Open mike 10/01/2013

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, January 10th, 2013 - 104 comments
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Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose.

The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the link to Policy in the banner).

Step right up to the mike…

104 comments on “Open mike 10/01/2013 ”

  1. Kiki 1

    Morrissey: “I Shall Return”

    [deleted]

    As the French would say, quelle hypocrisie. Certainly, I am not without fault, but surely we should all be worried that someone as crude and vicious as QOT is able to set herself up as some kind of moral arbiter.

    This message has been solicited and published by me as an act of support for my colleague and friend Morrissey.

    [lprent: Oh piss off. The policy is clear on self-martyrdom offences

    Abusing the sysop or post writers on their own site – including telling us how to run our site or what we should write. This is viewed as self-evident stupidity, and should be added as a category to the Darwin Awards.

    Morrissey was acting like a complete arsehole. But he isn’t the only one who can do that.

    Oh and see that other nice self-martyrdom offence….

    Generally wasting a moderators time is just not a good idea. We’re there to deal with isolated problems. People persistently sucking up our voluntary time won’t like the results.

    Since you’re such a friend then please explain to him that you just got a two month ban and collected him another another month. I’m uninterested in people acting like complete fuckwits and wasting my time.

    Besides, after he e-mailed with some pathetic idea about what constitutes “defamation”, I had another look at the first comment he left for QoT on her post. Seeing it again just got me even more irritated with the pretentious dildo. ]

  2. Jenny 2

    The climate change refugees. Are on their way.

    Ask yourself.

    40 degree heat what’s that like?

    50 degree heat what’s that like?

    Uncomfortable?

    Unbearable?

    What’s it like for parents with small children?

    What’s it like for the elderly, the infirm, for those too poor to afford air conditioning?

    What’s it like for those who have to work in it?

    Sickening, dangerous, life threatening?

    Though we only produce 0.2% of the world’s CO2 emissions, New Zealand has a chance to make a major contribution to stopping global climate change.

    Sir Peter Gluckman the science adviser to the Prime Minister’s office has said that New Zealand’s greatest contribution to stopping climate change would be to set an example for the rest of the world to follow.

    Australia is the world’s biggest exporter of coal, and as such is one of the biggest contributors to global warming.

    It is very clear what example New Zealand should set.

    I call on the Green Party to immediately, and without delay, put a private member’s bill in the ballot, calling for a total ban on all coal exports.

    Will they do it? Will they heck! They might embarrass their Labour Party colleagues.

    But that is the point.

    If enough Labour MPs are sickened by what’s happening in Australia, and also sickened with voting alongside ACT and National to keep up this dirty and dangerous trade. Then they may be vulnerable to being lobbied to defy their party whips to vote for such a bill.

    Would this be significant?

    Yes. Because if they vote for it in opposition, they are then honour bound to vote for it in government.

    Famously. It was this sort of private members bill, put up by the opposition Labour Party that helped make New Zealand Nuclear Free.

    • Fortran 2.1

      If India and China cannot buy coal from Australia they will simply go elsewhere. They may have to pay a slightly higher price for coal but will get their own pricing structure in time.
      And the Australian dream will falter faster than it is now.

  3. Jenny 3

    If New Zealand, in a world first, banned all export (and import) trade in coal what global political effect would this have?

    Colonial Viper has asked me how could this make Australia give up coal exports as well.

    I have thought long and hard on this. Personally I agree with Professor Gluckman in thinking a positive example should be enough. But if it is not, then the carrot should also be accompanied with the stick.

    I would call on the Green Party to put up another private members bill. One that will start a firestorm of public debate, here and across the Tasman. Giving the issue of climate change the publicity and attention it needs.

    This bill will be the threat and the stick to accompany the carrot.

    No climate refugees will be accepted from Australia until they also give up coal exports.

    I call on the Green Party to immediately, and without delay, put a further private members bill in the ballot. This bill calling for parliament to rescind Australian citizens free right of entry into New Zealand.

    Too harsh?

    What do you think

    • I’ll jump in jenny firstly by saying that you are doing well highlighting the disaster here with the effects of climate change being felt now.

      This country since it was colonised has always accepted others from other countries for all sorts of reasons – some goodreasons, most bad and a few ugly. I’d probably put denying climate refugees entry here into the bad reason area simply because it is so unfair on those trying to protect their families and themselves. Maybe if individuals from companies, corporations and government both local and national that contributed to, or activelly worked against mitigating the disaster, were identifed and denied entry I’d be happier. Oh dear can’t see many getting through that net. might have to chuck a few back from here too 🙂

      the climate refugee area must be debated and IMO huddling down with outwardly pointing pointed sticks is not the answer

      • Jenny 3.1.1

        the climate refugee area must be debated and IMO huddling down with outwardly pointing pointed sticks is not the answer

        marty mars

        I take your point marty, And I am quite happy to welcome climate change refugees from anywhere in the world. But why should the citizens of one of the countries most responsible for climate change have preferential treatment over all other immigrants? Free to come and go as they please, to work, or as visit as long as they like?

        No other immigrant group has these rights!

        I have suggested this course of action to goad Australian citizens to take action against climate change, (specifically against coal exports).

        I am of the opinion that being aware that their escape hatch is being closed off and that they might have to endure the same sort of humiliation and detention that they mete out so readily to refugees themselves, might sharpen their minds to the problem.

      • weka 3.1.2

        How are CC refugees defined? I have no problem taking in Pacific Islanders who’s land has been swamped. Well off Australians shifting here once they’ve bled their own land dry while living off the carbon gravy train, not so much. We already have wealthy immigrants and people buying land from overseas because they see the future and figure NZ is one of the better places to be in when the shit hits the fan. How many are we going to take in though?

        Most of us are culpable for CC.

        I agree Marty, the debate needs to happen.

        • Jenny 3.1.2.1

          Weka, only by us taking action will that debate happen. It is called leadership. We don’t need to define climate refugees. We just need to take away Australian’s special privileges to come here and to say why.

          • rosy 3.1.2.1.1

            “We just need to take away Australian’s special privileges to come here and to say why.”

            And why would that be, Jenny? Especially since Australia allows freedom of movement for New Zealanders and that suits us just fine at the moment. There is a time for returning the favour. Especially since many thousands of of climate change refugees are going to have rights of citizenship in New Zealand.

            • Jenny 3.1.2.1.1.1

              And why would that be, Jenny? Especially since Australia allows freedom of movement for New Zealanders and that suits us just fine at the moment. There is a time for returning the favour.

              rosy

              There also is a time for returning the favour for recklessly destroying the biosphere for short term profits.

              Australians may be less willing to continue down this path knowing they may have to live and die with the results of their actions, with no chance of an easy escape to a cooler country.

              The sooner Australians stop the dirty coal export trade, the sooner their special immigration privileges may be returned.

              • rosy

                “Australians may be less willing to continue down this path”

                More like more willing to start a war (at least at the diplomatic level, at first).

                If New Zealand opted out of buying all those Chinese goods made with energy from Australia’s coal, you might have a point about isolating ourselves. But we buy those goods and sell China product from our flatulent cows. We totally buy into the system that produces them so as a fully incorporated, paid up member of the climate change club we have no right to dictate terms over the fall-out, only to negotiate them.

                I don’t see how New Zealand has a moral right to close of the legal right Australians have to live here, assuming the Aussie’s would want to. A little bit of arrogance creeping into your argument with the assumption that they would. Canada probably looks quite inviting from where they stand.

                And all that is aside from the ethical and moral duty to help your neighbour when in need.

                • Colonial Viper

                  I don’t see how New Zealand has a moral right to close of the legal right Australians have to live here,

                  NZ might need to be gutsy and say, you can’t come over unless you have a confirmed job, or you have family here, or meet various strategic criteria.

                  We do what works for the people already here, which includes helping others, but we make sure that any sacrifices and compromises are very well signalled.

                  • rosy

                    Yes, we do need to be gutsy.

                    Sacrifices, compromise and sharing are the only way through this. Not some power-crazed fantasy of punishing people by leaving them to figuratively stew. I’m not sure there are any political or historical precedents that prove such punishment is a long-term solution to resource allocation (in this instance water and climate), especially when the people you’re punishing are socially and culturally so close but much more powerful.

                    So if not because it’s the right thing to do, negotiate, compromise and share to avoid being taken over by the bigger, more powerful neighbour because it’s in our self(ish)-interests.

                    • Colonial Viper

                      You’ve got it. We last through this by tapping into those things which have worked for millenia.

                    • rosy

                      🙂 Exactly

                    • Jenny

                      Using an advertising spoof unrelated to climate change to evoke the fantasy of a brutal military takeover and invasion of this country through use of overwhelming powerful Australian military might in response to New Zealand legislators tinkering with our immigration laws, weird.

                      rosie, don’t you think tapping into fear of the sort of last measure, desperate responses that climate change will engender in governments and states as a counter to my suggestion a little bit over the top?

                      Can’t you think up something better than this to justify your arguement for doing nothing?

                      Though I admit that the crisis is upon us now. I think we still have a long way to go, before Australian military strikes will greet any symbolic New Zealand legislation against climate refugees.

                      If and when, Australia becomes largely uninhabitable due to climate change, no amount of legislation will stop the wave of desperate refugees heading for these shores.

                      I am only suggesting this move as a wake up call to start the necessary (figurative) firestorm of nationwide and trans-Tasman debate that will create the political environment which will allow the implemenatation of the solutions needed, that (hopefully) will avert the need for militaristic solutions.

