The answer, sadly, is that the contemporary Left is almost entirely ignorant of geopolitics and the strict limitations it places on diplomatic action. Even when it comes to basic economics and its decisive influence on politics, the Left’s powers of analysis have atrophied to an astonishing degree.
Others would summarise that into `ignorant & clueless'. Yet, having adopted the wrong frame for the situation, Chris risks putting himself into the same category!
The Cold War was produced by a polarisation of ideology: two competing belief systems. Capitalism and communism. Since China is now both, the frame doesn't apply to current geopolitics. What part of that don't you understand, Chris??
He then proceeds to falsify history as though fronting as an apologist for the communist regime is a good idea.
Whenever the Chinese Empire was strong enough to assert its suzerainty over Tibet (which was most of the time) the Tibetan theocracy willingly paid homage to Beijing.
Those of us who have actually done the historical research know he's bullshitting. There was a century or two when that suzerainty was real (around the 17th, from memory) but the rest of the time it was mere pretence by the emperor – and he fails to mention the earlier period of history when the Tibetans conquered China and the opposite situation prevailed.
Intellectual dishonesty is characteristic of leftists, of course, so his demonstration of tribalism merely serves to remind us why the left never achieves widespread respect.
One can be thoughtful and pose questions and offer an alternative view, and still be handing people the wrong end of the stick. Which Trotter does with monotonic regularity.
Dennis merely showed one aspect of the shit smeared on the wrong end of the stick Trotter is offering. But Trotter starts out from the get-go with bullshit framing and misrepresentation, let alone the public self-pleasuring he indulges in his second paragraph.
As for echo chambers – there's a particular echo chamber filled with blinkered views formed in particular group in an odd period almost half a century ago. Trotter keeps that chamber resonating admirably.
Andre – Chris provokes discussion at least. And Dennis and you are so entrenched in the belief that you know all, that you set yourselves up as gurus. You may worship yourselves, others respect your knowledge and wisdom, but don't accept your take on everything as the last word. Hence words from and to Chris's opinions are valuable. And accepted truth may change over time as different information and perspectives arise.
Trotter writes brilliantly but he writes to be provocative.The consistent themes are 1. Old School Labour is good. 2. The Greens are bad.
He often makes valid points. For instance he rues the gradual loss of the unions (which I agree with) because power has shifted far too much into the hands of the employees employers. For this reason he often attacks the current Labour government for not addressing this power imbalance. He overdoes these attacks.
He consistently attacks the Greens either because they are not green enough or because they are too green. I think he yearns for the old FPP days where a strong Labour government could do what it likes.
IMHO he would be better off accepting the current order of things under MMP, especially the rise of the Greens and the need to address Climate Change, and argue for a CGT, Land Tax, and Transaction Tax that will move capital from the rich to the poor and into resources that will combat Climate Change.
I don’t think the new cold war has anything to do with capitalism/communism , why should it?
It’s about a failing ,falling empire trying to hang on and a new rising power challenging it’s economic/military hegemony
A so called cold war means shots have (so far) not been fired .The hot war comes when its all out hard weaponry, not just propaganda and economics
Dennis, that's a nice critique of Trotter's post. Have you ever reflected on why you feel the need to spoil such contributions by ending them with rubbish generalisations and hyperbole? Are you perhaps 'concerned' that without a provocative assertion or two your contributions would lack punch?
"Intellectual dishonesty is characteristic of leftists, of course, so his demonstration of tribalism merely serves to remind us why the left never achieves widespread respect."
Really, Dennis, NEVER? Certainly 'the right' governments in the USA, UK and Brazil haven't covered themselves in glory with their 'handling' of the Covid-19 pandemic, and the evident failure of those administrations to keep their citizenry safe has contributed to the “widespread respect” that NZ citizens, not to mention the wider world, have for our health services and centre-left government.
Never felt the need for physical projection during this form of jousting, although I do get some relief from wearing a brace to treat tendonitis in my right achilles
So it seems to me that your counter argument Dennis is "Those of us who have actually done the historical research know he's bullshitting."
However it doesn't take much effort to research your claim and I find that Chris may be right.
"The first international document which used and explained this word was a convention signed by Britain and Russia in Petersburg on August 31, 1907, titled The Convention Between Great Britain and Russia Relating to Persia, Afghanistan and Tibet.
The third ….. section declared that the governments of Great Britain and Russia recognized China's right of suzerainty over Tibet."
One wonders why you haven't challenged Chris on TDB or his own blog.
Bash, bash , bash, the great West on China bash, the elite one percent fear their moribund grip on power and their bashing of their Capitalist rivals, China and Russia knows no bounds, as though they have the moral high ground, of course no mention of the 'Berlin wall' Israel has built to imprison Palestinians and jailing 12 year old stone throwers for 3-4 years. No mention of the Arms sales that enable their mates to bomb and starve to death Yemeni children etc etc. Mushroom clouds for tea anyone?.
We've discussed the terrors Israel places on the Palestinians as well as the horrid situation in Yemen many times on this blog. Am yet to read a poster on TS that supports what is happening in either Palestine or Yemen.
Sorry Byd0NZ, my bad. Thanks for explaining 🙂 I appreciate that, text has no tone, sometimes I get confused 🙂
Dennis, re the car crash. Yes will wait with interest regarding the result. I hope the person in hospital makes a recovery, their insight will be paramount.
Shoot the messenger has been around a very long time. Reasonable to suspect Chinese agents somehow performed the elimination of their opponents, but we must wait & see if the cops find evidence.
I remember reading in Rolling Stone about how Karen Silkwood got killed. She was a reporter investigating a nuclear power plant in '75. Car got run off the road & Hollywood eventually made a movie about it. Best way to prevent someone telling the truth is to eliminate them. It's why the left does de-platforming, eh?
Karen Silkwood was a whistleblower, working in a nuclear plant and very anxious about what seemed to be a cover-up of their operations. And had a convenient vehicle malfunction that led to her death.
This was a very unfortunate car crash in NZ killing two pro-democracy Chinese activists. Vehicle crossing the centre line, scraping one and lining up for head-on for the second with these precious, brave people inside. Is that coincidence? Who was driving the vehicle that was 'out of line'?
However, international security analyst Paul Buchanan said China had a track record of interfering in other nations' affairs, including hacking.
Furthermore, "independent" Chinese voices in New Zealand regularly experienced intimidation by pro-Beijing groups, he said.
"It's not unjustified that independent members of the Chinese community may feel threatened to the point that when something tragic like this happens, they – if not jump to conclusions – then certainly suspect that the accident may have more sinister causes than a mere accident."
I'm reading Anne Perry's book, A Sunless Sea which is about opium and gives detail of the Opium Wars and degradation that Britain rained on China and the terrible toll produced by vicious British behaviour. I think she does good backgrounding giving correct information. I'll try to put a bit up later as it would help us to know what may be in Chinese minds if we understood some of the low-down dirtiness this part of British history overseas. Which would help in balancing our opinions.
So now we have the northbound assassins doing a kamikaze move over the centre line, initially missing the target, clipping the wrong car but serendipitously slamming headlong into the right car and severely injuring themselves.Not much of a payoff or career advancement there.
I can think of more surefire ways, but why waste a tragedy when there's propagandistic hay to be made?
I think Prof Brady is showing her true pro US (Wilson Centre)colours here and would take a large grain of salt with her claims
Evidently the car that collided into them was driven by a Women with a young daughter as a passenger.
Yesterday the news implied sabotage, the only thing I could think of that would result in the death of the front seat occupants was that the safety belts had been interfered with, or the air bags failed.
Yes, a rather messy “hit” to say the least. It stretches credibility really, unless some evidence emerges beyond the apparent coincidences.
Professor Brady makes some fair and interesting points about China in her writings, but seems too much of a US proxy to have her every utterance taken as absolute truth.
Those with valid concerns about the influence and 'machinations' of the CCP do their case no favours by indulging in fact-free speculation. Fearmongering, IMHO.
I am delighted to read that vaccinologist Helen Petousis- Harris has finally realised that dismissing or minimising adverse effects from vaccines is not a sound tactic when trying to sell the product to the wider public.
Excellent and well referenced article from Farah Hancock on the progress around developing a vaccine against Covid 19.
With vaccine hesitancy an identified global health concern there's a risk not communicating likely side effects could see people lose trust in a vaccination programme.
University of Auckland vaccinologist associate professor Helen Petousis-Harris said potential side effects need to be talked about upfront.
“People will lose trust and their confidence if you don’t.”
Side effects are normal “and not necessarily a bad thing either” she said.
“You don’t want them to be serious or severe but there’s a range of effects you get when your body is making an immune response.”
This is the first time I have heard of a vaccine promoter actually admitting that a vaccine can cause significant symptoms, and acknowledging that being honest and transparent about these significant post -vaccine symptoms (rather than dismissing them as being 'coincidental') is more likely to inspire trust in the target market.
Everyone will agree that it is way too early to celebrate the apparent efficacy of these very new and novel vaccines as potential long term effects have not as yet been assessed.
Misrepresenting again, Rosemary. Or else you really haven't been paying attention.
Every time I've gone and got a jab, the possibility of side effects and reactions has been presented to me, along with going through a checklist to determine that the vaccines I was about to get were not contraindicated for me. Ranging from being told to expect my shoulder to be sore enough to be dysfunctional for several days, to being expected to call in regularly to the travel health doctor's office for several days after getting a whole bunch at once (if they didn't hear from me on schedule they were going to come looking).
Let alone that even the briefest glance at credible information sources shows a plethora of info on what kinds of reactions are likely.
If I did not make it clear…I am not referring to an individual’s experience with an individual vaccine administrator, although there are one or two accounts from credible persons whose vaccine experience has not been as well managed as your own. For example, the former editor of the British Medical Journal who's account you seem to be ignoring. https://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2019/03/13/richard-smith-who-is-most-likely-to-have-side-effects-to-flu-vaccination/
I am referring to the official vaccine narrative…if I missed the press release where it was acknowledged that many vaccines cause local pain and irritation and perhaps low fever, and that some vaccines cause more significant symptoms in some people and occasionally long term disability or health effects…please provide a link.
Any vaccine can cause side effects. For the most part these are minor (for example, a sore arm or low-grade fever) and go away within a few days. Listed below are vaccines licensed in the United States and side effects that have been associated with each of them. This information is copied directly from CDC’s Vaccine Information Statements (VISs), which in turn are derived from the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) recommendations for each vaccine.
Remember, vaccines are continually monitored for safety, and like any medication, vaccines can cause side effects. However, a decision not to immunize a child also involves risk and could put the child and others who come into contact with him or her at risk of contracting a potentially deadly disease.
Petousis-Harris said even though a vaccine is still some time away, it’s a good time to start thinking about managing people’s expectations so side effects don't come as a surprise.
“That can be tailored as time goes on.”
She said it’s something New Zealand has done before for the Meningococcal B MeNZB vaccine where a side effect was a very sore arm after injection.
“That was talked about a lot in the media, and people were prepared for that. They actually over-talked it, and it wasn’t as bad, but it made people prepared.”
And:
The public’s tolerance for side effects has reduced in recent decades. Le Gros said he has a deep scar on his arm from a smallpox vaccine. Nowadays, that kind of reaction would be considered too severe for a vaccine to get approved.
Just a brief search for Petousis-Harris and vaccine side-effects turns up plenty:
Informed consent is about gaining appropriate knowledge in an environment and manner that is meaningful and without coercion. People must understand what is being offered, what is involved, the probable benefits, risks, side effects, failure rates, alternatives, the risks and benefits of not receiving the treatment, and that they have a choice.
Sounds reasonable? The sticking point is what constitutes risks and benefits, and scientific information versus pseudoscience. Informed consent must be based on the best current science-based information or else it is a sham.
My note: grossly overstating risks and side effects degrades and interferes with informed consent by falsely skewing the entire benefit/risk picture.
You're correct that I'm not spending my time looking for examples of credible people making comments I can misrepresent and distort into painting a false overstated picture of risks and harms from vaccines, and/or paint a false picture that vaccine experts hide the widely acknowledged side effects that can occur, and that a very few people should not get specific vaccines and that these contraindications are checked for before administering a vaccine..
And Bill Gates says something similar – that there are side effects and these need to be reduced before a vaccine is provided. He gets well mis-represented by the conspiracy people.
"You know, if we have, you know, one in 10,000 side effects, that’s, you know, way more — 700,000, you know, people — who will suffer from that,” he said.
“So, really understanding the safety at gigantic scale across all age ranges… it’s very, very hard.”
It has been my experience as a person who has been having the flu vaccine, as an at risk person since 1995, that with all vaccines their possible side-effects are pointed out at the time of 'sticking' as it were. I am of an age were to travel we had to have a range of vaccinations & a vaccination card and the side-effects of these were always pointed out
Whenever I have had a vaccination I have had to give an informed consent and the last flu one I signed the form that the nurse had that had the actual name and makeup of the vaccine and was taken through any side-effects and asked if I had any allergies. For instance people who are allergic to egg white were known to have a reaction to one of the flu vaccines as egg white is used as a carrier.
With all vaccines there will be side-effects whether permanent or transitory, ranging from the carrier ingredients to the attenuated culture used. These will be known at the time of sticking. As part of informed consent they will be explained.
The vaccine trials will have thrown up side effects and that is why time to test and do a range of tests is always a good thing. Treatments have to undergo a huge testing regime after they have been derived.
So for me far from being unusual it is very usual and has been my experience over many years with vaccines and other 'chemical' medical treatments.
Some side-effects they will know to be coincidental from the testing carried out. Some they will note as possibly new, do some more testing etc.
But as with most things these days there will be people who don't want to have treatment for whatever reason. The key is to get as many people who do not have concerns vaccinated/treated, keep the communication up so the nay-sayers do not queer the pitch ie by putting people off seeking vaccines or treatment for those who are wanting to play a part.
