Open mike is your post. For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose. The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy). Step right up to the mike…
The National Animal Welfare Advisory Committee (NAWAC) today released its recommendations about the welfare and housing of dairy cows. The draft code allows for the year round indoor confinement of dairy cows.
“NAWAC’s recommendations will condemn thousands of dairy cows to a life in crowded sheds on concrete floors. The animals will never walk on grass or experience life outdoors,” says SAFE Executive Director Hans Kriek. “NAWAC once again fails to uphold the principles of New Zealand’s animal welfare legislation and is legalising this country’s newest form of factory farming.”
“The Animal Welfare Act requires that animals be able to display their normal behaviour. Research shows that dairy cows graze between five and ten hours per day yet bizarrely NAWAC appears not to recognize grazing as an essential behavioural need. This is utterly ridiculous and brings into question the competence of this committee.”
SAFE is concerned that the proposed changes to the code of welfare for dairy cows will lead to a rapid intensification of the dairy industry and will result in increased suffering for the cows. In general, cows farmed indoors suffer from higher levels of mastitis and lameness than cows that have access to pasture.
TAKE ACTION
SAFE urges the public to speak out against the indoor housing of dairy cows by making a simple submission to the Ministry for Primary Industries.
Submissions close 3 December and should be sent to: awsubmission@mpi.govt.nz
or
NAWAC Secretary
Animal Welfare
Ministry for Primary Industries
PO Box 2526
Wellington 6140
Points to remember when making your submission:
• Grazing in a paddock is normal behaviour, and cows should be allowed to do it.
• Cows should not be confined for extended periods of time.
• Cows should be given shelter, as long as they are allowed to leave.
The other side of this unfortunately is effluent running into our waterways. Herd homes can take cows off pasture, so there is a real positive side to this as well. Personally i think Herd homes may be an important factor in cleaning up our water ways at the same time as protecting our $15 billion dairy exports. Its a tough one though, cows in paddocks are preferable but they are killing our waterways. What are the other options?
Cows aren’t killing our waterways. Industrial dairy companies are, and regional councils are letting them. In general the public are letting them too.
Other options? Prioritise water over profit via regulation and legislation (regional councils, and the government should have a role in this too). If big business wants to make money, why let it do it at the expense of everyone else?
Adopt sustainable farming practices (whole range of options there). Factory farming cows is completely unecessary and is a step in completely the wrong direction (takes us away from sustainability). It will also create other problems in addition to the increased suffering of the animals. Putting alot of animals closely together in an indoor space creates health problems that require increasing technical interventions that have flow on effects (increased antibiotic use would be my first guess, and all the problems that go with that).
People who care about the environment (ie the waterways) need to look at the whole situation, not just the isolated bits.
Herd homes are quite different to hens/pigs etc, the cows are free to walk around very large sheds, this is not factory farming. From an animal health point of view my research shows that they have 25% less lameness and not sure about mastitis. But the big thing about Herd homes is that they stop the cows pissing and shitting on the paddocks, this effluent is what is fucking up our water ways. There is also an amount of waterways pollution from nitrogen and phosphate fertilisers, but most of the waterways pollution comes from effluent. The effluent from the herd homes is then reapplied to the land scientifically to reduce the need for synthetic nitrogens and also to optimise its utilisation so that there is minimal run off into the waterways.
Wekka, Im not sure what you mean by “Industrial dairy companies are killing our waterways”??? Its the cows shitting and pissing on the paddocks, simple as that.
We put the cows there Saarbo, no point in blaming the cows. It’s a new phenomenon, all this shit in the water. The cows didn’t just waltz up and take over teh country side, did they. Who put them there? Who let that happen?
“From an animal health point of view my research shows that they have 25% less lameness and not sure about mastitis.”
25% less lameness than what?
“Herd homes are quite different to hens/pigs etc, the cows are free to walk around very large sheds, this is not factory farming.”
But they’re still locked in right? And they still have to stand in their own shit? And the farmers have to manage health and disease differently? What is the floor made from, concrete?
What are they being fed?
The big shed farm proposal in the McKenzie planned to keep 18,000 cows in stalls (not sure what’s happened with that).
Keep pushing the water is more important than animal welfare line and expect a big fight from a number of quarters.
Im not sure about the Mc kenzie proposal, 18000 cows housed sounds ugly, thats not what I am supporting here. Personally my belief is that any farm above 650 cows becomes to difficult to manage and ends up too hard on the people working on them, seldom the owners. that is why so many farms are using immigrants.
Herd homes are pretty new in NZ, but the ones I looked at the Field days were for farms in the 300 to 1000 cows and I was impressed with the way they dealt with effluent. They will provide a pretty good solution to the problem with water ways, which I think is dairy farmings biggest issue at the moment.
I think from a political point of view we need to continue to generate/protect export receipts from dairy farming and we need to deal with the problems dairy farms are causing to our environment. herd homes seem to achieve both…but concede that it is not as user friendly as putting cows in paddocks.
I guess what I am trying to say is people need to look at this closely before commenting because Herd homes do deal with some of our bigger problems.
By rejecting dairy farming altogether, well we will end up with a whole set of other issues then
.
Being allowed to permanently keep cattle inside is likely to intensify farming even more. If they can’t handle the level of effluent right now how on earth could they deal with this? It is purely profit driven and quite sickening to think of the ripple effects on the environment.
One point not mentioned is the quality of meat this type of farming will produce. I don’t know much about it but I wonder if it automatically means greater use of antibiotics etc on the cattle??
Will be looking to any comments the Greenz make before I make my submission.
+1 …it is cruel to keep cows in sheds!!!!!…they should be able to roam free ….but the waterways must be protected ….only farm cows in environmentally safe ways and in environmentally sustainable areas…….ie …safeguard the rivers and aquifers
….look to diversify types of farming in other areas eg vegetarian /vegan crops and trees
Macerate in what? I’ve not heard of people macerating young male chooks live, but certain people do once they’re dead. It’s called marinating then, and no it’s not cruel (the animal is dead already).
Plants have feelings too btw. So do ecosystems. Monocropping soy to feed a world full of vegans would be an ecological crime as well as cruel.
“It is purely profit driven and quite sickening to think of the ripple effects on the environment.” Not quite, this will actually make our dairy farming more costly…but it has environmental benefits. Refer to my reply to Weka.
“One point not mentioned is the quality of meat this type of farming will produce. I don’t know much about it but I wonder if it automatically means greater use of antibiotics etc on the cattle??”
Meat farmers wont be doing this, only Dairy Farmers I understand.
@ Saarbo….I think so….re huge use of antibiotics….at least in the USA….I have a friend who left NZ a big meat eater …but is now a vegetarian in the States because the meat is so “disgusting”….We don’t want to go there if we want to preserve our elite /organic marketing edge…it would completely ruin the marketing NZ Pure & Green image for NZ
Actually a dietitian I read said that there are examples of the junk food over sugared etc can cause an overtired man to freak out and commit murder. She gave the example of long-distance truck driver deliberately driving into a building and killing members of the public. Particularly if he had been on uppers and downers.
Saarbo, i havn’t delved into how well kept dairy herds can be (are) yet, but will with a spare hour or two have a wee Google of the question,
I do not think that we should dismiss this form of farming out of hand, but, looking at how the chooks and pigs are treated by intensive indoor farming it’s easy to see why many have,
From the point of view of effluent disposal, pasture management, and water use, with a view to having ‘clean’ rivers and streams there may be a point for the introduction of ‘barned herds’…
From the point of view of effluent disposal, pasture management, and water use, with a view to having ‘clean’ rivers and streams there may be a point for the introduction of ‘barned herds’ if we want to allow increasing industrialisation of nature for the point of monetary profit for the few and at the expense of the many
fify
There is no way to farm industrial dairy sustainably. You can shift cows into sheds, at the expense of animal welfare, but you just create another set of problems because the whole endeavour is inherently about resource extraction not resource cycling. If having let them become so degraded NZ now wants to protect its waterways by fucking with some other part of nature, then we lose any remaining credibility we had with regards to sustainability and we deserve everything we get. People of ecological conscience need to think hard before buying into the sop being offered that is in essence factory farming cows.
Or to put it another way, there was an old lady who swallowed a fly… (get it?)
Please remember this has nothing whatsoever to do with feeding Kiwis. It’s purely (100% purely) about the greed of the few.
We can do all that here with our own resources, i.e, it’s better for the government to develop our economy rather than just doing more of the same thing.
“Organic is great, but there would be a drop in production and export receipts, I think a good government needs to grow exports, any ideas DTB?”
Yeah, I don’t know why we need to grow exports, esp in a peak-resources, AGW world (it’s crazy to be basing our economy and food production around that). However for the sake of argument, NZ could have been world leaders in export organic meat and dairy by now, and reaping the premium attached to that. The improvement in landcare would have boosted our clean, green NZ image for tourism marketing purposes too, not just in PR terms but in actual terms when people come here and experience the place for themselves. We wouldn’t be wasting huge amounts of rate payer funds in the regional councils trying to fix a problem that is now basically going to be very expensive (politically and financially) to fix. The cost of being able to swim in our rivers: priceless.
I’ve not seen an audit of this, but I also suspect where organic production means a drop in output, this is offset by the reduction in pollution remediation costs associated with industrial dairying. A ‘good’ government would be ensuring that farmers are able to make a living without that being at the expense of the environment and other people. They would also adopt an accounting model that measures the negative effects of farming and where that costs us at all levels.
It puzzles me. If we move our cattle into barns are they suddenly going to shit less. If not then we will have roughly the same effluent to deal with as in pasture and I cannot see any farmer doing more than high pressure sluicing the stuff somewhere away from the barns. Is it still not going to end up on land somewhere ready to make its way to waterways?
Also what on earth will the cows be feed with. Will the farmer still be growing grass and processing it to feed for the cattle? If so then they will still over fertilize their land and the nitrates will still run off to waterworks.
I cannot see any solution here.
Ron, the effluent drops through the grating in the floor of the HH, there is no high pressure hosing, so very little water is used. The effluent is emptied twice a year and is spread on the farm as an alternative to synthetic fertilisers. Obviously this can be managed/optimised to reduce any run off into water ways.
The grass is harvested off the farm and fed to the cows in the HH.
…barned dairy and beef herds will create more vegetarians/vegans for sure…as many Europeans and Americans are already becoming semi-vegetarian and housed factory produced animals disgusts them……and bang goes your market….and bang goes NZ’s image as a Green producer of high quality free-range meat and dairy
…there is no need for factory ‘farmed’ barned animals in NZ except greed…and it will probably make environmental issues worse eg far greater numbers ‘farmed’ ( every man and his dog will want to get in on it) and far greater potential effluent in waterways and contamination and depletion of rivers…I have met French and Italians who don’t like farm-barned animals…whole farm regions go smelly
….and do we want the animal antibiotic issues they have in the USA?
Of course non point discharge is a problem, but a manageable one depending on soil properties, farm infrastructure, the location of waterways around the paddocks, and the nature of the catchment involved.
I thought cows in their ‘natural’ state were forest dwelling animals. Quite like the idea of fields being replanted to some degree to offer a more natural environment incorporating shelter and a wider source of food for the animals and more diverse ‘crops’ for human use.
Depends on the trees and forest doesn’t it? And the breed of cow. We keep stock outside in winter pretty much everywhere. The issue about bad weather for the industrial model is that cows need to eat more (ie less profit). If you see the trees as productive beyond their use as shelter then that is less of an issue (eg timber, nuts, forage, coppicing, carbon sinking etc). We need to start thinking holistically.
Wow, right up there with sow crates and battery hen farming.T here’s major health issues and it will ruin the industry. I’m with Hans all the way. Still sell ourselves as clean and green nah.
What will reduce the amount of effluent in the water is lower stocking rates so the available cow shit is spread over more land. Farming cows in suitable climates also helps. Putting them in barns is needed when the weather is harsh (snowing) and this is about the only time they should be in shelter.
Try driving around parts of this country in the summer with the car window down, from Dundein to Christchurch all you can smell is cow shit.
Reducing stocking rates would be a good start, but the problem isn’t just the water. It’s what big heavy hoofed animals do to soil too. This is why Southland farmers overwinter their stock in Central – the land just gets too boggy. Even if you manage the shit problem, I just don’t think there is any way to sustainably farm dairy industrially. I know of smaller scale organic dairy farms that use different practices, and we could probably get by for a long time with those supplying milk etc for NZ. But extraction farming for export, there’s just no way to do that with dairy and not make a big fucking mess.
Yes, but are you suggesting that all farms go organic Weka? Because that will create other issues, like a huge drop in government revenue and all of the downstream problems…
I do agree that reducing stock rates is another solution, already happening near large waterways I understand (Taupo, Waikato River I think)
Capping stocking rates, better fence and riparian strip maintenance, improved herd and paddock management, will all help the environment significantly.
It’s not a hard ask. Lots of farmers are doing it already.
I don’t know that overwintering in Central is really solving any problem. The ground freezes up there in winter so if you spread cowshit around outside it probably isn’t going anywhere until the first rain washes it off hard ground into the nearest waterway.
There is I believe already a problem with human waste and septic tanks doing just that in some communities. St Bathans?
It’s already being done RB, in places where it works. It’s not like Central freezes over for months at a time 😉 I assume the stocking rates are much less too.
But yeah, it’s not really viable in the long term.
I must visit at the wrong time Weka -it’s usually b freezing when I am there. At the back of my mind I’m assuming that this is a rerun of the intensive Mackenzie basin farming proposals. Even if the ground is only frozen for 6 weeks 18000 codes are going to produce a lot of shit. Perhaps us poor peasants will be able to dry and burn it as fuel
Not really, especially as he makes no secret or excuses for either.
Come on, don’t be so precious. Surely if we can be told to fu*k off back to our own countries without admonishment, we can handle a little of the above?
Yea … it was pretty nasty and judgemental!
Complete and utter kaka and bullshit as well.
I could begin with a brother’s IQ …. I could then go on to ask why a certain former head of the drug squad (a Rangi Rangihika) used to wonder why those addicted that he encountered/busted were extremely intelligent – completely to his wonderment, and what he should do about it. (In the days before we had the Police’s worst enemy – Greg O’Connor)
Don’t get me wrong tho’ te Allen – I’m not a supporter of smack heads’ actions – just not as ready to pretend to myself how so much better I am than they are. There’s an obviously highly intelligent Ure that could probably shit on me any day – and I suspect definitely shit on you.
Oh… btw – there are also rent-a-quote CantyUni Criminologists and others the MSM seem totally in lerv with who could probably give you an education on it all – rather than the schooling you’ve obviously so far received.
Your over reaction is as funny as your loyalty admirable.
If you’re really that bothered I’ll retract, as ‘extrapolating an undeniable scientific fact from a sample size of 1’ seems to offend so much when I do it 😉
You miss the point. It’s not that you were a junkie, nor the fact your writing style rips eyes from skulls, but the oversimplified, dismissive tone of your boast.
Live by crass generalisations, then die by crass generalisations. It’s not nice is it?
Lucky for you, you had a couple of guys backing up your claim because they didn’t want your feelings hurt, though their silence on your borderline racist tone is a bit deafening.
I’m no more ‘pc’ than you are a friend of convivial writing, but that’s all way beside the point.
But whilst we’re at it, so to speak, what’s with signing each and every post about?
You know your handle is appears above your comments, right?
Is it ego that you need to see your name twice, or is you think we’re all too dumb we need telling twice? 😆
“..it is actually links to facts/evidence that back the claims i made..”
No, it doesn’t. I’ve searched your blog before for back up to the claims you make, and they’re just not there. The onus is on you mate, to provide the back up here on ts. Or at least link to a single blogpost that backs up your claims so we know which ones you consider to be useful.
“..i grew up eating eating greasy bacon for breakfast..and ‘$1.50 pies’..
..and was fat and unhealthy as..”
Pity you don’t understand the underlying mechanism though.
Fat is an essential nutrient for humans. Without it our brains and hormones don’t work properly. I had a look at the rationale you present, which is this article in the Herald.
(and btw, “the MoH says so” isn’t evidence that backs up your views).
Lack of exercise, $1.50 pies, an abundance of fried chicken and traditional Polynesian food served with lashings of coconut cream have resulted in an obesity rate in Pacific adults of more than 60 per cent.
However…
Tokelau is a group of three atolls located in the South Pacific Ocean with approximately 1400 inhabitants. Administratively it belongs to New Zealand.
From a dietary point of view the case of Tokelau is very interesting: we can observe what happens when a population transitions from their traditional diet to a more westernized one, and back.
When Captain Wilkes visited Tokelau with his scientists, they reported that the people living there were very healthy, and to their surprise most of their diet was composed of coconut and fish, and some breadfruit (a starchy melon). There were no signs of plant cultivation.
In the 1920s, their diet was:
70% from coconut. So, more than 50% of this diet was fat.
90% of this fat, was saturated fat.
Health problems at that time:
skin diseases
asthma
infectious diseases (chicken pox, measles, leprosy). No chronic diseases were recorded (trained physicians had been available since 1917).
The article goes on to look at what happened to the Tokelauan population when half of it immigrated to NZ and adopted a Western diet. Upshot is a massively huge increase in diabetes, heart disease etc. Biggest change in diet? Less fat and increase in refined carbohydrates. The original research on this was the Tokelau Island Migration Study. You can google it for more detail.
This pattern is demonstrated again and again all over the world. Take people away from their traditional diets, even high fat ones, and feed them white flour and white sugar, and watch diabetes and heart disease arrive (looks like cancer and possibly Alzheimers too).
