At the Anti-Corruption conference Ms Collins said a Corruption Register was being looked at in NZ where beneficial ownership etc would be recorded. Meanwhile back on planet key there is still denial of there being a problem. Is this Ms Collins putting the fix on the PM?
Finite planet, finite set of islands, there is only so much room. We passed the OK number of tourists years ago which is why we now have problems with things like so called freedom campers leaving their poo around the place. It’s yet another example of NZ thinking it can make easy money and not deal with the consequences.
In a climate change world relying on tourism is a high level of disconnect and denial. And peak oil. Av gas is a fossil fuel. Given we have over a million tourists a year I wonder how they are accounted for in our emission stats. Likewise the costs of specific areas like ski tourism and the increasing need to manufacture snow.
There are two issues in terms of cc. One is our responsibility regarding emissions. The other is what will happen to the economy when we have to transition off that income? In some cases fast.
But even without cc context, how many people do we think we can cram in without wrecking the place? Industrial Tourism has long understood the relationship between the value of what it sells and its potential to shit in its own best. Hasn’t really done anything about it though. And it mostly disregards the inherent value of places. A cap on numbers is well past due.
“In 2014 about 2.9 million international visitors flew into New Zealand and those numbers could grow to 3.75 million by 2021.”
and those are not the highest numbers I’ve seen given….
Thanks Pat! So let’s assume we want double the population, although that’s over a year not for the whole year. Really want to know now where the cc accounting is. Who takes the international flight av gas emissions for instance.
there are positives from tourism however it is not the basis of anything other than a very low wage economy and imo has a very uncertain future….fine as a small part of a bigger picture.
Is being the Sherpa of the south pacific what we aspire to? Suspect not and suspect not what most Nepalese aspire to either.
Tourism is one of the lowest impact industries around.
We are incredibly lucky to have had this boom at the same time as dairy has tanked. And it has no part in the standard FIRE economy.
The core problem is that service industry staff are still not well paid. If they were well paid there would be less of a housing crisis in Queenstown and other tourism centers.
Tourism will really work for New Zealand when our operators and hoteliers price ourselves well above the heads of cheap backpackers. We need fewer, higher-qulity tourists that pay us more.
while not disagreeing entirely with those sentiments there remains the question of sustainability in light of carbon emissions…..what future the industry ?…..I guess we can always convert the empty hotels to cheap accommodation for the homeless in the future.
The people who can afford to travel in future, will always be able to afford to travel in future. And we will remain ranked as one of the most desirable places to visit on earth.
“Tourism will really work for New Zealand when our operators and hoteliers price ourselves well above the heads of cheap backpackers. We need fewer, higher-qulity tourists that pay us more.”
It’s a nice idea, but it’s one that’s been talked about for decades and there is no sign that anyone with power is intending to do that. You’d have to regulate to force that to happen and we are so far from that in both the industry and government.
I’m also not convinced that it would work. Airlines are part of the growth economy too, and need increasing seats and increasing flights to remain viable. So how woudl fewer flights at a higher price work?
But in a slight defence, tourism is a viscously cyclic industry and totally dependant on NZD being less than $0.75 USD. Anything above that and we are too expensive . Below that and it all works, and the lower the better. Rooms occupied this summer were probably sold 12 -18 months prior when the NZD was much higher and a lot of the industry was desperate for cashflow.
The best thing that could be done for tourism sustainability would be a balanced exchange rate policy. Could be a bit of an ask with current ideologies though.
Our loading of inbound flights now only partially follows Australia’s.
We continue to shear away from being a single Australasian market.
That means they see our comparative advantages, not just our competitive advantage.
That’s because the Australian economy’s tanked. There’s no discretionary spending coming out of Australia, and they are virtually absent as a tourist market now. This winter is going to be interesting i Queenstown as it is very dependant on the Aussie market.
The Australian market is also dollar driven, if our dollar is much over $0.80 AUD it becomes hard work. The thought of NZD – AUD parity of worse is quite offensive to Aussie sensibilities.
The trend to higher-paying guest nights is going exceedingly well, without some strange price regulation. Minister Bennett rightly shot down a dumb idea this week to price foreign tourists for access to our National Parks.
Check out Auckland, Rotorua or Queenstown right now: close to 100% vacancy in every 3 stars or more place. That’s where we are headed.
We won’t be having fewer flights: they are pouring in and are projected to do so for many years to come.
Same with cruise liners. Huge growth for years to come. Fundamentally changing even musty old Dunedin’s service culture.
The cruise ship passengers spend money on a few tourist attractions. There is a bit more work for a some bus drivers and a handful of cafe workers. Otherwise, for all that it’s talked up, the thousands of cruise ship passengers don’t provide much benefit to the Dunedin economy.
I really don’t get why Queenstown isn’t full of workers’ hostels. Built by the Council if no developers are interested. Maybe the Council is stacked with landlords.
It’s a function of the short cycles tourism experiences. By the time the positive side of the cycle advances to the point there’s a problem with worker accomodation it’s too expensive / hard to provide quickly. By the time developers and social housing providers get their shit together the cycle’s gone through and there’s no need for it. Has been going on for the last 30 years at least in Queenstown.
Could be about to change with a very large rezoning / SHA in Gorge Road very close to town. This will provide high density residential development and hopefully large amounts of worker accommodation. That’s if it doesn’t turn into speculative appartments and visitor accommodation.
I was going to say isn’t it also a function of geography and class. Small amount of land, large amount of wealthy people who don’t want the plebs living nearby.
Seasonal workers too, who don’t need accommodation all year round.
I think the numbers might stack up pretty soon, the Gorge Road thing looks possible but will need leadership from business and Council.
A large workers accomodation complex was built at Arthur’s Point last cycle, but was too late in the cycle and went bust. A local operator bought it at mortgagee sale and seems to be doing quite well with it.
A lot of businesses and Govt Depts. had staff housing up till 90s when the accountants sold them off, then there were the cabins at the Camping Ground, but they went for the Convention Centre that’s gone nowhere….
Council elections coming up, lots of people pissed off about it, might become an issue if the Council doesn’t get replaced by a commissioner
Would they appoint a Commissioner over taht one issue?
It does sound like the Council building and owning the worker accommodation would be the way to go. I never understood why it was considered a good thing to sell off ‘assets’.
I’m wondering what Toddy is on about too, he may just be referring to the building consent issue, but he’s a lawyer, and normally fairly precise in what he says. There’s more than that going down as well, with the failing convention centre and resistance to rural subdivision.
“”When you’ve got a tourism sector that is booming it is also concerning that so many of the jobs are going to work permit [holders] and visitors when places like Franz Josef and quite frankly Queenstown, we need to have affordable worker accommodation so that we can build long-term base New Zealand families.”
Out of a total database of 25,000 ratepayers in Queenstown, there were 2142 ratepayers who supplied an overseas address.
“I just love reading the evidence of one of the hearings for a new subdivision, where a neighbour who was objecting to the size of sections insisted that none of the sections be less than 250,000 square metres, and went under scrutiny and said that means the properties will be over $2 million each – said ‘I’d much prefer the people pouring the coffee and changing the beds be living in Cromwell and Invercargill’.”
I really don’t get why Queenstown isn’t full of workers’ hostels. Built by the Council if no developers are interested. Maybe the Council is stacked with landlords.
What a waste of valuable commercially valuable land that would be.
“We need fewer, higher-qulity tourists that pay us more.”
Agree totally. It’s not just in the backpacker markets where the problem exists. The mainstream tour market is just as active in the high volume / low yield model. Some of the products coming from emerging markets aren’t doing much for the country, or their customers who find New Zealand considerably more expensive, and culturally foreign than they were expecting.
But the industry went into these markets several years ago when things were tighter through the GFC. Now we can’t deliver to those markets requirements, and there’s better paying options.
What tourism needs most is stability in exchange rates compared to our markets. That will deal with most of the cyclic issues.
Until more New Zealanders with a bit of capital accept that trying to throw more debt at extensive pastoral farming is a proven fool’s errand, fresh foreign capital is going to run and own our hotels for us.
We have become stupidly addicted to dairy, when there are lower-imapct and higher-income industries – such as running hotels – begging for local capital to do well.
The really smart extensive farmers are turning their farms into hotels.
The government turning us into serfs for offshore capital.
Really, the offshore rich will bring nothing to NZ. They’ll just divert our own people and resources and the government could do that easily by simply creating the money to do the same thing.
The workaround? Bring the service industry along – no need for the destination country to provide it all via temporary, crap jobs. “The natives” can gather in the Octagon (as they do), instead of making beds and waiting, to play drums and hawk their wares to cruise ship wallahs.
I suspect that that ship shouldn’t be allowed in some harbours, including Otago (which already has erosions issues with current sized ships). Good idea though, I wonder what the Dunedin equivalent would be of optimal return souvenirs 😈
(looking at that ship though, it’s hard not to think Titanic. Lovely symbolism).
An obvious inevitability once you think about it. We have 4.5 million people with not quite enough infrastructure to support them. Throw in another million + per year just passing through and there’s no way that we have enough and the capitalist system would ensure that we will never have enough as capitalism works on profit and the only way to make a profit is through scarcity.
Hence why the government needs to build and maintain infrastructure and to cut out the ticket clippers.
Then, of course, there’s the real limited resources we have. limited people to serve all these tourists, limited resources to build the infrastructure etc, etc. Moving our limited resources into one particular industry or another prevents us from developing and diversifying our economy which then causes our society to stagnate.
And of course – if for some reason, tourism has a bad year or two – there goes our fragile economy again ……. down, down, down. The extreme foolishness of our government in thinking that we can be propped up by just one or two main industries is frightening. Like Draco says this prevents our economy from diversifying and allows us to continue to stagnate ….. balancing between dairying on the one hand, and tourism on the other. Just Nuts !
‘capitalism works on profit and the only way to make a profit is through scarcity.’
So Apple, Microsoft and Samsung are the worlds most profitable companies because of the scarcity of mobile phones, computers and appliances?
ExxonMobil’s profitability is due to a scarcity of oil, Walmarts to a shortage of general consumer goods, MacDonalds to a dearth of hamburgers, Toyoto and VW’s because of the horrendous wait list for cars?
You do spout some utterly unmitigated drivel at times Draco.
Rare items are expensive. Unique items often fetch astronomical prices. How many phones do Samsung et al make in each production cycle? Is it more or less than the demand for them?
You’re acquainted with the terms “supply” and “demand” I take it.
You haven’t proven me wrong at all. In fact, all you’ve done is spouted drivel hoping that people would be confused by your BS and not call you on it – either that or you’re so stupid as to believe what you’re saying.
If we had infinite competition along with a few other unrealistic assumptions that the neo-liberals make there would be no profit (well to be more precise, profit would be infinitesimal). It is increasing competition that lowers profit but to have increased competition you need increased supply as well.
It is this fear of increased competition that drives mega corporations to merge and consolidate.
In the specific examples you quoted, Samsung et al make a range of products. Their luxury items are limited edition and expensive. Same with cars, and even crude oil refineries have their high and low-end products.
It’s the same in any industry. Quality – especially bespoke – is expensive.
Take potatoes. If they grew like weeds there’d be no money in them, but when you order them at Cabinet Club – oh my! And that’s before you even pay for the table and the Minister’s drinks.
Draco sorry what you are saying is unmitigated drivel Firms merge or Aquire for many reasons, be it to break into new markets, products, geography, consolidation synergies, gain ip. Scope synergies etc. You also have a very simplified version of the firm and economics Some firms simply trade on price and cost others have different advantages, likewise firms come and go via disruptive technology etc, Market and capitalism is not static unlike your fixed world Marxist view, yes in some markets increase competion drives down price as supply increases, likewise scarcity drives up prices as more demand is chasing less supply, However the power of capitalism is its ability to shift the demand and supply curve with new products and services, disruptive technologies, thus fortunately our world is not a static demand and supply curve that you seem to pine for.
Firms merge or Aquire for many reasons, be it to break into new markets, products, geography, consolidation synergies, gain ip. Scope synergies etc.
That’s what they tell us. Afterwards there’s still less competition than before which, amazingly enough, is what that drivel you spouted actually means.
Don’t need to merge to break into new markets. Just some advertising.
Two companies that produce identical products merge and the end result is less range in those products.
Geography? So, two companies that are competing merge to increase their land mass?
And consolidation synergies, gain ip is nothing but pure reduction in competition.
However the power of capitalism is its ability to shift the demand and supply curve with new products and services, disruptive technologies
That’s not the power of capitalism but the power of people working together. Capitalism just exploits that willingness of people to be creative so as to enrich the psychopaths.
My view of the world isn’t static. It’s the capitalists that want to keep things the way they are that are static – and it’s killing us.
As per Chris trotter your rhetoric is inversely proportionate to the facts you present, what a load of rubbish you spew, I can only but surmise the you have failed in your career or business personally and you seek to externalise your failure on some warped views
Or maybe you are a self-congratulatory bullcrapper who thinks himself a success through profit-gouging thanks to a basically unfair system that you think it clever to exploit. I see no sense of social responsibility in the comments you so often make. I think your critical attitude might be inversely proportionate to your awareness of what your corrupt system is doing to the poor. You’re OK, aren’t you Jack?
