"Nana points to the rise in house prices as an example of this: New Zealanders selling pre-existing houses to one another is not a productive use of capital; New Zealanders investing more in new builds, thus increasing the housing stock, is."
Pardon?…now whether its a problem of misreporting or a fundamental misunderstanding of productivity is not clear but it is wrong.
And then theres the complete absence of the role of energy plays in productivity.
You cannot address productivity when understanding is so flawed
"Nana points to the rise in house prices as an example of this: New Zealanders selling pre-existing houses to one another is not a productive use of capital; New Zealanders investing more in new builds, thus increasing the housing stock, is."
Pardon?…now whether its a problem of misreporting or a fundamental misunderstanding of productivity is not clear but it is wrong.
Building new stock does not necessarily increase productivity…indeed it can reduce productivity. In fact its worth considering that decades ago the average build time for the standard 3 bedroom home was 14 weeks , it is considerably longer now.
Productivity is a measure of output to work…..and that work has been enhanced by the use of energy….energy that is increasingly less available.
It is true that work can be enhanced by energy, but capital is also a factor. Building houses is a more productive use of capital than investing it in existing houses.
It is more 'productive' to invest in new stock than existing stock in that it 'produces' something but that is not the measure of productivity rather it is a measure of capital stock.
And yes capital is a factor of productivity because that capital is also required to make the energy available and convert it to a usable form (though it must be recognised that it is not always necessary or desirable) and therein lies the productivity issue….an increasing ratio of capital is required to access that energy leaving less available for production.
a dwelling requires a hundred rocks in its construction.
an individual can move one rock per hour to where its needed.
If thatindividual spends 5 minutes making a yoke so he can move 2 rocks at a time hes (roughly) doubled his productivity with little capital investment .
If he spends a day making a barrow that allows him to move 4 rocks at a time he has quadrupaled his productivity but his capital investment is greater,
If he spends a thousand hours building a motorised vehicle to move a hundred rocks at a time he has increased his productivity a hundred fold but he has invested considerable productive capacity in building (and running) that machine.
If he only needs to build one dwelling is it worth investing a thousand hours in a motorised rock moving vehicle to move one hundred rocks?
He has this great rock moving machine so he builds a lot of dwellings because he can, but theyre are not needed…is that a productive activity?
he then finds that the fuel needed to run his machine is further and further away and he spends a lot of time (and fuel) that is needed to run his machine so he is spending more and more of his time getting fuel and less and less moving rocks….his productivity is declining.
at some point (relatively easily calculated0 it is more productive to move the rocks by hand again.
And then there is the usable lifespan of the dwellings (or anything) being constructed…if you only need to rebuild that dwelling every century then it is more productive than building one that only lasts 50 years…..work to output ratios.
There are various factors that influence 'productivity'. Availability of energy is one, but there are also, capital and the way it is employed, and educational outcomes; and there may be others that I can't think of offhand.
If capital is ‘wasted’ increasing the prices of existing houses, rather than building new ones, this will hardly enhance productivity.
It is important to think in terms of 'real' capital (or resources)….not monetary value.
Available energy is not simply 'a factor' in productivity it is the underlying source of our ability to produce at the level required to support our most basic of needs….without it we cannot produce anything like that which we require.
In other words, the basis of our productivity is available energy….if we have only muscle power (or lower EROI energy sources, in some instances, negative EROI) then what we can produce will be considerably reduced…..'money' dosnt solve that.
It is I submit already the cause of declining productivity
I also think in terms of resources. Capital is simply the value invested, or which is available to be invested, in productive resources. In days of yore waterwheels and windmills were used to grind grain. These primitive machines embodied capital, and without that capital the energy sources that drove those devices, wind and flowing water, would have been pretty useless. Energy resources just exist. Capital is the human element that makes use of energy, and is perhaps, therefor, the more fundamental concept.
It seems tragic that the supply of one of the energy resources we use today, namely fossil fuel, is diminishing, and in any case may become unusable due to global warming; however, this not to deny the value of capital in productivity. Building a new house is productive, but I think Gareth Nana held this up as an example of greater productivity because the question of housing, (though no doubt he could have used other examples), is topical at the present time.
As said originally it was unclear whether it was misreporting or misunderstanding but the quote is a complete misunderstanding of what productivity is….too many are confused by the application of 'money' which is merely a (inefficient0 method of rationing.
Energy resources may "just exist' however they are not unlimited, nor is our ability to utilise them….as we are finding out.
Isn't that a nonsense? Talk about setting up PT to fail. No one is going to choose to commute 2.5 hours (subject to transfer times at Papakura, which means the Southern line being closed for signalling/track/emergency service incident at least once a fortnight) with just two super early trains (departure times from the Tron are 5.46am and 6.28am) to Papakura and two home (4.42pm, useless for commuters and 6.25pm which assumes you can leave work and get to Britomart before 5.30pm for THE ONLY CONNECTION HOME). Sure, it might be a useful commuter rail if you live in Huntly and work in Hamilton but otherwise, it is a near useless service whose failure will be used as a stick to beat PT with in general by opponents of PT.
The politicians need to bite the bullet and announce an electrified, upgraded (as in level crossing separated) 125 (= top speed 125kn/hr) service bet Hamilton and Auckland, with the goal of extending it to Tauranga to build a "productivity corridor" linking up that population triangle.
again Incognito, are you snarking or just trying to rail someone up?
I have commuted for work. By bike to train station 10 min, lock bike at bike park, hop on train, 30 min later arrive at Munich airport – with four stops inbetween – just enough to have a cuppa at the coffee cart part of the train, leave trainstation, take light raile aka S-Bahn to final destination another 15 min, then walk ten min to office.
so together some 90+ kms inclusive biking and walking less then an hour with a train running either way every fifteen min at peek commuter hour. Oh and that was over 20 years ago. Train was packed, costs for commute were tax deductible and did i tell you about the coffee cart where you could also get a feed if you ended up working late?
So dear Incog, if this is the best the government can do, i suggest you take two books with every time you hop on the train, and take food, and don't forget your toilet paper – you know a bit like the old days in the late 19th.
Mind that is our government, a dollar short and several centuries late.
again Incognito, are you snarking or just trying to rail someone up?
Nah, I love a challenge.
I know people, here in NZ, who commute daily by train and actually work on the train. I kid you not.
Most people, however, like to have some ‘down-time’ and plug in the ear-phones, listen to music and chill. It is no different in European cities.
BTW, when you read the NZH, you don’t need to worry about toilet paper; I’m not quite as old as you to remember the “old days in the late 19th” [sic] 😉
5 hours a day is a long time to work while not on the job, and to read books.
but its ok, you get up for that train at 5.30 so that you may be at your job at 9 am, then you leave on the dot, no staying longer cause you only have that one train back out, so that you arrive at 7 pm at home.
hahahahahahahahahaha
that is not challenge, its animal poo delivered by containerloads. And i have spend all my working days in Europe going to work by train. This is the most pathetic announcement since the last anouncment of the travel bubble that was pushed out to today. Pathetic, uninspired, several dollars and years to short, Labour!
50 km per hour. …………hahahahahahahashahahahah we are not even aiming for the low hanging fruit anymore we just grab the rotten stuff of the ground now.
Agreed Incog…and according to the RNZ report this morning this train has an excellent ride, great coffee, free wifi and ample tables to use a laptop on. The 1.5 hours would never be wasted, and the RNZ report says it will take 73,000 car trips off the road annually.
It is a first step, but a good one, and only costs $90 million.
Meanwhile numpty Dylan Thomsen from the AA wants $930 million EXTRA (above the present massive budget) spent on the roads over the next 3 years to repair the roads. How about this was spent on public transport instead?
this train is pathetic, it is useless for most commuters that don't have 5 hours a day to waste in a train working unpaid or reading a book.
this train is pathetic because it literally travels at somewhere around 50 kms an hour if it needs 2.5 hours to get from Hamilton to Auckland.
this train is pathetic because it only has two departures either way, which if you have to work late , you are container loads of animal poo out of luck, cause there is no other train to take you home. And i know what i speak of, as i have many times been forced to take a later train home due to work requirements. And you would be very happy coming out of the office at 7 pm and still get home. Which in our case of the fabulous 50 km hour fast train from Hamilton to Auckland is not a given. You either make the train, or you sleep in a hotel or the trainstation and that makes it totally and utterly unsuitable for commuting.
But then i guess the guys got all flushed with excitement about THE TRAIN that they actually forgot to think about the logistics involved for those that use the train.
This is a nice to have, totally useless for its purposes and sadly underfunded program at the start that will go down as a 'we gave it a try, the operation succeeded, but the patient died' effort. But please give us a re-election for ‘trying’. How many consultants were paid good money to come up with this idiocy.
And trains are something that i was hoping for this motely crew of useless heissluft ballons would not manage to piss up and they did before it even started.
