Q: What is the greatest single thing that prevents our parliament from taking real action against climate change?
A: The ETS (Emissions Trading Scheme)
The ETS also known in some circles as the PTS (Pollution Trading Scheme). Allows polluters to buy credits to allow them to continue polluting, (In practice the ETS has overseen an increase the amount GHG (Green House Gases) emitted by this country.
Its not legislation which is preventing climate change action. Its the influential top quartile high consuming middle class middle management electorate who don’t want to be told that they need to scale back their energy and resource usage by 25%, immediately. Altering ETS legislation won’t affect that mindset.
The problem isn’t the ETS as such, the problem is that many polluting industries are not included in the scheme and the taxpayer is subsidizing polluting industries by purchasing half their credits. Without a proper charge being placed on pollution, including industries paying for cleanup costs (including climate change mitigation), there will be no reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, and our existence on earth will become even more tenuous.
Its not legislation which is preventing climate change action. Its the influential top quartile high consuming middle class middle management electorate who don’t want to be told that they need to scale back their energy and resource usage by 25%, immediately. Altering ETS legislation won’t affect that mindset.
Colonial Viper
How do you know how any section of the population will react unless you give a lead?
Thing is, no politician or business leader can advocate anything like this, even if they wanted to. They wouldn’t be a politician or business leader by the end of the month.
lol. More seriously, this is where things need to go, but politicians and business leaders will never say it. To them, BAU growth will return shortly. No it won’t.
A right wing monetarist scheme to avoid meeting our international obligations to cut back on GHG emissions, the ETS was brought in by a Labour Government, controversially (and provisionally) supported by the Green Party.
The time has come for the Green Party to remove that provisional support, or forever be a patsy for either of the two main parties in parliament.
Like most monetarist avoidance schemes,once they are in place, under successive administrations they are refined and made even more inequitable. Over time the rules are made slacker, the loopholes are made bigger.
And so it has proven with the Pollution Trading Scheme, rather than the polluters paying the cost of their pollution, this cost has been ‘socialised’. Now the taxpayers are effectively paying the polluters to continue BAU. (Business As Usual).
(Not that this is much different from the Labour Government’s privatised version of the ETS, where the polluters just passed on the costs of polluting through price adjustments that left no effect on their bottom line. Which left them free to keep on keeping on, and even increasing emissions.)
The time is well past when the Greens should have removed their support for this pollution trading scheme.
The question is: Will the Greens parliamentary wing heed the call from the right of the Labour Party to shut up about the environment in exchange for a seat in cabinet?
Or will they remain an independent voice in parliament outside of cabinet?
Will Labour’s continueing “dogmatic” support for market solutions to climate change, be the breaking point of any coalition agreement, between Labour and the Green Party?
Will Green continued support for pollution trading be the sticking point?
NZ has fifteen years to get ready for a deeply energy depleted future.
WTF? No we don’t. All indications are that we won’t be importing enough fuel by the end of this decade which, practically speaking, means we’ve got between 3 and 4 years to get ready. In 15 years we’ll be in the deeply energy depleted future.
Peak Oil combined with oil exporting countries using more of the oil they have at home instead of exporting it and 100 year oil contracts* which we don’t have.
* Not that I expect 100 year oil contracts to actually last out the 100 years.
Thanks, interesting. I accept the general premise of the article and understand the rational for his timeframe.
For example New Zealand produces about 61,000 barrels per day and consumes about 151,000 barrels per day (CIA 2009 data).
Does that mean that, theoretically, leaving aside the drop in production, at the moment we could manage to be self supporting if we dropped our usage by 60%?
The P50 estimates of actual oil production for the significant oil-producing fields around New Zealand each fall to the near-useless volume of 1 million barrels per year (about 2750 barrels per day) between 2020 and 2025
Is that giving us a 8 – 13 year window to power down if we actually owned and used it ourselves?
So even if we were to divert local production to our refinery (and then pay the going global price for it)
Why would we have to pay the global price? Is that because the refinery is privately owned?
We do not even have any first-call on our local oil production that hovers between 60,000 and 40,000 barrels a day, depending on the state of our tiny oil fields. Instead we take the royalty money to assist with our balance of payments, and as noted above even that meagre cash injection is set to decline sharply.
When the heat really goes on, can the NZ govt get out of that agreement, or nationalise the production and refining?
This ‘triangle of hope’ in the top left corner of the chart, terminates (and I use the word advisedly!) in about 2016, five years from today.
Do you mind me asking what you personally are doing in the face of that?
Does that mean that, theoretically, leaving aside the drop in production, at the moment we could manage to be self supporting if we dropped our usage by 60%?
Depends upon what we’re actually importing it for. Purely for fuel, then, yes. Other stuff like plastics would still need to be imported (As I understand it NZ oil is a very light-sweet crude which isn’t suitable for producing the heavier products)
Why would we have to pay the global price?
Because the wells are privately owned and sell the oil at the global price and then pay us a pittance (5%) of what they sell it for.
The really funny/ironic thing about this whole concept is that if we did use it ourselves and only charged ourselves what it cost us to produce the rest of the world (especially the US) would be complaining about us subsidising the oil. This is, of course, complete bollocks and what they’d really be complaining about is the fact that they wouldn’t be able to buy it.
When the heat really goes on, can the NZ govt get out of that agreement, or nationalise the production and refining?
Parliament is supreme so, yes, we can get out of it. The question is whether the government at the time will do so.
Do you mind me asking what you personally are doing in the face of that?
Don’t own a car, walk as much as possible, PT for the rest. Meridian for power which, prior to Gerry Brownlee fucking around with the set up, didn’t have any fossil fuelled generators while minimising power usage as much as possible. What I’d like to do is add some solar panels/water heating and some passive heating and better insulation but it’s not actually my house.
btw the spot price of oil, whether brent or wti or any other, can bear very limited resemblance to what is traded in the ‘dark pool’ exchanges, and is certainly of limited relevance to the prices set within long term supply contracts.
DTB Just velcro panels of styrofoam insulation panels on the walls and ceiling with cheap velcro dots.
paint these panels the colour you like.
Cut out panels the size of windows to cover windows at night.
Have you looked at 12V solar? It is much more efficient than 240. And you can set up a system that is moveable/portable. You could probably do that for solar hot water if you’re handy too.
Another tactic CV uses to avoid taking a stand on Climate Change is to scapegoat the “middle classes” Claiming that the middle classes are far too attached to their “comforts” to be asked to support a party that calls for action against Climate Change.
In my opinion all this evasion, scapegoating and diversion and excuse making is a cover for the Labour Party’s support for deep sea oil exploitation, fracking, opening new coal mines for a new export industry, and probably the most CO2 polluting technology ever invented, lignite to diesel production. All plans approved and championed by the last Labour Government.
CV’s hidden message is clear, Climate Change technologies will be continued and even expanded under a Labour administration. Blaming the middle class and citing peak oil will be the two most used excuses for doing so.
I put it to you CV that your two excuses are very flimsy, and have both been discredited.
I don’t know why CV does it, but for me personally it’s because I think it’s far to late to do anything about CC*, but we still have some time to respond to PO.
*Which doesn’t mean that I think efforts around CC should stop, I do think they’re very important for not making things worse.
Are you a Labour Party Member? Do you support the membership having a genuine and effective role in when and how we select the Leader? Are you concerned that ” senior sources” wants the Caucus to have a block vote? And that they can over-ride the process if their preferred candidate is not selected? Do you want to influence those on the NZ Council shaping the decision? They want to hear from you. Here is the contact info that you require.
David Shearer david.shearer@parliament.govt.nz
Grant Robertson, grant.robertson@parliament.govt.nz,
Moira Coatsworth
Chris Flatt, gensec@labour.org.nz
Maori Senior VP, Parekura Horomia parekura.horomia@parliament.govt.nz
Women’s VP, Kate Sutton
Senior VP, Robert Gallagher
Affiliates VP, Angus McConnell,
Policy Council, Jordan Carter,
Young Labour VP, Glenn Riddell,
Te Kaunihere, Rudy Taylor,
Te Kaunihere, Deborah Mahuta-Coyle,
Pacific Island Vice President,
Area 1, Tanja Bristow,
Area 1, Paul Chalmers,
Area 2, Sonya Church,
Area 3, Shane Stieller,
Area 4, Paul Tolich,
Area 5, Tony Milne,
Area 6, Glenda Alexander,
Rainbow Sector, Simon Randall.
And here is to background for your chat with your Area Rep. (taken from a blog on another stream)
Seeing coverage of the apparently unhurried steps towards Labour party members having a say in future leadership bids made me want to stop and ask some questions about whether they are telling the full story:
1) Will members have the same say as MPs? And who were the “Senior members” said there was some concern that giving too much weight to the membership vote over the caucus vote? Isn’t the point that MPs are accountable to the
membership? If you think of the caucus as being like the employees and the membership is the Board, then employees don’t get to choose the CEO – in a grown up world you work with who you need to. And if the membership choose
someone presumably they are doing it for a good reason? Could it be that there are some MPs who think there is something to fear from that extra level of accountability to the party grassroots?
2) Will the proportion of the leadership vote assigned to affiliates be shrunk by those within caucus who distrust the union movement? Once again what do MPs fear? This is the Labour party, grounded in the Labour relations movement isn’t it?
3) What will happen to the automatic 2013 vote (year ahead of an election)? Surely this would be the perfect opportunity for the membership and affiliates to illustrate their support for the leader for whom they will be volunteering their time to help elect in 2014? And given that this whole undertaking is designed to empower the party membership then why would you try and sidestep the rules before the ink is dry?
4) How is the winnder in each category determined? Winner takes all? Proportional? We all recognise how the ‘first past the post’ approach establishes bias in the system – that’s why we have MMP!
5) Finally, while I applaud caucus and the party for bringing this to the table they can’t afford to do it in a way that is less than meaningful. Besides, what are caucus afraid of? If all is going well who would want to challenge and open themselves to the sort of scrutiny that brings – especially as they would have to justify their decision to the membership, and the wider public, if things are out in the open. Having chosen to open this topic caucus cannot afford to sell the members short. Who is the winner if the party tears itself apart over this? Short term it may be those within the caucus who are resistant to change, but the long term answer would be National, as they’d retain the Treasury benches for some time to come.
Thanks for posting this. NZ Council meeting is this weekend and people need to get word to their rep to make sure that members and unions get the utmost say, not the 30-40 people in caucus.
A wide array of real options need to be brought to a democratic vote in front of delegates at November Conference.
And who were the “Senior members” said there was some concern that giving too much weight to the membership vote over the caucus vote? Isn’t the point that MPs are accountable to the
membership?
As you know, there are a bunch of MPs who don’t really believe in any accountability to the party, and who prefer a party compliant to caucus.
As for the “senior members” you ask about, I suspect (but cannot know for sure) Parker, Jones, Cosgrove and Robertson to be amongst them.
…I applaud caucus and the party for bringing this to the table…
I applaud this too, good to see it being looked at and widely and openly discussed.
Democracy sounds simple – until you start to consider all the possibilities. FPP is much simpler than MMP, but is generally regarded as less fair and less democratic. A simple majority has it’s benefits but also can have potentially major flaws – including when it comes to leader and candidate selection.
I hope it ends up with a better way of doing intra-party democracy
– but remember, democracy doesn’t satisfy all of the people all of the time.
Pete George, you took Gable’s quote right out of context. It was actually:
while I applaud caucus and the party for bringing this to the table they can’t afford to do it in a way that is less than meaningful. Besides, what are caucus afraid of?
Has anyone read Fran O’Sullivan in the Herald this morning? She says what many on this site have been saying for months, namely, that Shearer just isn’t doing a good job of presenting Labour policy or ideas and always prefers mango-skin variant stories.
Even worse, that his primary threat is Greens Leader Russell Norman, who always appears succinct and focussed and appealing.
Which means that those slowly increasing poll numbers for Labour are occurring DESPITE Shearer, not because of him.
What we don’t want to do is lose the next election because we didn’t have someone who could unify the troops, or have the confidence of the whole – caucus, members, and our own SuperPACs the unions. We need a leader in fact who will do that.
And this constitutional review must provide Labour with the mechanisms to do that.
I dread what will occur if Labour’s NZCouncil do not.
“Which means that those slowly increasing poll numbers for Labour are occurring DESPITE Shearer, not because of him.”
Nah those polls are a carefully orchestrated diversion to ensure that there are still simpletons who think that NZ politics is a democracy, which is clearly is not!
Jeez, Ad, if you are relying On Fran O’Sullivan to back your arguments up you must know you’ve already on a loser. David Shearer is going to be the next PM whether you like it or not.
Give the man some credit for steadying the ship. These slow, but effective poll gains are a result of his leadership and some real discipline from the rest of the caucus. Notice there haven’t been any self inflicted wounds in recent months? Discipline and positivity are going see Labour lead the next Government.
Yes O’Sullivan makes me sick generally. Still the NZHerald editorial this week was clearly extremely well briefed by those who prefer the current leadership system to be protected, so it was good to see the Herald giving with one hand and then taking with the other. Balanced journalism right? 😉
It was pretty steady under Goff. In fact it was pretty steady under Rowling. Steady losers.
Discipline and positivity is standard code for do what caucus tells you to do.
We are over that now. Moira let the democracy genie out of the bottle and there is no stuffing it back in.
Discipline and positivity will not will Labour any election. Inspiring members, supporters, and in fact inspiring New Zealand will.
The Neo Con man Key is loosing his Teflon.
Investment bankers are the most despised people in the world today.
Labour just has to sit back and watch National implode.
Austerity policies will Guarantee the economy continues to bottom drag.
Some perspective is needed here. National’s vote is slowly collapsing. Labour’s vote has returned from its election day low to the general area where it has yoyoed for the past four and a half years. Winning an election from that position would very likely render it a one term government, with a long time in the wilderness to follow.
Jesus wept, TRP
How fucking inspirationless and ambitionless can we be?
Are you saying that the new strategy of the twits who brought Labour to its worse election defeat in 2011 is to just avoid upsetting people? And then, Mirabula Dictu, half a million who did not vote or drifted to parties that inspired them, will come, racing down the street, first thing in the morning, and vote Shearer and Robertson into a government!
Next you will be telling us that the Meet shall inherit the Earth!