There have always been articles on side effects and usually at flu jab time they come out in the press releases/articles. The side effects for other vaccines are available on Ms Google.
The narrative about the current work on the Covid-19 vaccine has always seemed wrapped around with the issue of possible side-effects.
Rosemary, I'm wondering about your use of the phrases "sell the product" and "the target market" with regard to vaccines. I've been vaccinated for polio, MMR, tetanus, influenza (regularly) and probably others I've forgotten about (damn vaccines!), but have yet to part with a penny directly for any of those treatments. I suppose I must thank taxpayers (and therefore myself) for covering the cost of that disease protection.
For those concerned about New Zealand's greenhouse gas emission roduction, a really interesting release from Stats NZ yesterday:
Approximately two-thirds of New Zealand’s regions recorded decreases in their total greenhouse gas emissions, while one-third of regions saw increases between 2007 and 2018.
Between 2007 and 2018, the largest falls in emissions were in:
– Auckland, down 955 kilotonnes (7.8 per cent)
– Taranaki, down 707 kilotonnes (11.3 per cent)
– Northland, down 545 kilotonnes (10.8 per cent), and
– Waikato, down 272 kilotonnes (2.0 per cent).
Over the same period, emissions increased in:
– Canterbury, up 1,175 kilotonnes (11.0 per cent),
– Bay of Plenty, up 356 kilotonnes (11.9 per cent),
– Southland, up 335 kilotonnes (6.2 per cent), and
– Otago, up 333 kilotonnes (7.0 per cent).
“This is the first comprehensive picture we have been able to develop to show where emissions are being produced in New Zealand and which regions are driving the changes in emissions,” Mr Oakley (Head of Stats) said.
I'm hoping this gives rise to debate about divergence between energy density and industrial productivity, and to be able to break that down on a regional basis.
Today’s the 20th Anniversary of the my mate Lenny Manning who was KIA while on a Patrol in Timor-Leste with BCoy 2/1 Battalion as a part of NZBATT2 under a UN Peacekeeping Mandate.
The Black Beret represents his service in WAI/WEC SQN, the Bayonet represents his service BCoy in 2nd/ 1st Battalion RNZIR, the beer can in QAMR stubby cooler is the many beers we drunk on Crewmen’s and later at Burnham Camp home to both NZ Scots & 2/1 Battalion
Thanks for reminding us Skud. Not to be forgotten. We who read and happily/unhappily responded to the overseas fighting can too easily dismiss those who faced it.
And it is interesting to read Tricledown's points on outdated gear. I thought that National was all gun-ho to paraphrase, and would be wanting ours to be strong, well-equipped fighting men. But it seems that even matters they agree with they want to do on a mean budget, the skinflints.
Maybe it is because they are less skin and more flint; they like machinery and technology and despise the human side of life, in other words, their own selves and person. Now that is really screwy. Let's not vote the National Anti-Human Party into power for God's sake – and for those of us who haven't caught this obliterating human-hating virus. Nah to NAHPs.
The NZ Army was sent into Timor by the Shipley govt with antique equipment that didn't work and the Steyr rifle that malfunctioned.
Tax cuts by National led to running down of military capability to where it was barely functioning. Same with Healthcare Education etc.
Now Goldsmith is promising to cut $80 billion of govt spending .
Are we going to run down healthcare further than now with Carona virus threatening our Country,Education now we have lost overseas students and have high unemployment. Police numbers with gangs on the rise,
Cutting govt spending will send New Zealand into a deeper longer recession making it harder to repay debt as well as keeping the economy afloat.
What makes me laugh at Goldsmiths naivety is the Conservative Australian govt is tracking on the same debt level per capita as NZ so that makes Goldsmith's false narative scaremongering about debt levels in NZ a fallacy.
The announcement by Paora Goldsmith on the Nats plan for cutting back the Public Service seems
other-wordly like harking back in the mists of time
boring
repetitive
super BAU from the National waybacks
missed the public mood with all our public servants being thanked for all their steady work in Covid-19 and to come.
That was the effect on me, after thought.
My first reaction though was a chill. Really it was.
Been there done that got oodles of scars mentally & career-wise from the time-wasting, stupid, never-ending restructurings that took place in the PS. What a pall these constant PS restructurings cast over NZ. They restricted service, diverted us from being able to work on our departmental work full time so as to serve our people. Instead we spent time, endless days and months fighting to retain our own jobs, functions or departments.
To turn the corner we need innovation, failed has-been policies won't work. They shouldn't be given the opportunity to work.
The cost is too high on those affected both 'clients' or whatever name our people are called, and public servants. Public Servants work for the good of the public.
I'd love to get away from the tosh neo-lib stuff written into the Acts dealing with the State Sector that we work for the Minister. We work for whatever govt is in power upholding and bringing about whatever legislation, policies etc the govt has been elected to do.
The Minister is responsible for bringing us $$$$, legislation, policy direction. We don't work for them…our over-riding work is for the people of NZ.
Hopefully the reviews of legislation this Govt is proposing will look at, and determine, what was actually wrong with the system prior to these pieces of legislation. Sure there were a few good parts in what followed but those of us working at the sharp end were never sure what the 'mischief' was that the reforms were trying to remedy.
Meantime here is the link…..public servants prepare to shiver.
https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-eu/uk-ready-to-quit-eu-on-australia-terms-if-no-brexit-deal-johnson-says-idUSKBN23Y0J6
Jun.28/20 LONDON (Reuters) – Britain will be ready to quit its transitional arrangements with the European Union “on Australia terms” if no deal on their future relationship is reached, Prime Minister Boris Johnson told his Polish counterpart Mateusz Morawiecki on Saturday. .. Australia does not have a comprehensive trade agreement with the EU. Much of EU-Australia trade follows default World Trade Organisation rules, though specific agreements are in place for certain goods.
The UK Government has now passed a deadline of 30 June where it could have asked for extension from the EU and now the end of December 2020 seems fixed as final for leaving – ready or not as in the chant of the children's game. However… it may be possible for the UK and the EU to secure more preparation time in the form of a real implementation phase later in the year.
An obvious hit job , pay back double . I have no doubt about that as she , unlike the PM , felt an overpowering need to drop it into the media's lap so as to play it as whataboutism . Difference from Falloon is that there is no aggrieved victim (s) behind the disclosure and the ex mistress is seemingly living in London now and no doubt horrified about being ammunition in Collins game of dirty politics . The equivalent to Key's top drawer of dirt but more likely tip offs from Slater. I think Collins figures the only way to win is to have a bitch fight in a mud pool and needs to drag Jacinda down to her level for a competition to be had.
Alan makes a valid point. I already know the answer to "when Jacinda knew."
I do think she would have sorted it out had she known at an earlier date and ILG would have lost his ministerial portfolios but not have been in the position to have hastily resigned.
I'm more interested in the time line for falloons case . When did the first victim make a complaint and was it only to the police? It seems strange that the national party was the last to know.?
I don't want Ian L-G to stay on as an MP. I have a very low opinion of him now. While I understand people giving in to attraction under intense circumstances when working at parliament, what I think is outrageous about Lees-Galloway is taking his mistress to Paris. Can you imagine the lying and underhandedness that went on. Phoning his wife from Paris and lying. Meanwhile, she's at home in Palm North looking after their three kids……………what an absolute pig he is. He has treated her with utter contempt…………….She deserves better than this
Yes you are right I am assuming the affair was secret or at least his wife didn't know about it. I assume that if she did LG might have said "my wife and I have an understanding and I was completely transparent with her. She also said about Paris, no darling you take the mistress, I am all good here in Palmy minding our three children"…. But seriously though, I am making an assumption that the wife didn't know and I could be wrong.
BTW my opinion of LG doesn't alter my opinion about Judith C's handling of this, definitely a political hit, playing dirty politics, muddying the waters the old they do it too defence.
Ok Treetop, I accept that you didn't want the conversation to go in this direction. But I was expressing my view. There has not be a note from a moderator that my view is unacceptable for this site (at least not yet).
I am certainly not trying to be a marriage counsellor. No marriage counsellor would or should express such a view to a couple they are trying to help. It was just my opinion. I am making a judgement on L-G behaviour or an aspect of it. My perception is that others on this site talk about other politicians and each other like this. It is out of character for me to comment like this…..and I will give thought as to whether it is helpful to do so or not.
I still maintain my view of L-G behaviour.
I to am making a judgment and I am trying to keep within the boundary of dirty politics ending a politicians career. My judgment is not based on the private life or the impact on the individuals involved.
Individuals have their own style on TS, some comments I look forward to reading and others I only partially read.
"If we go down this pathway of abandoning Tiwai Point, in favour of a transition package as some politicians would advocate for, the results will be dwarfed by what happens here and the wider impact on employment across New Zealand," he said.
"If we don't prevail, and restore honesty and common sense to this issue, we will have disastrous effects here and across the country."
Where 'common sense' means increasing corporate welfare.
My son is an alternative power researcher and when asked about Tesla going to Tiwai he doubted it would happen as a battery factory would not use much electricity as the component materials need to be processed nearer to source as they are only a very small percentage of the rocks and soils containing them and it is that process that requires almost all of the power use. Transporting thousands of tonnes of rock halfway around the world to extract kilos of rare earths etc is not an economic goer, not to mention the problems we already have with the existing dross from Tiwai.
Rio Tinto have plenty of money, they can write off any losses, last yr they increased production by 30% by adding another Pot, 6 months later we're closing down, power is too expensive.
Peters wants to provide Corporate Welfare, again, and again, to a mining magnate thats makes $2.5m every hour of every day.
A number of yrs ago she suggested to Aus Govt that she should be able to import workers from China who'll work for $1 an hour, they turned her down.
TC, see my comment at 12.1.1, similar things apply for a data server, not many jobs for the local boys and girls and good luck convincing 250k/pa data scientists from Silicon Valley to relocate to Bluff. Auckland maybe, or Coromandel at a pinch, better off using the power to electrify trucks and trains which is the use that would have the most dramatic results on our carbon total.
The thought occurs that we already have the KAREN fibre network in place. Plus lots of power and a good source of cooling seawater.
Sure, not many local jobs in the finished product, but an ongoing process of construction of supercomputer facility A, five year construction of B when A is online, refit of A when B is online… a fair few local jobs in the ongoing development cycle.
Dunedin might be about the closest place slightly attractive to foreign staff that's not atop a faultline, but overall our problem making data centres viable is constrained cable capacity into the world. Shame because NZ has the governance and integrity reputation to make that sort of industry work.
Yeah – ISTR a data centre was part of the harbour revamp aspiration.
I'm just intrigued by what could be done with the massive power infrastructure going to the smelter, but that wouldn't track through the dunedin CBD 🙂
We do have good fibre within NZ. So something with moderate international data flows but lots of calculations required on it? And if it gets really good, Bluff might be a handy shore station for another fibre cable in a decade or so.
I just can't help thinking there's a powerful resource there for a jump ahead for Southland.
As in "when the smelter closure makes hundreds of people unemployed in Southland, what new industries and enterprises can use the infrastructure strengths of Southland to supplement the employment and revenue of Southland in the manner of the SIT free fees scheme?"
The HVDC link from Benmore to Haywards (Lower Hutt) loses about 6% of the input energy over that 610km distance. So if the HVDC were extended to Manapouri in the south and to Auckland in the north, total losses from Manapouri to Auckland might be around 15%, compared to maybe a couple percent loss in transmission (wild-ass guess) from Manapouri to Tiwai Point.
Round figures Tiwai Point was guessed to pay around $250M a year for electricity plus maybe $60M for transmission. So rough hand-wavy numbers there's maybe $50M of value in electricity that's not lost by using it in Southland rather than sending it all the way to Auckland.
That's without considering the cost of grid upgrades that would be needed.
The main high voltage line goes direct from Manapouri to Invercargill where it joins up with the rest of the grid. Then looking at really non-detailed maps it appears the high-voltage lines go north past Gore to Roxburgh and Clyde.
The smelter's demand is fairly closely matched to Manapouri's output, by design. But there are times when Tiwai Point draws more than Manapouri produces and draws the extra from the rest of the grid, and there are times when Tiwai Point doesn't use all of what Manapouri is producing so that excess goes into the grid.
So if a new heavy user appeared somewhere close to existing high-voltage lines, then it's likely just a matter of putting in a substation to tap off from existing lines. But if the new heavy user were well away from existing lines, say somewhere like Mossburn or Kingston, then a new high voltage line would likely be needed as well as a substation.
Losses are affected by distance (more distance more loss), voltage (higher voltage loses less) and whether it's AC or DC (DC loses less, but it's not easy to convert to AC so you need to be dealing with a lot of juice to make DC transmission worthwhile)
Wonder about electrifying the big dairy factory at Edendale (currently a coal burner). There's an existing grid line via Gore but don't know if it has sufficient capacity (it's lower voltage 110kV, compared to the main national grid 220kV).
Manapouri to Tiwai lines run near Ohai then straight to Makarewa substaion north of Invercargill (see Transpower National Grid maps).
@ Andre
Rather than HVDC through to Auckland, I wonder about increaing the 220kV capacity north of Wellington, which would allow more South Island power to be used throughout the Lower North Island. Might free up some of the existing North Island generation for Auckland.
Probably throughout the region, but an electrical system is a bit like plumbing or information transmission: a network is only as big as its smallest pipe. If the local subtation or lines are at capacity, then being able to supply more energy is useless because the current pipe isn't big enough.
But we do know that the smelter already has bloody big pipes from generator to factory floor, so if I were to make an uneducated and speculative guess, I'd suspect the cheapest option from a grid point of view would be to have another high-energy facility (maybe not as big as the smelter, but a good energy user).
Another high-energy option would be a particle accelerator: the Large Hadron Collider uses 200MW at peak flow, less than half the smelter's capacity. And the farmland around might be easier to access for a trench-dug tunnel (like a fuel line, but without the kauri logging risk) or elevated pipe than in other countries. And the data can get transmitted to any NZ scientific facility via the KAREN fibre line.
