On October 20, however, the NZ First leader, Winston Peters, from the stage of the Beehive Theatrette, told New Zealand that: “Far too many New Zealanders have come to view today’s capitalism, not as their friend, but as their foe. And they are not all wrong. That is why we believe that capitalism must regain its responsible – its human face. That perception has influenced our negotiations.”
In that moment, it was clear that the revolt against neoliberal economic orthodoxy and the lies of its “experts” had finally reached New Zealand’s shores.
…
Just how much “real change” Jacinda Ardern’s government is willing to countenance will be revealed in the people she chooses to advise her.
the establishments tamed media persona offering advice again. I see that bloke as just another pagani/Williamson/Edwards.
So you’ll be hearing a lot from him whilst the rest get their new themes and let the medication kick in that limits the frothing at the mouth rapid right wing dogma.
The leaders cite management greed, corporate tax dodging and “short termism”, as problems. Their claims, though, seem to be made more out of fear that the people will seek revenge on a system they see as being unfair. they don’t seem concerned about the negative impacts on the lives of too many people, only that the capitalist system will be rejected outright if it is not reformed.
So, there is now a period when ideas for a new direction may get traction.
But I guess we need to beware of the ruling elites just allowing enough change to thwart an outright revolution, rather than really pushing for the changes that the many, and society as a whole, really need.
In my opinion capitalism cannot be ‘reformed’ as it is fundamentally flawed. But undoubtedly people will try to put a “human face” on it and she’ll be right. Yeah, nah!
Would you care to put together your thoughts on what an alternative to capitalism would look like? Because, as flawed as it is, fundamentally capitalism still looks better to most people than alternatives we’ve tried.
Even the most socialist of scandinavian social democracies are still fundamentally capitalist, they’ve just got different settings around how much and what areas of society the state is involved in and how to pay for it.
How so? Their economies all rely on private ownership of land and capital for the purpose of generating profits for their private owners. That’s capitalism. That their state sectors are larger than ours and welfare systems more generous doesn’t change the fact that the fundamental organising principle is capitalism.
All housing owned by the state and allocated on an as need basis with lifetime lease.
Businesses to be self-owned and run by the people who work there.
A UBI of course.
And the state being the only creator of money in the country.
Dropping of all FTA and removal of the country from the IMF, the World Bank and the WTO. Replace them all with standards that other countries need to meet before we trade with them.
What percent of the voting population do you reckon would go for that? Versus what percent would fight it with everything they’ve got?
TBH, the idea of a state jobsworth allocating where I live, rather than letting me choose how much of my resources I’m willing to put into where I live and making my best choice within that constraint, is something I’d fight very hard against.
You choose the area and even the house if it’s available. If multiple people are asking for that house then the one with the most need for it gets it. If someone has a new job in the area then they’ll get it over someone who just wants to move to the area.
If there’s a high demand for that area then housing NZ will build more houses in that area to cater to the demand. And the demand will actually be known because they’ll have the applications.
Draco, if you can’t see how that proposal amounts to state jobsworths exercising unwanted control over something that is a major part of people’s lives, then I really can’t help you.
You choose to live somewhere. You look to see if a house is for sale or for rent. If there is you then offer a sum of money. If it’s enough you get the place if not you’re out of luck.
If there isn’t a place available you either build (if a place to build is available) or you’re simply out of luck.
Same would apply if housing was state owned except that there would be no money involved.
But I guess we need to beware of the ruling elites just allowing enough change to thwart an outright revolution, rather than really pushing for the changes that the many, and society as a whole, really need.
That’s what they’ve been doing since the great Depression and it still hasn’t worked. Managed to keep general revolution at bay though.
We need the politicians and the economists to realise that capitalism simply doesn’t and never will do. Then we’ll have the space open for other ideas but that is something that the business community certainly don’t want because then they wouldn’t be able to get rich.
I totally agree wth you, as housing is one of “a basic ‘essential’ neccesity of life & need” (a human right)
Most people dont understand now what the basic needs are and the role of having government.
Government is there to provide “the basic essential nessecities of life” such as power, water, shelter, education, health services, transport, and housing.
Jobs are the premise of bussiness activities, and government supply public servant jobs for their administration.
Bussiness was never set up to garantee all the basic essential nessecities of life.
Bussiness was never set up to garantee all the basic essential nessecities of life.
But that’s what they were supposed to do under the neo-liberal paradigm. That’s what National and ACT mean when they say small government. They’ve failed to do as promised just like they failed in the 19th century and throughout history.
Trotter seem to think New Zealand voted for a revolution. They didn’t. The vote is way too finely balanced for such a claim.
They voted for change, specific things to be fixed such as clean water, housing etc.
If Jacinda Arden wants to be a one term Prime Minister she will follow Chris Trotter’s advice. But she is way smarter than to follow the advice of an ex New Labour activist. I can just imagine what her cabinet colleagues and indeed Helen Clark would think of Trotter’s advice.
That is why talk of failures of capitalism made on “The Nation” were not repeated on “Q & A”. I would say she quickly realised that such talk has way too much political risk. Instead the language shifted to “market failure”, a well understood term in political and social markets.
Your first two paragraphs are correct, but your third one doesn’t follow.
Making dramatic changes toward social democracy will bring huge benefits to New Zealanders, and that would likely shift the Overton window significantly to the left.
I tuned off from watching TV one when this morning during the morning news at 6.45 the ex prime minister Bill English came on TV one to rant about his party’s succcess over the last nine years so where is the new PM then?????
So my embargo of TV one will continue until TV one broadcasts a more balanced and fair coverage of the new Government about to be signed in as our new government today.
Wake up TV One as we are now living with a new government that we want to see sack all you National cling-ons and install a more balanced fair broadcasting team than we have had for the last nine years.
Pathetic display of naked bias against the newly elected government is clearly continuing on our publically owned TV one and this must now be corrected.
The national broadcaster has been infected with right wing lobbyists, a deliberate attempt at undermining the neutral nature we expect as it’s paid for through taxes, Key turned it into a National Party propaganda machine, using public funds and brainwashing the more gullible viewers, and there’s quite a few of them.
We can’t have a minority view point be broadcasted without balancing it with the majorities viewpoint.
I had to laugh this morning as I listened to RNZ news – NZQA can’t figure out why many of the so-called educational institutes which have been deregistered or sanctioned are owned or part owned by Chinese or Indians.
I can’t speak for India, but as one who has lived in China for a few years, the answer is so obvious – corruption and bribery!
In China, you pays your money, you get the results you want!
And the bad ones are well known and reported. Selling Degres and feeding cheap labour into businesses who will pay for 2 yearsso the new graduate can qualify for PR.
They’ve been well know and reported on for quite some time – repeatedly, whether officially or through back channels.
NZQA is finally getting on to it, but their under-resourcing and failures have come too late for many people who’ve been utterly fleeced.
If I can dig into the backgrounds of some of the PTE operators, Labour Supply agencies and contractors using google, foreign media and the companies register, then it’s bloody obvious that NZQA, INZ and the Labour Inspectorate who can call on the resources of Police and other agencies should have been able to do better.
I suspect NZQA’s statement is more about keeping a lid on things until they get a few more wins/prosecutions and have more ‘conversations’ with INZ.
I rember when I was a young my uncle was killing a opossum and when he swung the hammer I was standing behind him and fuck I was spitting out bits of my teeth man that was sore . I was 12 and I did not go to school for 2 weeks I was eating weetbix for 3 weeks .It was my rugby coach that asked what happen to my teeth I told him the story
And it was he that told me to go to the school dentist to get my teeth fixed . I was really
great full as no more pain and I lost a bit of weight I could got to school when I wanted or just stay home and ride horse’s I use to run right over the top of most other players of Rugby/ scrag .
Many thanks to Ros Taylor and Thomas Maxwell Latham our brown men playing a great game for NZ cricket and wining in Inda .This feat should have got major coverage in all our media platforms !!!!!!!!! . The big picture is if we nurture and train all our youth
and provied them more disposable income more of our brown children will climb to the great heights of sports stardom We just need a fair and just society.P.S Hope I got that right. Ka pai
WAR IS FOR IDIOTS Yes these 2 men did not win that game on there own as it takes good Management and a excellent team Wairua to get in to that top spear of our World Sports .
Now all you people that are new to our shores I welcome you and advise you that the Prime Minster Elect will not kick you in the private parts so just relax and keep positive as she will be a fear and just Leader you should beable to see this for your selves .
Our Dollar well don’t treat because a lower dollar is good for us all in some way It won’t crash OUR Dollar is one of the most traded currency in the World so that tell a story in its self our dollar always trades lower when Labour rules its good we will slow down our consumption nation and this is the direction we have to take to save Mother Earth for our grandchildren P.S we will pay our dept faster to.
9 % compulsory Kiwi Saver this will transfer our dept back to our shores .
Everyone has to vote at the next election this will help stop the social media’s influence on our elections . Ka pai
“The Chinese bidder for Landcorp’s Jericho Station in Southland has applied to the Overseas Investment Office (OIO) for permission to buy the property, almost five months after his offer was accepted.
Controversy surrounds the sale because a well known Southland farmer Ed Pinckney has also been in contention for the sheep and beef farm, but his offer was refused even though it was only about $200,000 less.”
If there is an alternative NZ purchaser, then the Chinese buyer will need to show the benefits he can offer that the NZ purchaser cannot (i.e. the counter-factual). Fingers crossed he can’t meet the test
First real test for Labour now, to walk the walk.
Although they never said anything about restricting farmland.
The buyer appears to have left it slightly too late. OIO talks about making an application within a timely manner.
One suspects five months after making an offer is not timely. There’s no information as to whether the offeror flagged the prospective purchase with OIO.
If I were the OIO, I’d decline this sale on the basis that the next offer down was only 200k less, and therefore more likely to create opportunities for NZ.
Winston points out that the delay has resulted in an opportunity cost already, in the form of $26 000 of interest per month that would have accrued from an immediate sale to the NZ buyer, meaning the $200 000 difference between the offers would be negated by now.
Nationality isn’t entirely irrelevant. In the area around where I have a part interest in a property, there are a number of properties purchased by Chinese (presumably for landbanking) that have since been left unused and neglected to the point where they become a pest reservoir nuisance to the neighbours. When considering two competing offers, that was certainly a factor in us accepting the lower offer from a local with a track record of being a caring steward of the land, rather than a significantly higher offer from foreign investors.
National’s Stuart Smith (described by Winston Peters during the election as a back-stabbing neo-liberal who has done nothing since he got there),MP for Kaikoura, has spoken about ‘delivering for New Zealanders” who are his constituents.
He said that in three years he had done more than his predecessor (Colin King, National MP for nine years) who he supplanted.
If this is a taste of National Party loyalty, I can understand why Bill English won’t talk about his prospects for staying on as National’s leader.
Stuart Smith’s present position that he will stay on in a “strong opposition” and face a possible nine years languishing there indicates that they certainly intend to break that MMP nine year cycle.
We can look forward to changes in their line-up with the sloughing off mercilessly of their older leadership, and the promotion of aggressive and ruthless younger MPs who seek Ministerial office in their time.