The Universe is like an open mind; it started with a light bulb moment and has been expanding ever since. I kid you not.
They say that dark matter cannot be detected. They are wrong; most of it hides in the blogosphere where it tries to annihilate new energy and bright ideas in a burst of pathetic commentary. I kid you not.
I used the Wairarapa service for five years before we came to Aus in 2013. It has a long history going back many decades, and for much of that time ran using notoriously cold, uncomfortable ‘red rattler’ wooden carriages and slowly but surely the service was running down. But around 2005 the very old carriages were replaced by much newer ones.
Since then, despite numerous setbacks and incidents (and I've a long list I personally encountered, some a bit funnier than others) – it's evolved into a real success story. Basically the trains are full every morning and evening – full to standing capacity. There are real limitations with the old rail infrastructure into the region that have held back expanding the service, but the basic principle has worked – they built it, the people used it.
For this new Hamilton service stopping at Papakura is a serious limitation at present, almost certainly because until new lines are built into the city, it's impossible to reliably run another express service. But that's going to be fixed.
It won't be ideal on Day 1, but this new service will almost certainly become very popular if we continue to invest in it. The best option would be to look across the Tasman at the V-Line trains that Victoria run reliably on narrow gauge at up to 160km/hr – reducing a very similar length trip from say Ballarat to Melbourne to just over 1hr. That has to be worth looking at.
One of the big challenges with scheduling is that if you have to run express and local services on the same line, unless you leave really big gaps, the fast express always catches up with the slow local one stopping at all stations. Or the local trains have to frequently pull into sidings. (The Wairarapa service is constantly hindered by this effect once it reaches the Hutt Valley for example.)
Ideally you need a second or third parallel line that can allow the fast and slow services to pass each other without interference. And from what I recall these new lines are either planned or being built – so this Papakura limitation will likely be fixed in the near-term.
and the RNZ report says it will take 73,000 car trips off the road annually.
Yes. I did wonder how it compares with driving from Hamilton to Auckland, given congestion. And who wants to spend a long time behind the wheel of a car morning and evening. Much better to spend the time reading a book, or surfing the net, or having a game of cards with a fellow passenger.
It may be preferable to spend two and a half hours engaged in useful activities, on a train, than one and a half hours sitting behind the wheel of an automobile.
It's pretty 19th century – the KTX operates at 305kph – ends up being faster than flying what with all the security and nonsense. A short leg like this would be ideal to roll out high speed rail.
The bullet train in France, Besanscon (near Swiss border) to Paris in less then 6 hours. Stopped right under Charles de Gaulle airoport, just an elevator ride up to the next floor for check in. Oh, and wifi, comfy seats, food, nice toilets and good service all around.
Its not the can't, its the won't that is the issue with the ruling suits of NZ. They just won't.
Yup – I used to fly Seoul/Daegu weekly at one point – the train was so much better. Faster overall, and you could get work done in the seating. High speed rail to Wellington would do more for carbon neutrality than 90% of the changes considered so far.
I never owned a car in Germany/Europe, why? Trains, busses, bicyle lanes, trams etc all there for your easy convenience. And with train costs being tax deductible it was cheaper then owning a car. You can still rent a car for the out of way trips, but they are very few that i could think of.
the lack of train in NZ is due to the suits not doing their jobs. All of them. . And this is a prime example.
You make very good points there Sabine, and of course no one who is trying to polish this pile shit is actually someone who will be spending five hours a day, six days a week commuting themselves.
Say someone works a full Monday –Friday job and half their Saturdays per year, that would come out at about 286 days per year, commuting those 286 days to work @5 hours commuting each day would mean that person would spend 1430 hours commuting….the average hours worked per year in New Zealand are 1762.
Bizarre, pointless, criminally wasteful, ill-conceived..and btw who on earth would end up using this service? The only people I can think of is low paid workers…so just another kick in the guts for them as well…this labour govt never fails to amaze me at how many ways it can disappoint..it’s almost like that is their job…do they have some sort of secret ministry of disappointments that they run all their policies/projects through before they roll them out to a disbelieving public?
No one is going to take that train into Auckland as a daily commute, it might see some use with someone coming up for a day or two but as you say there'll be negative stories before long. I suspect as soon as there is a service cancellation for the return journey to Hamilton leaving commuters stranded and price gouged by the CBD hotels…
Well at 2.5 hours to papakura i would not, and i love trains! Heck i would not even take that train to just go for a day to Hamilton, five hours for 200 odd k's both ways, is just plain dumb and uninspired. Look we are doing something,….something…..no one needs or want be something……
Oh bugger knee capping by NZs who come here often and know we are so in need of some new ideas and have to do things differently. Instead of being the caustic wiseguys, work out how to get others involved and making a success of things we do. It is so f….g anger-making to be in this tiny country trying to hold its head up above water, seeing huge divisions rising in the country that will explode also in anger, and people like to sit around and criticise initiatives like a bunch of bored aristos.
Just come here and talk about what you are doing that is good for the country, and what you have observed others doing, and stop feeding this negative smartarse BS that wastes what little time and energy we have to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps. If you have got a better idea, go and push it, build it, and if it proves too big and will take too long, look for something smaller and get into practice at energising your type of smartarses who can then critique themselves.
And what have you done today and yesterday and any other day before that to make NZ a better place? Oh, just kidding, it is actually not a policy of this page to gain daily right of posting here by proofing that one is a bona fide do gooder or not.
WE are here generally to discuss what the Polititians (all of them) do that have been given the power of the people and the purse of the people to do what is best for the people.
And part of being a democracy is to also state what is not going to work, and sadly this train is not up to the role it is supposed to fullfill, namely provide an alternative to car travel in order to reduce emissions and to get people from the car – a very convenient tool of transportation if you can afford it – to the train who is a slightly lesser tool of transportation if you can afford it. It is not even a decent thought out and planned commuter train. And yeah, sometimes things are done to fail, like to underfund a program and then complain that it can't work and thusly must be privatised. Oh, now surely Labour would never do something like that, right?
One ways of making trains more attractive then cars is time, aka, it is a convenient tool that runs often (not just two trips mornings and evenings) , covers peak commuting times, and runs into the night to get late travelers home. This train provides non of the above. Now you don't have to believe me, you can also just complain about how i complain or critique, but then I have a right to complain and to critique, this is the government that i help finance, that rules over me if i like it or not, and that can do great harm to me should it not be a benign government. And also i have always used trains to commute, and in NZ i have always lived so close to work that i could walk/bike and bus. So i don't speak as a Labour fan, but as a user of this fabulous thing called train.
So maybe you should rather ask yourself what you want to achieve with your constant trying to shut down those of whose message you do not approve of.
Like everyone here you, I, and humpty dumpty for that matter have a right to express their opinions, emotions, and even their grievances so as long as they abide by the rules of the barkeep which is the esteemed provider of this blog. So really, please stop trying to shut up people. It is just sad and in bad taste.
I think Sabine that though you have a lot of experience and ideas that I have alluded to, you may not think productively.
NZ has to get moving to do some things that may not be perfect for the solution to our problems.
We have given much of our autonomy away to profit-seeking businesspeople who hold back progress while they look for a better outcome for themselves. The governmental departments contract out to agencies. They are run by supposedly astute people receiving generous salaries. The outcomes however don't always measure up to expectations. The years are passing, and the consultations are long and often don't result in worthy practical outcomes. We need to press on and get things done, after wise planning, which may not be optimal.
This next news report relating to a Chief Executive resigning in Wellington, is an example of the difficulties facing us under the present hegemony of governance and control in this country.
It described the culture at LGWM as "detrimental to a collaborative and productive working environment", with three separate entities – Wellington City Council, Greater Wellington Regional Council, and Waka Kotahi New Zealand Transport Agency – all involved in funding the programme.
With Wellington transport, three entities are supposed to put their fine heads together, but probably each has a different perspective. Here are writers for Scoop informing about the Wellington situation that is frequently echoed around NZ I suggest.
Finding about the CBD http://wellington.scoop.co.nz/?p=134840 Mar.19/21 Let's Get Wellington moving after 5 years is now employing a Danish concern to assess what is needed.
(Wellington was entertaining (an oxymoron) the idea of spending $120 million on updating the library, earthquake damaged, and in its present situation near the coastline, with sea incursions due along with storm events to beware of.)
Looking at Wellington rate rises: As well as rates ending up higher than previously indicated, residents could be facing a stack of new levies and charges. These include a sludge levy, congestion charges, levies on long term parking, developer contributions and higher rates on properties that benefit from Let’s Get Wellington Moving….
However those costs will be dwarfed by the unbudgetted portion of Let’s Get Wellington Moving which is already running at around $1.2 billion and is expected to rise.