The “traditional Polynesion food is the problem” line being run by the MoH and the Herald is the same colonisation shit that’s been going on for the past few hundred years in the Pacific. It’s not the traditional food that’s the problem, it’s the whitey food (actually it’s more complex than that, because issues of poverty and access come into it too, as well as cultural colonisation).
You got it. Refined flour and sugar. Most people will do themselves a world of good simply by cutting those items back by 30%. Of course, cheap lower quality food is full of this stuff.
Always nice to see the food police jump instantly to a (seriously complex and difficult-to-implement) taxation solution for food. Because food preparation doesn’t require time or knowledge, if we make tofu $1/kilogram everyone will magically be able to feed their families a low-carb low-fat lean-protein micronutrient-balanced stirfry.
Sooo, John Banks the eloquent little botox queen is said to have approached a supporter of Penny Bright at the Auckland District Court intoning in a voice only they could here that the woman was a ‘Bush Pig’,
If that’s the way you want to play the game Herr Banks all well and good, i am off today to have a conversation with that bloke McCready to see what material help he needs, if any,(which i will gladly supply),
It’s just come to my attention that Graham McCready is on the bones of His ‘proverbial’, dealing to Banks on the shoe-string of a benefit,
i am sure if He needs it,transport to and from the airport down here can be arranged and flight costs covered,
i was peeved when the case was moved to Auckland, but understand now the cost of moving the necessary witnesses down to Wellington would be an impossibility for Mr McCready, but, if Botox Banks(the already once convicted), wants to engage in a little post-courtroom debate i will be sorely tempted to drag myself up that way and deliver Him the same message he got at the point of His first conviction,(boy didn’t the Rat scurry in a hurry on that day)…
…..the fact is that even though I had owned the same apartment in the Auckland CBD for more than a decade, the voting papers hadn’t turned up.
And in spite of good intentions, I didn’t get around to sorting it out before the election closed.
But frankly, I don’t believe Brown is doing anything near enough to ensure this city’s economic growth steps up.
Yes, Fran’s just so concerned about the future of the city she lives in. In spit of that, she just couldn’t be bothered to pick up the phone and exercise her democratic right to chose the Mayor, Councillors and members of the community and district health boards for the next three years.
I wouldn’t want to rely on her assistance if she was “concerned” about me!
Doesn’t Fran O’Sullivan’s latest piece of Jonolism give off a distinct reek of insanity, in all Her lazy rotundness O’Sullivan couldn’t be bothered to vote until that is She learned of what goes on in Len Brown’s bedroom, what a pathetic waste of space,
Can Fran please tell all, i want to know what goes on in Her bedroom befor i decide to read her abysmal column in the morning,
On second thoughts, cancel that, the thought of getting a glimpse into the goings on in Fran’s bedroom first fills me with horror and secondly gives me the urge to barf…
Xxx
Thanks for the link to Fran’s confession. Small wonder why folks south of Auckland, couldn’t care less about all of this media circus. It reflects poorly on
Orkland, Super City, Rodney Hyde, National government, and the huge imbalance of power that now Auckland represents. Most Kiwis don’t live in Auckland and resent Auckland centric ‘culture’ and media. Don’t vote, it only encourages them. Seems to be the Auckland way.
The fix is regional development as the only regional activity doing ‘well’ is dairying and thats screwing up our waterways, land profiles etc.
cities will always have a certain attraction be it work, family, facilities but akl is a bit if a basket case after the curtis,woods,banks legacy gives way to nacts engineered takover via supercity.
oshillivan is a fool to admit not voting but thats not news really.
Another case of irony in that Mr Wewege lost his position because of sexual relationship and Bevan Chuang.
The Herald:
“The Washington-based Diplomatic Courier magazine last month named Luigi Wewege as one of the top 99 foreign policy professionals under 33, because of his efforts to “foster intellectual dialogue and relationships between New Zealand youth and the world decision-makers of today and tomorrow”.
But his profile was pulled from the international affairs website yesterday after the editors became concerned about his role in the Auckland mayoral sex scandal…………
Managing editor Chrisella Herzog contacted the Herald to confirm the veracity of Facebook messages sent between Mr Wewege, a member of the John Palino campaign team, and Bevan Chuang, who publicly revealed a two-year affair with Auckland Mayor Len Brown.
Come back Kim Hill, urgently! Saturday Morning, Radio NZ National, 19 October 2013
Kim Hill’s Saturday morning show, along with Chris Laidlaw’s and occasionally Bryan Crump’s, is one of the few times that New Zealand audiences can hear top-quality conversations with interesting people about serious topics. So the many fans of Kim Hill’s show are always concerned when she is on leave, as she is now. Will the replacement be up to it? Will she maintain Kim Hill’s exceptionally high standards?
Well, it turns out that Kim’s replacement today is one Susie Ferguson and, unfortunately, she is just not up to it.
Shortly after that, she came to our attention again, this time by her obtuse and foolish questions to a movie distributor, who treated her with barely restrained contempt…. http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-25072013/#comment-667846
(Aficionados of disruption strategies will note our friend McFlock‘s inept attempts to derail the discussion.)
This morning, after 8 o’clock, she read out the lineup for the morning, including this gem of crazed political correctness: “After eleven, breast cancer and what it’s like for a man when their partner is diagnosed….”
Then it’s on to business. Her first guest was Professor Martin Jacques, a British expert on China and author of When China Rules the World: The Rise of the Middle Kingdom and the End of the Western World.
Remember, Suzy Ferguson is quite happy to parrot the most prejudicial and demeaning language cooked up by government spin-doctors to taunt political dissenters in the West. This morning, however, she appears to have changed her spots about human rights: her questions, even about business and economic matters, all come with an anti-Chinese Government slant. Eventually, her crass questioning gets under the skin of her guest….
MARTIN JACQUES: The Chinese will not be lectured by the West. I have not heard you say ANYTHING that acknowledges the immense progress China has made since 1978.
…..[Awkward hiatus]…..
SUSIE FERGUSON: I’m asking you why you’re such a fan.
A little later, the crass and insidious comments continue….
MARTIN JACQUES: The internet has revolutionized Chinese knowledge. SUSIE FERGUSON: But in a limited wayyyyyy….
[…..A little later…..]
SUSIE FERGUSON: As Chinese power increases, how do you think the West will react? [She seems unfazed by Dr. Jacques’ irritated silence and presses on] I mean, do you think the West will take it lying down?
The “interview” winds down to an ignominious end, but Susie Ferguson’s mission is not over yet. She takes what I imagine she thinks is revenge by reading out a few telegrams….
SUSIE FERGUSON: There are quite a few texts and e-mails. He’s provoked quite a bit of feedback has Dr. Jacques! Walter writes: “China executes more people than any other country. What they’ve done to Tibet is what they could do to us.” Neil writes: “We should be very cautious….”
Appointing Susie Ferguson to Saturday mornings, even if it is just for a couple of weeks, amounts to gross failure in a time slot listeners have come to presume will be four hours of quality radio.
Thanks for linking to those older threads, Morrissey, somehow I managed to completely miss the multiple examples of how non “word-perfect” your “transcripts” truly are.
I now feel justified in reflexively scrolling past your comments.
I now feel justified in reflexively scrolling past your comments.
When I first started putting up transcripts on this forum, you were full of praise for them, and you recognized that I did capture the essential quality of the discussions.
Your disaffection with me came suddenly, and it had nothing to do with questions of accuracy. It came after I had the temerity to lampoon people who you supported. For instance, there was my transcription of an interview with the hapless Hekia Parata, back before she was Minister of Education…. http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-30082011/#comment-369467
For some reason you have failed to convince anyone on this forum of, you backed the hapless Ms. Parata and her deepwater drilling plans. You also objected to my transcript of a outlandish, bizarre television appearance by Air New Zealand CEO Rob Fyfe, when he assured New Zealanders that Tokyo was “perfectly safe” even while the Japanese government was on the brink of ordering the evacuation of the city…. http://thestandard.org.nz/meltdown-at-fukushima/#comment-314634
Your objections to my transcripts are ideological. You need to be honest.
I didn’t bother replying because you start out with such an obvious diversion that I literally stopped reading.
So I’ll reply up to the point I stopped reading:
“When I first started putting up transcripts on this forum, you were full of praise for them,”
Yes, because I *assumed* they were actual word-for-word, or very close, transcriptions. I’ve done several transcriptions of various things myself over time and I know how much effort goes into making them. So I was thankful that someone was transcribing snippets from National Radio, snippets that 95% of the time I don’t get a chance to hear, so was glad for them to be recorded.
My praise lasted up until I actually heard an interview myself that you had “transcribed”, and I discovered just how loose your “transcriptions” were.
“and you recognized that I did capture the essential quality of the discussions.”
More flowery waffle on your part. I didn’t “recognise” that you “capture[d] the essential quality of the discussions”, I thought they were actual transcriptions, as I describe above.
Skimming the rest of your woeful reply, I see you seem to think that my “dissatisfaction” is something to do with me supporting Hekia Parata: not at all, it is entirely to do with you not actually transcribing segments with any semblance to reality while claiming that you did.
But hey, if you want to keep up this little fiction in your head, go right ahead. I think both of our reputations on this blog won’t disabuse any 3rd parties as to the real truth of this situation.
I didn’t bother replying because you start out with such an obvious diversion that I literally stopped reading.
“Literally” stopped reading, did you? You know, embellishing a lie in such a childish manner doesn’t change the fact it’s a lie. “Literally”. As they’d respond on the Panel: Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!
….because I *assumed* they were actual word-for-word, or very close, transcriptions.
They were accurate, and they continue to be accurate, and you know it.
Skimming the rest of your woeful reply, I see you seem to think that my “dissatisfaction” is something to do with me supporting Hekia Parata: not at all, it is entirely to do with you not actually transcribing segments with any semblance to reality while claiming that you did.
You are, to put it politely, disingenuous. You were outraged that my transcript had shown up Parata in all her bumbling incoherence and vacuity. The highlight of that grim interview was when she claimed that the National government’s oil drilling “policy” had “a variety of various variables”. You actually support the moronic policies she was so ineptly espousing that day, and even more moronic ones than that, as shown by your defiant insistence that the Fukushima catastrophe was being over-hyped by greenies.
But hey, if you want to keep up this little fiction in your head, go right ahead. I think both of our reputations on this blog won’t disabuse any 3rd parties as to the real truth of this situation.
I am more than happy for people to compare our respective credibility, or lack of it. My transcripts ARE reliable—-I couldn’t dream up characters who exhibit the cruelty, moral turpitude, vanity, pomposity or stupidity of people like Chris Trotter, Stephen Franks, Garth McVicar or any of the other people who I pin down for posterity.
You would be quite justified if you had pointed out that I make minor errors now and again, but you have unwisely chosen to exaggerate, demean and distort what I do. I am not a liar, I did not make up Hekia Parata’s hopelessness, or Rob Fyfe’s surreal brand of idiocy. You for some bizarre reason support those fools. Don’t try to pretend that your attempts to undermine me are anything more than ideologically motivated spite.
She was right to quiz Jacques on China’s human rights record.
In our rush to exploit the Chinese people for our own benefits, we are too quick to overlook at the actions of the governing regime that facilitates this exploitation.
To quote from a Guardian review of Jacque’s book:
Western states frequently do not meet their own standards any more than China does. But I agree with Rousseau, Kant and Paine that all human beings have a sense of self and are thus worthy of equal respect as individuals, as I agree with Aristotle and Plato about the importance of due desert underpinning justice. There is a universal hunger for these values which does not stop at China’s borders because of some mystical adherence to Asian values. We all want to live lives we have reason to value – whether we are Chinese or British.
She was right to quiz Jacques on China’s human rights record.
Indeed.
The country with the second highest absolute numbers of enslaved is China, with an estimated 2,800,000 to 3,100,000 in modern slavery. The China country study5 suggests that this includes the forced labour of men, women and children in many parts of the economy, including domestic servitude and forced begging, the sexual exploitation of women and children, and forced marriage.
We should all be wary of the Chinese and its toxic mix of Stalinist communisim and neo-liberal capitalism.
Chinese do not have trade unions, environmental regulations, labour laws or social safety nets, and its massive slave workforce keeps wages down all over the world.
As I said before on this site. It is not Reagan or Thatcher that western boardrooms should be thanking. It is Deng Xiaopeng.
We should all be wary of the Chinese and its toxic mix of Stalinist communisim and neo-liberal capitalism.
You are correct, millsy. We also need to understand why the Chinese have nothing but contempt for people like Margaret Thatcher, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, who presume to lecture them about human rights.
I’d like the USA to remain as the dominant superpower but I’m not bothered if/when China take over as was shown with how they’ve handled Hong Kong they seem quite pragmatic
I’d like the USA to remain as the dominant superpower
In a lot of ways this would be a good thing but we have seen now is the US is essentially captured as a state within a state which cannot even govern itself or look after its own people. It’s not good to see.
In reality, only the banks and those with many properties benefit from high house prices: high prices mean that people will have to take out larger mortgages for longer periods of time, which means more money in interest payments for the banks.
Because the banks have a license to print money. If we want affordable housing we need to rescind that license.
It’s not that simple moron. We really do need to support our society, what we don’t need is a bunch of psychopathic banksters stealing all our work and wealth from us through charging interest.
What definition of the word security/collateral are you using?
I’m using the standard financial definition which is an asset that can be leveraged against in order to secure additional funding. The $1.6B used to bail out SCF does not fall into the category of being such an asset.
When the GFC started the government instituted the Retail Depositors Scheme. Now, the financial institutions that went into the scheme paid some amount to do so but there’s no way that they paid in enough to even cover the $1.6b used to cover the failure of SFC. The security used to raise the extra was the taxpayers of NZ.
No it’s not. It’s exactly what was being discussed. The banks get to loan out as much money as they can until they collapse at which point the government will step in to bail them out.
No, the problem is still the same. Due to the intertwined nature of the global financial system if one bank goes down it’s possible that it would take several others with it and they won’t necessarily be in the same country. The “losses” will be counted in the tens to to hundreds of billions if not more. That’s why the governments of the world stepped in when the banking system failed in 2007/8 and also why our government stepped in when the BNZ failed (sometime around the same time period the US government did the same for a failing bank in the US).
The governments are absolutely terrified of the private banks failing and thus the banks have an implicit government guarantee. A guarantee that is backed by the taxpayers.
Dare I say it taxes are a type of ‘fraud and usuary’ of governments. The worker pays taxes then also banks his/her savings and is actively encouraged by governments to do so eg. kiwisaver schemes. Governments/treasuries/ Reserve Banks actually have no money- it is a fiction, hence so are government guarantees ( e.g. bonds, Retail depositor schemes)
Paper money, cheques, Eftpos, bonds, guarantees……They are all “currency”, a figment of imagination from the source onto the the end of the money trail – you; the taxpayer and the worker who re-circulates it.
In terms of currency, accrual and flow (tax revenues included are used by private banks in the flow of currency- it isn’t idiocy CV), there is no difference between private banks or central banks and the massive ‘con-job’ between Governments and banks colluding to ‘bleed society to death’ ( UT).
Also true words “a bunch of psychopathic banksters stealing all our work and wealth from us …” but not just in interest charges DTB- as a type of ‘fraud’ happens before we are paying bank fees, interest etc . It is our savings that are being used without consent and then we give the banks fees for the priviledge of having the workers money
– “Never in human history have so many been plundered by so few..”
Released recently part 3 of “Hidden Secrets of Money”
The Biggest Scam In The History Of Mankind – Maloney.M. 2013
Personally- not a big hidden secret but more likely a concept that has not been well understood by the ‘worker’. Found this video and its visuals a great way to illustrate the myth of there being money, with easy to understand terminology of money ‘mumbo-jumbo’.
travellerev posted “Shade” the Motion Picture link recently too. Adds further dimensions to the discussions and understandings of who are the global “controllers”. Worth due time to watch.
Yes, Mr Shearer’s input was very pleasant, funny and quite enjoyable! Comes across as a nice, witty and clever guy. Shows how being a leader was so onerous and restrictive to his usual persona.
In the clip his input is right at the start of the programme in this episode which itself he began and then again at 7′ onwards when he was grilled and gave his winning responses.
Chris (“Haw Haw”) Trotter is something of a left/liberal icon in this country, and a political north star for many Standardisti, who clearly set their own bearings by what he says and writes. Generally Trotter writes well and contributes valuable insights. However, like all of us, he is certainly not perfect. In 2007 he suffered a public dressing down from John Minto after he (Trotter) had made some ignorant comments backing the police raids in the Urewera country. Minto damned his comments as “shallow”, “pompous”, “weak” and “potentially damaging” to the victims of the raids…. http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO0710/S00415.htm
Since then, Trotter has got worse, not better. As a regular guest on Jim Mora’s Panel, he has slotted in seamlessly with that show’s glib and casually cruel zeitgeist; Trotter has been one of the more heartless taunters of political dissidents like Julian Assange and Edward Snowden…. http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-14062013/#comment-648511
But such irresponsible, craven behaviour, such gross misjudgements and failures of empathy have done little to shake the faith of Trotter’s most dedicated followers. They stayed on board, even after he delivered a windy and pompous admonition of those who might dare to criticise the infamous jury verdict in the Trayvon Martin case.
In shock and horror at what I heard, I provided a rush transcript of Trotter’s fustian lecture. Of course, not having a working tape recorder, and not being an expert in shorthand, I didn’t get it one hundred per cent correct. That’s all that the Trotteristi needed; they piled on with the ferocity of Red Guards going after a capitalist running dog, hammering on the fact that I hadn’t captured the great orator’s words perfectly….. http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-25072013/#comment-668899
Despite that, this writer (i.e., moi) is always willing to concede that his critics have a point, and in a spirit of reconciliation, I acknowledged that. One of my critics has been our friend McFlock, and after he took the trouble to actually provide a transcript of Trotter’s infamous words, I acknowledged his efforts….