                      All I can say about your contribution to this debate, rosie, is at least you think that climate change is such a serious problem that at some time in the future it will engender brutal military conflicts. You may have grounds for thinking this. But I don’t think we are there yet. I want us to make sure that we never get there. I would hope rosy that you would join me and others in this effort.

                    • rosy

                      Jenny, I was simply taking your notion of using our legislative power to exclude to the next logical step for powerful refugees banging at New Zealand’s door. I’m sorry that you didn’t find a little humour illustrated this point. My mistake.

                      I thoroughly dislike your notion of denying Australian’s entry to NZ given our close ties and our own complicity in climate change and I see it as completely unfeasible because it’s a). morally wrong and b). they’re bigger than us 😉 (not just militarily, but also financially and diplomatically).

                      I’m sorry, but I have no wish to join any ‘solution’ that advocates people be excluded because of where they come from. We have truckloads of reasons to deny entry already without adding another completely discriminatory one to the list.

                    • Jenny

                      rosy, maybe you are right, compunction may not be the way to go. It was not my first choice anyway.

                      I was responding to critics and naysayers like Colonial Viper and weka who pooh, pooh any suggestion that New Zealand should set an example, or that it we did, it wouldn’t have any effect.

                      These two are both long standing apologists for BAU and I have butted heads with them many times over many threads.

                      I disagree strongly with their expressed opinions that we should do nothing, (or that nothing can be done).
                      In my considered opinion, if New Zealand did give a positive example of what could be done. Other countries, Australia in particular, would be put under considerable popular pressure to follow suit. (If Australia did this, then other countries would be under pressure to follow as well.)

                      There is some evidence coming out of Australia that may make this viewpoint more plausible to my critics.

                      “An uncomfortable time for Australians, especially climate-change sceptics”

                      Some climate experts are convinced the 2013 heatwave will prove a turning-point in how Australians respond to warnings about human-induced climate change. In a country that relies on fossil fuels for much of its well-being (coal is the second-biggest export and produces about four-fifths of electricity), climate-change sceptics have often swayed political debate.

                      When she visited areas devastated by fire in Tasmania, the prime minister, Julia Gillard, avoided blaming global warming directly. But she added that climate change would, over time, bring “more extreme weather events”. Aaron Coutts-Smith, of the Australian meteorology bureau, is less equivocal about the prospects. He says all six of the nation’s states over the past decade have had a “predominance” of new record temperatures.

                      The Economist “The Australian Heatwave”

                      I might mention here that the weakening of the monsoon, one of the factors that caused the build up of heat in central Australia, which created the heatwave, is one of the weather effects predicted by computer modeling of climate change. Climate change modeling predicts that if CO2 forcing continues, at some point the seasonal monsoon will in future years occasionally not make an appearance at all. This would be devastating for Australia, allowing tropical heatwaves to build up to unprecedented levels before sweeping south. This is what has happened in this case, with only just a “weakening of the monsoon“.
                      Apart from Australia, a complete failure of the monsoon would be devastating for the many south east Asian countries in the tropical regions which depend on the monsoon to sustain their agriculture. Resulting in drought and famine. If this failure was repeated over more than one growing season, we could be witness to one of the biggest famine disasters in human history. And which could see Australia becoming mostly uninhabitable.

                    • Colonial Viper

                      I’m not an advocate of BAU, Jenny. I’m just noting that a righteous dictatorial approach will not work in our democracy.

                      Also, you fail to appreciate that politicians can only do what the electorate will allow them to do.

                      Jenny, you have a shocking tendency to talk down to people who challenge your positions and the realism of your strategies, instead of answering the serious concerns raised.

                      While you might get some window dressing, no government in the world is going to force upon their people steep cuts in energy use and consumer society activities until they are absolutely forced to.

                    • Colonial Viper

                      Using an advertising spoof unrelated to climate change to evoke the fantasy of a brutal military takeover and invasion of this country through use of overwhelming powerful Australian military might in response to New Zealand legislators tinkering with our immigration laws, weird.

                      Jenny, it could happen quite quickly and smoothly eg. with political co-operation on both sides of the Tasman.

                      You need to look over what has happened previously during major famines and disasters in history. Resource wars, mass migrations and political/societal instability. Blurring of sovereignty.

                      One of my concerns with your approach Jenny is that you do not seem to have learnt any lessons from history (both contemporary and ancient).

                    • Jenny

                      It is in the above grim scenario, that your so called “joke” about a military takeover becomes something more, something much more serious.

                      Watch your clip again, rosy. Especially the second part. And think about the huge military investment and financial and sheer human cost involved in maintaining these forces over many years. And know in your vitals that these resources will not be sitting idle under such conditions.

                      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RenRILqwhJs

                      Still laughing?

                    • Colonial Viper

                      I thought you said a military takeover was a “fantasy” Jenny. Seems like you changed your tune fast. Good to see you getting a dose of realism.

                    • rosy

                      The best humour (and advertising) always contains an essential truth, Jenny and what you were advocating when I posted that comment would lead to the use of state power, from a much more powerful state, against us.

                      CV @9:54 + 10:04 that’s about the sum of it. Thanks.

          • weka 3.1.2.1.2

            “We don’t need to define climate refugees.”

            So Jenny, you think that rich people who want to live here because it’s getting too hot at home should be called refugees and treated as refugees alongside poor people who’ve lost their homes to rising sealevels created by the developed world? Where are we going to fit them all? And do you think by chance that the rich people will get preference over the poor people?

            • Jenny 3.1.2.1.2.1

              What on earth are you talking about weka?

              I thought I made myself pretty clear.

              New Zealand is responsible for only 0.2% of green house gasses. Even if New Zealand magically cut our emissions to zero it would have negligible quantitive effect.

              Our greatest contribution in the fight against climate change will be symbolic.

              This is the considered opinion of New Zealand’s top science advisor to the government.

              The single most contributing factor to climate change identified by James Hansen is coal. According to Hansen, if we cannot stop coal then we are doomed to a global temperature increase in excess of 6 degrees .

              I would go even further and suggest that if we cannot even contemplate stopping this one easily stopped causative factor of climate change, then there is no chance of moving past this to other lesser causative factors.

              Banning all coal exports and imports is the one concrete and achievable symbolic action that New Zealand can do, that would threaten an axe to one of the root causes of climate change.

              If New Zealand put a ban on all coal exports and imports this would be a clarion call to all other countries, especially our greatest friend and nearest neighbor, Australia, to do the same.

              If the contemplation of this positive example is not thought to be enough, then I suggested this should be followed up by a private members bill calling for the removal of all special immigration status this country gives to Australian citizens.

              Especially since many thousands of of climate change refugees are going to have rights of citizenship in New Zealand.

              As for all expat Kiwis fleeing the heat. Australian citizens seeing their expat kiwi friends neighbors and workmates taking this option and knowing that this escape is denied to them because of their country’s leading role in causing climate change. May find that this concentrates the mind no end. Giving them even further incentive to question whether their country can continue digging up all the coal it possibly can.

              Of course this is all academic as not one of New Zealand’s three main political parties are contemplating taking any action at all against coal mining or use.

              The fact that you a Green Party supporter are aghast at me daring to raise the idea as a possible course of action speaks volumes. You are angry that I am puncturing the narrative that there is nothing that could be done about climate change. Which is basically a defeatist argument and an excuse for doing nothing.

    • jaymam 3.2

      Here’s a new tactic by coalming protesters in Australia, and endorsed by several Green MPs.
      Do you think this is a good idea for NZ as well?

      “On Monday, anti-coal activist Jonathan Moylan issued a media release purportedly from the ANZ Bank withdrawing a $1.2 billion loan to Whitehaven Coal, which is developing a project in Maules Creek in the Gunnedah Basin.

      The hoax wiped $314 million from the value of Whitehaven Coal before the company and ANZ confirmed the hoax, although the share prices recovered after the ruse was revealed.”

      http://www.leadingcompany.com.au/strategy/anz-hoax-marks-new-age-of-climate-tactics/201301093398

      • Jenny 3.2.1

        Thanks for this jayman.

        In answer to your question: Do I think this is a good idea for NZ as well? In my opinion, actions like this though amusing, not really that useful.

        Personally I don’t think much of this sort of individualist guerilla action. Coal will only be stopped by a mass democratic movement that shifts the whole political spectrum to the left. Similar to that that stopped nuclear ships or racist sports teams visiting New Zealand.

        • jaymam 3.2.1.1

          Of course you are aware that my job entails burning coal, so if there’s no coal I lose my job!

          • Jenny 3.2.1.1.1

            I have just the job for you. That will make full use of your special talents.

            This goes for all other coal miners.

            PS. How do you get your rebreather over that beard?

      • millsy 3.2.2

        Green parties seem to have a habit of letting some idiot in a few minutes undo years of work by GP staffers..

      • weka 3.2.3

        Jonathon Moylan is a brave person.

        “Although highly creative, the Whitehaven deception is not the first such action. In 2008, US environmental activist Tim DeChristopher attended an auction of oil and gas mining leases in Utah and outbid everyone else. When he could not pay the $1.8 million he was arrested and charged with defrauding the federal government. In July 2011 he was sentenced to two years in jail.

        The Utah land auction was eventually abandoned by the Interior Department and a federal judge ruled that the administration of the sale was improper. DeChristopher’s action had the desired effect.”

        “Recognising this new reality, perhaps Jonathan Moylan and Tim DeChristopher are pioneering a new phase of climate campaigning aimed at making it more difficult for coal and oil companies to do business. What might be dubbed “virtuous malfeasance” — hostile actions motivated by the public good aimed at damaging a company’s interests — may be a new form of civil disobedience practiced by a market-savvy generation of young activists.