(This is very informative about what activists can face when they attempt to get something done which is obviously essential; the stress, the time taken, the push back etc. This is why when something is done that is along the right lines, then activists can then turn their thoughts onto how it can be supported to be successful, not just right it off as a bit wet. There is an opportunity cost for each thing done, and to consider failure of a finished project means a loss of that, plus what could possibly have been done instead.)
good post shark. no-friends nigel finds it way more productive(?) to be negative about everything . it takes real courage to actually get out in the real world and at least TRY and improve things.expecting others to do things perfectly straight away happens only in p.c. games. good post from redlogix about the wairarapa commuter trains and how they have gradually improved service and how it has been accepted. here in horowhenua we battled for years AGAINST our elected nat m.p. who mouthed off about public transport but then did his best to sabotage the same public transport. the p.n. to welly commuter train is slowly gaining acceptance and many regular users DO actually work while travelling. with free wifi and no interuptions from interoffice colleagues , productivity is higher than same amount of time in office.
Yes it's entirely possible to 'work on the train' with decent internet connectivity. I recall one evening – after an urgent request from one of the plant operators – doing a rather significant online edit to one of Wellington's major water treatment plants control system, all the while sitting on the train going home.
I knew that in about 3 -4 km the mobile data service was going to drop out, so my edit was what you might call a high risk proposition. There was only time for one shot, and no quick fix if I fucked it up.
So maybe you should rather ask yourself what you want to achieve with your constant trying to shut down those of whose message you do not approve of.
What's that about Sabine? You are very strong about your right to have a say and criticise quite a lot. I look forward to positive ideas from people here with nous, otherwise it just becomes a wailing wall. NZ needs people with spirit and the will to talk up the good in the country, to look to be the ones to make change, including talking up ideas and people as often as possible.
I sort of tucked it in at the end as it isn't as important as the actual subject of how we get Nz moving in the right direction and support intelligent action with intelligent suggestions.
No mind gw – what you're saying still makes perfect sense.
The most legitimate role for the left will always be standing up and advocating for the weak and powerless.
I've participated here since The Standard started in 2008. I've seen, and taken part in myself, an awful lot of complaining. At some point about 5 – 7 years in I just wanted to say 'enough' – we know what the problems are, stop recycling endless recitations of them and start getting competent at solving them.
This to me is the diagnostic test between the useful and the toxic left – are you interested in constructing solutions, or just tearing down what you don't like? I know I get a lot of shit for this, but I've watched this dynamic play out over and over. In particular we've allowed the weakness and powerlessness we wish to advocate for, to become weaponised. We've turned them into fetish cards that are played to 'win all hands', turning what could be constructive, skillful negotiations of interest – into dull struggle sessions that drain everyone of energy. I sure I'm not the only one kinda over this.
Most of the regulars here I know moderately well by now. Well enough to get the sense that you're all by and large good people who do give a shit. Collectively there is one hell of a lot of strong passion and responsibility going on at TS. Maybe there's a chance we could learn to do something new with our time and energy here – something fresh could emerge. We just might get lucky if we tried
If you think that what you propose hasn't been investigated, then you need to do some research. That has been a wish list for a lot of people for quite some time – and it is not just the fault of politicians, that the establishment of a rapid rail between Auckland and Hamilton is not already an actuality. A rapid rail link would need a completely new line. The existing line isn't set up for really rapid rail, it goes through swamps and wetlands and choke points on bridges and all sorts of things. Even double tracking the existing line is beset with huge costs because of the terrain. Also much of the land for a new trail corridor would need to pass through Maori land. Quite rightly there is significant resistance to more compulsory acquisition by Govt.
because why would they change what works well for them? So far not one of these people in government have suffered any consequences of their actions. They are well fed, well heeled, well housed, have the best medical care and access to medical facilities tax payers can buy them and thus they have no reason to do anything more then they do.
They are the epitome of the 51%, that is all they need to do of anything to keep their jobs and pass the exam.
Id suggest it is nothing so self serving, for either the politicians or the public servants (though im sure it plays a role) rather it is the lack of expertise available to question the existing or develop an alternative.
well they went to Uni, studied something like communication and stuff, and are now educated?
Are you saying that they spend all this time getting an education but learned nothing? Gosh golly hinkadodas and diddly dum, that is why thye are in politics, no one else would hire them. And the perks. So nice to be looked after for the rest of your life and all you have to be is a total failure while in elected office.
Lol….im suggesting that there was a time when those in the public service were the top in their fields and had the ability to 'spot a dog' from a great distance….since the reforms those that have the ability have been drawn off to the private sector and act in their employers interests…leaving a hollowed out public service full of managers.
Theres an excellent submission to the EQ Commission from John Scarry that highlights exactly this in great detail re the construction industry in NZ post the 80s reforms.
My whole life have i been ruled by civilan loosers with neither shame nor compassion but well fed, well housed, well looked after while they wax lyrically about the things they can't do, how they listen to then go back to goverment to tell about they things they have heard, while they tell people on the down that government ain't here to help and please here have some tens of dollars for the month and won't you please just get on with learning about the value of work. Not me the suit, you the pauper that is to elect me for another round of waver thin mints.
And the suits ain't here to help, they are there to earn enough money to buy a house. And the only place that still allows you to do that is Politics.
I suspect they learned that they wernt required to be experts in their fields….they were required to 'manage public expectations" and cover their Ministers arse…..after all, 'the market' knows best and the governments role is to get out of the way of the 'the market'
They learned that not doing anything is not a problem that not helping anyone other themselves is not a problem, they learned that hungry kids are not a problem, homeless newborns are not a problem, no jobs for women are not a problem, leaking state houses are not a problem, failing schools due to homelessness and hunger are not a problem, underfunded hospitals are not a problem, and so on and so forth.
So as with every corporate and tax payer funded welfare bludger, they learned to be nice to each other, they learned to hire each others and they learned to blame anyone but themselves for the shit they fuck up.
And every three years we are told that the other will be worse in not doing a single thing that would actually have an impact.
Give me someone without education any day, cause they are capable of learning. These guys revel in their ignorance and they eat more of it every day.
Hits the nail pretty squarely. Disastrous failures like privatization and mass low-wage migration don't adversely affect the closeted wonks who deem them brilliant – so they keep recommending similar sociopathic follies. Government feels they ought to respect them for their quals, and consider their manifestly lousy results 'just bad luck' or 'unavoidable consequences of the operating environment'.
The QMS is a prime example, as is 1080 – ill-conceived and unpopular policies doomed to fail by design. Ministers accept no critical feedback on them (the Opposition bears some responsibility here – never was a more egregious collection of corrupt and ignorant self-serving plonkers assembled), and so we're stuck with non-performing policy. In my lifetime, NZ has only gone backward.
There were (are) so many drivers to the outcome, not least of which is the removal (largely ) of progressive taxation and globalisation….whether we like it or not we are competing in an international labour market in ways that were never available pre reforms….that may change…or not.
I could stomach a bit more of it had the "responsible" economists recognized that running a massive property bubble, because it increases cost of living, plays merry hell with our international competitiveness. So do most of the ill-conceived privatizations and user-pays provisions. They had to have known they were wrecking the economy – why haven't they been discharged with prejudice? Workers lose their jobs for much less.
Why indeed….mind you being discharged from high position these days usually involves a generous payment and often a brief holiday before taking up an equally well recompensed position…not much prejudice.
This Mediawatch story showing a woman lying in a bath of jellbaby lollies was one of the main current affairs in TVNZ new current affairs show that looks likely to be full of trivia and, freak and sensational news.
After watching or listening to such stuff there is possibly going to be a thimbleful of news that informed, responsible people need to know . Hopefully they will have a thimble-sized bit of alert brain not awash with stories about individuals in some sort of stress or ecstasy that presented for those in the public finding their own lives boring, can watch to divert themselves.
@ Stephen D (6) … Kiri Allan's public performance during the recent earthquake and tsunami threats as Disaster Management Minister, confirmed her dedication to duty and the country, despite the very same day having undergone tests for cervical cancer. I was also privileged to see Kiri speaking in Parliament three weeks ago. She is a political star on the rise. Kiri is definitely one of the best MPs we have had in a long time and NZ desperately need someone of her spirit and calibre to continue the good work.
I wish Kiri all the best in her health battle ahead and look forward to seeing her fighting fit back in Parliament again sometime later this year.
I get somewhat cranky at the hypocrisy that seems to surround shop trading hours, and particularly on public holidays. The irony seemed to be lost on Suzie Ferguson on Morning Report this morning that she had time off, at least Friday and Monday, and sounded like she wanted to have the opportunity to shop requiring other people (generally relatively lowly paid) to be at work to service her.
Phil Goff argued well on the issue of having some holidays rather sacrosanct.
What are the expectations/policies that people expect from the government and how do people expect the government to deliver those expectations/policies?
You touch on an interesting question TT….it is also interesting that at times people think a government can make a decision and the result is immediate…something like the Star Trek meme, 'make it so'.