MORRISSEY: Thanks for transcribing that, McFlock. I can see that I missed a lot, and you have a valid point in disagreeing with my interpretation of Trotter’s comments. I did render his words a little more pointedly than they actually were. However, I think that even when you compare my admittedly imperfect rush “transcript” to your word-perfect transcript, I have captured the essential pomposity of his speaking style and the gist of his admonition to the lesser mortals in the studio to respect that outrageous verdict in Florida. Trotter was speaking slowly and sententiously, as if he was defending the Western system of justice; what he was actually doing was defending a grievous miscarriage of justice. His suggestion that there were “items of evidence which would raise reasonable doubt I think in most people’s minds” was not backed up at all, and disappointingly, Noelle McCarthy failed to demand he did so.
You are right to time the silences; they’re not as long as I recalled them in my mind, but they are significant nonetheless. Noelle McCarthy was, I believe, genuinely lost for words after listening to that. So was I.
The response, however, did not burnish our friend’s diplomatic credentials….
McFLOCK: oh fuck off. So let’s say you “captured” trotter’s pompousness (personally, I think you overstated it). That means that you are (at best) a dadaesque caricaturist of discourse. So are all the claims as to near word perfect accuracy simply self-delusion, or are you trying to mimic Sacha baron Cohen’s immersion satire? http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-16102013/#comment-712089
Readers with an IQ above room temperature will note that McFlock attempts to derail and inflame the discussion by comparing my serious (and admittedly imperfect) criticism of a media commentator with the behaviour of a callous and brutally dishonest propagandist/comedian.
But let’s save the discussion of provocative hate-comedians like Bernard Manning, Andrew Dice Clay and Sacha Baron Cohen for another day.
And another thing: your excuses about not having a tape recorder are pretty fucking stupid when you quite obviously have an internet connection, and all the natradio broadcasts are online.
And I chose SBC because he is known for constantly staying in character, much in the same way that you stay in the character of stupid dickhead.
And another thing: your excuses about not having a tape recorder are pretty fucking stupid when you quite obviously have an internet connection, and all the natradio broadcasts are online.
My transcripts—occasionally a little too slapdash and impressionistic for some tastes—-are done quickly and published very soon after the offending broadcast. I am more than happy for you or anyone else to provide a word-perfect transcript for people to compare and contrast with mine. As we saw with my rendition of Chris Trotter’s infamous defence of shonky Deep South juries, my version is usually pretty much spot on. Of course people can quibble about whether I described the timbre of his voice fairly, or whether I effectively evoked the horrified silence that fell over the people he was admonishing, but the determined effort by a few hardline Trotteristi was, and remains, an exercise in attempted political assassination. In a non-frightening, Standard sort of way, of course.
Yes Chris. Did you see the part where whale was implying that Orsman had made up quotes from Whale? ie, the part where whale had been tweeting nonsense based on the same mistake Fish made?
The Auckland Mayoral debacle is a serious diversion away from really serious issues – one of which is the lack of investment in essential infrastructure in the South Island. On SH1, the main route from Picton to NZ’s second city, there’s an old rickety, single lane bridge over a major river. Up till fairly recently all traffic on SH1 had to cross an even more rickety old 2 tier bridge with the railway line on the top tier. the train still goes across it.
When the mighty Waimakirirri River is in flood, the old wooden bridge at Kaiapoi has to be closed in case it gets washed away, leaving just the motorway bridge. Cyclists just have to wait until the river drops or they can get a lift across the motorway bridge.
Matters are exacerbated when the Ashley River is in flood and the old bridge at Rangiora has to be closed for safety reasons which diverts all traffic north of the river onto SH1. When both rivers are in flood as happened last week – there are just two ways into ChCh by road from the north – the SH1 bridge and the old one lane gorge bridge 90kms upstream.
And that’s aside from the implications to SH1 and the only railway line – of landslides or tsunami pretty much all the way from Blenheim to Cheviot.
We think of slavery as a practice of the past, an image from Roman colonies or 18th-century American plantations, but the practice of enslaving human beings as property still exists. There are 29.8 million people living as slaves right now, according to a comprehensive new report issued by the Australia-based Walk Free Foundation.
And, yes, NZ is represented as having slaves, approximately 500.
Depends entirely on the definition of “slave”. I would suggest that America has many many more than 60,000. There’s a whole economy based on low-paid ($1-3 hour) prison inmates that produce massive amounts of products cheaply, including large amounts of military hardware such as uniforms and basic equipment. To the point that states trade prison inmates between themselves in order to fulfill government contracts…
Probably a combination of sex slaves and workers in slave like conditions (technically paid but the bills that the employer charges the employed are more than the pay) all of which will be foreign born. We here of some of these in the news every now and then but for some reason they’re not called what they are.
Judith Collins is going to speak to the China Executive Leadership Academy about government transparency and accountability. Is she aware of the irony of a Minister of a sly, secretive, unwilling to accept accountability ‘government’ talking about those subjects? A bit like Ruth Richardson and Roger Douglas talking to foreign governments about economic stewardship- what a fucking joke.
DUTCH KING TELLS THE POOR: “BUILD YOUR OWN SAFETY NETS”
No, this is not a Monty Python sketch. The King of the Netherlands, Willem-Alexander announced the end of the welfare state in a speech written by the government. But while the population of the Netherlands has faced some of the most severe austerity measures in Europe, the monarchy has cut nothing from the £31m it receives from the taxpayer each year – overtaking the Windsors as the most expensive monarchy in Europe…..
What has happened in Auckland in the last 3-4years? People on the street and on the beach are so defensive so as to scare other people away. People hog the footpath so I have to walk on the road. What happened to altruism, manners, thoughtfulness? I wonder if it’s like this in other Western countries.
NZ slaves are on Korean fishing boats thank to National delaying implementation of new rules preventing such conditions.
Other slaves on farm labour are made to work huge hours 80 hrs plus only getting paid 40 to 45 hrs.
National again don’t bother funding osh labour dept mobie
Forestry workers made to work long unsafe hours killing workers!
Religious fundamentalists such as thr exclusive bretheren who force marriages force labour again National implicated!
Open access notables A survey of interventions to actively conserve the frozen North, van Wijngaarden et al., Climatic Change:The frozen elements of the high North are thawing as the region warms much faster than the global mean. The dangers of sea level rise due to melting glacier ice, increased ...
Bryce Edwards writes – New Zealand’s biggest-ever political donations scandal is finally at an end. But what is the conclusion? No one can really be sure. The Court of Appeal released its judgement on Tuesday about the Serious Fraud Office case against the NZ First Foundation. On ...
In 2015, then-Prime Minister John Key announced plans for a huge ocean sanctuary around the Kermadec Islands, banning fishing and mining from 15% of Aotearoa's EEZ. It was bold, it was ambitious, and it suggested that National might actually care about the environment. Except they fucked it up: Key failed ...
1. Who has just been given the accolade New Zealander of the Year?a. The Kokakob. The Cook Strait Ferryc. Fair God. Dr Jim Salinger 2. Which of these is an affront to decent society?a. Dame Edna Everageb. Mrs Doubtfire c. Dr. Frank-N-Furterd. Brian 3. Who is Penny Simmonds?a. The aspiring actress in Big ...
New Zealand’s biggest-ever political donations scandal is finally at an end. But what is the conclusion? No one can really be sure.The Court of Appeal released its judgement on Tuesday about the Serious Fraud Office case against the NZ First Foundation. On the face of it, the court found ...
Buzz from the Beehive Waves of rain are set to lash much of the North Island during Easter Weekend as a low-pressure system forms east of New Zealand, according to a weather forecast published in the past day or so. Niwa was warning of a “moisture-laden” long weekend, with rain expected ...
Look around us…Nicola Willis’ promises of balancing the books, of cutting spending without reducing services, and of delivering game changing tax cuts are disappearing before her eyes.Everyday we see stories of violent crime ending in horrific injuries, or worse. The cost of living worsens, whereas the PM claimed renters would ...
TL;DR: My top six news of note on the morning of Thursday, March 28 include:The Government will have to borrow between $10 billion to $15 billion more than previously expected in order to make up for a slowing economy and to pay for $14.9 billion of tax cuts, according to ...
This story by Naveena Sadasivam and Kate Yoder was originally published by Grist and is part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story. The long-awaited jobs board for the American Climate Corps, promised early in the Biden administration, will open next month, according to details shared exclusively ...
Should landlords be able to deduct the interest on the loans they take out to bankroll their property speculation? The US Senate Budget Committee and Bloomberg News don’t think this is a good idea, for reasons set out below. Regardless, our coalition government has been burning through a ton of ...
Treasury’s first report on the economy since the change of government presents a damning indictment of Labour’s economic management. The problem for National is that it is so damning that logically, coupled with a rapidly slowing economy, Finance Minister Nicola Willis should respond to it by postponing or even cancelling ...
Budget tensions are becoming evident within the Coalition Government. Winston Peters made numerous political points in his speech to the NZF annual conference. But the attack on his own government’s fiscal policies raised issues of substance. ‘Today in the Sunday Star Times, journalist and former advisor to the Labour ...
Buzz from the Beehive The media – sure enough – have been binging on Finance Minister Nicola Willis’ release of the Budget Policy Statement and a statement headed Government announces Budget priorities This assures us – or rather, this parrots the Luxon team mantra – that the Budget “will deliver ...
The Ides of March brought me COVID followed by a bereavement. No wonder they tell you to be careful of them.I’m home now and have resumed the interrupted recuperation. Very much looking forward to getting back to regular things. Meanwhile, some thoughts…OneThis new Prime Minister guy just keeps getting more dire. ...
News that the Chinese ATP 40 cyber-hacking unit penetrated parliamentary internet networks in 2021 has renewed concerns about the PRC’s malign intentions in Aotearoa. But is the hack that significant given the length of time that has passed since its … Continue reading → ...
When Parliament passed the Intelligence and security Act in 2017, they assured us all that it was full of safeguards. Any intrusive surveillance of New Zealanders would be subject to a "triple lock", requiring the approval of the Minister and (supposedly independent) Commissioner of Intelligence Warrants, as well as post-facto ...
Eric Crampton writes – Richard Harman’s Politik newsletter provides a bit of the context that ought to have been showing up in other media reports on potential reductions in public service staffing. Media has been reporting on staffing cuts on the order of about 7%. Is that ...
Mike Grimshaw writes – It’s becoming increasingly apparent that many perceive free speech to have become the preserve of the politically right wing, the religiously conservative, the libertarian fringe, the anti-trans, the anti-Māori and…. well, just fill in with whatever groups or individuals you don’t like and don’t ...
Don Brash writes – As everybody who is not blind and deaf is aware, there is a huge political preoccupation with climate change at the moment, a widespread (though by no means unanimous) belief that global temperatures are rising mainly as a result of the greenhouse gases created ...
TL;DR: My six things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy on Wednesday, March 27 include:Chris Bishop laid out his vision for filling Aotearoa-NZ’s $100 billion infrastructure deficit in a speech yesterday, emphasising user pays and private funding, but failed to say how to achieve bipartisanship on population, public borrowing and ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Former Finance Minister Grant Robertson and former Prime Minister Chris Hipkins have been conveying how unhappy they are with the tax system. Last week in his valedictory speech, Robertson called for the introduction of a wealth or capital gains tax. And this week Hipkins ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
Buzz from the Beehive China has loomed large in Beehive considerations over the past 24 hours, largely because of that country’s mischief-making in the cyber espionage department. Two media statements emerged on that subject hard on the heels of the PM baulking at questions put to him on RNZ’s Morning ...
Chris Trotter writes – WHY IS THE NATIONAL PARTY doing so much for landlords, property developers, trucking, and construction companies, and so little for everybody who isn’t already pretty well-off? It’s as if protecting landlords’ investments and building apartments and roads now constitute the whole of National’s ...
Bryce Edwards writes – When she was campaigning to be Minister of Finance last year, Nicola Willis pledged that she would resign from the job if she failed to deliver tax cuts in her first Budget. Now, it’s that pledge, along with Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s ...
Robert MacCulloch writes – The Reserve Bank has doubled staff numbers in five years to 510, with personnel costs rising to $80 million in 2023 from $32 million in 2018 – up by a whopping 150%. I guess when you print $50 billion and flood markets with liquidity, ...
The furore. In case you didn’t notice there was a controversy in the weekend involving dolphins in a little town off the South Island. Don’t panic, they haven’t declared independence and resumed whaling, this was simply a sailing event.The problem began when racing was cancelled on the opening day of ...
For 20 years or more, the case for a meaningful capital tax gains has been mulled over and analysed to death, including by the tax working group chaired by Sir Michael Cullen. More than once, the International Monetary Fund has said a CGT would be a good idea for New ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: The Public Health Communications Centre (PHCC) call for urgent preventive action and a risk assessment survey of long covid in this briefing noteLocal scoop: NZ road deaths surpass OECD rates, so why is the govt reversing safety plans? ...
This story was originally published by Grist and is part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story. This story is part of a collaboration with Grist and WABE to demystify the Georgia Public Service Commission, the small but powerful state-elected board that makes critical decisions about everything from raising ...
This is a guest post from Robert McLachlan Global warming is accelerating; 2023 was off the charts. We need to stop burning fossil fuels. In New Zealand, transport accounts for half of all fossil fuels burnt. In the Emissions Reduction Plan, transport emissions fall 41% by 2035. As the ...
Labour productivity has been receding rapidly over the past two years, reversing a post-lockdown rise. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My six things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy as at 6:26am on Tuesday, March 26 include:Workers have been treading water in output per hour worked for 12 years, ...
TL;DR: The key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to April 2 include:Today, Parliament resumes sitting at 2pm for the second week of a two-week session. Officials for SIS and GCSB report their annual reviews in public to the Intelligence and Security Select Committee from 5.10pm.Tomorrow, ...
Faced with a barrage of criticism over the promised tax cuts from usually supportive commentators, Finance Minister Nicola Willis yesterday reaffirmed her intention to include them in this year’s Budget. The Government is up against it over the cuts just about every way it turns. Commentators like Fran O’Sullivan, Matthew ...
Here’s my pick of today’s substack posts as of 6:26pm on Monday, March 25: writes via his substack that Market-rate housing will make your city cheaper writes via his substack about the problems talking to double-cab ute (truck) drivers about their vehicles. today about moments of radicalisation in ...
Buzz from the Beehive Just before Christmas, Finance Minister Nicola Willis delivered something that was pitched as a mini-budget and brayed about the decisive action being taken to repair the Government books and support income tax relief in Budget 2024. In a statement headed Fiscal repair job underway. she introduced ...
My sister Belinda asked Dad yesterday what one word would describe Mum best. He said: vivacious.If you only knew her from the photos on the slideshow we've made for today,you might wonder about that, because the camera tended to lie with Mum.If ever she saw a camera pointed at her, she ...
There are two major public consultations closing in the next week, Auckland Council’s Long Term Plan (LTP), and the draft Government Policy Statement on Land Transport (GPS). Closing dates and times: LTP closes Thursday 28 February, at 11.59pm – a minute to midnight! GPS closes Tuesday 2 April, at 12pm noon – note that’s ...
From Kiwiblog’s David Farrar – Bryce Wilkinson writes: Senior Fellow Bryce Wilkinson’s analysis reveals that since March 2009, New Zealand has spent $158 billion more overseas than it has earned, but its NIIP has only fallen by $32 billion.Statistics New Zealand shows that receipts from overseas reinsurers have ...
Is she hinting that the Coalition Government will have to back down on key promises it made in Opposition? Brian Easton writes – The Minister of Finance, Nicola Willis, is telling an evolving story about her fiscal challenges. In Opposition she was confident that she could ...
Dear Nicola Willis,Right now you’ve probably got lots of competing demands coming at you. Ministers who’ve inherited quite a mess, or so you’ve told us, looking for money in the budget to improve things. I imagine that’s why they came to parliament - to make things better.You’ll have to make ...
The Local Government, Transport and Auckland Minister hasthreatened councils with intervention if they don’t merge water assets to take them off balance sheet, just as the now-repealed Three Waters plan directed. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My six things of note this morning for Monday, March 25 include:Simeon ...
A listing of 36 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 17, 2024 thru Sat, March 23, 2024. Story of the week Thanks to John Mason having the stamina to sit down to watch "Climate - the Movie" ...
This morning the Q&A programme had Simeon Brown on to talk about National’s replacement for Three Waters. In case anyone’s forgotten the three are - drinking water, waste water, and sewerage. It’s quite important not to get them mixed up. In much the same way that you wouldn’t want to ...
Today’s newsletter comes with a mini-podcast conversation between me and my buddy Liv Tennet, talking about her time as a child actor in Lord of the Rings. It’s a conversation with a lot of giggles as she talks about falling off a horse, and becoming a meme. Read ...
The Desmog Climate Disinformation Database documents, "individuals and organisations that have helped to delay and distract the public and our elected leaders from taking needed action to reduce greenhouse gas pollution and fight global warming." It's a who's who of the organised climate change denial movement, in other words. In ...
Bob Edlin writes – A High Court judge has decided miscreants who have mana – or who claim to have mana – should be treated differently from miscreants who have none. It’s a ruling that suggests indigenous law-breakers have a better chance of securing a discharge without conviction ...
Welcome to the first, and possibly last, edition of Brickbats, Bouquets and Bull’s Wool. In which I’ll take a look at the events of the last week or so, and rate them.In such ratings the numbers usually have more to do with the opinions of the reviewer, than the actual ...
Roger Partridge writes – My earlier column this month, New Zealand’s highest court could be facing a turning point, prompted a flood of feedback from business readers and lawyers alike. A common query was what Parliament can do to restrain an overreaching judiciary. This week I discuss two steps Parliament ...