        Often those who engage in civil disobedience are otherwise the most law-abiding citizens. They are those who have most regard for the social interest and the keenest understanding of the democratic process, including its failures.”

        Makes sense to me. While I agree that we also need mass action within the general population, it’s hard to argue against individuals willing to put their freedom on the line for such an urgent problem. Puts the rest of us to shame really, including you Jenny, who is unwilling to give up your western comfy lifestyle to mitigate CC, but who castigates the GP for making pragmatic choices that have real effect in the world.

        • Jenny 3.2.3.1

          Dodgy individualist actions are no alternative to building an open mass democratic political movement against climate change. Such individualist actions are easily countered, and are easily shrugged off by the fossil fuel industry backed by the state. The only final result from these individual actions will be more and harsher counter measures. The sort of measures we saw Solid Energy deploy against Happy Valley protestors.

          There are no short cuts. But it requires leadership. Unfortunately it is this necessary political leadership that is missing.

          Because of this missing leadership, no doubt we will get to see more of these brave individual type stunts which are often carried out at great personal cost, but which will all prove to be ultimately futile.

          Also handing the struggle against climate change over to a few “brave individuals” lets the Green Party and other political parties and movements off the hook.

          It is just another tired excuse by them for doing nothing themselves.

  4. GeoffC 4

    Nice idea Jenny, can you balance the books.
    Value of coal to nZ, effects of the ban, employment replacement?
    Provide a neutral solution and you might get traction.
    From one climate change acceptor to another.

    • Colonial Viper 4.1

      I think that Jenny’s suggestions are totally and completely unworkable, from a political and democratic perspective. In a previous comment she’s already said that thousands of coal mining related jobs need to be destroyed by lunch time. If the Greens do as she dictates, it’ll simply make martyrs of the Green Party at the polls.

      Once they have exited Parliament, where too next?

      Basically a 3-4 deg C temperature rise is already baked into the cake as far as I can see.

      To get any real traction, you’d have to get a mass semi-spiritual style movement of people committing to living simpler less energy intensive lives, and opting out of the mainstream economy. Up to quarter of a million NZers to have any real impact.

      Who here thinks that is going to happen any time soon? Jenny?

      • Jenny 4.1.1

        CV I can rely on you to continually come up with new excuses to do nothing about climate change.

        What mineral being mined in Australia pays the workers to mine it, more than mining gold or opals or iron ore?

        What is black, is more poisonous than yellow cake, and more dangerous than asbestos?

        What gives off deadly suffocating and explosive fumes that when ignited collapse mines, and globally kills mine workers by the thousands?

        What mineral gives off thick dust that when inhaled on a regular basis leads to silicosis of the lungs and emphysema, and is commonly known as miners lung?

        What industry founded in 17th century should have been left in the 19th?

        What fuel burned in London for heating houses first gave rise to the term smog?

        What fuel when burned releases sulfur into the atmosphere that combines with water to become acid rain that sterilises mountain lakes and kills forests hundreds of miles away.

        What singular mineral that if continued to be mined at the current rate will almost certainly guarantee runaway global climate change?

        CV you may picture yourself as some kind of an advocate of the mine workers. In fact you are nothing but a dirty tool of the venal profit driven fossil fuel bosses. If you really had the interest of the workers at heart you would be fighting to get our coal miners the best possible exit packages and training to enable them to leave this sunset industry as soon as possible. Instead through your cowardice and apologist treachery you are ensuring, that when this industry finally collapses, which it will. Those workers it leaves behind, like the rest of us, will be suffering with a degraded environment that will be a living hell.

        Workers have names for people like you.

      • Colonial Viper 4.1.2

        Nothings going to happen to change course politically until the world is actually being crippled by full blown climate crisis. Am I happy about this? No. But the Titanic has too much damn mass, and it’s going too damn fast, and the iceberg is far too close.

        Workers have names for people like you

        *Shrug* I’m not here because I want to be liked.

        • Jenny 4.1.2.1

          CV your analogy using the Titanic already on an unavoidable collision course with the iceberg, may be quite accurate as a description or the dilemma our world is in.

          This still doesn’t excuse doing nothing.

          Unlike the passengers on the Titanic we know what is happening to us.

          To use another Titanic analogy your continual excuses for BAU is as irresponsible as organising for a game of soccer on the foredeck with the blocks of fallen ice.

          To use another more famous and time worn Titanic analogy, The Green Party prioritising of social change over climate change will in the long run amount to no more than rearranging the deck chairs.

          The Green Party need to heed the prophetic words of Naomi Kleine;

          ….Climate change has the ability to undo your historic victories and crush your present struggles. So it’s time to come together, for real, and fight to preserve and extend what you care most about — which means engaging in the climate fight, really engaging, as if your life and your life’s work, even life itself, depended on it. Because they do.

          Naomi Kleine “I’d Rather Fight Like Hell”

          • Colonial Viper 4.1.2.1.1

            But its not going to happen that way Jenny. People do not generally band together and fight hard for immediate reductions in their lifestyles, convenience and consumption.

            Do you see how unrealistic your approach is?

            • Jenny 4.1.2.1.1.1

              People do not generally band together and fight hard for immediate reductions in their lifestyles, convenience and consumption.

              Colonial Viper

              You obviously haven’t got a clue about history CV.

              This is exactly what people had to do to win the war against fascism.

              Do you see how ignorant your approach is?

      • Jenny 4.1.3

        To get any real traction, you’d have to get a mass semi-spiritual style movement of people committing to living simpler less energy intensive lives, and opting out of the mainstream economy. Up to quarter of a million NZers to have any real impact.

        Who here thinks that is going to happen any time soon? Jenny?

        Colonial Viper

        It will never happen without leadership.

        And not a mass semi-spiritual style movement you imagine.

        Not only are you abrogating the lack of political leadership on climate change, now you are trying to palm it off to some sort of mystical religious leadership?

        Are you crazy?

        CV, I think you have lost the plot.

        To expect millions of people to ignore business and government leadership, to go in the opposite direction, spontaneously responding to some mystical spiritual movement (coming from nowhere) to move to a less energy intensive lifestyle, in opposition to the government policy direction is wacky even for you.

        Social change requires leadership. By attempting to blame everyone else, for not spontaneously making these changes, you are hoping that people will not notice the criminal lack of leadership coming from the government, and in particular, the Labour Party in the face of this existential crisis.

        Most working people caught in the 9 to 5 struggle to keep their jobs and pay the rent cannot afford the options available to middle class people to drop out and get back to nature. We don’t have the leisure time or the resources. We can’t use bicycles or walk to work because we would never be able to get to work that way. We can’t use public transport because it doesn’t exist or is painfully unreliable. We are stuck in dormitory suburbs with no other means of getting across the city than using private cars that we can barely afford to run.

        We don’t have any resources or even the leisure to grow our own food because of the long hours we have to work, and so are reliant on super markets, even takeaways.

        These so called “lifestyle choices” are all the result of policy direction by local and central government and business.

        Serious action on climate change requires leadership, it requires state action, it requires political will and policy direction, it requires government resources put into it, and most of all it requires courageous leadership from those whose responsibility it is to deliver it.

        Instead we get spineless scapegoating of citizenry as excuses for the lack of leadership. And Labour Party supporter CV wishing for some spiritual movement to take the terrible responsibility of leadership off their shoulders.

        Instead of blaming everyone else, maybe CV could heed the political advice of Napoleon on leadership. He wrote:

        There is no such thing as bad soldiers. Only bad generals.

        Napoleon

    • Jenny 4.2

      I’m sorry Geoff but CCA stands for climate change apologist in my book.

      Climate change is an existential threat on par with and even greater unfortunately, than a fascist takeover of the world.

      Did people worry about the cost to jobs, when fascism threatened the world? Did they worry about the expense of waging world war, or balancing the books?

      Is the world a better place for nations and governments ignoring those lessor concerns?

  5. Jenny 5

    We are well past the time of niceties

    Links that haven’t made it to The Standard link roster yet, but that just might embarrass the Labour and Green MPs into taking immediate parliamentary action.*

    http://www.theage.com.au/environment/climate-change/get-used-to-recordbreaking-heat-bureau-20130108-2cet5.html

    ‘‘We are well past the time of niceties, of avoiding the dire nature of what is unfolding, and politely trying not to scare the public. The unparalleled setting of new heat extremes is forcing the continual upwards trending of warming predictions for the future, and the timescale is contracting.’’

    Liz Hanna convener of the human health division at the Australian National University’s Climate Change Adaptation Network.

    http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2013/01/08

    “The scale has just been increased today and I would anticipate it is because the forecast coming from the bureau’s model is showing temperatures in excess of 50 degrees,” David Jones, head of the bureau’s climate monitoring and prediction unit, toldreporters.

    Indicating that the worst may yet to come, Jones added that, “The air mass over the inland is still heating up – it hasn’t peaked.”

    Climate scientists in Australia—with Jones among them—say the fires and the heat are unprecedented in scale and intensity, but that Australians should understand the destructive temperatures and ensuing fires across Tasmania and southern sections of the country are the new normal of runaway climate change.

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/damian-carrington-blog/2013/jan/08/australia-bush-fires-heatwave-temperature-scale?CMP=twt_fd

    http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2013/01/08-7

    “Most striking was the number of locations across the country that broke their average annual temperature record,” a statement from NOAA reads. “More than a dozen of these locations also experienced their driest year on record.”

    “This disturbing news puts the heat on President Obama to take immediate action against carbon pollution,” said Dr. Shaye Wolf, climate science director with the Center for Biological Diversity. “The blazing temperatures that scorched America in 2012 are a bitter taste of the climate chaos ahead. Science tells us that our rapidly warming planet will endure more heat waves, droughts and extreme weather. The president needs to start making full use of the Clean Air Act to fight greenhouse gas emissions, before it’s too late.”