Agreed. His two ideas around supporting increased coastal shipping and the dry dock in Picton are not evidence of much independent effort. His espousal of Friendly Society matters is not an electorate matter. There is a huge amount of rebuilding of social services required in Marlborough. His major effort in this area was to not even read for months a credible critique of these services delivered to him by his constituents.
The only solace from the Stuart Smith grandiose claims is that it may mean that his Kaikoura supporters are fed up with his total inaction on behalf of his constituents.
For instance, many would be surprised to learn of his action to get a new site for the colleges. Really?Labour Janette Walker has done far more for people and she is not even an MP.
Just seen Boag on the AM show, (well that’s not quite right turned her off after watching for about 30 seconds) what a vile twisted evil person who definitely got a personal vendetta against Peters,
Why do they keep getting these has-beens out of the musty old National party morgue, wind them up and let them go full bore without anybody there to give a counter argument? We have had NOTHING but right-wing commentators on this morning including English. No spokesperson from the new government.
It is also about time we had some younger people on the programme, the same age group as Ardern, after all, it is their world now to fix up.
TVNZ 1 is just as bad, man aren’t they all pissed off over Peters going with Labour
I call her Morticia and instead of the morgue I call her place of abode the crypt. That woman has to be the scariest human on the planet, a wake up nightmare apparition. She seriously needs to be removed from the airwaves and put out to hanging out with the bats at night.
Michelle Boag in fact is so horrible that she might repel as many people as she thinks she is influencing! And surely some people would have picked up and been put off by Mike Hosking’s petulant, I am so important (more important in fact than the new PM elect and how dare she keep me waiting) rant on Thursday night.
I think relentless negativity in the form Michele Boag portrays is going to turn people off left right and centre in the face of the positive collaborative attitude to be shown by Ardern and Shaw. So while she is hideous to endure in the short term, she may just do the new Govt a favour if she keeps it up. I agree, though, a horrible horrible woman.
Michelle Boag is known to hold a vendetta and then exact punative utu for the smallest of perceived slights. This is why she continues to gets access to media. However, IMO once a crack appears, it is highly likely that her power base will disintegrate rapidly .
Not sure about that. MB’s got so many cracks showing whilst buildings have been demolished for less as earthquake risks. Yet she continues to survive and grace us all with her spectacular wisdom at least once a week.
There is a brilliant poster going the rounds but I cannot get it to copy and paste it here. Shows the detail of the Blue result in 2014 election then the Red poster result for 2017. Damns the negative complainers. Some one must have it and cleverly post it here. It is very good.
To be fair, you’re only the second. So no matter what you’ll set a record. To make it a challenge you should nominate whether you’re aiming for under or over.
To be fair, it was more like the guy about to be released from jail who is immediately arrested on other warrants the cops just found out about.
A comment that might not have gotten many people banned drew enough moderator attention to bring to light a history of activity from that IP address. 🙂
“about to be released”? He got released. Then it’s like the cops ran his plates for a minor traffic infringement on his way home from jail, saw the past behaviour, and threw him back inside. Still brings a smile, tho.
More like he got released and ran a red light, which got the cops’ attention who then looked up the outstanding warrants. Had he not run a red light, nothing would have happened.
Welcome back Puckish. Please don’t get offended as I say this in jest “I have missed your one-eyed rightwing bullshit’ You’re not really like that, Welcome back looking forward to your opinions.
We hope you will help us fix this broken country now, since the national wrecking ball has done it’s worst to wreck our environment.
See this from our letter sent this morning to Professor James Renwick,
Sad enditement from a careless National Party policy as we see for real now.
—————————————————————————————————————-
24th October 2017.
James Renwick,
Professor School of Geography, Environment and Earth Sciences.
BSc (Hons), Mathematics, Canterbury, (1977); MSc, Statistics,
Victoria University of Wellington.
Of special interest to our committee is the large increase of freight truck use we are monitoring in HB/Gisborne regions NZ average of 6% annually is now at 12% in Gisborne/HB for freight movements of 36% of NZ exports of our products from both east coast provinces.
I commend your report and will advance this document as signalling a return of freight back to rail in our regions as Hon’ Winston Peters has for several years attended meetings in both East coast provinces has pledged in Government to bring back our mothballed rail system into service again which will have an extremely useful method of helping to reduce our climate change emissions again.
I would like to converse with you in the weeks ahead, and offer our study reports to you as we have conducted them often in collusion with other agencies and may be very useful for your continuing studies also.
A new report http://www.radionz.co.nz/audio/player?audio_id=2018618970 on climate change has painted a stark picture of New Zealand’s contribution to global greenhouse gas emissions. It says climate change is already potentially irreversibly affecting the country’s natural systems, and many aspects of climate change will continue for centuries. Global gross emissions of greenhouse gases rose 50 per cent from 1990 to 2013, mainly due to people burning more fossil fuels for electricity generation, heat, transport, manufacturing and construction. Despite New Zealand’s contribution being quite small at 0.17 per cent, we have the fifth-highest level of emissions per person of the 35 countries in the OECD. Kathryn Ryan speaks with James Renwick, a professor at the School of Geography, Environment and Earth Sciences at Victoria University who contributed to the report.
Key findings of ‘Our atmosphere and climate 2017’ report
Ministry for the EnvironmentPLUS
Ministry for the Environment and Stats NZ environmental reporting looks at the pressures, state and impacts on the environment and tracks change over time. Here are some key findings from Our atmosphere and climate 2017.
Given that Judith never lies, you might be right.
We’ll find out at the next election.
It’s mean to call English, “Bingles” – perhaps that’s what sank him?
* sings
“Never smile at a crocodile
No, you can’t get friendly with a crocodile
Don’t be taken in by her welcome grin
She’s imagining how well you’d fit within her skin
Never smile at a crocodile
Never tip your hat and stop to talk awhile
Never run, walk away, say good-night, not good-day
Clear the aisle but never smile at Mrs Crocodile”
I wonder if she and Paula might be persuaded to sing this as a duet:
A bold hippopotamus was standing one day
On the banks of the cool Shalimar
He gazed at the bottom as he peacefully lay
By the light of the evening star
Away on the hilltop sat combing her hair
His fair hippopotami maid…
In a pinch Gerry might do the male part – he had musical ambitions at one time.
Seriously dude, you need to pick a single handle and stick to it. I’m not even going to bother asking for confirmation because I’ve spent way too much time on this already, but if I see you posting under another name again I will ban you. This is mostly so I don’t have to use my time going into the back end to check what you are doing.
If you don’t know what I am referring to I suggest you look back at past moderation notes. If you have multiple people using your ISP, then let us know.
Its been slowly happening over time, first the dismay at whats happening with diary in the McKenzie then going out on more of our DOC tracks and then a bit of hunting and suddenly its like the environment becomes a little more important then it once was
Heartbreaking story from Peter Watts (sf writer, lapsed marine biologist and ailurophile) on homelessness and mental health in Toronto. Not too different. Maybe Wayne Blimp would like to read it and tell us it doesn’t matter because some statistic or other looks good if you squint the right way.
Apparently if OECD says we are top of something Wayne likes then NZ is great… and nothing to see here. Someone above referred to Wayne as “sane”. If true then he can be quite cold.
Tracey, sane in comparison to Michelle Boag and Mike Hosking. He doesn’t rant and rage and have extreme outlandish opinions. He did say somewhere he was excited by the fresh generational change. So kudos where due.
Three minutes of news that manages to elevate Bill English and rubbish solo mothers. Nice one Radionz and Katherine Hutton. Bill English is given voice time telling of all the sad cases that Social Investment is going to help. (Ironic that this is the government who has worsened the plight of struggling people year by year and caused the eruption of problems like an inflamed boil that couldn’t be ignored.)
Then evidence is quoted about the most likely people to be having troubles – solo mothers comes first, not the fact that it is only a percentage of them who have prison connections, etc. So all are lumped in as being the problem, when so many are struggling on and doing a good job in difficult circumstances.
Professor Jonathan Boston outlines the advantages of social investment, and the requirements for it to be effective which Labour/G/F should meet. Bill Rosenberg, economist points out that attending to basic need such as housing, better wages, rather than pinpointing problem people and targeting them would probably be the way L>G>F would wish to handle it.
My view is that if they combine those two approaches, with attending to need first, and then asking people where they first want help, would drop problems down to half. (And also police be told to stop chasing cars for doing 130kmh on motorways, and looking out for stolen cars at night. Then they could attend other reported crimes faster, at less human and financial cost.)
Listen duration 2′ :44″
Labour is being urged to keep Bill English’s pet social welfare project that identifies high risk families and then focuses government help. The so-called Social Investment Approach uses data to measure how services are being delivered to the most vulnerable and whether they’re working.
(Sounds like targeting to me. What is needed is monitoring and reporting, and revising if assistance is not working. But not with high and unreasonably demanding levels of improvement required. Good things take time. And starting with small goals that are achievable is needed, both for the social workers, and for those being helped, the ‘clients’.)
Greywarshark
That was so evil putting that plonker B English on the Radio NZ prime time news spot when nothing was presented about our new government was offered in person so we need to totally rearrange Radio NZ and fire all the national cling on’s that are still hiding as “national cells” within the new government so take them all out of government.
That is necessary – but the one that is most overdue is Treasury. Long past time the far right ideologues there were ousted in favour of data driven folk. No free lunch for Chicago school trash.
Cleangreen, I don’t understand or like the “we.” Unless you are a member of the Government, then what is this “we.”
(It’s like when the All Blacks win and people say “we won.” Really, I (and probably you) had next to nothing to creating this win. )
Back to RNZ. I think it is particularly stupid to go around firing people on the basis of their political views unless of course they happen to be your political adviser. Radio NZ is considered by others to be “Red Radio.” Me, I think RNZ is too conservative to be called Red.
RNZ is up for rearrangement as it is poised under Labour policy to become the key public broadcasting institution. No doubt the RNZ Board will change, Richard Griffin has been Chair there for about 7 years now and probably was heading for retirement soon anyway. Anyway, there are going to heaps of new people to create and implement this new version of RNZ. I am looking forward to see who is picked and what they do.
Sort of agree @Gristle, but you do have to concede that the gNats began by giving their mates what amounts to corporate welfare in the commercial media sector, then starved public service media as much as possible. When those pesky Red Radio people wouldn’t lay down and die, they started to do their best at stacking the deck. (It still won;t work however).
“Back to RNZ. I think it is particularly stupid to go around firing people on the basis of their political views unless of course they happen to be your political adviser. “
They shouldn’t be fired for their political views, but should be let go if they have an inability to separate those views from their decision making or editing and programming decisions.
It would be ideal to have a clear mission statement from RNZ on how they decide to inform and ensure accuracy balance in reporting and news programmes.
The current mission statement (if Wikipedia is correct)The station’s mission statement requires it to promote and reflect New Zealand in the Pacific, and better relations between New Zealand and Pacific countries. is a bit vague for me, and makes no mention of quality or balanced reporting.
Even this has some problems. I read The Atlantic and know its editorial position is liberal democratic US exceptionalism. I read the Intercept and know its starting point. The issue is when media is presented as unbiased because that just doesn’t happen.
One persons accuracy becomes somebody else’s sin of omission. As their particular perspective is ignored so there goes the balance.