TL;DR: In today’s ‘six-stack’ of substacks at 6.16pm on Friday, March 22: writes about New Zealand's Building Boom—And What the World Must Learn From It over at his substack. challenges the Auckland Council’s use of a 3.8 degrees of warming forecast to oppose a wave-park and data centre project ...
Is she hinting that the Coalition Government will have to back down on key promises it made in Opposition?The Minister of Finance, Nicola Willis, is telling an evolving story about her fiscal challenges. In Opposition she was confident that she could deliver her promised income tax cuts. Appointed minister, she ...
Buzz from the Beehive Ministers of the Crown have drawn attention to one sector of the science sector which is unlikely to be subjected to heavy spending cuts, a state-funded broadcaster which is doing nicely, thank you, and a sporting event that had $5.4 million from the public purse puffed ...
Abbott’s Freestyle Libre sensors allow continuous glucose monitoring (CGM). The sensor is applied to the back of the patient’s arm, with a thin filament under the skin measuring glucose levels constantly. But it costs around $100 per sensor and must be replaced once every 14 days. Photo by BSIP/Universal Images ...
The Inspector General of Intelligence and Security (IGIS) recently released a report in which he exposes the existence of a foreign intelligence partner-controlled technological “capability” inside the headquarters of the GCSB, NZ’s 5 Eyes-affiliated signals intelligence collection and analysis agency. … Continue reading → ...
Peter Dunne writes – Nearly three decades after the introduction of MMP and multiparty governments there should be a greater level of understanding about their finer points than often appears to be the case. The reaction to the despicable outburst from the Deputy Prime Minister at the weekend highlights ...
The sweet kisses from fruit of summerHave slowly been turning dullerYou say, "those times"And "remember the daysWhen we went outside and there still was the shade?"Taking no reason into play…Autumn. Clear, blue days shortening to longer nights, growing colder. Aotearoa.That’s us. The temperature dropping, the looming car crash - so ...
Bryce Edwards writes – “It is often said that behind every great man is a great woman”. This is the pitch by the National Party Botany electorate branch to attend their “Ladies Afternoon Tea with Amanda Luxon”. For $110 including GST, you can turn up on Saturday 20 April ...
David Farrar writes – The Electoral Commission has published the expense returns for political parties for the 2023 election. I’ve put them in a table with how many votes a party got so we can see the spend per vote. National only spent $3.34 for every vote they got, almost ...
Winston Peters’ headline-making actions over the past week may have been a show of political power intended to strengthen his hand in Budget negotiations. It was no accident that his State of the Nation speech was as it was. He made it as New Zealand First Leader, not as Deputy ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the last week included:Former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson bowed out of politics this week, giving a series of exit ...
Graham Adams writes — If you love the law or sausages, as the saying goes, best not to look too closely at how they are made. And after watching the orgy of self-pity when Newshub’s closure was announced on February 28, television journalism should definitely be added to the list of those ...
Venerable New Zealand political commentator, Chris Trotter (https://bowalleyroad.blogspot.com/), is a sad creature these days. Once one of the most reliable Leftist writers out there – Economic Left at that – Trotter seems to have absorbed the worldview of Auckland culture-war obsessives. It is not for me to categorise what he ...
The cruelty of short-term memory loss is that each time you ask where she is, you get the fresh shock and grief of the news. That was Dad's day yesterday.Comfortingly, it seems to be less so today. Last night he looked crumpled, today he seems more settled. There's a card ...
Photo by Alvan Nee on UnsplashIt’s that new day of the week (Thursday rather than Friday) when and I co-host our ‘hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kākā for an hour at 5 pm. Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream for our chat about the week’s news ...
Buzz from the Beehive One minister is talking tough while a colleague – whose ministry had acted tough and drawn a barrage of flak – has shown an official softening. Some ministers are doing what Labour was good at, which is distributing public funds to causes regarded as worthy or ...
A ballot for 4 Member's Bills was held today, and the following bills were drawn: Insurance Contracts Bill (Duncan Webb) Income Tax (Clean Transport FBT Exclusion) Amendment Bill (Julie Anne Genter) Crimes (Increased Penalties for Slavery Offences) Amendment Bill (Greg Fleming) Pae Ora (Healthy Futures) ...
One of the strongest narratives about "our" spy agencies is that they are basically institutional traitors, working for foreign powers (or just themselves), without any control or oversight by the elected government. And today, we have yet another report from the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security which explicitly confirms this. ...
“It is often said that behind every great man is a great woman”. This is the pitch by the National Party Botany electorate branch to attend their “Ladies Afternoon Tea with Amanda Luxon”. For $110 including GST, you can turn up on Saturday 20 April to meet the Prime Minister’s ...
The Coalition Government’s plan to ‘get Auckland moving’ is a cuts cover-up that will ultimately cost Aucklanders more to move around the city, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Slashing the Ministry of Pacific Peoples by 40% will have a devastating impact on pacific communities and further highlights how little this government cares about anything other than cutting taxes for the wealthiest few. ...
Labour has proposed an urgent inquiry to investigate the ever-increasing profits of supermarkets, aiming to lower costs for shoppers and food producers alike, says Labour Spokesperson for Commerce and Consumer Affairs Arena Williams and Primary Production Spokesperson Cushla Tangaere-Manuel. ...
With 14% of jobs on the line at the Ministry for Ethnic Communities, the responsible Minister Melissa Lee is failing to stand up for the very communities she’s meant to be representing. ...
COURT OF APPEAL: TRIFECTA OF VICTORY FOR NZ FIRST, TRIFECTA OF FAILURE FOR OPPONENTS For the third time since April 2020, New Zealand First has defeated the Serious Fraud Office and all those complicit in a malicious attack against a political party going about its lawful business in a lawful ...
The Green Party stands with people who live in public housing, people in dire housing need, experts and advocates in demanding better than the Government’s archaic approach to housing those who need our support the most. ...
New Zealand has recently lost the hosting rights of some major international sporting events including the America’s Cup, the Rugby Championship, Netball World Cup, and the Wellington Sevens. We are now at a huge risk of losing SailGP as well. And it won’t stop there. The recent issues with SailGP ...
A Member’s Bill drawn this week would modernise insurance law and make things fairer and more transparent for consumers, Christchurch Central MP Duncan Webb said. ...
The Minister for Disability Issues has confirmed she was aware of funding issues in mid-December and did nothing to stop it. On 14 March, she signed off on changes that were announced and implemented on 18 March without any consultation with disability communities. ...
Green Party MP Julie Anne Genter says her members' bill is an opportunity for the coalition government to plug the gap in electric vehicle incentives. ...
The National Government continues to talk about irresponsible tax cuts that will only drive up inflation, despite the country entering a technical recession. ...
The Minister for Disability Issues must act urgently to reinstate flexibility around the funding for disability support and apologise to disabled carers. ...
This story has been initiated by a leftie shill reporter who proactively sought to call a member of a former band, which disbanded twelve years ago, give their biased appraisal of what was said in my speech, and concocted a ham-fisted attempt at a story that does nothing but show ...
The Government has accepted Labour’s change to the Road User Charge (RUC) discount for hybrid vehicles, meaning there will still be some incentive for people to buy greener vehicles. ...
Many in the mainstream media have taken what was said in New Zealand First’s State of the Nation Speech in Palmerston North on Sunday and deliberately, deceitfully, and ignorantly misrepresented what I said and why I said it. The headlines and commentary on the news stated that I compared ‘co-governance ...
Kicking the most vulnerable people out of state housing and pushing them towards homelessness will result in a proliferation of poverty and trauma across our most vulnerable communities. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader and MP for Waiariki, Rawiri Waititi has penned a letter asking MPs to support his members bill to remove GST from all food. The bill is expected to go through its first reading in parliament this Wednesday. “I’m calling on all political parties to support my ...
Good afternoon. Thank you for, in your very busy lives, turning up to this meeting today. On October 14th last year New Zealanders overwhelmingly voted for change. That is exactly what this new government is bringing. New Zealand First campaigned to ‘take back our country’ and stop the disastrous economic ...
This year is about getting real with Kiwis and discussing the tough issues, as the National Government exacerbates inequality and divides New Zealand, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said ...
The Government adding Significant Natural Areas (SNAs) to its already roaring environmental policy bonfire is an assault on the future of wildlife that makes Aotearoa unique. ...
After 12 years of fighting to protect our moana we are finding ourselves back at square one and back at court. Today, the Environmental Protection Agency is sitting in Hawera to reconsider an application from Trans-Tasman Resources to dig up 50 million tonnes of the seabed in South Taranaki. This ...
Minister Shane Jones’ decision to step away from a seabed mining project is evidence of the murky waters surrounding the Government’s fast-track legislation. ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The Coalition Government’s miscalculation saga continues as it has forgotten an eyewatering $90 million gap in its interest deductibility cost figures, say Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds and Revenue Spokesperson Deborah Russell. ...
He Pou a Rangi Climate Change Commission has today released advice that says if the Government doesn’t act now New Zealand is at risk of not meeting its climate goals. ...
The Coalition Government has today confirmed it is abandoning first home buyers who are struggling to get ahead, says Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds. ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed the passing of legislation to move light electric vehicles (EVs) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) into the road user charges system from 1 April. “It was always intended that EVs and PHEVs would be exempt from road user charges until they reached two ...
New Zealand is strengthening its ability to combat illegal fishing outside its domestic waters and beef up regulation for its own commercial fishers in international waters through a Bill which had its first reading in Parliament today. The Fisheries (International Fishing and Other Matters) Amendment Bill 2023 sets out stronger ...
Economists Carl Hansen and Professor Prasanna Gai have been appointed to the Reserve Bank Monetary Policy Committee, Finance Minister Nicola Willis announced today. The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) is the independent decision-making body that sets the Official Cash Rate which determines interest rates. Carl Hansen, the executive director of Capital ...
Apartment owners and buyers will soon have greater protections as further changes to the law on unit titles come into effect, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “The Unit Titles (Strengthening Body Corporate Governance and Other Matters) Amendment Act had already introduced some changes in December 2022 and May 2023, and ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters will travel to Egypt and Europe from this weekend. “This travel will focus on a range of New Zealand’s traditional diplomatic and security partnerships while enabling broad engagement on the urgent situation in Gaza,” Mr Peters says. Mr Peters will attend the NATO Foreign ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown is encouraging all road users to stay safe, plan their journeys ahead of time, and be patient with other drivers while travelling around this Easter long weekend. “Road safety is a responsibility we all share, and with increased traffic on our roads expected this Easter we ...
About 1.4 million New Zealanders will receive cost of living relief through increased government assistance from April 1 909,000 pensioners get a boost to Superannuation, including 5000 veterans 371,000 working-age beneficiaries will get higher payments 45,000 students will see an increase in their allowance Over a quarter of New Zealanders ...
Ensuring social housing is being provided to those with the greatest needs is front of mind as the Government restarts social housing tenancy reviews, Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka says. “Our relentless focus on building a strong economy is to ensure we can deliver better public services such as social ...
The Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary will not go ahead, with Cabinet deciding to stop work on the proposed reserve and remove the Bill that would have established it from Parliament’s order paper. “The Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary Bill would have created a 620,000 sq km economic no-go zone,” Oceans and Fisheries Minister ...
Dam safety regulations are being amended so that smaller dams won’t be subject to excessive compliance costs, Minister for Building and Construction Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on reducing costs and removing unnecessary red tape so we can get the economy back on track. “Dam safety regulations ...
The coalition Government is expanding the medium-scale adverse event classification to parts of the North Island as dry weather conditions persist, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced today. “I have made the decision to expand the medium-scale adverse event classification already in place for parts of the South Island to also cover the ...
The passing of legislation giving effect to coalition Government tax commitments has been welcomed by Finance Minister Nicola Willis. “The Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill will help place New Zealand on a more secure economic footing, improve outcomes for New Zealanders, and make our tax system ...
Science, Innovation and Technology Minister Judith Collins and Tertiary Education and Skills Minister Penny Simmonds today announced plans to transform our science and university sectors to boost the economy. Two advisory groups, chaired by Professor Sir Peter Gluckman, will advise the Government on how these sectors can play a greater ...
The Budget will deliver urgently-needed tax relief to hard-working New Zealanders while putting the government’s finances back on a sustainable track, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The Finance Minister made the comments at the release of the Budget Policy Statement setting out the Government’s Budget objectives. “The coalition Government intends ...
The coalition Government will look at options to address a zoning issue that limits how much financial support Queenstown residents can get for accommodation. Cabinet has agreed on a response to the Petitions Committee, which had recommended the geographic information MSD uses to determine how much accommodation supplement can be ...
Cabinet has agreed to a short extension to the final reporting timeframe for the Royal Commission into Abuse in Care from 28 March 2024 to 26 June 2024, Internal Affairs Minister Brooke van Velden says. “The Royal Commission wrote to me on 16 February 2024, requesting that I consider an ...
The coalition Government is delivering an $18 million boost to New Zealanders needing to travel for specialist health treatment, Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says. “These changes are long overdue – the National Travel Assistance (NTA) scheme saw its last increase to mileage and accommodation rates way back in 2009. ...
The Government is recognising the innovative and rising talent in New Zealand’s growing space sector, with the Prime Minister and Space Minister Judith Collins announcing the new Prime Minister’s Prizes for Space today. “New Zealand has a growing reputation as a high-value partner for space missions and research. I am ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has confirmed New Zealand’s concerns about cyber activity have been conveyed directly to the Chinese Government. “The Prime Minister and Minister Collins have expressed concerns today about malicious cyber activity, attributed to groups sponsored by the Chinese Government, targeting democratic institutions in both New ...
Independent Reviewers appointed for School Property Inquiry Education Minister Erica Stanford today announced the appointment of three independent reviewers to lead the Ministerial Inquiry into the Ministry of Education’s School Property Function. The Inquiry will be led by former Minister of Foreign Affairs Murray McCully. “There is a clear need ...
State Highway 1 across the Brynderwyns will be open for Easter weekend, with work currently underway to ensure the resilience of this critical route being paused for Easter Weekend to allow holiday makers to travel north, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Today I visited the Brynderwyn Hills construction site, where ...
Introduction Good morning to you all, and thanks for having me bright and early today. I am absolutely delighted to be the Minister for Infrastructure alongside the Minister of Housing and Resource Management Reform. I know the Prime Minister sees the three roles as closely connected and he wants me ...
New Zealand stands with the United Kingdom in its condemnation of People’s Republic of China (PRC) state-backed malicious cyber activity impacting its Electoral Commission and targeting Members of the UK Parliament. “The use of cyber-enabled espionage operations to interfere with democratic institutions and processes anywhere is unacceptable,” Minister Responsible for ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Defence Minister Judith Collins today announced New Zealand will provide logistics support for the upcoming Solomon Islands election. “We’re sending a team of New Zealand Defence Force personnel and two NH90 helicopters to provide logistics support for the election on 17 April, at the request ...
The European Union Free Trade Agreement Legislation Amendment Bill received Royal Assent today, completing the process for New Zealand’s ratification of its free trade agreement with the European Union. “I am pleased to announce that today, in a small ceremony at the Beehive, New Zealand notified the European Union ...
Public consultation on the terms of reference for the Royal Commission into COVID-19 Lessons has concluded, Internal Affairs Minister Hon Brooke van Velden says. “I have been advised that there were over 11,000 submissions made through the Royal Commission’s online consultation portal.” Expanding the scope of the Royal Commission of ...
Hardworking families are set to benefit from a new credit to help them meet their early childcare education (ECE) costs, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. From 1 July, parents and caregivers of young children will be supported to manage the rising cost of living with a partial reimbursement of their ...
A specialised Independent Technical Advisory Group (ITAG) tasked with preparing and publishing independent non-binding advice on the design of a "green" (sustainable finance) taxonomy rulebook is being established, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “Comprising experts and market participants, the ITAG's primary goal is to deliver comprehensive recommendations to the ...
Defence Minister Judith Collins has thanked the Chief of Army, Major General John Boswell, DSD, for his service as he leaves the Army after 40 years. “I would like to thank Major General Boswell for his contribution to the Army and the wider New Zealand Defence Force, undertaking many different ...
25 March 2024 Minister to meet Australian counterparts and Manufacturing Industry Leaders Small Business, Manufacturing, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly will travel to Australia for a series of bi-lateral meetings and manufacturing visits. During the visit, Minister Bayly will meet with his Australian counterparts, Senator Tim Ayres, Ed ...
Government commits almost $3 million for period products in schools The Coalition Government has committed $2.9 million to ensure intermediate and secondary schools continue providing period products to those who need them, Minister of Education Erica Stanford announced today. “This is an issue of dignity and ensuring young women don’t ...
Good morning, it’s great to be here. First, I would like to acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of Building Surveyors and thank you for the opportunity to be here this morning. I would like to use this opportunity to outline the Government’s ambitious plan and what we hope to ...
Minister for Pacific Peoples Dr Shane Reti has announced the Government’s commitment to the Auckland Secondary Schools Māori and Pacific Islands Cultural Festival, more commonly known as Polyfest. “The Ministry for Pacific Peoples is a longtime supporter of Polyfest and, as it celebrates 49 years in 2024, I’m proud to ...
Before moving onto the substance of today’s address, I want to recognise the very significant and ongoing contribution the Breast Cancer Foundation makes to support the lives of New Zealand women and their families living with breast cancer. I very much enjoy working with you. I also want to recognise ...
New Zealand has notched up a first with the launch of University of Canterbury research to the International Space Station, Science, Innovation and Technology and Space Minister Judith Collins says. The hardware, developed by Dr Sarah Kessans, is designed to operate autonomously in orbit, allowing scientists on Earth to study ...