    “The blazing temperatures that scorched America in 2012 are a bitter taste of the climate chaos ahead,”

    Dr. Shaye Wolfe of the Center for Biological Diversity.

    http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2013/01/08-5

    Climate Change, Lack of Political Will Leading to ‘Global Perfect Storm’: Report

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/katrina-vanden-heuvel-a-climate-change-apocalypse/2013/01/07/f440d704-58e4-11e2-9fa9-5fbdc9530eb9_story.html

    Certainly, it will take much more research to understand whether there’s a direct link between Sandy and climate change. But we do know that storm’s impact was made worse by rising sea levels, increasing ocean temperatures and unusual weather patterns, all of which are definitively connected to climate change.

    2012 was the hottest year on record. Arctic sea ice is melting. Sea levels are rising faster than projected. And extreme weather events — droughts, storms, heat waves — are increasing in number and intensity, disproportionately harming the world’s most vulnerable populations.

    * (But whose only affect so far, is to deprive me of sleep at night.)

    • Fortran 5.1

      The Australian bushfires current are of a disasterous proportion unprecented in “know” history – but that is only just over 200 years in a country which has lived by fire for hundreds of millions of years.
      Is man to blame or is it just Australia ?

      Similarly New Zealand is built on New Fold Volcanic structures which have produced volcanoes and with that earthquakes for hundreds of millions of years.

      ps – my sisters house got wiped of the earth yestrday in NSW.

      • Rogue Trooper 5.1.1

        very sorry to hear that; prayer regrettably, I read this morning, will only change the person engaging in it. We had a front-page photo locally of the family sheltering under a pier in the sea in Tasmania , in prayer, must have been terrifying for the children.(Over the forty years that I have experienced HB weather, the frequencies of extremes, wind, rain, temp, do appear to have increased, yet that’s only my memory. Sure is hot today though.

      • bad12 5.1.2

        Actually they aint, the most disastrous bushfires in ‘known’ history that is, There were fires in Tasmania in the 1960’s which killed 60 odd people, burnt a greater area, (including parts of the State Capital),

        I flew by a bit of info on the Northern Territory fires the other day while looking at info on the fires in NSW and Tassy and from memory in the North fires burn across 1/3rd or 1/2 the land mass of the Territory every year,

        Will see if i can dig out the link…

        • bad12 5.1.2.1

          Here it be, the page title= Australia savanna fire regimes:context, scales patchiness,

          fireecology.org/docs/journal/pdf/volume03/issue01/048.pdf

          The land mass burned in the Northern territory EVERY YEAR is 21% of the Territory’s total land mass,

          The page is a pdf. but it’s got a quick view’

          Edit,damn made a mess of the link,(as usual), second attempt=

          fireecology.org/docs/journal/pdf/volume03/048.pdf

      • Jenny 5.1.3

        Ask her this for me the next time you talk to her Fortran. “Are you thinking of immigrating to New Zealand?”

  6. KhandallaViper 6

    http://www.pundit.co.nz/content/why-a-labour-reshuffle-just-aint-enough

    “The irony is that the only way to get the attention of the voters you need to win over and earn their respect is to actually stand. for. something.”

    Tim Watkins, 7th October 2012 in The Pundit.

    “So, David Shearer’s planning a reshuffle of his front bench and folk such as John Tamihere and, well, just about everyone, reckons it’s about time. The carping has started, so the Labour leader had better get on with it. But what he needs to realise is a reshuffle is only the beginning. In many ways it’s the smallest part of the job.”

    The membership wants a full reform of the party, not only the re-shuffle/retirement gig in the Caucus.

    What are the changes we want?

    The full implementation of the resolutions from the conference in word and in spirit: that is a membership connected with all sections of the community empowered to forge policies and leadership that will bring health and prosperity to all Kiwis.

    Over the next few weeks we have too see evidence that changes are taking place that will implement this reform.

    What we do not want to see is a re-shuffle that entrenches power in the few that are fighting the reform.

    • Colonial Viper 6.1

      The membership should be permitted by caucus to confirm the Leader. It would energise the party, bring onboard new blood and new members, and fire up the on-the-ground activisits going into the 2014 campaign. It is a full on win scenario for Labour.

      • Colonial Weka 6.1.1

        Do you mean the membership should be permitted by caucus to confirm Shearer as leader? Or something else?

        • Colonial Viper 6.1.1.1

          Yes, caucus IMO should pull the consitutional caucus trigger in Feb. Thereby allowing the wider membership to vote and confirm the leadership of the Labour Party. There are huge campaigning, momentum and growth advantages available to the party if it chooses that democratic road. IMO.

          The other perspective is the one we have heard consistently from TRP – there’s nothing left to talk about, everyone please move on. That path IMO would leave Labour with a very half hearted activist base going into the 2014 campaign.

          • Colonial Weka 6.1.1.1.1

            How does that work with the new rules?

            Can caucus just decide to have a membership vote without caucus voting on the current leader? Or does it require caucus to vote against the current leader, thereby triggering the membership vote?

            If/when the membership vote gets triggered, how are the candidates for leadership selected?

            • Colonial Viper 6.1.1.1.1.1

              This post explains a few of the points…some of the questions you are asking are matters of perspective and intent, however. Remember, the ABCs took Cunliffe breathing at Conference as evidence of an imminent coup.

              My view is that both Shearer’s leadership position and Labour’s on-the-ground momentum would be greatly strengthened going into 2014 with a full membership confirmation.

              http://thestandard.org.nz/labour-conference-day-2/

              • Colonial Weka

                Re-reading that link from last year, my understanding is still that giving the membership the chance to vote requires 40% +1 of caucus to actively vote against Shearer next month (and this is a once in a three year opportunity).

                Where does it say it is possible for caucus to bypass that and just go straight to a membership vote? You are suggesting that caucus “pull the constitutional caucus trigger” in Feb, but how can they do that without essentially having a vote of no confidence in Shearer? It’s a nice idea that caucus should give the vote to the membership at this stage, I just don’t yet see how that can actually be done. Some specifics would be nice.

                • Colonial Viper

                  I think you got that right. The caucus vote would have to be technically “against Shearer” in order to enable a membership vote “for Shearer”. It won’t be hard for the MPs to realise that this pathway provides an opportunity to strengthen Shearer’s position, Labour’s democratic credentials, and the party’s momentum going into 2014.

                  • Dr Terry

                    I fear Shearer’s methods of “punishment and reward” will yet again win the day.

                  • McFlock

                    What happens if more than 50% vote no confidence? Is it a caucus vote for replacement or straight to membership for the replacement?

                    What I’m thinking is if shearer publicly asks for a no confidence vote so it can be taken to the membership, that would be a cool way of bypassing the entire “ooo shearer’s in the shit/ party crisis” yellow journalism from certain TV news politics editors.

                    • Colonial Viper

                      If the caucus trigger were pulled, it would then allow a 40/40/30 caucus + members + affiliates postal vote to confirm Shearer as Leader.

                    • McFlock

                      So all future elections of new leaders are under the new rules? Cool.

                    • Colonial Viper

                      Yep. The issue re: Feb is simply one of whether caucus will let the members have a say to confirm the leadership, or whether they will choose not to give members that chance.

                    • Colonial Weka

                      “If the caucus trigger were pulled, it would then allow a 40/40/30 caucus + members + affiliates postal vote to confirm Shearer as Leader.”

                      Or to replace him. Still don’t know how the rest of that process works.

                    • Colonial Viper

                      In that respect you are in the same boat as everyone else. This has never been done before you see.

                  • QoT

                    The caucus vote would have to be technically “against Shearer” in order to enable a membership vote “for Shearer”.

                    Just want to add – though I haven’t seen anyone cite the “but if they support Shearer how could they vote against him” – that the reasoning is a lot similar to (what I understand was) Chris Finlayson’s vote against marriage equality – it’s not that he doesn’t support treating same-sex couples equally, but he opposes State intervention in marriage at all. So a seemingly-illogical vote can be very easily justified.

                    • karol

                      Doesn’t it just require 40/1% of the caucus to vote against Shearer to trigger a full leadership contest?

                    • QoT

                      Indeed, but hypothetically >60% of the Labour caucus could absolutely sincerely support him as leader, meaning the choice to send the decision to the membership would involve voting “against” their actual inclination.

                    • Colonial Weka

                      Which is why I’m not sure that CV’s idea would work – asking for caucus to voluntarily give the membership the vote. It requires MPs to vote against their support of Shearer.

                    • McFlock

                      CW
                      Not if he asks them to turn the vote to the membership and affiliates. What they’d be voting for is that affiliates and membership should have a say as to who should be leader.

                    • weka

                      Not being a Labour party member I have no way of finding out, but I’m still not convinced that what you say is possible McFlock (Shearer instructing the MPs to vote against him in order to hand the vote to the members). Doesn’t it depend on what got written in the rule changes? Is it really ok for the leader to make it up as he goes along at this point? If I were a Labour party member, I would be wanting to know exactly what the processes were (not least because I don’t expect the ABCs to play fair). Just saying.

                      Bill’s idea about abstaining is interesting, but again, were I a member, I would want to know the processes and implications AHEAD of time (esp if I were lobbying my local MP).

            • Bill 6.1.1.1.1.2

              Shearer needs the endorsement of 60% of caucus. There is no need to vote against him. Abstention would do.