Often news items appear on TV because they are videographic and can be easily encapsulated into 60 seconds. Short form news by its nature is truncated and by its abbreviation it becomes distorted.
Often as the story gets longer the bias becomes obvious and the story will weaken unless evidence and argument is strong.
A second phone call is good to arrange lunch, but makes a poor substitute for the lunch discussion.
“One persons accuracy becomes somebody else’s sin of omission. As their particular perspective is ignored so there goes the balance.”
That is true. But at least that gives the audience a statement to relate to when writing complaints about bias.
“A second phone call is good to arrange lunch, but makes a poor substitute for the lunch discussion.”
Only phrase that comes to mind when reading this is: ain’t that the truth?
Following on from our brief interaction in yesterday’s OM re a Christmas bonus for beneficiaries. I’ve just been in contact with my friend in England who’s on their equivalent of Supported Living payment/Invalids. She informs me she’s been getting a whole 10 quid (so about $20) going way back, and is pretty sure it was for people on all the main benefits, ie the unemployed sick, jobless and sole parents. The latter one’s bonus is based on per child. She was very surprised to receive it last year.
But she’s pretty certain they’ll probably stop it given the Tory Government is currently undertaking a very real programme of passive genocide towards anyone who has the audacity to no be able to work for whatever reason. And no, that’s not hyperbole. Said friend’s had a very close call with them, another is up to about 14 weeks in hospital so far and nearly dead from the stress of dealing with the DWP considering her fit to work. (This is why I can’t watch I Daniel Blake, it’s happening to my friends).
I slightly digress there but it’s always good to emphasise what’s going on in the UK because the Nats were in the process of bringing that policy here and it’s highly likely another 3 years of them would’ve resulted in a massive spike in beneficiary deaths, which we know has already started.
$20 as a Christmas bonus will do bugger all for our financial situation of course, but it would certainly allow for a couple of food treats that we couldn’t consider getting any other time. And it’s not going to bankrupt the country.
From February next year, the car and motorcycle population will not be allowed to increase .
To get a car in Singapore you need a Certificate of Entitlement. But now Singapore is going to cap the total number of cars and motorbikes across the entire country:
A great task for a new Minister of Climate Change would be to show what difference that rail electrification and higher public transport use has made to Auckland’s CO2 emissions. Or maybe for an Associate Minister of Transport.
I am all for this with freight trucks now that we have the latest forecast that trucks are causing 80% of the total transport ‘Climate change emissions’.
So truck use now need to be cut back and the report says we need more freight back on rail.
The report confirms we are now the fifth highest climate change emissions country per population in the world now.
Not a pretty picture is it. No more “roads of national Significance” (RONs) we ow must adopt NZF rail policy on their website, called “Rails of National Importance” (RONI)
A new report http://www.radionz.co.nz/audio/player?audio_id=2018618970 on climate change has painted a stark picture of New Zealand’s contribution to global greenhouse gas emissions. It says climate change is already potentially irreversibly affecting the country’s natural systems, and many aspects of climate change will continue for centuries. Global gross emissions of greenhouse gases rose 50 per cent from 1990 to 2013, mainly due to people burning more fossil fuels for electricity generation, heat, transport, manufacturing and construction. Despite New Zealand’s contribution being quite small at 0.17 per cent, we have the fifth-highest level of emissions per person of the 35 countries in the OECD. Kathryn Ryan speaks with James Renwick, a professor at the School of Geography, Environment and Earth Sciences at Victoria University who contributed to the report.
Key findings of ‘Our atmosphere and climate 2017’ report
Ministry for the EnvironmentPLUS
Ministry for the Environment and Stats NZ environmental reporting looks at the pressures, state and impacts on the environment and tracks change over time. Here are some key findings from Our atmosphere and climate 2017.
Could this be an organised campaign? When politicians wrongfully blame poor water quality on farming and irrigation (the worst quality is in fact in urban areas), then you encourage anti-farmer sentiment that leads to this.
Wikipedia are asking for another donation and say they are lagging behind their required level.
They say that only 1% of users give. I am sure, like me, people mean to donate but don’t get around to it. I did a while ago but it’s asking time again apparently. Would all of you who value wikipedia go to the donate button on their page.
If any of you are negative about something re wikipedia, please don’t bother to tell us your gripe. Thank you.
Some talk on the Blogosphere & Social Media over recent weeks suggesting that NZF is (in terms of its support-base) a largely “Rural” or “Provincial” or “Very Small Town” Party
To test this idea – I’ve sorted seats into 4 categories & found that
.
31.5% … (58845) … of NZF’s Party Vote is derived from Metro seats (Auckland + Wellington + Christchurch)
29.6% … (55355) … of NZF’s Party Vote is derived from Provincial City seats (ranging in size from Gisborne up to Hamilton)
31.5% … (58766) … of NZF’s Party Vote is derived from Rural seats
7.4% … (13740) … of NZF’s Party Vote is derived from Maori seats
.
While this is a relatively rough & ready methodology, it does nicely highlight the sheer diversity of NZF support in Urban vs Rural terms
NZF certainly derives disproportionate support from Rural & Small Town New Zealand but that by no means defines its voter-base
Yes you could certainly call it a “Provincial” Party
ie 61% of NZF support comes courtesy of Provincial City & Rural New Zealand
But then, by the same token, precisely the same majority of NZFers ‘derive from Urban New Zealand (Metro + Provincial City = 61%)
.
Richard Harman at Politik (English faces uphill battle) has suggested
New Zealand First’s party vote came overwhelmingly from the North Island provincial electorates
Not true
just a large minority = 46% (86136) from the North Island Provincial City & Rural seats
Viewed from another angle – NZF also derives a large minority of its support from our 6 Largest Cities (Auckland Wellington Christchurch Hamilton Tauranga (+ BoP) Dunedin) = 41% (77370)
if labour are serious about becoming a true mmp style party with an eye on the long term , when they are setting up their tax working group they should have a space at the table for Gareth Morgan , he’ s an ideas man with a sound financial brain and who knows top might be a future coalition party .
Yeah I was surprised that a couple of close friends wasted their votes on TOP.
Respect to their policy ideas but to me it was just another rick prick distraction campaign and it wasted a large % of progressive votes. To truly make a difference, Morgan should have quit near the end and endorsed the Greens
Another mate voted Conservative, such are the vagaries of MMP that there are a lot of wasted votes. 🙁
The Spanish federal government is about to impose federal government on Catalonia.
If there was one moment for the European Union to show , in the midst of massive anti-EU votes all around the continent, that it can successfully intervene diplomatically and get leaders to talk rather than trudge down the stony road to civil war, this is the moment to do it.
So far, all we are getting is two dumb-assed Spanish leaders going down really stupid paths with zero dialogue and increased force.
Time for the EU to show what its capacity and purpose really is.
The EU has already give the Catalonia’s the two finger salute during or before the vote to leave Spain.
It would be nice to see the EU have some balls over this, but I’m afraid there’s more chance of Winix winning the Caulfield Cup on Saturday than the EU getting everyone around the table for talks.
“A record number of immigrants accounted for more than 70 percent of population growth in New Zealand in the last year, according to new data from Stats NZ.
The data reveals that our country’s population grew by 100,400 in the year ending June 2017 – and a whopping 72,300 of that was as a result of net migration.”
– it’s clearly adding to the housing shortage which apparently tax payers have to pay to fix at the rate of $1000 a week motel rooms for the poor and lower wages for the working poor and generous subsidies to developers.
Neoliberalism has gone too far. This is a big problem in NZ with business leaching on the backs of the taxpayers for cheaper and cheaper labour so they can make more profits while average Joe suffers.
What about user pays that these business types apparently believe in (apart from for themselves) maybe all these businesses need to make wages and conditions attractive enough for workers to work the jobs at a living wage and being paid $600 p/w when it costs $400 p/w to rent a house, probably doesn’t cut it.
Somehow we have a weird corporate welfare system operating in NZ where NZ taxpayers routinely subsidise 1/3 of someones wages in benefit top ups so they can survive or get a migrant in, with the lure of getting a foot in the door of residency. Supermarkets for example used to be staffed by students, no longer when you can get desperate migrants in full time work in to do it at student rates.
It now costs $400+ p/w for a house, because of the population growth of literally hundreds of thousands coming to NZ to get residency and work permits. And the deregulation of the housing has meant more and more leaky and substandard houses are out of action. We are not even getting to the P problem that has yet to be remedied taking out more housing. Is P safe with a wash down, increasingly it seems it is, but private practise has created a million dollar business our of the misery of P contamination. And that is taking out rental properties and making many homeless and many potential landlords unwilling to rent even if they had the houses which have been sold long ago anyway.
New housing is rocketing in price and now too expensive to build with the lack of training of local workers, lack of enthusiasm of local workers for the pay and conditions offered, deregulation of materials so that many fail and the work needs to be redone (concrete, plumbing etc) and the so called expertise of so called skilled migrants many who can work cheap and ask no questions but low NZ productivity shows a different side of this story which is not showing a successful experiment.
Immigrants and NZs would like to have safer conditions for work than this guy.
Joe 90 put it up on the Labour Day site. I hope we do provide safer conditions and haven’t just sunk to the lowest level ourselves?
A race to the bottom! https://twitter.com/youmuppet_/status/922084798088339457
Looks like Collins is still on the Bill English train, so I expect he’s staying on as leader for some time, as Collins wouldn’t publicly back him if there were any rumblings in caucus about ditching bill.
when Goff got the leadership after Clarke’s reign i felt for the guy as anyone with a brain knew the nats were good for at least two terms , like labour is now, i expect english will be there as long as he wants unless the coalition looks shaky then the sharks will circle english.
Didn’t want to spoil the sugar coated thread with irreverence…
So if plants are getting less nutritious because of climate change, using the pattern of dinosaurs demise, does it mean vegans and vegenauts are going to go first?
True enough, and forgetting sci fi meals in a pill supplements etc. Deep freezers are still going to work so plenty of stockpiles to get through before the carnivores go by the wayside.
Even if existence is only a few weeks more than the veges, even without nutritious vegetables, I’d be okay with lasting out a bit longer by eating my frozen greens lol
Btw, my kid has just turned veggy, which I support as his choice and respect the decision.
Not smug, but if it came down to it, I’d go carrion for an extra week or two. Freezers might go, but fire won’t. Char grilled is still a go’er
The leaf eaters, probably not so much wriggle room.
Interested in whether we can afford it all? Read Bryan Gould. He has about four entries on our finances, with similar titles. It is as if he wanted to make the point so much that he changed each title to have a different impact on a reader with a viewpoint that matched. http://www.bryangould.com/why-does-the-left-so-often-disappoint/
And David Seymour. What a laugh. How come he gets treated seriously and Winston often is not.
The Super Fund is being reinstated. Seymour said it was the wrong priority.
“Household debt is the Greek problem that New Zealand faces. We need to actually get that under control. I think we should be cutting taxes and running less of a surplus in order to give some relief to households,” he said.
The trouble is that NZ households would probably spend all the reduced taxes.
In the year ending September we went on 2.79 million overseas trips, up 253,000.
That doesn’t indicate people holding back and paying off debt.
And the latest annual net migration figures were mostly driven by non-NZ citizens.
