drivers need, Transport Minister Simeon Brown and Digitising Government Minister Judith Collins say. “The NZTA App will enable an easier way for Kiwis to pay for Vehicle Registration and Road User Charges (RUC). ...
Whānau with tamariki growing up in emergency housing motels will be prioritised for social housing starting this week, says Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka. “Giving these whānau a better opportunity to build healthy stable lives for themselves and future generations is an essential part of the Government’s goal of reducing ...
Racing Minister Winston Peters has paid tribute to an icon of the industry with the recent passing of Dave O’Sullivan (OBE). “Our sympathies are with the O’Sullivan family with the sad news of Dave O’Sullivan’s recent passing,” Mr Peters says. “His contribution to racing, initially as a jockey and then ...
Assalaamu alaikum, greetings to you all. Eid Mubarak, everyone! I want to extend my warmest wishes to you and everyone celebrating this joyous occasion. It is a pleasure to be here. I have enjoyed Eid celebrations at Parliament before, but this is my first time joining you as the Minister ...
Associate Health Minister David Seymour has announced Pharmac’s largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff. “Access to medicines is a crucial part of many Kiwis’ lives. We’ve committed to a budget allocation of $1.774 billion over four years so Kiwis are ...
Hon Paula Bennett has been appointed as member and chair of the Pharmac board, Associate Health Minister David Seymour announced today. "Pharmac is a critical part of New Zealand's health system and plays a significant role in ensuring that Kiwis have the best possible access to medicines,” says Mr Seymour. ...
Hundreds of New Zealand families affected by Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) will benefit from a new Government focus on prevention and treatment, says Health Minister Dr Shane Reti. “We know FASD is a leading cause of preventable intellectual and neurodevelopmental disability in New Zealand,” Dr Reti says. “Every day, ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones today attended the official opening of Kaikohe’s new $14.7 million sports complex. “The completion of the Kaikohe Multi Sports Complex is a fantastic achievement for the Far North,” Mr Jones says. “This facility not only fulfils a long-held dream for local athletes, but also creates ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters’ engagements in Türkiye this week underlined the importance of diplomacy to meet growing global challenges. “Returning to the Gallipoli Peninsula to represent New Zealand at Anzac commemorations was a sombre reminder of the critical importance of diplomacy for de-escalating conflicts and easing tensions,” Mr Peters ...
Ambassador Millar, Burgemeester, Vandepitte, Excellencies, military representatives, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen – good morning and welcome to this sacred Anzac Day dawn service. It is an honour to be here on behalf of the Government and people of New Zealand at Buttes New British Cemetery, Polygon Wood – a deeply ...
Distinguished guests - It is an honour to return once again to this site which, as the resting place for so many of our war-dead, has become a sacred place for generations of New Zealanders. Our presence here and at the other special spaces of Gallipoli is made ...
Mai ia tawhiti pamamao, te moana nui a Kiwa, kua tae whakaiti mai matou, ki to koutou papa whenua. No koutou te tapuwae, no matou te tapuwae, kua honoa pumautia. Ko nga toa kua hinga nei, o te Waipounamu, o te Ika a Maui, he okioki tahi me o ...
Paul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. “Our Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...
Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
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Go Lula!
OK I give up
Who/what Lula?
Brazilian Presidential candidate
https://www.theguardian.com/world/ng-interactive/2022/oct/02/brazil-election-2022-live-results-bolsonaro-lula-da-silva
Thanks
https://i.stuff.co.nz/business/property/130021471/government-scraps-national-scheme-aimed-at-filling-ghost-homes
Ghost homes by the numbers
Our ghosts will be happy to hear that. They'd not want to be made homeless and have to find new haunts.
Very cool to see journalists still going back to Orwell to remind us that "The present political chaos is connected with the decay of language." (Orwell, 1941)
Who's a "conservative"? Not these folks — the word has become meaningless | Salon.com
The whole article starts off on the wrong premise by not understanding the difference in the meaning of conservative in the normal sense i.e. resistant to change to the term conservative in the political sense i.e. favouring private enterprise, private ownership, traditional social mores and smaller government.
Somewhat ironic that an article quoting Orwell's commentary on the use of language would not fundamentally understand that words in English particularly can have multiple meanings.