Just heard on the seven o’clock news: some business spokesman said workers should be happy that CEO’s salaries rose 12% ($180,000) last year while workers got only 3% ($800) because that shows the businesses are making money.
I agree with TV and TC views except I appreciate that the holders of my meager savings are making a good profit as it suggests my nest eggs, split around three banks, are safer than if I were in America and their system etc.
If executives are to get these high incomes then that means they are in a better position to share the burden of paying for our society as opposed to lower workers who have a negative effect and are the ones needing help to raise them and their families to a positive balance. That was one of the points which I took on board as an early ACT supporter [ which I am no longer as they moved to the right, but that is another story.]
You may want to revise your position, based on what you can learn from Bill Black. Professor Black was involved in prosecution of banks during the savings and loan crisis in the US. During this process a general scheme was identified where the bank started operating an accounting control fraud strategy,
* The frauds would grow rapidly
* The frauds would all report record profits.
* This would make the CEO’s wealthy through modern executive compensation
* The frauds would employ extreme leverage (which is how they achieved rapid growth)
* The frauds would set aside insufficient allowances for the inevitable losses.
* The eventual losses overtaking insufficient allowances would eventually cause the fraud to collapse (which caused failure and massive losses to the shareholders).
Since its shareholders on the hook there you should probably not naively take it that profits indicate the general health of the firm. For example Dick Smiths reported record profits just quite recently, which cost shareholders quite a lot of money recently.
reply to Tony Veitch (3.0)
The person who said that workers should be glad their CEOs got 12% extra pay while they got only 3% because it shows the business is doing well, is a spokesperson for the right wing ‘think tank’ the ‘New Zealand Initiative’….enough said …. best to ignore.
Don’t tear you panties tony I can assure you most ceo have not got anything like 12pc pay rises , these are a selected few of listed companies, the great unwashed of CEOs, privately owned companies etc I would suggest have got less than 3pc yoy
No more evidence than tony simply holding a stupid comment by a journalist as fact for all CEOs, by the what the hell had the Pm got to with this topic, your infatuation with Jk is unhealthy. If you respond please in plain English not some cryptic spaced out on acid response 😀
I’m sure the moderators have some reason for letting you stay around…perhaps they hope you’ll actually add something one day apart from trolling sniping abuse.
Tony Veitch (not the partner-bashing 3rd rate broadcaster) 3.5.2
Reported on the radio – the average CEO rise was 12% or $180,000. This relates to the obscene CEO salaries reported in the Herald, and perhaps not to all CEO. But, more to the point, the average wage rise was 3.2% – well short of the rise for CEOs.
And that is cause for celebration? Un-f****** believable!
Yes dear, yawn and any other contrite response that conveys I don’t really care what that little angry voice in your head compels you to spew forth. Likewise I don’t take it personally should in a period of solace you reflect on your crudeness😀
Watkin’s article repeated in the Press with a super flattering photo of Shipley and an unflattering photo of Clark. Read a little way getting to the ‘Helengrad’ and Nanny state’ comments before the bias got to me.
Don’t think Watkins mentioned the Nat’s ‘Ditch The Bitch’ posters campaign though.
Barring your KDS , what do you disagree with in the article All I can assume is that you don’t like the truth, Watkins clearly articulates why jk and national have been successful, What’s the issue ?
A well written, readable article on TPP
“Malcolm Eves: TPP’s cloak and dagger clauses”
The National Party, particularly John Key, are fudging facts in their determination to pass this deal into law even while the TPPA and its sister Atlantic agreement, the TTIP, are coming under heavy fire both in the US and in Europe itself as politicians realise that the Investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) clauses in these agreements sabotage country sovereignty.
Public Citizen Pre-emptively Questions Imminent USITC Report On TPP Impacts”
“The divergence between the USITC’s rosy projections and trade pacts’ negative outcomes has not been a fluke.”
Perhaps the Nacts want to retain the tax haven status so that multi national companies can channel “profits” through here and use our TPPA status to sue other nations?
Just another reason why the entire monetary system needs to be government owned. Get rid of these huge taxes that the private companies put on everything.
There was a conference of public sector lawyers in Nelson this week with a very good speaker on precisely this point.
I’m a sufficient sceptic about driverless cars, and I’m still waiting for my 1950s jet pack, but the core point of a speaker at the conference was the challenge faced by Deep Blue beating Gary Kasparov for a world title chess match.
You can break a lot of regulator decisions into millions of variants, and enable the weighting of factors. This might deal to some minor decisions, e.g. parking enforcement.
You could conceivably break down others like conveyancing with further automation of legal templates.
But ask a really good chess player to describe what mass makes them really good, and it’s hard to explain. It requires multi-dimensional rational thinking, slippery thinking, empathic and oppositional calculations, and the ability to concede different points while retaining the drive for the singular purpose through sacrifice.
Deep Blue said that computers can do slippery judgements. They can draft multiple causalities and counterfactuals, even as facts change. That will be a challenge to the existence of lawyers.
Most of what the video is about is the social issues and how the promotion of driverless cars is coming from companies that want those drivers to be freed up to buy more shit. He’s also talking about how systems are being designed around making money not around making systems more efficient or better for the environment. Seems a legitimate critique to me. Plus his day job is in tech working on why things don’t work, so he has a background in that kind of analysis.
“Know how the astronomers see through dust clouds light years thick? Infra-red. Works on dust and snow in the atmosphere as well.”
So you think that we’re going to start equipping cars with liquid nitrogen cooled thermal sensors, like they have on military grade hardware and infra red seeking warheads?
Sorry mate, that you’ve just had another one of your foolish and impractical high tech dreams smashed, but the Jetsons future ain’t gonna be happening.
So he says and yet he didn’t know something that anyone working in tech would know.
You can be an arrogant sonofabitch at times you know.
Bet you didn’t even know that you need specialised coolants for the kind of advanced thermal imaging you referred to, to work.
None of the infrared cameras I’ve ever used has needed specialised cooling. They’ve just been open the case, turn them on, and you’re ready to go. And they can measure down to -40 C.
Sure, if you’re looking for the cosmic microwave background, your detector needs fancy cooling. But not for the temperature ranges a self-driving car needs to look at.
As far as I can make out, the biggest programming challenges of self-driving cars are due to having to share the road space with unpredictable and uncommunicative humans. When they get sorted, the benefits will be real.
Yeah, I did watch the vid. I was pretty underwhelmed to be honest. My view of it is pretty close to DTBs. Although I agree replacing human drivers in all the wide variety of conditions we operate in is a bit further than just a few years away.
But it will happen. Because when the systems get sorted out properly once, they can be immediately and cheaply replicated. And machine control, once properly tuned, works better than human control. Because it can detect more inputs and react a lot faster over many more outputs. For instance, I was deeply skeptical of traction control and hill descent control for four-wheel drives. Until I experienced them, and realised it all did a much better job than I could have.
My experience of human-machine interactions is the human side of it is much much harder. With a human in the loop, you have to figure out how they might incorrectly react to the inputs they are given. It’s much harder than actually programming the control system.
Often I think the most important safety equipment when it comes to complex machinery is the operator’s bum. To be used to hold the operator’s hands firmly pressed onto the chair.
The guy is saying that they’re not actually planning to take those things into account.
The guy who obviously doesn’t know WTF he’s talking about?
Now, I don’t think driverless cars are a practical solution to anything simply because cars aren’t a solution – they’re the problem and making them electric won’t actually change that.
But driverless buses, trucks and trains? Now that’s a different story.
You might find this site interesting, it’s a NZ website run by by a chap called Shane Ohlin, he’s an expert on driverless technology https://nz.linkedin.com/in/shaneohlin
Not sure, from what I understand it seems to be google that’s the only one pushing the fully driver less vehicle concept,, the other car companies are doing a vehicle with the capacity to self drive.
I reckon what you’ll see is certain roads tagged as being where you can operate a car in driver less mode and once people get used it it they’ll become driver less only.
The military has had huge interest in being able to send unmanned vehicles into unmapped or poorly mapped areas, relying solely on onboard sensors and GPS.
Good job I didn’t do that then eh? He makes a couple of good points generally about the failure of capitalism (and he doesn’t even realise that) but the rest is BS and his conclusions are all wrong.
they’re not impossible, they’ll just never happen for the 95%.
” I’ve been working in tech since the 1980s.”
How much experience do you have in dynamic real time processing?
If you havent had experience with the failings of the latest vehicle driver aids available in 2016, how can you be so confident of what can be achieved in the next 10 years?
Sit down children, and hear here a scary Tory-story about the Greens being attacked by insects leaving great big holes in them. That will teach them for trying to be organic!
Sarah Kendzior on why none of the US candidates are anti-establishment but voters are still looking for it. Plus some interesting explanation about how the running of the US cane to serve private interests after WW2.
“Bernie voters are not with her: These exit polls should rattle the Clinton campaign
Hillary has shown little to no interest in courting Sanders supporters. It could end up costing her the presidency”
extract..
“This doesn’t look like it will end well—especially if Trump is seen as the agent of change in 2016, and Clinton, for all of her proposed pragmatic steps forward, is seen as barely budging the status quo.”
My thoughts are that Trump’s ideas of pulling the troops home, getting rid of corruption and getting out of trade agreements that cost American’s jobs seems to be a more popular public message than Hillary’s, keeping the status quo with a bit of tinkering, fighting wars and supporting wall ST and looking after big business before Americans.
My thoughts are that Trump’s ideas of pulling the troops home, getting rid of corruption and getting out of trade agreements that cost American’s jobs seems to be a more popular public message than Hillary’s, keeping the status quo with a bit of tinkering, fighting wars and supporting wall ST and looking after big business before Americans.
It will be interesting to see what happens if trump becomes POTUS. Will he actually be able to get congress and the senate to back his promises or will he become another lame duck?
If he becomes a lame duck will he then go to the people to try and force congress/senate to back his ideas?
If that fails will the US citizenry finally wake up to the fact that the rich have stolen their nation from them?
The US system is intended to have checks and balances, precisely so that one branch of govt does not have excessive power. So if President Trump (hopefully won’t happen) was checked by Congress that is what the system is designed to do. So not “the rich have stolen the nation” rather it would be an intended constitutional outcome.
Draco,
The point of my comment was about the checks and balances in the US constitution, which was surely apparent. Nothing to do with a rich/poor conflict.
Although clearly the US is set up on the basis of a competitive market economy and private property (which has constitutional protection, subject to eminent domain)
There may be 147 companies in the world that own everything, as colleague Bruce Upbin points out and they are dominated by investment companies as Eric Savitz rightly points out. But it’s not you and I who really control those companies, even though much of our money is in them. Given the nature of how money is invested, there are four companies in the shadows that really control those companies that own everything.
And he’s being excessively generous, to the point of lying, in proclaiming how much the average person owns.
In “Profound Loss for Maine’s Citizens,” Court OKs Sale of Town’s Water to Nestle”
Decision “paves the way for a private corporation to profit from a vital public resource for decades to come.”
“Water is a basic right,” she added. “No private company should be allowed to rake in profits from water while leaving a local community high and dry. As we’ve seen in communities around the country, selling off Fryeburg’s water will do nothing to help the town’s residents.
Yes – we’ve been warned. And its happening here already. Local hapu are struggling to fight against corporates wanting to make use of the Poroti Springs nor-west of Whangarei.
Its a never-ending battle for them – and I question the morality, the ethics, (and even the racism) that allows a regional council to favour the multi-corporate against the local indigenous people – let alone the local Pakeha who don’t have much say in it anyway.
Have any of you seen the video on the YouTube channel The Young Turks about what went down recently in Brazil?
The video title explains what has really happened in that country.
“Brazillian Impeachment Is Actually A Corporate Coup” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZ2cOLXByq8
All I can say is RIP Brazilian democracy as it looks like the 1% have taken over in that country and are going to start enforcing austerity measures to extract every last dollar they can at the expense of its population.
For those who feel we have far too many Opinion Polls shaping and distorting political discourse … you may well be getting your wish …
Clear fall in the number of Polls conducted during the first 4 months of each year:
(Years in Bold = Middle Term Years comparable to 2016)
Total Polls Jan-April 2016.. 6
2015.. 8
2014.. 14 2013.. 14
2012.. 12
2011.. 12 2010.. 12
Partly a consequence of Roy Morgan halving the number they carry out on an annual basis, but also a result of Reid Research, Fairfax-Ipsos and Herald-Digi failing to conduct any polls so far this year (it seems Herald-DigiPoll is no longer in operation). These latter 3 usually carry out 1 or 2 polls each over the first 4 months of each year.
Strangely enough, 3 News / Newshub Reid Research did carry out a poll on the Flag Referendum in February … and provided breakdowns by Party Support. Which makes me wonder if it was also a political poll but for some reason they’ve decided not to release it. Particularly odd given that for at least the last 12 years Reid Research has always released a poll in either January or February.
Sky news Aussie election leaders forum last night saw Bill Shorten come out a clear winner by actually engaging with the questioner and offering genuine answers. Turnbull wheeled out his talking point around ‘ jobs and growth’ in a wooden ,scripted performance.
Interesting parallels with NZ, the union leader vs the wealthy merchant banker….