This from Business in nelsonmail.co.nz (Fairfax have closed the century old building and its new, forward looking addition and now seems to be only on-line and not every day I think. I got the news around my frozens.)
Rob MacCulloch writes – Can’t remember the last book by a Kiwi author you read? Think the NZ government should spend less on the arts in favor of helping the homeless? If so, as far as Newsroom is concerned, you probably deserve to be called a cultural ignoramus ...
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Foreign Minister Winston Peters discussed the need for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, and enhanced cooperation in the Pacific with German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock during her first official visit to New Zealand today. "New Zealand and Germany enjoy shared interests and values, including the rule of law, democracy, respect for the international system ...
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Thank you, John McKinnon and the New Zealand China Council for the invitation to speak to you today. Thank you too, all members of the China Council. Your effort has played an essential role in helping to build, shape, and grow a balanced and resilient relationship between our two ...
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Structured literacy will change the way New Zealand children learn to read - improving achievement and setting students up for success, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “Being able to read and write is a fundamental life skill that too many young people are missing out on. Recent data shows that ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay says Canada’s refusal to comply in full with a CPTPP trade dispute ruling in our favour over dairy trade is cynical and New Zealand has no intention of backing down. Mr McClay said he has asked for urgent legal advice in respect of our ‘next move’ ...
The rights of our children and young people will be enhanced by changes the coalition Government will make to strengthen oversight of the Oranga Tamariki system, including restoring a single Children’s Commissioner. “The Government is committed to delivering better public services that care for our most at-risk young people and ...
The Government is making it easier for minor changes to be made to a building consent so building a home is easier and more affordable, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on making it easier and cheaper to build homes so we can ...
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 ...
New Zealand Food Safety is monitoring overseas recalls of Indian packaged spice products manufactured by MDH and Everest due to concerns over a cancer-causing pesticide. ...
By Stephen Wright and Stefan Armbruster of BenarNews Fiji’s ranking in a global press freedom index has jumped into the top tier of countries with free or mostly free media after its government last year repealed a draconian law that threatened journalists with prison for doing their jobs. Fiji’s improvement ...
We might be in Invercargill but all anyone can talk about is Gore. Specifically, Salford Street. That’s where three-year-old Lachlan Jones lived, south of the centre of town, between the A&P Showgrounds and the Mataura River. Roughly 1.2 km away from the single level home he lived in with his ...
MONDAY I lined up the latest round of civil servants from city hall against the wall, and signalled for the firing squad to drop their rifles. I stepped up onto a wooden crate to look at the office workers in the eye. But that didn’t feel right, so I found ...
Keen hiker and second-year MSc student Liam Hewson wears two hats when he’s in the great outdoors. “The scientist in me appreciates nature and goes, ‘Oh, there’s that thing and there’s another thing,’ but then the tramper and the outdoorsy person in me thinks, ‘Cool bush.’” Born and bred in ...
After a long and illustrious career as a goal kicker, Dan Carter’s favourite way to unwind is… kicking goals. Why can’t he get enough of it? And what it’s like to watch him do it for an hour straight? A semicircle of people wielding cameras and phones has formed in ...
Dame Susan Devoy takes us through her life in television, including late night ER debriefs, her proudest CTI moment and the show she watches in secret. Quite aside from her four world champion squash titles, Dame Susan Devoy will likely go down in history as one of the best Celebrity ...
Hera Lindsay Bird reveals the best places in Ōtepoti to score more for your apocalypse-prep book hoard.Sometimes I get the feeling I’ve been killed in a car crash, and this second half of my life is just the brain unspooling itself, like one of those episodes of a hospital ...
ThreeNow’s new murder mystery series takes us on a dark, damp journey into the Australian wilderness.This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. High Country is ThreeNow’s new Australian eight-part crime drama, set in a remote part of the Victorian highlands. It tells ...
Introducing a new way to read The Spinoff every weekend. After nearly 10 years of being an online magazine, we’re finally embracing the weekend liftout. Despite our best efforts to convince you otherwise, writers and editors at The Spinoff don’t work weekend. It is through the sheer power of technology ...
Tip one: let yourself be nurtured by this big old man. Tip two: don’t ask him to adopt you. So, you’ve arrived at your first session with a new therapist. He tells you to make yourself comfortable and you opt for the tweed armchair, hoping it makes you look like ...
I didn’t know books could open you back up; that there were books that stayed with you, where reading was like a chemical event. I knew nothing.The Sunday Essay is made possible thanks to the support of Creative New Zealand.Not too long ago, I was listening to the American ...
Former Olympic swimmer James Magnussen has already started training for the Enhanced games, though says he won’t start taking performance enhancing substances until about nine months out from the competition. The Australian world champion was the first athlete to be announced by Enhanced, but he says the organisation has had ...
Everyone thinks he’s dead. Every day they expect his body to be washed up along the coast. Most likely up Karitane way, the way the tide’s running. But nobody’ll be too surprised if his body’s never found. Even in death he wouldn’t have wished for such attention. He would have ...
Council members voted 21 to 4 in favour of Ahluwalia returning to the Laucala campus following a much-awaited meeting in Vanuatu this week. It comes as USP and its two unions — the Association of the University of the South Pacific Staff (AUSPS) and the Administration and Support Staff Union ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nicola Henry, Professor & Australian Research Council Future Fellow, Social and Global Studies Centre, RMIT University Shutterstock Following an emergency meeting of the National Cabinet this week, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has announced a raft of measures to tackle the problem ...
Analysis - A poll showing the opposition is more popular than the government raises questions, politicians go through their 'trial by pay rise' and a Green MP loses her cool in the debating chamber. ...
The entire stretch of Tokomaru Bay on the East Coast will be subject to a joint customary marine title for two hapū, and extending up to four miles out to sea. A High Court judge has found the two groups, who during the case settled a dispute over boundaries for ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Hall, Lecturer, Media & Cultural Studies, Edith Cowan University A longstanding feud between TikTok and Universal Music Group seems to have finally reached an end, with both parties signing a deal that will see Universal-backed music returned to the social media ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Siobhan O’Dean, Postdoctoral Research Associate, The Matilda Centre for Research in Mental Health and Substance Use, University of Sydney After several highly publicised alleged murders of women in Australia, the Albanese government this week pledged more than A$925 million over five years ...
Political parties have now fully disclosed the donations they received last year - with National getting more than double the cash of any other party. ...
A Pacific regionalism expert has called out New Zealand's Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters for withholding information from the public on AUKUS military pact. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Richard de Grijs, Professor of Astrophysics, Macquarie University Bruno Scramgnon/Pexels All systems are “go” for tonight’s launch of China’s next step in a carefully planned lunar exploration program. Placed on top of a powerful Long March 5 rocket, the Chang’e 6 ...
National returned a massive donation the day after a Newsroom story linked the donors to a property being investigated for operating unlawfully as a migrant workers’ hostel. The party’s 2023 donation filings, released on Friday, show it returned a $200,000 donation from Buen Holdings on August 23. That was the ...
Pacific Media Watch New Zealand has slumped to an unprecedented 19th place in the annual Reporters Without Borders World Press Freedom Index survey released today on World Press Freedom Day — May 3. This was a drop of six places from 13th last year when it slipped out of its ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Joshua Black, Political Historian and Administrator Officer, Australian Historical Association, Australian National University Australia has had its fair share of public record-keeping controversies in recent years. Some have been mere farce, as in the case of two formerly government-owned filing cabinets (containing ...
Heavenly Culture, World Peace, Restoration of Light (HWPL), a United Nations-affiliated organization dedicated to fostering peace through civilian-led initiatives, has issued a statement in response to the escalating conflict between Israel and Iran. ...
A poem by Tessa Keenan, from AUP New Poets 10. Mātou These days we are a photograph; one of a farm strewn with cows that used to be bright harakeke or swamp. The kids point at it and say the sun sits behind a smudge (left by someone at Christmas); ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan (Faber & Faber, $25)The masterful Irish writer ...
Marriage and civil union statistics record the number of marriages and civil unions registered in New Zealand each year, and divorce statistics record the number of divorces granted in New Zealand each year. Key facts Marriages and civil unions In ...
Marriage and civil union statistics record the number of marriages and civil unions registered in New Zealand each year, and divorce statistics record the number of divorces granted in New Zealand each year. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lennon Y.C. Chang, Associate Professor of Cyber Risk and Policy, Deakin University Taiwan stands out as a beacon of democracy, innovation and resilience in an increasingly autocratic region. But this is under growing threat. In recent years, China has used a variety ...
In this excerpt from her new memoir, Dame Susan Devoy remembers her turn as star contestant on the 2022 season of Celebrity Treasure Island. The most anxious time of every day was pre-elimination, when you knew this could be your final day on the show. I felt such contradictory emotions, ...
A week that began in triumph ended in an all-too-familiar disaster for the Green Party. Duncan Greive asks if there’s something in the mission that breaks its best and brightest. A long, strange week for the Green party began with a fantastic poll result. On one level this is hardly ...
By Lydia Lewis, RNZ Pacific journalist Vanuatu’s former prime minister and opposition MP Ishmael Kalsakau has stepped down — just two days after he confirmed he was the rightful opposition leader. Kalsakau, MP for Port Vila, confirmed to ABC’s Pacific Beat, and the Vanuatu Daily Post on Thursday that he ...
What’s to blame for the coalition’s choppy start? Six months in, and the mojo meter is in the doldrums. A new poll would put National out of power and sees its leader, Chris Luxon, sliding in popularity. How much is it about policy, how much coalition management and a perception ...
The striking report goes far beyond the proposed repeal of the Oranga Tamariki Act’s Treaty of Waitangi provision, and its impact should be felt far beyond the unique circumstances of the claim it addresses. Earlier this week, the Waitangi Tribunal released an interim report on the government’s proposed repeal of ...
The world has been experiencing a productivity slowdown, from which New Zealand has not been exempt. COVID-19 temporarily boosted labour productivity, but more recently, productivity has retreated. The overall trend since 2007 has been one of slow productivity ...
What’s more wasteful than spending $315k on syrup and machine maintenance? Trying to drum up a controversy about it.Cast your mind back to the pre-pandemic idylls of 2019. A “rat” was a disgusting rodent and not a self-administered plague test; the sixth Labour government was in power; and the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Kate Fitz-Gibbon, Professor of Social Sciences, Faculty of Arts, Monash University, Monash University Ken stocker/Shutterstock In the wake of numerous killings of women allegedly by men’s violence in 2024, thousands of Australians have joined rallies across the country to demand action ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Henry Cutler, Professor and Director, Macquarie University Centre for the Health Economy, Macquarie University Oleg Ivanov IL/Shutterstock Waiting times for public hospital elective surgery have been in the news ahead of this year’s federal budget. That’s the type of non-emergency surgery ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Konstantine Panegyres, McKenzie Postdoctoral Fellow, Historical and Philosophical Studies, The University of Melbourne Amna Artist/Shutterstock One of the earliest descriptions of someone with cancer comes from the fourth century BC. Satyrus, tyrant of the city of Heracleia on the Black Sea, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Rose, Professor of Sustainable Future Transport, University of Sydney LanaElcova/Shutterstock Electric vehicles are often seen as the panacea to cutting emissions – and air pollution – from transport. Is this view correct? Yes – but only once uptake accelerates. Despite the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Giselle Natassia Woodley, Researcher and Phd Candidate, Edith Cowan University There is widespread agreement Australia needs to do better when it comes to gender-based violence. Anger and frustration at the numbers of women being killed saw national rallies over the weekend and ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Graham, Lecturer in Economics, University of Sydney Mark and Anna Photography/Shutterstock As home ownership moves further out of reach for many Australians, “rentvesting” is being touted as a lifesaver. Rentvesting is the practice of renting one property to live ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sukhmani Khorana, Associate Professor, Faculty of Arts, Design and Architecture, UNSW Sydney Netflix The new season of Heartbreak High is garnering mixed reviews. Critics are writing about the racy story lines, comparing it to other coming-of-age series about teenage relationships and ...