The political conservative has never ever been resistant to change – just as long as it is change that favours their conservative outlook.
The left moves much more slowly ironically unless they are moving to the right as we saw in the 80's. Indeed it is the left that are conservative in the first meaning of the word.
It would be a much better article if it outlined that the public often don't understand the difference between the two meanings. Something that plays well into the hands of the right – conservative, prudent – the imagery they invoke.
Liz Truss typifies how quickly they move when wish. John Key's "never waste a crisis", Judith Collin's "double down".
Conservative they are not.
I think what you are pointing towards is the intersection in the word "conservative" between broad left and right, namely: that point at which the world is saved through conservation.
I don't think the article was trying to get that far.
The same article transposed onto New Zealand conditions would have to track the splintering language that mirrors the splintering of epistemic trust through COVID, revealing deep and unruly activism. That's somewhat different to the US context.
Nah just the difference between the noun and the adjective.
The noun belongs to the right.
The adjective belongs to the left.
It is why despite regular stitching of governments we had continuously moved right since the mid-80's and people can't conceive of a return eg implementing WEAG recommendations or indeed believing they have done the job eg Grant Roberson believing he has reversed benefit damage done by Ruth Richardson.
Well that lovely binary is just not true in practise here, and betrays a kind of unjustified woolly righteousness.
Otherwise we'd see for example no national parks formed under National, or Treaty agreements, or cycleways, or major constitutional advancement, or Predator Free efforts, or big public transport facilities, whereas in practise most of them are initiated under National and by National.
In fact it's the current government that is the first for a while to initiate no new national parks. And the only big PT investment Labour-Greens can claim is the North Shore Busway extension.
If we cannot see the future, or if we cannot be sure of how a particular policy will turn out, then the true conservative is a person who prefers to err on the side of caution. However the modern political conservative tends to support privilege.
In America, the term neo-conservative refers to one who believes that because America is strong enough, militarily, to do whatever it likes, she should in fact act accordingly if it's in her interests to do so.
This is where we are now. Gender Identity ideology is shifting cultural norms so that rape culture is being sanctioned. Women said no to mixed sex toilets because we know what we are talking about. Capitalism lapped up GI ideology because it’s cheaper to have mixed sex toilets than single sex ones. People working in schools are either believing in GI ideology or they’re too scared to oppose it out of fear for their jobs or losing friends.
Every day there are multiple examples of this in my twitter feed. No Debate means the general public don’t know how far it’s gone, although awareness and MSM coverage is improving.
GI ideology is regressive, harms all people and society, but women and girls the most.
Trans people have the same human rights as everyone else in liberal countries and these should be upheld. Removing the rights of women and girls is not an acceptable way to do that.
https://twitter.com/ladybellatrix1/status/1576653541435142144
I'd say that's less at the foot of GI and more at the super-commercialisation of amateur porn into sites that target early teenage development.
… aided by the wanton abandonment of safeguarding and single-sex spaces, giving rise to increased opportunity.
(Note: Abusive behaviour not limited to teenagers/schools)
I wonder if lots of men don't understand quite how big a deal this is for women.
If people aren't on twitter or reading RW media, they probably don't know the extent or the analysis.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11270459/Feminist-campaigners-demand-unisex-changing-rooms-scrapped-amid-reports-traumatic-encounters.html
No need to wonder,
Many many people the world over really don't see girls or women as more then a comfort person. Born to provide comforts, sexual comforts, nice clean house comforts, cooked foods and sandwiches comfort, and for those that still have use for it – b irthing body comforts. that is it. The only difference in the future between the taliban / religious enforces in the west and else where is that were they like to cover their comfort providers under a bedsheet we would have them run around naked or barey dressed. The mindset is the same.
The answer still stands, those not born into a male body are they even human?
porn teaches the young men, liberal adoption of GI ideology (eg mixed sex toilets) gives them easier access. It's not rocket science. This is a well known phenomena that appears to be increasing because men are now allowed in spaces that were previously female only. Google (or better yet, twitter search) for Primark to see how this is playing out in department store and other changing rooms.
At what point did liberals stop understanding that predatory men will take advantage of situations? Some liberals don't care because the needs of some TW to access female spaces is more important than protecting women and girls. But I don't think that's most liberals, so it's mindboggling what the thinking is.