Introduction Thank you for inviting me to speak with you today and I’m sorry I can’t be there in person. Yesterday I started in Wellington for Breakfast TV, spoke to a property conference in Auckland, and finished the day speaking to local government in Christchurch, so it would have been ...
The Coalition Government is contributing more than $1 million to support the establishment of an emergency multi-agency coordination centre in Northland. Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell announced the contribution today during a visit of the Whangārei site where the facility will be constructed. “Northland has faced a number ...
New Zealanders have enjoyed a broader range of voices telling the story of Aotearoa thanks to the creation of Whakaata Māori 20 years ago, says Māori Development Minister Tama Potaka. The minister spoke at a celebration marking the national indigenous media organisation’s 20th anniversary at their studio in Auckland on ...
Commercial catch limits for some fisheries have been increased following a review showing stocks are healthy and abundant, Ocean and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The changes, along with some other catch limit changes and management settings, begin coming into effect from 1 April 2024. "Regular biannual reviews of fish ...
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Auckland Council has put a deadline on new weather-impacted property owners applying for categorisation as government funding looks set to run out. Councillors have voted to support a deadline of September 30 for property owners who haven’t accessed support to come forward and engage with the council’s recovery office. It ...
NONFICTION 1 BBQ Economics by Liam Dann (Penguin Random House, $40) “It’s official,” wrote Dann nine days ago in the Herald, where he works as business editor at large, “we’re in recession.” Yeah, great. He delivered the bad stats: “GDP fell 0.1 percent in the December 2023 quarter, compared with ...
Comment: Every year on February 2, a dozen men in tuxedos and top hats approach the burrow of a groundhog in Gobbler’s Knob, Pennsylvania and entice the beaver-like rodent to emerge and predict the weather. If the groundhog, named Punxsutawney Phil, sees its own shadow when it is summoned, legend ...
By Anneke Smith, RNZ News political reporter A petition urging the New Zealand government to provide urgent humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian people has been tabled in the House. More than 200 people gathered on Parliament’s forecourt today and they were met by MPs from Labour, the Greens and Te ...
Pacific Media Watch The Paris-based global media freedom watchdog RSF (Reporters Without Borders) has appealed for information about the “disappearance” of Palestinian journalist Bayan Abusultan. She was reportedly last seen on March 19 among people “sequestered” in this week’s raid and siege of Al Shifa hospital by Israeli troops in ...
EDITORIAL:The Jakarta Post It happens again and again; indigenous Papuans fall victim to Indonesian soldiers. This time, we have photographic evidence for the brutality, with videos on social media showing a Papuan man being tortured by a group of plainclothes men alleged to be the Indonesian Military (TNI) members. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Robyn J. Whitaker, Director of the Wesley Centre for Theology, Ethics, and Public Policy & Associate Professor, New Testament, Pilgrim Theological College, University of Divinity A strange and eclectic range of activities takes place across these few weeks of the year. Some ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Panizza Allmark, Professor Visual & Cultural Studies, Edith Cowan University It’s Easter weekend, which means many of us will be kicking back with the greatest hits on repeat. But whether you’re a boomer, or an ‘80s or ’90s kid, you might be ...
RNZ Pacific Fiji’s Acting Public Prosecutor has filed an appeal against the sentences of former prime minister Voreqe Bainimarama and suspended police chief Sitiveni Qiliho in their corruption case. Bainimarama was granted an absolute discharge for attempting to pervert the course of justice while Qiliho received a conditional discharge with ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Arosha Weerakoon, Senior Lecturer and General Dentist, School of Dentistry, The University of Queensland Casezy idea/Shutterstock How does toothpaste work? What did people use before toothpaste was invented? – Amelia, age 7, Meanjin (Brisbane) Thanks for your ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brett Hallam, Associate professor, UNSW Sydney IM Imagery/Shutterstock Solar SunShot is well named. The Australian government announced today it would plough A$1 billion into bringing back solar manufacturing to Australia, boosting energy security, swapping coal and gas jobs for those ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clare Dix, Research Fellow in Nutrition & Dietetics, The University of Queensland Easter is the time for chocolate. The shops are full of fantastically packaged and shiny chocolates in all shapes and sizes, making trips to the supermarket with children more challenging ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emma Felton, Adjunct Senior Researcher, University of South Australia Even in a stubborn cost-of-living crisis, it seems there’s one luxury most Australians won’t sacrifice – their daily cup of coffee. Coffee sales have largely remained stable, even as financial pressures have ...
Mining company Trans-Tasman Resources has unexpectedly withdrawn its application for a consent to suck the valuable metals vanadium and titanium from the Taranaki seafloor, as it apparently wagers on the Government’s new fast-track process. It had spent two-and-a-half days putting its case to the Environmental Protection Agency’s decision-making committee, at ...
Contrary to the Associate Minister of Education’s claims, analysis of Healthy School Lunches Programme - Ka Ora, Ka Ako assessments has revealed it provides excellent value for the taxpayer dollar, as a groundswell of public opposition to Government ...
Greenpeace says wannabe Taranaki seabed miner Trans-Tasman Resources is likely banking on Christopher Luxon’s fast-track process to side-step proper scrutiny of its Taranaki seabed mining proposal by bailing out of the Environmental Protection Agency hearing ...
Kiwis Against Seabed mining today slammed Australian owned would-be seabed miner Trans Tasman Resources (TTR) for abandoning its application to the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) to mine the seabed of the South Taranaki Bight. The company ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Katie Attwell, Associate Professor, School of Social Sciences, The University of Western Australia Ground Picture/Shutterstock Months after COVID vaccines were introduced in 2021, governments and private organisations mandated them for various groups. Health and aged care workers were among the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Dzurak, Scientia Professor Andrew Dzurak, CEO and Founder of Diraq, UNSW Sydney Diraq For decades, the pursuit of quantum computing has struggled with the need for extremely low temperatures, mere fractions of a degree above absolute zero (0 Kelvin or ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne A national Essential poll, conducted March 20–24 from a sample of 1,150, gave the Coalition a 50–44 lead including undecided, a reversal ...
The Taxpayers’ Union has today made a formal request under the Regulations of the People’s Republic of China on Open Government Information () for information held about how New Zealand Members of Parliament are spending taxpayer ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Robert Nelson, Honorary Principal Fellow, The University of Melbourne A Byzantine depiction of the Eucharist in Saint Sophia Cathedral, Kyiv.Jacek555/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA A nasty quarrel arose in the 11th century over what kind of bread should be used in holy ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Patrick Hesp, Professor, Flinders University Patrick Hesp In some parts of Australia, coastal dunes are retreating from the ocean at an alarming rate, as waves carve up the beach and wind blows the sand inland. But coastal communities are largely ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Luke Heemsbergen, Senior Lecturer, Digital, Political, Media, Deakin University With an impressive 60% of the US smartphone market, Apple is undeniably big, but not a clear monopoly. Yet, years of innovation by Apple have effectively given the company its own exclusive ...
Whether you’re facing layoffs or are just an emotional junior staffer, it’s always a good idea to scout out a good crying place before you need it. It’s an incredibly hard time for Wellington. Across the city, thousands of public servants are hearing tough news about redundancies and layoffs. Government ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Miller-Jones, Professor, Curtin University Nuclear explosions on a neutron star feed its jets. Danielle Futselaar and Nathalie Degenaar, Anton Pannekoek Institute, University of Amsterdam, CC BY-SA How fast can a neutron star drive powerful jets into space? The answer, it ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Daryl Adair, Associate Professor of Sport Management, University of Technology Sydney Earlier this week, independent MP Andrew Wilkie accused the AFL of conducting “off the books” illicit drug testing to identify players using substances of abuse, then inappropriately withdrawing them from matches ...
The Government’s announcement that it will scrap plans for a vast marine sanctuary around the Kermadec Islands is ‘shameful’ and will make it impossible for Aotearoa New Zealand to meet its international commitments, says the World Wide Fund for Nature ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Quiggin, Professor, School of Economics, The University of Queensland Shutterstock The federal government has bowed to pressure from the car industry, announcing it will relax proposed emissions rules for utes and vans and delay enforcement of the new standards ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Suzanne Rutland, Professor Emerita, University of Sydney In his latest book, Jewish Life in Medieval Spain, Jonathan Ray focuses on the tumult of the 14th century in Spain – a time of the plague, civil strife and war between the two largest ...
While creating a slate of world-class shows, Whakaata Māori also developed a generation of world-class creatives. Television is an odd word. It mixes the Ancient Greek and Latin languages, and its most literal meaning is “far-off sight”. In the contemporary and living language of te reo Māori, “whakaata” as a ...
Yesterday the UN Security Council passed a resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in Israel’s war on Gaza. This significant step and the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza prompted an urgent debate in the New Zealand Parliament. Leader ...
The Government’s decision to reduce access to continuous glucose monitors (CGM) not only threatens the lives of children with type 1 diabetes and increases the potential for ‘Dead in Bed’ syndrome, but also threatens the health of their parents an ...
Apples are available year-round, but the wide variety on offer involves intensive scientific research – and large-scale commercialisation. What’s beautiful, red, sweet and crunchy? Tony Martin’s favourite kind of apple: Sassy. The CEO of apple and pear breeding organisation Prevar, Martin’s fondness for Sassy represents professional success as well as ...
Family violence specialist service Shine is calling on employers to stop asking for proof of domestic violence in order for employees to access domestic violence leave. The call comes five years after the introduction of the Domestic Violence ...
The Deputy Chairperson of the Finance and Expenditure Committee is calling for public submissions on the Budget Policy Statement 2024. The Budget Policy Statement 2024 (BPS) sets out the Government's priorities for the 2024 Budget. It explains the approach ...
Brutal government spending cuts that will see the size of the Ministry for Pacific Peoples slashed by 40% will hit Pasifika communities hard, the PSA says. The Ministry has told staff that it is seeking voluntary redundancies, and to redeploy and reassign ...
I live with five people I mostly love, but our different ideas about generosity are starting to really irk me.Want Hera’s help? Email your problem to helpme@thespinoff.co.nzDear Hera,This is a bit of a random one but here goes. I’m 22 and work an OK job (OK meaning I get paid ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Maria Nicholas, Senior Lecturer in Language and Literacy Education, Deakin University Earlier this month, the New South Wales government announced it would roll out programs for gifted students in every public school in the state. This comes amid concerns gifted school ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Christopher Rudge, Law lecturer, University of Sydney Massachusetts General Hospital In a world first, we heard last week that US surgeons had transplanted a kidney from a gene-edited pig into a living human. News reports said the procedure was a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Tombs, Howard Paterson Chair of Theology and Public Issues, University of Otago The 5th-century Maskell panel showing Jesus in a loincloth.British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA When Jesus is shown on the cross, he is almost always depicted wearing a loincloth around ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Panizza Allmark, Professor Visual & Cultural Studies, Edith Cowan University Shutterstock When you think about a red object, you might picture a red carpet, or the massive ruby in the Queen’s crown. Indeed, Western monarchies and marketing from brands such ...
COMMENTARY:Jewish Voice for Peace The UN Security Council passed a resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza on Monday — and for the first time since the beginning of the Israeli military’s genocide of Palestinians, the United States abstained rather than vetoing it. Security Council resolutions are legally binding, ...
Asia Pacific Report A New Zealand investigative journalist and author says the US spy system hosted by the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) appears to be a controversial intelligence system used in global capture-kill operations. Writing a commentary for RNZ News today, Nicky Hager, author of Secret Power, a 1996 ...
While Nicola Willis wouldn’t give any details on its size, she said a package of tax cuts is definitely still coming in this year’s budget, writes Catherine McGregor in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. ...
The Taxpayers’ Union is welcoming the investigation into the Department of Internal Affairs after it was revealed that the Department’s Chief Executive personally reached out to expedite a DJs passport application. Taxpayers’ Union Campaigns ...
Finance minister Nicola Willis delivers her first budget statement, and unwittingly helps Joel MacManus save his relationship. Nicola Willis strode into the Beehive Theatrette. Around me, on the green foldout seats, were the country’s top business and political journalists. They were all here to see her announce the Budget Policy ...
Twenty years ago today, Māori Television launched after much controversy. Jamie Tahana looks back on its survival and impact across two decades. Chad Chambers stepped onto the stage, the brim of his cap casting a shadow across his face. His smile beamed as bright as his white freezing works gumboots, ...
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For the love of cows, please make a submission!
The National Animal Welfare Advisory Committee (NAWAC) today released its recommendations about the welfare and housing of dairy cows. The draft code allows for the year round indoor confinement of dairy cows.
“NAWAC’s recommendations will condemn thousands of dairy cows to a life in crowded sheds on concrete floors. The animals will never walk on grass or experience life outdoors,” says SAFE Executive Director Hans Kriek. “NAWAC once again fails to uphold the principles of New Zealand’s animal welfare legislation and is legalising this country’s newest form of factory farming.”
“The Animal Welfare Act requires that animals be able to display their normal behaviour. Research shows that dairy cows graze between five and ten hours per day yet bizarrely NAWAC appears not to recognize grazing as an essential behavioural need. This is utterly ridiculous and brings into question the competence of this committee.”
SAFE is concerned that the proposed changes to the code of welfare for dairy cows will lead to a rapid intensification of the dairy industry and will result in increased suffering for the cows. In general, cows farmed indoors suffer from higher levels of mastitis and lameness than cows that have access to pasture.
TAKE ACTION
SAFE urges the public to speak out against the indoor housing of dairy cows by making a simple submission to the Ministry for Primary Industries.
Submissions close 3 December and should be sent to: awsubmission@mpi.govt.nz
or
NAWAC Secretary
Animal Welfare
Ministry for Primary Industries
PO Box 2526
Wellington 6140
Points to remember when making your submission:
• Grazing in a paddock is normal behaviour, and cows should be allowed to do it.
• Cows should not be confined for extended periods of time.
• Cows should be given shelter, as long as they are allowed to leave.
To read the full Consultation on Changes to the Dairy Cattle Code of Welfare 2010 visit http://www.biosecurity.govt.nz
The other side of this unfortunately is effluent running into our waterways. Herd homes can take cows off pasture, so there is a real positive side to this as well. Personally i think Herd homes may be an important factor in cleaning up our water ways at the same time as protecting our $15 billion dairy exports. Its a tough one though, cows in paddocks are preferable but they are killing our waterways. What are the other options?
Cows aren’t killing our waterways. Industrial dairy companies are, and regional councils are letting them. In general the public are letting them too.
Other options? Prioritise water over profit via regulation and legislation (regional councils, and the government should have a role in this too). If big business wants to make money, why let it do it at the expense of everyone else?
Adopt sustainable farming practices (whole range of options there). Factory farming cows is completely unecessary and is a step in completely the wrong direction (takes us away from sustainability). It will also create other problems in addition to the increased suffering of the animals. Putting alot of animals closely together in an indoor space creates health problems that require increasing technical interventions that have flow on effects (increased antibiotic use would be my first guess, and all the problems that go with that).
People who care about the environment (ie the waterways) need to look at the whole situation, not just the isolated bits.
+1
Herd homes are quite different to hens/pigs etc, the cows are free to walk around very large sheds, this is not factory farming. From an animal health point of view my research shows that they have 25% less lameness and not sure about mastitis. But the big thing about Herd homes is that they stop the cows pissing and shitting on the paddocks, this effluent is what is fucking up our water ways. There is also an amount of waterways pollution from nitrogen and phosphate fertilisers, but most of the waterways pollution comes from effluent. The effluent from the herd homes is then reapplied to the land scientifically to reduce the need for synthetic nitrogens and also to optimise its utilisation so that there is minimal run off into the waterways.
Wekka, Im not sure what you mean by “Industrial dairy companies are killing our waterways”??? Its the cows shitting and pissing on the paddocks, simple as that.
We put the cows there Saarbo, no point in blaming the cows. It’s a new phenomenon, all this shit in the water. The cows didn’t just waltz up and take over teh country side, did they. Who put them there? Who let that happen?
“From an animal health point of view my research shows that they have 25% less lameness and not sure about mastitis.”
25% less lameness than what?
“Herd homes are quite different to hens/pigs etc, the cows are free to walk around very large sheds, this is not factory farming.”
But they’re still locked in right? And they still have to stand in their own shit? And the farmers have to manage health and disease differently? What is the floor made from, concrete?
What are they being fed?
The big shed farm proposal in the McKenzie planned to keep 18,000 cows in stalls (not sure what’s happened with that).
Keep pushing the water is more important than animal welfare line and expect a big fight from a number of quarters.
Im not sure about the Mc kenzie proposal, 18000 cows housed sounds ugly, thats not what I am supporting here. Personally my belief is that any farm above 650 cows becomes to difficult to manage and ends up too hard on the people working on them, seldom the owners. that is why so many farms are using immigrants.
Herd homes are pretty new in NZ, but the ones I looked at the Field days were for farms in the 300 to 1000 cows and I was impressed with the way they dealt with effluent. They will provide a pretty good solution to the problem with water ways, which I think is dairy farmings biggest issue at the moment.
I think from a political point of view we need to continue to generate/protect export receipts from dairy farming and we need to deal with the problems dairy farms are causing to our environment. herd homes seem to achieve both…but concede that it is not as user friendly as putting cows in paddocks.
I guess what I am trying to say is people need to look at this closely before commenting because Herd homes do deal with some of our bigger problems.
By rejecting dairy farming altogether, well we will end up with a whole set of other issues then
.
Being allowed to permanently keep cattle inside is likely to intensify farming even more. If they can’t handle the level of effluent right now how on earth could they deal with this? It is purely profit driven and quite sickening to think of the ripple effects on the environment.