Bob Carr intends to launch legal action against Winston Peters and Julie Anne Genter is facing a second allegation of bullying. Both sucked the air out of an announcement on education, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in ...
In 1995, Sally Clark went out on her own in a bold and unorthodox attempt to join an illustrious group of equestrian riders conquering the world. In the days of glovebox road maps, brick cell phones, and the hit song How Bizarre, Clark refused to follow Sir Mark Todd, Blyth ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Ben Beaglehole, Senior Lecturer, Department of Psychological Medicine, University of Otago niphon/Getty Images The number of people accessing medication for attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in Aotearoa New Zealand increased significantly between 2006 and 2022. But the disorder is still under-diagnosed and ...
To celebrate the start of New Zealand music month, we look back at the best local tuneage that managed to weasel its way into Hollywood productions. There’s nothing quite like the thrilling zap of recognition when New Zealand weasels its way into a glamorous Hollywood production. Crack open a Tui ...
People trust other people more than institutions. So how can the media gain that trust through journalists without losing what’s important about the institution? Anna Rawhiti-Connell reflects on two years of curating the news for The Bulletin.Amonth ago, armed cops descended on my neighbourhood as calls to “lock your ...
A warning – suicide is discussed in this podcast New Zealand’s own long-running soap Shortland Street doesn’t hesitate to kill off its much-loved characters. But would TVNZ dare to kill off our favourite soap? That’s the fear as times get tough in television – even though it’s been pointed out ...
Essay: If the Crown harms children, how do you hold it accountable? Analysis by Aaron Smale in light of the Waitangi Tribunal court decision. The post The Crown versus Māori Children appeared first on Newsroom. ...
Opinion: PFAS – per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances – are a class of thousands of man-made chemicals used widely in everyday consumer items such as textiles, packaging, and cookware, popular for their water, grease and stain-repellent properties. However, the very properties that make PFAS so attractive to manufacturers are also what ...
Winston for DPM and MFA. So far so predictable. Looking forward to hearing the Green portfolios.
Chris Trotter, on Stuff this morning, challenges the Ardern government to bring in advisors for REAL economic change: he recommends Ardern bring on board these people to advise: Jane Kelsey; Sue Bradford; Metiria Turei.
the establishments tamed media persona offering advice again. I see that bloke as just another pagani/Williamson/Edwards.
So you’ll be hearing a lot from him whilst the rest get their new themes and let the medication kick in that limits the frothing at the mouth rapid right wing dogma.
Interesting, though, that the Financial Times is also reporting that some business leaders are talking about the need to change capitalism away from the failures of the last 3-4 decades.
The leaders cite management greed, corporate tax dodging and “short termism”, as problems. Their claims, though, seem to be made more out of fear that the people will seek revenge on a system they see as being unfair. they don’t seem concerned about the negative impacts on the lives of too many people, only that the capitalist system will be rejected outright if it is not reformed.
So, there is now a period when ideas for a new direction may get traction.
But I guess we need to beware of the ruling elites just allowing enough change to thwart an outright revolution, rather than really pushing for the changes that the many, and society as a whole, really need.
In my opinion capitalism cannot be ‘reformed’ as it is fundamentally flawed. But undoubtedly people will try to put a “human face” on it and she’ll be right. Yeah, nah!
Would you care to put together your thoughts on what an alternative to capitalism would look like? Because, as flawed as it is, fundamentally capitalism still looks better to most people than alternatives we’ve tried.
Even the most socialist of scandinavian social democracies are still fundamentally capitalist, they’ve just got different settings around how much and what areas of society the state is involved in and how to pay for it.
I would describe “even the most socialist of scandinavian social democracies” as fundamentally socialist.
How so? Their economies all rely on private ownership of land and capital for the purpose of generating profits for their private owners. That’s capitalism. That their state sectors are larger than ours and welfare systems more generous doesn’t change the fact that the fundamental organising principle is capitalism.
All housing owned by the state and allocated on an as need basis with lifetime lease.
Businesses to be self-owned and run by the people who work there.
A UBI of course.
And the state being the only creator of money in the country.
Dropping of all FTA and removal of the country from the IMF, the World Bank and the WTO. Replace them all with standards that other countries need to meet before we trade with them.
What percent of the voting population do you reckon would go for that? Versus what percent would fight it with everything they’ve got?
TBH, the idea of a state jobsworth allocating where I live, rather than letting me choose how much of my resources I’m willing to put into where I live and making my best choice within that constraint, is something I’d fight very hard against.
Who said anything about the state allocating where you live?
“All housing owned by the state and allocated…” isn’t about the state allocating where someone lives?
No.
You choose the area and even the house if it’s available. If multiple people are asking for that house then the one with the most need for it gets it. If someone has a new job in the area then they’ll get it over someone who just wants to move to the area.
If there’s a high demand for that area then housing NZ will build more houses in that area to cater to the demand. And the demand will actually be known because they’ll have the applications.
Draco, if you can’t see how that proposal amounts to state jobsworths exercising unwanted control over something that is a major part of people’s lives, then I really can’t help you.
What control?
Or how about I put it in terms of now:
You choose to live somewhere. You look to see if a house is for sale or for rent. If there is you then offer a sum of money. If it’s enough you get the place if not you’re out of luck.
If there isn’t a place available you either build (if a place to build is available) or you’re simply out of luck.
Same would apply if housing was state owned except that there would be no money involved.
That’s what they’ve been doing since the great Depression and it still hasn’t worked. Managed to keep general revolution at bay though.
We need the politicians and the economists to realise that capitalism simply doesn’t and never will do. Then we’ll have the space open for other ideas but that is something that the business community certainly don’t want because then they wouldn’t be able to get rich.
Draco,
I totally agree wth you, as housing is one of “a basic ‘essential’ neccesity of life & need” (a human right)
Most people dont understand now what the basic needs are and the role of having government.
Government is there to provide “the basic essential nessecities of life” such as power, water, shelter, education, health services, transport, and housing.
Jobs are the premise of bussiness activities, and government supply public servant jobs for their administration.
Bussiness was never set up to garantee all the basic essential nessecities of life.
But that’s what they were supposed to do under the neo-liberal paradigm. That’s what National and ACT mean when they say small government. They’ve failed to do as promised just like they failed in the 19th century and throughout history.
Trotter seem to think New Zealand voted for a revolution. They didn’t. The vote is way too finely balanced for such a claim.
They voted for change, specific things to be fixed such as clean water, housing etc.
If Jacinda Arden wants to be a one term Prime Minister she will follow Chris Trotter’s advice. But she is way smarter than to follow the advice of an ex New Labour activist. I can just imagine what her cabinet colleagues and indeed Helen Clark would think of Trotter’s advice.
That is why talk of failures of capitalism made on “The Nation” were not repeated on “Q & A”. I would say she quickly realised that such talk has way too much political risk. Instead the language shifted to “market failure”, a well understood term in political and social markets.
Your first two paragraphs are correct, but your third one doesn’t follow.
Making dramatic changes toward social democracy will bring huge benefits to New Zealanders, and that would likely shift the Overton window significantly to the left.
I tuned off from watching TV one when this morning during the morning news at 6.45 the ex prime minister Bill English came on TV one to rant about his party’s succcess over the last nine years so where is the new PM then?????
So my embargo of TV one will continue until TV one broadcasts a more balanced and fair coverage of the new Government about to be signed in as our new government today.
Wake up TV One as we are now living with a new government that we want to see sack all you National cling-ons and install a more balanced fair broadcasting team than we have had for the last nine years.
Pathetic display of naked bias against the newly elected government is clearly continuing on our publically owned TV one and this must now be corrected.
+1 cleangreen
The national broadcaster has been infected with right wing lobbyists, a deliberate attempt at undermining the neutral nature we expect as it’s paid for through taxes, Key turned it into a National Party propaganda machine, using public funds and brainwashing the more gullible viewers, and there’s quite a few of them.
We can’t have a minority view point be broadcasted without balancing it with the majorities viewpoint.
Breaking news.The entire National Party caucus have been offered jobs at NZ Post…delivering for New Zealanders.
Are they delivering light bulbs so we would get that “brighter future”?
Tell them we just got it…………..
LOLOLOLOL
Zorb6 LOL
I had to laugh this morning as I listened to RNZ news – NZQA can’t figure out why many of the so-called educational institutes which have been deregistered or sanctioned are owned or part owned by Chinese or Indians.
I can’t speak for India, but as one who has lived in China for a few years, the answer is so obvious – corruption and bribery!
In China, you pays your money, you get the results you want!
And the bad ones are well known and reported. Selling Degres and feeding cheap labour into businesses who will pay for 2 yearsso the new graduate can qualify for PR.
They’ve been well know and reported on for quite some time – repeatedly, whether officially or through back channels.
NZQA is finally getting on to it, but their under-resourcing and failures have come too late for many people who’ve been utterly fleeced.
If I can dig into the backgrounds of some of the PTE operators, Labour Supply agencies and contractors using google, foreign media and the companies register, then it’s bloody obvious that NZQA, INZ and the Labour Inspectorate who can call on the resources of Police and other agencies should have been able to do better.
I suspect NZQA’s statement is more about keeping a lid on things until they get a few more wins/prosecutions and have more ‘conversations’ with INZ.
I rember when I was a young my uncle was killing a opossum and when he swung the hammer I was standing behind him and fuck I was spitting out bits of my teeth man that was sore . I was 12 and I did not go to school for 2 weeks I was eating weetbix for 3 weeks .It was my rugby coach that asked what happen to my teeth I told him the story
And it was he that told me to go to the school dentist to get my teeth fixed . I was really
great full as no more pain and I lost a bit of weight I could got to school when I wanted or just stay home and ride horse’s I use to run right over the top of most other players of Rugby/ scrag .
Many thanks to Ros Taylor and Thomas Maxwell Latham our brown men playing a great game for NZ cricket and wining in Inda .This feat should have got major coverage in all our media platforms !!!!!!!!! . The big picture is if we nurture and train all our youth
and provied them more disposable income more of our brown children will climb to the great heights of sports stardom We just need a fair and just society.P.S Hope I got that right. Ka pai
WAR IS FOR IDIOTS Yes these 2 men did not win that game on there own as it takes good Management and a excellent team Wairua to get in to that top spear of our World Sports .