I'm just spitballing here, but my point is that there are far more options than "save the smelter" available. And, frankly, Shadbolt's Invercargill has a history of having good ideas for Southland that are out of left field. I wouldn't be surprised if they float something that makes people go "wtf" but which actually comes off looking good.
Given we have supplies of iron sand in NZ could there be conversion to steel and us building our own trains, building supplies, etc.
We'd have to move away from the notion that cheapest is best of course – we know that this is generally not the case.
We need to build the notion of community good into our state owned infrastructure rather than this notion of profit e.g. rail has a split of public good (say 60%) paid through taxation and private good (40%) paid for through sales and fees and ticketing.
I do actually think the same for roads if we applied the same 60/40 split to roads then maybe road user charges could be reduced.
And they should be state owned – profit is just a dead-weight and high executive salaries are just capital theft.
The smelter is at Tiwai because of the the deep water port for the alumina, and other inputs coming in, and product going out.
Another industry may not be that critical of location, data centre could be just north of Invercargill by the Lorneville substation. A silica refinery, probably between the resource in Western Southland and Lorneville.
It feels a bit like the occasional problem I have at work, where although I don't know the method I can feel there's a bloody good answer that's just a bit too far away to grasp at the moment.
Ah well, Southland will figure it out. It's a bit flat for my taste, but it's got a lot going for it these days.
There's a mapped active fault less than 10 km from The Octagon (runs along SE side of Taieri Plain at least as far N as Wingatui) (NZAFD, GNS). Also, the Akatore Fault that goes offshore near Taieri Mouth likely continues towards Dunedin (& possible under it). Recent research suggests it's capable of M7 to M7.4 quake & is the biggest seismic threat to Dunedin (piece on Newshub: best non-paywalled source I could find).
Just for fun, looking back to the Ruatoki event (Urerewa-Operation 8) and Comm. Marshall's (video) comments; (Jackal’s post, 24 May 2012).
Did the accused NOT get the legal representation that many believed they deserved?
He, he, he, ho, ho, ho!
And did anyone ever really determined whether the bus (or the tourist coach perhaps) would have been targeted at Johnkey's head from a great height, or Bush’s? (George Bush that is, not Mike Bush's)
Is it not high time that Tame Iti got himself a high salaried job somewhere, either in corporate or performing arts?
That guy still has heaps of talent and maybe he should avoid getting mixed up with many of those old farty arts patrons (especially of the Akarana ilk).
I really do not believe that most of them have his best interests at heart.
Brian Easton writes van interesting column on Pundit. It covers the National shifts in Economic terms and some pointers on the Collin position.
So where in the political spectrum does the current National Party stand? I start with the right-to-left (or more precisely extreme-right-to-centre-right) economic spectrum and include the social dimension later.
John Key repeatedly distanced his party from the extreme right, treating Don Brash almost cruelly in order to maintain the distance. He was not of the centre-right either. His allegiance was (mainly) to the Auckland Business Community (which abandoned neoliberalism about twenty years ago in favour of a more active government support). His style was mañana: never do anything today which can be left to tomorrow….
…National’s fundamental tenet is low taxes which means squeezing the public sector. It was so adamant about this that when the Canterbury Earthquakes provided the perfect opportunity to raise taxes, it failed to impose a special earthquake levy. Not only did the earthquake recovery suffer, but so did the public sector, to the detriment of its service to the public. The current government is still trying to recover the mess…..
"Addendum: This column was drafted before the events involving Andrew Falloon and Ian Lees-Galloway. It has not been rewritten.. However, I must add this. The column tries hard to be fair towards Judith Collins; after all it is really about wider issues than her. But the way she dealt with the Lees-Galloway allegations was inappropriate. She was right to pass her knowledge on to Jacinda Ardern, as the prime minister had done to her over Falloon. She was wrong to announce she had done so (on morning radio) before the Prime Minister had publicly dealt with the information. In contrast Ardern waited until Collins had made her Falloon announcement before explaining her involvement. Collins’ timing has the hallmarks of a Whale Oil counterpuncher. It does not promise a clean election."
got chipped on FB yesterday fordaring to mention that some of the nationals female mp's were showing a bit more cleavage than necessary on teevee ch31 last night. then a nationals troll showed up and demanded this and that and it was a great old brou ha ha. the upshot was the post was deleted but then they all went and changed their clobber. hahahahahaha.
Jonathan Pie spouts his disgust at the sensitivity that has established new norms so that we aren't even allowed to regard ourselves as one biological sex now and accept that there is generally two plus.
Graham Adams assesses the fallout of the Cass Review — The press release last Thursday from the UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls didn’t make the mainstream news in New Zealand but it really should have. The startling title of Reem Alsalem’s statement — “Implementation of ‘Cass ...
This open-for-business, under-new-management cliché-pockmarked government of Christopher Luxon is not the thing of beauty he imagines it to be. It is not the powerful expression of the will of the people that he asserts it to be. It is not a soaring eagle, it is a malodorous vulture. This newest poll should make ...
The latest labour market statistics, showing a rise in unemployment. There are now 134,000 unemployed - 14,000 more than when the National government took office. Which is I guess what happens when the Reserve Bank causes a recession in an effort to Keep Wages Low. The previous government saw a ...
Three opinion polls have been released in the last two days, all showing that the new government is failing to hold their popular support. The usual honeymoon experienced during the first year of a first term government is entirely absent. The political mood is still gloomy and discontented, mainly due ...
National's Finance Minister once met a poor person.A scornful interview with National's finance guru who knows next to nothing about economics or people.There might have been something a bit familiar if that was the headline I’d gone with today. It would of course have been in tribute to the article ...
Rob MacCulloch writes – Throughout the pandemic, the new Vice-Chancellor-of-Otago-University-on-$629,000 per annum-Can-you-believe-it-and-Former-Finance-Minister Grant Robertson repeated the mantra over and over that he saved “lives and livelihoods”.As we update how this claim is faring over the course of time, the facts are increasingly speaking differently. NZ ...
Chris Trotter writes – IT’S A COMMONPLACE of political speeches, especially those delivered in acknowledgement of electoral victory: “We’ll govern for all New Zealanders.” On the face of it, the pledge is a strange one. Why would any political leader govern in ways that advantaged the huge ...
Bryce Edwards writes – The list of former National Party Ministers being given plum and important roles got longer this week with the appointment of former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett as the chair of Pharmac. The Christopher Luxon-led Government has now made key appointments to Bill ...
TL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 10:06am on Wednesday, May 1:The Lead: Business confidence fell across the board in April, falling in some areas to levels last seen during the lockdowns because of a collapse in ...
Over the past 36 hours, Christopher Luxon has been dong his best to portray the centre-right’s plummeting poll numbers as a mark of virtue. Allegedly, the negative verdicts are the result of hard economic times, and of a government bravely set out on a perilous rescue mission from which not ...
Auckland Transport have started rolling out new HOP card readers around the network and over the next three months, all of them on buses, at train stations and ferry wharves will be replaced. The change itself is not that remarkable, with the new readers looking similar to what is already ...
Completed reads for April: The Difference Engine, by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling Carnival of Saints, by George Herman The Snow Spider, by Jenny Nimmo Emlyn’s Moon, by Jenny Nimmo The Chestnut Soldier, by Jenny Nimmo Death Comes As the End, by Agatha Christie Lord of the Flies, by ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
Have a story to share about St Paul’s, but today just picturesPopular novels written at this desk by a young man who managed to bootstrap himself out of father’s imprisonment and his own young life in a workhouse Read more ...
The list of former National Party Ministers being given plum and important roles got longer this week with the appointment of former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett as the chair of Pharmac. The Christopher Luxon-led Government has now made key appointments to Bill English, Simon Bridges, Steven Joyce, Roger Sowry, ...
Newsroom has a story today about National's (fortunately failed) effort to disestablish the newly-created Inspector-General of Defence. The creation of this agency was the key recommendation of the Inquiry into Operation Burnham, and a vital means of restoring credibility and social licence to an agency which had been caught lying ...
Holding On To The Present:The moment a political movement arises that attacks the whole idea of social progress, and announces its intention to wind back the hands of History’s clock, then democracy, along with its unwritten rules, is in mortal danger.IT’S A COMMONPLACE of political speeches, especially those delivered in ...
Stuck In The Middle With You:As Christopher Luxon feels the hot breath of Act’s and NZ First’s extremists on the back of his neck and, as he reckons with the damage their policies are already inflicting upon a country he’s described as “fragile”, is there not some merit in reaching out ...
The unpopular coalition government is currently rushing to repeal section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act. The clause is Oranga Tamariki's Treaty clause, and was inserted after its systematic stealing of Māori children became a public scandal and resulted in physical resistance to further abductions. The clause created clear obligations ...
Buzz from the Beehive The government’s official website – which Point of Order monitors daily – not for the first time has nothing much to say today about political happenings that are grabbing media headlines. It makes no mention of the latest 1News-Verian poll, for example. This shows National down ...
It Takes A Train To Cry:Surely, there is nothing lonelier in all this world than the long wail of a distant steam locomotive on a cold Winter’s night.AS A CHILD, I would lie awake in my grandfather’s house and listen to the traffic. The big wooden house was only a ...
Packing A Punch: The election of the present government, including in its ranks politicians dedicated to reasserting the rights of the legislature in shaping and determining the future of Māori and Pakeha in New Zealand, should have alerted the judiciary – including its anomalous appendage, the Waitangi Tribunal – that its ...
Dead Woman Walking: New Zealand’s media industry had been moving steadily towards disaster for all the years Melissa Lee had been National’s media and communications policy spokesperson, and yet, when the crisis finally broke, on her watch, she had nothing intelligent to offer. Christopher Luxon is a patient man - but he’s not ...
Chris Trotter writes – New Zealand politics is remarkably easy-going: dangerously so, one might even say. With the notable exception of John Key’s flat ruling-out of the NZ First Party in 2008, all parties capable of clearing MMP’s five-percent threshold, or winning one or more electorate seats, tend ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Polling shows that Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has the lowest approval rating of any mayor in the country. Siting at -12 per cent, the proportion of constituents who disapprove of her performance outweighs those who give her the thumbs up. This negative rating is ...
Luxon will no doubt put a brave face on it, but there is no escaping the pressure this latest poll will put on him and the government. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political ...
This is a re-post from The Climate Brink by Andrew Dessler In the wake of any unusual weather event, someone inevitably asks, “Did climate change cause this?” In the most literal sense, that answer is almost always no. Climate change is never the sole cause of hurricanes, heat waves, droughts, or ...
Something odd happened yesterday, and I’d love to know if there’s more to it. If there was something which preempted what happened, or if it was simply a throwaway line in response to a journalist.Yesterday David Seymour was asked at a press conference what the process would be if the ...
Hi,From time to time, I want to bring Webworm into the real world. We did it last year with the Jurassic Park event in New Zealand — which was a lot of fun!And so on Saturday May 11th, in Los Angeles, I am hosting a lil’ Webworm pop-up! I’ve been ...
Education Minister Erica Standford yesterday unveiled a fundamental reform of the way our school pupils are taught. She would not exactly say so, but she is all but dismantling the so-called “inquiry” “feel good” method of teaching, which has ruled in our classrooms since a major review of the New ...
Exactly where are we seriously going with this government and its policies? That is, apart from following what may as well be a Truss-Lite approach on the purported economic “plan“, and Victorian-era regression when it comes to social policy.Oh it’ll work this time of course, we’re basically assured, “the ...
Hey Uncle Dave, When the Poms joined the EEC, I wasn't one of those defeatists who said, Well, that’s it for the dairy job. And I was right, eh? The Chinese can’t get enough of our milk powder and eventually, the Poms came to their senses and backed up the ute ...
Polling shows that Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has the lowest approval rating of any mayor in the country. Siting at -12 per cent, the proportion of constituents who disapprove of her performance outweighs those who give her the thumbs up. This negative rating is higher than for any other mayor ...
Buzz from the Beehive Pharmac has been given a financial transfusion and a new chair to oversee its spending in the pharmaceutical business. Associate Health Minister David Seymour described the funding for Pharmac as “its largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff”. ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Many criticisms are being made of the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill, including by this writer. But as with everything in politics, every story has two sides, and both deserve attention. It’s important to understand what the Government is trying to achieve and its ...
TL;DR: Here’s my top 10 ‘pick ‘n’ mix of links to news, analysis and opinion articles as of 10:10am on Monday, April 29:Scoop: The children's ward at Rotorua Hospital will be missing a third of its beds as winter hits because Te Whatu Ora halted an upgrade partway through to ...
span class=”dropcap”>As hideous as David Seymour can be, it is worth keeping in mind occasionally that there are even worse political figures (and regimes) out there. Iran for instance, is about to execute the country’s leading hip hop musician Toomaj Salehi, for writing and performing raps that “corrupt” the nation’s ...
Yesterday marked 10 years since the first electric train carried passengers in Auckland so it’s a good time to look back at it and the impact it has had. A brief history The first proposals for rail electrification in Auckland came in the 1920’s alongside the plans for earlier ...
Right now, in Aotearoa-NZ, our ‘animal spirits’ are darkening towards a winter of discontent, thanks at least partly to a chorus of negative comments and actions from the Government Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on ...
You make people evil to punish the paststuck inside a sequel with a rotating castThe following photos haven’t been generated with AI, or modified in any way. They are flesh and blood, human beings. On the left is Galatea Young, a young mum, and her daughter Fiadh who has Angelman ...
April has been a quiet month at A Phuulish Fellow. I have had an exceptionally good reading month, and a decently productive writing month – for original fiction, anyway – but not much has caught my eye that suggested a blog article. It has been vaguely frustrating, to be honest. ...
A listing of 31 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, April 21, 2024 thru Sat, April 27, 2024. Story of the week Anthropogenic climate change may be the ultimate shaggy dog story— but with a twist, because here ...