  7. Rogue Trooper 7

    Child In Time
    http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6869.The_Child_in_Time

    RNZ- asbestos ceilings in CHCH being ripped out shit and busted breathing to flow on

    Shattered Glass
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_Lacan#Mirror_stage
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/From_Bakunin_to_Lacan
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post-left_anarchy
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post-Marxism

    bbrrrrrrrrrrr All Shook Up (Elvis is still in the building)
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_n3ebuL1cPA

    -Od onata Anisoptera (whose round, and whose paying?)

  8. Rogue Trooper 8

    Back to the pelvic thrust…

    Best Practice:
    Restless Leg Syndrome 🙂

    oops,From the Mountain (not under it)
    http://www.nzonscreen.com/title/mt-zion-2013

    this HAARP does play tunes (sample of one)
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HAARP (the caravan may act as an aerial) , fine, I’m between homes anyway, any way interesting construction, can you Send Me An Angel next time? Shall I tell you I had a dream?…na don’t wanna bore you with the details, suffice to say it was counter-motivational.

    Feedback- “Well I stand up next to a mountain, and I chop it down with the edge of my hand…
    Well I pick up all the pieces and make an Island, might even raise a little sand 🙂

    We’re all gonna die so lets get High? I prefer Raw Power or Well my Baby she wrote me a letter, aint got no time to take a fast train (I’d make a good spook 😉 )

    -Iggy ( http://www.footsteps.co.nz/ footsteps in the sand)

  9. Rogue Trooper 9

    back to Fear and Trembling,
    (and there were some interesting symbols, flange, inert gas, gearboxes, escort, hard to understand scottish accents off exercising for lunch, thinking for other people…)
    anyway,
    Restless Leg Syndrome, oh look, it’s all there in lovely Living Color.
    http://www.bpac.org.nz/magazine/2012/december/restlesslegs.asp

    Oh well, better check out the Real News.

  10. The National party is just a corrupt subsidiary of Australian owned banks, their party supporters must be high on residual Pinochet fumes.

    • Rogue Trooper 12.1

      when we read the compilations put together by posters and comment providers on The Standard the “facts” of the matter are more than Beyond Belief, Objective lie speaking.

  11. Rogue Trooper 13

    Dom
    -60% of those folk surveyed did not exercise 30min / 5X week, up from 50% surveyed in 07-08 –
    SpNZ
    Reason? TIME-the winner, with “expense” and “convenience” close runner ups (gotta work on being less judgy / more on “perceptive” according to my “minders” ) soooo just the facts. TIME.

    -the Ed Ministry employs and pays consultants to do their basic homework; speech writing and OIA assignments

    -Corrections the naughtiest in school when it come to watching porn at work (cha know? a guy was openly staring as close to the screen at it here where I “work” earlier, noz Right up to the screen; I was more laid back when caught in that particular fly-trap)

    -An anti-China moralizing editorial; and we know which broadsheets serve the function of propaganda officers here in the land of the long opaque cloud… apples and mandarins.

    -Anti-Muslim advertisements paid to be placed on NY subway walls are the Graffiti Crimes allowed by “free speech” in the west.

    -fortunately they published a letter by a Dr Anne Jenkins that identifies how they stir the racist pot; there is some foolish regular writer in the local paper who thinks it’s appropriate to lampoon “Engrish” or, alternatively ‘Chinglish”; it’s an uphill battle when students must look up to people like this.
    Eden in The East?
    http://books.google.co.nz/books/about/Eden_in_the_East.html?id=C01yQgAACAAJ&redir_esc=y

    Reefer Madness is in the air again.
    oh those British; the “Met Office” downplays planet warming (peas not mushy enough yet) ’til 2017 with an “experimental” computer model, one of ten internationally yet acknowledges warming trend has not gone away (who writes these twisty-turny articles?)
    Living Dolls http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/jan/31/living-dolls-natasha-walter
    raising girls that are now a soft target for big business propaganda with concomitant mental health issue increases (why, thank so much Hollywood for the mammary )

    How about some New York Dolls.W O W

  12. Rogue Trooper 14

    While locally they rabbit on about sarin loaded into bombs
    http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/article7151349.ece
    http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Op-EdContributors/Article.aspx?id=298991
    http://www.timesofisrael.com/abbas-rejects-israeli-offer-to-allow-refugees-from-syria-to-enter-west-bank-and-gaza/

    p c plus http://biz.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2013/1/10/business/20130110122238&sec=business

    asian markets advance
    http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/markets/global-markets/asian-markets-advance-as-china-trade-data-beats-forecast/articleshow/17963975.cms

    NZ / US $ was 83.80 when I last checked

    I want money…thats what I want…the best things in life are free? lets just keep killing the birds and bees…in fact I want so much money…thats what I want-The Flying Lizards

  13. Socialist Paddy 15

    Chris Trotter has posted again about Shearer at http://bowalleyroad.blogspot.co.nz/2013/01/behind-mask-whos-backing-david-shearer.html

    Asks some interesting questions:

    1. What did Shearer think of Roger Douglas and the 4th Labour Government?

    2. Will he advocate a neoliberal approach to NZ’s economic problems just as he advocated a neoliberal approach to building up peace keeping forces in the 1990s.

    3. Says “The next genuine policy aggressor will be a politician possessing both the courage and the imagination to go beyond the maintenance of a discredited orthodoxy – someone willing to forge a new political, economic and social consensus” and obviously does not think this will be Shearer.

    4. Says that the right believe that Shearer “will not only leave the neoliberal settlement intact, but that he may also, with Esko Aho’s example set firmly before him, seek to extend it into the spheres of welfare, health, housing and education. It will not have escaped their attention that Labour’s “Affordable Housing Plan” is really just a glorified PPP on behalf of the professional middle-class.”

    5. Says that “the prognosis for those who entered Parliament with honest left-wing intentions is grim. Promotion to Cabinet will depend not only on making ritual obeisance to Shearer and his clique, but also, following the tragic precedent of the Rogernomics Era, on abandoning their former social-democratic ideals. Such self-inflicted injuries to the soul do not heal quickly.”

    This makes grim, grim reading. I hope it is not true.

    • KhandallaViper 15.1

      These are is very strong accusations against the leader of the Labour Party.

      David Shearer must respond to the allegations. Trotter is a respected and published political historian.

      Shearer should call a press conference and dismiss, refute or whatever each point.

      • Anne 15.1.1

        Beat me to it SP. Was about to link to the post.

        Oh dear… was starting to feel a little bit optimistic and now it’s gone. What to make of it? Trotter is a respected political historian – arguably the best we have.

        I am sure Trotter would dearly love to be proven wrong, but he is right to put forward the hypothesis.

        • Olwyn 15.1.1.1

          If someone appears as a virtual unknown, refuses to declare their position, and has predominantly right wing active supporters, then they must expect people to hypothesise from whatever facts they are able to access. Trotter has given Shearer something to answer to. Whether he will take up the challenge or not remains to be seen.

          As I have said before, I would like the party to be able to eject those that break ranks with its values, even if they keep their plans under their hat until they have become prime minister. It seems to me a far graver offence to hijack a party by betraying its values than to put silly notes in mail boxes. I am not saying that Shearer does intend to betray the party’s values, since I am in no position to know such a thing, but we would all rest much easier if we had the tools to discourage such behaviour. It would also give the MPs themselves the necessary backing to resist outside pressure.

          • weka 15.1.1.1.1

            Well quite. Given that the Labour party (and NZ) was massively betrayed in the 80s, it stands to reason that transparency is a deal breaker. If Shearer (or any high ranking Labour MP or official) can’t respond to Trotter’s points openly and honestly, you’d have to wonder why.

            Personally, I think SP’s synopsis of Trotter’s article is the clearest thing I’ve read on the whole Shearer issue. Come on Labour, stop wringing your hands and do what needs to be done. Are you really willing to trust that everything might be ok?

    • Rogue Trooper 15.2

      interesting article

  14. Te Reo Putake 16

    Big ups to LP re: the PG B.S.!

    “Here I sit broken hearted,
    Spent a penny, only farted”.

    • weka 16.1

      Lynn Prent? Pete George? Bull Shit??

    • lprent 16.2

      No problem. Was bored waiting for a slow serial routine to run so I could debug the unpack. So I scanned my feeder and saw that pile of tripe and wrote a comment. Was meaning to mention it to you… but the usual interruptions happened.

      Later, when I was scanning the wordpress notifications (useful that – shows up in the dashboard if you’re logged in and displays replies on this site and other wordpress sites), that he’d replied at least 3 times. But the first paragraphs looked more apoletic than informational, I had work, so I ignored them.

  15. just saying 17

    There’s not really any point in my saying this. I know how it sounds, I know I have no authority to say it. But I have to say it straight just once:

    Shearer is a nasty piece of work and a very dangerous man.

    I’ve seen a bit of shit in my life. Known a few wolves who disguised themselves as saints. It can be a very successsful strategy.