Bill. The Labour caucus has got a policy of leadership by managing internal poll numbers. Its the reason why NZ1 and the Greens can react faster and more authentically on every single issue.
And the faction currently in power in the Labour caucus are only interested in chasing the soft middle class vote and befriending big business; they aren’t interested in turning out the working or under class vote.
Not saying any of those things, Bill. But I know a good strategy when I see one and letting your opponent make mistakes, while making none yourself tends to result in wins. And Labour will be looking to go into election year ready to win. That means building support now and announcing good policy then. Which they are clearly doing, according to my mate Roy Morgan. Under Shearer’s quiet, but effective leadership.
Sorry you don’t have the patience, Bill, but the rest of us will carry on to victory with or without you.
–You don’t even know yourself, which is why you are able to spout this sort of shit!
Ego is not being able to see where ones-self has been fooled, because ones ego, wont allow it!
The other part is just being a fucken idiot, too stupid to see your own ego, yet making statements like “But I know a good strategy when I see one” & “Sorry you don’t have the patience, Bill, but the rest of us will carry on to victory with or without you”
You manage to pull off both like a champion, but its your ego which is causing you the real problems, and its possible you are not dumb enough for that to be the major excuse!
‘Victory”, “the rest of us” – Sums you up right there, you cant even begin to hide it….dick!
“The rest of us will carry on to victory with or without you”
… shows precisely why we no longer need a Labour Party dominated by caucus. Any criticism sees the blood-veil come over the eyes, and out come the “with us or against us” Bush-isms, just as you did.
You need to get ready for democracy within Labour, Te Reo. There will be no more of that crap.
No more bullying in the guise of “discipline”. You will have to learn grace. Leadership will have to learn to take criticism within and without. As, Te Reo, will you.
It leaves the electorate totally without hope because all they have done is vote against something.
Those who support Labour standing for nothing simply because that will get them into government are actually actually advocating stripping out the final vestiges of any real meaning in the system of parliamentary democracy.
A party NOT shooting themselves in the foot every five minutes is expected. It is the minimum standard to achieve.
You don’t get a medal for doing that.
Shearer and Labour are invisible. No one knows what they are doing, what they stand for or who they are. The Greens and NZ First have taken on the job of being the Opposition.
National are losing popularity all on their own, not because Labour has done anything special lately. We’re at or nearing the point where the balance could tip.
But it won’t if people see no alternative to National. Even if they dislike National they will still vote for them if they think Labour is worse.
The idea that National losing popularity on their own is enough to propel Labour into Government is false. We could end up with a hung Parliament or a National/NZ First coalition or some other mad combination.
The fight? Wake up man, the fact there is no fucking fight in Labour – merely a timid strategy to run down the clock with fingers crossed – is what everyone is pointing out!!!
“Give the man some credit for steadying the ship. These slow, but effective poll gains are a result of his leadership and some real discipline from the rest of the caucus”
–You are a bigger part of the problem than I ever gave you credit for…Please just stand down!
Discipline and positivity are going see Labour lead the next Government.
Much though it hurts* to agree with you, I do.
The Labour hatred, and specifically the Shearer hatred here gets very, very old…
* You possibly have some conception of how much it hurts – and it applies to this one topic only! I’d rather die than agree with you about anything else, ever again.
Gotta say, I’ll be deeply depressed if he follows her advice on this bit (referring to mining):
Right now he is trying to extricate himself on the mining issue after the Herald’s bellwether poll showed that New Zealanders have warmed to the prospect of surgical mining to leverage the country’s valuable natural resource base: reversing himself out of the poll-driven cul-de-sac that he parked himself in when public opinion was running in the other direction.
Or, just a thought, he could say “There is no such thing as surgical mining. I won’t lie to the New Zealand people about the effects of mining just to win votes, unlike the Government.”
But of course O’Sullivan is not in the business of giving Labour good advice, just sometimes accidentally hitting on the truth when telling them how they’re doing it wrong.
Both Shearer and Norman are too far to the right for my liking. But NAct and supporters will continue to focus on those two as more desirable than the more left wing members of of the Labour and Green Parties. And they will continue to try to play them (Shearer & Norman) off against each other.
It’s taken some time for Norman to build a media presence, too. Remember when he was portrayed by righties as a wimpy joke when he protested with a Tibetan flag at parliament?
Kind of related to this morning’s (so far) open mike theme of environmental destruction and the collapse of the dominance of the industrialised western world….
As someone who is just not into owning land, this mania to purchase a mortgage, with people scrambling over the banks bargain bin sale, just sees like a craziness to me:
Thousands of New Zealanders chasing a cut in their home loan interest rate have caused a log jam in the banking system, which is groaning under the weight of homeowners battling for the best deal.
[…]
Mortgage rates have hit rock bottom and banks are going to extreme lengths to get borrowers to switch lenders.
And then I read Monbiot’s piece commemorating the environmental poet, John Clare (1793-1864)
Clare came from a poor [English] background, but took to the printed word, recording his pleasure in the natural world around him. Monbiot says, for Clare: While life was hard and spare, it was also, he records, joyful and thrilling.
But then came enclosures, and the despairing decline of Clare. Monbiot describes the impact of the enclosures:
Farming became more profitable, but many of the people of Helpston – especially those who depended on the commons for their survival – were deprived of their living. The places in which the people held their ceremonies and celebrated the passing of the seasons were fenced off. The community, like the land, was parcelled up, rationalised, atomised. I have watched the same process breaking up the Maasai of east Africa.
And that last sentence reminds me that for John Key, the issue of water is about outright ownership, while for tangata whenua, it’s about rights & kaitiaki:
[Te Runanga-a-Iwi o Ngapuhi chairman Sonny] Tau said talk of who “owned” water was merely confusing, “because at the end of the day ownership in the Western ideology is not what we seek”.
“We seek to be recognised in our role as kaitiaki or guardians of water so that if there’s any allocation or allocation of rights to water, then Maori need to be significantly involved.”
We need to get away from western notions of ownership of land and resources, and get more into a kaitiaki state of mind. To quote Clare, as cited by Monbiot:
“Inclosure came and trampled on the grave / Of labour’s rights and left the poor a slave … And birds and trees and flowers without a name / All sighed when lawless law’s enclosure came.”
I also meant to include this quote from Monbiot’s article, about how the seeds of the decline of Western capitalism, were built into its (environmentally-destructive) rise:
Our environmental crisis could be said to have begun with the enclosures. The current era of greed, privatisation and the seizure of public assets was foreshadowed by them: they prepared the soil for these toxic crops.
I agree. The conflict/solution, either/or, way of thinking creates conflicts that become ends in themselves. Lose perspective, find a “problem”. Treat the problem with a loss of perspective, create another problem, treat it with the system that created the problem, create another problem, treat it with the same system, that creates another problem…
It makes it easier to describe what makes up the kind of world we have created when you describe the world as a series of conceptual layers:
– Synchronised time, across all parts of the world, which calibrates our waking life into a march
– Property, which drives divisiveness and pollutes humans with an ether of constant anxiety and avarice
– Patriarchy, which sorts people by a scopic order of beauty and violence repressed or otherwise
– Resource, as subset of property, which commodifies the earth into things that are quantified as ready to be used up
– Speed, which integrates time and resource into productivity and lived experience
– and Money, a subset of property that accelerates time and resource and enables them to be expressed together
Get rid of any one of those layers in your life and you really no longer fit onto this world.
Yes, particularly in New Zealand. There was a little book a while ago called “The Eight Tribes of New Zealand” and one of those was the Raglan Tribe. They are the outsiders, small in number, in some alternative black economy, often subsistence, sometimes illegal. They are our outsiders.
[Te Runanga-a-Iwi o Ngapuhi chairman Sonny] Tau said talk of who “owned” water was merely confusing, “because at the end of the day ownership in the Western ideology is not what we seek”.
“We seek to be recognised in our role as kaitiaki or guardians of water so that if there’s any allocation or allocation of rights to water, then Maori need to be significantly involved.”
We need to get away from western notions of ownership of land and resources, and get more into a kaitiaki state of mind.
——————
I quite agree Carol and am pleased to see Tau specifically naming Western ideologies as a problem. I’ve been increasingly alarmed by how much this debate is being framed around water as a commodity and who gets to control that, rather than any core concepts of rivers and lakes being part of the world we belong to and have responsibilities towards.
A big problem here is that the MSM have almost no capacity for speaking outside the Western mindset, and because they are generally useless at covering Te Ao Maori, it’s unlikely they will even notice the differences. For those of us here who believe that we are all better off acknowledging and working within tangata whenua worldviews, there is a challenge now to change the nature of the debate.
For those of us here who believe that we are all better off acknowledging and working within tangata whenua worldviews, there is a challenge now to change the nature of the debate.
Do you have any “everyday practical guidelines” for this?
For example, the chances of me becoming a journalist are nil, and the instances where I might influence a journalist are theoretical at best, so what would people like me do that would change the debate from street level? I’m sure direct confrontation/endless arguments will work for some, but my experience is that it’s like bouncing a ball off a concrete wall. Don’t get me wrong, I like a good demonstration as much as the next protestor, but one reactive format does not suit every situation. Surely there’s got to be something big on effect, that does not rely on being adversarial?
Haven’t thought it through yet Uturn, but off the top of my head…
The blogosphere is increasingly influential, and there is no reason why it can’t lead the way on this. Write posts and comments.
Target reasonably receptive media like National Radio eg get Kim Hill to interview someone who knows these issues inside out and can hold their own talking with her. Use whatever means available to comment to MSM directly (txt, email, posting one websites). Make the issues visible.
Educate ourselves and start using language and concepts that support alternatives to the Western world view (and try not to use Western new age language). This is a major challenge IMO. Many Pakeha do understand these issues to some extent, but English is not yet a good/easy language to discuss them.
Start talking about Peak Water. Now that Peak Oil is in the mainstream, it gives an easy reference point. Fear can be a useful motivator.
Build bridges between Maori and non-Maori. The risk here is that Pakeha appropriate Maori concepts and ideas without changing power structures (aka they steal more shit), or they engage in brownwashing.
Build bridges between Maori and non-Maori. The risk here is that Pakeha appropriate Maori concepts and ideas without changing power structures (aka they steal more shit), or they engage in brownwashing.
On building bridges without first acknowledging power structures and “brownwashing”:
This would roughly equate to not wearing gimmicky things like flags and t-shirts related to maori sovereignty? Turning it into a cheap fashion statement. Like the Che Guevara stuff that was once popular.
How would a pakeha person behave in a way that tangata whenua would recognise as respectful/correct, regardless of there being any maori around to notice; avoiding brownwashing and other manifestations of a shallow kind of affirmative action?
For example, let’s pick something randomly modern: Pakeha is at the supermarket, what is he/she doing, how is he she behaving, that allows space for maori to be maori, should maori enter the line at the checkout? Doesn’t matter which maori fills that space, just so long at it’s there when needed and that pakeha aren’t unwittingly occupying it in the meantime. How do pakeha “find their place”, or “make space”?
Is this what you mean, or have I misunderstood something?
Not really understanding that example Uturn? Why would anyone need to let someone go first in the supermarket?
I was thinking more about Pakeha being willing to engage with Maori on Maori terms eg spending time on Marae or in other Maori dominant spaces, reading Maori media and writings, educating ourselves about Te Ao Maori and finding ways to put aside our own agendas for a while, acknowledge that we are on a learning curve and let Maori voices be heard and practiced in non-Maori spaces (perhaps starting with TS)
I also think taking actions to support/tautoko te reo. I only learned quite recently that te reo is not yet out of danger and that many of the gains in the 90s eg Kohanga reo are going backwards again.
Brownwashing… just that we need to avoid doing what we’ve done with eco issues. So much of the middle class wants to do the right thing but only of it doesn’t inconvenience them too much, so we have lots of eco things that are just rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. I think Pakeha NZ is quite capable of taking what it wants without really changing.
One example of this is the new agers. They acknowledge a deficit in their own cultures’ society and spirituality, express an interest in indigenous practices, and decry the fact that they’ve lost their own indigenous experience eons ago and so the only way they can feel connected is via someone else’s culture. They then flock to anything native so long as it’s presented in a non-complex, non-threatening way. As far as I can tell this is predominantly to make the new agers feel better. They are largely devoid of any political awareness (and will in fact say that politics is not good for spirituality) and so will take the things they perceive as taonga and almost completely ignore the rest (the real racists among them will go further and talk about the nice peaceful Waitaha and the nasty violent Ngai Tahu, and how there were really white people here before Maori anyway).
A friend of mine calls them culture vultures. Not all new agers are like that, but it has been a core feature of those communities for a long time. I see the potential for Pakeha to do this with Maori culture in general – take the bits that feed them (or they feel comfortable with) and ignore/deny the rest.
I don’t mean let people go first at the supermarket, but that there must be a mindset for pakeha that from a maori world view perspective, is correct for pakeha.
If I understand correctly that a maori world view has everything in it’s place, then no matter where pakeha are e.g. at the supermarket, beach, riverside, on a hill, there must a be an action that illustrates a mindset. To do anything more overt, would be brownwashing, adopt-a-maori type thinking and completely false or ingenuine. Which is why I suggest, even if there are no maori around to notice, pakeha occupying a position that is inherent to tangata whenua would cause a disturbance to the maori world view?
To avoid a brownwash situation entirely, should we be able to imagine a world where maori are there and pakeha are over there, the two rarely meet, but each occupies it’s correct space. Or to use another metaphor: if what we have now is a wall between maori and pakeha, and pakeha have a habit of jumping over the wall and taking stuff and jumping back again; and maori would prefer to replace the wall with a more fluid interface, what does that interface look like, as described by maori, once pakeha stop invading maori territory?
I’ve seen some articles relating to Matariki and traditional Maori food gathering (wild food from the bush) and food preparation. Some of it publicised events for everyone to learn a little about the traditional tangata whenua approaches to food.
Also, Pakeha have our own traditions that predate capitalism, that we can look back to. The community and common good that the poet Clare & Monbiot wrote about.
“The blogosphere is increasingly influential, and there is no reason why it can’t lead the way on this. Write posts and comments”
–While the net is a good tool for gathering, and sharing ideas, never underestimate its ability to suck the energy out of good intentions, misdirect them, and flat out be used against them.