But what's newly alarming is the mix of that and the school's response: it's not such a big deal because she had her underwear on. This is straight out of rape culture minimalisation that we've been fighting for decades, and now liberals are saying it's not a big deal 🚩 Liberals are saying this.
It's the mix of those three things – porn, GI ideology, liberal's dropping boundaries that is dangerous.
GI ideology has strong connections with porn of course, via sex/kink positivity and 'sex work is work' positions, as well as queer theory's ideas around transgression/good, boundaries/bad. Lots of TW doing porn, lots of AGPs doing fetishes, and increasingly in public. I doubt that most people are aware of the very fast shift in cultural mores that is happening.
Your comment above re capitalism bears repeating, and I think goes further than just having cheaper toilets. GI as a kind of religion (i.e., whatever I thinks is true is the truth) plays right into the hands of the masters of communication, the tech lords. There is a continual push to get us all online even more, into their crappy "metaverses", where they can extract even more data and money from us.
"Come to us, you can be whatever you want and no one can tell you, or even THINK you, any different. If the meat-world rejects you, there's always room for you in the meta. Just… enter you details…" Ugh.
totally agree. The push to disembodiment and the ways to make money from this are glaring. Some on the left look forward to transhumanism 🙁
writing these comments today I wanted to draw a mind map of all the interrelated things, and yes techbro and techlords are intricately part of this.
It was feminists who insisted for decades there was little difference between the sexes and women could do anything that men could do. More than this that male-only spaces and roles had to be dismantled.
Now the tables are turned – you don't like it.
this is how it played out in your head.
meanwhile,
And I was pointing out years ago that if the boot was on the other foot – that if you reversed the sexes in most feminist argument – you would not like it.
And so it came to pass. I am sorry for that.
there might be a few thousand 'feminists' the rest of us are just women who do not want men in female prisons, female changing rooms, female awards, and so one.
most of us women abhor the idea to castrate a boy in order to have him live in the correct body of a 'female' because he likes sparkles, music, and spinny the dress.
most of us women abhor the idea to sterilize girls, have their teets yeeted by some demented surgeon for good money in the name of fucking kindness.
and frankly RL this is the laziest comment you could make.
Women are not feminists. Some women are. Some men pretend to be. Most of us women really just wanted to keep our jobs once we got pregnant, really just wanted to not need the permission of the hubby to by something and have some money in the bank account, the right to sign a lease – residential or commercial without Daddies signature or that of the hubby, or gasp even buy a house on our own.
As you will remember if you actually care, non of these things were a given, and we now have young girls suffering for it.
You are laughing at women, because some 'feminists' such as Deborah Russel, Mme KereKere and even the good leader of teh Labour Party the Person Jacinda Ardern are pushing this through law into our schools and public spaces here.
Your contempt for women and girls seems to be endless.
You seem to have forgotten that I am one of the relatively few left wing males on this site to have openly and full-heartedly supported your position from the outset.
If you want to interpret this as contempt – that's entirely on you.
You can't be serious.
.
Once again your crude dogmatic insularity confuses the:
(1) scapegoating, elite self-interest, blatant discriminatory policies, authoritarianism & cultural extremism of the Upper-Middle Woke Vanity Project
with
(2) genuine Social Democratic principles of universalism, egalitarianism, equality under law, individual human rights, democracy, free expression of ideas.
I do understand that.
But again, the comment was lazy.
And fwiw, as a person who no longer has defintion that i can refer to when talking about myself, my body, my issues, heck who no longer even has the right to shit and piss in a toilet without male bodies hanging out for shits n giggles on the grounds of 'girl brain' and 'imagination' and 'getting a boner cause i get to wear womans face and the things who no longer have a word to define themselves are not allowed to say shit about it ' i am over that.
Seriously, you are one of the better commentators here. Please stop this Rightwing / Left wing bullshit about hte 'femminists'.
this affects us because we are removed from law, from text books, from public record so that men can have euphoria boners.
So fucking desperatly tired of this bullshit that harms us, our children, our elders. And as a consequence will in the future harm every male that wants to live as a male. Because they are gunning for you too.