Hi,I spent about a year on Webworm reporting on an abusive megachurch called Arise, and it made me want to stab my eyes out with a fork.I don’t regret that reporting in 2022 and 2023 — I am proud of it — but it made me angry.Over three main stories ...
The new Victoria University Vice-Chancellor decided to have a forum at the university about free speech and academic freedom as it is obviously a topical issue, and the Government is looking at legislating some carrots or sticks for universities to uphold their obligations under the Education and Training Act. They ...
Do you remember when Melania Trump got caught out using a speech that sounded awfully like one Michelle Obama had given? Uncannily so.Well it turns out that Abraham Lincoln is to Winston Peters as Michelle was to Melania. With the ANZAC speech Uncle Winston gave at Gallipoli having much in ...
She was born 25 years ago today in North Shore hospital. Her eyes were closed tightly shut, her mouth was silently moving. The whole theatre was all quiet intensity as they marked her a 2 on the APGAR test. A one-minute eternity later, she was an 8. The universe was ...
Skeptical Science is partnering with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. This fact brief was written by Sue Bin Park in collaboration with members from our Skeptical Science team. You can submit claims you think need checking via the tipline. Is Antarctica gaining land ice? ...
Images of US students (and others) protesting and setting up tent cities on US university campuses have been broadcast world wide and clearly demonstrate the growing rifts in US society caused by US policy toward Israel and Israel’s prosecution of … Continue reading → ...
Barrie Saunders writes – Dear Paul As the new Minister of Media and Communications, you will be inundated with heaps of free advice and special pleading, all in the national interest of course. For what it’s worth here is my assessment: Traditional broadcasting free to air content through ...
Many criticisms are being made of the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill, including by this writer. But as with everything in politics, every story has two sides, and both deserve attention. It’s important to understand what the Government is trying to achieve and its arguments for such a bold reform. ...
Peter Dunne writes – The great nineteenth British Prime Minister, William Gladstone, once observed that “the first essential for a Prime Minister is to be a good butcher.” When a later British Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan, sacked a third of his Cabinet in July 1962, in what became ...
Ele Ludemann writes – New Zealanders had the OECD’s second highest tax increase last year: New Zealanders faced the second-biggest tax raises in the developed world last year, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) says. The intergovernmental agency said the average change in personal income tax ...
We all know something’s not right with our elections. The spread of misinformation, people being targeted with soundbites and emotional triggers that ignore the facts, even the truth, and influence their votes.The use of technology to produce deep fakes. How can you tell if something is real or not? Can ...
This video includes conclusions of the creator climate scientist Dr. Simon Clark. It is presented to our readers as an informed perspective. Please see video description for references (if any). This year you will be lied to! Simon Clark helps prebunk some misleading statements you'll hear about climate. The video includes ...
It is all very well cutting the backrooms of public agencies but it may compromise the frontlines. One of the frustrations of the Productivity Commission’s 2017 review of universities is that while it observed that their non-academic staff were increasing faster than their academic staff, it did not bother to ...
Buzz from the Beehive Two speeches delivered by Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters at Anzac Day ceremonies in Turkey are the only new posts on the government’s official website since the PM announced his Cabinet shake-up. In one of the speeches, Peters stated the obvious: we live in a troubled ...
1. Which of these would you not expect to read in The Waikato Invader?a. Luxon is here to do business, don’t you worry about thatb. Mr KPI expects results, and you better believe itc. This decisive man of action is getting me all hot and excitedd. Melissa Lee is how ...
…it has a restricted jurisdiction which must not be abused: it is not an inquisitionNOTE – this article was published before the High Court ruled that Karen Chhour does not have to appear before the Waitangi Tribunal Gary Judd writes – The High Court ...
Lindsay Mitchell writes – One of reasons Oranga Tamariki exists is to prevent child neglect. But could the organisation itself be guilty of the same?Oranga Tamariki’s statistics show a decrease in the number and age of children in care. “There are less children ...
David Farrar writes: Graeme Edgeler wrote in 2017: In the first five years after three strikes came into effect 5248 offenders received a ‘first strike’ (that is, a “stage-1 conviction” under the three strikes sentencing regime), and 68 offenders received a ‘second strike’. In the five years prior to ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has surprised everyone with his ruthlessness in sacking two of his ministers from their crucial portfolios. Removing ministers for poor performance after only five months in the job just doesn’t normally happen in politics. That’s refreshing and will be extremely ...
TL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the two days to 6:06am on Thursday, April 25:Politics: PM Christopher Luxon has set up a dual standard for ministerial competence by demoting two National Cabinet ministers while leaving also-struggling ...
Hi,Today I mainly want to share some of your thoughts about the recent piece I wrote about success and failure, and the forces that seemingly guide our lives. But first, a quick bit of housekeeping: I am doing a Webworm popup in Los Angeles on Saturday May 11 at 2pm. ...
It is hard to see what Melissa Lee might have done to “save” the media. National went into the election with no public media policy and appears not to have developed one subsequently. Lee claimed that she had prepared a policy paper before the election but it had been decided ...
Open access notablesIce acceleration and rotation in the Greenland Ice Sheet interior in recent decades, Løkkegaard et al., Communications Earth & Environment:In the past two decades, mass loss from the Greenland ice sheet has accelerated, partly due to the speedup of glaciers. However, uncertainty in speed derived from satellite products ...
Buzz from the Beehive A statement from Children’s Minister Karen Chhour – yet to be posted on the Government’s official website – arrived in Point of Order’s email in-tray last night. It welcomes the High Court ruling on whether the Waitangi Tribunal can demand she appear before it. It does ...
Mr Bombastic:Ironically, the media the academic experts wanted is, in many ways, the media they got. In place of the tyrannical editors of yesteryear, advancing without fear or favour the interests of the ruling class; the New Zealand news media of today boasts a troop of enlightened journalists dedicated to ...
It's hard times try to make a livingYou wake up every morning in the unforgivingOut there somewhere in the cityThere's people living lives without mercy or pityI feel good, yeah I'm feeling fineI feel better then I have for the longest timeI think these pills have been good for meI ...
In 1974, the US Supreme Court issued its decision in United States v. Nixon, finding that the President was not a King, but was subject to the law and was required to turn over the evidence of his wrongdoing to the courts. It was a landmark decision for the rule ...
Every day now just seems to bring in more fresh meat for the grinder.In their relentlessly ideological drive to cut back on the “excessive bloat” (as they see it) of the previous Labour-led government, on the mountains of evidence accumulated in such a short period of time do not ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Megan Valére SosouMarket gardening site of the Itchèléré de Itagui agricultural cooperative in Dassa-Zoumè (Image credit: Megan Valère Sossou) For the residents of Dassa-Zoumè, a city in the West African country of Benin, choosing between drinking water and having enough ...
Buzz from the Beehive Melissa Lee – as may be discerned from the screenshot above – has not been demoted for doing something seriously wrong as Minister of ...
Labour is calling for the Government to urgently rethink its coalition commitment to restart live animal exports, Labour animal welfare spokesperson Rachel Boyack said. ...
Today’s Financial Stability Report has once again highlighted that poverty and deep inequality are political choices - and this Government is choosing to make them worse. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to do more for our households in most need as unemployment rises and the cost of living crisis endures. ...
Unemployment is on the rise and it’s only going to get worse under this Government, Labour finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds said. Stats NZ figures show the unemployment rate grew to 4.3 percent in the March quarter from 4 percent in the December quarter. “This is the second rise in unemployment ...
The New Zealand Labour Party welcomes the entering into force of the European Union and New Zealand free trade agreement. This agreement opens the door for a huge increase in trade opportunities with a market of 450 million people who are high value discerning consumers of New Zealand goods and ...
The National-led Government continues its fiscal jiggery pokery with its Pharmac announcement today, Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall says. “The government has increased Pharmac funding but conceded it will only make minimal increases in access to medicine”, said Ayesha Verrall “This is far from the bold promises made to fund ...
This afternoon’s interim Waitangi Tribunal report must be taken seriously as it affects our most vulnerable children, Labour children’s spokesperson Willow-Jean Prime. ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
Te Pāti Māori is disgusted at the confirmation that hundreds are set to lose their jobs at Oranga Tamariki, and the disestablishment of the Treaty Response Unit. “This act of absolute carelessness and out of touch decision making is committing tamariki to state abuse.” Said Te Pāti Māori Oranga Tamariki ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi, and Mema Paremata mō Tāmaki-Makaurau, Takutai Tarsh Kemp, will travel to the Gold Coast to strengthen ties with Māori in Australia next week (15-21 April). The visit, in the lead-up to the 9th Australian National Kapa haka Festival, will be an opportunity for both ...
The Green Party has today launched a step-by-step guide to help New Zealanders make their voice heard on the Government’s democracy dodging and anti-environment fast track legislation. ...
New Zealand lost a true legend when internationally renowned disability advocate Sir Robert Martin (KNZM) passed away at his home in Whanganui last night, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. “Our Government’s thoughts are with his wife Lynda, family and community, those he has worked with, the disability community in ...
Good evening – Before discussing the challenges and opportunities facing New Zealand’s foreign policy, we’d like to first acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. You have contributed to debates about New Zealand foreign policy over a long period of time, and we thank you for hosting us. ...
From today, passengers travelling internationally from Auckland Airport will be able to keep laptops and liquids in their carry-on bags for security screening thanks to new technology, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Creating a more efficient and seamless travel experience is important for holidaymakers and businesses, enabling faster movement through ...
People with an interest in the health of Northland’s marine ecosystems are invited to a public meeting to discuss how to deal with kina barrens, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones will lead the discussion, which will take place on Friday, 10 May, at Awanui Hotel in ...
Kiwi exporters are $100 million better off today with the NZ EU FTA entering into force says Trade Minister Todd McClay. “This is all part of our plan to grow the economy. New Zealand's prosperity depends on international trade, making up 60 per cent of the country’s total economic activity. ...
There are heartening signs that the extractive sector is once again becoming an attractive prospect for investors and a source of economic prosperity for New Zealand, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The beginnings of a resurgence in extractive industries are apparent in media reports of the sector in the past ...
The return of the historic Ō-Rākau battle site to the descendants of those who fought there moved one step closer today with the first reading of Te Pire mō Ō-Rākau, Te Pae o Maumahara / The Ō-Rākau Remembrance Bill. The Bill will entrust the 9.7-hectare battle site, five kilometres west ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has announced 25 new high-speed EV charging hubs along key routes between major urban centres and outlined the Government’s plan to supercharge New Zealand’s EV infrastructure. The hubs will each have several chargers and be capable of charging at least four – and up to 10 ...
The coalition Government will not proceed with the previous Government’s plans to regulate residential property managers, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “I have written to the Chairperson of the Social Services and Community Committee to inform him that the Government does not intend to support the Residential Property Managers Bill ...
The Government has announced an independent review into the disability support system funded by the Ministry of Disabled People – Whaikaha. Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston says the review will look at what can be done to strengthen the long-term sustainability of Disability Support Services to provide disabled people and ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith has attended the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva and outlined the Government’s plan to restore law and order. “Speaking to the United Nations Human Rights Council provided us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while responding to issues and ...
The Government and Rotorua Lakes Council are committed to working closely together to end the use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua. Associate Minister of Housing (Social Housing) Tama Potaka says the Government remains committed to ending the long-term use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua by the ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay heads overseas today for high-level trade talks in the Gulf region, and a key OECD meeting in Paris. Mr McClay will travel to Riyadh to meet with counterparts from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). “New Zealand’s goods and services exports to the Gulf region ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford has outlined six education priorities to deliver a world-leading education system that sets Kiwi kids up for future success. “I’m putting ambition, achievement and outcomes at the heart of our education system. I want every child to be inspired and engaged in their learning so they ...
The new NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) App is a secure ‘one stop shop’ to provide the services drivers need, Transport Minister Simeon Brown and Digitising Government Minister Judith Collins say. “The NZTA App will enable an easier way for Kiwis to pay for Vehicle Registration and Road User Charges (RUC). ...
Whānau with tamariki growing up in emergency housing motels will be prioritised for social housing starting this week, says Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka. “Giving these whānau a better opportunity to build healthy stable lives for themselves and future generations is an essential part of the Government’s goal of reducing ...
Racing Minister Winston Peters has paid tribute to an icon of the industry with the recent passing of Dave O’Sullivan (OBE). “Our sympathies are with the O’Sullivan family with the sad news of Dave O’Sullivan’s recent passing,” Mr Peters says. “His contribution to racing, initially as a jockey and then ...
Assalaamu alaikum, greetings to you all. Eid Mubarak, everyone! I want to extend my warmest wishes to you and everyone celebrating this joyous occasion. It is a pleasure to be here. I have enjoyed Eid celebrations at Parliament before, but this is my first time joining you as the Minister ...
Associate Health Minister David Seymour has announced Pharmac’s largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff. “Access to medicines is a crucial part of many Kiwis’ lives. We’ve committed to a budget allocation of $1.774 billion over four years so Kiwis are ...
Hon Paula Bennett has been appointed as member and chair of the Pharmac board, Associate Health Minister David Seymour announced today. "Pharmac is a critical part of New Zealand's health system and plays a significant role in ensuring that Kiwis have the best possible access to medicines,” says Mr Seymour. ...
Hundreds of New Zealand families affected by Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) will benefit from a new Government focus on prevention and treatment, says Health Minister Dr Shane Reti. “We know FASD is a leading cause of preventable intellectual and neurodevelopmental disability in New Zealand,” Dr Reti says. “Every day, ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones today attended the official opening of Kaikohe’s new $14.7 million sports complex. “The completion of the Kaikohe Multi Sports Complex is a fantastic achievement for the Far North,” Mr Jones says. “This facility not only fulfils a long-held dream for local athletes, but also creates ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters’ engagements in Türkiye this week underlined the importance of diplomacy to meet growing global challenges. “Returning to the Gallipoli Peninsula to represent New Zealand at Anzac commemorations was a sombre reminder of the critical importance of diplomacy for de-escalating conflicts and easing tensions,” Mr Peters ...