One point not mentioned is the quality of meat this type of farming will produce. I don’t know much about it but I wonder if it automatically means greater use of antibiotics etc on the cattle??
Will be looking to any comments the Greenz make before I make my submission.
+1 …it is cruel to keep cows in sheds!!!!!…they should be able to roam free ….but the waterways must be protected ….only farm cows in environmentally safe ways and in environmentally sustainable areas…….ie …safeguard the rivers and aquifers
….look to diversify types of farming in other areas eg vegetarian /vegan crops and trees
Totally agree
I have 200+ chooks and theyre free to roam in and out their pens
i find animals kept inside cruel and it shouldnt be allowed
@ risildowgtn..
..and do you too macerate any young males..?..alive..?
..and do you consider that at all ‘cruel’..?
..and if not..why/how not..?
phillip ure..
Macerate in what? I’ve not heard of people macerating young male chooks live, but certain people do once they’re dead. It’s called marinating then, and no it’s not cruel (the animal is dead already).
Plants have feelings too btw. So do ecosystems. Monocropping soy to feed a world full of vegans would be an ecological crime as well as cruel.
@ weka..
“..At hatcheries, where egg laying hens are bred, the male chicks are not ‘profitable’.
Their very short lives end almost as soon as they begin – when they are gassed –
– or ground up alive (called a macerator)..”
i am sure risildowgtn will be able to fill us in on all the gruesome details..
..(sound effects and all..)
..phillip ure..
“Their very short lives end almost as soon as they begin – when they are gassed –
– or ground up alive (called a macerator)..”
Got a citation for that Phil? Not saying it doesn’t happen, but am concerned about your bias when it comes to food issues.
I agree that the young male issue is a problem for non-vegans. But it’s not insurmountable and doesn’t necessitate the world becoming vegan.
And as I’ve said a number of times now, veganism comes with it’s own set of cruelties. Are you willing to address those?
if you don’t like my evidence..weka..
..let google be yr friend..eh..?
..try googling ‘macerator’..eh..?
..it is the machine young male chicks are fed into..still alive..
..it grinds them into a paste..(while still alive..)
..(and like so much of the realities of flesh/fat-farming..
..it is kinda gruesome to watch..eh..?..)
..and from the worst commercial hen hell-houses..and to the touchy-feely-‘cruelty-free’ organic farms..
..they all macerate..
..’sunny-side up?’…
..’do you want some dead pig with that..?’..
..phillip ure..
It’s always struck me as being pretty quick way to go, really.
Probably less cruel than the animals that get killed in the vegan crop fields, that get runover or sliced in the harvesting machinery.
“It is purely profit driven and quite sickening to think of the ripple effects on the environment.” Not quite, this will actually make our dairy farming more costly…but it has environmental benefits. Refer to my reply to Weka.
“One point not mentioned is the quality of meat this type of farming will produce. I don’t know much about it but I wonder if it automatically means greater use of antibiotics etc on the cattle??”
Meat farmers wont be doing this, only Dairy Farmers I understand.
@ Saarbo….I think so….re huge use of antibiotics….at least in the USA….I have a friend who left NZ a big meat eater …but is now a vegetarian in the States because the meat is so “disgusting”….We don’t want to go there if we want to preserve our elite /organic marketing edge…it would completely ruin the marketing NZ Pure & Green image for NZ
Yeah the Bloody Yanks would want the rest of the world to use that over processed muck that passes for food in the land of the Paranoid and Insane.
The kind of “food” over there is half the reason that they are paranoid and insane. Processed corn, flavored with corn syrup. Yum.
Actually a dietitian I read said that there are examples of the junk food over sugared etc can cause an overtired man to freak out and commit murder. She gave the example of long-distance truck driver deliberately driving into a building and killing members of the public. Particularly if he had been on uppers and downers.
Saarbo, i havn’t delved into how well kept dairy herds can be (are) yet, but will with a spare hour or two have a wee Google of the question,
I do not think that we should dismiss this form of farming out of hand, but, looking at how the chooks and pigs are treated by intensive indoor farming it’s easy to see why many have,
From the point of view of effluent disposal, pasture management, and water use, with a view to having ‘clean’ rivers and streams there may be a point for the introduction of ‘barned herds’…
From the point of view of effluent disposal, pasture management, and water use, with a view to having ‘clean’ rivers and streams there may be a point for the introduction of ‘barned herds’ if we want to allow increasing industrialisation of nature for the point of monetary profit for the few and at the expense of the many
fify
There is no way to farm industrial dairy sustainably. You can shift cows into sheds, at the expense of animal welfare, but you just create another set of problems because the whole endeavour is inherently about resource extraction not resource cycling. If having let them become so degraded NZ now wants to protect its waterways by fucking with some other part of nature, then we lose any remaining credibility we had with regards to sustainability and we deserve everything we get. People of ecological conscience need to think hard before buying into the sop being offered that is in essence factory farming cows.
Or to put it another way, there was an old lady who swallowed a fly… (get it?)
Please remember this has nothing whatsoever to do with feeding Kiwis. It’s purely (100% purely) about the greed of the few.
QFT
We need sustainability and that means all farms going to full organic.
Organic is great, but there would be a drop in production and export receipts, I think a good government needs to grow exports, any ideas DTB?
Why?
To obtain foreign currency to buy foreign goods and services with.
We can do all that here with our own resources, i.e, it’s better for the government to develop our economy rather than just doing more of the same thing.
Sure. But that’s a twenty year transition programme of import substitution. What do we do in the meantime?
Continue to trade but the goal should always be to minimise that trade rather than to maximize it.
“Organic is great, but there would be a drop in production and export receipts, I think a good government needs to grow exports, any ideas DTB?”
Yeah, I don’t know why we need to grow exports, esp in a peak-resources, AGW world (it’s crazy to be basing our economy and food production around that). However for the sake of argument, NZ could have been world leaders in export organic meat and dairy by now, and reaping the premium attached to that. The improvement in landcare would have boosted our clean, green NZ image for tourism marketing purposes too, not just in PR terms but in actual terms when people come here and experience the place for themselves. We wouldn’t be wasting huge amounts of rate payer funds in the regional councils trying to fix a problem that is now basically going to be very expensive (politically and financially) to fix. The cost of being able to swim in our rivers: priceless.
I’ve not seen an audit of this, but I also suspect where organic production means a drop in output, this is offset by the reduction in pollution remediation costs associated with industrial dairying. A ‘good’ government would be ensuring that farmers are able to make a living without that being at the expense of the environment and other people. They would also adopt an accounting model that measures the negative effects of farming and where that costs us at all levels.
+111
It puzzles me. If we move our cattle into barns are they suddenly going to shit less. If not then we will have roughly the same effluent to deal with as in pasture and I cannot see any farmer doing more than high pressure sluicing the stuff somewhere away from the barns. Is it still not going to end up on land somewhere ready to make its way to waterways?
Also what on earth will the cows be feed with. Will the farmer still be growing grass and processing it to feed for the cattle? If so then they will still over fertilize their land and the nitrates will still run off to waterworks.
I cannot see any solution here.
Ron, the effluent drops through the grating in the floor of the HH, there is no high pressure hosing, so very little water is used. The effluent is emptied twice a year and is spread on the farm as an alternative to synthetic fertilisers. Obviously this can be managed/optimised to reduce any run off into water ways.
The grass is harvested off the farm and fed to the cows in the HH.
…at least free-range is half way there to organic…..and providing the environment /waterways are not degraded is a good start
….+100 about being able to swim in our rivers is priceless!….and the tourists appreciate it, as well as the fish and birds
…barned dairy and beef herds will create more vegetarians/vegans for sure…as many Europeans and Americans are already becoming semi-vegetarian and housed factory produced animals disgusts them……and bang goes your market….and bang goes NZ’s image as a Green producer of high quality free-range meat and dairy
…there is no need for factory ‘farmed’ barned animals in NZ except greed…and it will probably make environmental issues worse eg far greater numbers ‘farmed’ ( every man and his dog will want to get in on it) and far greater potential effluent in waterways and contamination and depletion of rivers…I have met French and Italians who don’t like farm-barned animals…whole farm regions go smelly
….and do we want the animal antibiotic issues they have in the USA?
The other side of this unfortunately is effluent running into our waterways.
Because cows are magical and can walk through fences.
Cows cant but rain can.
Of course non point discharge is a problem, but a manageable one depending on soil properties, farm infrastructure, the location of waterways around the paddocks, and the nature of the catchment involved.
I thought cows in their ‘natural’ state were forest dwelling animals. Quite like the idea of fields being replanted to some degree to offer a more natural environment incorporating shelter and a wider source of food for the animals and more diverse ‘crops’ for human use.
Saturday daydreaming…
Down here those bastard diary factory operators (laughingly called “farmers”) are still inducing cows. I thought it was illegal?
I thought it was too.
+ 1 Good point Bill – yes the cows should have shelter and trees are the solution. It’s better for everyone.
Trees??? No don’t think so. How many trees do you want to effectively shelter a herd of 400 cows?
Cows need shelter from extreme weather. Trees aren’t going to cut it against snow drifts or violent storms.
Depends on the trees and forest doesn’t it? And the breed of cow. We keep stock outside in winter pretty much everywhere. The issue about bad weather for the industrial model is that cows need to eat more (ie less profit). If you see the trees as productive beyond their use as shelter then that is less of an issue (eg timber, nuts, forage, coppicing, carbon sinking etc). We need to start thinking holistically.
Yes trees and lots of them – they are the answer imo to just about everything and planting them is one of the best actions we can take for this world.
Wow, right up there with sow crates and battery hen farming.T here’s major health issues and it will ruin the industry. I’m with Hans all the way. Still sell ourselves as clean and green nah.
What will reduce the amount of effluent in the water is lower stocking rates so the available cow shit is spread over more land. Farming cows in suitable climates also helps. Putting them in barns is needed when the weather is harsh (snowing) and this is about the only time they should be in shelter.
Try driving around parts of this country in the summer with the car window down, from Dundein to Christchurch all you can smell is cow shit.
Reducing stocking rates would be a good start, but the problem isn’t just the water. It’s what big heavy hoofed animals do to soil too. This is why Southland farmers overwinter their stock in Central – the land just gets too boggy. Even if you manage the shit problem, I just don’t think there is any way to sustainably farm dairy industrially. I know of smaller scale organic dairy farms that use different practices, and we could probably get by for a long time with those supplying milk etc for NZ. But extraction farming for export, there’s just no way to do that with dairy and not make a big fucking mess.
Yes, but are you suggesting that all farms go organic Weka? Because that will create other issues, like a huge drop in government revenue and all of the downstream problems…
I do agree that reducing stock rates is another solution, already happening near large waterways I understand (Taupo, Waikato River I think)
Capping stocking rates, better fence and riparian strip maintenance, improved herd and paddock management, will all help the environment significantly.
It’s not a hard ask. Lots of farmers are doing it already.
Yes, those are things that mainstream farming can do. Can’t do it under the industrial model though because it reduces profit.
Saarbo, what is the huge drop in revenue for the govt you are talking about and what are the downstream effects?
As DTB is fond of saying…oversized profits are a dead loss on society.
Who’s going to step up with the big stick and pull Fonterra and Federated Farmers into line? 😉
Let’s just say that I think a bit of charm and persuasion can go a long way 🙂
Really? You are alot more optimistic than I am, esp re FF.
FF no longer represents the majority of farmers.
True, but they still hold alot of power and have alot of influence.
But what about the poor farmer. Are you asking him to slightly reduce his income. Golly they will get so poor they will start voting Socialist
The poor farmer with the $6M farm?
I don’t know that overwintering in Central is really solving any problem. The ground freezes up there in winter so if you spread cowshit around outside it probably isn’t going anywhere until the first rain washes it off hard ground into the nearest waterway.
There is I believe already a problem with human waste and septic tanks doing just that in some communities. St Bathans?
It’s already being done RB, in places where it works. It’s not like Central freezes over for months at a time 😉 I assume the stocking rates are much less too.
But yeah, it’s not really viable in the long term.
I must visit at the wrong time Weka -it’s usually b freezing when I am there. At the back of my mind I’m assuming that this is a rerun of the intensive Mackenzie basin farming proposals. Even if the ground is only frozen for 6 weeks 18000 codes are going to produce a lot of shit. Perhaps us poor peasants will be able to dry and burn it as fuel
My understanding is that the pay off in housing herds is warmer animals eat less – a substantial reduction feed costs.
http://whoar.co.nz/2013/lack-of-exercise-and-fatty-diet-leave-six-out-of-10-pacific-adults-obese-comment-and-the-cultural-excuse-for-pacific-islander-obesity-is-a-load-of-horse-shit-and-why-are-pacific-isla/
(excerpt:..)
“….and don’t give me that ‘cultural’-bullshit/excuse for not being able to change/cry of helplessness..
..i grew up eating eating greasy bacon for breakfast..and ‘$1.50 pies’..
..and was fat and unhealthy as..
..i no longer do that..and am no longer that..
..the ‘cultural’-excuse is just laziness/a bullshit cop-out..”
phillip ure..
Nice to know you’re able to extrapolate Undeniable Scientific Fact from a sample size of 1.
Like smack heads can’t format a readable blog post. What do I win? Whoar 😆
Nasty comment the allen
Not really, especially as he makes no secret or excuses for either.
Come on, don’t be so precious. Surely if we can be told to fu*k off back to our own countries without admonishment, we can handle a little of the above?
Yea … it was pretty nasty and judgemental!
Complete and utter kaka and bullshit as well.
I could begin with a brother’s IQ …. I could then go on to ask why a certain former head of the drug squad (a Rangi Rangihika) used to wonder why those addicted that he encountered/busted were extremely intelligent – completely to his wonderment, and what he should do about it. (In the days before we had the Police’s worst enemy – Greg O’Connor)
Don’t get me wrong tho’ te Allen – I’m not a supporter of smack heads’ actions – just not as ready to pretend to myself how so much better I am than they are. There’s an obviously highly intelligent Ure that could probably shit on me any day – and I suspect definitely shit on you.
Oh… btw – there are also rent-a-quote CantyUni Criminologists and others the MSM seem totally in lerv with who could probably give you an education on it all – rather than the schooling you’ve obviously so far received.
Your over reaction is as funny as your loyalty admirable.
If you’re really that bothered I’ll retract, as ‘extrapolating an undeniable scientific fact from a sample size of 1’ seems to offend so much when I do it 😉
I’ll assume a retraction – Thank you. And its not an over reaction. We’re all human tho’
I can’t edit Te A, but as Helen used to say …. ‘moving on’ in her usual pragmatic style (silly bitch)
Next
And those lazy bullshit cop-out culturals can go get fu*ked then.
Yeah, assume away, if you like. 😉
If it quacks like a $30k tory….
You can do better than that, can’t you?
Well I could’ve gone all robinsod but nah, because your comment would fit in so well at the sewer – $30k tory it is.
30k would seem like a lotto win, but ouch, calling me a tory. You scoundrel, you know how to wound with intent 🙄
@ allen..i can count the time since i last used smack – in decades..eh..?
..and it’s a bit of a stretch to blame what you see as my formatting-issues..
..on heroin..eh..?
..doesn’t it already get enough bad-press..?
..that heroin..?
..we don’t need to make stuff up about it..eh..?
..an ad-campaign..?
..warning the youth of the nation that if they use heroin..
..their formatting-skills will go up the wazoo..?
..that’ll scare them off..eh..?
..phillip ure..
You miss the point. It’s not that you were a junkie, nor the fact your writing style rips eyes from skulls, but the oversimplified, dismissive tone of your boast.
Live by crass generalisations, then die by crass generalisations. It’s not nice is it?
Lucky for you, you had a couple of guys backing up your claim because they didn’t want your feelings hurt, though their silence on your borderline racist tone is a bit deafening.
But no hard feelings, we’re all good. 😉
“.. borderline racist tone..”
..never saw you as one so p/c/ there..allen..
..obese/unhealthy-eating islanders and maori often use/play the cultural card/excuse..
..pakeha in the same basket don’t have that excuse..
..and are just lazy/ignorant/market-brainwashed..
..the subject under discussion/i was bringing up..
…was the cultural-excuse being used as a reason not to change/eat healthy..
..i repeat..that ‘excuse’ is total utter bullshit…
..and if you think it is ‘racist’ to point that out..?
..meh..!..eh..?..
..the fact is..that like me..most people who now eat healthy..
..once gorged on/enjoyed that same flesh/fat crap you still do..
..eh..?..
..everyone is capable of change..
..and that mewling/’it’s cultural’-reason/excuse..?
..again..meh..!
..phillip ure..
I’m no more ‘pc’ than you are a friend of convivial writing, but that’s all way beside the point.
But whilst we’re at it, so to speak, what’s with signing each and every post about?
You know your handle is appears above your comments, right?
Is it ego that you need to see your name twice, or is you think we’re all too dumb we need telling twice? 😆
ouch..!..that hurts…i try really hard to make my writing ‘convivial’..eh..?
..it is a quality i strive for..
..i often fail..
..but i do try..
..eh..?
..(probably ‘ego’..eh..?..)
..and what’s with that moniker you lurk behind..?
..’the allen’..?
..are you named after ‘Database of gene expression patterns in the mouse brain..’..?
..just wondering..
..phillip ure
Lurk, hardly 😆
The Al1en is a character from a short story I wrote. He’s the first and most famous of all the Humanoid logic machines.
Just seemed appropriate 😉
“..He’s the first and most famous of all the Humanoid logic machines…”
..so..was it irony that drove you to choose that name/persona..?
..phillip ure..
“..He’s the first and most famous of all the Humanoid logic machines…”
“.so..was it irony that drove you to choose that name/persona..?”