It seems that there is a lack of appreciation for how political/government decisions get made and how they are implemented…a lack of understanding of the constraints and limitations that exist in the real world.
well for what its worth these two so far are the only ones actually talking about the fact that this pandemic has hit women probably the hardest in terms of job losses, income losses, loss of housing, plus education from home while working from home etc etc etc.
Politics are all about optics…Harris would have had full approval from the party and Biden to do this meeting, keep on mind Kamala Harris will probably soon be the most powerful person in the world.
Adrian, women have been at the loosing end of this pandemic, even here in NZ. I have posted some links for you to educate yourself to that fact.
I could not give a flying fudge about who raises this issue of women losing jobs, houses, every penny they have to their name so as long as it is done.
Now if you cared about the issue rather then these two women you may talk about the hardship women here in NZ face because our dear Lady of the Land don't give no flying shite, will not talk about it, will not raise the benefits, and has nothing to say other then kind, gently, please with me.
I agree with you that of course that it is a travesty that woman, the working poor etc have been disadvantaged during this pandemic, but seriously?..Bill fucking Clinton, the prick who has probably done more to make it Ok to objectify woman as pure sex object than any other POTUS in modern history, except maybe Trump? , that’s the guy you are going to OK to speak on your behalf as a woman…holy shit.
I have heard of pragmatism, but that ain’t that, that is allowing woman’s issues to be used as a political tool to white wash a disgusting extremely powerful old white pervert pure and simple.
I'd feel more comfortable with a travel bubble if the evidence for Ivermectin were properly considered. It can cut the suffering down to days which alone should have the government looking at it carefully on a cost basis alone.
Lots of negation of the studies. This is todays Trial Site News video where they cover each side of the story – it still looks like Ivermectin when used appropriately (early on, correct dose) is a worth approval.
At this stage it really comes down to personal choice. I purchased enough for the two of us from India about six months ago. Hope like hell I never get to use it and find out if it works or not.
another ban from facebook for telling a whining little bitch that he was a whining little bitch. hehehehehe. now I can comment on my blog or write original material instead of commenting on the idiots and mung bean anti vacationers who haunt cyberspace and social media to give their piffle/twaddle infantile opinion and cant take a robust estimate of their puerile nasty personalities and home truths. who can? hehehehehe. anyway the girls on johnkeyhasletdownnewzealand on fb at question time will keep the boogars honest.
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 ...
She was born 25 years ago today in North Shore hospital. Her eyes were closed tightly shut, her mouth was silently moving. The whole theatre was all quiet intensity as they marked her a 2 on the APGAR test. A one-minute eternity later, she was an 8. The universe was ...
Skeptical Science is partnering with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. This fact brief was written by Sue Bin Park in collaboration with members from our Skeptical Science team. You can submit claims you think need checking via the tipline. Is Antarctica gaining land ice? ...
Images of US students (and others) protesting and setting up tent cities on US university campuses have been broadcast world wide and clearly demonstrate the growing rifts in US society caused by US policy toward Israel and Israel’s prosecution of … Continue reading → ...
Barrie Saunders writes – Dear Paul As the new Minister of Media and Communications, you will be inundated with heaps of free advice and special pleading, all in the national interest of course. For what it’s worth here is my assessment: Traditional broadcasting free to air content through ...
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 arguments for such a bold reform. ...
Peter Dunne writes – The great nineteenth British Prime Minister, William Gladstone, once observed that “the first essential for a Prime Minister is to be a good butcher.” When a later British Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan, sacked a third of his Cabinet in July 1962, in what became ...
Ele Ludemann writes – New Zealanders had the OECD’s second highest tax increase last year: New Zealanders faced the second-biggest tax raises in the developed world last year, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) says. The intergovernmental agency said the average change in personal income tax ...
We all know something’s not right with our elections. The spread of misinformation, people being targeted with soundbites and emotional triggers that ignore the facts, even the truth, and influence their votes.The use of technology to produce deep fakes. How can you tell if something is real or not? Can ...
This video includes conclusions of the creator climate scientist Dr. Simon Clark. It is presented to our readers as an informed perspective. Please see video description for references (if any). This year you will be lied to! Simon Clark helps prebunk some misleading statements you'll hear about climate. The video includes ...
It is all very well cutting the backrooms of public agencies but it may compromise the frontlines. One of the frustrations of the Productivity Commission’s 2017 review of universities is that while it observed that their non-academic staff were increasing faster than their academic staff, it did not bother to ...
Buzz from the Beehive Two speeches delivered by Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters at Anzac Day ceremonies in Turkey are the only new posts on the government’s official website since the PM announced his Cabinet shake-up. In one of the speeches, Peters stated the obvious: we live in a troubled ...
1. Which of these would you not expect to read in The Waikato Invader?a. Luxon is here to do business, don’t you worry about thatb. Mr KPI expects results, and you better believe itc. This decisive man of action is getting me all hot and excitedd. Melissa Lee is how ...
…it has a restricted jurisdiction which must not be abused: it is not an inquisitionNOTE – this article was published before the High Court ruled that Karen Chhour does not have to appear before the Waitangi Tribunal Gary Judd writes – The High Court ...
Lindsay Mitchell writes – One of reasons Oranga Tamariki exists is to prevent child neglect. But could the organisation itself be guilty of the same?Oranga Tamariki’s statistics show a decrease in the number and age of children in care. “There are less children ...
David Farrar writes: Graeme Edgeler wrote in 2017: In the first five years after three strikes came into effect 5248 offenders received a ‘first strike’ (that is, a “stage-1 conviction” under the three strikes sentencing regime), and 68 offenders received a ‘second strike’. In the five years prior to ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has surprised everyone with his ruthlessness in sacking two of his ministers from their crucial portfolios. Removing ministers for poor performance after only five months in the job just doesn’t normally happen in politics. That’s refreshing and will be extremely ...
TL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the two days to 6:06am on Thursday, April 25:Politics: PM Christopher Luxon has set up a dual standard for ministerial competence by demoting two National Cabinet ministers while leaving also-struggling ...
Hi,Today I mainly want to share some of your thoughts about the recent piece I wrote about success and failure, and the forces that seemingly guide our lives. But first, a quick bit of housekeeping: I am doing a Webworm popup in Los Angeles on Saturday May 11 at 2pm. ...
It is hard to see what Melissa Lee might have done to “save” the media. National went into the election with no public media policy and appears not to have developed one subsequently. Lee claimed that she had prepared a policy paper before the election but it had been decided ...
Open access notablesIce acceleration and rotation in the Greenland Ice Sheet interior in recent decades, Løkkegaard et al., Communications Earth & Environment:In the past two decades, mass loss from the Greenland ice sheet has accelerated, partly due to the speedup of glaciers. However, uncertainty in speed derived from satellite products ...
Buzz from the Beehive A statement from Children’s Minister Karen Chhour – yet to be posted on the Government’s official website – arrived in Point of Order’s email in-tray last night. It welcomes the High Court ruling on whether the Waitangi Tribunal can demand she appear before it. It does ...
Mr Bombastic:Ironically, the media the academic experts wanted is, in many ways, the media they got. In place of the tyrannical editors of yesteryear, advancing without fear or favour the interests of the ruling class; the New Zealand news media of today boasts a troop of enlightened journalists dedicated to ...
It's hard times try to make a livingYou wake up every morning in the unforgivingOut there somewhere in the cityThere's people living lives without mercy or pityI feel good, yeah I'm feeling fineI feel better then I have for the longest timeI think these pills have been good for meI ...
In 1974, the US Supreme Court issued its decision in United States v. Nixon, finding that the President was not a King, but was subject to the law and was required to turn over the evidence of his wrongdoing to the courts. It was a landmark decision for the rule ...
Every day now just seems to bring in more fresh meat for the grinder.In their relentlessly ideological drive to cut back on the “excessive bloat” (as they see it) of the previous Labour-led government, on the mountains of evidence accumulated in such a short period of time do not ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Megan Valére SosouMarket gardening site of the Itchèléré de Itagui agricultural cooperative in Dassa-Zoumè (Image credit: Megan Valère Sossou) For the residents of Dassa-Zoumè, a city in the West African country of Benin, choosing between drinking water and having enough ...
Buzz from the Beehive Melissa Lee – as may be discerned from the screenshot above – has not been demoted for doing something seriously wrong as Minister of ...
Morning in London Mother hugs beloved daughter outside the converted shoe factory in which she is living.Afternoon in London Travelling writer takes himself and his wrist down to A&E, just to be sure. Read more ...
Mike Grimshaw writes – The recent announcement of the University Advisory Group, chaired by Sir Peter Gluckman, makes very clear where the Government’s focus and priorities lie. The remit of the Advisory Group is that Group members will consider challenges and opportunities for improvement in the university sector including: ...