I can’t help but feel people believe that being active online is in some way helping, like believing that humanity becoming closer or better communicators, because we communicate more, when the opposite is in fact true. The tech is isolating, as much as it is unifying,
So while the the blogs etc are all good an well, dont be fooled into thinking that at some point, all but the very few will have to take physical action, those few will also have to sometime after that.
I know there was more to your post Weka, but I just wanted to highlight that singular component.
It’s a good point muzza, and I tend to agree as a generalisation. However I think I was meaning more that the mainstream is now taking blogging more seriously, the MSM uses the blogosphere, and people who have been traditional power holders also use the blogosphere. That means it’s a (one) point of intervention in terms of influencing how the debate goes. But yeah, don’t worry, I’m not thinking it’s replacement for real life.
A brilliant piece from the Guardian: “Racism is still very much with us. So why don’t we recognise it?”
…The consensus that societies are post-racial has supported a range of political strategies often described as “cultural racism”. The people are not racist, the argument goes, and any prejudice is merely a natural defensive response to the “reverse racism” of “migrants” who refuse to adapt and accept “our way of life”. While these strategies eschewed overt claims of superiority, 9/11 and its aftermath have brought assertions of cultural hierarchy unashamedly back into mainstream European politics.’ ‘Our way of life’ only makes sense when there is somebody to define it, and defend it against.
If shifting forms of racialisation make racism hard to pin down, the liberal ideal of “colour-blindness” makes it even harder. Being blind to race often involves being blind to racism. The election of Barack Obama led to the celebration of a post-racial era in the US, but it also led to what Darnell L Moore calls “e(race)sure”. That is, racism has not been overcome because a black President was elected, but the legitimacy of analysing society in terms of race has been undermined. Obama can be made to stand as evidence of the removal of the final racial barriers to achievement, with the twist that those who do not now achieve fail not because of inequality, discrimination or exclusion, but because they don’t try hard enough.
The insistence that we live in post-racial societies, and the outrage when racism is called out, denies those who experience racism the right to define it and combat it on their terms. This is a central anti-racist principle, yet it is those who perpetuate racism who increasingly claim the right to say what racism is and, more frequently, what it is not….
Its not that we need a new paradigm to fix the problems.
Its we need the rules to actually matter.
Take my present problem. First some preliminaries.
When you sleep you ears pick up (for evolutionary
reasons that hearing a predator coming means you
live to pass on your genes) a lot more. So
much so people are oft required to use white noise
machines to protect their hearing at night.
Now we all know that road vehicles have a upper
limit of noise, measured of course when they are
maxed out for speed on the open highway. We
see councils building new roads with huge earth
barriers on either side of the roads, negative
sensitive areas. Because to reduce costs, we
spend more instead of investing in better motor
vehicles (silent electric cars and putting freight
on trains).
Thirdly, in harder times people get angry. They
are likely to believe they have a right not only
to noise but noise at low speed. So they reconfigure
their cars, which won’t be assessed for noise at
low speed (or acceptable because the limit at high
speed when engine is most violent is met), to be mean
noise bombs the moment the ignition is turned on.
Now obviously if they also go to work at 7am, too
their high noise building site, where they lost their
hearing many years before, then end up pounding their neghbors
with noise every morning.
And how does our society deal with this problem, of
a legal road vehicle, pumped up for noise, waking
good people to excessive noise at 7am when they
were asleep. Well they call noise control.
And as is the want of council noise control to
decide what is acceptable, what they will investigate,
because that what’s council decide, they do a rather
blaize investigation and apply no standards but
the subjective assessment of council officers!@#@
You see, after a run of massive credit binging, not
only have councils not had to deal with the growing
rage and so losened their grip on what their legal
duty is. That they have to investigate noise – ANY NOISE.
Also, to be fair, its easier to clear up a problem by a
word or too to the party of noise, and so they didn’t
need all that dumb noise testing equipment and chucked it.
Its not that we need a new paradigm to fix the problems.
Its we need the rules to actually matter.
Thirty years of neo-liberalism have softened the brains
of our bureaucrats to the extent that even the most
hairy sane ministers come up with nonsense policies
that would have had their departments carefully pressing
the buttons to talk down the minister. Not any more.
Because the rot isn’t just noise officers saying they
cannot investigate noise despite their legal duty under
the local government act to do so, diligently. No,
the rot is everywhere where a generation has had it too
easy, easy in both senses, easier laxer regulation and
easier and simpler times requiring a phone call to clear
up. Not as now with lots of angry people and their angry
cars.
Since we are moving and becoming, a rightly, more angry
society again. Cheap energy has made us destroy the planet,
we don’t need no new paradigm, we just need to get anal
about rules again. Apply them consistently, apply them
rigorously, apply them quicker.
And their in lies the problem. The conservative, always
waiting at tipping points to stop the backward movement
of society, away from all their deregulation and political
hired lazy bureaucrats. Its doesn’t matter that a neighbor is
losing their hearing, getting tinnitus, ACC is waiting
to pay out. Its doesn’t matter that the costs of
conservatism will cost us more, more destroyed lives.
All that matters is our preservation of the ruling elite
and their self-serving bad thinking patterns, the turd blossom.
The turd blossom is a simple trick. The idea is to stop
change that harms the elite. It involves a two step
process, or as I like to think of it, arse backwards.
Arguments start with evidence and then talk to changes.
Arse backwards turb blossoms reverse this, they talk
first about costs and difficulties with implementation
before there is even agreement over evidence. So the
convincing argument for change, that the elite fears
becomes a mess of misunderstanding, distorted facts
(since facts are worked differently in the investigation
phase and the governing phases), and dispersion of the
root need the argument was talking to.
Now let’s not be too high minded, some turb blossoms are needed
to protect the nation state. The problem is that conservatives
are using them exclusively to protect themselves, the elite few.
We don’t need no paradigm shift, we can’t wait for one, we
need the rightwing to STFU, stop going brutal like a bunch
of weak fearful people who are about (rightly) to be sacked
for incompetence and laziness. Its only going to cost more
in the long run, the longer they hang on that is.
But we don’t need no frigging new paradigm, we need rules to
matter. we don’t need no fanatic Senisible Sentencing Trust
rush of blood to their head, end the right to silence.
A classic two stop arse backwards argument, because
the accused could create a better justice system by exposing
themselves in court, then we should mess up the evidential
trail by making it easier for botchups earlier in the process.
we seperate matters for a reason. A good investigator
knows the facts at the time of the crime will have a
different facet in courts. So police can stage a press
conference where they may believe the suspect is a family
member, or use the need to search the area for offenders and
find evidence in the course of investigating. Why would
we want to reward the state law officers with the nonsense
of the police investigation process, where facts found during
investigating can have both positive and negative connotations.
I need council to investigate a noisy car on private property,
that leaves every morning just before 7am, a noise bomb, that takes
the quiet of early morning and smashes it with a noise
that should only be coming from a truck at 100 on the open
highway. All vehicles should be minimized for noise, for
obvious reasons that if we didn’t the cacophony would be
horrendous. So why is it so hard for Police and Council to
work together to minimize the noisiest vehicle around here,
BY FAR? Because Police cannot act as its a car on private
property, not the open road, and council says it cannot
act because the car is legal for the road!!!! Council needs
to act because it has a duty to investigate all roadway
vehicles on private property being tested for their big
day at the local raceway. So why isn’t it, is my council
just more lazy, reckless about the loss of hearing to
not only neighbors but family of the petrol head, his kids
with 10m of this noise bomb???? Will ACC be picking up the
costs in future years when these kids start claiming
hearing aids??? When he deliberately passes his hearing loss
to his own kids???
We’ve had it easy, with lots of dosh, loads of money, flushing
the economy, our bureaucrats didn’t need to be ruthless in
regard of regulation, our society was happy, our public
servants could nuance solutions off the cuff. These days
are over. We do not need National’s continuing new paradigms,
charter schools, national standards, kids learn naturally,
ask why they aren’t, not how they can do so faster. Yeah,
how stupid are National, that they believe if they can get
kids at the tail to learn faster like those at the top do!
Kids arent learning at the bottom, are inhibited, and aren’t
going to learn faster if they aren’t fed, if they can’t do
their homework for the cold home they live in, if all they
can see is debt in their educational future. No reward, lots
more barriers.
National paradigm of having new solutions, of looking active,
when we all know their extremism selects laughable evidence
from crazy America, look at the great US, its imploding from
horrendous levels of stupidity, the US will take us all with
them into an environmental, economic, societal hell on earth.
Its a joke that anyone believes Key’s government is good for NZ.
We do not need a new paradigm, we need to live in the now,
and enforce the rules we have now, and reverse the decline
in rules that rightwing governments of Labor and National
have produced. National are anti rule of law, want change now,
when we need diligent government who worry about outcomes
not balance sheets (they come later).
National are arse backwards, like their neo-liberal turd
bottom agenda. And someone get the council to do something
about the noise bomb please!!!
So, in summary, the USTR has released a public blog post about a secret proposal to expand something – a filtering mechanism on copyright limitations and exceptions – which might have real social, moral, and economic value. And all we know is that the only thing the authors of the proposal really wanted to make public was the fact that no matter what the content was, it was subject to enough international restrictions that it could be effectively gutted. The only thing 21st century about that is they used a blog to tell us about it.
Mr Quivooy said there was a two-year statute of limitations in the Gambling Act which meant “the department would be unable to bring a prosecution”.
Was this law ever intend to be used in keeping the industry honest ?
Perhaps these machines should be nationalised and be incorporated within the Lotteries commission, as it appears we cannot trust those running gambling 🙁
IMO if like alcohol any license operator caught breaching the rules then 1st case week, 2nd breach month suspension of ability to sell, then loss of license.
John Key has copped most of the flack over water ‘ownership’, but he holds a fairly common view.
Labour has exactly the same position as National – nobody owns the water – and if there were an adverse finding of the Waitangi Tribunal would not necessarily follow them.
Yet leader David Shearer is unable to articulate it strongly for fear of sounding like National and for fear of offending the party’s Maori constituency.
Instead, he joined Mana’s Hone Harawira this week in calling for the Maori Party to end its support agreement with the National Government.
The Shearer argument went something like this: Yes, John Key is inflaming things by rarking up the Maori Council and saying his Government won't be bound by any Waitangi Tribunal ruling on the push to stop the Mighty River Power share float until a deal is done in this area.
But, no, Maori don't have a valid water claim. Nobody owns water. We pay for water rights to use water, whether it be for irrigation or hydro-electricity or whatever.
A somewhat different approach from Audrey Young also on the Herald website this morning from Adam Bennett – John Key: Waking the Taniwha.
The Maori Council’s Waitangi Tribunal water claim has served notice that the “taniwha” of Maori customary ownership has been awakened by the Government’s partial asset sales plan.
It’s a creature that previous governments have trifled with at their peril, but Prime Minister John Key this week goaded it with comments that have been widely interpreted as marginalising the tribunal and its findings before they have even been produced.
Though the elderly Sir Graham Latimer is not playing an active role in the presentation of the council’s case, his presence at Waiwhetu marae in Lower Hutt and his name on court papers as first claimant at the Waitangi Tribunal hearing should serve as a warning. It was Sir Graham who initiated court action over fisheries, in a major lands case, and over radio spectrum….
Andrea Fabra, a deputy of the ruling party PP in the Spanish parliament, became the center of political storm in the recession-hit country on Friday after video showed her insulting unemployed citizens saying “Fuck them all” just seconds after Spanish PM announced austerity measures.
When I reply to someone’s post, there is no menu bar with the bold, italics, quote etc buttons, but the reply box at the bottom of each page has one. ‘Use WYSIWYG’ is ticked in the bottom of page box, but not in the ‘reply to specific posts’ box. Anyone else have this?
(Reuters) – U.S. federal investigators are looking at whether JPMorgan Chase & Co traders hid trading losses that have since grown to $5.8 billion, according to a person familiar with the matter, after the bank said its own probe found reason for suspicion.
Will they have the nerve to ever charge the man at the top, Jamie Dimon. Who is protected by a huge wall of political and financial influence in Washington.
Behold Newton’s 3rd law of Fraudics: Every gross fraudulent action has a laughably inadequate and unequal wristslap reaction. For years of mismarking CDS and the CIO ‘Mistake’, which incidentally everyone at JPM knew about for quarters, and where JPM thought it could manipulate any market it wants simply by sheer scale
As a result of this, regulators who now are only 3 years behind the curve, are most likely snooping to inquire not only how JPM did it (call us: we can brief you in 2 minutes), but who else has been doing this? Hint: everyone.
This is like the “LIEBOR” gate international interest rate setting scandal enveloping Barclays Bank.
It will shortly be shown that multiple major banks participated. And why not, in an industry where DEFRAUDING CUSTOMERS (whether they are big or small) is seen as “best practice”.
Add Wells Fargo 175million USD for racial discrimination&and the
bank of America and at least 1/2 a dozen others for allowing drug cartels and terrorists to launder money.
Basically, the bank screwed large pension funds on forex trades. They retrospectively assigned the worst forex prices of the day, at the end of the day, to the pension funds.
And kept the best prices for themselves.
If you ever hear about US worker pension funds being “underfunded” just recognise that the banks have ripped them off of billions upon billions of dollars, over the last 10 years.
Seems like BNY Mellon is currently doing a good job of getting off the hook on technicalities.
Tossing the ‘man at the top’ in a cold jail cell for a decade or 2 while having a certain satisfactory ring to it would in the end be mere window dressing,
There can only be one ‘logical’ outcome resulting from such systematic criminality inherent within the Western Worlds financial institutions, and that is for the relevant States to seize all the assets listed as possessions of such banks as part of the proceeds of crime committed by banking institutions using their position as banks as mere fronts for such organized criminal activity,
Putting ALL the immoral,illegal and outright criminality in it’s correct perspective is the ultimate CON perpetuated by the Worlds banking elite, that of these institutions of crime being ‘Too Big To Fail’,
Once government’s everywhere bought into that little gem of a fraudulent idea the criminal banking elite have at any time in the future the key to any country’s Treasury,
Should not the gutless western World’s Governments move to seize the Banks at the heart of such fraudulent organized crime the next round of destruction unleashed upon us all via such Banks will simply be a far more complex systematic defrauding of both the public and private purse and as ‘growth’ is still the demand from within the ‘Ism’ the next wave of systematic criminality from those Banks will by far overwhelm in monetary terms the excesses of the past decade of deregulated debauchery unleashed upon us all by the institutions of criminal Banking…
And if the insurance companies don’t pay, we nationalise all their insurance contracts into a new NZ State Insurance, and the privateers can fuck off back whence they came from.