Heck, we make castrating boys into female clad eunuchs a virtue. Go figure.
And fwiw, define 'left'. This is supported by left, right and the middle. Why? Why would that be?
Only because you don't understand the argument.
But let's test it and see. I already gave the example of men's clubs. What's the reverse? There isn't one, because women don't have an old boys network that they exclude men from. You've been running these arguments for years, but you still don't have an actual argument.
There isn't one, because women don't have an old boys network that they exclude men from.
Yes you do. Women everywhere have much larger, and often rather powerful, social networks than most men.
of course we have social networks, that's not what I said. I also don't think women are powerless.
But you said "if you reversed the sexes in most feminist argument" that I wouldn't like it. Yet you still haven't made an argument or presented any evidence. It's just this vague assertion based on not understanding feminist analysis of power and how it functions in our societies.
Oh I understand the argument alright – it seems to be about power and little else.
You two are fighting the wrong enemy
And this is why you don't get it.
This is basic power relations 101.
Need I say more?
apparently not. Like I said, vague reckons and implied whatevers but no actual argument. Which is fine, it's simply a derail so best to leave it alone.
Blaming "feminists" in the way you have, assumes that all who label themselves as feminists have the same perspective. As you know, that is demonstrably not true. There are many issues where those who call themselves feminists vehemently disagree.
weka, adequately addresses the issues regarding access to places where power and authority resided, rather than an all-out infringement on men's ability to create their own single-sex spaces.
If you can put those assertions you list aside for the moment, do you honestly not see any issues with the dismantling of safeguarding processes and boundaries for single-sex spaces?
Why would be have gaps under doors in gender neutral toilets? I have no problem having gender neutral toilets but the design has to be suitable. I also think there should always be separate same sex toilets as well – particularly in schools.
Female, male, disabled and gender neutral should be the modern standard. If you dispense with the first two then each stall should be independent with its own hand-basin etc e.g. similar to a public toilet. Just slapping a new sign on existing facilities is poor decision making and reminds me of the early days of slapping signs on standard toilets and calling them the disabled toilet even though you couldn't turn a wheelchair around to get out. We are a bit more mature now about disabled facilities.
How much of the gap under the door is classist e.g. the poorer the community the more likely / bigger the gap?
The schools response sucks. Far too many women develop anxiety over time from this sort of behaviour.
What country is this in – it would not be usual for an 11 year old to be starting secondary school in NZ?
Many secondary schools are years 7 to 13.
It sounds like England – 11 years olds start secondary school and they return to school after the summer break in September.
Because it's cheaper. Neoliberal capitalism loves gender ideology for a reason.
are you suggesting that schools build mixed sex toilets alongside the single sex ones?
What's happening in the UK is that mixed sex toilets are increasingly replacing single sex ones. And guess what, they're converting women's toilets into mixed sex and keeping men's toilets.
I've seen pictures of mixed sex toilets in the UK in a school where the area outside the toilet cubicle is open to the main hall. This is a facility designed by people absolutely clueless about women's needs.
I values women's space highly, and single sex toilets for females give women the opportunity to connect without being around men. I don't want to see that lost because a very small % of the school are trans. We can address their needs without removing women's.
bloody good poin.
Indeed. Some women/girls stay home when they have their periods. Some hold on and don't go to the toilet. This was the argument for making toilets cross sex or mixed sex, that trans people were having medical problems from holding on. It's an indictment of how much sexism and misogyny we still have that society didn't listen to women who said if you make toilets mixed sex the same thing will happen to women.
See my link above from the Mail.
UK. But it's normal here for intermediate and high school to be in the same building. What we don't know about NZ is if the push for mixed sex facilities is replacing women's/girls' toilets or being provided alongside.
"mixed sex facilities is replacing women's/girls' toilets or being provided alongside."
This is a 'reckon', but I highly doubt that there will be any new toilets built/installed – it's a major cost, and schools will be prioritizing other building projects.
It's a heck of a lot cheaper (in $$$ terms) to just change the signage.
this would be my guess too, although I suspect (and hope) only some of the girls' toilets will be changed.
What will happen in new school builds is another matter.
I would guess that unisex toilets will be mandated – and schools will be able to opt for single sex ones in addition – if they choose.