    I genuinely hope I’m wrong about him, but I’ve been watching and listening pretty closely for a while now. The more I know of him, the stronger the conviction

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    Geoffrey Miller writes – Timing is everything. And from China’s perspective, this week’s visit by its foreign minister to New Zealand could be coming at just the right moment. The visit by Wang Yi to Wellington will be his first since 2017. Anniversaries are important to Beijing. ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    1 day ago
  • Gordon Campbell on Dune 2, and images of Islam
    Depictions of Islam in Western popular culture have rarely been positive, even before 9/11. Five years on from the mosque shootings, this is one of the cultural headwinds that the Muslim community has to battle against. Whatever messages of tolerance and inclusion are offered in daylight, much of our culture ...
    1 day ago
  • New Rail Operations Centre Promises Better Train Services
    Last week Transport Minster Simeon Brown and Mayor Wayne Brown opened the new Auckland Rail Operations Centre. The new train control centre will see teams from KiwiRail, Auckland Transport and Auckland One Rail working more closely together to improve train services across the city. The Auckland Rail Operations Centre in ...
    2 days ago
  • Bernard's six newsy things at 6.36am on Monday, March 18
    Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Retiring former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson said in an exit interview with Q+A yesterday the Government can and should sustain more debt to invest in infrastructure for future generations. Elsewhere in the news in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 6:36am: Read more ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    2 days ago
  • Geoffrey Miller: Wang Yi’s perfectly-timed, Aukus-themed visit to New Zealand
    Timing is everything. And from China’s perspective, this week’s visit by its foreign minister to New Zealand could be coming at just the right moment. The visit by Wang Yi to Wellington will be his first since 2017. Anniversaries are important to Beijing. It is more than just a happy ...
    Democracy ProjectBy Geoffrey Miller
    2 days ago
  • The Kaka’s diary for the week to March 25 and beyond
    TL;DR: The key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to March 18 include:China’s Foreign Minister visiting Wellington today;A post-cabinet news conference this afternoon; the resumption of Parliament on Tuesday for two weeks before Easter;retiring former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson gives his valedictory speech in Parliament; ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    2 days ago
  • Bitter and angry; Winston First
    New Zealand First Leader Winston Peters’s state-of-the-nation speech on Sunday was really a state-of-Winston-First speech. He barely mentioned any of the Government’s key policies and could not even wholly endorse its signature income tax cuts. Instead, he rehearsed all of his complaints about the Ardern Government, including an extraordinary claim ...
    PolitikBy Richard Harman
    2 days ago
  • 2024 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #11
    A listing of 35 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 10, 2024 thru Sat, March 16, 2024. Story of the week This week we'll give you a little glimpse into how we collect links to share and ...
    2 days ago
  • 2024 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #11
    A listing of 35 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 10, 2024 thru Sat, March 16, 2024. Story of the week This week we'll give you a little glimpse into how we collect links to share and ...
    2 days ago
  • Out of Touch.
    “I’ve been internalising a really complicated situation in my head.”When they kept telling us we should wait until we get to know him, were they taking the piss? Was it a case of, if you think this is bad, wait till you get to know the real Christopher, after the ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    2 days ago
  • Bring out your Dad
    Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    3 days ago
  • Bring out your Dad
    Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    3 days ago
  • Bring out your Dad
    Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    3 days ago
  • The bewildering world of Chris Luxon – Guns for all, not no lunch for kids
    .“$10 and a target that bleeds” - Bleeding Targets for Under $10!.Thanks for reading Frankly Speaking ! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.This government appears hell-bent on either scrapping life-saving legislation or reintroducing things that - frustrated critics insist - will be dangerous and likely ...
    Frankly SpeakingBy Frank Macskasy
    3 days ago
  • Expert Opinion: Ageing Boomers, Laurie & Les, Talk Politics.
    It hardly strikes me as fair to criticise a government for doing exactly what it said it was going to do. For actually keeping its promises.”THUNDER WAS PLAYING TAG with lightning flashes amongst the distant peaks. Its rolling cadences interrupted by the here-I-come-here-I-go Doppler effect of the occasional passing car. ...
    3 days ago
  • Manufacturing The Truth.
    Subversive & Disruptive Technologies: Just as happened with that other great regulator of the masses, the Medieval Church, the advent of a new and hard-to-control technology – the Internet –  is weakening the ties that bind. Then, and now, those who enjoy a monopoly on the dissemination of lies, cannot and will ...
    3 days ago
  • A Powerful Sensation of Déjà Vu.
    Been Here Before: To find the precedents for what this Coalition Government is proposing, it is necessary to return to the “glory days” of Muldoonism.THE COALITION GOVERNMENT has celebrated its first 100 days in office by checking-off the last of its listed commitments. It remains, however, an angry government. It ...
    3 days ago
  • Can you guess where world attention is focussed (according to Greenpeace)? It’s focussed on an EPA...
    Bob Edlin writes –  And what is the world watching today…? The email newsletter from Associated Press which landed in our mailbox early this morning advised: In the news today: The father of a school shooter has been found guilty of involuntary manslaughter; prosecutors in Trump’s hush-money case ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    3 days ago
  • Further integrity problems for the Greens in suspending MP Darleen Tana
    Bryce Edwards writes – Is another Green MP on their way out? And are the Greens severely tarnished by another integrity scandal? For the second time in three months, the Green Party has secretly suspended an MP over integrity issues. Mystery is surrounding the party’s decision to ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    3 days ago
  • Jacqui Van Der Kaay: Greens’ transparency missing in action
    For the last few years, the Green Party has been the party that has managed to avoid the plague of multiple scandals that have beleaguered other political parties. It appears that their luck has run out with a second scandal which, unfortunately for them, coincided with Golraz Ghahraman, the focus ...
    Democracy ProjectBy bryce.edwards
    3 days ago
  • Bernard’s Dawn Chorus with six newsey things at 6:46am for Saturday, March 16
    TL;DR: The six newsey things that stood out to me as of 6:46am on Saturday, March 16.Andy Foster has accidentally allowed a Labour/Green amendment to cut road user chargers for plug-in hybrid vehicles, which the Government might accept; NZ Herald Thomas Coughlan Simeon Brown has rejected a plea from Westport ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    4 days ago
  • How Did FTX Crash?
    What seemed a booming success a couple of years ago has collapsed into fraud convictions.I looked at the crash of FTX (short for ‘Futures Exchange’) in November 2022 to see whether it would impact on the financial system as a whole. Fortunately there was barely a ripple, probably because it ...
    PunditBy Brian Easton
    4 days ago
  • Elections in Russia and Ukraine
    Anybody following the situation in Ukraine and Russia would probably have been amused by a recent Tweet on X NATO seems to be putting in an awful lot of effort to influence what is, at least according to them, a sham election in an autocracy.When do the Ukrainians go to ...
    4 days ago
  • Bernard’s six stack of substacks at 6pm on March 15
    TL;DR: Shaun Baker on Wynyard Quarter's transformation. Magdalene Taylor on the problem with smart phones. How private equity are now all over reinsurance. Dylan Cleaver on rugby and CTE. Emily Atkin on ‘Big Meat’ looking like ‘Big Oil’.Bernard’s six-stack of substacks at 6pm on March 15Photo by Jeppe Hove Jensen ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    4 days ago
  • Buzz from the Beehive Finance Minister Nicola Willis had plenty to say when addressing the Auckland Business Chamber on the economic growth that (she tells us) is flagging more than we thought. But the government intends to put new life into it:  We want our country to be a ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    4 days ago
  • National’s clean car tax advances
    The Transport and Infrastructure Committee has reported back on the Road User Charges (Light Electric RUC Vehicles) Amendment Bill, basicly rubberstamping it. While there was widespread support among submitters for the principle that EV and PHEV drivers should pay their fair share for the roads, they also overwhelmingly disagreed with ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    4 days ago
  • Government funding bailouts
    Peter Dunne writes – This week’s government bailout – the fifth in the last eighteen months – of the financially troubled Ruapehu Alpine Lifts company would have pleased many in the central North Island ski industry. The government’s stated rationale for the $7 million funding was that it ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    4 days ago
  • Two offenders, different treatments.
    See if you can spot the difference. An Iranian born female MP from a progressive party is accused of serial shoplifting. Her name is leaked to the media, which goes into a pack frenzy even before the Police launch an … Continue reading ...
    KiwipoliticoBy Pablo
    4 days ago
  • Treaty references omitted
    Ele Ludemann writes  – The government is omitting general Treaty references from legislation : The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last Government in a bid to get greater coherence in the public service on Treaty ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    4 days ago