Fletchers should be expropriated without compensation. They grew on taxpayer money and were given a virtual monopoly position by successive governments. Now would be a good time for some dividend to be paid.
Yes, Virginia, there ARE some American reporters with the courage to do their job.
Watch as Matt Lee of the Associated Press confronts government PR woman Victoria Nuland. The really disturbing feature of this clip is not Ms. Nuland’s refusal or inability to engage in debate, it’s the sheepish, embarrassed, bemused behaviour of the drones behind Matt Lee….
I am clearing mail for a younger family member and they have scored a request to participate in a 20 year survey on finances. Selection was by way of the electoral roll – supposedly – and age details etc must have been accessed..
I checked the Electoral commission website privacy statements
(noting they use google analytics but failing to reassure any of us that the commission continues to own the data not google. There is also no reassurance that Google are not doing some data matching of their own against other bases they may control and the data is stored offshore – whoopee- so under a different legal system)
and find they can do this:
“We may give this information to scientific or health researchers, political candidates, members of Parliament or political parties. We can also tell them your age group, postal address and whether you are of Maori descent.”
Does anybody know how they control the research aspect? I can’t find any list of who is doing approved research or what controls there are on reserchers, if any. Does this mean that a named right wing funded think tank can access details and having done some vaguely worded research questions then supply all the details to the political party of their choice?
The answer to the finance question is simple -‘already gone overseas for better prospects’.
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Struts are an essential part of a car’s suspension system. They are responsible for supporting the weight of the car and damping the oscillations of the springs. Struts are typically made of steel or aluminum and are filled with hydraulic fluid. How Do Struts Work? Struts work by transferring the ...
Car registration is a mandatory process that all vehicle owners must complete annually. This process involves registering your car with the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) and paying an associated fee. The registration process ensures that your vehicle is properly licensed and insured, and helps law enforcement and other authorities ...
Zoom is a video conferencing service that allows you to share your screen, webcam, and audio with other participants. In addition to sharing your own audio, you can also share the audio from your computer with other participants. This can be useful for playing music, sharing presentations with audio, or ...
Building your own computer can be a rewarding and cost-effective way to get a high-performance machine tailored to your specific needs. However, it also requires careful planning and execution, and one of the most important factors to consider is the time it will take. The exact time it takes to ...
Sleep mode is a power-saving state that allows your computer to quickly resume operation without having to boot up from scratch. This can be useful if you need to step away from your computer for a short period of time but don’t want to shut it down completely. There are ...
Introduction Computer-Assisted Translation (CAT) has revolutionized the field of translation by harnessing the power of technology to assist human translators in their work. This innovative approach combines specialized software with human expertise to improve the efficiency, accuracy, and consistency of translations. In this comprehensive article, we will delve into the ...
In today’s digital age, mobile devices have become an indispensable part of our daily lives. Among the vast array of portable computing options available, iPads and tablet computers stand out as two prominent contenders. While both offer similar functionalities, there are subtle yet significant differences between these two devices. This ...
A computer is an electronic device that can be programmed to carry out a set of instructions. The basic components of a computer are the processor, memory, storage, input devices, and output devices. The Processor The processor, also known as the central processing unit (CPU), is the brain of the ...
Voice Memos is a convenient app on your iPhone that allows you to quickly record and store audio snippets. These recordings can be useful for a variety of purposes, such as taking notes, capturing ideas, or recording interviews. While you can listen to your voice memos on your iPhone, you ...
Laptop screens are essential for interacting with our devices and accessing information. However, when lines appear on the screen, it can be frustrating and disrupt productivity. Understanding the underlying causes of these lines is crucial for finding effective solutions. Types of Screen Lines Horizontal lines: Also known as scan ...
Right-clicking is a common and essential computer operation that allows users to access additional options and settings. While most desktop computers have dedicated right-click buttons on their mice, laptops often do not have these buttons due to space limitations. This article will provide a comprehensive guide on how to right-click ...
Powering up and shutting down your ASUS laptop is an essential task for any laptop user. Locating the power button can sometimes be a hassle, especially if you’re new to ASUS laptops. This article will provide a comprehensive guide on where to find the power button on different ASUS laptop ...
Dell laptops are renowned for their reliability, performance, and versatility. Whether you’re a student, a professional, or just someone who needs a reliable computing device, a Dell laptop can meet your needs. However, if you’re new to Dell laptops, you may be wondering how to get started. In this comprehensive ...
Two-thirds of the country think that “New Zealand’s economy is rigged to advantage the rich and powerful”. They also believe that “New Zealand needs a strong leader to take the country back from the rich and powerful”. These are just two of a handful of stunning new survey results released ...
In today’s digital world, screenshots have become an indispensable tool for communication and documentation. Whether you need to capture an important email, preserve a website page, or share an error message, screenshots allow you to quickly and easily preserve digital information. If you’re an Asus laptop user, there are several ...
A factory reset restores your Gateway laptop to its original factory settings, erasing all data, apps, and personalizations. This can be necessary to resolve software issues, remove viruses, or prepare your laptop for sale or transfer. Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to factory reset your Gateway laptop: Method 1: ...
“You talking about me?”The neoliberal denigration of the past was nowhere more unrelenting than in its depiction of the public service. The Post Office and the Railways were held up as being both irremediably inefficient and scandalously over-manned. Playwright Roger Hall’s “Glide Time” caricatures were presented as accurate depictions of ...
Roger Partridge writes – When the Coalition Government took office last October, it inherited a country on a precipice. With persistent inflation, decades of insipid productivity growth and crises in healthcare, education, housing and law and order, it is no exaggeration to suggest New Zealand’s first-world status was ...
Rob MacCulloch writes – In 2022, the Curriculum Centre at the Ministry of Education employed 308 staff, according to an Official Information Request. Earlier this week it was announced 202 of those staff were being cut. When you look up “The New Zealand Curriculum” on the Ministry of ...
Chris Bishop’s bill has stirred up a hornets nest of opposition. Photo: Lynn Grieveson for The KākāTL;DR: The six things that stood out to me in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, poverty and climate from the last day included:A crescendo of opposition to the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill is ...
Monday left me brokenTuesday, I was through with hopingWednesday, my empty arms were openThursday, waiting for love, waiting for loveThe end of another week that left many of us asking WTF? What on earth has NZ gotten itself into and how on earth could people have voluntarily signed up for ...
Hello! Here comes the Saturday edition of More Than A Feilding, catching you up on the past week’s editions.State of humanity, 20242024, it feels, keeps presenting us with ever more challenges, ever more dismay.Do you give up yet? It seems to ask.No? How about this? Or this?How about this?Full story Share ...
Determining the hardest sport in the world is a subjective matter, as the difficulty level can vary depending on individual abilities, physical attributes, and experience. However, based on various factors including physical demands, technical skills, mental fortitude, and overall accomplishment, here is an exploration of some of the most challenging ...
The allure of sport transcends age, culture, and geographical boundaries. It captivates hearts, ignites passions, and provides unparalleled entertainment. Behind the spectacle, however, lies a fascinating world of financial investment and expenditure. Among the vast array of competitive pursuits, one question looms large: which sport carries the hefty title of ...
Introduction Pickleball, a rapidly growing paddle sport, has captured the hearts and imaginations of millions around the world. Its blend of tennis, badminton, and table tennis elements has made it a favorite among players of all ages and skill levels. As the sport’s popularity continues to surge, the question on ...
Abstract: Soccer, the global phenomenon captivating millions worldwide, has a rich history that spans centuries. Its origins trace back to ancient civilizations, but the modern version we know and love emerged through a complex interplay of cultural influences and innovations. This article delves into the fascinating journey of soccer’s evolution, ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
The Green Party has today launched a step-by-step guide to help New Zealanders make their voice heard on the Government’s democracy dodging and anti-environment fast track legislation. ...
The National Government’s proposed changes to the Residential Tenancies Act will mean tenants can be turfed from their homes by landlords with little notice, Labour housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty said. ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson is calling on all parties to support a common-sense change that’s great for the planet and great for consumers after her member’s bill was drawn from the ballot today. ...
A significant milestone has been reached in the fight to strike an anti-Pasifika and unfair law from the country’s books after Teanau Tuiono’s members’ bill passed its first reading. ...
New Zealand has today missed the opportunity to uphold the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment, says James Shaw after his member’s bill was voted down in its first reading. ...
Today’s advice from the Climate Change Commission paints a sobering reality of the challenge we face in combating climate change, especially in light of recent Government policy announcements. ...
Minister for Disability Issues Penny Simmonds appears to have delayed a report back to Cabinet on the progress New Zealand is making against international obligations for disabled New Zealanders. ...
The Government’s newly announced review of methane emissions reduction targets hints at its desire to delay Aotearoa New Zealand’s urgent transition to a climate safe future, the Green Party said. ...
The Government must commit to the Maitai School building project for students with high and complex needs, to ensure disabled students from the top of the South Island have somewhere to learn. ...
Paul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. “Our Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...
Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...
Overseas models for regulating the oil and gas sector, including their decommissioning regimes, are being carefully scrutinised as a potential template for New Zealand’s own sector, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. The Coalition Government is focused on rebuilding investor confidence in New Zealand’s energy sector as it looks to strengthen ...
Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell has today released the Report of the Government Inquiry into the response to the North Island Severe Weather Events. “The report shows that New Zealand’s emergency management system is not fit-for-purpose and there are some significant gaps we need to address,” Mr Mitchell ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith is today travelling to Europe where he’ll update the United Nations Human Rights Council on the Government’s work to restore law and order. “Attending the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva provides us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while ...
Associate Agriculture Minister, Mark Patterson, formally reopened the world’s largest wool processing facility today in Awatoto, Napier, following a $50 million rebuild and refurbishment project. “The reopening of this facility will significantly lift the economic opportunities available to New Zealand’s wool sector, which already accounts for 20 per cent of ...
Hon Andrew Bayly, Minister for Small Business and Manufacturing At the Southland Otago Regional Engineering Collective (SOREC) Summit, 18 April, Dunedin Ngā mihi nui, Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Ko Whanganui aho Good Afternoon and thank you for inviting me to open your summit today. I am delighted ...
The Government is delivering on its commitment to bring back the Three Strikes legislation, Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee announced today. “Our Government is committed to restoring law and order and enforcing appropriate consequences on criminals. We are making it clear that repeat serious violent or sexual offending is not ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has today announced four new diplomatic appointments for New Zealand’s overseas missions. “Our diplomats have a vital role in maintaining and protecting New Zealand’s interests around the world,” Mr Peters says. “I am pleased to announce the appointment of these senior diplomats from the ...
New Zealand is contributing NZ$7 million to support communities affected by severe food insecurity and other urgent humanitarian needs in Ethiopia and Somalia, Foreign Minister Rt Hon Winston Peters announced today. “Over 21 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance across Ethiopia, with a further 6.9 million people ...
Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Paul Goldsmith is congratulating Mataaho Collective for winning the Golden Lion for best participant in the main exhibition at the Venice Biennale. "Congratulations to the Mataaho Collective for winning one of the world's most prestigious art prizes at the Venice Biennale. “It is good ...
The Government is reforming financial services to improve access to home loans and other lending, and strengthen customer protections, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly and Housing Minister Chris Bishop announced today. “Our coalition Government is committed to rebuilding the economy and making life simpler by cutting red tape. We are ...
“China remains a strong commercial opportunity for Kiwi exporters as Chinese businesses and consumers continue to value our high-quality safe produce,” Trade and Agriculture Minister Todd McClay says. Mr McClay has returned to New Zealand following visits to Beijing, Harbin and Shanghai where he met ministers, governors and mayors and engaged in trade and agricultural events with the New ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has completed a successful trip to Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines, deepening relationships and capitalising on opportunities. Mr Luxon was accompanied by a business delegation and says the choice of countries represents the priority the New Zealand Government places on South East Asia, and our relationships in ...
New Zealand is demonstrating its commitment to reducing global greenhouse emissions, and supporting clean energy transition in South East Asia, through a contribution of NZ$41 million (US$25 million) in climate finance to the Asian Development Bank (ADB)-led Energy Transition Mechanism (ETM). Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Climate Change Minister Simon Watts announced ...
The Government is today releasing a list of organisations who received letters about the Fast-track applications process, says RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop. “Recently Ministers and agencies have received a series of OIA requests for a list of organisations to whom I wrote with information on applying to have a ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today announced the appointment of Wellington Barrister David Jonathan Boldt as a Judge of the High Court, and the Honourable Justice Matthew Palmer as a Judge of the Court of Appeal. Justice Boldt graduated with an LLB from Victoria University of Wellington in 1990, and also holds ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford will lead the New Zealand delegation at the 2024 International Summit on the Teaching Profession (ISTP) held in Singapore. The delegation includes representatives from the Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) Te Wehengarua and the New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) Te Riu Roa. The summit is co-hosted ...
A stopbank upgrade project in Tairawhiti partly funded by the Government has increased flood resilience for around 7000ha of residential and horticultural land so far, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones today attended a dawn service in Gisborne to mark the end of the first stage of the ...
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters will represent the Government at Anzac Day commemorations on the Gallipoli Peninsula next week and engage with senior representatives of the Turkish government in Istanbul. “The Gallipoli campaign is a defining event in our history. It will be a privilege to share the occasion ...
Science, Innovation and Technology and Defence Minister Judith Collins will next week attend the OECD Science and Technology Ministerial conference in Paris and Anzac Day commemorations in Belgium. “Science, innovation and technology have a major role to play in rebuilding our economy and achieving better health, environmental and social outcomes ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon held a bilateral meeting today with the President of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The Prime Minister was accompanied by MP Paulo Garcia, the first Filipino to be elected to a legislature outside the Philippines. During today’s meeting, Prime Minister Luxon and President Marcos Jr discussed opportunities to ...
The Government has announced that $20 million in funding will be made available to Westport to fund much needed flood protection around the town. This measure will significantly improve the resilience of the community, says Local Government Minister Simeon Brown. “The Westport community has already been allocated almost $3 million ...