Yeah, that must be it, AL73364nz 😆
@ qot..
..here’s far more than ‘a sample size of one’..
http://whoar.co.nz/?s=vegan+obesity
phillip ure..
I’m deeply sorry, but I’m even less likely to read fatphobic bullshit when it comes wrapped in a preachy vegan package.
@ qot..
..it is actually links to facts/evidence that back the claims i made..
..no need to ‘vegan-preach’..the facts/evidence do all the talking needed..
..and really..all you need to do..
..is look around you..
..eh..?
..phillip ure..
“..it is actually links to facts/evidence that back the claims i made..”
No, it doesn’t. I’ve searched your blog before for back up to the claims you make, and they’re just not there. The onus is on you mate, to provide the back up here on ts. Or at least link to a single blogpost that backs up your claims so we know which ones you consider to be useful.
@ weka..not my job to hold yr hand weka..
..if you don’t want to know..
..you don’t want to know..
..and no..i will not jump thru hoops for you..
..how about you try and find a skerrick of evidence that gorging on animal-fat/flesh is good for you..eh..?
..shouldn’t take you long..
..to find nothing..
..eh..?
..(and as for evidence of the benefits from going vegan..?
..seen bill clinton lately/since he went vegan..?..)
..phillip ure..
Animal fat is great for your brain. If you eat enough it even lets you type full sentences which other people can read.
smile
Ah, the good old “just look around you” argument, because humans aren’t at all susceptible to seeing what they want to/are told to.
“..i grew up eating eating greasy bacon for breakfast..and ‘$1.50 pies’..
..and was fat and unhealthy as..”
Pity you don’t understand the underlying mechanism though.
Fat is an essential nutrient for humans. Without it our brains and hormones don’t work properly. I had a look at the rationale you present, which is this article in the Herald.
(and btw, “the MoH says so” isn’t evidence that backs up your views).
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11142610
Lack of exercise, $1.50 pies, an abundance of fried chicken and traditional Polynesian food served with lashings of coconut cream have resulted in an obesity rate in Pacific adults of more than 60 per cent.
However…
Tokelau is a group of three atolls located in the South Pacific Ocean with approximately 1400 inhabitants. Administratively it belongs to New Zealand.
From a dietary point of view the case of Tokelau is very interesting: we can observe what happens when a population transitions from their traditional diet to a more westernized one, and back.
When Captain Wilkes visited Tokelau with his scientists, they reported that the people living there were very healthy, and to their surprise most of their diet was composed of coconut and fish, and some breadfruit (a starchy melon). There were no signs of plant cultivation.
In the 1920s, their diet was:
70% from coconut. So, more than 50% of this diet was fat.
90% of this fat, was saturated fat.
Health problems at that time:
skin diseases
asthma
infectious diseases (chicken pox, measles, leprosy). No chronic diseases were recorded (trained physicians had been available since 1917).
http://ilonadesign.blogspot.co.nz/2012/07/tokelau.html
My emphasis.
The article goes on to look at what happened to the Tokelauan population when half of it immigrated to NZ and adopted a Western diet. Upshot is a massively huge increase in diabetes, heart disease etc. Biggest change in diet? Less fat and increase in refined carbohydrates. The original research on this was the Tokelau Island Migration Study. You can google it for more detail.
This pattern is demonstrated again and again all over the world. Take people away from their traditional diets, even high fat ones, and feed them white flour and white sugar, and watch diabetes and heart disease arrive (looks like cancer and possibly Alzheimers too).
The “traditional Polynesion food is the problem” line being run by the MoH and the Herald is the same colonisation shit that’s been going on for the past few hundred years in the Pacific. It’s not the traditional food that’s the problem, it’s the whitey food (actually it’s more complex than that, because issues of poverty and access come into it too, as well as cultural colonisation).
You got it. Refined flour and sugar. Most people will do themselves a world of good simply by cutting those items back by 30%. Of course, cheap lower quality food is full of this stuff.
(actually it’s more complex than that, because issues of poverty and access come into it too, as well as cultural colonisation).
Boom, headshot!
“(actually it’s more complex than that, because issues of poverty and access come into it too, as well as cultural colonisation).”
“Boom, headshot!”
Good shooting, comrades.
of course poverty/access/cost is also a factor..
..that’s why unhealthy food needs to have prohibitive taxes..
..and healthy food no taxes..
..that must be part of any solution…
..to our million strong obese fellow-citizens..
..phillip ure..
Always nice to see the food police jump instantly to a (seriously complex and difficult-to-implement) taxation solution for food. Because food preparation doesn’t require time or knowledge, if we make tofu $1/kilogram everyone will magically be able to feed their families a low-carb low-fat lean-protein micronutrient-balanced stirfry.
@weka..don’t really get yr point there weka..
..so..jumping from a crap polynesian diet to a crap western diet is jumping from frying pan into fire..?
..you’ll get no argument here on that fact..
..but yr point is..?
..phillip ure..
You missed the point. Diet A = good health outcomes, diet B = marked increase in disease. In what way is diet A a ‘crap’ diet?
Also, what’s with the vegan arguing against a diet with coconut in it? That’s just bizarre.
Never underestimate the subtle white supremacy of the Western vegan movement.
I can’t get the Mapp-Kelsey debate post to load – times out.
I have just been upgrading it as I did it in a bit of a rush yesterday. But I’ve finished now. Try it again.
If it is still an issue then is it a 500 error, or does it just sit?
Lightened the featured image. Removed surplus junk from the embedding.
Ah. Thanks. Loads now. It was just sitting and partially loading. I just wanted to read the latest comments.
Sooo, John Banks the eloquent little botox queen is said to have approached a supporter of Penny Bright at the Auckland District Court intoning in a voice only they could here that the woman was a ‘Bush Pig’,
If that’s the way you want to play the game Herr Banks all well and good, i am off today to have a conversation with that bloke McCready to see what material help he needs, if any,(which i will gladly supply),
It’s just come to my attention that Graham McCready is on the bones of His ‘proverbial’, dealing to Banks on the shoe-string of a benefit,
i am sure if He needs it,transport to and from the airport down here can be arranged and flight costs covered,
i was peeved when the case was moved to Auckland, but understand now the cost of moving the necessary witnesses down to Wellington would be an impossibility for Mr McCready, but, if Botox Banks(the already once convicted), wants to engage in a little post-courtroom debate i will be sorely tempted to drag myself up that way and deliver Him the same message he got at the point of His first conviction,(boy didn’t the Rat scurry in a hurry on that day)…
“Bush pig”… is that meant to be an insult?
@ weka..
..depends what circles you move in..
..eh.?..
..phillip ure..
coming out of the mouth of an ugly little Nazi prick, it is a compliment
Granny’s business analyst shows “faux concern” for Auckland’s economic future as she contorts to stun us with her call for Len Brown’s resignation.
Yes, Fran’s just so concerned about the future of the city she lives in. In spit of that, she just couldn’t be bothered to pick up the phone and exercise her democratic right to chose the Mayor, Councillors and members of the community and district health boards for the next three years.
I wouldn’t want to rely on her assistance if she was “concerned” about me!
Doesn’t Fran O’Sullivan’s latest piece of Jonolism give off a distinct reek of insanity, in all Her lazy rotundness O’Sullivan couldn’t be bothered to vote until that is She learned of what goes on in Len Brown’s bedroom, what a pathetic waste of space,
Can Fran please tell all, i want to know what goes on in Her bedroom befor i decide to read her abysmal column in the morning,
On second thoughts, cancel that, the thought of getting a glimpse into the goings on in Fran’s bedroom first fills me with horror and secondly gives me the urge to barf…
Ha ha … thanks for the laugh bad 12
Xxx
Thanks for the link to Fran’s confession. Small wonder why folks south of Auckland, couldn’t care less about all of this media circus. It reflects poorly on
Orkland, Super City, Rodney Hyde, National government, and the huge imbalance of power that now Auckland represents. Most Kiwis don’t live in Auckland and resent Auckland centric ‘culture’ and media. Don’t vote, it only encourages them. Seems to be the Auckland way.
The fix is regional development as the only regional activity doing ‘well’ is dairying and thats screwing up our waterways, land profiles etc.
cities will always have a certain attraction be it work, family, facilities but akl is a bit if a basket case after the curtis,woods,banks legacy gives way to nacts engineered takover via supercity.
oshillivan is a fool to admit not voting but thats not news really.
Another case of irony in that Mr Wewege lost his position because of sexual relationship and Bevan Chuang.
The Herald:
“The Washington-based Diplomatic Courier magazine last month named Luigi Wewege as one of the top 99 foreign policy professionals under 33, because of his efforts to “foster intellectual dialogue and relationships between New Zealand youth and the world decision-makers of today and tomorrow”.
But his profile was pulled from the international affairs website yesterday after the editors became concerned about his role in the Auckland mayoral sex scandal…………
Managing editor Chrisella Herzog contacted the Herald to confirm the veracity of Facebook messages sent between Mr Wewege, a member of the John Palino campaign team, and Bevan Chuang, who publicly revealed a two-year affair with Auckland Mayor Len Brown.
Messages the pair exchanged back up Ms Chuang’s claims of a casual sexual relationship and the pressure she felt to go public about her affair with Mr Brown.”………
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11142596
Come back Kim Hill, urgently!
Saturday Morning, Radio NZ National, 19 October 2013
Kim Hill’s Saturday morning show, along with Chris Laidlaw’s and occasionally Bryan Crump’s, is one of the few times that New Zealand audiences can hear top-quality conversations with interesting people about serious topics. So the many fans of Kim Hill’s show are always concerned when she is on leave, as she is now. Will the replacement be up to it? Will she maintain Kim Hill’s exceptionally high standards?
Well, it turns out that Kim’s replacement today is one Susie Ferguson and, unfortunately, she is just not up to it.
Susie Ferguson first came to Standardistas’ attention after she lazily and recklessly recycled official black propaganda against a political dissident….
http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-10062013/#comment-646597
Shortly after that, she came to our attention again, this time by her obtuse and foolish questions to a movie distributor, who treated her with barely restrained contempt….
http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-25072013/#comment-667846
(Aficionados of disruption strategies will note our friend McFlock‘s inept attempts to derail the discussion.)
This morning, after 8 o’clock, she read out the lineup for the morning, including this gem of crazed political correctness: “After eleven, breast cancer and what it’s like for a man when their partner is diagnosed….”
Then it’s on to business. Her first guest was Professor Martin Jacques, a British expert on China and author of When China Rules the World: The Rise of the Middle Kingdom and the End of the Western World.
Remember, Suzy Ferguson is quite happy to parrot the most prejudicial and demeaning language cooked up by government spin-doctors to taunt political dissenters in the West. This morning, however, she appears to have changed her spots about human rights: her questions, even about business and economic matters, all come with an anti-Chinese Government slant. Eventually, her crass questioning gets under the skin of her guest….
MARTIN JACQUES: The Chinese will not be lectured by the West. I have not heard you say ANYTHING that acknowledges the immense progress China has made since 1978.
…..[Awkward hiatus]…..
SUSIE FERGUSON: I’m asking you why you’re such a fan.
A little later, the crass and insidious comments continue….
MARTIN JACQUES: The internet has revolutionized Chinese knowledge.
SUSIE FERGUSON: But in a limited wayyyyyy….
[…..A little later…..]
SUSIE FERGUSON: As Chinese power increases, how do you think the West will react? [She seems unfazed by Dr. Jacques’ irritated silence and presses on] I mean, do you think the West will take it lying down?
The “interview” winds down to an ignominious end, but Susie Ferguson’s mission is not over yet. She takes what I imagine she thinks is revenge by reading out a few telegrams….
SUSIE FERGUSON: There are quite a few texts and e-mails. He’s provoked quite a bit of feedback has Dr. Jacques! Walter writes: “China executes more people than any other country. What they’ve done to Tibet is what they could do to us.” Neil writes: “We should be very cautious….”
Appointing Susie Ferguson to Saturday mornings, even if it is just for a couple of weeks, amounts to gross failure in a time slot listeners have come to presume will be four hours of quality radio.
Come back Kim Hill, urgently!
Thanks for linking to those older threads, Morrissey, somehow I managed to completely miss the multiple examples of how non “word-perfect” your “transcripts” truly are.
I now feel justified in reflexively scrolling past your comments.
I now feel justified in reflexively scrolling past your comments.
When I first started putting up transcripts on this forum, you were full of praise for them, and you recognized that I did capture the essential quality of the discussions.
Your disaffection with me came suddenly, and it had nothing to do with questions of accuracy. It came after I had the temerity to lampoon people who you supported. For instance, there was my transcription of an interview with the hapless Hekia Parata, back before she was Minister of Education….
http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-30082011/#comment-369467
For some reason you have failed to convince anyone on this forum of, you backed the hapless Ms. Parata and her deepwater drilling plans. You also objected to my transcript of a outlandish, bizarre television appearance by Air New Zealand CEO Rob Fyfe, when he assured New Zealanders that Tokyo was “perfectly safe” even while the Japanese government was on the brink of ordering the evacuation of the city….
http://thestandard.org.nz/meltdown-at-fukushima/#comment-314634
Your objections to my transcripts are ideological. You need to be honest.
🙄
Oooooh, now that was hardly an intelligent rejoinder. Can we do a tad better than such a miserable effort, do we think?
I didn’t bother replying because you start out with such an obvious diversion that I literally stopped reading.
So I’ll reply up to the point I stopped reading:
“When I first started putting up transcripts on this forum, you were full of praise for them,”
Yes, because I *assumed* they were actual word-for-word, or very close, transcriptions. I’ve done several transcriptions of various things myself over time and I know how much effort goes into making them. So I was thankful that someone was transcribing snippets from National Radio, snippets that 95% of the time I don’t get a chance to hear, so was glad for them to be recorded.
My praise lasted up until I actually heard an interview myself that you had “transcribed”, and I discovered just how loose your “transcriptions” were.
“and you recognized that I did capture the essential quality of the discussions.”
More flowery waffle on your part. I didn’t “recognise” that you “capture[d] the essential quality of the discussions”, I thought they were actual transcriptions, as I describe above.
Skimming the rest of your woeful reply, I see you seem to think that my “dissatisfaction” is something to do with me supporting Hekia Parata: not at all, it is entirely to do with you not actually transcribing segments with any semblance to reality while claiming that you did.
But hey, if you want to keep up this little fiction in your head, go right ahead. I think both of our reputations on this blog won’t disabuse any 3rd parties as to the real truth of this situation.
I didn’t bother replying because you start out with such an obvious diversion that I literally stopped reading.
“Literally” stopped reading, did you? You know, embellishing a lie in such a childish manner doesn’t change the fact it’s a lie. “Literally”. As they’d respond on the Panel: Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!
….because I *assumed* they were actual word-for-word, or very close, transcriptions.
They were accurate, and they continue to be accurate, and you know it.
Skimming the rest of your woeful reply, I see you seem to think that my “dissatisfaction” is something to do with me supporting Hekia Parata: not at all, it is entirely to do with you not actually transcribing segments with any semblance to reality while claiming that you did.
You are, to put it politely, disingenuous. You were outraged that my transcript had shown up Parata in all her bumbling incoherence and vacuity. The highlight of that grim interview was when she claimed that the National government’s oil drilling “policy” had “a variety of various variables”. You actually support the moronic policies she was so ineptly espousing that day, and even more moronic ones than that, as shown by your defiant insistence that the Fukushima catastrophe was being over-hyped by greenies.
But hey, if you want to keep up this little fiction in your head, go right ahead. I think both of our reputations on this blog won’t disabuse any 3rd parties as to the real truth of this situation.
I am more than happy for people to compare our respective credibility, or lack of it. My transcripts ARE reliable—-I couldn’t dream up characters who exhibit the cruelty, moral turpitude, vanity, pomposity or stupidity of people like Chris Trotter, Stephen Franks, Garth McVicar or any of the other people who I pin down for posterity.
You would be quite justified if you had pointed out that I make minor errors now and again, but you have unwisely chosen to exaggerate, demean and distort what I do. I am not a liar, I did not make up Hekia Parata’s hopelessness, or Rob Fyfe’s surreal brand of idiocy. You for some bizarre reason support those fools. Don’t try to pretend that your attempts to undermine me are anything more than ideologically motivated spite.
I’m still waiting for that apology, you lying sack ‘o’ shit.
I’m still waiting for that apology,
I apologize for implying that you supported Trotter’s endorsement of southern lynch law. I knew you were better than that.
….you lying sack ‘o’ shit.
Oh come on now, I think we can operate in a less juvenile fashion, surely?
Try again. You didn’t imply. You stated it as fact. You’re lying again, Moz.
She was right to quiz Jacques on China’s human rights record.
In our rush to exploit the Chinese people for our own benefits, we are too quick to overlook at the actions of the governing regime that facilitates this exploitation.
To quote from a Guardian review of Jacque’s book:
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2009/jun/21/when-china-ruled-the-world-jacques
She was right to quiz Jacques on China’s human rights record.
Of course she was. And she was wrong to parrot the U.S. Government’s demeaning language used to attack dissenters in the West.
Professor Jacques reminded her that China has greatly increased its standard of living, but she petulantly refused to even acknowledge that.
“Professor Jacques reminded her that China has greatly increased its standard of living, but she petulantly refused to even acknowledge that.”
Perhaps you should ask the millions of homeless Chinese if their living standards were greatly inrcreased.
Perhaps you should ask the millions of homeless Chinese if their living standards were greatly inrcreased.
I’m not defending the Chinese government. I leave that to outfits like NewstalkZB.
Indeed.