I agree he will have to overcome the C/T ‘angry Andy’ stuff . However I think Shorten is showing him the way in which he is seen engaging genuinely with ordinary voters. Especially Given the Teflon is well and truely wearing off Key.
The point I was ham-fistedly trying to make is I wonder if voters are starting to get wary of the highly scripted talking points rhetoric. What I had seen of Shorten previously was a rather unimpressive character who delivered dry monologues and was most famous for backstabbing two prime ministers. However since the campaign started and you get to see him engaging with the actual voters (remember them!) he seems to be going from strength to strength. Turnbull on the other hand looks frightened witless at the prospect of meeting an actual voter and his default position is to utter some inane spiel like “we’re backing business” to the startled peasants.
For mine Little is coming across far too defensive and earnest and he needs to start demonstrating he can connect with the actual punters.
I tend to agree however the Labour Party bedrock of support in oz is much stronger than nz, they never had a Douglas era etc. My belief is that the wider public view of the left competency here is low, thus a lot more is required than simply labour talking to the people or we have had enough of national or John key for change to occur. winstton peters could change that but I don’t characterise winston as left. Likewise if polls closer to election threaten a 3 headed dragon government this just pushes people to the stability of a national led government, polls in between are sort of meaningless as this threat does not exist
I think it is good to have that in the armoury but if that’s all you’ve got then it wears thin.
The difference in the US is that they are hugely pissed off. In NZ large swaths of middle NZ are sitting on their inflated capital gains with low interest rates in a relatively benign employment environment and simply are not seeing the damage Key has done. I think that is changing as more and more realise that there is some massive structural and social imbalances building that cannot be swept under the mat much longer.
Major Trade Associations Urge TPP Countries To Accept U.S. Demands For Fixes
With a vote on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) in doubt this year, six trade associations belonging to the U.S. Business Coalition for TPP this month urged ambassadors of participating countries to quickly resolve outstanding issues identified by business groups and members of Congress.
be related to this?
NZ MP Accuses USTR Of Pressuring Government On Biologics After Deal Signed; TPP Debate Begins In Parliament https://wtonewsstand.com/
*Matthew Hooton is a political commentator from the right. He discusses politics on Nine to Noon with Kathryn Ryan every Monday, alongside former Labour Party president Mike Williams.
Disclosure: Matthew Hooton’s public relations and lobbying firm, Exceltium, has clients in the legal services industry offering trust services to domestic and international clients. These views are his own.
Interesting disclosure. How about disclosing the ways that Hooton featured in Dirty Politics?
A London receptionist was sent home from work after refusing to wear high heels, it has emerged.
Temp worker Nicola Thorp, 27, from Hackney, arrived at finance company PwC to be told she had to wear shoes with a “2in to 4in heel”.
When she refused and complained male colleagues were not asked to do the same, she was sent home without pay.
Ms Thorp said she asked if a man would be expected to do the same shift in heels, and was laughed at.
Which is ridiculous, sexist and downright inhumane.
“Obviously this is nothing new. Beyonce often uses high heels as a way of describing an empowered modern woman in control of both her life and her finances.
But now an Australian shoe company is asking why that opportunity should be limited to only women, and have launched a collection of high heels for men. This month Solestruck launched Syro, a brand aiming to break “the oppression of male femininity [that] still continues to shame, exile and attack the freedom of self-expression”. It’s built on a community of men who want to embrace their feminine side without judgment, men who contacted Solestruck time and again asking for high heels in their sizes.””
A Greenpeace investigation shows that a prominent American fisheries scientist took millions of dollars in funding from fishing industry groups without publicly disclosing it.
Yeah, the carbon footprint of aviation is roughly the same as the carbon footprint of this interwebby thingy we’re all using to get into arguments with strangers. Roughly similar to shipping, too, coincidentally. On a worldwide basis.
While I see easy routes to changing almost all land-based energy use to renewable electric, I don’t see anything replacing liquid fuels for long-haul aviation. But biofuels could easily step in.
For shipping, biofuels are also possible, or if not due to cost, nuclear. Sometime very soon, fossil fuels will have to become too expensive to use for shipping to avoid cooking the planet, If biofuels can’t be produced in sufficient quantity, do you really think the entire world will give up the benefits of fast reliable shipping and accept the slow unreliability of wind power, or will the majority shout down the hard-core greenies and accept nuclear powered shipping (as used in many military vessels)?
“the carbon footprint of aviation is roughly the same as the carbon footprint of this interwebby thingy we’re all using to get into arguments with strangers. Roughly similar to shipping, too, coincidentally. On a worldwide basis.”
From the context of the articles I’ve seen the comparisons in, I’m pretty sure it’s the total footprint, including the embodied energy of equipment and infrastructure. But the fuel is by far the biggest component.
And it’s only very roughly a “similar size” footprint for the internet, aviation, and shipping. Without going into all kinds of finer details such as sulphur and particle emissions, cloud generation etc.
So you are saying that the air travel uses as much fuel as all the worlds shipping…… eeeeeck
Sure large fast tourist catamarans wont replace air travel , but they would be waay cool and would support a truely sustainable new zealand experience that many would appreciate.
Nb by large i mean equivelent size of a modern cruise ship . Speed of a sailing vessel is largly determined by size
ANALYSIS: The government’s overhaul of the school and early childhood funding systems is still under development, but this week a few clues emerged as to where things are heading. ….
Deciles demolished…..
Performance-based funding?
The terms of reference say the review will shift the funding system so it is focused on children’s learning progress and achievement.
That could be read to mean performance funding, where schools get more money if their students’ results are good.
If that’s the case, teacher unions and principals’ groups will not be happy.
They will argue that their members are being held accountable for children who are failing because of socio-economic factors that are beyond their control.
No one knows just what the best teacher is.
Performance pay on child progress is fraught. It would cause schools and/or teachers to avoid the difficult learners.
It would encourage the bending of results.
Worst of all would be the development of teacher secretiveness. Only some will get performance pay so each teacher would guard the secrets. The great strength of NZ teachers has been, until the last few years, to collaborate and innovate. Now it will be “play it safe and make it look good.” Tough luck for special needs of the gifted and those of those who have disabilities.
And parents will be encourage to flight from schools that are failing. Teachers would gravitate away from the schools with poorer kids and go for the schools with rich kids who will be easier to teach.
I like to watch Rural Delivery on Saturday mornings. One very concerning item this morning (14th May) a major Bio Security leak. Somehow a Willow Aphid has got into the country and is invading a large numbers of the Willow Trees
This Aphid’s only predator is the ladybird and as the Willow Tree grower said, the population of these aphids has exploded, and the numbers are too great for the lady birds to cope with. These aphids are non sexual and can produce 10 other Aphids each per day
Big problems, they can kill the Willow, secreat a honeydew which attracts wasps.
The wasp population in these areas has exploded and it is now a major threat along with other threats to the Bee Industry. The Willow grower said he could not get near his plantation this summer with the number of wasps. The increase in the wasp population is a major concern to Apiarists. One bee keeper said he had lost several hives through wasp attacks
It is said that this Aphid breeched the Bio Security in 2013.
Funny that I thought as I remember in 2012 a certain National Party member – a one David Carter REDUCED the number of Bio Security staff claiming it would not have any effect on Bio security.
In addition to our lakes and waterways being polluted by excessive cows piss, we now have another situation AGAIN caused by this incompetent pack of clowns who could not organise a piss up in a brewery. Trying to save a few dollars wage wise they have put at severe risk the Willow Growers who are essential for river bank and hill stabilisation and the bee industry with the potential of losing millions of dollars to these industries, and is going to cost millions to fix. If it can ever be fixed.
As I said earlier, what a pack of fucking useless clowns who could not organise a piss up in a brewery.
Thanks Halfcrown, that’s very interesting. I’ve been wondering about wtf is going on too, after the introduction of velvetleaf, which looks to have been entirely preventable.
Funny that I thought as I remember in 2012 a certain National Party member – a one David Carter REDUCED the number of Bio Security staff claiming it would not have any effect on Bio security.
National always go round reducing critical government services claiming that it will have no effect and then fudging or outright hiding the numbers that prove that they absolute worst possible thing.
Trying to save a few dollars wage wise they have put at severe risk the Willow Growers who are essential for river bank and hill stabilisation and the bee industry with the potential of losing millions of dollars to these industries, and is going to cost millions to fix. If it can ever be fixed.
Nature will fix it – in about a thousand years. We probably won’t like the short term (anything less than 1000 years) results though.
I sometimes wonder Chooky and I have not looked it up, what has happened to our once very successful Queen & Bumble Bee export market now we have the Varroa mite fiasco and its devastation on NZ bees.
Draco said
“What was used to stabilise hills and river banks before the poplar and willow trees were imported?
Native bush Draco
Regeneration of the native bush would fix it, and it would not be hard to do. But that wont happen will it. Can’t grow natives on vulnerable hillsides that will slip and silt up the nearest river when you need it for more fucking cows and there is a dollar to be made. No dollars (they think) in regenerating the bush on vulnerable land, sooner plant Willows
As two people who’s opinions I respect said
Steve Keen economist. They don’t teach history and therefore learn from history, .that is why they still make the same mistakes thinking it is going to work. No wonder the world is in such a mess.
Glenda Jackson actress The Neo retards (my words) know the price of everything but the value of nothing.
Going slightly off topic, I would add though there are quite a few farmers who are very conscious of their responsibilities to future generations and to the country and have area’s on their property that they have let return to bush.
They don’t teach history and therefore learn from history, .
If we don’t learn from history then we’re doomed to repeat it. History is littered with the corpses of civilisations destroyed by the rich. The lesson we need to learn is to get rid of the rich before they destroy us.
“When plunder becomes a way of life for a group of men in a society, over the course of time they create for themselves a legal system that authorizes it and a moral code that glorifies it.”
Seems to sum up what has become of our society. It’s been taken over by the criminals.
“Tory infighting has escalated this week with increasingly bitter ‘blue on blue’ attacks in the debate on whether Britain should vote to leave the EU in just six weeks’ time.
Despite Prime Minister David Cameron urging his party not to tear itself apart, recent exchanges show the referendum campaign is causing a split among senior members of the Conservative Party.
Whatever the outcome of the referendum on June 23, it seems Cameron will have to consider some delicate party reshuffling to keep a grip on power…
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
TL;DR: In today’s ‘six-stack’ of substacks at 6.06pm on Tuesday, March 19:Kāinga Ora’s dry rot The Spinoff DailyBill McKibben on ‘Climate Superfunds’ making Big Oil pay for climate damage The Crucial YearsPreston Mui on returning to 1980s-style productivity growth NoahpinionAndy Boenau on NIMBYs needing unusual bedfellows Urbanism SpeakeasyNed Resnikoff's case ...
Negative yesterday, negative today. Negative all year, according to one departing reader telling me I’ve grown strident and predictable. Fair enough. If it’s any help, every time I go to write about a certain topic that begins with C and ends with arrrrs, I do brace myself and ask: Again? Are ...
Bryce Edwards writes – It’s been a tumultuous time in politics in recent months, as the new National-led Government has driven through its “First 100 Day programme”. During this period there’s been a handful of opinion polls, which overall just show a minimal amount of flux in public support ...
Inspirational: The Family of Man is a glorious hymn to human equality, but, more than that, it is a clarion call to human freedom. Because equality, unleavened by liberty, is a broken piano, an unstrung harp; upon which the songs of fraternity will never be played.“Somebody must have been telling lies about ...
Tax Lawyer Barbara Edmonds vs Emperor Justinian I- Nolo Contendere: False historical explanations of pivotal events are very far from being inconsequential.WHEN BARBARA EDMONDS made reference to the Roman Empire, my ears pricked up. It is, lamentably, very rare to hear a politician admit to any kind of familiarity ...
It’s been a tumultuous time in politics in recent months, as the new National-led Government has driven through its “First 100 Day programme”. During this period there’s been a handful of opinion polls, which overall just show a minimal amount of flux in public support for the various parties in ...
Buzz from the Beehive Housing Minister Chris Bishop delivered news – packed with the ingredients to enflame political passions – worthy of supplanting Winston Peters in headline writers’ priorities. He popped up at the post-Cabinet press conference to promise a crackdown on unruly and antisocial state housing tenants. His ...
Ele Ludemann writes – The Reserve Bank is advertising for a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion advisor. The Bank has one mandate – to keep inflation between one and three percent. It has failed in that and is only slowly getting inflation back down to the upper limit. Will it ...
Last week former National Party leader Simon Bridges was appointed by the Government as the new chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA). You can read about the appointment in Thomas Coughlan’s article, Simon Bridges to become chair of NZ Transport Agency Waka KotahiThe fact that a ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Last week former National Party leader Simon Bridges was appointed by the Government as the new chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA). You can read about the appointment in Thomas Coughlan’s article, Simon Bridges to become chair of NZ Transport Agency ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: Gavin Jacobson talks to Thomas Piketty 10 years on from Capital in the 21st CenturyThe SalvoLocal scoop: Green MP’s business being investigated over migrant exploitation claims StuffSteve KilgallonLocal deep-dive: The commercial contractors making money from School ...