The Government is proud to support the first ever Repco Supercars Championship event in Taupō as up to 70,000 motorsport fans attend the Taupō International Motorsport Park this weekend, says Economic Development Minister Melissa Lee. “Anticipation for the ITM Taupō Super400 is huge, with tickets and accommodation selling out weeks ...
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown has announced an increase to the Rates Rebate Scheme, putting money back into the pockets of low-income homeowners. “The coalition Government is committed to bringing down the cost of living for New Zealanders. That includes targeted support for those Kiwis who are doing things tough, such ...
The Coalition Government is investing in a project to boost survival rates of New Zealand mussels and grow the industry, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones has announced. “This project seeks to increase the resilience of our mussels and significantly boost the sector’s productivity,” Mr Jones says. “The project - ...
Benefit figures released today underscore the importance of the Government’s plan to rebuild the economy and have 50,000 fewer people on Jobseeker Support, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “Benefit numbers are still significantly higher than when National was last in government, when there was about 70,000 fewer ...
The Government’s commitment to doubling New Zealand’s renewable energy capacity is backed by new data showing that clean energy has helped the country reach its lowest annual gross emissions since 1999, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. New Zealand’s latest Greenhouse Gas Inventory (1990-2022) published today, shows gross emissions fell ...
The Government is bringing the earthquake-prone building review forward, with work to start immediately, and extending the deadline for remediations by four years, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “Our Government is focused on rebuilding the economy. A key part of our plan is to cut red tape that ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and his Thai counterpart, Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, have today agreed that New Zealand and the Kingdom of Thailand will upgrade the bilateral relationship to a Strategic Partnership by 2026. “New Zealand and Thailand have a lot to offer each other. We have a strong mutual desire to build ...
RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop and Transport Minister Simeon Brown have today announced the Coalition Government’s intention to extend port coastal permits for a further 20 years, providing port operators with certainty to continue their operations. “The introduction of the Resource Management Act in 1991 required ports to obtain coastal ...
Today’s announcement that inflation is down to 4 per cent is encouraging news for Kiwis, but there is more work to be done - underlining the importance of the Government’s plan to get the economy back on track, acting Finance Minister Chris Bishop says. “Inflation is now at 4 per ...
Refreshed health guidance released today will help parents and schools make informed decisions about whether their child needs to be in school, addressing one of the key issues affecting school attendance, says Associate Education Minister David Seymour. In recent years, consistently across all school terms, short-term illness or medical reasons ...
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones is streamlining high-level oceans management while maintaining a focus on supporting the sector’s role in the export-led recovery of the economy. “I am working to realise the untapped potential of our fishing and aquaculture sector. To achieve that we need to be smarter with ...
Associate Agriculture Minister Mark Patterson is speaking at the International Wool Textile Organisation Congress in Adelaide, promoting New Zealand wool, and outlining the coalition Government’s support for the revitalisation the sector. "New Zealand’s wool exports reached $400 million in the year to 30 June 2023, and the coalition Government ...
The Government is making legislative changes to make it easier for new early learning services to be established, and for existing services to operate, Associate Education Minister David Seymour says. The changes involve repealing the network approval provisions that apply when someone wants to establish a new early learning service, ...
Changes to the Resource Management Act will align consenting for coal mining to other forms of mining to reduce barriers that are holding back economic development, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The inconsistent treatment of coal mining compared with other extractive activities is burdensome red tape that fails to acknowledge ...
Trade, Agriculture and Forestry Minister Todd McClay has concluded productive discussions with ministerial counterparts in Beijing today, in support of the New Zealand-China trade and economic relationship. “My meeting with Commerce Minister Wang Wentao reaffirmed the complementary nature of the bilateral trade relationship, with our Free Trade Agreement at its ...
“Never again - No AUKUS” was the message of the wreath laid at this morning’s national ANZAC Day commemorative service at Pukeahu National War Memorial Park this morning by the Stop AUKUS group. ...
Until this month, Auckland swimmer Hazel Ouwehand had never met a qualifying time in an Olympic event for a New Zealand team, even as a junior. Now she’s very likely off to the Paris Olympics after swimming well under the qualifying standard in the 100m butterfly twice – both in ...
While Anzac Day has experienced a resurgence in recent years, our other day of remembrance has slowly faded from view.The Sunday Essay is made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand. Original illustrations by Hope McConnell.First published in 2022.The high school’s head girl and ...
Australian and New Zealand volunteers fought together in the Waikato War, yet still its place in the Anzac tradition is unacknowledged by our defence forces or Returned Services Association.First published in 2018.When I was a boy cub I attended Anzac Day services in the South Auckland suburb of ...
A poem by Wellington writer Tayi Tibble.Hoki Mai She kisses him goodbye with her eyes still wet and alight from their last swim in the Awatere river. At the train station celebration, she leads the Kapa Haka but her voice keeps breaking under and over itself like waves. ...
A poem from Bill Manhire’s 2017 book of verse Some Things to Place in a Coffin.My World War I Poem Inside each trench, the sound of prayer. Inside each prayer, the sound of digging. Image courtesy of Auckland War Memorial Museum. ...
There are three books I have wolfed down in one sitting over the last two years. Colleen Maria Lenihan’s gorgeous and sad debut Kōhine, Noelle McCarthy’s memoir Grand about becoming her mother and then unbecoming her, and now Hine Toa, a staunch yet gentle self-portrait by living legend Ngāhuia te ...
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Asia Pacific Report Students and activist staff at Australia’s University of Sydney (USyd) have set up a Gaza solidarity encampment in support of Palestinians and similar student-led protests in the United States. The camp was pitched as mass graves, crippled hospitals, thousands of civilian deaths and the near-total destruction of ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James B. Dorey, Lecturer in Biological Sciences, University of Wollongong Australian teddy bear bees are cute and fluffy, but get a look at that massive (unbarbed) stinger! James Dorey Photography Most of us have been stung by a bee and we ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jen Roberts, Senior Lecturer, School of Humanities and Social Inquiry, University of Wollongong Aussie~mobs/FlickrVictor Farr, a private in the 1st Infantry Battalion, was among the first to land at Anzac Cove just before dawn on April 25 1915. Victor Farr ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gregory Moore, Senior Research Associate, School of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences, The University of Melbourne Gregory Moore I had the good fortune to care for the sugar gum at The University of Melbourne’s Burnley Gardens in Victoria where I worked for ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Hawkins, Senior Lecturer, Canberra School of Politics, Economics and Society, University of Canberra BagzhanSadvakassov/Upsplash, CC BY-SA Australia’s inflation rate has fallen for the fifth successive quarter, and it’s now less than half of what it was back in late 2022. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rachel Ong ViforJ, ARC Future Fellow & Professor of Economics, Curtin University Just when we think the price of rentals could not get any worse, this week’s Rental Affordability Snapshot by Anglicare has revealed low-income Australians are facing a housing crisis like ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Meighen McCrae, Associate Professor of Strategic & Defence Studies, Australian National University American and Australian stretcher bearers working together near the front line during the Battle of Hamel in 1918.Australian War Memorial While the AUKUS alliance is new, the Australian-American partnership ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tracey Holmes, Professorial Fellow in Sport, University of Canberra When the news broke last weekend that 23 Chinese swimmers had tested positive to a banned drug in early 2021 and were allowed to compete at the Tokyo Olympic Games six months later ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Cally Jetta, Senior Lecturer and Academic Lead; College for First Nations, University of Southern Queensland Australian War MemorialAboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised this article contains names and images of deceased people, as well as sensitive historical information ...
RNZ News Melissa Lee has been ousted from New Zealand’s coalition cabinet and stripped of the Media portfolio, and Penny Simmonds has lost the Disability Issues portfolio in a reshuffle. Climate Change and Revenue Minister Simon Watts will take Lee’s spot in cabinet. Simmonds was a minister outside of cabinet. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Lindenmayer, Professor, Fenner School of Environment and Society, Australian National University laurello/Shutterstock Some reports and popular books, such as Bill Gammage’s Biggest Estate on Earth, have argued that extensive areas of Australia’s forests were kept open through frequent burning by ...
Analysis - Christopher Luxon framing the demotion of two ministers as the portfolios getting "too complex" is a charitable way of saying they weren't up to the job. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra With Jim Chalmers’s third budget on May 14, Australians will be looking for some more cost-of-living relief – beyond the tax cuts – although they have been warned extra measures will be modest. As ...
Analysis: Melissa Lee has lost the media portfolio and her spot in Cabinet after multiple failed attempts to find solutions for a media industry in crisis. On Wednesday, the Prime Minister announced Lee would be losing her spot in Cabinet along with her media and communications ministerial portfolio. The job ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Simon Wilmot, Senior Lecturer, Film, Deakin University Among the many Australian who served during the second world war, there is a small group of people whose stories remain largely untold. These are the Muslim men and women who, while small in number, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kelly Saunders, PhD Candidate, University of Canberra There has been much analysis and praise of Justice Michael Lee’s recent judgement in Bruce Lehrmann’s defamation case against Channel Ten. Many people were openly relieved to read Lee’s “forensic” and “nuanced” application of law ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kathy Gibbs, Program Director for the Bachelor of Education, Griffith University zEdward_Indy/Shutterstock Around one in 20 people has attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). It’s one of the most common neurodevelopmental disorders in childhood and often continues into adulthood. ADHD is diagnosed ...
The Fairer Future coalition of anti-poverty groups say Whaikaha must be properly funded going forward, and that to argue that poor financial management of the new Ministry is a red herring by the Prime Minister. ...
The Taxpayers’ Union is today congratulating Hon. Paul Goldsmith on his appointment as Minister for Media and Communications and urges him to rule out state intervention in the private media sector. ...
Asia Pacific Report The West Papuan resistance OPM leader has condemned Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and US President Joe Biden, accusing their countries of “six decades of treachery” over Papuan independence. The open letter was released today by OPM chairman Jeffrey P Bomanak on the eve of ANZAC Day ...
Welcome to The Spinoff Books Confessional, in which we get to know the reading habits and quirks of New Zealanders at large. This week: writer and one of Time Magazine’s 100 most influential people of 2024, Lauren Groff.The book I wish I’d writtenIf I wish I’d written a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Fechner, Research Fellow, Social Marketing, Griffith University mavo/Shutterstock Imagine having dinner at a restaurant. The menu offers plant-based meat alternatives made mostly from vegetables, mushrooms, legumes and wheat that mimic meat in taste, texture and smell. Despite being given that ...
“Three Strikes is a dead-end policy proposed by a dead-end government. The Three Strikes law ignores the causes of crime, instead just brutalising people already crushed by the cost of living.” ...
By Don Wiseman, RNZ Pacific senior journalist An Australian-born judge in Kiribati could well face deportation later this week after a tribunal ruling that he should be removed from his post. The tribunal’s report has just been tabled in the Kiribati Parliament and is due to be debated by MPs ...
With its clear mandate for police use, political nuances, and nuanced public trust, Denmark's insights provide valuable considerations for Australia and New Zealand. ...
Books editor Claire Mabey reviews poet Louise Wallace’s debut novel. A famous poet once said to me that he’s always suspicious when a poet publishes a novel. I never really understood why but maybe it’s something to do with cheating on your first form. Louise Wallace is a poet. She’s ...
For a few months at the turn of the millennium, TrueBliss burned bright as the biggest pop stars in the country. Alex Casey chats to two superfans who still hold the flame. During a humble backyard wedding in Nelson, 1999, one of the cordially invited guests had to excuse themselves ...
How will the recent wave of job cuts impact ethnic diversity in the media? In November last year, I was working a very busy day in the newsroom of a large online news site, interviewing whānau about their concerns over the imminent closure of one of the few puna reo ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ruth Knight, Researcher, Queensland University of Technology Have you ever felt sick at work? Perhaps you had food poisoning or the flu. Your belly hurt, or you felt tired, making it hard to concentrate and be productive. How likely would you be ...
Despite heavy criticism and an ongoing select committee process, the Police Minister says the Government will forge ahead with a ban on gang patches. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sam Whiting, Lecturer – Creative Industries, University of South Australia Shutterstock Everyone has a favourite band, or a favourite composer, or a favourite song. There is some music which speaks to you, deeply; and other music which might be the current ...
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Q: What is the greatest single thing that prevents our parliament from taking real action against climate change?
A: The ETS (Emissions Trading Scheme)
The ETS also known in some circles as the PTS (Pollution Trading Scheme). Allows polluters to buy credits to allow them to continue polluting, (In practice the ETS has overseen an increase the amount GHG (Green House Gases) emitted by this country.
Its not legislation which is preventing climate change action. Its the influential top quartile high consuming middle class middle management electorate who don’t want to be told that they need to scale back their energy and resource usage by 25%, immediately. Altering ETS legislation won’t affect that mindset.
No legislation will.
What a cop out.
You have a solution to the top quartile problem then? What is it?
Don’t help them when the shit hits the fan.
The problem isn’t the ETS as such, the problem is that many polluting industries are not included in the scheme and the taxpayer is subsidizing polluting industries by purchasing half their credits. Without a proper charge being placed on pollution, including industries paying for cleanup costs (including climate change mitigation), there will be no reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, and our existence on earth will become even more tenuous.
How do you know how any section of the population will react unless you give a lead?
JMG’s advice is simple – “Collapse now and avoid the rush”
http://thearchdruidreport.blogspot.ca/2012/06/collapse-now-and-avoid-rush.html
Thing is, no politician or business leader can advocate anything like this, even if they wanted to. They wouldn’t be a politician or business leader by the end of the month.
“Collapse now and avoid the rush”
Is this the Labour Right’s advice to the Greens?
lol. More seriously, this is where things need to go, but politicians and business leaders will never say it. To them, BAU growth will return shortly. No it won’t.
A right wing monetarist scheme to avoid meeting our international obligations to cut back on GHG emissions, the ETS was brought in by a Labour Government, controversially (and provisionally) supported by the Green Party.
The time has come for the Green Party to remove that provisional support, or forever be a patsy for either of the two main parties in parliament.
Like most monetarist avoidance schemes,once they are in place, under successive administrations they are refined and made even more inequitable. Over time the rules are made slacker, the loopholes are made bigger.
And so it has proven with the Pollution Trading Scheme, rather than the polluters paying the cost of their pollution, this cost has been ‘socialised’. Now the taxpayers are effectively paying the polluters to continue BAU. (Business As Usual).