Agree, weka.
This casual handwaving away of issues of privacy, dignity and safety FOR no considered reason is breath-taking in it's stupidity.
No thought at all given to the many benefits of single-sex spaces:
https://fs.blog/chestertons-fence/
that's very good, thanks!
I'm aware of at least one person advising schools saying alongside. It took ages for this to sink in for disabled toilets. What I would not like to see is disabled toilets suggested as the alternative – not only for their space but also to avoid the notion of treating gender issues as a disability. Already seen that happen in workplaces – "just used the disabled toilet".
"if you make toilets mixed sex the same thing will happen to women."
Pretty obvious.
I suspect/know schools need much better guidance from above as well as specific funding to address. Individual boards will just produce a wide variation and religious schools are unsurprisingly resistant as are some individual principals.
agree about the need for caution around disability toilets. Bizarre that that took so long to establish.
Don't know about how sensible NZ schools will be. There are others with a better sense of what is happening than me (mostly I know them on twitter).
Plenty of gender neutral toilets on our coastline and parks in the Auckland region are just solid concrete block, which just feels better.
Yes, we have a lot of mixed sex toilets in NZ eg in small cafes where there is only one toilet. But they didn't replace women's toilets generally. In this conversation we are talking about where women and girls need single sex toilets and those are being removed. You may feel better, but many women and girls don't. This about politics.
IIRC, gaps are part of H&S design, so access to a distressed/self harming child is possible.
Happy to be corrected here.
New MoE design for toilets specifies full height walls and doors
"Toilets are self-contained and include hand basin and drying facilities. Full height walls and doors are used for more visual and acoustic privacy."
https://www.education.govt.nz/school/property-and-transport/projects-and-design/design/design-standards/toilet-reference-design/
A big departure from the previous standard with a row of cubicles and a row of handbasins.
Well, the new MoE designs do not allow for easy access to distressed/self harming or unconscious students. Good to know.
MoE guidelines are not gold standard in many areas, this will be added to the list.
The benefits of gaps can be fully realised in single-sex spaces, as they avoid the opportunity for abusive behaviour of males towards females.
Actually, filming someone in the school toilets, regardless of gender, should be an automatic suspension offence. As should sharing that film on social medial. And (depending on the student's history) might result in expulsion/exclusion (whatever the latest buzz word is).
It's illegal (you have a presumption of privacy in a toilet cubicle) – and there are multiple cases of adult offenders being convicted for similar offences.
The school's response is negligent.
The suspension should continue until there is a Board of Trustees hearing into why the student should be allowed to return to the school, and what protections will be put in place to prevent re-offending.
and the police should be called.
It's possible all those things did happen, and the school still gave the message to the girl that it wasn't such a big deal because she had her undies up.
I doubt, if the school is giving that message to the victim, that they have imposed any sanctions on the offender/s.
Mercer Gas Station and malls now has a 'gender neutral' toilets.
Men
Disabled
Gender Neutral
the “Womens” is now the neutral toilet. There is no more ” Womens” left. And please don’t ask for pictures, because i actually have taken them and will happily post them here.
So men can use the Mens, the mixed sex and the disabled toilet. Women well who gives a flying fuck?
All that was changed was the sign on the door. The stalls are open to the top and bottom and a tall man can have a good view over the stalls if they cared. Any one can put a camera under your toilet.
That is here in NZ. Just another country in which we pretend that anyone and their dog and pony show is a women/girl by stating so.
It seems as though the online fraudsters are just getting more and more sophisticated. And the banking response is lagging well behind.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/union-boss-mike-treens-online-bank-accounts-allegedly-hacked-by-fraudsters-13k-drained/AFONM6EWADUV3XKKK6PXC42YCU/?c_id=1&objectid=12555653&ref=rss
I'd like to see legislation introduced which requires banks to refund the money, unless they can prove that the account holder has been negligent (freely sharing passwords) or has actively chosen to transfer the money (it's not the bank's fault if you choose to send money to a 'Nigerian prince', even after being warned).