It’s a home - but Kāinga Ora tenants accused of “abusing the privilege” may lose it. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The Government announced a crackdown on Kāinga Ora tenants who were unruly and/or behind on their rent, with Housing Minister Chris Bishop saying a place in a state ...
This is a guest post by Connor Sharp of Surface Light Rail Light rail in Auckland: A way forward sooner than you think With the coup de grâce of Auckland Light Rail (ALR) earlier this year, and the shift of the government’s priorities to roads, roads, and more roads, it ...
Note: As a paid-up Webworm member, I’ve recorded this Webworm as a mini-podcast for you as well. Some of you said you liked this option - so I aim to provide it when I get a chance to record! Read more ...
TL;DR: In my ‘six-stack’ of substacks at 6.06pm on Monday, March 18:IKEA is accused of planting big forests in New Zealand to green-wash; REDD-MonitorA City for People takes a well-deserved victory lap over Wellington’s pro-YIMBY District Plan votes; A City for PeopleSteven Anastasiou takes a close look at the sticky ...
Buzz from the Beehive Here’s hoping for a lively post-cabinet press conference when the PM and – perhaps – some of his ministers tell us what was discussed at their meeting today. Until then, Point of Order has precious little Beehive news to report after its latest monitoring of the ...
David Farrar writes – We now have almost all 2023 data in, which has allowed me to update my annual table of how labour went against its promises. This is basically their final report card. The promiseThe result Build 100,000 affordable homes over 10 ...
I’m a bit worried that I’ve started a previous newsletter with the words “just when you think they couldn’t get any worse…” Seems lately that I could begin pretty much every issue with that opening. Such is the nature of our coalition government that they seem to be outdoing each ...
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. ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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; ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
“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 ...
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, ...
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, ...
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, ...
.“$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 ...
“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. ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 HeraldThomas CoughlanSimeon Brown has rejected a plea from Westport ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 → ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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. ...
Buzz from the BeehiveThe 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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
Questions need to be asked on both sides of the worldPeter 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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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, ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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, ...
The Government has accepted Labour’s change to the Road User Charge (RUC) discount for hybrid vehicles, meaning there will still be some incentive for people to buy greener vehicles. ...
Kicking the most vulnerable people out of state housing and pushing them towards homelessness will result in a proliferation of poverty and trauma across our most vulnerable communities. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader and MP for Waiariki, Rawiri Waititi has penned a letter asking MPs to support his members bill to remove GST from all food. The bill is expected to go through its first reading in parliament this Wednesday. “I’m calling on all political parties to support my ...
This year is about getting real with Kiwis and discussing the tough issues, as the National Government exacerbates inequality and divides New Zealand, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said ...
The Government adding Significant Natural Areas (SNAs) to its already roaring environmental policy bonfire is an assault on the future of wildlife that makes Aotearoa unique. ...
After 12 years of fighting to protect our moana we are finding ourselves back at square one and back at court. Today, the Environmental Protection Agency is sitting in Hawera to reconsider an application from Trans-Tasman Resources to dig up 50 million tonnes of the seabed in South Taranaki. This ...
Minister Shane Jones’ decision to step away from a seabed mining project is evidence of the murky waters surrounding the Government’s fast-track 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 publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
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 publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The Coalition Government’s miscalculation saga continues as it has forgotten an eyewatering $90 million gap in its interest deductibility cost figures, say Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds and Revenue Spokesperson Deborah Russell. ...
He Pou a Rangi Climate Change Commission has today released advice that says if the Government doesn’t act now New Zealand is at risk of not meeting its climate goals. ...
The Coalition Government has today confirmed it is abandoning first home buyers who are struggling to get ahead, says Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds. ...
The New Zealand public voted for a change in direction at the 2023 general election and that is exactly what this coalition government has been delivering in its first 100 days. There was an immediate focus on the economy, easing the cost of living, cracking down on law and order ...
The Government has left the health system as an afterthought, announcing half-baked targets at the last minute of their 100-day plan, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
Kiwis are still waiting for their promised cost of living support after 100 days of a National Government that is taking us backwards, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The National Government has spent its first 100 days stopping, cutting and reversing. They have scrapped stuff for stuff for the sake of it, without putting up any solutions of their own – and it’s hardworking New Zealanders who will pay for it. ...
100 days of National taking NZ backwardsThe National Government has spent its first 100 days stopping, cutting and reversing. They have scrapped stuff for stuff for the sake of it, without putting up any solutions of their own – and it’s hardworking New Zealanders who will pay for it. ...
The Government must commit to funding free and healthy school lunches, as thousands of people sign the petition to keep them, education spokesperson Jan Tinetti says. ...
If the Government was serious about moving families into public housing, they would build more houses so there is actually somewhere for people to go. ...
The free and healthy school lunches programme feeds our kids, helps them to learn, and saves families money – but it is at risk under this Government, education spokesperson Jan Tinetti said. ...
The Government’s proposed changes to Firearms Prohibition Orders (FPO) add almost nothing new and are merely an attempt to distract from its plans to loosen gun laws, police spokesperson Ginny Andersen and justice spokesperson Dr Duncan Webb said. ...
The great Victorian era English politician Lord Macauley stood in the British House of Parliament and said, "The gallery in which the reporters sit has become a fourth estate of the realm".He understood and outlined even way back then, the significant role and influence media have in a democracy. ...
The government’s attack on Māori health this week is committing tangata-whenua to a premature death, says Te Pāti Māori. “The government have begun their onslaught on Māori health with the abolishment of the Māori Health Authority and smokefree laws in the same day” said health spokesperson and co-leader, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. ...
"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 ...
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 ...
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. ...
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 ...
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, ...
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. ...
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 ...
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 ...
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, ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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, ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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,” ...
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. ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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. ...
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 ...
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 ...
Pacific Media Watch Ismail al-Ghoul, an Al Jazeera Arabic correspondent who was held for 12 hours at Gaza’s al-Shifa hospital, says Israeli forces rounded up Palestinian journalists at the facility and made them kneel on the ground for hours, while naked and blindfolded. “The occupation forces handcuffed and blindfolded us ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tony Wood, Program Director, Energy, Grattan Institute chinasong, Shutterstock Electricity customers in four Australian states can breathe a sigh of relief. After two years in a row of 20% price increases, power prices have finally stabilised. In many places they’re ...
Chumbawamba have reportedly issued the deputy PM a cease-and-desist notice after he used their song 'Tubthumping' before his state of the nation speech. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Deborah Lupton, SHARP Professor, Vitalities Lab, Centre for Social Research in Health and Social Policy Centre, and the ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society, UNSW Sydney kitzcorner/Shutterstock The assertion from Queensland’s chief health officer John Gerrard that ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Martin, Visiting Fellow, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University Shutterstock Why are musicians so keen to get played on the radio? It can’t be because of the money. In Australia they are paid at rates so low they ...
"Farmers make a point not to tell our urban cousins how to live, yet Chlöe from central Auckland is hell-bent on having her say about farmers," says ACT Rural Communities spokesman Mark Cameron. “On her first day in the House as Green ...
Analysis by Dr Bryce Edwards – Democracy Project (https://democracyproject.nz)Political scientist, Dr Bryce Edwards. It’s been a tumultuous time in politics in recent months, as the new National-led Government has driven through its “First 100 Day programme”. During this period there’s been a handful of opinion polls, which overall just ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tim Curran, Associate Professor of Ecology, Lincoln University, New Zealand Getty Images/Gerald Corsi In the latest move to reform environmental laws in New Zealand, the coalition government has introduced a bill to fast-track consenting processes for projects deemed to ...
Uber has argued it does not have as much control over drivers as the unions suggest, and wants a judgment ruling that drivers are employees and not contractors set aside and sent back to the Employment Court. The 2022 ruling followed a three-week hearing in which four drivers sought to ...
What can and can’t be purchased by disabled people or their carers has been slashed in an effort by the Ministry of Disabled People Whaikaha to save money. The purchasing guidelines, a set of rules that sets out what can be purchased using the various streams of Government disability funding, ...
The Treasury has published today a new Analytical Note by Tod Wright and Hien Nguyen, Fiscal incidence in New Zealand: The effects of taxes and benefits on household incomes in tax year 2018/19 . Analyses of the distributional impact of taxation and government ...
The Treasury has published today a new Analytical Note by Cory Davis, Boston Hart and Benjamin Stubbing, Household cost-of-living impacts from the Emissions Trading Scheme and using transfers to mitigate regressive outcomes . This Analytical Note ...
A coalition of public transport and climate organisations, united as ‘Transport for All’, is actively opposing the government’s transport proposals. The draft Government Policy Statement (GPS) includes plans for higher fares for public transport, ...
Greater Wellington is inviting feedback on proposed changes to its Revenue and Financing Policy. The Revenue and Financing Policy covers the Council’s various sources of funding, and how the cost of services is shared across the region. This includes ...
Labour has conceded it could have done more to deal with disruptive state housing tenants while in government but says the current coalition is going too far. ...
The band has asked their record label to issue a cease and desist to stop the NZ First leader using their 1997 hit to support his ‘misguided political views’. “I get knocked down, but I get up again,” blared through the speakers on Sunday as Winston Peters took the stage ...
By Lydia Lewis, RNZ Pacific journalist Food rationing is underway in remote areas in Papua New Guinea’s Highlands following torrential rain and flash flooding. More than 20 people have been reported dead in Chimbu Province. In nearby Enga Province, the centre of last month’s massacre, a 15-year-old boy has been ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Hughes, Lecturer, Research School of Management, Australian National University After months of debate and intrigue, the AFL’s 19th and newest team, the Tasmania Devils, finally launched its jumper, logo and colours in Devonport this week. The Devils will wear green, ...
Brannavan Gnanalingam reviews the debut novel by Saraid de Silva.One of the most baffling things for children who move to a new country is what their parents’ (or grandparents’) lives were like prior to moving – for kids in particular, they’re too busy trying to fit in in their ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stephen Gaunson, Associate Professor in Cinema Studies, RMIT University Narelle Portanier/Binge “If you don’t know who your mob are, you don’t know who you are,” Detective Andrea “Andie” Whitford (played by Leah Purcell) is told early into the new crime ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Elise Klein, Associate professor, Australian National University It’s commonly accepted that women do the vast majority of caregiving in Australian society. But less appreciated is that Indigenous women do larger amounts of unpaid care than any other group. Working with the Aboriginal ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne Joe Biden and Donald Trump have both secured their parties’ nominations for the November 5 United States general election by winning a ...
Comment: There has been a striking contrast in trans-Tasman interest about Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi’s visit to New Zealand and Australia. While the Australian press has been full of articles about the visit – including his curious decision to meet with former prime minister and China booster Paul Keating ...
After years of pressuring banks and other institutions to stop investing in fossil fuels, climate campaigners are making some progress. So how does divestment work?For years, climate activists have been pushing banks and other big institutions to divest from fossil fuels. New research from climate advocacy group 350 Aotearoa ...
For Boba, Ethan and Ashley, K-pop is a place to belong, a way to express themselves, and a bridge to connect with others. The three young Polynesians are part of a K-pop fan community in Tāmaki Makaurau. It’s one of many that have sprung up worldwide as K-pop has gone ...
For Boba, Ethan and Ashley, K-pop is a place to belong, a way to express themselves, and a bridge to connect with others. This one-off documentary presents three intimate portraits of young Polynesians who are pulled into a Korean cultural phenomenon. K-POLYS is directed by Litia Tuiburelevu, Produced by Hex ...
There’s ample evidence demonstrating free school lunch programmes provide wide benefits across schools, households and communities according to public health researchers. ACT Minister David Seymour wants to reduce the spending on Aotearoa New Zealand’s ...
By Wata Shaw in Suva Fiji is facing an exodus of Fijians as many are leaving for overseas seeking employment and education and others are migrating, says Opposition MP Viliame Naupoto. Speaking in Parliament, he said: “His Excellency’s speech (Ratu Wiliame Katonivere) comes after a little over one year of ...
The Taxpayers’ Union is welcoming comments from Christopher Luxon this morning recommitting to ‘no new taxes’ as part of Budget 2024. “Mr Luxon’s refusal at the Post-Cabinet press conference yesterday to repeat the ‘no new taxes’ promise ...
SAFE is urgently calling on the Environment Committee to reject the Government’s Fast-Track Approvals Bill, and is urging New Zealanders to rally behind the call. The proposed Bill, currently under consideration with the Environment select committee, ...
Teammates who spend all their time picking fights with spectators are only helpful for the other team, writes Madeleine Chapman. Anyone who has ever played a team sport competitively, particularly as a child and particularly, for some reason, basketball, will know that there’s a lot of politics involved. While there ...
The long-running Wellington music festival is too focused on the Jim Beam-ness and not enough on the Homegrown-ness.There is something about Homegrown that’s difficult to place. A barely perceptible-ness. Like feeling a ghost is watching you from the corner of the room but when you look, there’s nothing there. ...