Ambassador Millar, Burgemeester, Vandepitte, Excellencies, military representatives, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen – good morning and welcome to this sacred Anzac Day dawn service. It is an honour to be here on behalf of the Government and people of New Zealand at Buttes New British Cemetery, Polygon Wood – a deeply ...
Distinguished guests - It is an honour to return once again to this site which, as the resting place for so many of our war-dead, has become a sacred place for generations of New Zealanders. Our presence here and at the other special spaces of Gallipoli is made ...
Mai ia tawhiti pamamao, te moana nui a Kiwa, kua tae whakaiti mai matou, ki to koutou papa whenua. No koutou te tapuwae, no matou te tapuwae, kua honoa pumautia. Ko nga toa kua hinga nei, o te Waipounamu, o te Ika a Maui, he okioki tahi me o ...
Paul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. “Our Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...
Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...
Overseas models for regulating the oil and gas sector, including their decommissioning regimes, are being carefully scrutinised as a potential template for New Zealand’s own sector, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. The Coalition Government is focused on rebuilding investor confidence in New Zealand’s energy sector as it looks to strengthen ...
Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell has today released the Report of the Government Inquiry into the response to the North Island Severe Weather Events. “The report shows that New Zealand’s emergency management system is not fit-for-purpose and there are some significant gaps we need to address,” Mr Mitchell ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith is today travelling to Europe where he’ll update the United Nations Human Rights Council on the Government’s work to restore law and order. “Attending the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva provides us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while ...
Associate Agriculture Minister, Mark Patterson, formally reopened the world’s largest wool processing facility today in Awatoto, Napier, following a $50 million rebuild and refurbishment project. “The reopening of this facility will significantly lift the economic opportunities available to New Zealand’s wool sector, which already accounts for 20 per cent of ...
Hon Andrew Bayly, Minister for Small Business and Manufacturing At the Southland Otago Regional Engineering Collective (SOREC) Summit, 18 April, Dunedin Ngā mihi nui, Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Ko Whanganui aho Good Afternoon and thank you for inviting me to open your summit today. I am delighted ...
The Government is delivering on its commitment to bring back the Three Strikes legislation, Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee announced today. “Our Government is committed to restoring law and order and enforcing appropriate consequences on criminals. We are making it clear that repeat serious violent or sexual offending is not ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has today announced four new diplomatic appointments for New Zealand’s overseas missions. “Our diplomats have a vital role in maintaining and protecting New Zealand’s interests around the world,” Mr Peters says. “I am pleased to announce the appointment of these senior diplomats from the ...
New Zealand is contributing NZ$7 million to support communities affected by severe food insecurity and other urgent humanitarian needs in Ethiopia and Somalia, Foreign Minister Rt Hon Winston Peters announced today. “Over 21 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance across Ethiopia, with a further 6.9 million people ...
Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Paul Goldsmith is congratulating Mataaho Collective for winning the Golden Lion for best participant in the main exhibition at the Venice Biennale. "Congratulations to the Mataaho Collective for winning one of the world's most prestigious art prizes at the Venice Biennale. “It is good ...
The Government is reforming financial services to improve access to home loans and other lending, and strengthen customer protections, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly and Housing Minister Chris Bishop announced today. “Our coalition Government is committed to rebuilding the economy and making life simpler by cutting red tape. We are ...
Rongotai MP Julie Anne Genter has apologised in Parliament after National accused her of intimidating and attacking one of its ministers in the House. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The Prime Minister and state and territory leaders met on Wednesday as the national cabinet to discuss a crisis gripping Australia – the horrific number of women murdered this year. The killings have shocked ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Radhika Raghav, Teaching Fellow, School of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Otago Netflix Indian director Sanjay Leela Bhansali is known for his big-budget Bollywood production, featuring grand sets, star casts, meticulously choreographed dance sequences and lavish costumes, jewellery and furnishings. ...
Sir Robert devoted his life to disability rights after living in institutions in his younger years, says Kaihautū Tika Hauātanga | Disability Rights Commissioner Prudence Walker. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anastasia Powell, Professor, Family and Sexual Violence, RMIT University Violence against women is not a women’s problem to solve, it is a whole of society problem to solve; and men in particular have to take responsibility. Those were the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jessica Allen, Senior Lecturer in Chemical and Renewable Energy Engineering, University of Newcastle Snapshot freddy/ShutterstockPlans to revive an old coal-fired power station using bioenergy are being considered in the Hunter region of New South Wales. Similar plans for the station ...
Responding to the long-awaited release of judges’ special allowances, including free air travel and hotels for spouses, generous sabbaticals, and access to limousines, Taxpayers’ Union spokesman Alex Murphy said: “In what world does your employer ...
Analysis - The United States has unveiled plans to boost the weapons trade with Australia and the UK, on the same day that Winston Peters is expected to sketch NZ's position on AUKUS. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrea Carson, Professor of Political Communication, Department of Politics, Media and Philosophy, La Trobe University Since Australia’s First Nations Voice to Parliament referendum in October 2023, diverse commentaries have sought to explain why it failed. But what does an analysis of media ...
Lawyers representing two iwi as well as the Māori Women’s Welfare League on Wednesday asked the Court of Appeal to overturn last week’s High Court decision on the Waitangi Tribunal’s decision to summons Children’s Minister Karen Chhour. The Tribunal is currently investigating the Government’s decision to repeal section 7AA of ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The Albanese government will introduce legislation to ban deepfake pornography and provide more funding for the eSafety Commission to pilot age-assurance technologies. The contribution of internet sites to gender-based violence was one major issue ...
Average ordinary time hourly earnings, as measured by the Quarterly Employment Survey (QES), increased 5.2 percent in the year to the March 2024 quarter, according to figures released by Stats NZ today. Annual wage cost inflation, as measured by the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dimitrios Salampasis, FinTech Capability Lead | Senior Lecturer, Emerging Technologies and FinTech, Swinburne University of Technology Clem Onojeghuo/Unsplash In the digital era, the job market is increasingly becoming a minefield – demanding and difficult to navigate. According to the Australian Bureau ...
As of the March 2024 quarter, we can now look back on 20 years of data related to youth not in employment, education, or training (NEET), as collected by the Household Labour Force Survey (HLFS), according to figures released by Stats NZ today. "The ...
Thousands of workers attended public events in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch today to celebrate International Workers’ Day (May Day), but union representatives are urging caution and vigilance over the Government’s blatantly "anti-worker" ...
The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 4.3 percent in the March 2024 quarter, compared with 4.0 percent in the previous quarter, according to figures released by Stats NZ today. ...
The PSA is warning the Government that the sensitive information of New Zealanders held by various agencies will fall into the wrong hands if the latest round of proposed cuts goes ahead. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Talitha Best, Professor of Psychology, CQUniversity Australia Victoria Rodriguez/Unsplash How do sugar rushes work? – W.H, age nine, from Canberra What a terrific question W.H! Let’s explore this, starting with some of the basics. What is sugar? ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Karinna Saxby, Research Fellow, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne MART PRODUCTION/Pexels Increasing income support could help keep women and children safe according to new work demonstrating strong links between financial insecurity and domestic violence. ...
ANALYSIS:By Olli Hellmann, University of Waikato When New Zealanders commemorate Anzac Day today on April 25, it’s not only to honour the soldiers who lost their lives in World War I and subsequent conflicts, but also to mark a defining event for national identity. The battle of Gallipoli against ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Mark A Gregory, Associate Professor, School of Engineering, RMIT University The telecommunications industry faces a major shakeup following the release of the post-incident report on last November’s 12-hour Optus outage. Telecommunications companies will have to share more information with customers during future ...
Welcome to The Spinoff Bookseller Confessional, in which we get to know Aotearoa’s booksellers. This week: Eden Denyer, bookseller at Unity Books Auckland.Weirdest question/request you’ve had on the shop floorA mother came in looking for anything we might have on Alaskan bison as that was her little boy’s ...
NZCTU Economist Craig Renney said new data released by Statistics New Zealand shows the need for Government to act now, with unemployment rising from 3.4% to 4.3%. ...
The outpouring of anger over Maiki Sherman’s hyperbolic presentation of this week’s ‘nightmare’ poll is itself an overreaction, argues Stewart Sowman-Lund. Politicians love nothing more than to pretend they don’t care about polls. This week, deputy prime minister Winston Peters said he didn’t give a “rat’s derriere” about a TVNZ ...
Asia Pacific Report Ngāti Kahungunu in Aotearoa New Zealand’s Hawkes Bay region has become the first indigenous Māori iwi (tribe) to sign a resolution calling for a “ceasefire in Palestine”, reports Te Ao Māori News. Reporter Te Aniwaniwa Paterson talked to Te Otāne Huata, who has been organising peace rallies ...
By Dale Luma in Port Moresby “We want grants and not concessional loans,” is the crisp message from Papua New Guinea businesses directly affected by the Black Wednesday looting four months ago. The businesses, which lost millions after the January 10 rioting and looting, say they need grants as part ...
Happy May Day. Join a union. Q: What’s worse than a staff break room where the only place to sit and have a cup of tea is on a teetering stack of old pornography magazines? A: Your boss replacing the magazine stacks with chairs that are “heartily encrusted with ...
By Koroi Hawkins, RNZ Pacific editor Former opposition leader Matthew Wale has been announced as the second prime ministerial candidate ahead of the election in Solomon Islands tomorrow. He will face off against former foreign affairs minister Jeremiah Manele, who was announced by the Coalition for National Unity and Transformation ...
We get but one birthday a year – why not make it last as long as possible by scheduling as many meals with friends and family as you can? This is an excerpt from our weekly food newsletter, The Boil Up. How do you celebrate your birthday? Do you celebrate at ...
A Koi Tū discussion paper released today proposes sweeping changes to New Zealand’s media industry. The principal’s key author, Gavin Ellis, explains how journalists have a key role to play in making others value their role in society. This is an abridged version of a piece first published on knightlyviews.com ...
The Government’s spending cuts are again targeting support for Māori with proposed reform of the agency charged with advising on Māori wellbeing and development. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ian Douglas, Honorary Senior Lecturer, UNSW Aviation., UNSW Sydney The history of budget jet airlines in Australia is a long road littered with broken dreams. New entrants have consistently struggled to get a foothold. Low-cost carrier Bonza has just become the industry’s ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rosalind Dixon, Director, Gilbert + Tobin Centre of Public Law, UNSW Sydney Australia is finally having a sustained conversation about violence against women and what we can do about it. It is more than time. Australian women and girls continue to experience ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Stephen Duckett, Honorary Enterprise Professor, School of Population and Global Health, and Department of General Practice and Primary Care, The University of Melbourne stockfour/Shutterstock Preliminary bulk billing data released this week shows a 2.1% rise in bulk billing up to March. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Samantha Schulz, Senior Lecturer, University of Adelaide Australia is once again grappling with how we can stop gendered violence in our country. Protests over the weekend show there is enormous community anger over the number of women who are dying and National ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Martin, Visiting Fellow, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University AnastasiaDudka/Shutterstock What if the government was doing everything it could to stop thieves making off with our money, except the one thing that could really work? That’s how it ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Erin Harrington, Senior Lecturer in English and Cultural Studies, University of Canterbury The Conversation It seems to be a time of old favourites. This month our experts have recommended two new seasons – the second season of Alone Australia (although ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jonti Horner, Professor (Astrophysics), University of Southern Queensland A bright Eta Aquariid meteor photobombed this photo of comet C/2020 F8 (SWAN) in May 2020.Jonti Horner Meteors – commonly known as shooting stars – can be seen on any night of the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tim Flannery, Honorary fellow, The University of Melbourne Shutterstock Current concentrations of carbon dioxide (CO₂) in Earth’s atmosphere are unprecedented in human history. But CO₂ levels today, and those that might occur in coming decades, did occur millions of years ago. ...
Winston Peters has been keen to dismiss speculation on our involvement in Aukus but will give a speech tonight on the direction of our foreign policy, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Patrick Usmar, Lecturer in Critical Media Literacies, Auckland University of Technology Getty Images With the coalition government’s ban of student mobile phones in New Zealand schools coming into effect this week, reaction has ranged from the sceptical (kids will just get ...
Hospitals around the country are not allowed to make a single hiring decision without the approval of Te Whatu Ora's head office, including for cleaners and administration staff. ...
A new report on protecting journalism and democracy in New Zealand recommends a levy be charged on global platforms like Facebook and Google to fund media firms undertaking public interest reporting. It also calls for the reinstatement of a powerful Broadcasting Commission to distribute public funding for journalism and other ...
On International Workers' Day, also known as May Day, the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions Te Kauae Kaimahi and the wider union movement are celebrating the proud history of the labour movement during a tough time for working people. ...
From bills to beards, a walk through the former Green co-leader’s time in politics. After close to a decade in politics, James Shaw is preparing to bid farewell to parliament. Tonight will see the former minister deliver his valedictory address, certain to be a speech filled with Shaw’s trademark wit ...
Two months ago, MPs unanimously voted to give themselves a week off in Efeso Collins’ honour. On Tuesday, most were too busy to give even an hour of their time. The day Fa’anānā Efeso Collins died, parliament felt different. In a building that operates at a breakneck pace, everyone stopped ...
India’s election involves hundreds of millions of people and is a months-long affair. Here’s how voting works and what’s at stake.The biggest-ever election in world history started on April 19, with more than 10% of the world’s population eligible to vote. Elections in India, the world’s most populous country ...
Opinion: The impression from the carpark is very inviting. The area is well fenced but barred so there is easy visibility of loved ones. Inside, the spaces are welcoming and clean and staff are friendly and clearly comfortable. I am greeted by ‘Kim’. She has worked here for three years, ...
After the Christchurch earthquake, the then-national civil defence boss compared his experience to “putting a team on the rugby field who have never ever played together before”. Now, eight years later – and following a damning inquiry into the emergency response of cyclones Gabrielle, Hale and the Auckland anniversary weekend floods – ...