Now all you people that are new to our shores I welcome you and advise you that the Prime Minster Elect will not kick you in the private parts so just relax and keep positive as she will be a fear and just Leader you should beable to see this for your selves .
Our Dollar well don’t treat because a lower dollar is good for us all in some way It won’t crash OUR Dollar is one of the most traded currency in the World so that tell a story in its self our dollar always trades lower when Labour rules its good we will slow down our consumption nation and this is the direction we have to take to save Mother Earth for our grandchildren P.S we will pay our dept faster to.
9 % compulsory Kiwi Saver this will transfer our dept back to our shores .
Everyone has to vote at the next election this will help stop the social media’s influence on our elections . Ka pai
You Did 100%
“The Chinese bidder for Landcorp’s Jericho Station in Southland has applied to the Overseas Investment Office (OIO) for permission to buy the property, almost five months after his offer was accepted.
Controversy surrounds the sale because a well known Southland farmer Ed Pinckney has also been in contention for the sheep and beef farm, but his offer was refused even though it was only about $200,000 less.”
https://i.stuff.co.nz/business/farming/98063078/chinese-bidder-for-jericho-sation-seeks-overseas-investment-office-approval
If there is an alternative NZ purchaser, then the Chinese buyer will need to show the benefits he can offer that the NZ purchaser cannot (i.e. the counter-factual). Fingers crossed he can’t meet the test
First real test for Labour now, to walk the walk.
Although they never said anything about restricting farmland.
The buyer appears to have left it slightly too late. OIO talks about making an application within a timely manner.
One suspects five months after making an offer is not timely. There’s no information as to whether the offeror flagged the prospective purchase with OIO.
If I were the OIO, I’d decline this sale on the basis that the next offer down was only 200k less, and therefore more likely to create opportunities for NZ.
Winston points out that the delay has resulted in an opportunity cost already, in the form of $26 000 of interest per month that would have accrued from an immediate sale to the NZ buyer, meaning the $200 000 difference between the offers would be negated by now.
Chinese buying our state asets and “sensitive NZ farmland holdings” must stop now!!!!!!!
Thank you for your post Robert.
Why are you singling out Chinese?
He’s not if you consider that it’s a discussion that began at 7 on a specific case.
No doubt it transcends nationality in other cases.
Yep Once Was Tim.
Like Winston always says “it’s about the policy”
Others like to use rubbish ‘smear talk’ for their ends.
Nationality isn’t entirely irrelevant. In the area around where I have a part interest in a property, there are a number of properties purchased by Chinese (presumably for landbanking) that have since been left unused and neglected to the point where they become a pest reservoir nuisance to the neighbours. When considering two competing offers, that was certainly a factor in us accepting the lower offer from a local with a track record of being a caring steward of the land, rather than a significantly higher offer from foreign investors.
cleangreen thinks its ok to be racist.
Troll talk there, NAKI MAN.
You sound like the racist troll.
If is Hollywood tanking .. what is the outlook for the broader economy ?
https://www.sott.net/article/365140-Nothing-working-in-Hollywood-Big-studios-forced-to-cut-losses-pulling-flops-from-theaters-at-a-fast-pace
http://www.theblaze.com/news/2017/10/22/hollywoods-biggest-movies-flop-big-time-as-industry
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/98132642/kaikura-mp-stuart-smith-ready-for-opposition-stint?cid=edm:stuff:marlboroughexpress&bid=405433560
National’s Stuart Smith (described by Winston Peters during the election as a back-stabbing neo-liberal who has done nothing since he got there),MP for Kaikoura, has spoken about ‘delivering for New Zealanders” who are his constituents.
He said that in three years he had done more than his predecessor (Colin King, National MP for nine years) who he supplanted.
If this is a taste of National Party loyalty, I can understand why Bill English won’t talk about his prospects for staying on as National’s leader.
Stuart Smith’s present position that he will stay on in a “strong opposition” and face a possible nine years languishing there indicates that they certainly intend to break that MMP nine year cycle.
We can look forward to changes in their line-up with the sloughing off mercilessly of their older leadership, and the promotion of aggressive and ruthless younger MPs who seek Ministerial office in their time.
Only cos there was an earthquake did he do more cos the obvious needed to be done.
Agreed. His two ideas around supporting increased coastal shipping and the dry dock in Picton are not evidence of much independent effort. His espousal of Friendly Society matters is not an electorate matter. There is a huge amount of rebuilding of social services required in Marlborough. His major effort in this area was to not even read for months a credible critique of these services delivered to him by his constituents.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/84399112/marlborough-grey-power-president-calls-for-more-funding-for-social-service-providers
The only solace from the Stuart Smith grandiose claims is that it may mean that his Kaikoura supporters are fed up with his total inaction on behalf of his constituents.
For instance, many would be surprised to learn of his action to get a new site for the colleges. Really?Labour Janette Walker has done far more for people and she is not even an MP.
Just seen Boag on the AM show, (well that’s not quite right turned her off after watching for about 30 seconds) what a vile twisted evil person who definitely got a personal vendetta against Peters,
Why do they keep getting these has-beens out of the musty old National party morgue, wind them up and let them go full bore without anybody there to give a counter argument? We have had NOTHING but right-wing commentators on this morning including English. No spokesperson from the new government.
It is also about time we had some younger people on the programme, the same age group as Ardern, after all, it is their world now to fix up.
TVNZ 1 is just as bad, man aren’t they all pissed off over Peters going with Labour
I call her Morticia and instead of the morgue I call her place of abode the crypt. That woman has to be the scariest human on the planet, a wake up nightmare apparition. She seriously needs to be removed from the airwaves and put out to hanging out with the bats at night.
Rocky Horror Audition awaiting?
Michelle Boag in fact is so horrible that she might repel as many people as she thinks she is influencing! And surely some people would have picked up and been put off by Mike Hosking’s petulant, I am so important (more important in fact than the new PM elect and how dare she keep me waiting) rant on Thursday night.
At least Wayne Mapp is sane.
I think relentless negativity in the form Michele Boag portrays is going to turn people off left right and centre in the face of the positive collaborative attitude to be shown by Ardern and Shaw. So while she is hideous to endure in the short term, she may just do the new Govt a favour if she keeps it up. I agree, though, a horrible horrible woman.
Michelle Boag is known to hold a vendetta and then exact punative utu for the smallest of perceived slights. This is why she continues to gets access to media. However, IMO once a crack appears, it is highly likely that her power base will disintegrate rapidly .
Not sure about that. MB’s got so many cracks showing whilst buildings have been demolished for less as earthquake risks. Yet she continues to survive and grace us all with her spectacular wisdom at least once a week.
Hi Gristle
I was told last nigt that Michelle Boag is related to Matthew Hooten!!!!!!
Can someone cofirm this please?
There is a brilliant poster going the rounds but I cannot get it to copy and paste it here. Shows the detail of the Blue result in 2014 election then the Red poster result for 2017. Damns the negative complainers. Some one must have it and cleverly post it here. It is very good.
The MMP complaining one? Is awesome.
Here it is
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10154831776026646&set=a.64591706645.84963.598741645&type=3&theater
Thanks beatie. My wife and I tried to post it on TS so great to see it there now. It is very clever esp. the last bit.
Testing…
Welcome back. The current record for post-election returnees before getting banned again is four hours twenty eight minutes. Your clock has started.
Challenge accepted! 🙂
To be fair, you’re only the second. So no matter what you’ll set a record. To make it a challenge you should nominate whether you’re aiming for under or over.
Its not like I try to get banned, it just seems to happen every now and then
Its good to have you back. There weren’t too many righties left by the time the election rolled around
Over it is then. Good. I mostly enjoy your contributions, not to mention it’s less work for mods.
And yet you spew a racist diatribe and thought that was acceptable.
I suppose racists have been embolden of late.
Can you post the comment you’re referring to as I have no idea what you’re talking about
Forgot the comment that got you banned did you?
We’re talking months ago so yes
Set the record for the longest before banning Pucky.
Who got banned already?
TheExtremist
https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-23102017/#comment-1403931
Some people just want to watch the world burn 🙂
To be fair, it was more like the guy about to be released from jail who is immediately arrested on other warrants the cops just found out about.
A comment that might not have gotten many people banned drew enough moderator attention to bring to light a history of activity from that IP address. 🙂
“about to be released”? He got released. Then it’s like the cops ran his plates for a minor traffic infringement on his way home from jail, saw the past behaviour, and threw him back inside. Still brings a smile, tho.
🙂
More like he got released and ran a red light, which got the cops’ attention who then looked up the outstanding warrants. Had he not run a red light, nothing would have happened.
Welcome back Puckish. Please don’t get offended as I say this in jest “I have missed your one-eyed rightwing bullshit’ You’re not really like that, Welcome back looking forward to your opinions.
Thanks for that and well done to Labour for putting together a government
Thanks Puckish rougue,
We hope you will help us fix this broken country now, since the national wrecking ball has done it’s worst to wreck our environment.
See this from our letter sent this morning to Professor James Renwick,
Sad enditement from a careless National Party policy as we see for real now.
—————————————————————————————————————-
24th October 2017.
James Renwick,
Professor School of Geography, Environment and Earth Sciences.
BSc (Hons), Mathematics, Canterbury, (1977); MSc, Statistics,
Victoria University of Wellington.
Dear James,
Such a pleasure to review your report on Climate change and NZ emissions of emissions it is very sadly needed to be highlighted today.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/audio/player?audio_id=2018618970
Of special interest to our committee is the large increase of freight truck use we are monitoring in HB/Gisborne regions NZ average of 6% annually is now at 12% in Gisborne/HB for freight movements of 36% of NZ exports of our products from both east coast provinces.
I commend your report and will advance this document as signalling a return of freight back to rail in our regions as Hon’ Winston Peters has for several years attended meetings in both East coast provinces has pledged in Government to bring back our mothballed rail system into service again which will have an extremely useful method of helping to reduce our climate change emissions again.
I would like to converse with you in the weeks ahead, and offer our study reports to you as we have conducted them often in collusion with other agencies and may be very useful for your continuing studies also.
Warmest regards,
—————————————————————————————————————-
http://www.radionz.co.nz/audio/player?audio_id=2018618970
A new report http://www.radionz.co.nz/audio/player?audio_id=2018618970 on climate change has painted a stark picture of New Zealand’s contribution to global greenhouse gas emissions. It says climate change is already potentially irreversibly affecting the country’s natural systems, and many aspects of climate change will continue for centuries. Global gross emissions of greenhouse gases rose 50 per cent from 1990 to 2013, mainly due to people burning more fossil fuels for electricity generation, heat, transport, manufacturing and construction. Despite New Zealand’s contribution being quite small at 0.17 per cent, we have the fifth-highest level of emissions per person of the 35 countries in the OECD. Kathryn Ryan speaks with James Renwick, a professor at the School of Geography, Environment and Earth Sciences at Victoria University who contributed to the report.
Key findings of ‘Our atmosphere and climate 2017’ report
Ministry for the EnvironmentPLUS
Ministry for the Environment and Stats NZ environmental reporting looks at the pressures, state and impacts on the environment and tracks change over time. Here are some key findings from Our atmosphere and climate 2017.
Hey, Pucky!
If only National hadn’t overdone the lying, eh!
They might have got back in.