The latest Ipsos New Zealand Issues Monitor reveals that fewer New Zealanders believe crime / law and order is one of the top issues facing our country. In 2018, Ipsos New Zealand started tracking the key issues facing New Zealand. In this wave ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kate Griffiths, Deputy Program Director, Budgets and Government, Grattan Institute Australia’s political donations rules are woefully inadequate, but donations reform is finally on the agenda. The federal government has signalled its interest in reform and will soon begin briefing MPs on its ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark Patrick Taylor, Chief Environmental Scientist, EPA Victoria; Honorary Professor, School of Natural Sciences, Macquarie University Naiyana Somchitkaeo/Shutterstock A recent study published in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine has linked microplastics with risk to human health. The study ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Albert Van Dijk, Professor, Water and Landscape Dynamics, Fenner School of Environment & Society, Australian National University Global climate records were shattered in 2023, from air and sea temperatures to sea-level rise and sea-ice extent. Scores of countries recorded their hottest year ...
As part of our series exploring how New Zealanders live and our relationship with money, a teacher explains why he and his partner are in frugal mode – and how they’re making it work. Gender: Male Age: 35Ethnicity: Pākehā Role: I am an intermediate school teacher and my partner is ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sarah Bendall, Senior Lecturer, Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences, Australian Catholic University Binge Mary & George, the new British television drama series, depicts the real-life story of Mary Villiers and her son George, and their social climbing at the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jason Nassios, Associate Professor, Centre of Policy Studies, Victoria University This article is part of The Conversation’s series examining the housing crisis. Read the other articles in the series here. Australian state and federal governments spend money in many ways to ...
The finance minister is denying that there’s a $5.6b shortfall in paying for the government’s campaign promises, including tax cuts. At his post-cabinet press conference yesterday, the PM refused to rule out new taxes to pay for the cuts, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s ...
Kāinga Ora tenants abused by their neighbours are doubting the government's crackdown on disruptive tenants will make a difference on their behaviour. ...
Kāinga Ora is New Zealand’s biggest residential landlord, housing more than 180,000 vulnerable people in more than 67,000 properties. Yesterday the government announced a crackdown on its tenants who fall behind on rent. One longtime Kāinga Ora tenant shares her experience.For 18 years I lived in a 1960s standalone ...
Why does this myth persist, and what’s the real reason our skin is suffering?It’s one of the biggest international grievances New Zealanders hold, up there with the sinking of the Rainbow Warrior and 1981’s underarm incident. We’re quick to tell international travellers that the world’s pollution led to the ...
Bob’s relationship with certain members of Lincoln’s academic staff continued to deteriorate in the 1990s. Others supported him publicly, though articles such as Roland Clark’s 1993 piece in Growing Today cannot have pleased the university management. Clark wrote that Bob was selling onions from the Biological Husbandry Unit to a ...
SailGP’s races feature in-your-face action, with agile, hydro-foiling catamarans tacking and jibing for the title over several days. However, public comments ahead of the global series’ return to New Zealand have left this past year’s controversy in the shadows, as a key appointment attracts criticism from dolphin advocates. A year ...
Opinion: We are fast approaching a fundamental change in prisons. As the number of people on custodial remand looks set to overtake the number of sentenced prisoners, the main function of prisons in New Zealand may become incarcerating un-sentenced people who may not be guilty of offending. We have already ...
A huge seven months lies in store for the White Ferns, beginning this week with the visit of England and culminating with the T20 World Cup in Bangladesh in September and October. Starting on Tuesday in Dunedin, the world ranked No. 2 visitors will play five T20s and three ODIs, ...
Opinion: In a move that has shocked road safety advocates across the country, the new Minister of Transport, Simeon Brown, is poised to abandon the previous government’s speed limit reduction policy, particularly around schools. Even more alarmingly, he wants school speed limits to be variable rather than full-time, arguing ...
Auckland Council is opposing a fast-track development backed by Sir John Kirwan and Spark NZ, because it doesn’t meet stringent new climate adaptation requirements The post Surf-data centre faces new 3.8C climate warming rules appeared first on Newsroom. ...
When the Criminal Proceeds (Recovery) Act was introduced in 2009 it was firmly targeted at gangs and drugs. The legislation means police no longer need a conviction to seize assets that criminals can’t prove were paid for legitimately, as long as their alleged offences are punishable by more than a ...
Loading…(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){var ql=document.querySelectorAll('A[quiz],DIV[quiz],A[data-quiz],DIV[data-quiz]'); if(ql){if(ql.length){for(var k=0;k<ql.length;k++){ql[k].id='quiz-embed-'+k;ql[k].href="javascript:var i=document.getElementById('quiz-embed-"+k+"');try{qz.startQuiz(i)}catch(e){i.start=1;i.style.cursor='wait';i.style.opacity='0.5'};void(0);"}}};i['QP']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){(i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)})(window,document,'script','https://take.quiz-maker.com/3012/CDN/quiz-embed-v1.js','qp'); Got a good quiz question?Send Newsroom your questions. The post Newsroom daily quiz, Tuesday 19 March appeared first on Newsroom. ...
The letters, which were published last week, were addressed to Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) Chairperson Megawati Sukarnoputri, National Democrat Party (NasDem) Chairperson Surya Paloh, National Awakening Party (PKB) Chairperson Muhaimin Iskandar, Justice and Prosperity Party (PKS) President Ahmad Syaikhu and United Development Party (PPP) Chairperson Muhammad Mardiono. In ...
Evicting more people from state housing is ignorant to the consequences of poverty, the Greens say, but the Housing Minister says it's a privilege that can be taken away if abused. ...
Evicting more people from state housing is ignorant to the consequences of poverty, the Greens say, but the Housing Minister says it's a privilege that can be taken away if abused. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emerald L King, Lecturer in Humanities, University of Tasmania IMDB Between Netflix’s 2023 live-action version of One Piece, and its latest take on Avatar: The Last Airbender, fans are once again asking: why are live-action anime adaptations so tricky to ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emerald L King, Lecturer in Humanities, University of Tasmania IMDB Between Netflix’s 2023 live-action version of One Piece, and its latest take on Avatar: The Last Airbender, fans are once again asking: why are live-action anime adaptations so tricky to ...
The government says it still intends to deliver tax cuts by July, but will not lock them in until they have got them past their coalition partners. ...
Kiingi Tuheitia Pootatau Te Wherowhero VII has hosted members of the Green Party Caucus at Tuurangawaewae Marae in Ngaaruawahia. The audience follows the King’s Hui-aa-Motu on 20 January, where more than 10,000 people gathered to discuss national ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dr Rachael Potter, Research Associate and Lecturer in Work and Organisational Psychology, University of South Australia Ground Picture/Shutterstock Pregnant women and workers with children are often unfairly treated by their bosses and colleagues, despite laws to protect against workplace discrimination ...
At the Anti-Corruption conference Ms Collins said a Corruption Register was being looked at in NZ where beneficial ownership etc would be recorded. Meanwhile back on planet key there is still denial of there being a problem. Is this Ms Collins putting the fix on the PM?
“Is being looked at . . .” is pure public relations.
Translation: “This will soon blow over and we will do nothing.”
…and “will consider,” is always the prelude for doing nothing.
Sorry, full house.
Tourism New Zealand is going to stop promoting the country in the high season because operators can’t cope with any more visitors in summer.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/303601/influx-of-tourists-changes-tourism-nz's-approach
As the country’s economic growth becomes more reliant on tourism, it seems to have become another sector that has outgrown our ability to sustain.
Thoughts?
Finite planet, finite set of islands, there is only so much room. We passed the OK number of tourists years ago which is why we now have problems with things like so called freedom campers leaving their poo around the place. It’s yet another example of NZ thinking it can make easy money and not deal with the consequences.
In a climate change world relying on tourism is a high level of disconnect and denial. And peak oil. Av gas is a fossil fuel. Given we have over a million tourists a year I wonder how they are accounted for in our emission stats. Likewise the costs of specific areas like ski tourism and the increasing need to manufacture snow.
There are two issues in terms of cc. One is our responsibility regarding emissions. The other is what will happen to the economy when we have to transition off that income? In some cases fast.
But even without cc context, how many people do we think we can cram in without wrecking the place? Industrial Tourism has long understood the relationship between the value of what it sells and its potential to shit in its own best. Hasn’t really done anything about it though. And it mostly disregards the inherent value of places. A cap on numbers is well past due.
“In 2014 about 2.9 million international visitors flew into New Zealand and those numbers could grow to 3.75 million by 2021.”
and those are not the highest numbers I’ve seen given….
http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/business/68630432/NZ-visitor-numbers-forecast-to-grow-strongly
Awesome the global 1% checking out NZ
CV
“Awesome”? No. Frightening.
It’s like , “Tony Soprano is checking out your neighborhood.”
Except some of these parasitic 0.1% sharks make Tony Soprano look like a soft hearted lieutenant.
Makes the Mongrel Mob look like kindergarten teachers!
Thanks Pat! So let’s assume we want double the population, although that’s over a year not for the whole year. Really want to know now where the cc accounting is. Who takes the international flight av gas emissions for instance.
there are positives from tourism however it is not the basis of anything other than a very low wage economy and imo has a very uncertain future….fine as a small part of a bigger picture.
Is being the Sherpa of the south pacific what we aspire to? Suspect not and suspect not what most Nepalese aspire to either.
Tourism is one of the lowest impact industries around.
We are incredibly lucky to have had this boom at the same time as dairy has tanked. And it has no part in the standard FIRE economy.
The core problem is that service industry staff are still not well paid. If they were well paid there would be less of a housing crisis in Queenstown and other tourism centers.
Tourism will really work for New Zealand when our operators and hoteliers price ourselves well above the heads of cheap backpackers. We need fewer, higher-qulity tourists that pay us more.
while not disagreeing entirely with those sentiments there remains the question of sustainability in light of carbon emissions…..what future the industry ?…..I guess we can always convert the empty hotels to cheap accommodation for the homeless in the future.
The people who can afford to travel in future, will always be able to afford to travel in future. And we will remain ranked as one of the most desirable places to visit on earth.
It’s the emissions happening now that are the issue.
“Tourism will really work for New Zealand when our operators and hoteliers price ourselves well above the heads of cheap backpackers. We need fewer, higher-qulity tourists that pay us more.”
It’s a nice idea, but it’s one that’s been talked about for decades and there is no sign that anyone with power is intending to do that. You’d have to regulate to force that to happen and we are so far from that in both the industry and government.
I’m also not convinced that it would work. Airlines are part of the growth economy too, and need increasing seats and increasing flights to remain viable. So how woudl fewer flights at a higher price work?
No-one is working sustainably here.
Industry got told to put the rates up at TRENZ last week, http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/79818642/tourism-industry-told-peak-hotel-room-rates-are-too-cheap
But in a slight defence, tourism is a viscously cyclic industry and totally dependant on NZD being less than $0.75 USD. Anything above that and we are too expensive . Below that and it all works, and the lower the better. Rooms occupied this summer were probably sold 12 -18 months prior when the NZD was much higher and a lot of the industry was desperate for cashflow.
The best thing that could be done for tourism sustainability would be a balanced exchange rate policy. Could be a bit of an ask with current ideologies though.
Our loading of inbound flights now only partially follows Australia’s.
We continue to shear away from being a single Australasian market.
That means they see our comparative advantages, not just our competitive advantage.
That’s because the Australian economy’s tanked. There’s no discretionary spending coming out of Australia, and they are virtually absent as a tourist market now. This winter is going to be interesting i Queenstown as it is very dependant on the Aussie market.
The Australian market is also dollar driven, if our dollar is much over $0.80 AUD it becomes hard work. The thought of NZD – AUD parity of worse is quite offensive to Aussie sensibilities.
Agreed Queenstown is one to watch for the Aussie eastern seaboard numbers.
The trend to higher-paying guest nights is going exceedingly well, without some strange price regulation. Minister Bennett rightly shot down a dumb idea this week to price foreign tourists for access to our National Parks.
Check out Auckland, Rotorua or Queenstown right now: close to 100% vacancy in every 3 stars or more place. That’s where we are headed.
We won’t be having fewer flights: they are pouring in and are projected to do so for many years to come.
Same with cruise liners. Huge growth for years to come. Fundamentally changing even musty old Dunedin’s service culture.
The cruise ship passengers spend money on a few tourist attractions. There is a bit more work for a some bus drivers and a handful of cafe workers. Otherwise, for all that it’s talked up, the thousands of cruise ship passengers don’t provide much benefit to the Dunedin economy.
Stewart Street would be sad.
As would the visitor numbers to any of the major attractions.
As would the hotel and B&B percentages.
In what way do cruise ships benefit hotels and B &Bs?
Since you can’t spell Stuart St correctly you obviously have no idea what you are talking about regarding cruise ships and Dunedin.
Ad’s been making lots of assertions, would be good to see a bit more oomph in his arguments for sure.
I think Ad might have been supping on too much of Carnival’s coolaid.
Reality is that the cruise industry has the worst captive spending behaviour in tourism, and is the most explicit at socialising their costs.
I really don’t get why Queenstown isn’t full of workers’ hostels. Built by the Council if no developers are interested. Maybe the Council is stacked with landlords.
It’s a function of the short cycles tourism experiences. By the time the positive side of the cycle advances to the point there’s a problem with worker accomodation it’s too expensive / hard to provide quickly. By the time developers and social housing providers get their shit together the cycle’s gone through and there’s no need for it. Has been going on for the last 30 years at least in Queenstown.