“I had just come off the end of a major robbery case which I had been working on for six months when I got a call on the afternoon of September 1, 1992, that some remains had been found at a building site in Devonport, so I drove over with ...
Loading…(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){var ql=document.querySelectorAll('A,DIV,A[data-quiz],DIV[data-quiz]'); if(ql){if(ql.length){for(var k=0;k<ql.length;k++){ql[k].id='quiz-embed-'+k;ql[k].href="javascript:var i=document.getElementById('quiz-embed-"+k+"');try{qz.startQuiz(i)}catch(e){i.start=1;i.style.cursor='wait';i.style.opacity='0.5'};void(0);"}}};i['QP']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){(i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)})(window,document,'script','https://take.quiz-maker.com/3012/CDN/quiz-embed-v1.js','qp'); Got a good quiz question?Send Newsroom your questions. The post Newsroom daily quiz, Wednesday 1 May appeared first on Newsroom. ...
Comment: Journalists are very good at telling other people’s stories, but they fall well short when writing about their own profession. Perhaps that is why it is so undervalued. Every successive poll on the public’s attitude toward journalism is more alarming than the last. In the last month we have ...
Opinion: A young Māori woman and her Pacific partner arrive at their local hospital by ambulance. She has gone into labour at just under 24 weeks, but the couple haven’t recognised the symptoms – and don’t know the risks of premature birth for their baby. By the time they arrive, ...
Behind closed doors, NZ First will be arguing fiercely against any watering down of the ministerial decision-making powers in the Bill The post Bishop backtracks after fast-track backlash appeared first on Newsroom. ...
Chris Trotter asks "Why Is The Left Not Opposing The West’s New Cold War With China?" Then fumbles around for a while trying to figure it out. https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2020/07/24/why-is-the-left-not-opposing-the-wests-new-cold-war-with-china/
Others would summarise that into `ignorant & clueless'. Yet, having adopted the wrong frame for the situation, Chris risks putting himself into the same category!
The Cold War was produced by a polarisation of ideology: two competing belief systems. Capitalism and communism. Since China is now both, the frame doesn't apply to current geopolitics. What part of that don't you understand, Chris??
He then proceeds to falsify history as though fronting as an apologist for the communist regime is a good idea.
Those of us who have actually done the historical research know he's bullshitting. There was a century or two when that suzerainty was real (around the 17th, from memory) but the rest of the time it was mere pretence by the emperor – and he fails to mention the earlier period of history when the Tibetans conquered China and the opposite situation prevailed.
Intellectual dishonesty is characteristic of leftists, of course, so his demonstration of tribalism merely serves to remind us why the left never achieves widespread respect.
My question is simpler: why does anyone pay any attention at all to Chris Trotter?
In asking that, you prove the point Dennis was making.
Dennis Frank wants to suggest that Trotter talks crap.
To make the point that he knows what crap is he wrote that last paragraph.
He successfully proves that point.
Why do people read Chris Trotter?
Because his is a thoughtful voice that poses questions and offers an alternate view to the mainstream
Who wants to live in an echo chamber
One can be thoughtful and pose questions and offer an alternative view, and still be handing people the wrong end of the stick. Which Trotter does with monotonic regularity.
Dennis merely showed one aspect of the shit smeared on the wrong end of the stick Trotter is offering. But Trotter starts out from the get-go with bullshit framing and misrepresentation, let alone the public self-pleasuring he indulges in his second paragraph.
As for echo chambers – there's a particular echo chamber filled with blinkered views formed in particular group in an odd period almost half a century ago. Trotter keeps that chamber resonating admirably.
Andre – Chris provokes discussion at least. And Dennis and you are so entrenched in the belief that you know all, that you set yourselves up as gurus. You may worship yourselves, others respect your knowledge and wisdom, but don't accept your take on everything as the last word. Hence words from and to Chris's opinions are valuable. And accepted truth may change over time as different information and perspectives arise.
Aha. A new word to me. "
2.speaking or uttered with an unchanging pitch or tone.
"her dour, monotonic husband"
Trotter writes brilliantly but he writes to be provocative.The consistent themes are 1. Old School Labour is good. 2. The Greens are bad.
He often makes valid points. For instance he rues the gradual loss of the unions (which I agree with) because power has shifted far too much into the hands of the
employeesemployers. For this reason he often attacks the current Labour government for not addressing this power imbalance. He overdoes these attacks.He consistently attacks the Greens either because they are not green enough or because they are too green. I think he yearns for the old FPP days where a strong Labour government could do what it likes.
IMHO he would be better off accepting the current order of things under MMP, especially the rise of the Greens and the need to address Climate Change, and argue for a CGT, Land Tax, and Transaction Tax that will move capital from the rich to the poor and into resources that will combat Climate Change.
[lprent: corrected ’employees’. ]
I think you mean employers not employees. 😉
oops yes I meant employers…..thanks Anne
That's a must-read for me Shanreagh.
.
Oh, a number of people here … Intersectionals & Clintonistas in particular (although the former demands while the latter simply wants).
.
He sometimes gets things right and its worth paying attention when he does.
I'm not big on watching stopped clocks.
I don’t think the new cold war has anything to do with capitalism/communism , why should it?
It’s about a failing ,falling empire trying to hang on and a new rising power challenging it’s economic/military hegemony
A so called cold war means shots have (so far) not been fired .The hot war comes when its all out hard weaponry, not just propaganda and economics
The Cold War was also about having a ready bogey-man to keep US defence spending through the roof and the populace scared.
There was a fair amount of willy-waving involved too.
Colonel Trotter's writings are ever-wistful for that waving and the certainties of his youth.
Dennis, that's a nice critique of Trotter's post. Have you ever reflected on why you feel the need to spoil such contributions by ending them with rubbish generalisations and hyperbole? Are you perhaps 'concerned' that without a provocative assertion or two your contributions would lack punch?
"Intellectual dishonesty is characteristic of leftists, of course, so his demonstration of tribalism merely serves to remind us why the left never achieves widespread respect."
Really, Dennis, NEVER? Certainly 'the right' governments in the USA, UK and Brazil haven't covered themselves in glory with their 'handling' of the Covid-19 pandemic, and the evident failure of those administrations to keep their citizenry safe has contributed to the “widespread respect” that NZ citizens, not to mention the wider world, have for our health services and centre-left government.
Before you engage with some you may want to strap on your shin pads: one on the right and two on the left leg. Jockstrap/pelvic protector is optional.
Never felt the need for physical projection during this form of jousting, although I do get some relief from wearing a brace to treat tendonitis in my right achilles
That’s good; some acutely feel the body blows and some don’t.
So it seems to me that your counter argument Dennis is "Those of us who have actually done the historical research know he's bullshitting."
However it doesn't take much effort to research your claim and I find that Chris may be right.
"The first international document which used and explained this word was a convention signed by Britain and Russia in Petersburg on August 31, 1907, titled The Convention Between Great Britain and Russia Relating to Persia, Afghanistan and Tibet.
The third ….. section declared that the governments of Great Britain and Russia recognized China's right of suzerainty over Tibet."
One wonders why you haven't challenged Chris on TDB or his own blog.
https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-24-07-2020/#comment-1733839
Maybe Dennis doesn’t want to falsify his own beautiful hypothesis 😉
Bash, bash , bash, the great West on China bash, the elite one percent fear their moribund grip on power and their bashing of their Capitalist rivals, China and Russia knows no bounds, as though they have the moral high ground, of course no mention of the 'Berlin wall' Israel has built to imprison Palestinians and jailing 12 year old stone throwers for 3-4 years. No mention of the Arms sales that enable their mates to bomb and starve to death Yemeni children etc etc. Mushroom clouds for tea anyone?.
Byd0nz, Looks like you are new here, welcome.
We've discussed the terrors Israel places on the Palestinians as well as the horrid situation in Yemen many times on this blog. Am yet to read a poster on TS that supports what is happening in either Palestine or Yemen.
Meanwhile China is rather topical atm, especially considering the information surrounding the recent deaths of two NZ Chinese in a car accident.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12350414
Yes, well I was refering to the news media being the ones doing the bashing rather than the good people on this blog.
Sorry Byd0NZ, my bad. Thanks for explaining 🙂 I appreciate that, text has no tone, sometimes I get confused 🙂
Dennis, re the car crash. Yes will wait with interest regarding the result. I hope the person in hospital makes a recovery, their insight will be paramount.
Shoot the messenger has been around a very long time. Reasonable to suspect Chinese agents somehow performed the elimination of their opponents, but we must wait & see if the cops find evidence.
I remember reading in Rolling Stone about how Karen Silkwood got killed. She was a reporter investigating a nuclear power plant in '75. Car got run off the road & Hollywood eventually made a movie about it. Best way to prevent someone telling the truth is to eliminate them. It's why the left does de-platforming, eh?
Karen Silkwood was a whistleblower, working in a nuclear plant and very anxious about what seemed to be a cover-up of their operations. And had a convenient vehicle malfunction that led to her death.
This was a very unfortunate car crash in NZ killing two pro-democracy Chinese activists. Vehicle crossing the centre line, scraping one and lining up for head-on for the second with these precious, brave people inside. Is that coincidence? Who was driving the vehicle that was 'out of line'?
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/421877/concerns-raised-over-crash-involving-chinese-activists
However, international security analyst Paul Buchanan said China had a track record of interfering in other nations' affairs, including hacking.
Furthermore, "independent" Chinese voices in New Zealand regularly experienced intimidation by pro-Beijing groups, he said.
"It's not unjustified that independent members of the Chinese community may feel threatened to the point that when something tragic like this happens, they – if not jump to conclusions – then certainly suspect that the accident may have more sinister causes than a mere accident."
I'm reading Anne Perry's book, A Sunless Sea which is about opium and gives detail of the Opium Wars and degradation that Britain rained on China and the terrible toll produced by vicious British behaviour. I think she does good backgrounding giving correct information. I'll try to put a bit up later as it would help us to know what may be in Chinese minds if we understood some of the low-down dirtiness this part of British history overseas. Which would help in balancing our opinions.
So now we have the northbound assassins doing a kamikaze move over the centre line, initially missing the target, clipping the wrong car but serendipitously slamming headlong into the right car and severely injuring themselves.Not much of a payoff or career advancement there.
I can think of more surefire ways, but why waste a tragedy when there's propagandistic hay to be made?
I think Prof Brady is showing her true pro US (Wilson Centre)colours here and would take a large grain of salt with her claims
Smoke.
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/2019/07/30/705870/aut-scraps-tiananmen-square-event
Fire?
Evidently the car that collided into them was driven by a Women with a young daughter as a passenger.
Yesterday the news implied sabotage, the only thing I could think of that would result in the death of the front seat occupants was that the safety belts had been interfered with, or the air bags failed.
Conspiracy????
Yes, a rather messy “hit” to say the least. It stretches credibility really, unless some evidence emerges beyond the apparent coincidences.
Professor Brady makes some fair and interesting points about China in her writings, but seems too much of a US proxy to have her every utterance taken as absolute truth.
Those with valid concerns about the influence and 'machinations' of the CCP do their case no favours by indulging in fact-free speculation. Fearmongering, IMHO.
Appears it was pouring rain. More likely they planed in the wet.
Mr Trotter
You want the Lefties to take the burden of War.
You are worse than smug Trotter.
Good ol' Observer Tokoroa. Always comes up with something interesting and helpful. Not.
I am delighted to read that vaccinologist Helen Petousis- Harris has finally realised that dismissing or minimising adverse effects from vaccines is not a sound tactic when trying to sell the product to the wider public.
Excellent and well referenced article from Farah Hancock on the progress around developing a vaccine against Covid 19.
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/be-prepared-for-covid-19-vaccine-side-effects
With vaccine hesitancy an identified global health concern there's a risk not communicating likely side effects could see people lose trust in a vaccination programme.
University of Auckland vaccinologist associate professor Helen Petousis-Harris said potential side effects need to be talked about upfront.
“People will lose trust and their confidence if you don’t.”
Side effects are normal “and not necessarily a bad thing either” she said.
“You don’t want them to be serious or severe but there’s a range of effects you get when your body is making an immune response.”
This is the first time I have heard of a vaccine promoter actually admitting that a vaccine can cause significant symptoms, and acknowledging that being honest and transparent about these significant post -vaccine symptoms (rather than dismissing them as being 'coincidental') is more likely to inspire trust in the target market.
Everyone will agree that it is way too early to celebrate the apparent efficacy of these very new and novel vaccines as potential long term effects have not as yet been assessed.
Misrepresenting again, Rosemary. Or else you really haven't been paying attention.
Every time I've gone and got a jab, the possibility of side effects and reactions has been presented to me, along with going through a checklist to determine that the vaccines I was about to get were not contraindicated for me. Ranging from being told to expect my shoulder to be sore enough to be dysfunctional for several days, to being expected to call in regularly to the travel health doctor's office for several days after getting a whole bunch at once (if they didn't hear from me on schedule they were going to come looking).
Let alone that even the briefest glance at credible information sources shows a plethora of info on what kinds of reactions are likely.
Andre. You remind me of Pavlov's dogs.
If I did not make it clear…I am not referring to an individual’s experience with an individual vaccine administrator, although there are one or two accounts from credible persons whose vaccine experience has not been as well managed as your own. For example, the former editor of the British Medical Journal who's account you seem to be ignoring. https://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2019/03/13/richard-smith-who-is-most-likely-to-have-side-effects-to-flu-vaccination/
I am referring to the official vaccine narrative…if I missed the press release where it was acknowledged that many vaccines cause local pain and irritation and perhaps low fever, and that some vaccines cause more significant symptoms in some people and occasionally long term disability or health effects…please provide a link.
The CDC on side effects:
Your own link:
And:
Just a brief search for Petousis-Harris and vaccine side-effects turns up plenty:
My note: grossly overstating risks and side effects degrades and interferes with informed consent by falsely skewing the entire benefit/risk picture.