If Judith Collins had been leader National would have gotten over 50%…possibly 🙂
Given that Judith never lies, you might be right.
We’ll find out at the next election.
It’s mean to call English, “Bingles” – perhaps that’s what sank him?
I understand she’s very big in swamps.
So are alligators.
* sings
“Never smile at a crocodile
No, you can’t get friendly with a crocodile
Don’t be taken in by her welcome grin
She’s imagining how well you’d fit within her skin
Never smile at a crocodile
Never tip your hat and stop to talk awhile
Never run, walk away, say good-night, not good-day
Clear the aisle but never smile at Mrs Crocodile”
I wonder if she and Paula might be persuaded to sing this as a duet:
A bold hippopotamus was standing one day
On the banks of the cool Shalimar
He gazed at the bottom as he peacefully lay
By the light of the evening star
Away on the hilltop sat combing her hair
His fair hippopotami maid…
In a pinch Gerry might do the male part – he had musical ambitions at one time.
Seriously dude, you need to pick a single handle and stick to it. I’m not even going to bother asking for confirmation because I’ve spent way too much time on this already, but if I see you posting under another name again I will ban you. This is mostly so I don’t have to use my time going into the back end to check what you are doing.
If you don’t know what I am referring to I suggest you look back at past moderation notes. If you have multiple people using your ISP, then let us know.
The “Steak” brothers, Blade, Chuck and Rump? MitM? Puckish! No !
100% weka.
I’m the only Puckish Rogue but unfortunately theres something like a couple of hundred people (probably more) using this ISP
Couple hundred on the same IP with multiple bans in effect? Sheeee-it, that’s one hell of a troll farm!
🙂
It’s not MoBIE is it? They have many Dicks there
I should probably point out that they’re not all mine 🙂
Are you saying that Puckish Rogue is the only handle you have used here?
Crikey! Is Pucky about to exit after only a few short hours???
There might have a been a slight misspoke in there
A True Nat then!
Actually starting to head towards a bluey-greeny type
kicking and screaming and vowing not to try very hard
bluey greeny ?
How so, Pucky (and whatever other handle you’ve used)?
Its been slowly happening over time, first the dismay at whats happening with diary in the McKenzie then going out on more of our DOC tracks and then a bit of hunting and suddenly its like the environment becomes a little more important then it once was
https://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/98160028/yes-jacinda-ardern-cursed-the-all-blacks-i-was-there
Glad someone satirising the Herald over their article about Jacinda cursing the All Blacks.
Heartbreaking story from Peter Watts (sf writer, lapsed marine biologist and ailurophile) on homelessness and mental health in Toronto. Not too different. Maybe Wayne Blimp would like to read it and tell us it doesn’t matter because some statistic or other looks good if you squint the right way.
http://www.rifters.com/crawl/?p=7710
Apparently if OECD says we are top of something Wayne likes then NZ is great… and nothing to see here. Someone above referred to Wayne as “sane”. If true then he can be quite cold.
Tracey, sane in comparison to Michelle Boag and Mike Hosking. He doesn’t rant and rage and have extreme outlandish opinions. He did say somewhere he was excited by the fresh generational change. So kudos where due.
Unless he is just trying to make himself seem “balanced” in his tilt at being a paid media commentator
Links to Wayne Mapp media comments on the new government mentioned in Reality’s comments.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11935084
He is excited about Jacinda Ardern … Also published on the Spinoff – https://thespinoff.co.nz/politics/20-10-2017/i-was-a-national-mp-for-15-years-and-today-im-excited-about-jacinda/
Also Mapp on RNZ – still a Nat:
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/2018618624/ex-national-mp-wayne-mapp-discusses-new-opposition
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/political/341996/expect-a-vigorous-opposition-former-mp-says
There’s some fundamental quality of humanity missing.
Bill English is a man of few words. His new few words are ‘ I got the most votes ‘. Inserted into every sentence at any opportunity. Poor Eeyore!
I couldnt stand seeing Bill English’s sorry sad sack face any more Fflyod and reached for the eject button.
I felt so much better then.
Three minutes of news that manages to elevate Bill English and rubbish solo mothers. Nice one Radionz and Katherine Hutton. Bill English is given voice time telling of all the sad cases that Social Investment is going to help. (Ironic that this is the government who has worsened the plight of struggling people year by year and caused the eruption of problems like an inflamed boil that couldn’t be ignored.)
Then evidence is quoted about the most likely people to be having troubles – solo mothers comes first, not the fact that it is only a percentage of them who have prison connections, etc. So all are lumped in as being the problem, when so many are struggling on and doing a good job in difficult circumstances.
Professor Jonathan Boston outlines the advantages of social investment, and the requirements for it to be effective which Labour/G/F should meet. Bill Rosenberg, economist points out that attending to basic need such as housing, better wages, rather than pinpointing problem people and targeting them would probably be the way L>G>F would wish to handle it.
My view is that if they combine those two approaches, with attending to need first, and then asking people where they first want help, would drop problems down to half. (And also police be told to stop chasing cars for doing 130kmh on motorways, and looking out for stolen cars at night. Then they could attend other reported crimes faster, at less human and financial cost.)
life and society politics
6:39 am today
New govt urged to keep English’s ‘social investment approach’
From Morning Report, 6:39 am today
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/2018618937/new-govt-urged-to-keep-english-s-social-investment-approach
Listen duration 2′ :44″
Labour is being urged to keep Bill English’s pet social welfare project that identifies high risk families and then focuses government help. The so-called Social Investment Approach uses data to measure how services are being delivered to the most vulnerable and whether they’re working.
(Sounds like targeting to me. What is needed is monitoring and reporting, and revising if assistance is not working. But not with high and unreasonably demanding levels of improvement required. Good things take time. And starting with small goals that are achievable is needed, both for the social workers, and for those being helped, the ‘clients’.)
Greywarshark
That was so evil putting that plonker B English on the Radio NZ prime time news spot when nothing was presented about our new government was offered in person so we need to totally rearrange Radio NZ and fire all the national cling on’s that are still hiding as “national cells” within the new government so take them all out of government.
That is necessary – but the one that is most overdue is Treasury. Long past time the far right ideologues there were ousted in favour of data driven folk. No free lunch for Chicago school trash.
Cleangreen, I don’t understand or like the “we.” Unless you are a member of the Government, then what is this “we.”
(It’s like when the All Blacks win and people say “we won.” Really, I (and probably you) had next to nothing to creating this win. )
Back to RNZ. I think it is particularly stupid to go around firing people on the basis of their political views unless of course they happen to be your political adviser. Radio NZ is considered by others to be “Red Radio.” Me, I think RNZ is too conservative to be called Red.
RNZ is up for rearrangement as it is poised under Labour policy to become the key public broadcasting institution. No doubt the RNZ Board will change, Richard Griffin has been Chair there for about 7 years now and probably was heading for retirement soon anyway. Anyway, there are going to heaps of new people to create and implement this new version of RNZ. I am looking forward to see who is picked and what they do.
Sort of agree @Gristle, but you do have to concede that the gNats began by giving their mates what amounts to corporate welfare in the commercial media sector, then starved public service media as much as possible. When those pesky Red Radio people wouldn’t lay down and die, they started to do their best at stacking the deck. (It still won;t work however).
“Back to RNZ. I think it is particularly stupid to go around firing people on the basis of their political views unless of course they happen to be your political adviser. “
They shouldn’t be fired for their political views, but should be let go if they have an inability to separate those views from their decision making or editing and programming decisions.
It would be ideal to have a clear mission statement from RNZ on how they decide to inform and ensure accuracy balance in reporting and news programmes.
The current mission statement (if Wikipedia is correct) The station’s mission statement requires it to promote and reflect New Zealand in the Pacific, and better relations between New Zealand and Pacific countries. is a bit vague for me, and makes no mention of quality or balanced reporting.
Even this has some problems. I read The Atlantic and know its editorial position is liberal democratic US exceptionalism. I read the Intercept and know its starting point. The issue is when media is presented as unbiased because that just doesn’t happen.
One persons accuracy becomes somebody else’s sin of omission. As their particular perspective is ignored so there goes the balance.
Often news items appear on TV because they are videographic and can be easily encapsulated into 60 seconds. Short form news by its nature is truncated and by its abbreviation it becomes distorted.
Often as the story gets longer the bias becomes obvious and the story will weaken unless evidence and argument is strong.
A second phone call is good to arrange lunch, but makes a poor substitute for the lunch discussion.
“One persons accuracy becomes somebody else’s sin of omission. As their particular perspective is ignored so there goes the balance.”
That is true. But at least that gives the audience a statement to relate to when writing complaints about bias.
“A second phone call is good to arrange lunch, but makes a poor substitute for the lunch discussion.”
Only phrase that comes to mind when reading this is: ain’t that the truth?
Message for The Chairmen if you see this.
Following on from our brief interaction in yesterday’s OM re a Christmas bonus for beneficiaries. I’ve just been in contact with my friend in England who’s on their equivalent of Supported Living payment/Invalids. She informs me she’s been getting a whole 10 quid (so about $20) going way back, and is pretty sure it was for people on all the main benefits, ie the unemployed sick, jobless and sole parents. The latter one’s bonus is based on per child. She was very surprised to receive it last year.
But she’s pretty certain they’ll probably stop it given the Tory Government is currently undertaking a very real programme of passive genocide towards anyone who has the audacity to no be able to work for whatever reason. And no, that’s not hyperbole. Said friend’s had a very close call with them, another is up to about 14 weeks in hospital so far and nearly dead from the stress of dealing with the DWP considering her fit to work. (This is why I can’t watch I Daniel Blake, it’s happening to my friends).
I slightly digress there but it’s always good to emphasise what’s going on in the UK because the Nats were in the process of bringing that policy here and it’s highly likely another 3 years of them would’ve resulted in a massive spike in beneficiary deaths, which we know has already started.
$20 as a Christmas bonus will do bugger all for our financial situation of course, but it would certainly allow for a couple of food treats that we couldn’t consider getting any other time. And it’s not going to bankrupt the country.
From February next year, the car and motorcycle population will not be allowed to increase .
To get a car in Singapore you need a Certificate of Entitlement. But now Singapore is going to cap the total number of cars and motorbikes across the entire country:
http://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/transport/lta-scraps-vehicle-growth-rate
Something for even the Greens to aspire to!
The entire country of Singapore
Is miniscule in size, and also has public transport covering its small area space…
A great task for a new Minister of Climate Change would be to show what difference that rail electrification and higher public transport use has made to Auckland’s CO2 emissions. Or maybe for an Associate Minister of Transport.
Bloody good stuff Ed
I am all for this with freight trucks now that we have the latest forecast that trucks are causing 80% of the total transport ‘Climate change emissions’.
So truck use now need to be cut back and the report says we need more freight back on rail.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/audio/player?audio_id=2018618970
The report confirms we are now the fifth highest climate change emissions country per population in the world now.