It seems as though the banks are also being hoist by their own petard of online-only services. In the 'old' days, if I wanted to change anything about my account (name, contact details, address, etc.) – I would need to physically go into a branch and produce ID. Now, all I need to do is send the details via an app. Opening up a giant hole in their security and fraud-prevention operations (once they have your account details & password – through phishing or other methods (phone cloning it looks like, here) – it's trivial for a fraudster to change the contact details – and you'll never know)
When I think about the hoops I have to go through in order to transfer money overseas – while these fraudsters happily waltz through the banks' security systems unimpeded…..
As more and more services become online-only – we should, rightly, be concerned over the security of those online systems – and their ability to protect our online identity (and, in this case, cash)
Ukraine is launching a rapid counter-offensive in the Kherson Oblast down the banks of the Dnipro at the moment causing a lot of very worried Russians.
The pace things are going, there is a high risk that a lot of Russians could be surrounded, and will find it very difficult to withdraw across the Dnipro.
Things rapidly falling apart for Putin at the moment.
Putin can't afford to lose…he will throw everything at this.
The more successful the Ukrainians become, the more likely it will be that the Russians will resort to nuclear weapons. It would be in Europe’s interests to bring the parties to the peace table, However Russia won’t voluntarily give up the territories it has won and Ukraine won’t stop fighting until it has regained those territories.
Here come the mushroom clouds!
I don't think the Russians will bother with tactical nukes. Most military opinion I have seen doesn't think they are very good for the job there. And the NATO has made it very clear to them that there will be specific non-nuclear but very destructive action they will take if Russia goes down that path.
The biggest risk is if Putin goes completely off the wall and decides to launch nukes at the rest of the world because he sees military defeat in Ukraine as on the same level as nukes being launched at Russia.
British historian Lawrence Freedman;
Conclusion
There is no evidence for now that weapons are being moved into position or being prepared for such strikes. US intelligence, which has been extraordinarily precise so far can be expected to pick up any details (or at least the Russian would need to assume that). No effort has been made to explain to the Russian public why such strikes might be necessary. After all Putin still insists that this is a limited operation and has refused to put the country on a war footing. As we have seen Russian figures talk garrulously about scenarios for nuclear use against NATO countries but not Ukraine. We can also assume that neither of Putin’s recent interlocutors – Xi and Modi – would be enthused. This is a scenario largely generated in the West trying to anticipate contingencies that have yet to be reached.
[…]
Postscript
The day after this post was published, Putin made a speech in which he announced military mobilisation. His description of the origins of the course of the war can be left to another day. It is an extension of the delusional analysis which he has been promoting since the start of this disastrous war. The mobilisation announced will, I suspect, aggravate rather than solve the problems faced by Russian forces at the front. I will consider these in my next post. His main statement on nuclear weapons, however, is wholly in line, with my analysis.
https://samf.substack.com/p/going-nuclear
https://twitter.com/LawDavF
The Russian offensive Operation Iceblock continues,as does the cost of poor economic policy in Europe.
https://twitter.com/GazpromEN/status/1576253694214959104?cxt=HHwWgMCj-cWY_d8rAAAA
It will be somewhat offset due to the demand decreasing for cooked food,as food will a distant memory as agriculture policy bites in the Netherlands.
https://twitter.com/jsblokland/status/1575755246076399616?cxt=HHwWgMC89YXDmt4rAAAA
.
The German Greens must have strong confidence in winter energy supplies to now fully abandon nuclear.
I don't think EU energy policy could reasonably have predicted Russia fully shutting all gas access, even with Ukraine post-2014.
If EU can get through this winter they can get through anything.
If.
At present the Rhetoric worked until the cold weather came then the shortages in reality became obvious,as the IEA shows.
https://twitter.com/fbirol/status/1576221639494492160
The German Energiewende was built on ideology not decarbonisation,replacement of Nuclear with Russian Gas,which would of allowed reduction of coal generation.
Grid replacement from the north for wind (offshore) which needs 12256km of new grid line has only completed over the last 6 years 16% with another 6 % permitted ( German planning can take 10yrs) meaning only half of its target can be reached in 2035.
Harbeck the German minister says now the two reactors will be needed this and next year,remembering that the storage this year was mostly by Russian gas.
No plan b here,as price caps on gas imports will mean no gas imports,so subsidy is the option with around 200b euro so far,which is on borrowed debt now with a trade imbalance.