(Not that this is much different from the Labour Government’s privatised version of the ETS, where the polluters just passed on the costs of polluting through price adjustments that left no effect on their bottom line. Which left them free to keep on keeping on, and even increasing emissions.)
The time is well past when the Greens should have removed their support for this pollution trading scheme.
The question is: Will the Greens parliamentary wing heed the call from the right of the Labour Party to shut up about the environment in exchange for a seat in cabinet?
Or will they remain an independent voice in parliament outside of cabinet?
Will Labour’s continueing “dogmatic” support for market solutions to climate change, be the breaking point of any coalition agreement, between Labour and the Green Party?
Will Green continued support for pollution trading be the sticking point?
NZ has fifteen years to get ready for a deeply energy depleted future. Transport, energy and comms infrastructure have to be absolute priorities.
How many years of those 15 are you willing to waste dancing around the ETS?
Why the 15 year timeframe, CV?
WTF? No we don’t. All indications are that we won’t be importing enough fuel by the end of this decade which, practically speaking, means we’ve got between 3 and 4 years to get ready. In 15 years we’ll be in the deeply energy depleted future.
Which indications are you referring to Draco? I hear a wide range of informed opinions on the timeframe.
http://oilshockhorrorprobe.blogspot.co.nz/2011/10/when-might-new-zealands-oil-imports-dry.html
Peak Oil combined with oil exporting countries using more of the oil they have at home instead of exporting it and 100 year oil contracts* which we don’t have.
* Not that I expect 100 year oil contracts to actually last out the 100 years.
Thanks, interesting. I accept the general premise of the article and understand the rational for his timeframe.
Does that mean that, theoretically, leaving aside the drop in production, at the moment we could manage to be self supporting if we dropped our usage by 60%?
Is that giving us a 8 – 13 year window to power down if we actually owned and used it ourselves?
Why would we have to pay the global price? Is that because the refinery is privately owned?
When the heat really goes on, can the NZ govt get out of that agreement, or nationalise the production and refining?
Do you mind me asking what you personally are doing in the face of that?
Depends upon what we’re actually importing it for. Purely for fuel, then, yes. Other stuff like plastics would still need to be imported (As I understand it NZ oil is a very light-sweet crude which isn’t suitable for producing the heavier products)
Because the wells are privately owned and sell the oil at the global price and then pay us a pittance (5%) of what they sell it for.
The really funny/ironic thing about this whole concept is that if we did use it ourselves and only charged ourselves what it cost us to produce the rest of the world (especially the US) would be complaining about us subsidising the oil. This is, of course, complete bollocks and what they’d really be complaining about is the fact that they wouldn’t be able to buy it.
Parliament is supreme so, yes, we can get out of it. The question is whether the government at the time will do so.
Don’t own a car, walk as much as possible, PT for the rest. Meridian for power which, prior to Gerry Brownlee fucking around with the set up, didn’t have any fossil fuelled generators while minimising power usage as much as possible. What I’d like to do is add some solar panels/water heating and some passive heating and better insulation but it’s not actually my house.
btw the spot price of oil, whether brent or wti or any other, can bear very limited resemblance to what is traded in the ‘dark pool’ exchanges, and is certainly of limited relevance to the prices set within long term supply contracts.
DTB Just velcro panels of styrofoam insulation panels on the walls and ceiling with cheap velcro dots.
paint these panels the colour you like.
Cut out panels the size of windows to cover windows at night.
Have you looked at 12V solar? It is much more efficient than 240. And you can set up a system that is moveable/portable. You could probably do that for solar hot water if you’re handy too.
None.
Every time we are discussing climate change CV diverts the thread onto peak oil.
Why is this CV?
Another tactic CV uses to avoid taking a stand on Climate Change is to scapegoat the “middle classes” Claiming that the middle classes are far too attached to their “comforts” to be asked to support a party that calls for action against Climate Change.
In my opinion all this evasion, scapegoating and diversion and excuse making is a cover for the Labour Party’s support for deep sea oil exploitation, fracking, opening new coal mines for a new export industry, and probably the most CO2 polluting technology ever invented, lignite to diesel production. All plans approved and championed by the last Labour Government.
CV’s hidden message is clear, Climate Change technologies will be continued and even expanded under a Labour administration. Blaming the middle class and citing peak oil will be the two most used excuses for doing so.
I put it to you CV that your two excuses are very flimsy, and have both been discredited.
I don’t know why CV does it, but for me personally it’s because I think it’s far to late to do anything about CC*, but we still have some time to respond to PO.
*Which doesn’t mean that I think efforts around CC should stop, I do think they’re very important for not making things worse.
Or it could be quite simply that given the various lifecycles related to each of them, we will experience PO much more significantly before CC?
Or we could have them both at the same time 😉
Are you a Labour Party Member? Do you support the membership having a genuine and effective role in when and how we select the Leader? Are you concerned that ” senior sources” wants the Caucus to have a block vote? And that they can over-ride the process if their preferred candidate is not selected? Do you want to influence those on the NZ Council shaping the decision? They want to hear from you. Here is the contact info that you require.
David Shearer david.shearer@parliament.govt.nz
Grant Robertson, grant.robertson@parliament.govt.nz,
Moira Coatsworth
Chris Flatt, gensec@labour.org.nz
Maori Senior VP, Parekura Horomia parekura.horomia@parliament.govt.nz
Women’s VP, Kate Sutton
Senior VP, Robert Gallagher
Affiliates VP, Angus McConnell,
Policy Council, Jordan Carter,
Young Labour VP, Glenn Riddell,
Te Kaunihere, Rudy Taylor,
Te Kaunihere, Deborah Mahuta-Coyle,
Pacific Island Vice President,
Area 1, Tanja Bristow,
Area 1, Paul Chalmers,
Area 2, Sonya Church,
Area 3, Shane Stieller,
Area 4, Paul Tolich,
Area 5, Tony Milne,
Area 6, Glenda Alexander,
Rainbow Sector, Simon Randall.
Kia Kaha
And here is to background for your chat with your Area Rep. (taken from a blog on another stream)
Seeing coverage of the apparently unhurried steps towards Labour party members having a say in future leadership bids made me want to stop and ask some questions about whether they are telling the full story:
1) Will members have the same say as MPs? And who were the “Senior members” said there was some concern that giving too much weight to the membership vote over the caucus vote? Isn’t the point that MPs are accountable to the
membership? If you think of the caucus as being like the employees and the membership is the Board, then employees don’t get to choose the CEO – in a grown up world you work with who you need to. And if the membership choose
someone presumably they are doing it for a good reason? Could it be that there are some MPs who think there is something to fear from that extra level of accountability to the party grassroots?
2) Will the proportion of the leadership vote assigned to affiliates be shrunk by those within caucus who distrust the union movement? Once again what do MPs fear? This is the Labour party, grounded in the Labour relations movement isn’t it?
3) What will happen to the automatic 2013 vote (year ahead of an election)? Surely this would be the perfect opportunity for the membership and affiliates to illustrate their support for the leader for whom they will be volunteering their time to help elect in 2014? And given that this whole undertaking is designed to empower the party membership then why would you try and sidestep the rules before the ink is dry?
4) How is the winnder in each category determined? Winner takes all? Proportional? We all recognise how the ‘first past the post’ approach establishes bias in the system – that’s why we have MMP!
5) Finally, while I applaud caucus and the party for bringing this to the table they can’t afford to do it in a way that is less than meaningful. Besides, what are caucus afraid of? If all is going well who would want to challenge and open themselves to the sort of scrutiny that brings – especially as they would have to justify their decision to the membership, and the wider public, if things are out in the open. Having chosen to open this topic caucus cannot afford to sell the members short. Who is the winner if the party tears itself apart over this? Short term it may be those within the caucus who are resistant to change, but the long term answer would be National, as they’d retain the Treasury benches for some time to come.
Thanks for posting this. NZ Council meeting is this weekend and people need to get word to their rep to make sure that members and unions get the utmost say, not the 30-40 people in caucus.
A wide array of real options need to be brought to a democratic vote in front of delegates at November Conference.
As you know, there are a bunch of MPs who don’t really believe in any accountability to the party, and who prefer a party compliant to caucus.
As for the “senior members” you ask about, I suspect (but cannot know for sure) Parker, Jones, Cosgrove and Robertson to be amongst them.
…I applaud caucus and the party for bringing this to the table…
I applaud this too, good to see it being looked at and widely and openly discussed.
Democracy sounds simple – until you start to consider all the possibilities. FPP is much simpler than MMP, but is generally regarded as less fair and less democratic. A simple majority has it’s benefits but also can have potentially major flaws – including when it comes to leader and candidate selection.
I hope it ends up with a better way of doing intra-party democracy
– but remember, democracy doesn’t satisfy all of the people all of the time.
Vernon Small writes on it: Labour tiptoes towards perception change.
Pete George, you took Gable’s quote right out of context. It was actually:
PG selectively quoting so as to present the opposite impression to what was said?
Shock I am.
Has anyone read Fran O’Sullivan in the Herald this morning? She says what many on this site have been saying for months, namely, that Shearer just isn’t doing a good job of presenting Labour policy or ideas and always prefers mango-skin variant stories.
Even worse, that his primary threat is Greens Leader Russell Norman, who always appears succinct and focussed and appealing.
Which means that those slowly increasing poll numbers for Labour are occurring DESPITE Shearer, not because of him.
What we don’t want to do is lose the next election because we didn’t have someone who could unify the troops, or have the confidence of the whole – caucus, members, and our own SuperPACs the unions. We need a leader in fact who will do that.
And this constitutional review must provide Labour with the mechanisms to do that.
I dread what will occur if Labour’s NZCouncil do not.
“Which means that those slowly increasing poll numbers for Labour are occurring DESPITE Shearer, not because of him.”
Nah those polls are a carefully orchestrated diversion to ensure that there are still simpletons who think that NZ politics is a democracy, which is clearly is not!
Jeez, Ad, if you are relying On Fran O’Sullivan to back your arguments up you must know you’ve already on a loser. David Shearer is going to be the next PM whether you like it or not.
Give the man some credit for steadying the ship. These slow, but effective poll gains are a result of his leadership and some real discipline from the rest of the caucus. Notice there haven’t been any self inflicted wounds in recent months? Discipline and positivity are going see Labour lead the next Government.
Yes O’Sullivan makes me sick generally. Still the NZHerald editorial this week was clearly extremely well briefed by those who prefer the current leadership system to be protected, so it was good to see the Herald giving with one hand and then taking with the other. Balanced journalism right? 😉
It was pretty steady under Goff. In fact it was pretty steady under Rowling. Steady losers.
Discipline and positivity is standard code for do what caucus tells you to do.
We are over that now. Moira let the democracy genie out of the bottle and there is no stuffing it back in.
Discipline and positivity will not will Labour any election. Inspiring members, supporters, and in fact inspiring New Zealand will.
The Neo Con man Key is loosing his Teflon.
Investment bankers are the most despised people in the world today.
Labour just has to sit back and watch National implode.
Austerity policies will Guarantee the economy continues to bottom drag.
Some perspective is needed here. National’s vote is slowly collapsing. Labour’s vote has returned from its election day low to the general area where it has yoyoed for the past four and a half years. Winning an election from that position would very likely render it a one term government, with a long time in the wilderness to follow.
Jesus wept, TRP
How fucking inspirationless and ambitionless can we be?
Are you saying that the new strategy of the twits who brought Labour to its worse election defeat in 2011 is to just avoid upsetting people? And then, Mirabula Dictu, half a million who did not vote or drifted to parties that inspired them, will come, racing down the street, first thing in the morning, and vote Shearer and Robertson into a government!
Next you will be telling us that the Meet shall inherit the Earth!
Bill. The Labour caucus has got a policy of leadership by managing internal poll numbers. Its the reason why NZ1 and the Greens can react faster and more authentically on every single issue.
And the faction currently in power in the Labour caucus are only interested in chasing the soft middle class vote and befriending big business; they aren’t interested in turning out the working or under class vote.
Not saying any of those things, Bill. But I know a good strategy when I see one and letting your opponent make mistakes, while making none yourself tends to result in wins. And Labour will be looking to go into election year ready to win. That means building support now and announcing good policy then. Which they are clearly doing, according to my mate Roy Morgan. Under Shearer’s quiet, but effective leadership.
Sorry you don’t have the patience, Bill, but the rest of us will carry on to victory with or without you.
“But I know a good strategy when I see one ”
–You don’t even know yourself, which is why you are able to spout this sort of shit!
Ego is not being able to see where ones-self has been fooled, because ones ego, wont allow it!
The other part is just being a fucken idiot, too stupid to see your own ego, yet making statements like “But I know a good strategy when I see one” & “Sorry you don’t have the patience, Bill, but the rest of us will carry on to victory with or without you”
You manage to pull off both like a champion, but its your ego which is causing you the real problems, and its possible you are not dumb enough for that to be the major excuse!
‘Victory”, “the rest of us” – Sums you up right there, you cant even begin to hide it….dick!
TRP embodies the core Labour caucus political philosophy.
They are for winning, and stand against losing.
“The rest of us will carry on to victory with or without you”
… shows precisely why we no longer need a Labour Party dominated by caucus. Any criticism sees the blood-veil come over the eyes, and out come the “with us or against us” Bush-isms, just as you did.
You need to get ready for democracy within Labour, Te Reo. There will be no more of that crap.
No more bullying in the guise of “discipline”. You will have to learn grace. Leadership will have to learn to take criticism within and without. As, Te Reo, will you.
Whats the use of winning an election by default?
It leaves the electorate totally without hope because all they have done is vote against something.
Those who support Labour standing for nothing simply because that will get them into government are actually actually advocating stripping out the final vestiges of any real meaning in the system of parliamentary democracy.
A party NOT shooting themselves in the foot every five minutes is expected. It is the minimum standard to achieve.
You don’t get a medal for doing that.
Shearer and Labour are invisible. No one knows what they are doing, what they stand for or who they are. The Greens and NZ First have taken on the job of being the Opposition.
National are losing popularity all on their own, not because Labour has done anything special lately. We’re at or nearing the point where the balance could tip.
But it won’t if people see no alternative to National. Even if they dislike National they will still vote for them if they think Labour is worse.