You're correct that I'm not spending my time looking for examples of credible people making comments I can misrepresent and distort into painting a false overstated picture of risks and harms from vaccines, and/or paint a false picture that vaccine experts hide the widely acknowledged side effects that can occur, and that a very few people should not get specific vaccines and that these contraindications are checked for before administering a vaccine..
And Bill Gates says something similar – that there are side effects and these need to be reduced before a vaccine is provided. He gets well mis-represented by the conspiracy people.
"You know, if we have, you know, one in 10,000 side effects, that’s, you know, way more — 700,000, you know, people — who will suffer from that,” he said.
“So, really understanding the safety at gigantic scale across all age ranges… it’s very, very hard.”
https://factcheck.afp.com/bill-gates-did-not-say-covid-19-vaccine-could-kill-nearly-million-people
It has been my experience as a person who has been having the flu vaccine, as an at risk person since 1995, that with all vaccines their possible side-effects are pointed out at the time of 'sticking' as it were. I am of an age were to travel we had to have a range of vaccinations & a vaccination card and the side-effects of these were always pointed out
Whenever I have had a vaccination I have had to give an informed consent and the last flu one I signed the form that the nurse had that had the actual name and makeup of the vaccine and was taken through any side-effects and asked if I had any allergies. For instance people who are allergic to egg white were known to have a reaction to one of the flu vaccines as egg white is used as a carrier.
With all vaccines there will be side-effects whether permanent or transitory, ranging from the carrier ingredients to the attenuated culture used. These will be known at the time of sticking. As part of informed consent they will be explained.
The vaccine trials will have thrown up side effects and that is why time to test and do a range of tests is always a good thing. Treatments have to undergo a huge testing regime after they have been derived.
So for me far from being unusual it is very usual and has been my experience over many years with vaccines and other 'chemical' medical treatments.
Some side-effects they will know to be coincidental from the testing carried out. Some they will note as possibly new, do some more testing etc.
But as with most things these days there will be people who don't want to have treatment for whatever reason. The key is to get as many people who do not have concerns vaccinated/treated, keep the communication up so the nay-sayers do not queer the pitch ie by putting people off seeking vaccines or treatment for those who are wanting to play a part.
There have always been articles on side effects and usually at flu jab time they come out in the press releases/articles. The side effects for other vaccines are available on Ms Google.
The narrative about the current work on the Covid-19 vaccine has always seemed wrapped around with the issue of possible side-effects.
Rosemary, I'm wondering about your use of the phrases "sell the product" and "the target market" with regard to vaccines. I've been vaccinated for polio, MMR, tetanus, influenza (regularly) and probably others I've forgotten about (damn vaccines!), but have yet to part with a penny directly for any of those treatments. I suppose I must thank taxpayers (and therefore myself) for covering the cost of that disease protection.
For those concerned about New Zealand's greenhouse gas emission roduction, a really interesting release from Stats NZ yesterday:
Approximately two-thirds of New Zealand’s regions recorded decreases in their total greenhouse gas emissions, while one-third of regions saw increases between 2007 and 2018.
Between 2007 and 2018, the largest falls in emissions were in:
– Auckland, down 955 kilotonnes (7.8 per cent)
– Taranaki, down 707 kilotonnes (11.3 per cent)
– Northland, down 545 kilotonnes (10.8 per cent), and
– Waikato, down 272 kilotonnes (2.0 per cent).
Over the same period, emissions increased in:
– Canterbury, up 1,175 kilotonnes (11.0 per cent),
– Bay of Plenty, up 356 kilotonnes (11.9 per cent),
– Southland, up 335 kilotonnes (6.2 per cent), and
– Otago, up 333 kilotonnes (7.0 per cent).
“This is the first comprehensive picture we have been able to develop to show where emissions are being produced in New Zealand and which regions are driving the changes in emissions,” Mr Oakley (Head of Stats) said.
I'm hoping this gives rise to debate about divergence between energy density and industrial productivity, and to be able to break that down on a regional basis.
http://community.scoop.co.nz/2020/07/mixed-performance-by-regions-leaves-national-emissions-picture-unchanged/
Another photo here.
I remember the news at the time. RIP.
Today’s the 20th Anniversary of the my mate Lenny Manning who was KIA while on a Patrol in Timor-Leste with BCoy 2/1 Battalion as a part of NZBATT2 under a UN Peacekeeping Mandate.
The Black Beret represents his service in WAI/WEC SQN, the Bayonet represents his service BCoy in 2nd/ 1st Battalion RNZIR, the beer can in QAMR stubby cooler is the many beers we drunk on Crewmen’s and later at Burnham Camp home to both NZ Scots & 2/1 Battalion
RIP Lenny
https://flic.kr/p/2jpcEir
https://flic.kr/p/2jp9T6Z
Thanks for reminding us Skud. Not to be forgotten. We who read and happily/unhappily responded to the overseas fighting can too easily dismiss those who faced it.
And it is interesting to read Tricledown's points on outdated gear. I thought that National was all gun-ho to paraphrase, and would be wanting ours to be strong, well-equipped fighting men. But it seems that even matters they agree with they want to do on a mean budget, the skinflints.
Maybe it is because they are less skin and more flint; they like machinery and technology and despise the human side of life, in other words, their own selves and person. Now that is really screwy. Let's not vote the National Anti-Human Party into power for God's sake – and for those of us who haven't caught this obliterating human-hating virus. Nah to NAHPs.
Cheer scud, appreciated.
+1,000 Scud. Kia kaha to your brother.
The NZ Army was sent into Timor by the Shipley govt with antique equipment that didn't work and the Steyr rifle that malfunctioned.
Tax cuts by National led to running down of military capability to where it was barely functioning. Same with Healthcare Education etc.
Now Goldsmith is promising to cut $80 billion of govt spending .
Are we going to run down healthcare further than now with Carona virus threatening our Country,Education now we have lost overseas students and have high unemployment. Police numbers with gangs on the rise,
Cutting govt spending will send New Zealand into a deeper longer recession making it harder to repay debt as well as keeping the economy afloat.
What makes me laugh at Goldsmiths naivety is the Conservative Australian govt is tracking on the same debt level per capita as NZ so that makes Goldsmith's false narative scaremongering about debt levels in NZ a fallacy.
Nationals three main policies are:
Tax Cuts
Austerity
Cuts to all Govt spending
The last 30 yrs proves that.
The announcement by Paora Goldsmith on the Nats plan for cutting back the Public Service seems
other-wordly like harking back in the mists of time
boring
repetitive
super BAU from the National waybacks
missed the public mood with all our public servants being thanked for all their steady work in Covid-19 and to come.
That was the effect on me, after thought.
My first reaction though was a chill. Really it was.
Been there done that got oodles of scars mentally & career-wise from the time-wasting, stupid, never-ending restructurings that took place in the PS. What a pall these constant PS restructurings cast over NZ. They restricted service, diverted us from being able to work on our departmental work full time so as to serve our people. Instead we spent time, endless days and months fighting to retain our own jobs, functions or departments.
To turn the corner we need innovation, failed has-been policies won't work. They shouldn't be given the opportunity to work.
The cost is too high on those affected both 'clients' or whatever name our people are called, and public servants. Public Servants work for the good of the public.
I'd love to get away from the tosh neo-lib stuff written into the Acts dealing with the State Sector that we work for the Minister. We work for whatever govt is in power upholding and bringing about whatever legislation, policies etc the govt has been elected to do.
The Minister is responsible for bringing us $$$$, legislation, policy direction. We don't work for them…our over-riding work is for the people of NZ.
Hopefully the reviews of legislation this Govt is proposing will look at, and determine, what was actually wrong with the system prior to these pieces of legislation. Sure there were a few good parts in what followed but those of us working at the sharp end were never sure what the 'mischief' was that the reforms were trying to remedy.
Meantime here is the link…..public servants prepare to shiver.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/300064628/national-would-need-to-cut-tens-of-billions-in-public-services-to-meet-debt-target
Great article, thanks for sharing.
The 1980s and the 1990s – a case in point.
Experienced long-time servants thrown to the wolves.
Colleagues pitted against colleagues.
Back stabbing and lies in order to gain ascendancy.
New managements who didn't have a clue about the departments they were managing.
In the department/agency I worked for they lost some of the best brains in the business.
I could go on……………
Yeah, go get 'im, AOC. 🔥
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-ted-yoho_n_5f19a190c5b6296fbf3eddd5\
For a bit more detail:
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/aoc-ted-yoho-bitch-speech_n_5f19d838c5b6296fbf3f7b6d
Yep. Watch and marvel. Fire and ice.
Ice has a chance against fire. Maybe more like, I dunno, fire and a pile of used tissues?
Thinking of the famous Robert Frost poem – "but if it had to perish twice…" i.e. double destruction, once by fire, then by ice.
Watching full speech now, wow, and shows why we need people like her in these positions.
That guy is a pile in search of a butt.
What are 'Australian terms' I asked myself.
https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-eu/uk-ready-to-quit-eu-on-australia-terms-if-no-brexit-deal-johnson-says-idUSKBN23Y0J6
Jun.28/20 LONDON (Reuters) – Britain will be ready to quit its transitional arrangements with the European Union “on Australia terms” if no deal on their future relationship is reached, Prime Minister Boris Johnson told his Polish counterpart Mateusz Morawiecki on Saturday. ..
Australia does not have a comprehensive trade agreement with the EU. Much of EU-Australia trade follows default World Trade Organisation rules, though specific agreements are in place for certain goods.
The UK Government has now passed a deadline of 30 June where it could have asked for extension from the EU and now the end of December 2020 seems fixed as final for leaving – ready or not as in the chant of the children's game. However… it may be possible for the UK and the EU to secure more preparation time in the form of a real implementation phase later in the year.
https://www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/blog/june-deadline-brexit-extension-uk-buy-more-time
and
https://www.aljazeera.com/ajimpact/bracing-brexit-uk-tells-companies-prepare-december-31-200713011733897.html
https://www.aljazeera.com/ajimpact/post-brexit-exports-ni-uk-customs-papers-200702153740965.html
and
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/jul/02/brexit-talks-break-up-early-over-serious-disagreements-michel-barnier
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/jul/13/uk-to-open-10-12-brexit-border-customs-sites-in-eu-trading-shake-up
https://membership.theguardian.com/event/are-we-heading-towards-a-nodeal-brexit-113347112264
Finally concern about British citizens overseas – and what about
EU citizens in UK? What a shower the UK is.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/jul/19/uk-urges-eu-countries-to-ensure-britons-living-abroad-can-stay-after-brexit
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/jul/07/eu-citizens-being-used-as-guinea-pigs-for-brexit-digital-immigration-system-mps-told
Does anyone think that there is not an exception to not take action in regard to dirty politics when dirty politics should not claim a scalp of an MP?
I want an inquiry into when Collin's knew about ILG?
I saw what happened to Moyle after it happened and this is on par with what is happening to ILG.
I do realise that ILG compromised his Work Relations and Employment portfolio and that there is an investigation to check his ministerial spending.
I cannot prove it that Collin's knew earlier than claimed, this is why I want an inquiry held into my above question.
I would also like members of her caucus to come forward and say if Collins knew before she is alledging that she knew.
It isn't not difficult not to be uncertain about what you may not be asking due to the double negatives you haven't not eschewed.
TS is for opinions and not for proof reading grammar, comprehension or spelling.
Not untrue but it cannot have failed to escape your attention that unless clarity isn't avoided opinions may not be entirely unclear.
Depends if you want a discussion or just to enjoy the sound of your own voice.
Your interpretation of my opinion or any other opinion on TS is up to you. You can ignore it, nit pick it or reply.
Or not understand what not you are not saying.
Grow up Sacha and I am calling you out on your behaviour.
An obvious hit job , pay back double . I have no doubt about that as she , unlike the PM , felt an overpowering need to drop it into the media's lap so as to play it as whataboutism . Difference from Falloon is that there is no aggrieved victim (s) behind the disclosure and the ex mistress is seemingly living in London now and no doubt horrified about being ammunition in Collins game of dirty politics . The equivalent to Key's top drawer of dirt but more likely tip offs from Slater. I think Collins figures the only way to win is to have a bitch fight in a mud pool and needs to drag Jacinda down to her level for a competition to be had.
I want an inquisition into when Jacinda knew, apparently it was common knowledge for months – the boss should know about these things from the outset
Cameras on underpants and in bra straps and you could get a shoe like in the tv show Get Smart with a mike in the heel. What a heel!
You raise a good question.
Did you know about the affair?
Did you know that the other woman was connected to the office?
Is it up to a leader to ask a team member about their sex life?
The affair has been used against an MP to harm them and their political party. It is dirty politics to do this.
NOBODY expects the Alan Inquisition.
Alan makes a valid point. I already know the answer to "when Jacinda knew."
I do think she would have sorted it out had she known at an earlier date and ILG would have lost his ministerial portfolios but not have been in the position to have hastily resigned.
Alan if you hold this view, the same should be true for Judith/Todd/Simon they should have known about Falloon.
I'm more interested in the time line for falloons case . When did the first victim make a complaint and was it only to the police? It seems strange that the national party was the last to know.?
I am more interested to know if the images shared were photo-shops of a labour MP’s head on to a nude body
And at whose bidding Falloon was passing around the smut.
Strange how the ILG affair was exposed and the timing.
The only other recent affair exposed was Jamie lee Ross and what a mess that was in how the National Party handled that.
That is what I am getting at, so nasty to use an affair against someone to try and end their career.
I do admire Jamie lee Ross for standing as an independent and leaving on his own terms and not letting dirty politics kick him to the curb.
There were issues with Jamie lees behaviour in his office and I gather he took responsibility for this.
I would like ILG to change his mind about resigning as an MP. I do think not being a minister is enough punishment.