  • The Ghahraman Conflict
    What was that judge thinking? Peter Williams writes –  That Golriz Ghahraman and District Court Judge Maria Pecotic were once lawyer colleagues is incontrovertible. There is published evidence that they took at least one case to the Court of Appeal together. There was a report on ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    4 days ago
  • Bernard's Top 10 @ 10 'pick 'n' mix' for March 15
    TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: Climate Scorpion – the sting is in the tail. Introducing planetary solvency. A paper via the University of Exeter’s Institute and Faculty of Actuaries.Local scoop: Kāinga Ora starts pulling out of its Auckland projects and selling land RNZ ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    4 days ago
  • The day Wellington up-zoned its future
    Wellington’s massively upzoned District Plan adds the opportunity for tens of thousands of new homes not just in the central city (such as these Webb St new builds) but also close to the CBD and public transport links. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Wellington gave itself the chance of ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    4 days ago
  • Weekly Roundup 15-March-2024
    It’s Friday and we’re halfway through March Madness. Here’s some of the things that caught our attention this week. This Week in Greater Auckland On Monday Matt asked how we can get better event trains and an option for grade separating Morningside Dr. On Tuesday Matt looked into ...
    Greater AucklandBy Greater Auckland
    5 days ago
  • That Word.
    Something you might not know about me is that I’m quite a stubborn person. No, really. I don’t much care for criticism I think’s unfair or that I disagree with. Few of us do I suppose.Back when I was a drinker I’d sometimes respond defensively, even angrily. There are things ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    5 days ago
  • The Hoon around the week to March 15
    Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the last week included:PM Christopher Luxon said the reversal of interest deductibility for landlords was done to help renters, who ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    5 days ago
  • Labour’s policy gap
    It was not so much the Labour Party but really the Chris Hipkins party yesterday at Labour’s caucus retreat in Martinborough. The former Prime Minister was more or less consistent on wealth tax, which he was at best equivocal about, and social insurance, which he was not willing to revisit. ...
    PolitikBy Richard Harman
    5 days ago
  • Skeptical Science New Research for Week #11 2024
    Open access notables A Glimpse into the Future: The 2023 Ocean Temperature and Sea Ice Extremes in the Context of Longer-Term Climate Change, Kuhlbrodt et al., Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society: In the year 2023, we have seen extraordinary extrema in high sea surface temperature (SST) in the North Atlantic and in ...
    5 days ago
  • Melissa remains mute on media matters but has something to say (at a sporting event) about economic ...
     Buzz from the Beehive   The text reproduced above appears on a page which records all the media statements and speeches posted on the government’s official website by Melissa Lee as Minister of Media and Communications and/or by Jenny Marcroft, her Parliamentary Under-secretary.  It can be quickly analysed ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    5 days ago
  • The return of Muldoon
    For forty years, Robert Muldoon has been a dirty word in our politics. His style of government was so repulsive and authoritarian that the backlash to it helped set and entrench our constitutional norms. His pig-headedness over forcing through Think Big eventually gave us the RMA, with its participation and ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    5 days ago
  • Will the rental tax cut improve life for renters or landlords?
    Bryce Edwards writes –  Is the new government reducing tax on rental properties to benefit landlords or to cut the cost of rents? That’s the big question this week, after Associate Finance Minister David Seymour announced on Sunday that the Government would be reversing the Labour Government’s removal ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    5 days ago
  • Geoffrey Miller: What Saudi Arabia’s rapid changes mean for New Zealand
    Saudi Arabia is rarely far from the international spotlight. The war in Gaza has brought new scrutiny to Saudi plans to normalise relations with Israel, while the fifth anniversary of the controversial killing of Jamal Khashoggi was marked shortly before the war began on October 7. And as the home ...
    Democracy ProjectBy Geoffrey Miller
    5 days ago
  • Racism’s double standards
    Questions need to be asked on both sides of the world Peter Williams writes –   The NRL Judiciary hands down an eight week suspension to Sydney Roosters forward Spencer Leniu , an Auckland-born Samoan, after he calls Ezra Mam, Sydney-orn but of Aboriginal and Torres Strait ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    5 days ago
  • It’s not a tax break
    Ele Ludemann writes – Contrary to what many headlines and news stories are saying, residential landlords are not getting a tax break. The government is simply restoring to them the tax deductibility of interest they had until the previous government removed it. There is no logical reason ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    5 days ago
  • The Plastic Pig Collective and Chris' Imaginary Friends.
    I can't remember when it was goodMoments of happiness in bloomMaybe I just misunderstoodAll of the love we left behindWatching our flashbacks intertwineMemories I will never findIn spite of whatever you becomeForget that reckless thing turned onI think our lives have just begunI think our lives have just begunDoes anyone ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    5 days ago
  • Who is responsible for young offenders?
    Michael Bassett writes – At first reading, a front-page story in the New Zealand Herald on 13 March was bizarre. A group of severely intellectually limited teenagers, with little understanding of the law, have been pleading to the Justice Select Committee not to pass a bill dealing with ram ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    5 days ago
  • Gordon Campbell on National’s fantasy trip to La La Landlord Land
    How much political capital is Christopher Luxon willing to burn through in order to deliver his $2.9 billion gift to landlords? Evidently, Luxon is: (a) unable to cost the policy accurately. As Anna Burns-Francis pointed out to him on Breakfast TV, the original ”rock solid” $2.1 billion cost he was ...
    5 days ago
  • Bernard's Top 10 @ 10 'pick 'n' mix' for March 14
    TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: Jonathon Porritt calling bullshit in his own blog post on mainstream climate science as ‘The New Denialism’.Local scoop: The Wellington City Council’s list of proposed changes to the IHP recommendations to be debated later today was leaked this ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    5 days ago
  • No, Prime Minister, rents don’t rise or fall with landlords’ costs
    TL;DR: Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said yesterday tenants should be grateful for the reinstatement of interest deductibility because landlords would pass on their lower tax costs in the form of lower rents. That would be true if landlords were regulated monopolies such as Transpower or Auckland Airport1, but they’re not, ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    5 days ago
  • Cartoons: ‘At least I didn’t make things awkward’
    This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Tom Toro Tom Toro is a cartoonist and author. He has published over 200 cartoons in The New Yorker since 2010. His cartoons appear in Playboy, the Paris Review, the New York Times, American Bystander, and elsewhere. Related: What 10 EV lovers ...
    5 days ago
  • Solving traffic congestion with Richard Prebble
    The business section of the NZ Herald is full of opinion. Among the more opinionated of all is the ex-Minister of Transport, ex-Minister of Railways, ex MP for Auckland Central (1975-93, Labour), Wellington Central (1996-99, ACT, then list-2005), ex-leader of the ACT Party, uncle to actor Antonia, the veritable granddaddy ...
    Greater AucklandBy Patrick Reynolds
    6 days ago
  • I Think I'm Done Flying Boeing
    Hi,Just quickly — I’m blown away by the stories you’ve shared with me over the last week since I put out the ‘Gary’ podcast, where I told you about the time my friend’s flatmate killed the neighbour.And you keep telling me stories — in the comments section, and in my ...
    David FarrierBy David Farrier
    6 days ago
  • Invoking Aristotle: Of Rings of Power, Stones, and Ships
    The first season of Rings of Power was not awful. It was thoroughly underwhelming, yes, and left a lingering sense of disappointment, but it was more expensive mediocrity than catastrophe. I wrote at length about the series as it came out (see the Review section of the blog, and go ...
    6 days ago
  • Van Velden brings free-market approach to changing labour laws – but her colleagues stick to distr...
    Buzz from the Beehive Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden told Auckland Business Chamber members they were the first audience to hear her priorities as a minister in a government committed to cutting red tape and regulations. She brandished her liberalising credentials, saying Flexible labour markets are the ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    6 days ago
  • Why Newshub failed
    Chris Trotter writes – TO UNDERSTAND WHY NEWSHUB FAILED, it is necessary to understand how TVNZ changed. Up until 1989, the state broadcaster had been funded by a broadcasting licence fee, collected from every citizen in possession of a television set, supplemented by a relatively modest (compared ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    6 days ago
  • Māori Party on the warpath against landlords and seabed miners – let’s see if mystical creature...
    Bob Edlin writes  –  The Māori Party has been busy issuing a mix of warnings and threats as its expresses its opposition to interest deductibility for landlords and the plans of seabed miners. It remains to be seen whether they  follow the example of indigenous litigants in Australia, ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    6 days ago