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 Green Party has today launched a step-by-step guide to help New Zealanders make their voice heard on the Government’s democracy dodging and anti-environment fast track legislation. ...
The National Government’s proposed changes to the Residential Tenancies Act will mean tenants can be turfed from their homes by landlords with little notice, Labour housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty said. ...
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 ...
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Ganesh Nana interviewed about productivity: https://www.newsroom.co.nz/podcast-the-detail/working-smarter-and-why-it-matters
Disappointing…..this quote is emblematic.
"Nana points to the rise in house prices as an example of this: New Zealanders selling pre-existing houses to one another is not a productive use of capital; New Zealanders investing more in new builds, thus increasing the housing stock, is."
Pardon?…now whether its a problem of misreporting or a fundamental misunderstanding of productivity is not clear but it is wrong.
And then theres the complete absence of the role of energy plays in productivity.
You cannot address productivity when understanding is so flawed
"Nana points to the rise in house prices as an example of this: New Zealanders selling pre-existing houses to one another is not a productive use of capital; New Zealanders investing more in new builds, thus increasing the housing stock, is."
Pardon?…now whether its a problem of misreporting or a fundamental misunderstanding of productivity is not clear but it is wrong.
Why???
Why?
Building new stock does not necessarily increase productivity…indeed it can reduce productivity. In fact its worth considering that decades ago the average build time for the standard 3 bedroom home was 14 weeks , it is considerably longer now.
Productivity is a measure of output to work…..and that work has been enhanced by the use of energy….energy that is increasingly less available.
It is true that work can be enhanced by energy, but capital is also a factor. Building houses is a more productive use of capital than investing it in existing houses.
It is more 'productive' to invest in new stock than existing stock in that it 'produces' something but that is not the measure of productivity rather it is a measure of capital stock.
And yes capital is a factor of productivity because that capital is also required to make the energy available and convert it to a usable form (though it must be recognised that it is not always necessary or desirable) and therein lies the productivity issue….an increasing ratio of capital is required to access that energy leaving less available for production.
AKA declining EROI.
Think of it this way'
a dwelling requires a hundred rocks in its construction.
an individual can move one rock per hour to where its needed.
If thatindividual spends 5 minutes making a yoke so he can move 2 rocks at a time hes (roughly) doubled his productivity with little capital investment .
If he spends a day making a barrow that allows him to move 4 rocks at a time he has quadrupaled his productivity but his capital investment is greater,
If he spends a thousand hours building a motorised vehicle to move a hundred rocks at a time he has increased his productivity a hundred fold but he has invested considerable productive capacity in building (and running) that machine.
If he only needs to build one dwelling is it worth investing a thousand hours in a motorised rock moving vehicle to move one hundred rocks?
He has this great rock moving machine so he builds a lot of dwellings because he can, but theyre are not needed…is that a productive activity?
he then finds that the fuel needed to run his machine is further and further away and he spends a lot of time (and fuel) that is needed to run his machine so he is spending more and more of his time getting fuel and less and less moving rocks….his productivity is declining.
at some point (relatively easily calculated0 it is more productive to move the rocks by hand again.
And then there is the usable lifespan of the dwellings (or anything) being constructed…if you only need to rebuild that dwelling every century then it is more productive than building one that only lasts 50 years…..work to output ratios.
There are various factors that influence 'productivity'. Availability of energy is one, but there are also, capital and the way it is employed, and educational outcomes; and there may be others that I can't think of offhand.
If capital is ‘wasted’ increasing the prices of existing houses, rather than building new ones, this will hardly enhance productivity.
It is important to think in terms of 'real' capital (or resources)….not monetary value.
Available energy is not simply 'a factor' in productivity it is the underlying source of our ability to produce at the level required to support our most basic of needs….without it we cannot produce anything like that which we require.
In other words, the basis of our productivity is available energy….if we have only muscle power (or lower EROI energy sources, in some instances, negative EROI) then what we can produce will be considerably reduced…..'money' dosnt solve that.
It is I submit already the cause of declining productivity
I also think in terms of resources. Capital is simply the value invested, or which is available to be invested, in productive resources. In days of yore waterwheels and windmills were used to grind grain. These primitive machines embodied capital, and without that capital the energy sources that drove those devices, wind and flowing water, would have been pretty useless. Energy resources just exist. Capital is the human element that makes use of energy, and is perhaps, therefor, the more fundamental concept.
It seems tragic that the supply of one of the energy resources we use today, namely fossil fuel, is diminishing, and in any case may become unusable due to global warming; however, this not to deny the value of capital in productivity. Building a new house is productive, but I think Gareth Nana held this up as an example of greater productivity because the question of housing, (though no doubt he could have used other examples), is topical at the present time.
As said originally it was unclear whether it was misreporting or misunderstanding but the quote is a complete misunderstanding of what productivity is….too many are confused by the application of 'money' which is merely a (inefficient0 method of rationing.
Energy resources may "just exist' however they are not unlimited, nor is our ability to utilise them….as we are finding out.
Big ups to the government for their inaugural passenger trip between Hamilton and Auckland. Enjoy the 2.5 hour trip and spectacular media coverage.
Isn't that a nonsense? Talk about setting up PT to fail. No one is going to choose to commute 2.5 hours (subject to transfer times at Papakura, which means the Southern line being closed for signalling/track/emergency service incident at least once a fortnight) with just two super early trains (departure times from the Tron are 5.46am and 6.28am) to Papakura and two home (4.42pm, useless for commuters and 6.25pm which assumes you can leave work and get to Britomart before 5.30pm for THE ONLY CONNECTION HOME). Sure, it might be a useful commuter rail if you live in Huntly and work in Hamilton but otherwise, it is a near useless service whose failure will be used as a stick to beat PT with in general by opponents of PT.
The politicians need to bite the bullet and announce an electrified, upgraded (as in level crossing separated) 125 (= top speed 125kn/hr) service bet Hamilton and Auckland, with the goal of extending it to Tauranga to build a "productivity corridor" linking up that population triangle.
It would be a lot of rail capital used if it weren't used by passengers.
And Waikato politicians have resisted contributing for well nigh 2 decades.
Putting effort into attracting attention and customers is the only start they can make.
Simply making another announcement just won't cut it now.
the train takes 2.5 hours for 93.5 kms? hamilton to papakura? Or doe that include the leg from papakura to brittomart?
i agree, that is a service set up to fail for lack of passengers that have 5 hours a day to waste on commuting.
its not that our overlords can't its that they won't do.
Commuting by train is not or should not have to be a waste. I’ve seen people read whole books on the train 😉
again Incognito, are you snarking or just trying to rail someone up?
I have commuted for work. By bike to train station 10 min, lock bike at bike park, hop on train, 30 min later arrive at Munich airport – with four stops inbetween – just enough to have a cuppa at the coffee cart part of the train, leave trainstation, take light raile aka S-Bahn to final destination another 15 min, then walk ten min to office.
so together some 90+ kms inclusive biking and walking less then an hour with a train running either way every fifteen min at peek commuter hour. Oh and that was over 20 years ago. Train was packed, costs for commute were tax deductible and did i tell you about the coffee cart where you could also get a feed if you ended up working late?
So dear Incog, if this is the best the government can do, i suggest you take two books with every time you hop on the train, and take food, and don't forget your toilet paper – you know a bit like the old days in the late 19th.
Mind that is our government, a dollar short and several centuries late.
Nah, I love a challenge.
I know people, here in NZ, who commute daily by train and actually work on the train. I kid you not.
Most people, however, like to have some ‘down-time’ and plug in the ear-phones, listen to music and chill. It is no different in European cities.
BTW, when you read the NZH, you don’t need to worry about toilet paper; I’m not quite as old as you to remember the “old days in the late 19th” [sic] 😉
5 hours a day is a long time to work while not on the job, and to read books.
but its ok, you get up for that train at 5.30 so that you may be at your job at 9 am, then you leave on the dot, no staying longer cause you only have that one train back out, so that you arrive at 7 pm at home.
hahahahahahahahahaha
that is not challenge, its animal poo delivered by containerloads. And i have spend all my working days in Europe going to work by train. This is the most pathetic announcement since the last anouncment of the travel bubble that was pushed out to today. Pathetic, uninspired, several dollars and years to short, Labour!
50 km per hour. …………hahahahahahahashahahahah we are not even aiming for the low hanging fruit anymore we just grab the rotten stuff of the ground now.
Commenters have asked for less doom & gloom here.
Mission accomplished.
Easiest job, ever.
Doom and gloom replaced by maniacal laughter 🙂
Agreed Incog…and according to the RNZ report this morning this train has an excellent ride, great coffee, free wifi and ample tables to use a laptop on. The 1.5 hours would never be wasted, and the RNZ report says it will take 73,000 car trips off the road annually.
It is a first step, but a good one, and only costs $90 million.