Could be about to change with a very large rezoning / SHA in Gorge Road very close to town. This will provide high density residential development and hopefully large amounts of worker accommodation. That’s if it doesn’t turn into speculative appartments and visitor accommodation.
I was going to say isn’t it also a function of geography and class. Small amount of land, large amount of wealthy people who don’t want the plebs living nearby.
Seasonal workers too, who don’t need accommodation all year round.
I think the numbers might stack up pretty soon, the Gorge Road thing looks possible but will need leadership from business and Council.
A large workers accomodation complex was built at Arthur’s Point last cycle, but was too late in the cycle and went bust. A local operator bought it at mortgagee sale and seems to be doing quite well with it.
A lot of businesses and Govt Depts. had staff housing up till 90s when the accountants sold them off, then there were the cabins at the Camping Ground, but they went for the Convention Centre that’s gone nowhere….
Council elections coming up, lots of people pissed off about it, might become an issue if the Council doesn’t get replaced by a commissioner
https://www.facebook.com/plugins/post.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fgraeme.todd.law%2Fposts%2F1050708934983968
Would they appoint a Commissioner over taht one issue?
It does sound like the Council building and owning the worker accommodation would be the way to go. I never understood why it was considered a good thing to sell off ‘assets’.
I’m wondering what Toddy is on about too, he may just be referring to the building consent issue, but he’s a lawyer, and normally fairly precise in what he says. There’s more than that going down as well, with the failing convention centre and resistance to rural subdivision.
There’s also this dog whistle from Nick Smith, http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/regional/303829/government-housing-bought-for-flood-victims
“”When you’ve got a tourism sector that is booming it is also concerning that so many of the jobs are going to work permit [holders] and visitors when places like Franz Josef and quite frankly Queenstown, we need to have affordable worker accommodation so that we can build long-term base New Zealand families.”
Out of a total database of 25,000 ratepayers in Queenstown, there were 2142 ratepayers who supplied an overseas address.
“I just love reading the evidence of one of the hearings for a new subdivision, where a neighbour who was objecting to the size of sections insisted that none of the sections be less than 250,000 square metres, and went under scrutiny and said that means the properties will be over $2 million each – said ‘I’d much prefer the people pouring the coffee and changing the beds be living in Cromwell and Invercargill’.”
What a waste of valuable commercially valuable land that would be.
“We need fewer, higher-qulity tourists that pay us more.”
Agree totally. It’s not just in the backpacker markets where the problem exists. The mainstream tour market is just as active in the high volume / low yield model. Some of the products coming from emerging markets aren’t doing much for the country, or their customers who find New Zealand considerably more expensive, and culturally foreign than they were expecting.
But the industry went into these markets several years ago when things were tighter through the GFC. Now we can’t deliver to those markets requirements, and there’s better paying options.
What tourism needs most is stability in exchange rates compared to our markets. That will deal with most of the cyclic issues.
I really like the points in the last paragraph. That makes a lot of sense.
As usual, the Government’s solution is to seek more offshore investment.
It’s called Project Palace. It’s a global mission by the Government’s Trade and Enterprise agency to lure rich foreigners to invest in hotels.
http://www.newshub.co.nz/nznews/hotels-on-the-agenda-for-key-2016042118#ixzz48ZELWepC
However, while it may provide more beds, it largely robs us of the income those beds generate.
Thoughts?
Until more New Zealanders with a bit of capital accept that trying to throw more debt at extensive pastoral farming is a proven fool’s errand, fresh foreign capital is going to run and own our hotels for us.
We have become stupidly addicted to dairy, when there are lower-imapct and higher-income industries – such as running hotels – begging for local capital to do well.
The really smart extensive farmers are turning their farms into hotels.
The government turning us into serfs for offshore capital.
Really, the offshore rich will bring nothing to NZ. They’ll just divert our own people and resources and the government could do that easily by simply creating the money to do the same thing.
The workaround? Bring the service industry along – no need for the destination country to provide it all via temporary, crap jobs. “The natives” can gather in the Octagon (as they do), instead of making beds and waiting, to play drums and hawk their wares to cruise ship wallahs.
http://www.theguardian.com/travel/2016/may/13/inside-the-worlds-largest-cruise-ship-harmony-of-the-seas
I suspect that that ship shouldn’t be allowed in some harbours, including Otago (which already has erosions issues with current sized ships). Good idea though, I wonder what the Dunedin equivalent would be of optimal return souvenirs 😈
(looking at that ship though, it’s hard not to think Titanic. Lovely symbolism).
An obvious inevitability once you think about it. We have 4.5 million people with not quite enough infrastructure to support them. Throw in another million + per year just passing through and there’s no way that we have enough and the capitalist system would ensure that we will never have enough as capitalism works on profit and the only way to make a profit is through scarcity.
Hence why the government needs to build and maintain infrastructure and to cut out the ticket clippers.
Then, of course, there’s the real limited resources we have. limited people to serve all these tourists, limited resources to build the infrastructure etc, etc. Moving our limited resources into one particular industry or another prevents us from developing and diversifying our economy which then causes our society to stagnate.
And of course – if for some reason, tourism has a bad year or two – there goes our fragile economy again ……. down, down, down. The extreme foolishness of our government in thinking that we can be propped up by just one or two main industries is frightening. Like Draco says this prevents our economy from diversifying and allows us to continue to stagnate ….. balancing between dairying on the one hand, and tourism on the other. Just Nuts !
‘capitalism works on profit and the only way to make a profit is through scarcity.’
So Apple, Microsoft and Samsung are the worlds most profitable companies because of the scarcity of mobile phones, computers and appliances?
ExxonMobil’s profitability is due to a scarcity of oil, Walmarts to a shortage of general consumer goods, MacDonalds to a dearth of hamburgers, Toyoto and VW’s because of the horrendous wait list for cars?
You do spout some utterly unmitigated drivel at times Draco.
Rare items are expensive. Unique items often fetch astronomical prices. How many phones do Samsung et al make in each production cycle? Is it more or less than the demand for them?
You’re acquainted with the terms “supply” and “demand” I take it.
You haven’t grasped the point I was addressing OAB. It must have been the way I hid it in a quote at the top of my comment.
the only way to make a profit is through scarcity
Clearly, this is nonsense, as per the facts i quote.
You haven’t proven me wrong at all. In fact, all you’ve done is spouted drivel hoping that people would be confused by your BS and not call you on it – either that or you’re so stupid as to believe what you’re saying.
If we had infinite competition along with a few other unrealistic assumptions that the neo-liberals make there would be no profit (well to be more precise, profit would be infinitesimal). It is increasing competition that lowers profit but to have increased competition you need increased supply as well.
It is this fear of increased competition that drives mega corporations to merge and consolidate.
Meanwhile, on Earth, my comment addresses your point head on.
When demand exceeds supply*, there is profit to be made.
aka ‘scarcity’.
In the specific examples you quoted, Samsung et al make a range of products. Their luxury items are limited edition and expensive. Same with cars, and even crude oil refineries have their high and low-end products.
It’s the same in any industry. Quality – especially bespoke – is expensive.
Take potatoes. If they grew like weeds there’d be no money in them, but when you order them at Cabinet Club – oh my! And that’s before you even pay for the table and the Minister’s drinks.
Draco sorry what you are saying is unmitigated drivel Firms merge or Aquire for many reasons, be it to break into new markets, products, geography, consolidation synergies, gain ip. Scope synergies etc. You also have a very simplified version of the firm and economics Some firms simply trade on price and cost others have different advantages, likewise firms come and go via disruptive technology etc, Market and capitalism is not static unlike your fixed world Marxist view, yes in some markets increase competion drives down price as supply increases, likewise scarcity drives up prices as more demand is chasing less supply, However the power of capitalism is its ability to shift the demand and supply curve with new products and services, disruptive technologies, thus fortunately our world is not a static demand and supply curve that you seem to pine for.
That’s what they tell us. Afterwards there’s still less competition than before which, amazingly enough, is what that drivel you spouted actually means.
Don’t need to merge to break into new markets. Just some advertising.
Two companies that produce identical products merge and the end result is less range in those products.
Geography? So, two companies that are competing merge to increase their land mass?
And consolidation synergies, gain ip is nothing but pure reduction in competition.
That’s not the power of capitalism but the power of people working together. Capitalism just exploits that willingness of people to be creative so as to enrich the psychopaths.
My view of the world isn’t static. It’s the capitalists that want to keep things the way they are that are static – and it’s killing us.
As per Chris trotter your rhetoric is inversely proportionate to the facts you present, what a load of rubbish you spew, I can only but surmise the you have failed in your career or business personally and you seek to externalise your failure on some warped views
Or maybe you are a self-congratulatory bullcrapper who thinks himself a success through profit-gouging thanks to a basically unfair system that you think it clever to exploit. I see no sense of social responsibility in the comments you so often make. I think your critical attitude might be inversely proportionate to your awareness of what your corrupt system is doing to the poor. You’re OK, aren’t you Jack?
Maybe, but of course maby not ? I suggest the former
@ The lost sheep
Have you ever heard of monopolies?
Do you know what they are for? Destroying competition.
Need some examples of monopolies and pseudo-monopolies? No. You have already mentioned them.
Just heard on the seven o’clock news: some business spokesman said workers should be happy that CEO’s salaries rose 12% ($180,000) last year while workers got only 3% ($800) because that shows the businesses are making money.
Please, someone, tell me he’s taking the piss!
While it may show businesses are making money, it also highlights business returns are disproportionately shared, hence the problem.
I agree with TV and TC views except I appreciate that the holders of my meager savings are making a good profit as it suggests my nest eggs, split around three banks, are safer than if I were in America and their system etc.
If executives are to get these high incomes then that means they are in a better position to share the burden of paying for our society as opposed to lower workers who have a negative effect and are the ones needing help to raise them and their families to a positive balance. That was one of the points which I took on board as an early ACT supporter [ which I am no longer as they moved to the right, but that is another story.]
You may want to revise your position, based on what you can learn from Bill Black. Professor Black was involved in prosecution of banks during the savings and loan crisis in the US. During this process a general scheme was identified where the bank started operating an accounting control fraud strategy,
* The frauds would grow rapidly
* The frauds would all report record profits.
* This would make the CEO’s wealthy through modern executive compensation
* The frauds would employ extreme leverage (which is how they achieved rapid growth)
* The frauds would set aside insufficient allowances for the inevitable losses.
* The eventual losses overtaking insufficient allowances would eventually cause the fraud to collapse (which caused failure and massive losses to the shareholders).
Since its shareholders on the hook there you should probably not naively take it that profits indicate the general health of the firm. For example Dick Smiths reported record profits just quite recently, which cost shareholders quite a lot of money recently.
http://neweconomicperspectives.org/tag/accounting-control-fraud
Though modern executive compensation could cause a 12%-3% disparity in pay rises without any fraud being involved.
The executives don’t share any burdens – they just get all the rewards.
I heard that and just burst out laughing. A statement like that just beggars belief.
We’re all in this together Tony! Celebrate the fact of icing on the cake!! (Never mind that the cake’s unpalatable)
reply to Tony Veitch (3.0)
The person who said that workers should be glad their CEOs got 12% extra pay while they got only 3% because it shows the business is doing well, is a spokesperson for the right wing ‘think tank’ the ‘New Zealand Initiative’….enough said …. best to ignore.
Don’t tear you panties tony I can assure you most ceo have not got anything like 12pc pay rises , these are a selected few of listed companies, the great unwashed of CEOs, privately owned companies etc I would suggest have got less than 3pc yoy
You would suggest it when? If you ever find a single piece of evidence in support? If the PM says it first?
No more evidence than tony simply holding a stupid comment by a journalist as fact for all CEOs, by the what the hell had the Pm got to with this topic, your infatuation with Jk is unhealthy. If you respond please in plain English not some cryptic spaced out on acid response 😀
Too cryptic? Oh well: in simple terms I’m saying your reckons ain’t worth shit.
Shit a commodity you are well versed in OAB
True: I can spot you coming a mile off. The smell precedes you too.
I was referring more to your core substance
Whereas, as I pointed out at 3.5.2, you have no substance at all.
Gawd you’re an odiferous bumhole OAB.
I’m sure the moderators have some reason for letting you stay around…perhaps they hope you’ll actually add something one day apart from trolling sniping abuse.
Reported on the radio – the average CEO rise was 12% or $180,000. This relates to the obscene CEO salaries reported in the Herald, and perhaps not to all CEO. But, more to the point, the average wage rise was 3.2% – well short of the rise for CEOs.
And that is cause for celebration? Un-f****** believable!
And what percentage of CEOs does that small sample represent tony ?
Heres an example to help you, the average author or singing artist makes fk all, but I can name a few who make millions
you are simply looking for selective facts to justify a misguided belief. I hope this helps
What do you know about facts? Everything you believe is utter gobshite.
Yes dear, yawn and any other contrite response that conveys I don’t really care what that little angry voice in your head compels you to spew forth. Likewise I don’t take it personally should in a period of solace you reflect on your crudeness😀
Can’t address the facts I linked to, eh sweety. That’s because they utterly refute your feeble reckons, which, in case you’d forgotten, are worthless.