The idea that National losing popularity on their own is enough to propel Labour into Government is false. We could end up with a hung Parliament or a National/NZ First coalition or some other mad combination.
There’s a difference between not making any mistakes and not doing anything at all.
Support that only comes because people are sick of the other side is very, very soft.
Cheers, y’all, I salute your relentless positivity. Meanwhile, the fight goes on.
The fight? Wake up man, the fact there is no fucking fight in Labour – merely a timid strategy to run down the clock with fingers crossed – is what everyone is pointing out!!!
“Give the man some credit for steadying the ship. These slow, but effective poll gains are a result of his leadership and some real discipline from the rest of the caucus”
–You are a bigger part of the problem than I ever gave you credit for…Please just stand down!
Yeah pretty much. Look up “The Peoples Flag is Palest Pink”.
Much though it hurts* to agree with you, I do.
The Labour hatred, and specifically the Shearer hatred here gets very, very old…
* You possibly have some conception of how much it hurts – and it applies to this one topic only! I’d rather die than agree with you about anything else, ever again.
Gotta say, I’ll be deeply depressed if he follows her advice on this bit (referring to mining):
Right now he is trying to extricate himself on the mining issue after the Herald’s bellwether poll showed that New Zealanders have warmed to the prospect of surgical mining to leverage the country’s valuable natural resource base: reversing himself out of the poll-driven cul-de-sac that he parked himself in when public opinion was running in the other direction.
Or, just a thought, he could say “There is no such thing as surgical mining. I won’t lie to the New Zealand people about the effects of mining just to win votes, unlike the Government.”
But of course O’Sullivan is not in the business of giving Labour good advice, just sometimes accidentally hitting on the truth when telling them how they’re doing it wrong.
Both Shearer and Norman are too far to the right for my liking. But NAct and supporters will continue to focus on those two as more desirable than the more left wing members of of the Labour and Green Parties. And they will continue to try to play them (Shearer & Norman) off against each other.
It’s taken some time for Norman to build a media presence, too. Remember when he was portrayed by righties as a wimpy joke when he protested with a Tibetan flag at parliament?
Careers are a lot easier when you only have to impress a few people at the top of a hierarchy rather than most people in an egalitarian organisation.
It’s got the same name but it is no longer that party and hasn’t been since the 1980s.
Kind of related to this morning’s (so far) open mike theme of environmental destruction and the collapse of the dominance of the industrialised western world….
As someone who is just not into owning land, this mania to purchase a mortgage, with people scrambling over the banks bargain bin sale, just sees like a craziness to me:
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10819502
And then I read Monbiot’s piece commemorating the environmental poet, John Clare (1793-1864)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/jul/09/john-clare-poetry
Clare came from a poor [English] background, but took to the printed word, recording his pleasure in the natural world around him. Monbiot says, for Clare:
While life was hard and spare, it was also, he records, joyful and thrilling.
But then came enclosures, and the despairing decline of Clare. Monbiot describes the impact of the enclosures:
And that last sentence reminds me that for John Key, the issue of water is about outright ownership, while for tangata whenua, it’s about rights & kaitiaki:
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10819504
We need to get away from western notions of ownership of land and resources, and get more into a kaitiaki state of mind. To quote Clare, as cited by Monbiot:
I also meant to include this quote from Monbiot’s article, about how the seeds of the decline of Western capitalism, were built into its (environmentally-destructive) rise:
I agree. The conflict/solution, either/or, way of thinking creates conflicts that become ends in themselves. Lose perspective, find a “problem”. Treat the problem with a loss of perspective, create another problem, treat it with the system that created the problem, create another problem, treat it with the same system, that creates another problem…
It makes it easier to describe what makes up the kind of world we have created when you describe the world as a series of conceptual layers:
– Synchronised time, across all parts of the world, which calibrates our waking life into a march
– Property, which drives divisiveness and pollutes humans with an ether of constant anxiety and avarice
– Patriarchy, which sorts people by a scopic order of beauty and violence repressed or otherwise
– Resource, as subset of property, which commodifies the earth into things that are quantified as ready to be used up
– Speed, which integrates time and resource into productivity and lived experience
– and Money, a subset of property that accelerates time and resource and enables them to be expressed together
Get rid of any one of those layers in your life and you really no longer fit onto this world.
Succinct.
Would you say that on leaving “this world” people can enter a new place, that despite it’s challenges, isn’t all that bad?
Yes, particularly in New Zealand. There was a little book a while ago called “The Eight Tribes of New Zealand” and one of those was the Raglan Tribe. They are the outsiders, small in number, in some alternative black economy, often subsistence, sometimes illegal. They are our outsiders.
I wouldn’t want it myself. Too soft.
[Te Runanga-a-Iwi o Ngapuhi chairman Sonny] Tau said talk of who “owned” water was merely confusing, “because at the end of the day ownership in the Western ideology is not what we seek”.
“We seek to be recognised in our role as kaitiaki or guardians of water so that if there’s any allocation or allocation of rights to water, then Maori need to be significantly involved.”
We need to get away from western notions of ownership of land and resources, and get more into a kaitiaki state of mind.
——————
I quite agree Carol and am pleased to see Tau specifically naming Western ideologies as a problem. I’ve been increasingly alarmed by how much this debate is being framed around water as a commodity and who gets to control that, rather than any core concepts of rivers and lakes being part of the world we belong to and have responsibilities towards.
A big problem here is that the MSM have almost no capacity for speaking outside the Western mindset, and because they are generally useless at covering Te Ao Maori, it’s unlikely they will even notice the differences. For those of us here who believe that we are all better off acknowledging and working within tangata whenua worldviews, there is a challenge now to change the nature of the debate.
Do you have any “everyday practical guidelines” for this?
For example, the chances of me becoming a journalist are nil, and the instances where I might influence a journalist are theoretical at best, so what would people like me do that would change the debate from street level? I’m sure direct confrontation/endless arguments will work for some, but my experience is that it’s like bouncing a ball off a concrete wall. Don’t get me wrong, I like a good demonstration as much as the next protestor, but one reactive format does not suit every situation. Surely there’s got to be something big on effect, that does not rely on being adversarial?
Haven’t thought it through yet Uturn, but off the top of my head…
The blogosphere is increasingly influential, and there is no reason why it can’t lead the way on this. Write posts and comments.
Target reasonably receptive media like National Radio eg get Kim Hill to interview someone who knows these issues inside out and can hold their own talking with her. Use whatever means available to comment to MSM directly (txt, email, posting one websites). Make the issues visible.
Educate ourselves and start using language and concepts that support alternatives to the Western world view (and try not to use Western new age language). This is a major challenge IMO. Many Pakeha do understand these issues to some extent, but English is not yet a good/easy language to discuss them.
Start talking about Peak Water. Now that Peak Oil is in the mainstream, it gives an easy reference point. Fear can be a useful motivator.
Build bridges between Maori and non-Maori. The risk here is that Pakeha appropriate Maori concepts and ideas without changing power structures (aka they steal more shit), or they engage in brownwashing.
On building bridges without first acknowledging power structures and “brownwashing”:
This would roughly equate to not wearing gimmicky things like flags and t-shirts related to maori sovereignty? Turning it into a cheap fashion statement. Like the Che Guevara stuff that was once popular.
How would a pakeha person behave in a way that tangata whenua would recognise as respectful/correct, regardless of there being any maori around to notice; avoiding brownwashing and other manifestations of a shallow kind of affirmative action?
For example, let’s pick something randomly modern: Pakeha is at the supermarket, what is he/she doing, how is he she behaving, that allows space for maori to be maori, should maori enter the line at the checkout? Doesn’t matter which maori fills that space, just so long at it’s there when needed and that pakeha aren’t unwittingly occupying it in the meantime. How do pakeha “find their place”, or “make space”?
Is this what you mean, or have I misunderstood something?
Not really understanding that example Uturn? Why would anyone need to let someone go first in the supermarket?
I was thinking more about Pakeha being willing to engage with Maori on Maori terms eg spending time on Marae or in other Maori dominant spaces, reading Maori media and writings, educating ourselves about Te Ao Maori and finding ways to put aside our own agendas for a while, acknowledge that we are on a learning curve and let Maori voices be heard and practiced in non-Maori spaces (perhaps starting with TS)
I also think taking actions to support/tautoko te reo. I only learned quite recently that te reo is not yet out of danger and that many of the gains in the 90s eg Kohanga reo are going backwards again.
Brownwashing… just that we need to avoid doing what we’ve done with eco issues. So much of the middle class wants to do the right thing but only of it doesn’t inconvenience them too much, so we have lots of eco things that are just rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. I think Pakeha NZ is quite capable of taking what it wants without really changing.
One example of this is the new agers. They acknowledge a deficit in their own cultures’ society and spirituality, express an interest in indigenous practices, and decry the fact that they’ve lost their own indigenous experience eons ago and so the only way they can feel connected is via someone else’s culture. They then flock to anything native so long as it’s presented in a non-complex, non-threatening way. As far as I can tell this is predominantly to make the new agers feel better. They are largely devoid of any political awareness (and will in fact say that politics is not good for spirituality) and so will take the things they perceive as taonga and almost completely ignore the rest (the real racists among them will go further and talk about the nice peaceful Waitaha and the nasty violent Ngai Tahu, and how there were really white people here before Maori anyway).
A friend of mine calls them culture vultures. Not all new agers are like that, but it has been a core feature of those communities for a long time. I see the potential for Pakeha to do this with Maori culture in general – take the bits that feed them (or they feel comfortable with) and ignore/deny the rest.
I don’t mean let people go first at the supermarket, but that there must be a mindset for pakeha that from a maori world view perspective, is correct for pakeha.
If I understand correctly that a maori world view has everything in it’s place, then no matter where pakeha are e.g. at the supermarket, beach, riverside, on a hill, there must a be an action that illustrates a mindset. To do anything more overt, would be brownwashing, adopt-a-maori type thinking and completely false or ingenuine. Which is why I suggest, even if there are no maori around to notice, pakeha occupying a position that is inherent to tangata whenua would cause a disturbance to the maori world view?
To avoid a brownwash situation entirely, should we be able to imagine a world where maori are there and pakeha are over there, the two rarely meet, but each occupies it’s correct space. Or to use another metaphor: if what we have now is a wall between maori and pakeha, and pakeha have a habit of jumping over the wall and taking stuff and jumping back again; and maori would prefer to replace the wall with a more fluid interface, what does that interface look like, as described by maori, once pakeha stop invading maori territory?
I’ve seen some articles relating to Matariki and traditional Maori food gathering (wild food from the bush) and food preparation. Some of it publicised events for everyone to learn a little about the traditional tangata whenua approaches to food.
Also, Pakeha have our own traditions that predate capitalism, that we can look back to. The community and common good that the poet Clare & Monbiot wrote about.
“The blogosphere is increasingly influential, and there is no reason why it can’t lead the way on this. Write posts and comments”
–While the net is a good tool for gathering, and sharing ideas, never underestimate its ability to suck the energy out of good intentions, misdirect them, and flat out be used against them.
I can’t help but feel people believe that being active online is in some way helping, like believing that humanity becoming closer or better communicators, because we communicate more, when the opposite is in fact true. The tech is isolating, as much as it is unifying,
So while the the blogs etc are all good an well, dont be fooled into thinking that at some point, all but the very few will have to take physical action, those few will also have to sometime after that.
I know there was more to your post Weka, but I just wanted to highlight that singular component.
Cheers
It’s a good point muzza, and I tend to agree as a generalisation. However I think I was meaning more that the mainstream is now taking blogging more seriously, the MSM uses the blogosphere, and people who have been traditional power holders also use the blogosphere. That means it’s a (one) point of intervention in terms of influencing how the debate goes. But yeah, don’t worry, I’m not thinking it’s replacement for real life.
.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/jul/13/racism-public-discourse-power-to-define
A brilliant piece from the Guardian: “Racism is still very much with us. So why don’t we recognise it?”
…The consensus that societies are post-racial has supported a range of political strategies often described as “cultural racism”. The people are not racist, the argument goes, and any prejudice is merely a natural defensive response to the “reverse racism” of “migrants” who refuse to adapt and accept “our way of life”. While these strategies eschewed overt claims of superiority, 9/11 and its aftermath have brought assertions of cultural hierarchy unashamedly back into mainstream European politics.’ ‘Our way of life’ only makes sense when there is somebody to define it, and defend it against.
If shifting forms of racialisation make racism hard to pin down, the liberal ideal of “colour-blindness” makes it even harder. Being blind to race often involves being blind to racism. The election of Barack Obama led to the celebration of a post-racial era in the US, but it also led to what Darnell L Moore calls “e(race)sure”. That is, racism has not been overcome because a black President was elected, but the legitimacy of analysing society in terms of race has been undermined. Obama can be made to stand as evidence of the removal of the final racial barriers to achievement, with the twist that those who do not now achieve fail not because of inequality, discrimination or exclusion, but because they don’t try hard enough.
The insistence that we live in post-racial societies, and the outrage when racism is called out, denies those who experience racism the right to define it and combat it on their terms. This is a central anti-racist principle, yet it is those who perpetuate racism who increasingly claim the right to say what racism is and, more frequently, what it is not….
In fact, claiming to be “colour-blind” or “post-racial” actually makes you less likely to spot/address racism.
Its not that we need a new paradigm to fix the problems.
Its we need the rules to actually matter.
Take my present problem. First some preliminaries.
When you sleep you ears pick up (for evolutionary
reasons that hearing a predator coming means you
live to pass on your genes) a lot more. So
much so people are oft required to use white noise
machines to protect their hearing at night.
Now we all know that road vehicles have a upper
limit of noise, measured of course when they are
maxed out for speed on the open highway. We
see councils building new roads with huge earth
barriers on either side of the roads, negative
sensitive areas. Because to reduce costs, we
spend more instead of investing in better motor
vehicles (silent electric cars and putting freight
on trains).
Thirdly, in harder times people get angry. They
are likely to believe they have a right not only
to noise but noise at low speed. So they reconfigure
their cars, which won’t be assessed for noise at
low speed (or acceptable because the limit at high
speed when engine is most violent is met), to be mean
noise bombs the moment the ignition is turned on.
Now obviously if they also go to work at 7am, too
their high noise building site, where they lost their
hearing many years before, then end up pounding their neghbors
with noise every morning.