Meanwhile numpty Dylan Thomsen from the AA wants $930 million EXTRA (above the present massive budget) spent on the roads over the next 3 years to repair the roads. How about this was spent on public transport instead?
https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/2018790369/some-nz-road-conditions-reaching-critical-point-aa
So is that 1.5 hours to Papakura and then 1 hour from Papakura to Brittomart?
That is a five hour commute daily, five days a week that comes to 25 hours just to go to work.
What is the word that i am looking for? Oh , yeah, Productivity?
And if you work on your train ride, will it be considered working? will you get paid for your commute?
Five hours a day? for a min wage job somewhere in AKL or Hamilton?
Oh but it only costs 90 million…..and they are cheap fucks too.
hahahahahahahahahbwhahahahahahahbwhahahahahahahah
oh man Fred Flintstones car is faster that that fabled train.
Fred’s car’s top speed is 25 mph, which is not faster than that train.
https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/the-physics-of-fred-flintstones-flaming-feet/
FYI, Fred Flintstone is a cartoon character and not real and neither is his car; that train is real. I kid you not.
hahahahahahahahah
try harder, this is not a challenge.
this train is pathetic, it is useless for most commuters that don't have 5 hours a day to waste in a train working unpaid or reading a book.
this train is pathetic because it literally travels at somewhere around 50 kms an hour if it needs 2.5 hours to get from Hamilton to Auckland.
this train is pathetic because it only has two departures either way, which if you have to work late , you are container loads of animal poo out of luck, cause there is no other train to take you home. And i know what i speak of, as i have many times been forced to take a later train home due to work requirements. And you would be very happy coming out of the office at 7 pm and still get home. Which in our case of the fabulous 50 km hour fast train from Hamilton to Auckland is not a given. You either make the train, or you sleep in a hotel or the trainstation and that makes it totally and utterly unsuitable for commuting.
But then i guess the guys got all flushed with excitement about THE TRAIN that they actually forgot to think about the logistics involved for those that use the train.
This is a nice to have, totally useless for its purposes and sadly underfunded program at the start that will go down as a 'we gave it a try, the operation succeeded, but the patient died' effort. But please give us a re-election for ‘trying’. How many consultants were paid good money to come up with this idiocy.
And trains are something that i was hoping for this motely crew of useless heissluft ballons would not manage to piss up and they did before it even started.
The Universe is like an open mind; it started with a light bulb moment and has been expanding ever since. I kid you not.
They say that dark matter cannot be detected. They are wrong; most of it hides in the blogosphere where it tries to annihilate new energy and bright ideas in a burst of pathetic commentary. I kid you not.
blub blub blub blub.
Long time since I last saw a bubble chamber.
I used the Wairarapa service for five years before we came to Aus in 2013. It has a long history going back many decades, and for much of that time ran using notoriously cold, uncomfortable ‘red rattler’ wooden carriages and slowly but surely the service was running down. But around 2005 the very old carriages were replaced by much newer ones.
Since then, despite numerous setbacks and incidents (and I've a long list I personally encountered, some a bit funnier than others) – it's evolved into a real success story. Basically the trains are full every morning and evening – full to standing capacity. There are real limitations with the old rail infrastructure into the region that have held back expanding the service, but the basic principle has worked – they built it, the people used it.
For this new Hamilton service stopping at Papakura is a serious limitation at present, almost certainly because until new lines are built into the city, it's impossible to reliably run another express service. But that's going to be fixed.
It won't be ideal on Day 1, but this new service will almost certainly become very popular if we continue to invest in it. The best option would be to look across the Tasman at the V-Line trains that Victoria run reliably on narrow gauge at up to 160km/hr – reducing a very similar length trip from say Ballarat to Melbourne to just over 1hr. That has to be worth looking at.
QFT
What is going to get Papakura thriving so people do not need to go into Auckland to work?
One of the big challenges with scheduling is that if you have to run express and local services on the same line, unless you leave really big gaps, the fast express always catches up with the slow local one stopping at all stations. Or the local trains have to frequently pull into sidings. (The Wairarapa service is constantly hindered by this effect once it reaches the Hutt Valley for example.)
Ideally you need a second or third parallel line that can allow the fast and slow services to pass each other without interference. And from what I recall these new lines are either planned or being built – so this Papakura limitation will likely be fixed in the near-term.
Not if/when that Mad Max mob is getting back into power. They seem to have many who are unwittingly (?) doing their bidding.
and the RNZ report says it will take 73,000 car trips off the road annually.
Yes. I did wonder how it compares with driving from Hamilton to Auckland, given congestion. And who wants to spend a long time behind the wheel of a car morning and evening. Much better to spend the time reading a book, or surfing the net, or having a game of cards with a fellow passenger.
It may be preferable to spend two and a half hours engaged in useful activities, on a train, than one and a half hours sitting behind the wheel of an automobile.
It's pretty 19th century – the KTX operates at 305kph – ends up being faster than flying what with all the security and nonsense. A short leg like this would be ideal to roll out high speed rail.
The bullet train in France, Besanscon (near Swiss border) to Paris in less then 6 hours. Stopped right under Charles de Gaulle airoport, just an elevator ride up to the next floor for check in. Oh, and wifi, comfy seats, food, nice toilets and good service all around.
Its not the can't, its the won't that is the issue with the ruling suits of NZ. They just won't.
Yup – I used to fly Seoul/Daegu weekly at one point – the train was so much better. Faster overall, and you could get work done in the seating. High speed rail to Wellington would do more for carbon neutrality than 90% of the changes considered so far.
I never owned a car in Germany/Europe, why? Trains, busses, bicyle lanes, trams etc all there for your easy convenience. And with train costs being tax deductible it was cheaper then owning a car. You can still rent a car for the out of way trips, but they are very few that i could think of.
the lack of train in NZ is due to the suits not doing their jobs. All of them. . And this is a prime example.
You make very good points there Sabine, and of course no one who is trying to polish this pile shit is actually someone who will be spending five hours a day, six days a week commuting themselves.
Say someone works a full Monday –Friday job and half their Saturdays per year, that would come out at about 286 days per year, commuting those 286 days to work @5 hours commuting each day would mean that person would spend 1430 hours commuting….the average hours worked per year in New Zealand are 1762.
Bizarre, pointless, criminally wasteful, ill-conceived..and btw who on earth would end up using this service? The only people I can think of is low paid workers…so just another kick in the guts for them as well…this labour govt never fails to amaze me at how many ways it can disappoint..it’s almost like that is their job…do they have some sort of secret ministry of disappointments that they run all their policies/projects through before they roll them out to a disbelieving public?
Interesting conversation Stuart – you and Sabine about transport – good to read some thoughts about ways to go from people with experience.
No one is going to take that train into Auckland as a daily commute, it might see some use with someone coming up for a day or two but as you say there'll be negative stories before long. I suspect as soon as there is a service cancellation for the return journey to Hamilton leaving commuters stranded and price gouged by the CBD hotels…
Well at 2.5 hours to papakura i would not, and i love trains! Heck i would not even take that train to just go for a day to Hamilton, five hours for 200 odd k's both ways, is just plain dumb and uninspired. Look we are doing something,….something…..no one needs or want be something……
Oh bugger knee capping by NZs who come here often and know we are so in need of some new ideas and have to do things differently. Instead of being the caustic wiseguys, work out how to get others involved and making a success of things we do. It is so f….g anger-making to be in this tiny country trying to hold its head up above water, seeing huge divisions rising in the country that will explode also in anger, and people like to sit around and criticise initiatives like a bunch of bored aristos.
Just come here and talk about what you are doing that is good for the country, and what you have observed others doing, and stop feeding this negative smartarse BS that wastes what little time and energy we have to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps. If you have got a better idea, go and push it, build it, and if it proves too big and will take too long, look for something smaller and get into practice at energising your type of smartarses who can then critique themselves.
And what have you done today and yesterday and any other day before that to make NZ a better place? Oh, just kidding, it is actually not a policy of this page to gain daily right of posting here by proofing that one is a bona fide do gooder or not.
WE are here generally to discuss what the Polititians (all of them) do that have been given the power of the people and the purse of the people to do what is best for the people.
And part of being a democracy is to also state what is not going to work, and sadly this train is not up to the role it is supposed to fullfill, namely provide an alternative to car travel in order to reduce emissions and to get people from the car – a very convenient tool of transportation if you can afford it – to the train who is a slightly lesser tool of transportation if you can afford it. It is not even a decent thought out and planned commuter train. And yeah, sometimes things are done to fail, like to underfund a program and then complain that it can't work and thusly must be privatised. Oh, now surely Labour would never do something like that, right?