This is the kind of bullshit we have to put up with and eliminate somehow over the next 12 months
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/opinion/79968828/political-week-john-key-and-helen-clark–two-sides-of-the-political-coin
Watkin’s article repeated in the Press with a super flattering photo of Shipley and an unflattering photo of Clark. Read a little way getting to the ‘Helengrad’ and Nanny state’ comments before the bias got to me.
Don’t think Watkins mentioned the Nat’s ‘Ditch The Bitch’ posters campaign though.
Barring your KDS , what do you disagree with in the article All I can assume is that you don’t like the truth, Watkins clearly articulates why jk and national have been successful, What’s the issue ?
A well written, readable article on TPP
“Malcolm Eves: TPP’s cloak and dagger clauses”
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/hawkes-bay-today/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=1503459&objectid=11638868
Another development in US is that
http://insidetrade.com/
The paper can be found here:
http://www.citizen.org/documents/USITC-TPP-Prebuttal.pdf
Also Prof Gus van Harten on ISDS and his study of Canadian experience of ISDS. http://i.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/79903061/expert-warns-nz-about-foreign-lawsuits-as-tppa-bill-passes-first-reading
Perhaps the Nacts want to retain the tax haven status so that multi national companies can channel “profits” through here and use our TPPA status to sue other nations?
Those chip cards the credit card companies insist you have are gonna cost you
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-chip-cards-higher-debit-fees-20160511-story.html
Just another reason why the entire monetary system needs to be government owned. Get rid of these huge taxes that the private companies put on everything.
More strictly speaking its the transaction system which needs to be publicly owned.
A dream come true – lawyers phased out, replaced with AI?
https://mishtalk.com/2016/05/12/law-firm-hires-ross-an-artificial-intelligence-lawyer/
There was a conference of public sector lawyers in Nelson this week with a very good speaker on precisely this point.
I’m a sufficient sceptic about driverless cars, and I’m still waiting for my 1950s jet pack, but the core point of a speaker at the conference was the challenge faced by Deep Blue beating Gary Kasparov for a world title chess match.
You can break a lot of regulator decisions into millions of variants, and enable the weighting of factors. This might deal to some minor decisions, e.g. parking enforcement.
You could conceivably break down others like conveyancing with further automation of legal templates.
But ask a really good chess player to describe what mass makes them really good, and it’s hard to explain. It requires multi-dimensional rational thinking, slippery thinking, empathic and oppositional calculations, and the ability to concede different points while retaining the drive for the singular purpose through sacrifice.
Deep Blue said that computers can do slippery judgements. They can draft multiple causalities and counterfactuals, even as facts change. That will be a challenge to the existence of lawyers.
Why self driving cars are a big scam. Ans: they can’t do it, and they want to sell you stuff.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ocLK9hKyVU4
That guy didn’t know WTF he was talking about and thus was just talking shit.
Know how the astronomers see through dust clouds light years thick? Infra-red. Works on dust and snow in the atmosphere as well.
Most of what the video is about is the social issues and how the promotion of driverless cars is coming from companies that want those drivers to be freed up to buy more shit. He’s also talking about how systems are being designed around making money not around making systems more efficient or better for the environment. Seems a legitimate critique to me. Plus his day job is in tech working on why things don’t work, so he has a background in that kind of analysis.
“Know how the astronomers see through dust clouds light years thick? Infra-red. Works on dust and snow in the atmosphere as well.”
Freezing?
So he says and yet he didn’t know something that anyone working in tech would know.
Anything above Absolute Zero can be detected and that’s two hundred and something degrees colder than anywhere on Earth.
So you think that we’re going to start equipping cars with liquid nitrogen cooled thermal sensors, like they have on military grade hardware and infra red seeking warheads?
Sorry mate, that you’ve just had another one of your foolish and impractical high tech dreams smashed, but the Jetsons future ain’t gonna be happening.
You can be an arrogant sonofabitch at times you know.
Bet you didn’t even know that you need specialised coolants for the kind of advanced thermal imaging you referred to, to work.
But you know it all right.
None of the infrared cameras I’ve ever used has needed specialised cooling. They’ve just been open the case, turn them on, and you’re ready to go. And they can measure down to -40 C.
http://www.flir.com.hk/instruments/display/?id=62960
Sure, if you’re looking for the cosmic microwave background, your detector needs fancy cooling. But not for the temperature ranges a self-driving car needs to look at.
As far as I can make out, the biggest programming challenges of self-driving cars are due to having to share the road space with unpredictable and uncommunicative humans. When they get sorted, the benefits will be real.
Lol, classic. Let’s get rid of the humans and then the whole tech thing will work wonderfully.
Did you watch the vid? The guy is saying that they’re not actually planning to take those things into account.
Yeah, I did watch the vid. I was pretty underwhelmed to be honest. My view of it is pretty close to DTBs. Although I agree replacing human drivers in all the wide variety of conditions we operate in is a bit further than just a few years away.
But it will happen. Because when the systems get sorted out properly once, they can be immediately and cheaply replicated. And machine control, once properly tuned, works better than human control. Because it can detect more inputs and react a lot faster over many more outputs. For instance, I was deeply skeptical of traction control and hill descent control for four-wheel drives. Until I experienced them, and realised it all did a much better job than I could have.
My experience of human-machine interactions is the human side of it is much much harder. With a human in the loop, you have to figure out how they might incorrectly react to the inputs they are given. It’s much harder than actually programming the control system.
Often I think the most important safety equipment when it comes to complex machinery is the operator’s bum. To be used to hold the operator’s hands firmly pressed onto the chair.
The guy who obviously doesn’t know WTF he’s talking about?
Now, I don’t think driverless cars are a practical solution to anything simply because cars aren’t a solution – they’re the problem and making them electric won’t actually change that.
But driverless buses, trucks and trains? Now that’s a different story.
Read the fucken name.
And that would be you spouting your ignorance again:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermographic_camera
How many cars have you reviewed in the last year Draco?
How many cars have you raced in the last year Draco?
Do you work in a high tech IT field like that guy does Draco?
You are the one who can’t see that for Google, its all about dominating the information-$$$ nexus.
You might find this site interesting, it’s a NZ website run by by a chap called Shane Ohlin, he’s an expert on driverless technology
https://nz.linkedin.com/in/shaneohlin
http://www.driverlessplanet.com
I recommend having a read of some of the news links,
http://www.driverlessplanet.com/news/
Driverless cars are happening and way sooner than you realise.
Are they just for the cities? Because I can’t see how they will work for rural areas that aren’t even being mapped properly now.
Not sure, from what I understand it seems to be google that’s the only one pushing the fully driver less vehicle concept,, the other car companies are doing a vehicle with the capacity to self drive.
I reckon what you’ll see is certain roads tagged as being where you can operate a car in driver less mode and once people get used it it they’ll become driver less only.
The military has had huge interest in being able to send unmanned vehicles into unmapped or poorly mapped areas, relying solely on onboard sensors and GPS.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DARPA_Grand_Challenge
+1 CV. Writing off the guy’s experience and expertise on the basis of a very small part of the video at the end seemed pretty over the top.
Good job I didn’t do that then eh? He makes a couple of good points generally about the failure of capitalism (and he doesn’t even realise that) but the rest is BS and his conclusions are all wrong.
Totally meaningless BS.
I’ve been working in tech since the 1980s.
I can see that. Doesn’t mean that driverless cars are impossible though.
they’re not impossible, they’ll just never happen for the 95%.
” I’ve been working in tech since the 1980s.”
How much experience do you have in dynamic real time processing?
If you havent had experience with the failings of the latest vehicle driver aids available in 2016, how can you be so confident of what can be achieved in the next 10 years?
Uh-huh.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sAz_UvnUeuU
Interesting to see that Green Party has gone to ground following revelations through Panama Papers of dodgy donations. Great own goal…..
http://www.nbr.co.nz/opinion/party-donor-named-panama-papers-greens-df
Ooh look, a Crosby Textor memo via David Farrar basically saying The Greens do it too!! Lol, scraping the bottom of the intellectual barrel there.
My thoughts exactly, Weka. who on earth believes this sort of crap !
By your comment “who on earth believes this sort of crap !”
1/ Do you mean the Panama Papers data dump (data is flawed)? or
2/ that the Greens have not put up the idea of scrapping FBT for electric car fleets?
Yes @Tory……. The Green Party will probably be thrown out of Parliament by the speaker so they don’t have to talk about it.
https://youtu.be/gt1FGEWz368
Yes, if we all launder money that’s makes it ok according to Tory, because Tory has no moral compass.
Sit down children, and hear here a scary Tory-story about the Greens being attacked by insects leaving great big holes in them. That will teach them for trying to be organic!
Sarah Kendzior on why none of the US candidates are anti-establishment but voters are still looking for it. Plus some interesting explanation about how the running of the US cane to serve private interests after WW2.
http://qz.com/682287/the-term-anti-establishment-has-lost-all-meaning-in-this-years-us-presidential-race/
“Bernie voters are not with her: These exit polls should rattle the Clinton campaign
Hillary has shown little to no interest in courting Sanders supporters. It could end up costing her the presidency”
extract..
“This doesn’t look like it will end well—especially if Trump is seen as the agent of change in 2016, and Clinton, for all of her proposed pragmatic steps forward, is seen as barely budging the status quo.”
http://www.salon.com/2016/05/13/bernie_supporters_wont_vote_hillary_a_chilling_new_development_in_the_clinton_campaign_partner/
My thoughts are that Trump’s ideas of pulling the troops home, getting rid of corruption and getting out of trade agreements that cost American’s jobs seems to be a more popular public message than Hillary’s, keeping the status quo with a bit of tinkering, fighting wars and supporting wall ST and looking after big business before Americans.
It will be interesting to see what happens if trump becomes POTUS. Will he actually be able to get congress and the senate to back his promises or will he become another lame duck?
If he becomes a lame duck will he then go to the people to try and force congress/senate to back his ideas?
If that fails will the US citizenry finally wake up to the fact that the rich have stolen their nation from them?
The US system is intended to have checks and balances, precisely so that one branch of govt does not have excessive power. So if President Trump (hopefully won’t happen) was checked by Congress that is what the system is designed to do. So not “the rich have stolen the nation” rather it would be an intended constitutional outcome.
So, the Founding Fathers intended for the rich to control the US?
Oh, wait, that’s right – they did. They set up the US system to prevent the poor having any influence. That’s actually written down BTW.
And the US has been an oligarchy for some time now. It’s arguable if it was ever a democracy.
+1
Constitutional Republic
Draco,
The point of my comment was about the checks and balances in the US constitution, which was surely apparent. Nothing to do with a rich/poor conflict.
Although clearly the US is set up on the basis of a competitive market economy and private property (which has constitutional protection, subject to eminent domain)
Oh, it’s competitive alright, take the market in elected representatives, for example, and the resulting corporate welfare.
It isn’t quite so overt in NZ, eh Wayne 😉
Except that the whole system was set up on rich/poor conflict and done in such a way so as to prevent the poor gaining power.
Same applies in the English system. Capitalists simply hate democracy.
Otherwise known as feudalism:
And he’s being excessively generous, to the point of lying, in proclaiming how much the average person owns.
The deep state runs the USA.
If they want a real election it should be Bernie vs Trump. Now that would be interesting…..
In “Profound Loss for Maine’s Citizens,” Court OKs Sale of Town’s Water to Nestle”
http://www.commondreams.org/news/2016/05/13/profound-loss-maines-citizens-court-oks-sale-towns-water-nestle
Interesting, particularly in the light of Prof Gus van Harten’s research that the threat of ISDS prevented Canada from prohibiting bulk removal of water from Canadian waterways.
NZ can’t say it wasn’t warned 🙁
@TMM
Shocking!
Yes – we’ve been warned. And its happening here already. Local hapu are struggling to fight against corporates wanting to make use of the Poroti Springs nor-west of Whangarei.
Its a never-ending battle for them – and I question the morality, the ethics, (and even the racism) that allows a regional council to favour the multi-corporate against the local indigenous people – let alone the local Pakeha who don’t have much say in it anyway.
Is Labour aware of the threat to water rights posed by the TPP.
Very uneasy with the police tactics in obtaining their latest murder “confession” .
This is a very bad idea, unsafe conviction, unsafe practise.
+100%
Have any of you seen the video on the YouTube channel The Young Turks about what went down recently in Brazil?
The video title explains what has really happened in that country.
“Brazillian Impeachment Is Actually A Corporate Coup”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZ2cOLXByq8
All I can say is RIP Brazilian democracy as it looks like the 1% have taken over in that country and are going to start enforcing austerity measures to extract every last dollar they can at the expense of its population.
Brazil was taken over many years ago
The country is a GMO laboratory experiment and is one of the most chemically sprayed nations on earth
The lungs of this planet are being tarred permanently
This is good. Excellently probing Young Turk stuff. Don’t see our commentariat even attempting depth like this .
http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/news/79939636/a-licence-to-bodge-eqc-called-to-account
an attempt at clarification for those not intimate with the shenanigans on their behalf.