You always provide excellent links thankyou.
Great info Poission. Europe is pretty much in chaos in terms of energy.
I recall reading somewhere that while converting from coal to natural gas is a good thing, and responsible for much of the developed world cutting back on their carbon intensity over the past two decades – there was always one nasty gotcha that few people talked about – fugitive emissions.
The numbers I saw suggested that you only needed gas leaks in the order of 2 -3% of total use for the methane contribution to CC to exceed the CO2 gains from the coal use reduction. And considering that the Nord Stream sabotage is probably the largest every man-made methane release ever …
Using gas instead of coal,reduced emissions by being more efficient,fewer secondary emissions such SO2,etc,balanced by fugitive emissions,flaring and underestimation.
The IEA data and satellite measurement show that FF methane emissions are 70% greater then national government reporting and growing.
https://www.iea.org/news/methane-emissions-from-the-energy-sector-are-70-higher-than-official-figures
Also the emissions from flaring are also 5x greater then certification efficiency certification shows.( flaring thought to be a cheaper method,then capping or short term storage.
https://twitter.com/EDFEnergyEX/status/1576308533066448898
The fix here can be both cheap and profitable ,the wasted gas being around the annual needs of Europe.The other part of the problem is that the total global load of CH4 changes ie the amount of biogenic production reduces to meet the excess loads identified in the global accounts.
That is really just virtue signaling on a national scale.
The reason being that Germany imports electricity from France. And France generates 70% of its electricity from nuclear power.
So, what the Germans are doing is all about the feelz more than anything else.
The other thing is, that, due to Russia cutting the gas supply, Germany is now turning back on coal generation. From an emissions perspective, nuclear would have been better.
Also from a health perspective. More people die EVERY day from coal powered stations than have EVER died in 'N word' accidents. Sigh.
As I have commented several times on TS, both solar and wind power are now cheaper than nuclear power.
In the case of solar, that depends where you are. In Germany, and similar parts of Europe, it isn't very good due to less sunlight, though Italy and France are OK, as is most of New Zealand. Especially good in Australia for obvious reasons.
Solar works at 20-30% efficiency even in cloudy conditions. The technology is getting better rapidly.
Nuclear proponents always lie massively about construction costs and decomissioning costs which makes nuclear power far more expensive than the figures often quoted.
Rest assured, like everywhere else, the empty suits in the German Green Party, the SPD and the FDP, will have a warm house, good food and no hardship. That is for their constituency that they have no care about.
But, i am sure the German Green will feel very green, so green, deepest green, whilst they sit warm, munching on a imported vegan strudel of sorts telling the plebs that all of this is Putins fault for not just giving the west Russias resources for free and on demand. How dare the pesky Russians pretend that they are a sovereign nation and not a supplier to Capitalism Inc.
Anyone not predicting that Russia has Europe by the balls is dumb at best and malevolent at worst and should not be anywhere in risk assessment and government. Btw, Donald Trump of all people warned them. Go figure.
This totally …
just nicked this from defencetalk.com
Looks like there is finally movement on the Northland Drydock, better late than never I suppose.
With the 2 new Interlslander Ferries on order, the Pirates (RNZN) new Fleet Support Ship & the Landing Support Ship can't use the existing facilities in Auckland.
Plus the Planned the Southern Ocean Patrol Vessel which is going to be a biggie, the new Landing Ships & Frigate/ OPV Replacements.
The planning process for this, probably should've started already given the short to long economic development to Northland. Especially if KiwiRail pull their finger out of their freckle & build the branch line to Northport, which might see container traffic move from Auckland etc?
My biggest concern is atm, will the Greens shit can this project given its Anti Defence Stance incl Maintenance & Manufacturing?
Then we have National's Tax Cuts & it's stance against building critical Infrastructure apart from roads & cutting Public Services like Defence etc.
https://www.defencetalk.com/military/forums/t/nzdf-general-discussion-thread.6137/post-412635
Very interesting point about the new ferry craft not being able to use Calliope, since they are in sea trials and work on the port upgrades for Wellington and Picton is under active negotiation.
The two new Interlslander Ferries are 50% bigger, so even if the NZ MoD/ RNZN got all the approvals to upgrade Devonport & the Drydock.