One ways of making trains more attractive then cars is time, aka, it is a convenient tool that runs often (not just two trips mornings and evenings) , covers peak commuting times, and runs into the night to get late travelers home. This train provides non of the above. Now you don't have to believe me, you can also just complain about how i complain or critique, but then I have a right to complain and to critique, this is the government that i help finance, that rules over me if i like it or not, and that can do great harm to me should it not be a benign government. And also i have always used trains to commute, and in NZ i have always lived so close to work that i could walk/bike and bus. So i don't speak as a Labour fan, but as a user of this fabulous thing called train.
So maybe you should rather ask yourself what you want to achieve with your constant trying to shut down those of whose message you do not approve of.
Like everyone here you, I, and humpty dumpty for that matter have a right to express their opinions, emotions, and even their grievances so as long as they abide by the rules of the barkeep which is the esteemed provider of this blog. So really, please stop trying to shut up people. It is just sad and in bad taste.
I think Sabine that though you have a lot of experience and ideas that I have alluded to, you may not think productively.
NZ has to get moving to do some things that may not be perfect for the solution to our problems.
We have given much of our autonomy away to profit-seeking businesspeople who hold back progress while they look for a better outcome for themselves. The governmental departments contract out to agencies. They are run by supposedly astute people receiving generous salaries. The outcomes however don't always measure up to expectations. The years are passing, and the consultations are long and often don't result in worthy practical outcomes. We need to press on and get things done, after wise planning, which may not be optimal.
This next news report relating to a Chief Executive resigning in Wellington, is an example of the difficulties facing us under the present hegemony of governance and control in this country.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/439414/let-s-get-wellington-moving-director-andrew-body-resigns-after-18-months The director of the stalled transport programme Let's Get Wellington Moving (LGWM) has resigned. Andrew Body held the position of director for 18 months.
A recent report into the progress of the $6.4 billion project found it was at risk of failure, and suffered from poor leadership.
It described the culture at LGWM as "detrimental to a collaborative and productive working environment", with three separate entities – Wellington City Council, Greater Wellington Regional Council, and Waka Kotahi New Zealand Transport Agency – all involved in funding the programme.
With Wellington transport, three entities are supposed to put their fine heads together, but probably each has a different perspective. Here are writers for Scoop informing about the Wellington situation that is frequently echoed around NZ I suggest.
Finding about the CBD http://wellington.scoop.co.nz/?p=134840 Mar.19/21 Let's Get Wellington moving after 5 years is now employing a Danish concern to assess what is needed.
What must be done and how to do it Mar.22/21 http://wellington.scoop.co.nz/?p=134936
Is the show over before we see the programme? Mar.25/21 http://wellington.scoop.co.nz/?p=135003
Preparing for more rates increases Mar.26/21 http://wellington.scoop.co.nz/?p=135056
(Wellington was entertaining (an oxymoron) the idea of spending $120 million on updating the library, earthquake damaged, and in its present situation near the coastline, with sea incursions due along with storm events to beware of.)
Looking at Wellington rate rises: As well as rates ending up higher than previously indicated, residents could be facing a stack of new levies and charges. These include a sludge levy, congestion charges, levies on long term parking, developer contributions and higher rates on properties that benefit from Let’s Get Wellington Moving….
However those costs will be dwarfed by the unbudgetted portion of Let’s Get Wellington Moving which is already running at around $1.2 billion and is expected to rise.
Getting change by making trouble Mar.31/21 http://wellington.scoop.co.nz/?p=135180
(This is very informative about what activists can face when they attempt to get something done which is obviously essential; the stress, the time taken, the push back etc. This is why when something is done that is along the right lines, then activists can then turn their thoughts onto how it can be supported to be successful, not just right it off as a bit wet. There is an opportunity cost for each thing done, and to consider failure of a finished project means a loss of that, plus what could possibly have been done instead.)
good post shark. no-friends nigel finds it way more productive(?) to be negative about everything . it takes real courage to actually get out in the real world and at least TRY and improve things.expecting others to do things perfectly straight away happens only in p.c. games. good post from redlogix about the wairarapa commuter trains and how they have gradually improved service and how it has been accepted. here in horowhenua we battled for years AGAINST our elected nat m.p. who mouthed off about public transport but then did his best to sabotage the same public transport. the p.n. to welly commuter train is slowly gaining acceptance and many regular users DO actually work while travelling. with free wifi and no interuptions from interoffice colleagues , productivity is higher than same amount of time in office.
Yes it's entirely possible to 'work on the train' with decent internet connectivity. I recall one evening – after an urgent request from one of the plant operators – doing a rather significant online edit to one of Wellington's major water treatment plants control system, all the while sitting on the train going home.
I knew that in about 3 -4 km the mobile data service was going to drop out, so my edit was what you might call a high risk proposition. There was only time for one shot, and no quick fix if I fucked it up.
So maybe you should rather ask yourself what you want to achieve with your constant trying to shut down those of whose message you do not approve of.
What's that about Sabine? You are very strong about your right to have a say and criticise quite a lot. I look forward to positive ideas from people here with nous, otherwise it just becomes a wailing wall. NZ needs people with spirit and the will to talk up the good in the country, to look to be the ones to make change, including talking up ideas and people as often as possible.
Replying to the wrong one!
I sort of tucked it in at the end as it isn't as important as the actual subject of how we get Nz moving in the right direction and support intelligent action with intelligent suggestions.
No mind gw – what you're saying still makes perfect sense.
The most legitimate role for the left will always be standing up and advocating for the weak and powerless.
I've participated here since The Standard started in 2008. I've seen, and taken part in myself, an awful lot of complaining. At some point about 5 – 7 years in I just wanted to say 'enough' – we know what the problems are, stop recycling endless recitations of them and start getting competent at solving them.
This to me is the diagnostic test between the useful and the toxic left – are you interested in constructing solutions, or just tearing down what you don't like? I know I get a lot of shit for this, but I've watched this dynamic play out over and over. In particular we've allowed the weakness and powerlessness we wish to advocate for, to become weaponised. We've turned them into fetish cards that are played to 'win all hands', turning what could be constructive, skillful negotiations of interest – into dull struggle sessions that drain everyone of energy. I sure I'm not the only one kinda over this.
Most of the regulars here I know moderately well by now. Well enough to get the sense that you're all by and large good people who do give a shit. Collectively there is one hell of a lot of strong passion and responsibility going on at TS. Maybe there's a chance we could learn to do something new with our time and energy here – something fresh could emerge. We just might get lucky if we tried
Inequality can't be torn down, but it could be dialed back a bit.
I support the Green's wealth tax as a means of making the tiniest dent in socioeconomic inequality – hope that doesn't frighten the toxic lefties
If you think that what you propose hasn't been investigated, then you need to do some research. That has been a wish list for a lot of people for quite some time – and it is not just the fault of politicians, that the establishment of a rapid rail between Auckland and Hamilton is not already an actuality. A rapid rail link would need a completely new line. The existing line isn't set up for really rapid rail, it goes through swamps and wetlands and choke points on bridges and all sorts of things. Even double tracking the existing line is beset with huge costs because of the terrain. Also much of the land for a new trail corridor would need to pass through Maori land. Quite rightly there is significant resistance to more compulsory acquisition by Govt.
In my view, a good balanced summary.
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/changing-the-course-of-the-ship-of-housing-misery
Those who resist the little red digger could be met by a bulldozer.
A very good read indeed.
So close and yet so far….Chris Trotter begins well and loses the plot.
Why Governments are struggling to effect change.
http://bowalleyroad.blogspot.com/2021/04/insufficiently-qualified-to-object-why.html
because why would they change what works well for them? So far not one of these people in government have suffered any consequences of their actions. They are well fed, well heeled, well housed, have the best medical care and access to medical facilities tax payers can buy them and thus they have no reason to do anything more then they do.
They are the epitome of the 51%, that is all they need to do of anything to keep their jobs and pass the exam.
Id suggest it is nothing so self serving, for either the politicians or the public servants (though im sure it plays a role) rather it is the lack of expertise available to question the existing or develop an alternative.
well they went to Uni, studied something like communication and stuff, and are now educated?
Are you saying that they spend all this time getting an education but learned nothing? Gosh golly hinkadodas and diddly dum, that is why thye are in politics, no one else would hire them. And the perks. So nice to be looked after for the rest of your life and all you have to be is a total failure while in elected office.
Lol….im suggesting that there was a time when those in the public service were the top in their fields and had the ability to 'spot a dog' from a great distance….since the reforms those that have the ability have been drawn off to the private sector and act in their employers interests…leaving a hollowed out public service full of managers.
Theres an excellent submission to the EQ Commission from John Scarry that highlights exactly this in great detail re the construction industry in NZ post the 80s reforms.
Sadly i never met this time.
My whole life have i been ruled by civilan loosers with neither shame nor compassion but well fed, well housed, well looked after while they wax lyrically about the things they can't do, how they listen to then go back to goverment to tell about they things they have heard, while they tell people on the down that government ain't here to help and please here have some tens of dollars for the month and won't you please just get on with learning about the value of work. Not me the suit, you the pauper that is to elect me for another round of waver thin mints.