For those who feel we have far too many Opinion Polls shaping and distorting political discourse … you may well be getting your wish …
Clear fall in the number of Polls conducted during the first 4 months of each year:
(Years in Bold = Middle Term Years comparable to 2016)
Total Polls Jan-April
2016.. 6
2015.. 8
2014.. 14
2013.. 14
2012.. 12
2011.. 12
2010.. 12
Partly a consequence of Roy Morgan halving the number they carry out on an annual basis, but also a result of Reid Research, Fairfax-Ipsos and Herald-Digi failing to conduct any polls so far this year (it seems Herald-DigiPoll is no longer in operation). These latter 3 usually carry out 1 or 2 polls each over the first 4 months of each year.
Strangely enough, 3 News / Newshub Reid Research did carry out a poll on the Flag Referendum in February … and provided breakdowns by Party Support. Which makes me wonder if it was also a political poll but for some reason they’ve decided not to release it. Particularly odd given that for at least the last 12 years Reid Research has always released a poll in either January or February.
Have we reached peak Crosby Textor?
Sky news Aussie election leaders forum last night saw Bill Shorten come out a clear winner by actually engaging with the questioner and offering genuine answers. Turnbull wheeled out his talking point around ‘ jobs and growth’ in a wooden ,scripted performance.
Interesting parallels with NZ, the union leader vs the wealthy merchant banker….
Yes angry andy the great communicator, and a pretty long bow assuming that running a union prepares you for anything
I agree he will have to overcome the C/T ‘angry Andy’ stuff . However I think Shorten is showing him the way in which he is seen engaging genuinely with ordinary voters. Especially Given the Teflon is well and truely wearing off Key.
kiwis are not ozzies, slightly more intelligent😀
Hard to disagree with that!
The point I was ham-fistedly trying to make is I wonder if voters are starting to get wary of the highly scripted talking points rhetoric. What I had seen of Shorten previously was a rather unimpressive character who delivered dry monologues and was most famous for backstabbing two prime ministers. However since the campaign started and you get to see him engaging with the actual voters (remember them!) he seems to be going from strength to strength. Turnbull on the other hand looks frightened witless at the prospect of meeting an actual voter and his default position is to utter some inane spiel like “we’re backing business” to the startled peasants.
For mine Little is coming across far too defensive and earnest and he needs to start demonstrating he can connect with the actual punters.
I tend to agree however the Labour Party bedrock of support in oz is much stronger than nz, they never had a Douglas era etc. My belief is that the wider public view of the left competency here is low, thus a lot more is required than simply labour talking to the people or we have had enough of national or John key for change to occur. winstton peters could change that but I don’t characterise winston as left. Likewise if polls closer to election threaten a 3 headed dragon government this just pushes people to the stability of a national led government, polls in between are sort of meaningless as this threat does not exist
@ Cowboy
I think Angry Andy is a good tactic. The public mood is shifting from polite to indignant.
It’s working for Trump and Sanders.
I think it is good to have that in the armoury but if that’s all you’ve got then it wears thin.
The difference in the US is that they are hugely pissed off. In NZ large swaths of middle NZ are sitting on their inflated capital gains with low interest rates in a relatively benign employment environment and simply are not seeing the damage Key has done. I think that is changing as more and more realise that there is some massive structural and social imbalances building that cannot be swept under the mat much longer.
Speaking of preparation, what makes you think drinking from a septic tank is all you need to do before coming here and spewing all over the place?
Classy!
as what I read here is often the proverbial, been close to a septic tank does help
You need to stop re-reading your comments over and over. Try some others.
Like your ridiculous one about Hager below; you’re beyond fecal.
Could this
be related to this?
This makes me so mad, and similarities here are just so scary. Why we need to connect with workers across boarders. Make the connections people!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=693WalG-uFQ
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/on-the-inside/303868/key-ends-week-deeply-satisfied
Hootton strikes out
*Matthew Hooton is a political commentator from the right. He discusses politics on Nine to Noon with Kathryn Ryan every Monday, alongside former Labour Party president Mike Williams.
Disclosure: Matthew Hooton’s public relations and lobbying firm, Exceltium, has clients in the legal services industry offering trust services to domestic and international clients. These views are his own.
Interesting disclosure. How about disclosing the ways that Hooton featured in Dirty Politics?
Yeah saw this arkie.
I was wondering which Prime Mimister hoots was referring to.
Tool.
Very fair points, Hagar does not walk the talk, hypocrite of the first order
Hagar isn’t mentioned at all?
Ha! Thanks arkie.
Partition in the UK to “Make it illegal for a company to require women to wear high heels at work”
This is probably in response to this:
Which is ridiculous, sexist and downright inhumane.
But guys can do it too!!!!
Sterling journalism here….http://www.nzherald.co.nz/bay-of-plenty-times/news/article.cfm?c_id=1503343&objectid=11638915
“Obviously this is nothing new. Beyonce often uses high heels as a way of describing an empowered modern woman in control of both her life and her finances.
But now an Australian shoe company is asking why that opportunity should be limited to only women, and have launched a collection of high heels for men. This month Solestruck launched Syro, a brand aiming to break “the oppression of male femininity [that] still continues to shame, exile and attack the freedom of self-expression”. It’s built on a community of men who want to embrace their feminine side without judgment, men who contacted Solestruck time and again asking for high heels in their sizes.””
Please god, let this be satire, please, please,
I have no problem wearing boots with 2 inch heels.
But these items ain’t for looking pretty in, and they ain’t suitable for office wear.
Lets make voter suppression sexy.
With over a million people missing here, is this the next step?
http://electionjusticeusa.org/index.php/who-we-are/
Stephen Franks
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fDk4iZmsW2Q
BUSTED: The Overfishing Denier
A Greenpeace investigation shows that a prominent American fisheries scientist took millions of dollars in funding from fishing industry groups without publicly disclosing it.
http://www.greenpeace.org/new-zealand/en/blog/busted-the-overfishing-denier/blog/56443/
The problem with tourism is it has a huge carbon footprint in the air transport industry
What we need are very large ocean going passenger catamarans wind powered, and to promte the idea that the journey is the destination.
Yeah, the carbon footprint of aviation is roughly the same as the carbon footprint of this interwebby thingy we’re all using to get into arguments with strangers. Roughly similar to shipping, too, coincidentally. On a worldwide basis.
While I see easy routes to changing almost all land-based energy use to renewable electric, I don’t see anything replacing liquid fuels for long-haul aviation. But biofuels could easily step in.
For shipping, biofuels are also possible, or if not due to cost, nuclear. Sometime very soon, fossil fuels will have to become too expensive to use for shipping to avoid cooking the planet, If biofuels can’t be produced in sufficient quantity, do you really think the entire world will give up the benefits of fast reliable shipping and accept the slow unreliability of wind power, or will the majority shout down the hard-core greenies and accept nuclear powered shipping (as used in many military vessels)?
“the carbon footprint of aviation is roughly the same as the carbon footprint of this interwebby thingy we’re all using to get into arguments with strangers. Roughly similar to shipping, too, coincidentally. On a worldwide basis.”
Is that the av gas or the total footprint?
From the context of the articles I’ve seen the comparisons in, I’m pretty sure it’s the total footprint, including the embodied energy of equipment and infrastructure. But the fuel is by far the biggest component.
And it’s only very roughly a “similar size” footprint for the internet, aviation, and shipping. Without going into all kinds of finer details such as sulphur and particle emissions, cloud generation etc.
So you are saying that the air travel uses as much fuel as all the worlds shipping…… eeeeeck
Sure large fast tourist catamarans wont replace air travel , but they would be waay cool and would support a truely sustainable new zealand experience that many would appreciate.
Nb by large i mean equivelent size of a modern cruise ship . Speed of a sailing vessel is largly determined by size
assume the carbon footprint for the net you describe is based on the energy consumed produced by coal/gas?
Mostly the coal/gas use to generate electricity. So when the electricity supply goes non-fossil, the footprint will go way down.
my thought exactly…..unlike the aircraft
School Funding-
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/303881/schools-funding-revamp-details-develop
FFS! I can’t think of anything printable to write about the sheer stupidity of even considering performance pay.
No one knows just what the best teacher is.
Performance pay on child progress is fraught. It would cause schools and/or teachers to avoid the difficult learners.
It would encourage the bending of results.
Worst of all would be the development of teacher secretiveness. Only some will get performance pay so each teacher would guard the secrets. The great strength of NZ teachers has been, until the last few years, to collaborate and innovate. Now it will be “play it safe and make it look good.” Tough luck for special needs of the gifted and those of those who have disabilities.
And parents will be encourage to flight from schools that are failing. Teachers would gravitate away from the schools with poorer kids and go for the schools with rich kids who will be easier to teach.
+10 Xanthe but for folk with short holidays even cats are too slow.
I like to watch Rural Delivery on Saturday mornings. One very concerning item this morning (14th May) a major Bio Security leak. Somehow a Willow Aphid has got into the country and is invading a large numbers of the Willow Trees
This Aphid’s only predator is the ladybird and as the Willow Tree grower said, the population of these aphids has exploded, and the numbers are too great for the lady birds to cope with. These aphids are non sexual and can produce 10 other Aphids each per day
Big problems, they can kill the Willow, secreat a honeydew which attracts wasps.
The wasp population in these areas has exploded and it is now a major threat along with other threats to the Bee Industry. The Willow grower said he could not get near his plantation this summer with the number of wasps. The increase in the wasp population is a major concern to Apiarists. One bee keeper said he had lost several hives through wasp attacks
It is said that this Aphid breeched the Bio Security in 2013.
Funny that I thought as I remember in 2012 a certain National Party member – a one David Carter REDUCED the number of Bio Security staff claiming it would not have any effect on Bio security.
In addition to our lakes and waterways being polluted by excessive cows piss, we now have another situation AGAIN caused by this incompetent pack of clowns who could not organise a piss up in a brewery. Trying to save a few dollars wage wise they have put at severe risk the Willow Growers who are essential for river bank and hill stabilisation and the bee industry with the potential of losing millions of dollars to these industries, and is going to cost millions to fix. If it can ever be fixed.
As I said earlier, what a pack of fucking useless clowns who could not organise a piss up in a brewery.
http://m.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10811736
Underfunded understaffed and in spite of being surrounded by oceans we are still at risk. Intensive grapes, intensive dairying perhaps next?
Thanks Halfcrown, that’s very interesting. I’ve been wondering about wtf is going on too, after the introduction of velvetleaf, which looks to have been entirely preventable.
+100
….you would have thought the Nactional Party would have learned a lesson from the Bio Security Varroa mite fiasco and its devastation on NZ bees
http://www.urbanbees.co.nz/varroa
….Bio Security should be a growth employment area, considering all the overseas visitors…NOT reduction in valuable Bio Security staff
But, but, but – then National wouldn’t be able to lower taxes for the rich.
National always go round reducing critical government services claiming that it will have no effect and then fudging or outright hiding the numbers that prove that they absolute worst possible thing.
Nature will fix it – in about a thousand years. We probably won’t like the short term (anything less than 1000 years) results though.
Willows were also an early import. Weeping willow (Salix babylonica) cuttings, reputed to be from alongside Napoleon’s grave on St Helena, were planted at Akaroa in 1839. Other early introductions included S. fragilis, S.alba, S. cinerea and S. viminalis.
What was used to stabilise hills and river banks before the poplar and willow trees were imported?
Thank you all for your responses.
I sometimes wonder Chooky and I have not looked it up, what has happened to our once very successful Queen & Bumble Bee export market now we have the Varroa mite fiasco and its devastation on NZ bees.
Draco said
“What was used to stabilise hills and river banks before the poplar and willow trees were imported?
Native bush Draco
Regeneration of the native bush would fix it, and it would not be hard to do. But that wont happen will it. Can’t grow natives on vulnerable hillsides that will slip and silt up the nearest river when you need it for more fucking cows and there is a dollar to be made. No dollars (they think) in regenerating the bush on vulnerable land, sooner plant Willows
As two people who’s opinions I respect said
Steve Keen economist. They don’t teach history and therefore learn from history, .that is why they still make the same mistakes thinking it is going to work. No wonder the world is in such a mess.
Glenda Jackson actress The Neo retards (my words) know the price of everything but the value of nothing.
Going slightly off topic, I would add though there are quite a few farmers who are very conscious of their responsibilities to future generations and to the country and have area’s on their property that they have let return to bush.
If we don’t learn from history then we’re doomed to repeat it. History is littered with the corpses of civilisations destroyed by the rich. The lesson we need to learn is to get rid of the rich before they destroy us.
I like this one:
Seems to sum up what has become of our society. It’s been taken over by the criminals.
100%
‘Blue on blue: Tory infighting intensifies 6 weeks before Brexit vote’
https://www.rt.com/uk/342940-tory-fight-over-brexit/
“Tory infighting has escalated this week with increasingly bitter ‘blue on blue’ attacks in the debate on whether Britain should vote to leave the EU in just six weeks’ time.
Despite Prime Minister David Cameron urging his party not to tear itself apart, recent exchanges show the referendum campaign is causing a split among senior members of the Conservative Party.
Whatever the outcome of the referendum on June 23, it seems Cameron will have to consider some delicate party reshuffling to keep a grip on power…
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=11638945
Proof The Two-Party System Is COLLAPSING! (Video)