The country with the second highest absolute numbers of enslaved is China, with an estimated 2,800,000 to 3,100,000 in modern slavery. The China country study5 suggests that this includes the forced labour of men, women and children in many parts of the economy, including domestic servitude and forced begging, the sexual exploitation of women and children, and forced marriage.
Global Slavery Index 2013 (PDF)
http://www.walkfree.org/
We should all be wary of the Chinese and its toxic mix of Stalinist communisim and neo-liberal capitalism.
Chinese do not have trade unions, environmental regulations, labour laws or social safety nets, and its massive slave workforce keeps wages down all over the world.
As I said before on this site. It is not Reagan or Thatcher that western boardrooms should be thanking. It is Deng Xiaopeng.
We should all be wary of the Chinese and its toxic mix of Stalinist communisim and neo-liberal capitalism.
You are correct, millsy. We also need to understand why the Chinese have nothing but contempt for people like Margaret Thatcher, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, who presume to lecture them about human rights.
China is where the US was 90 years ago. It’s a work in progress.
BTW what the Chinese are doing has very little to do with Stalinism or neoliberal capitalism, or any hybrid of the two.
I’d like the USA to remain as the dominant superpower but I’m not bothered if/when China take over as was shown with how they’ve handled Hong Kong they seem quite pragmatic
In a lot of ways this would be a good thing but we have seen now is the US is essentially captured as a state within a state which cannot even govern itself or look after its own people. It’s not good to see.
Ah well empires rise and empires fall
David Shearer doin’ it – great to watch !
http://www.tv3.co.nz/7-DAYS-Season-5-Ep-5/tabid/3692/articleID/95825/MCat/2901/Default.aspx
He did good and yeah I agree where was this 6 months ago?
Why are house prices so high?
Because the banks have a license to print money. If we want affordable housing we need to rescind that license.
So stop paying taxes, that is what the central banks use as security.
It’s not that simple moron. We really do need to support our society, what we don’t need is a bunch of psychopathic banksters stealing all our work and wealth from us through charging interest.
Did UT just suggest that Government tax revenues get used by private banks as security (or collateral)?
That’s just idiocy.
Really? Where do you think the $1.6b to bail out SCF came from?
What definition of the word security/collateral are you using?
I’m using the standard financial definition which is an asset that can be leveraged against in order to secure additional funding. The $1.6B used to bail out SCF does not fall into the category of being such an asset.
When the GFC started the government instituted the Retail Depositors Scheme. Now, the financial institutions that went into the scheme paid some amount to do so but there’s no way that they paid in enough to even cover the $1.6b used to cover the failure of SFC. The security used to raise the extra was the taxpayers of NZ.
A government guarantee or backstop is a separate issue.
No it’s not. It’s exactly what was being discussed. The banks get to loan out as much money as they can until they collapse at which point the government will step in to bail them out.
Ok this is not a productive discussion because you have decided to use the vaguest definitions of terms. SCF wasn’t a bank, for instance.
The BNZ was.
Irrelevant to the post GFC world.
No, the problem is still the same. Due to the intertwined nature of the global financial system if one bank goes down it’s possible that it would take several others with it and they won’t necessarily be in the same country. The “losses” will be counted in the tens to to hundreds of billions if not more. That’s why the governments of the world stepped in when the banking system failed in 2007/8 and also why our government stepped in when the BNZ failed (sometime around the same time period the US government did the same for a failing bank in the US).
The governments are absolutely terrified of the private banks failing and thus the banks have an implicit government guarantee. A guarantee that is backed by the taxpayers.
Idiot, you do understand that there is difference between central banks and private banks, don’t you?
It really is that simple, fuckwit. Your needs are not relevant, the best way to support society is to stop bleeding it to death by fraud and usury.
That makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. Taxes aren’t fraud or usury.
Dare I say it taxes are a type of ‘fraud and usuary’ of governments. The worker pays taxes then also banks his/her savings and is actively encouraged by governments to do so eg. kiwisaver schemes. Governments/treasuries/ Reserve Banks actually have no money- it is a fiction, hence so are government guarantees ( e.g. bonds, Retail depositor schemes)
Paper money, cheques, Eftpos, bonds, guarantees……They are all “currency”, a figment of imagination from the source onto the the end of the money trail – you; the taxpayer and the worker who re-circulates it.
In terms of currency, accrual and flow (tax revenues included are used by private banks in the flow of currency- it isn’t idiocy CV), there is no difference between private banks or central banks and the massive ‘con-job’ between Governments and banks colluding to ‘bleed society to death’ ( UT).
Also true words “a bunch of psychopathic banksters stealing all our work and wealth from us …” but not just in interest charges DTB- as a type of ‘fraud’ happens before we are paying bank fees, interest etc . It is our savings that are being used without consent and then we give the banks fees for the priviledge of having the workers money
– “Never in human history have so many been plundered by so few..”
Released recently part 3 of “Hidden Secrets of Money”
The Biggest Scam In The History Of Mankind – Maloney.M. 2013
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFDe5kUUyT0
Personally- not a big hidden secret but more likely a concept that has not been well understood by the ‘worker’. Found this video and its visuals a great way to illustrate the myth of there being money, with easy to understand terminology of money ‘mumbo-jumbo’.
travellerev posted “Shade” the Motion Picture link recently too. Adds further dimensions to the discussions and understandings of who are the global “controllers”. Worth due time to watch.
Would also add that the “Authors” behind Hidden Secrets also appear to be ‘on the make’ so….. good luck with your money if you have any.
It’s not taxes that are the problem but the monetary system where the private banks get to create money ex nihilo and charge interest on it.
Not Another Sheep
No you daren’t even when you spell right you would still be wrong despite all the gerfuffle that you put to back your statement up.
Don’t forget that all forms of finance are gst exempt.
Yes, Mr Shearer’s input was very pleasant, funny and quite enjoyable! Comes across as a nice, witty and clever guy. Shows how being a leader was so onerous and restrictive to his usual persona.
In the clip his input is right at the start of the programme in this episode which itself he began and then again at 7′ onwards when he was grilled and gave his winning responses.
Have a watch and I think you will enjoy it.
Cheers!
Ref from NORTH :
David Shearer doin’ it – great to watch !
http://www.tv3.co.nz/7-DAYS-Season-5-Ep-5/tabid/3692/articleID/95825/MCat/2901/Default.aspx
I thought David Shearer was brilliant. He looks a lot more relaxed. Still rate him.
Agree. He’s going to be outstanding in Cabinet.
Standard regular McFlock not too good at being civil
Failure to be gracious makes for an unpleasant little exchange
http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-16102013/#comment-712089
Chris (“Haw Haw”) Trotter is something of a left/liberal icon in this country, and a political north star for many Standardisti, who clearly set their own bearings by what he says and writes. Generally Trotter writes well and contributes valuable insights. However, like all of us, he is certainly not perfect. In 2007 he suffered a public dressing down from John Minto after he (Trotter) had made some ignorant comments backing the police raids in the Urewera country. Minto damned his comments as “shallow”, “pompous”, “weak” and “potentially damaging” to the victims of the raids….
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO0710/S00415.htm
Since then, Trotter has got worse, not better. As a regular guest on Jim Mora’s Panel, he has slotted in seamlessly with that show’s glib and casually cruel zeitgeist; Trotter has been one of the more heartless taunters of political dissidents like Julian Assange and Edward Snowden….
http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-14062013/#comment-648511
But such irresponsible, craven behaviour, such gross misjudgements and failures of empathy have done little to shake the faith of Trotter’s most dedicated followers. They stayed on board, even after he delivered a windy and pompous admonition of those who might dare to criticise the infamous jury verdict in the Trayvon Martin case.
In shock and horror at what I heard, I provided a rush transcript of Trotter’s fustian lecture. Of course, not having a working tape recorder, and not being an expert in shorthand, I didn’t get it one hundred per cent correct. That’s all that the Trotteristi needed; they piled on with the ferocity of Red Guards going after a capitalist running dog, hammering on the fact that I hadn’t captured the great orator’s words perfectly…..
http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-25072013/#comment-668899
Despite that, this writer (i.e., moi) is always willing to concede that his critics have a point, and in a spirit of reconciliation, I acknowledged that. One of my critics has been our friend McFlock, and after he took the trouble to actually provide a transcript of Trotter’s infamous words, I acknowledged his efforts….
MORRISSEY: Thanks for transcribing that, McFlock. I can see that I missed a lot, and you have a valid point in disagreeing with my interpretation of Trotter’s comments. I did render his words a little more pointedly than they actually were. However, I think that even when you compare my admittedly imperfect rush “transcript” to your word-perfect transcript, I have captured the essential pomposity of his speaking style and the gist of his admonition to the lesser mortals in the studio to respect that outrageous verdict in Florida. Trotter was speaking slowly and sententiously, as if he was defending the Western system of justice; what he was actually doing was defending a grievous miscarriage of justice. His suggestion that there were “items of evidence which would raise reasonable doubt I think in most people’s minds” was not backed up at all, and disappointingly, Noelle McCarthy failed to demand he did so.
You are right to time the silences; they’re not as long as I recalled them in my mind, but they are significant nonetheless. Noelle McCarthy was, I believe, genuinely lost for words after listening to that. So was I.
The response, however, did not burnish our friend’s diplomatic credentials….
McFLOCK: oh fuck off. So let’s say you “captured” trotter’s pompousness (personally, I think you overstated it). That means that you are (at best) a dadaesque caricaturist of discourse. So are all the claims as to near word perfect accuracy simply self-delusion, or are you trying to mimic Sacha baron Cohen’s immersion satire?
http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-16102013/#comment-712089
Readers with an IQ above room temperature will note that McFlock attempts to derail and inflame the discussion by comparing my serious (and admittedly imperfect) criticism of a media commentator with the behaviour of a callous and brutally dishonest propagandist/comedian.
But let’s save the discussion of provocative hate-comedians like Bernard Manning, Andrew Dice Clay and Sacha Baron Cohen for another day.
Woah, way to take things personally, Morrissey.
Woah, way to take things personally, Morrissey.
Hmmmm… this is interesting. You forgot to “reflexively stroll past” that comment….
This is a great site 🙂
Personally, I’m still waiting for Morrissey to apologise to me for this: http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-16102013/#comment-712071
But, as he appears to be a complete coward, I don’t think he’s going to.
Personally, I’m still waiting for Morrissey to apologise to me for this: http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-16102013/#comment-712071
I thought I HAD apologized. If not, here you go, my friend….
http://www.sadmuffin.net/cherrybam/graphics/comments-sorry/sorry004.gif
But, as he appears to be a complete coward, I don’t think he’s going to.
That’s a bit harsh, surely?
No, Moz, you didn’t apologise. You still haven’t.
What is it I’m supposed to apologize for again?
Lying about my defending Trotter. You lying, cowardly sack ‘o’ shit*.
Here’s that link again:
http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-16102013/#comment-712071
*don’t take it personally, it’s just a transcript of an impression of what I half remember thinking about you.
I don’t think Morrissey is capable of taking them any other way.
http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-04082013/#comment-674390
It’s the sheer amount of time and effort used to make posts for a largely unappreciative audience, that’s what I find a bit scarey.
…a largely unappreciative audience…
Ha! You wish.
Would you like me to furnish you with some of the praise I have garnered both here and in other fora?
A word to the wise, my feathered friend: it’s okay to make disparaging remarks, but it’s not okay to make wildly untrue statements like that one.
And another thing: your excuses about not having a tape recorder are pretty fucking stupid when you quite obviously have an internet connection, and all the natradio broadcasts are online.
And I chose SBC because he is known for constantly staying in character, much in the same way that you stay in the character of stupid dickhead.
And another thing: your excuses about not having a tape recorder are pretty fucking stupid when you quite obviously have an internet connection, and all the natradio broadcasts are online.
My transcripts—occasionally a little too slapdash and impressionistic for some tastes—-are done quickly and published very soon after the offending broadcast. I am more than happy for you or anyone else to provide a word-perfect transcript for people to compare and contrast with mine. As we saw with my rendition of Chris Trotter’s infamous defence of shonky Deep South juries, my version is usually pretty much spot on. Of course people can quibble about whether I described the timbre of his voice fairly, or whether I effectively evoked the horrified silence that fell over the people he was admonishing, but the determined effort by a few hardline Trotteristi was, and remains, an exercise in attempted political assassination. In a non-frightening, Standard sort of way, of course.
You’re as bad as hooten. The immensity of your bullshit is just fucking astounding.
Thanks for that link, my friend. It only backs up my truncated, pointed version of the travesty.
Once again, thank you.
But as for that Matthew Hooton taunt…
http://static.tumblr.com/lbemnld/JjIm5ii3l/that_was_mean.gif
I’m not your friend, guy
http://www.whaleoil.co.nz/2013/10/award-winning-journalist-cant-tell-father-son/#axzz2hOR1GNO2
– If you want proof positive of how bad journalism is in NZ you might like to check this exchange, David Fisher showing how its not done
Lol.
Fish is toying with him.
Whaleoil completely forgets to include his own earlier tweets on the same article:
https://twitter.com/Whaleoil/status/391270803808874496
Now that’s interesting, Bernard Orsman quotes me and I hasn’t spoken to about that which he quotes me?
https://twitter.com/Whaleoil/status/391273051913871361
@Jayson_Bryant Orsman quotes me but I have never spoken to him, that is far more interesting don’t you think
You did see the part where its his father that was quoted?
Yes Chris. Did you see the part where whale was implying that Orsman had made up quotes from Whale? ie, the part where whale had been tweeting nonsense based on the same mistake Fish made?
Just want to have a rant about roads.
The Auckland Mayoral debacle is a serious diversion away from really serious issues – one of which is the lack of investment in essential infrastructure in the South Island. On SH1, the main route from Picton to NZ’s second city, there’s an old rickety, single lane bridge over a major river. Up till fairly recently all traffic on SH1 had to cross an even more rickety old 2 tier bridge with the railway line on the top tier. the train still goes across it.
When the mighty Waimakirirri River is in flood, the old wooden bridge at Kaiapoi has to be closed in case it gets washed away, leaving just the motorway bridge. Cyclists just have to wait until the river drops or they can get a lift across the motorway bridge.
Matters are exacerbated when the Ashley River is in flood and the old bridge at Rangiora has to be closed for safety reasons which diverts all traffic north of the river onto SH1. When both rivers are in flood as happened last week – there are just two ways into ChCh by road from the north – the SH1 bridge and the old one lane gorge bridge 90kms upstream.
And that’s aside from the implications to SH1 and the only railway line – of landslides or tsunami pretty much all the way from Blenheim to Cheviot.
Sometimes it feels very isolated down here.
…but it is a lovely isolation….and just love it when those rivers run wild and mighty.!!!….hate to see them tamed and depleted for irrigation
….and who cares about rickety bridges?…our colonial ancestors had to ford them with horses if they were lucky …or swim…or paddle.
This map shows where the world’s 30 million slaves live. There are 60,000 in the U.S.
And, yes, NZ is represented as having slaves, approximately 500.
Depends entirely on the definition of “slave”. I would suggest that America has many many more than 60,000. There’s a whole economy based on low-paid ($1-3 hour) prison inmates that produce massive amounts of products cheaply, including large amounts of military hardware such as uniforms and basic equipment. To the point that states trade prison inmates between themselves in order to fulfill government contracts…
Who are the NZ slaves?
Probably a combination of sex slaves and workers in slave like conditions (technically paid but the bills that the employer charges the employed are more than the pay) all of which will be foreign born. We here of some of these in the news every now and then but for some reason they’re not called what they are.
Judith Collins is going to speak to the China Executive Leadership Academy about government transparency and accountability. Is she aware of the irony of a Minister of a sly, secretive, unwilling to accept accountability ‘government’ talking about those subjects? A bit like Ruth Richardson and Roger Douglas talking to foreign governments about economic stewardship- what a fucking joke.
More to the point: the Chinese know this.
http://finetoothcolumn.wordpress.com/2013/10/17/subcontracting-morality/
– Well thats food for thought
DUTCH KING TELLS THE POOR: “BUILD YOUR OWN SAFETY NETS”
No, this is not a Monty Python sketch. The King of the Netherlands, Willem-Alexander announced the end of the welfare state in a speech written by the government. But while the population of the Netherlands has faced some of the most severe austerity measures in Europe, the monarchy has cut nothing from the £31m it receives from the taxpayer each year – overtaking the Windsors as the most expensive monarchy in Europe…..
http://www.scriptonitedaily.com/2013/10/18/31m-a-year-from-the-taxpayer-and-dutch-king-tells-the-poor-build-your-own-safety-nets/
How sad.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/government-elections-politics/big-sky-big-money/remember-those-campaign-finance-documents-we-found-in-a-meth-house/
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/9304274/Tough-conditions-for-Kiwi-activists-in-Russia
– Thats what happens when you mess with the big boys but inadvertently Lucy Lawless shows them what they should stick to in future
http://www.stuff.co.nz/environment/9304237/Lucy-Lawless-in-Greenpeace-Arctic-protest
What has happened in Auckland in the last 3-4years? People on the street and on the beach are so defensive so as to scare other people away. People hog the footpath so I have to walk on the road. What happened to altruism, manners, thoughtfulness? I wonder if it’s like this in other Western countries.
What happened in Auckland was a National Govt took charge, the economy slowed more than needed, and a lot of people’s attitudes shifted to suit.
NZ slaves are on Korean fishing boats thank to National delaying implementation of new rules preventing such conditions.
Other slaves on farm labour are made to work huge hours 80 hrs plus only getting paid 40 to 45 hrs.
National again don’t bother funding osh labour dept mobie
Forestry workers made to work long unsafe hours killing workers!
Religious fundamentalists such as thr exclusive bretheren who force marriages force labour again National implicated!