And the suits ain't here to help, they are there to earn enough money to buy a house. And the only place that still allows you to do that is Politics.
"Sadly i never met this time."
And sadly nor have (the overwhelming majority) of our politicians….they dont know any better.
The current lot has worked under a labour lead government and yes, they spend the last 9 years under key, and you know what?
They.have.learned.absolutly.nothing.
Learning on the job is nothing they do because they don't have too, they get paid for failing. Literally.
I suspect they learned that they wernt required to be experts in their fields….they were required to 'manage public expectations" and cover their Ministers arse…..after all, 'the market' knows best and the governments role is to get out of the way of the 'the market'
They learned that not doing anything is not a problem that not helping anyone other themselves is not a problem, they learned that hungry kids are not a problem, homeless newborns are not a problem, no jobs for women are not a problem, leaking state houses are not a problem, failing schools due to homelessness and hunger are not a problem, underfunded hospitals are not a problem, and so on and so forth.
So as with every corporate and tax payer funded welfare bludger, they learned to be nice to each other, they learned to hire each others and they learned to blame anyone but themselves for the shit they fuck up.
And every three years we are told that the other will be worse in not doing a single thing that would actually have an impact.
Give me someone without education any day, cause they are capable of learning. These guys revel in their ignorance and they eat more of it every day.
Hits the nail pretty squarely. Disastrous failures like privatization and mass low-wage migration don't adversely affect the closeted wonks who deem them brilliant – so they keep recommending similar sociopathic follies. Government feels they ought to respect them for their quals, and consider their manifestly lousy results 'just bad luck' or 'unavoidable consequences of the operating environment'.
The QMS is a prime example, as is 1080 – ill-conceived and unpopular policies doomed to fail by design. Ministers accept no critical feedback on them (the Opposition bears some responsibility here – never was a more egregious collection of corrupt and ignorant self-serving plonkers assembled), and so we're stuck with non-performing policy. In my lifetime, NZ has only gone backward.
There were (are) so many drivers to the outcome, not least of which is the removal (largely ) of progressive taxation and globalisation….whether we like it or not we are competing in an international labour market in ways that were never available pre reforms….that may change…or not.
I could stomach a bit more of it had the "responsible" economists recognized that running a massive property bubble, because it increases cost of living, plays merry hell with our international competitiveness. So do most of the ill-conceived privatizations and user-pays provisions. They had to have known they were wrecking the economy – why haven't they been discharged with prejudice? Workers lose their jobs for much less.
Why indeed….mind you being discharged from high position these days usually involves a generous payment and often a brief holiday before taking up an equally well recompensed position…not much prejudice.
This is what we will get if Radionz is amalgamated with television here. https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/mediawatch/audio/2018786278/local-current-affairs-with-a-heavy-aussie-accent
This Mediawatch story showing a woman lying in a bath of jellbaby lollies was one of the main current affairs in TVNZ new current affairs show that looks likely to be full of trivia and, freak and sensational news.
After watching or listening to such stuff there is possibly going to be a thimbleful of news that informed, responsible people need to know . Hopefully they will have a thimble-sized bit of alert brain not awash with stories about individuals in some sort of stress or ecstasy that presented for those in the public finding their own lives boring, can watch to divert themselves.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/439879/labour-mp-kiri-allan-reveals-she-has-been-diagnosed-with-cervical-cancer
Headline says it all.
Lets all hope/pray for a complete recovery.
Kiri appears to be one of the better ones.
And please when the pain don't go away, when you bleed for 6 weeks non stop,
Go to the fucking doctor.
I had that mess, it is not nice, its deadly, it will cost what ever reproductive plans she ever has had, and fuck, why do women do this to themselves.
Hang in there Kiri you are a good person.
@ Stephen D (6) … Kiri Allan's public performance during the recent earthquake and tsunami threats as Disaster Management Minister, confirmed her dedication to duty and the country, despite the very same day having undergone tests for cervical cancer. I was also privileged to see Kiri speaking in Parliament three weeks ago. She is a political star on the rise. Kiri is definitely one of the best MPs we have had in a long time and NZ desperately need someone of her spirit and calibre to continue the good work.
I wish Kiri all the best in her health battle ahead and look forward to seeing her fighting fit back in Parliament again sometime later this year.
I get somewhat cranky at the hypocrisy that seems to surround shop trading hours, and particularly on public holidays. The irony seemed to be lost on Suzie Ferguson on Morning Report this morning that she had time off, at least Friday and Monday, and sounded like she wanted to have the opportunity to shop requiring other people (generally relatively lowly paid) to be at work to service her.
Phil Goff argued well on the issue of having some holidays rather sacrosanct.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/2018790372/phil-goff-on-auckland-easter-trading-laws
Sad to hear of Kiri Allen's cancer diagnosis. Wish her all the best with her treatment. Kia Kaha Kiri
The Great Train Robbery. https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO2103/S00189/michael-wood-a-wanted-man-in-the-wild-west.htm
They need a bullet train from Huapai to Auckland CBD and Auckland Airport. What are they thinking? Useless pathetic suits!
If anything, Covid has given a boost to more flexible working arrangements, except for characters who still live in the pre-historic Stone Age.
What are the expectations/policies that people expect from the government and how do people expect the government to deliver those expectations/policies?
You touch on an interesting question TT….it is also interesting that at times people think a government can make a decision and the result is immediate…something like the Star Trek meme, 'make it so'.
It seems that there is a lack of appreciation for how political/government decisions get made and how they are implemented…a lack of understanding of the constraints and limitations that exist in the real world.
The Joe Biden Democratic Party…in the spirit of the #meetoo movement
You just can't make this shit up….these people are fucked in the head!, they must have no moral compass what so ever.
Kamala Harris, Bill Clinton holding conversation on pandemic’s impact on women
https://www.ksby.com/news/national/kamala-harris-bill-clinton-holding-conversation-on-pandemics-impact-on-women
Not this again!! How repulsive.
well for what its worth these two so far are the only ones actually talking about the fact that this pandemic has hit women probably the hardest in terms of job losses, income losses, loss of housing, plus education from home while working from home etc etc etc.
see here the stats for NZ
https://www.stats.govt.nz/news/covid-19s-impact-on-women-and-work
a bit more current
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/300221045/unemployment-still-higher-for-women-maori-ctu
And remind yourself that calling attention to this is called whinging and moaning.
So maybe just for once complain about them being the only ones so far that are talking about this.
Politics are all about optics…Harris would have had full approval from the party and Biden to do this meeting, keep on mind Kamala Harris will probably soon be the most powerful person in the world.
Optics are, as of 6 months ago, Bill is 6th most popular democrat, and 2nd most famous, with a 43% positive rating.
https://today.yougov.com/topics/politics/explore/public_figure/Bill_Clinton
Adrian, women have been at the loosing end of this pandemic, even here in NZ. I have posted some links for you to educate yourself to that fact.
I could not give a flying fudge about who raises this issue of women losing jobs, houses, every penny they have to their name so as long as it is done.
Now if you cared about the issue rather then these two women you may talk about the hardship women here in NZ face because our dear Lady of the Land don't give no flying shite, will not talk about it, will not raise the benefits, and has nothing to say other then kind, gently, please with me.
So really who fucking cares.
I agree with you that of course that it is a travesty that woman, the working poor etc have been disadvantaged during this pandemic, but seriously?..Bill fucking Clinton, the prick who has probably done more to make it Ok to objectify woman as pure sex object than any other POTUS in modern history, except maybe Trump? , that’s the guy you are going to OK to speak on your behalf as a woman…holy shit.
I have heard of pragmatism, but that ain’t that, that is allowing woman’s issues to be used as a political tool to white wash a disgusting extremely powerful old white pervert pure and simple.
You lay down with dogs you get up with fleas.
I'd feel more comfortable with a travel bubble if the evidence for Ivermectin were properly considered. It can cut the suffering down to days which alone should have the government looking at it carefully on a cost basis alone.
Lots of negation of the studies. This is todays Trial Site News video where they cover each side of the story – it still looks like Ivermectin when used appropriately (early on, correct dose) is a worth approval.
At this stage it really comes down to personal choice. I purchased enough for the two of us from India about six months ago. Hope like hell I never get to use it and find out if it works or not.
another ban from facebook for telling a whining little bitch that he was a whining little bitch. hehehehehe. now I can comment on my blog or write original material instead of commenting on the idiots and mung bean anti vacationers who haunt cyberspace and social media to give their piffle/twaddle infantile opinion and cant take a robust estimate of their puerile nasty personalities and home truths. who can? hehehehehe. anyway the girls on johnkeyhasletdownnewzealand on fb at question time will keep the boogars honest.