Not a pretty picture is it. No more “roads of national Significance” (RONs) we ow must adopt NZF rail policy on their website, called “Rails of National Importance” (RONI)
A new report http://www.radionz.co.nz/audio/player?audio_id=2018618970 on climate change has painted a stark picture of New Zealand’s contribution to global greenhouse gas emissions. It says climate change is already potentially irreversibly affecting the country’s natural systems, and many aspects of climate change will continue for centuries. Global gross emissions of greenhouse gases rose 50 per cent from 1990 to 2013, mainly due to people burning more fossil fuels for electricity generation, heat, transport, manufacturing and construction. Despite New Zealand’s contribution being quite small at 0.17 per cent, we have the fifth-highest level of emissions per person of the 35 countries in the OECD. Kathryn Ryan speaks with James Renwick, a professor at the School of Geography, Environment and Earth Sciences at Victoria University who contributed to the report.
Key findings of ‘Our atmosphere and climate 2017’ report
Ministry for the EnvironmentPLUS
Ministry for the Environment and Stats NZ environmental reporting looks at the pressures, state and impacts on the environment and tracks change over time. Here are some key findings from Our atmosphere and climate 2017.
Intimations and innuendo about JA and partner – dirty politics are go over at blubber’s and the sewer.
Gayford becomes Gaylord. It’s always the ingenuity and sophistication of their humour that impresses the most…
Truly NZ’s own Algonquin Round Table…
How long before they go down the homophobic line they did with Clark.
Well it’s a lot worse down in the dungeons of redbaiter’s twisted mind (trueblue nz or something)
This prick.
Could this be an organised campaign? When politicians wrongfully blame poor water quality on farming and irrigation (the worst quality is in fact in urban areas), then you encourage anti-farmer sentiment that leads to this.
http://archive.li/zy8Ss
Wikipedia are asking for another donation and say they are lagging behind their required level.
They say that only 1% of users give. I am sure, like me, people mean to donate but don’t get around to it. I did a while ago but it’s asking time again apparently. Would all of you who value wikipedia go to the donate button on their page.
If any of you are negative about something re wikipedia, please don’t bother to tell us your gripe. Thank you.
No need they are already rich from corporate sponsorship
ropata
It doesn’t appear so as they hae been asking for donations several times inte last several years since the corporates are mountimg attacks on them.
Will do greywarshark.
Some talk on the Blogosphere & Social Media over recent weeks suggesting that NZF is (in terms of its support-base) a largely “Rural” or “Provincial” or “Very Small Town” Party
To test this idea – I’ve sorted seats into 4 categories & found that
.
31.5% … (58845) … of NZF’s Party Vote is derived from Metro seats (Auckland + Wellington + Christchurch)
29.6% … (55355) … of NZF’s Party Vote is derived from Provincial City seats (ranging in size from Gisborne up to Hamilton)
31.5% … (58766) … of NZF’s Party Vote is derived from Rural seats
7.4% … (13740) … of NZF’s Party Vote is derived from Maori seats
.
While this is a relatively rough & ready methodology, it does nicely highlight the sheer diversity of NZF support in Urban vs Rural terms
NZF certainly derives disproportionate support from Rural & Small Town New Zealand but that by no means defines its voter-base
Yes you could certainly call it a “Provincial” Party
ie 61% of NZF support comes courtesy of Provincial City & Rural New Zealand
But then, by the same token, precisely the same majority of NZFers ‘derive from Urban New Zealand (Metro + Provincial City = 61%)
.
Richard Harman at Politik (English faces uphill battle) has suggested
Not true
just a large minority = 46% (86136) from the North Island Provincial City & Rural seats
Viewed from another angle – NZF also derives a large minority of its support from our
6 Largest Cities (Auckland Wellington Christchurch Hamilton Tauranga (+ BoP) Dunedin) = 41% (77370)
Have you ever read The Eight Tribes of New Zealand?
Worth having a look at the Balclutha and Papakura tribes – they capture the flavour of New Zealand First rather well.
You can figure out which one you belong to here:
http://www.8tribes.co.nz/find.php
Cheers Adrick
My dominant tribes are supposedly :
Grey Lynn (Intellectual)
Raglan (Free spirited)
But I suspect also more than a touch of both
Cuba St (Avant Garde) &
Papatoetoe (Unpretentious)
As outrageously contradictory as that might seem
Cheers ad, Papatoe in da house.
if labour are serious about becoming a true mmp style party with an eye on the long term , when they are setting up their tax working group they should have a space at the table for Gareth Morgan , he’ s an ideas man with a sound financial brain and who knows top might be a future coalition party .
keep in mind 2+% voted for his party
Yeah I was surprised that a couple of close friends wasted their votes on TOP.
Respect to their policy ideas but to me it was just another rick prick distraction campaign and it wasted a large % of progressive votes. To truly make a difference, Morgan should have quit near the end and endorsed the Greens
Another mate voted Conservative, such are the vagaries of MMP that there are a lot of wasted votes. 🙁
The Spanish federal government is about to impose federal government on Catalonia.
If there was one moment for the European Union to show , in the midst of massive anti-EU votes all around the continent, that it can successfully intervene diplomatically and get leaders to talk rather than trudge down the stony road to civil war, this is the moment to do it.
So far, all we are getting is two dumb-assed Spanish leaders going down really stupid paths with zero dialogue and increased force.
Time for the EU to show what its capacity and purpose really is.
who’s in the wrong over there?
The EU has already give the Catalonia’s the two finger salute during or before the vote to leave Spain.
It would be nice to see the EU have some balls over this, but I’m afraid there’s more chance of Winix winning the Caulfield Cup on Saturday than the EU getting everyone around the table for talks.
“A record number of immigrants accounted for more than 70 percent of population growth in New Zealand in the last year, according to new data from Stats NZ.
The data reveals that our country’s population grew by 100,400 in the year ending June 2017 – and a whopping 72,300 of that was as a result of net migration.”
http://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2017/10/auckland-leads-significant-new-zealand-population-growth.html
What I find ridiculous is still every day we get articles from MSM that the economy and business will suffer if they can’t get any more low paid workers – so apparently Kiwis have to subsidise the housing and infrastructure of all these low paid workers for companies like Sky city and hotels http://www.newshub.co.nz/home/election/2017/10/queenstown-concerned-about-effect-of-immigration-cuts-on-tourism.html
– it’s clearly adding to the housing shortage which apparently tax payers have to pay to fix at the rate of $1000 a week motel rooms for the poor and lower wages for the working poor and generous subsidies to developers.
Neoliberalism has gone too far. This is a big problem in NZ with business leaching on the backs of the taxpayers for cheaper and cheaper labour so they can make more profits while average Joe suffers.
What about user pays that these business types apparently believe in (apart from for themselves) maybe all these businesses need to make wages and conditions attractive enough for workers to work the jobs at a living wage and being paid $600 p/w when it costs $400 p/w to rent a house, probably doesn’t cut it.
Somehow we have a weird corporate welfare system operating in NZ where NZ taxpayers routinely subsidise 1/3 of someones wages in benefit top ups so they can survive or get a migrant in, with the lure of getting a foot in the door of residency. Supermarkets for example used to be staffed by students, no longer when you can get desperate migrants in full time work in to do it at student rates.
It now costs $400+ p/w for a house, because of the population growth of literally hundreds of thousands coming to NZ to get residency and work permits. And the deregulation of the housing has meant more and more leaky and substandard houses are out of action. We are not even getting to the P problem that has yet to be remedied taking out more housing. Is P safe with a wash down, increasingly it seems it is, but private practise has created a million dollar business our of the misery of P contamination. And that is taking out rental properties and making many homeless and many potential landlords unwilling to rent even if they had the houses which have been sold long ago anyway.
New housing is rocketing in price and now too expensive to build with the lack of training of local workers, lack of enthusiasm of local workers for the pay and conditions offered, deregulation of materials so that many fail and the work needs to be redone (concrete, plumbing etc) and the so called expertise of so called skilled migrants many who can work cheap and ask no questions but low NZ productivity shows a different side of this story which is not showing a successful experiment.
Immigrants and NZs would like to have safer conditions for work than this guy.
Joe 90 put it up on the Labour Day site. I hope we do provide safer conditions and haven’t just sunk to the lowest level ourselves?
A race to the bottom!
https://twitter.com/youmuppet_/status/922084798088339457
Looks like Collins is still on the Bill English train, so I expect he’s staying on as leader for some time, as Collins wouldn’t publicly back him if there were any rumblings in caucus about ditching bill.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/political/342248/will-english-still-lead-the-national-party
Collins will want Bill or some fall-guy to take the likely 2020 defeat on the chin. Not her.
when Goff got the leadership after Clarke’s reign i felt for the guy as anyone with a brain knew the nats were good for at least two terms , like labour is now, i expect english will be there as long as he wants unless the coalition looks shaky then the sharks will circle english.
Agreed, unless theres a massive falling out Jacinda is there for at least two terms
That’s good, he needs to stay at least 6 months before retiring
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11936301
I actually felt excited reading this , the new govs plans
“Political Roundup: The legitimacy of the Labour-led government.”
For once Bryce Edwards has come down definitely on a topic.
This part the facts:
http://liberation.typepad.com/liberation/2017/10/has-the-new-nz-government-been-installed-by-an-undemocratic-coup-a-twitter-reply.html
and Dr Edward Willis:
http://liberation.typepad.com/liberation/2017/10/has-the-new-nz-government-been-installed-by-an-undemocratic-coup-a-twitter-reply.html
Edwards: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11936270
Didn’t want to spoil the sugar coated thread with irreverence…
So if plants are getting less nutritious because of climate change, using the pattern of dinosaurs demise, does it mean vegans and vegenauts are going to go first?
Meat eaters for the pyrrhic win.
I would guess top of the food chain will be affected too 😉 Besides, none of us will survive if the insects don’t.
True enough, and forgetting sci fi meals in a pill supplements etc. Deep freezers are still going to work so plenty of stockpiles to get through before the carnivores go by the wayside.
Even if existence is only a few weeks more than the veges, even without nutritious vegetables, I’d be okay with lasting out a bit longer by eating my frozen greens lol
Btw, my kid has just turned veggy, which I support as his choice and respect the decision.
One good shake of Rūaumoko and there goes the grid. I wouldn’t get too smug 😉
Not smug, but if it came down to it, I’d go carrion for an extra week or two. Freezers might go, but fire won’t. Char grilled is still a go’er
The leaf eaters, probably not so much wriggle room.
Interested in whether we can afford it all? Read Bryan Gould. He has about four entries on our finances, with similar titles. It is as if he wanted to make the point so much that he changed each title to have a different impact on a reader with a viewpoint that matched.
http://www.bryangould.com/why-does-the-left-so-often-disappoint/
And David Seymour. What a laugh. How come he gets treated seriously and Winston often is not.
The Super Fund is being reinstated. Seymour said it was the wrong priority.
“Household debt is the Greek problem that New Zealand faces. We need to actually get that under control. I think we should be cutting taxes and running less of a surplus in order to give some relief to households,” he said.
The trouble is that NZ households would probably spend all the reduced taxes.
In the year ending September we went on 2.79 million overseas trips, up 253,000.
That doesn’t indicate people holding back and paying off debt.
And the latest annual net migration figures were mostly driven by non-NZ citizens.
This from Business in nelsonmail.co.nz (Fairfax have closed the century old building and its new, forward looking addition and now seems to be only on-line and not every day I think. I got the news around my frozens.)