  • Government moves to quickly ratify the NZ-EU FTA
    "The Government is moving quickly to realise an additional $46 million in tariff savings in the EU market this season for Kiwi exporters,” Minister for Trade and Agriculture, Todd McClay says. Parliament is set, this week, to complete the final legislative processes required to bring the New Zealand – European ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    3 hours ago
  • Positive progress for social worker workforce
    New Zealand’s social workers are qualified, experienced, and more representative of the communities they serve, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “I want to acknowledge and applaud New Zealand’s social workers for the hard work they do, providing invaluable support for our most vulnerable. “To coincide with World ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    8 hours ago
  • Minister confirms reduced RUC rate for PHEVs
    Cabinet has agreed to a reduced road user charge (RUC) rate for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. Owners of PHEVs will be eligible for a reduced rate of $38 per 1,000km once all light electric vehicles (EVs) move into the RUC system from 1 April.  ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    10 hours ago
  • Trade access to overseas markets creates jobs
    Minister of Agriculture and Trade, Todd McClay, says that today’s opening of Riverland Foods manufacturing plant in Christchurch is a great example of how trade access to overseas markets creates jobs in New Zealand.  Speaking at the official opening of this state-of-the-art pet food factory the Minister noted that exports ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    11 hours ago
  • NZ and Chinese Foreign Ministers hold official talks
    Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Wellington today. “It was a pleasure to host Foreign Minister Wang Yi during his first official visit to New Zealand since 2017. Our discussions were wide-ranging and enabled engagement on many facets of New Zealand’s relationship with China, including trade, ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 day ago
  • Kāinga Ora instructed to end Sustaining Tenancies
    Kāinga Ora – Homes & Communities has been instructed to end the Sustaining Tenancies Framework and take stronger measures against persistent antisocial behaviour by tenants, says Housing Minister Chris Bishop. “Earlier today Finance Minister Nicola Willis and I sent an interim Letter of Expectations to the Board of Kāinga Ora. ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 day ago
  • Speech to Auckland Business Chamber: Growth is the answer
    Tēna koutou katoa. Greetings everyone. Thank you to the Auckland Chamber of Commerce and the Honourable Simon Bridges for hosting this address today. I acknowledge the business leaders in this room, the leaders and governors, the employers, the entrepreneurs, the investors, and the wealth creators. The coalition Government shares your ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    3 days ago
  • Singapore rounds out regional trip
    Minister Winston Peters completed the final leg of his visit to South and South East Asia in Singapore today, where he focused on enhancing one of New Zealand’s indispensable strategic partnerships.      “Singapore is our most important defence partner in South East Asia, our fourth-largest trading partner and a ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    4 days ago
  • Minister van Velden represents New Zealand at International Democracy Summit
    Minister of Internal Affairs and Workplace Relations and Safety, Hon. Brooke van Velden, will travel to the Republic of Korea to represent New Zealand at the Third Summit for Democracy on 18 March. The summit, hosted by the Republic of Korea, was first convened by the United States in 2021, ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    4 days ago
  • Insurance Council of NZ Speech, 7 March 2024, Auckland
    ICNZ Speech 7 March 2024, Auckland  Acknowledgements and opening  Mōrena, ngā mihi nui. Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho.  Good morning, it’s a privilege to be here to open the ICNZ annual conference, thank you to Mark for the Mihi Whakatau  My thanks to Tim Grafton for inviting me ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    4 days ago
  • Five-year anniversary of Christchurch terror attacks
    Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Lead Coordination Minister Judith Collins have expressed their deepest sympathy on the five-year anniversary of the Christchurch terror attacks. “March 15, 2019, was a day when families, communities and the country came together both in sorrow and solidarity,” Mr Luxon says.  “Today we pay our respects to the 51 shuhada ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    4 days ago
  • Speech for Financial Advice NZ Conference 5 March 2024
    Speech for Financial Advice NZ Conference 5 March 2024  Acknowledgements and opening  Morena, Nga Mihi Nui.  Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho. Thanks Nate for your Mihi Whakatau  Good morning. It’s a pleasure to formally open your conference this morning. What a lovely day in Wellington, What a great ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    4 days ago
  • Early visit to Indonesia strengthens ties
    Foreign Minister Winston Peters held discussions in Jakarta today about the future of relations between New Zealand and South East Asia’s most populous country.   “We are in Jakarta so early in our new government’s term to reflect the huge importance we place on our relationship with Indonesia and South ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    5 days ago
  • China Foreign Minister to visit
    Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters has announced that the Foreign Minister of China, Wang Yi, will visit New Zealand next week.  “We look forward to re-engaging with Foreign Minister Wang Yi and discussing the full breadth of the bilateral relationship, which is one of New Zealand’s ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    5 days ago
  • Minister opens new Auckland Rail Operations Centre
    Transport Minister Simeon Brown has today opened the new Auckland Rail Operations Centre, which will bring together KiwiRail, Auckland Transport, and Auckland One Rail to improve service reliability for Aucklanders. “The recent train disruptions in Auckland have highlighted how important it is KiwiRail and Auckland’s rail agencies work together to ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    5 days ago
  • Celebrating 10 years of Crankworx Rotorua
    The Government is proud to support the 10th edition of Crankworx Rotorua as the Crankworx World Tour returns to Rotorua from 16-24 March 2024, says Minister for Economic Development Melissa Lee.  “Over the past 10 years as Crankworx Rotorua has grown, so too have the economic and social benefits that ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    5 days ago
  • Government delivering on tax commitments
    Legislation implementing coalition Government tax commitments and addressing long-standing tax anomalies will be progressed in Parliament next week, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The legislation is contained in an Amendment Paper to the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill issued today.  “The Amendment Paper represents ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    5 days ago
  • Significant Natural Areas requirement to be suspended
    Associate Environment Minister Andrew Hoggard has today announced that the Government has agreed to suspend the requirement for councils to comply with the Significant Natural Areas (SNA) provisions of the National Policy Statement for Indigenous Biodiversity for three years, while it replaces the Resource Management Act (RMA).“As it stands, SNAs ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    5 days ago
  • Government classifies drought conditions in Top of the South as medium-scale adverse event
    Agriculture Minister Todd McClay has classified the drought conditions in the Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts as a medium-scale adverse event, acknowledging the challenging conditions facing farmers and growers in the district. “Parts of Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts are in the grip of an intense dry spell. I know ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    5 days ago
  • Government partnership to tackle $332m facial eczema problem
    The Government is helping farmers eradicate the significant impact of facial eczema (FE) in pastoral animals, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced.  “A $20 million partnership jointly funded by Beef + Lamb NZ, the Government, and the primary sector will save farmers an estimated NZD$332 million per year, and aims to ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    5 days ago
  • NZ, India chart path to enhanced relationship
    Foreign Minister Winston Peters has completed a successful visit to India, saying it was an important step in taking the relationship between the two countries to the next level.   “We have laid a strong foundation for the Coalition Government’s priority of enhancing New Zealand-India relations to generate significant future benefit for both countries,” says Mr Peters, ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    6 days ago
  • Ruapehu Alpine Lifts bailout the last, say Ministers
    Cabinet has agreed to provide $7 million to ensure the 2024 ski season can go ahead on the Whakapapa ski field in the central North Island but has told the operator Ruapehu Alpine Lifts it is the last financial support it will receive from taxpayers. Cabinet also agreed to provide ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    6 days ago
  • Govt takes action to drive better cancer services
    Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says the launch of a new mobile breast screening unit in Counties Manukau reinforces the coalition Government’s commitment to drive better cancer services for all New Zealanders. Speaking at the launch of the new mobile clinic, Dr Reti says it’s a great example of taking ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    6 days ago
  • Govt takes action to drive better cancer services
    Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says the launch of a new mobile breast screening unit in Counties Manukau reinforces the coalition Government’s commitment to drive better cancer services for all New Zealanders. Speaking at the launch of the new mobile clinic, Dr Reti says it’s a great example of taking ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    6 days ago
  • Work begins on SH29 upgrades near Tauriko
    Unlocking economic growth and land for housing are critical elements of the Government’s plan for our transport network, and planned upgrades to State Highway 29 (SH29) near Tauriko will deliver strongly on those priorities, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The SH29 upgrades near Tauriko will improve safety at the intersections ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    6 days ago
  • Work begins on SH29 upgrades near Tauriko
    Unlocking economic growth and land for housing are critical elements of the Government’s plan for our transport network, and planned upgrades to State Highway 29 (SH29) near Tauriko will deliver strongly on those priorities, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The SH29 upgrades near Tauriko will improve safety at the intersections ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    6 days ago
  • Fresh produce price drop welcome
    Lower fruit and vegetable prices are welcome news for New Zealanders who have been doing it tough at the supermarket, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. Stats NZ reported today the price of fruit and vegetables has dropped 9.3 percent in the 12 months to February 2024.  “Lower fruit and vege ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    6 days ago
  • Statement to the 68th United Nations Commission on the Status of Women
    Tēnā koutou katoa and greetings to you all.  Chair, I am honoured to address the sixty-eighth session of the Commission on the Status of Women. I acknowledge the many crises impacting the rights of women and girls. Heightened global tensions, war, climate related and humanitarian disasters, and price inflation all ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    6 days ago
  • Speech to the 68th United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (CSW68)
    Tēnā koutou katoa and greetings to you all.  Chair, I am honoured to address the 68th session of the Commission on the Status of Women. I acknowledge the many crises impacting the rights of women and girls. Heightened global tensions, war, climate related and humanitarian disasters, and price inflation all ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    6 days ago
  • Government backs rural led catchment projects
    The coalition Government is supporting farmers to enhance land management practices by investing $3.3 million in locally led catchment groups, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced. “Farmers and growers deliver significant prosperity for New Zealand and it’s vital their ongoing efforts to improve land management practices and water quality are supported,” ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    6 days ago
  • Speech to Auckland Business Chamber
    Good evening everyone and thank you for that lovely introduction.   Thank you also to the Honourable Simon Bridges for the invitation to address your members. Since being sworn in, this coalition Government has hit the ground running with our 100-day plan, delivering the changes that New Zealanders expect of us. ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 week ago
  • Commission’s advice on ETS settings tabled
    Recommendations from the Climate Change Commission for New Zealand on the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) auction and unit limit settings for the next five years have been tabled in Parliament, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “The Commission provides advice on the ETS annually. This is the third time the ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 week ago
  • Government lowering building costs
    The coalition Government is beginning its fight to lower building costs and reduce red tape by exempting minor building work from paying the building levy, says Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk. “Currently, any building project worth $20,444 including GST or more is subject to the building levy which is ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 week ago
  • Trustee tax change welcomed
    Proposed changes to tax legislation to prevent the over-taxation of low-earning trusts are welcome, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The changes have been recommended by Parliament’s Finance and Expenditure Committee following consideration of submissions on the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill. “One of the ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 week ago
  • Minister’s Ramadan message
    Assalaamu alaikum. السَّلَام عليكم In light of the holy month of Ramadan, I want to extend my warmest wishes to our Muslim community in New Zealand. Ramadan is a time for spiritual reflection, renewed devotion, perseverance, generosity, and forgiveness.  It’s a time to strengthen our bonds and appreciate the diversity ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 week ago
  • Minister appoints new NZTA Chair
    Former Transport Minister and CEO of the Auckland Business Chamber Hon Simon Bridges has been appointed as the new Board Chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) for a three-year term, Transport Minister Simeon Brown announced today. “Simon brings extensive experience and knowledge in transport policy and governance to the role. He will ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 week ago
  • Speech to Life Sciences Summit
    Good morning all, it is a pleasure to be here as Minister of Science, Innovation and Technology.  It is fantastic to see how connected and collaborative the life science and biotechnology industry is here in New Zealand. I would like to thank BioTechNZ and NZTech for the invitation to address ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 week ago
  • Progress continues apace on water storage
    Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says he is looking forward to the day when three key water projects in Northland are up and running, unlocking the full potential of land in the region. Mr Jones attended a community event at the site of the Otawere reservoir near Kerikeri on Friday. ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 week ago
  • Government agrees to restore interest deductions
    Associate Finance Minister David Seymour has today announced that the Government has agreed to restore deductibility for mortgage interest on residential investment properties. “Help is on the way for landlords and renters alike. The Government’s restoration of interest deductibility will ease pressure on rents and simplify the tax code,” says ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 week ago
  • Minister to attend World Anti-Doping Agency Symposium
    Sport and Recreation Minister Chris Bishop will travel to Switzerland today to attend an Executive Committee meeting and Symposium of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). Mr Bishop will then travel on to London where he will attend a series of meetings in his capacity as Infrastructure Minister. “New Zealanders believe ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 week ago

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