It was going to be a very tight fit, so probably going for a new greenfield site like Northport would be a better option long term.
Given that the NZ MoD/RNZN no longer owns the Married Quarters around the Devonport Area and the planned new Fleet means the Navy would have to eventually move out of Auckland sooner or later.
The now cancelled Southern Ocean Patrol Vessel was almost as big ie length & if not more beamer (width of the ship) as the current in service Frigates. And this due to the changing environmental conditions down in the Southern Ocean due to CC.
As the current in service OPV's are no longer fit for purpose to go down Sth & L421 the Landing Support Ship, they've got to pick the right time to supply Campbell Is given the design limitations & CC in the Southern Ocean nowadays.
The Pirates are going to need bigger ships in coming the decade weather the public, treasury & politicians like it or not.
"The two new Interlslander Ferries are 50% bigger, so even if the NZ MoD/ RNZN got all the approvals to upgrade Devonport & the Drydock."
A big *if* – the Devonportugese are very, very NIMBY when it comes to infrastructure development. I'm sure the Navy would have been geared up for multiple appeals to the Environment court.
An alternative site (well outside of Auckland's built-up area) looks like a much quicker option.
Ron Mark, had the NZ MoD & RNZN Scoping for possible future Base for the the Pirates from Northport, to staying in the Auckland Area, the Sounds & Port Chalmers for the Southern Ocean Patrol Vessels.
But it all went quite very quickly after last election for some unknown reason, probably Covid19 Related more likely & possible cost as well?
The Big issue with Devonport is not so that the NZ MoD/ RNZN doesn't owned much land around the Base these days. But a lack of flat land around the existing drydock area & the Drydock being listed a Grade 1 Heritage Site.
As you said, if they got all the approvals, the Heritage Listed Site that being the Drydock Area would've been a major show stopper.
The NZ MoD & RNZN would've literally had to destroy the existing facilities & therefore leaving the Navy the nowhere to go to undertake minor refit or major refits while reconstruction was taking place.
I think one of the many dumbest decisions ever taken place during the great leap backwards in the 80's & 90's was when the Railways/ Interlslander Services were told to offloaded it's floating dock in Wellington.
Which has left NZ's heavy Ship repair in a perilous state since then & having to rely on the good services of the NZ MoD, Babcock International who managed the the Drydock on behalf of RNZN & RNZN itself.
And all those $5Million plus home owners don't actually want a nasty drydock area messing up their sea-views and creating noise pollution by actually working. And they have very deep pockets when it comes to Enviro court appeals (as well as a conviction that, if they can just delay long enough, the government will give up and go away).
A sufficiently tough government could push it through – but my pick is that they'd choose to use the political capital elsewhere.
The problem is that you either have to locate facilities in an existing sea-port (with all of the associated NIMBY issues), or you build a new one (with all of the associated environmental degradation issues).
In Auckland, I do wonder about Kauri Point. Existing Defence land (with a massive unbuilt-up area because of ammo storage.
Definitely accessible by ocean-going and navy ships (both ammo loading, and Chelsea tankers).
Of course, because it's un-built-on – there would be outcries about 'destroying' the natural heritage…..
No, I'm not suggesting co-locating the drydock with ammo storage. But you could certainly look at ammo storage elsewhere….[I'm tempted to say in the heart of Devonport, but will refrain]
They could store the bang in the old underground fuel bunkers that NIMBY's got closed down at Devonport which would be a bad thing btw😂
If & when Kauri Pt is closed down? I hope it's turned into a urban national park like Charles Darwin here in Darwin which btw was the old Bomb/ Ammo dump for Nth Oz.
Hmmm.
Word from my bid team is: "Not in my lifetime."
It'll fall between Kiwirail and NZDF, so it just falls.
Yes, it does have Sir Humphrey's feel to it😂
Mind you this entire NZ parliamentary term feels & looks like Yes Minister.
This is why I have unfollowed a few of the Left people on twitter, they are just relentlessly hating on Labour with no perspective on where we came from. The perfect is too often the enemy of the good.
It's like nothing is ever good enough until we have a full on socialist purge.
was that a reply to something?
Oops, yeah it was a brief reply to Darien Fenton's recent post.