I don't want Ian L-G to stay on as an MP. I have a very low opinion of him now. While I understand people giving in to attraction under intense circumstances when working at parliament, what I think is outrageous about Lees-Galloway is taking his mistress to Paris. Can you imagine the lying and underhandedness that went on. Phoning his wife from Paris and lying. Meanwhile, she's at home in Palm North looking after their three kids……………what an absolute pig he is. He has treated her with utter contempt…………….She deserves better than this
We're assuming it was all secret I guess.
Yes you are right I am assuming the affair was secret or at least his wife didn't know about it. I assume that if she did LG might have said "my wife and I have an understanding and I was completely transparent with her. She also said about Paris, no darling you take the mistress, I am all good here in Palmy minding our three children"…. But seriously though, I am making an assumption that the wife didn't know and I could be wrong.
BTW my opinion of LG doesn't alter my opinion about Judith C's handling of this, definitely a political hit, playing dirty politics, muddying the waters the old they do it too defence.
Well it could have been more along the lines of ok we'll get divorced after the election.
I did not want the discussion to go where you are taking it and assuming it is for you to be a marriage guidance counsellor.
So every politician who has had an affair you are not fit to be in parliament.
Is that what you are saying?
Ok Treetop, I accept that you didn't want the conversation to go in this direction. But I was expressing my view. There has not be a note from a moderator that my view is unacceptable for this site (at least not yet).
I am certainly not trying to be a marriage counsellor. No marriage counsellor would or should express such a view to a couple they are trying to help. It was just my opinion. I am making a judgement on L-G behaviour or an aspect of it. My perception is that others on this site talk about other politicians and each other like this. It is out of character for me to comment like this…..and I will give thought as to whether it is helpful to do so or not.
I still maintain my view of L-G behaviour.
I to am making a judgment and I am trying to keep within the boundary of dirty politics ending a politicians career. My judgment is not based on the private life or the impact on the individuals involved.
Individuals have their own style on TS, some comments I look forward to reading and others I only partially read.
I think the answer to your question was in Bridge's safe and that is why Muller wanted a new safe.
Collins said she was done with dirty tricks. No worries. Nationals puppets and arselickers in the media, will do all the dirty politics for her.
Campaigning Winnie flaps his gums over Tiwai. https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12350762
Where 'common sense' means increasing corporate welfare.
Down at the garage they said that Tesla was looking at the site for a possible manufacturing plant or whatever.
My son is an alternative power researcher and when asked about Tesla going to Tiwai he doubted it would happen as a battery factory would not use much electricity as the component materials need to be processed nearer to source as they are only a very small percentage of the rocks and soils containing them and it is that process that requires almost all of the power use. Transporting thousands of tonnes of rock halfway around the world to extract kilos of rare earths etc is not an economic goer, not to mention the problems we already have with the existing dross from Tiwai.
Utter fantasy. Also way too far from their markets.
Rio Tinto have plenty of money, they can write off any losses, last yr they increased production by 30% by adding another Pot, 6 months later we're closing down, power is too expensive.
Peters wants to provide Corporate Welfare, again, and again, to a mining magnate thats makes $2.5m every hour of every day.
A number of yrs ago she suggested to Aus Govt that she should be able to import workers from China who'll work for $1 an hour, they turned her down.
How greedy do you have to be.
Who is she?
This is interesting a write down of 14 billion wow. A while back. 2013
https://www.industryweek.com/leadership/companies-executives/article/21959275/rio-tinto-writes-down-14-billion-ceo-resigns
I suspect Just Is is mistakenly referring to
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gina_Rinehart
Gina Reinhart, Australias wealthiest person.
FFS Winnie, not an industry anyone wants to go up against china state sponsored makers anymore. Common sense is to say goodbye.
Maybe our own Silicon Valley/ Server farms etc as about time we had our own long white data cloud or act as our plan B. Tesla sounds fanciful IMO.
Not too tropical with significant power available, just saying. With Imagination
TC, see my comment at 12.1.1, similar things apply for a data server, not many jobs for the local boys and girls and good luck convincing 250k/pa data scientists from Silicon Valley to relocate to Bluff. Auckland maybe, or Coromandel at a pinch, better off using the power to electrify trucks and trains which is the use that would have the most dramatic results on our carbon total.
The thought occurs that we already have the KAREN fibre network in place. Plus lots of power and a good source of cooling seawater.
Sure, not many local jobs in the finished product, but an ongoing process of construction of supercomputer facility A, five year construction of B when A is online, refit of A when B is online… a fair few local jobs in the ongoing development cycle.
Dunedin might be about the closest place slightly attractive to foreign staff that's not atop a faultline, but overall our problem making data centres viable is constrained cable capacity into the world. Shame because NZ has the governance and integrity reputation to make that sort of industry work.
Agree about electrifying transport. Imagine farm vehicles too. Enough to support a local EV maintenance industry.
Yeah – ISTR a data centre was part of the harbour revamp aspiration.
I'm just intrigued by what could be done with the massive power infrastructure going to the smelter, but that wouldn't track through the dunedin CBD 🙂
We do have good fibre within NZ. So something with moderate international data flows but lots of calculations required on it? And if it gets really good, Bluff might be a handy shore station for another fibre cable in a decade or so.
I just can't help thinking there's a powerful resource there for a jump ahead for Southland.
Southland is not the answer.
No, Southland is the question, not the answer.
As in "when the smelter closure makes hundreds of people unemployed in Southland, what new industries and enterprises can use the infrastructure strengths of Southland to supplement the employment and revenue of Southland in the manner of the SIT free fees scheme?"
is the power supply best used at Tiwai Point? Or anywhere in the nearby area?
The HVDC link from Benmore to Haywards (Lower Hutt) loses about 6% of the input energy over that 610km distance. So if the HVDC were extended to Manapouri in the south and to Auckland in the north, total losses from Manapouri to Auckland might be around 15%, compared to maybe a couple percent loss in transmission (wild-ass guess) from Manapouri to Tiwai Point.
Round figures Tiwai Point was guessed to pay around $250M a year for electricity plus maybe $60M for transmission. So rough hand-wavy numbers there's maybe $50M of value in electricity that's not lost by using it in Southland rather than sending it all the way to Auckland.
That's without considering the cost of grid upgrades that would be needed.
using it anywhere in Southland? (i.e is the power supplied via normal grid, or is it something special for Tiwai?)
The main high voltage line goes direct from Manapouri to Invercargill where it joins up with the rest of the grid. Then looking at really non-detailed maps it appears the high-voltage lines go north past Gore to Roxburgh and Clyde.
The smelter's demand is fairly closely matched to Manapouri's output, by design. But there are times when Tiwai Point draws more than Manapouri produces and draws the extra from the rest of the grid, and there are times when Tiwai Point doesn't use all of what Manapouri is producing so that excess goes into the grid.
So if a new heavy user appeared somewhere close to existing high-voltage lines, then it's likely just a matter of putting in a substation to tap off from existing lines. But if the new heavy user were well away from existing lines, say somewhere like Mossburn or Kingston, then a new high voltage line would likely be needed as well as a substation.
Losses are affected by distance (more distance more loss), voltage (higher voltage loses less) and whether it's AC or DC (DC loses less, but it's not easy to convert to AC so you need to be dealing with a lot of juice to make DC transmission worthwhile)
so quite a bit of potential not just the Tiwai site then. Which way do the lines go if not past Mossburn?
@Weka
Wonder about electrifying the big dairy factory at Edendale (currently a coal burner). There's an existing grid line via Gore but don't know if it has sufficient capacity (it's lower voltage 110kV, compared to the main national grid 220kV).
Manapouri to Tiwai lines run near Ohai then straight to Makarewa substaion north of Invercargill (see Transpower National Grid maps).
@ Andre
Rather than HVDC through to Auckland, I wonder about increaing the 220kV capacity north of Wellington, which would allow more South Island power to be used throughout the Lower North Island. Might free up some of the existing North Island generation for Auckland.
Depending on your level of nerdness, Transpower's GIS data is freely downloadable …
Probably throughout the region, but an electrical system is a bit like plumbing or information transmission: a network is only as big as its smallest pipe. If the local subtation or lines are at capacity, then being able to supply more energy is useless because the current pipe isn't big enough.
But we do know that the smelter already has bloody big pipes from generator to factory floor, so if I were to make an uneducated and speculative guess, I'd suspect the cheapest option from a grid point of view would be to have another high-energy facility (maybe not as big as the smelter, but a good energy user).
Another high-energy option would be a particle accelerator: the Large Hadron Collider uses 200MW at peak flow, less than half the smelter's capacity. And the farmland around might be easier to access for a trench-dug tunnel (like a fuel line, but without the kauri logging risk) or elevated pipe than in other countries. And the data can get transmitted to any NZ scientific facility via the KAREN fibre line.
I'm just spitballing here, but my point is that there are far more options than "save the smelter" available. And, frankly, Shadbolt's Invercargill has a history of having good ideas for Southland that are out of left field. I wouldn't be surprised if they float something that makes people go "wtf" but which actually comes off looking good.
Given we have supplies of iron sand in NZ could there be conversion to steel and us building our own trains, building supplies, etc.
We'd have to move away from the notion that cheapest is best of course – we know that this is generally not the case.
We need to build the notion of community good into our state owned infrastructure rather than this notion of profit e.g. rail has a split of public good (say 60%) paid through taxation and private good (40%) paid for through sales and fees and ticketing.
I do actually think the same for roads if we applied the same 60/40 split to roads then maybe road user charges could be reduced.
And they should be state owned – profit is just a dead-weight and high executive salaries are just capital theft.
The smelter is at Tiwai because of the the deep water port for the alumina, and other inputs coming in, and product going out.
Another industry may not be that critical of location, data centre could be just north of Invercargill by the Lorneville substation. A silica refinery, probably between the resource in Western Southland and Lorneville.
good point about the port, too.
It feels a bit like the occasional problem I have at work, where although I don't know the method I can feel there's a bloody good answer that's just a bit too far away to grasp at the moment.
Ah well, Southland will figure it out. It's a bit flat for my taste, but it's got a lot going for it these days.
Unlikely to beat other locations for sustainable ongoing benefit to the nation rather than one region. Takes more than one plant.
NZBitcom computers? Although there are no jobs from that – I think they just chew power. And the end product is pretty much a fantasy
There's a mapped active fault less than 10 km from The Octagon (runs along SE side of Taieri Plain at least as far N as Wingatui) (NZAFD, GNS). Also, the Akatore Fault that goes offshore near Taieri Mouth likely continues towards Dunedin (& possible under it). Recent research suggests it's capable of M7 to M7.4 quake & is the biggest seismic threat to Dunedin (piece on Newshub: best non-paywalled source I could find).
oops, there goes that advantage
the road to Tiwai Point comes from Invercargill not Bluff. Bluff is closer, but across the water.
surprised Winnie did not walk across, for effect
he's saving it up for next week.
The chameleonic Winston Peters has abandoned Northland for Southland. Someone needs to make this point in parliament or the media.
it's kind of obvious though.
Just for fun, looking back to the Ruatoki event (Urerewa-Operation 8) and Comm. Marshall's (video) comments; (Jackal’s post, 24 May 2012).
Did the accused NOT get the legal representation that many believed they deserved?
He, he, he, ho, ho, ho!
And did anyone ever really determined whether the bus (or the tourist coach perhaps) would have been targeted at Johnkey's head from a great height, or Bush’s? (George Bush that is, not Mike Bush's)
Is it not high time that Tame Iti got himself a high salaried job somewhere, either in corporate or performing arts?
That guy still has heaps of talent and maybe he should avoid getting mixed up with many of those old farty arts patrons (especially of the Akarana ilk).
I really do not believe that most of them have his best interests at heart.
Be self reliant or be a bottom feeder, I guess.
Drastic times call for drastic measures.
B.C. health officials are recommending an age-old, occasionally cutting-edge tactic for sex during the coronavirus pandemic: “glory holes.”
https://globalnews.ca/news/7204384/coronavirus-glory-holes-sex/
"cutting-edge tactic" – ouch! Also, from the article:
"The recommendation is just a tip and not a firm rule, according to the website."
Na they should just get married , that stops sex happening altogether 🤣
Brian Easton writes van interesting column on Pundit. It covers the National shifts in Economic terms and some pointers on the Collin position.
https://www.pundit.co.nz/content/maana-politics
His addendum is most interesting:
"Addendum: This column was drafted before the events involving Andrew Falloon and Ian Lees-Galloway. It has not been rewritten.. However, I must add this. The column tries hard to be fair towards Judith Collins; after all it is really about wider issues than her. But the way she dealt with the Lees-Galloway allegations was inappropriate. She was right to pass her knowledge on to Jacinda Ardern, as the prime minister had done to her over Falloon. She was wrong to announce she had done so (on morning radio) before the Prime Minister had publicly dealt with the information. In contrast Ardern waited until Collins had made her Falloon announcement before explaining her involvement. Collins’ timing has the hallmarks of a Whale Oil counterpuncher. It does not promise a clean election."
Yes Robert. Collins never misses a chance to use a nasty jibe. Be interesting to know which people like her for that habit.
Na key was far right ,he just disguised it well .
His governments underfunding of health is privatization by stealth.
collins and goldsmith will finish the job if given the chance.
spot on bwaghorn. he knew what he was doing. punishing the working classes and siphoning off the money.
got chipped on FB yesterday fordaring to mention that some of the nationals female mp's were showing a bit more cleavage than necessary on teevee ch31 last night. then a nationals troll showed up and demanded this and that and it was a great old brou ha ha. the upshot was the post was deleted but then they all went and changed their clobber. hahahahahaha.
Surprising, given that Nat MPs excel at cover ups.
Jonathan Pie spouts his disgust at the sensitivity that has established new norms so that we aren't even allowed to regard ourselves as one biological sex now and accept that there is generally two plus.
Breaking news: Terrorists on the loose in Te Rapa.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/waikato-times/news/122247176/police-hunting-possible-quarantine-breakers-in-hamilton