And how does our society deal with this problem, of
a legal road vehicle, pumped up for noise, waking
good people to excessive noise at 7am when they
were asleep. Well they call noise control.
And as is the want of council noise control to
decide what is acceptable, what they will investigate,
because that what’s council decide, they do a rather
blaize investigation and apply no standards but
the subjective assessment of council officers!@#@
You see, after a run of massive credit binging, not
only have councils not had to deal with the growing
rage and so losened their grip on what their legal
duty is. That they have to investigate noise – ANY NOISE.
Also, to be fair, its easier to clear up a problem by a
word or too to the party of noise, and so they didn’t
need all that dumb noise testing equipment and chucked it.
Its not that we need a new paradigm to fix the problems.
Its we need the rules to actually matter.
Thirty years of neo-liberalism have softened the brains
of our bureaucrats to the extent that even the most
hairy sane ministers come up with nonsense policies
that would have had their departments carefully pressing
the buttons to talk down the minister. Not any more.
Because the rot isn’t just noise officers saying they
cannot investigate noise despite their legal duty under
the local government act to do so, diligently. No,
the rot is everywhere where a generation has had it too
easy, easy in both senses, easier laxer regulation and
easier and simpler times requiring a phone call to clear
up. Not as now with lots of angry people and their angry
cars.
Since we are moving and becoming, a rightly, more angry
society again. Cheap energy has made us destroy the planet,
we don’t need no new paradigm, we just need to get anal
about rules again. Apply them consistently, apply them
rigorously, apply them quicker.
And their in lies the problem. The conservative, always
waiting at tipping points to stop the backward movement
of society, away from all their deregulation and political
hired lazy bureaucrats. Its doesn’t matter that a neighbor is
losing their hearing, getting tinnitus, ACC is waiting
to pay out. Its doesn’t matter that the costs of
conservatism will cost us more, more destroyed lives.
All that matters is our preservation of the ruling elite
and their self-serving bad thinking patterns, the turd blossom.
The turd blossom is a simple trick. The idea is to stop
change that harms the elite. It involves a two step
process, or as I like to think of it, arse backwards.
Arguments start with evidence and then talk to changes.
Arse backwards turb blossoms reverse this, they talk
first about costs and difficulties with implementation
before there is even agreement over evidence. So the
convincing argument for change, that the elite fears
becomes a mess of misunderstanding, distorted facts
(since facts are worked differently in the investigation
phase and the governing phases), and dispersion of the
root need the argument was talking to.
Now let’s not be too high minded, some turb blossoms are needed
to protect the nation state. The problem is that conservatives
are using them exclusively to protect themselves, the elite few.
We don’t need no paradigm shift, we can’t wait for one, we
need the rightwing to STFU, stop going brutal like a bunch
of weak fearful people who are about (rightly) to be sacked
for incompetence and laziness. Its only going to cost more
in the long run, the longer they hang on that is.
But we don’t need no frigging new paradigm, we need rules to
matter. we don’t need no fanatic Senisible Sentencing Trust
rush of blood to their head, end the right to silence.
A classic two stop arse backwards argument, because
the accused could create a better justice system by exposing
themselves in court, then we should mess up the evidential
trail by making it easier for botchups earlier in the process.
we seperate matters for a reason. A good investigator
knows the facts at the time of the crime will have a
different facet in courts. So police can stage a press
conference where they may believe the suspect is a family
member, or use the need to search the area for offenders and
find evidence in the course of investigating. Why would
we want to reward the state law officers with the nonsense
of the police investigation process, where facts found during
investigating can have both positive and negative connotations.
I need council to investigate a noisy car on private property,
that leaves every morning just before 7am, a noise bomb, that takes
the quiet of early morning and smashes it with a noise
that should only be coming from a truck at 100 on the open
highway. All vehicles should be minimized for noise, for
obvious reasons that if we didn’t the cacophony would be
horrendous. So why is it so hard for Police and Council to
work together to minimize the noisiest vehicle around here,
BY FAR? Because Police cannot act as its a car on private
property, not the open road, and council says it cannot
act because the car is legal for the road!!!! Council needs
to act because it has a duty to investigate all roadway
vehicles on private property being tested for their big
day at the local raceway. So why isn’t it, is my council
just more lazy, reckless about the loss of hearing to
not only neighbors but family of the petrol head, his kids
with 10m of this noise bomb???? Will ACC be picking up the
costs in future years when these kids start claiming
hearing aids??? When he deliberately passes his hearing loss
to his own kids???
We’ve had it easy, with lots of dosh, loads of money, flushing
the economy, our bureaucrats didn’t need to be ruthless in
regard of regulation, our society was happy, our public
servants could nuance solutions off the cuff. These days
are over. We do not need National’s continuing new paradigms,
charter schools, national standards, kids learn naturally,
ask why they aren’t, not how they can do so faster. Yeah,
how stupid are National, that they believe if they can get
kids at the tail to learn faster like those at the top do!
Kids arent learning at the bottom, are inhibited, and aren’t
going to learn faster if they aren’t fed, if they can’t do
their homework for the cold home they live in, if all they
can see is debt in their educational future. No reward, lots
more barriers.
National paradigm of having new solutions, of looking active,
when we all know their extremism selects laughable evidence
from crazy America, look at the great US, its imploding from
horrendous levels of stupidity, the US will take us all with
them into an environmental, economic, societal hell on earth.
Its a joke that anyone believes Key’s government is good for NZ.
We do not need a new paradigm, we need to live in the now,
and enforce the rules we have now, and reverse the decline
in rules that rightwing governments of Labor and National
have produced. National are anti rule of law, want change now,
when we need diligent government who worry about outcomes
not balance sheets (they come later).
National are arse backwards, like their neo-liberal turd
bottom agenda. And someone get the council to do something
about the noise bomb please!!!
very creative and very funny. If I could emoticon a big cheesy grin I would.
http://thestandard.org.nz/faq/smile/
and then? mouse does not pick them up? Im such a luddite, but give me an in-chassis overhall of a 14 litre truck engine……..
So the machines better watch out.
Consider,
EFT
GPS
Social-networking
blogging
TV
Satellite
Surveilance
Surveys
Statistics
Apps
E-readers
Phones
Pads
Vehicle computers
HIGH FREQUENCY ALGORITHMIC MARKET TRADING
bored now, better go do my chores.
It be Master and Slave.
(well, spose peoples are not mining for salt here yet!)
To get that green smiling face, write as you word a normal word :,mrgreen,:
but leave out the commas I’ve put in there. There should be no spaces between the colons and the mrgreen.
Same goes for anything on the emoticons list link, but some are symbols only, such as,
8 ,-, ) remove the commas and you get 😎
You can’t copy and paste the actual emoticon into this system’s text boxes. Won’t recognise it.
You’re a helpful soul
😈
😉
😀
Enjoyed reading your words, aerobubble.
EFF on the TPP.
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2012/07/21st-century-agreement-is-really-best-way
So, in summary, the USTR has released a public blog post about a secret proposal to expand something – a filtering mechanism on copyright limitations and exceptions – which might have real social, moral, and economic value. And all we know is that the only thing the authors of the proposal really wanted to make public was the fact that no matter what the content was, it was subject to enough international restrictions that it could be effectively gutted. The only thing 21st century about that is they used a blog to tell us about it.
The irony is that this current cohort of wannabees do not recognise that the ubermensch over-come themselves not come-over themselves.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10819498
Mr Quivooy said there was a two-year statute of limitations in the Gambling Act which meant “the department would be unable to bring a prosecution”.
Was this law ever intend to be used in keeping the industry honest ?
Perhaps these machines should be nationalised and be incorporated within the Lotteries commission, as it appears we cannot trust those running gambling 🙁
IMO if like alcohol any license operator caught breaching the rules then 1st case week, 2nd breach month suspension of ability to sell, then loss of license.
John Key has copped most of the flack over water ‘ownership’, but he holds a fairly common view.
Tricky position.
A waterproof jacket is different to a flak jacket.
pg in your case a straight jacket.
trying to shift blame again.Nationals poodle
oops
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michel_Foucault
A somewhat different approach from Audrey Young also on the Herald website this morning from Adam Bennett – John Key: Waking the Taniwha.
The Maori Council’s Waitangi Tribunal water claim has served notice that the “taniwha” of Maori customary ownership has been awakened by the Government’s partial asset sales plan.
It’s a creature that previous governments have trifled with at their peril, but Prime Minister John Key this week goaded it with comments that have been widely interpreted as marginalising the tribunal and its findings before they have even been produced.
Though the elderly Sir Graham Latimer is not playing an active role in the presentation of the council’s case, his presence at Waiwhetu marae in Lower Hutt and his name on court papers as first claimant at the Waitangi Tribunal hearing should serve as a warning. It was Sir Graham who initiated court action over fisheries, in a major lands case, and over radio spectrum….
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=10819504
IMHO, Bennett’s article presents a much greater understanding of the implications than that of Young’s.
The mask slips: Fuck them all.
Andrea Fabra, a deputy of the ruling party PP in the Spanish parliament, became the center of political storm in the recession-hit country on Friday after video showed her insulting unemployed citizens saying “Fuck them all” just seconds after Spanish PM announced austerity measures.
So she has just said what Bennett, Key, English, and co think all the time!
When I reply to someone’s post, there is no menu bar with the bold, italics, quote etc buttons, but the reply box at the bottom of each page has one. ‘Use WYSIWYG’ is ticked in the bottom of page box, but not in the ‘reply to specific posts’ box. Anyone else have this?
More skulduggery from the bankers.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/07/13/us-jpmorgan-earnings-idUSBRE86C0G420120713
(Reuters) – U.S. federal investigators are looking at whether JPMorgan Chase & Co traders hid trading losses that have since grown to $5.8 billion, according to a person familiar with the matter, after the bank said its own probe found reason for suspicion.
Will they have the nerve to ever charge the man at the top, Jamie Dimon. Who is protected by a huge wall of political and financial influence in Washington.
Meanwhile from Zerohedge:
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/jpms-punshiment-two-years-clawbacks-three-traders
Also
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/jpm-admits-cio-group-mismarked-hundreds-billions-cds-effort-artificially-boost-profits
This is like the “LIEBOR” gate international interest rate setting scandal enveloping Barclays Bank.
It will shortly be shown that multiple major banks participated. And why not, in an industry where DEFRAUDING CUSTOMERS (whether they are big or small) is seen as “best practice”.
Add Wells Fargo 175million USD for racial discrimination&and the
bank of America and at least 1/2 a dozen others for allowing drug cartels and terrorists to launder money.
Ongoing legal action against BNY Mellon. A very large US bank.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/03/31/us-bnymellon-ruling-idUSBRE82T1GR20120331
Basically, the bank screwed large pension funds on forex trades. They retrospectively assigned the worst forex prices of the day, at the end of the day, to the pension funds.
And kept the best prices for themselves.
If you ever hear about US worker pension funds being “underfunded” just recognise that the banks have ripped them off of billions upon billions of dollars, over the last 10 years.
Seems like BNY Mellon is currently doing a good job of getting off the hook on technicalities.
And as usual they will get away with it.
Tossing the ‘man at the top’ in a cold jail cell for a decade or 2 while having a certain satisfactory ring to it would in the end be mere window dressing,
There can only be one ‘logical’ outcome resulting from such systematic criminality inherent within the Western Worlds financial institutions, and that is for the relevant States to seize all the assets listed as possessions of such banks as part of the proceeds of crime committed by banking institutions using their position as banks as mere fronts for such organized criminal activity,
Putting ALL the immoral,illegal and outright criminality in it’s correct perspective is the ultimate CON perpetuated by the Worlds banking elite, that of these institutions of crime being ‘Too Big To Fail’,
Once government’s everywhere bought into that little gem of a fraudulent idea the criminal banking elite have at any time in the future the key to any country’s Treasury,
Should not the gutless western World’s Governments move to seize the Banks at the heart of such fraudulent organized crime the next round of destruction unleashed upon us all via such Banks will simply be a far more complex systematic defrauding of both the public and private purse and as ‘growth’ is still the demand from within the ‘Ism’ the next wave of systematic criminality from those Banks will by far overwhelm in monetary terms the excesses of the past decade of deregulated debauchery unleashed upon us all by the institutions of criminal Banking…
Pay them and they shall come, don’t pay them and they won’t.
Sorry Christchurch but Fletcher’s is more concerned with their profit than with you getting a place to live.
The entire city should be sorted out by a reformed Ministry of Works. Massively cheaper and more efficient.
Yep and then the government just gives the bill to the insurance companies.
And if the insurance companies don’t pay, we nationalise all their insurance contracts into a new NZ State Insurance, and the privateers can fuck off back whence they came from.
Fletchers should be expropriated without compensation. They grew on taxpayer money and were given a virtual monopoly position by successive governments. Now would be a good time for some dividend to be paid.
Do they pay more for any commercial contracts they are doing?
🙂
American Hero Watch No. 1: MATT LEE
Yes, Virginia, there ARE some American reporters with the courage to do their job.
Watch as Matt Lee of the Associated Press confronts government PR woman Victoria Nuland. The really disturbing feature of this clip is not Ms. Nuland’s refusal or inability to engage in debate, it’s the sheepish, embarrassed, bemused behaviour of the drones behind Matt Lee….
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QfEIXy64HL0&feature=g-all-u
Help please??
I am clearing mail for a younger family member and they have scored a request to participate in a 20 year survey on finances. Selection was by way of the electoral roll – supposedly – and age details etc must have been accessed..
I checked the Electoral commission website privacy statements
(noting they use google analytics but failing to reassure any of us that the commission continues to own the data not google. There is also no reassurance that Google are not doing some data matching of their own against other bases they may control and the data is stored offshore – whoopee- so under a different legal system)
and find they can do this:
“We may give this information to scientific or health researchers, political candidates, members of Parliament or political parties. We can also tell them your age group, postal address and whether you are of Maori descent.”
Does anybody know how they control the research aspect? I can’t find any list of who is doing approved research or what controls there are on reserchers, if any. Does this mean that a named right wing funded think tank can access details and having done some vaguely worded research questions then supply all the details to the political party of their choice?
The answer to the finance question is simple -‘already gone overseas for better prospects’.
More bad banking news Visa and master card have had to pay out $8billion dollars
Because of over charging.