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Written By: Hunter Thompson II - Date published: 4:50 pm, May 20th, 2025
I'm sure most farmers are carrying significant debt and find it hard going a lot of the time. I note that MPI has a farm debt mediation scheme. But for decades NZ farmers have worked the tax system to pay minimal income tax year on year and then take a tax ...Written By: Hunter Thompson II - Date published: 9:49 am, May 9th, 2025
The very rich will do anything to keep hold of their money. Wall Street Journal (8 May) carries a story of whistleblowers at Credit Suisse bank who reported the bank had not followed terms of a settlement it made with US tax authorities. Instead of fully ...Written By: Hunter Thompson II - Date published: 12:31 pm, May 7th, 2025
Get real - you can't stop progress and you gotta have growth (well that's what the pollies would have us believe). If our wildlife and the environment that supports it get in the way of development, both must be sacrificed. That's why the Ruataniwha dam ...Written By: Hunter Thompson II - Date published: 10:53 am, May 5th, 2025
Robt Jones's demise has sparked a range of comments; some people loathed him, others liked him. I suppose you could call him an activist, but he always looked after #1. Various court cases show that side of him, including one from 1993 involving Jones ...Written By: Hunter Thompson II - Date published: 3:40 pm, April 15th, 2025
According to media reports, Brad Pitt declined to film in the Shotover river because it is polluted by sewage: https://crux.org.nz/crux-news/new-blog-post-24 The shoot will take place in Auckland instead, using a tank. Soon after, the government announced ...Written By: Hunter Thompson II - Date published: 11:31 am, April 10th, 2025
I'd back Mike Joy's views any day. His book "The Fight for Freshwater" is an enlightening story. The bureaucrats are simply trying to cover their butts and get away with "monitoring the situation" ie doing nothing.Written By: Hunter Thompson II - Date published: 3:13 pm, April 7th, 2025
I became interested in Trump's use of executive orders to implement his policies, as he seems to be acting like the US version of Joseph Stalin. Can't Congress rein him in? This note from a US law firm gives a few pointers: https://www.woodsrogers.com/ ...Written By: Hunter Thompson II - Date published: 9:50 am, April 7th, 2025
The lunacy continues: "Trump administration orders half of national forests open for logging" (Stuff report, https://www.stuff.co.nz/world-news/360642862/trump-administration-orders-half-national-forests-open-logging) US foresters have been told that they ...Written By: Hunter Thompson II - Date published: 1:31 pm, March 26th, 2025
Chris Bishop is going on all cylinders. His policy seems to be one of swapping what is left of our environmental assets for economic growth. All in the national interest, of course. He cites no evidence for his assertion that New Zealanders are sick and ...Written By: Hunter Thompson II - Date published: 2:30 pm, March 18th, 2025
Good point, thanks for putting it up.Written By: Hunter Thompson II - Date published: 10:44 am, March 18th, 2025
Just occasionally our media representatives fulfill their proper function of shining a light into a dark corner so the public know what has been going on. An example is the Stuff coverage of the awarding of a $2 million contract by Health NZ to a UK ...Written By: Hunter Thompson II - Date published: 10:10 am, March 17th, 2025
I haven't studied Trump closely but it seems he has a God complex. That means whatever the issue he must always be right. So even if he had sound economic and foreign policy advisers he would simply dismiss their comments out of hand and do his own thing. ...Written By: Hunter Thompson II - Date published: 9:28 am, February 27th, 2025
Chris Penk announced a revamp of the Public Works Act recently. Matters he spoke of included removing barriers and refining the role of the Environment Court. Combine that with the new Fast-track Approvals Act and plans to gut the Resource Management Act ...Written By: Hunter Thompson II - Date published: 4:30 pm, February 25th, 2025
" ... the Government believes that foreign investment is generally beneficial." So instead of citing solid evidence about the benefits of foreign investment, all we get is an unsubstantiated allegation. Some nice weasel words there. No need to inquire ...Written By: Hunter Thompson II - Date published: 4:05 pm, January 28th, 2025
Dept of Conservation is consulting on 2 proposals: https://www.doc.govt.nz/get-involved/have-your-say/all-consultations/2024-consultations/exploring-charging-for-access-to-some-public-conservation-land/ https://www.doc.govt.nz/get-involved/have-your-say/ ...Written By: Hunter Thompson II - Date published: 10:35 am, January 28th, 2025
I think another war may be brewing. There is a good chance it will be over competition for scarce natural resources, as our standard of living is based on consuming them as if there were no tomorrow.Written By: Hunter Thompson II - Date published: 10:30 am, January 28th, 2025
So the Chinese invented a better mousetrap? That's free market competition in action. The Wall Street honchos have no right to complain.Written By: Hunter Thompson II - Date published: 10:30 am, January 25th, 2025
Media reports suggest our conservation land will be opened up for mining. Expect more on this next week. I understand the government's view; only tree-hugging greenies use those areas so they must be sacrificed to the economy. For our native flora and ...Written By: Hunter Thompson II - Date published: 9:47 am, January 24th, 2025
The PM's speech seemed to be a desperate sort of cheerleading, the message being that economic growth will take us all to Nirvana. What he didn't say was that the environment will be gutted to achieve that growth. His comments on making life easier for ...Written By: Hunter Thompson II - Date published: 11:41 am, January 21st, 2025
Brian Easton comments about economic matters on the Pundit website (https://www.pundit.co.nz/). He writes in a way most people can understand, so it's worth a look. I don't understand the economic issues either, but I see the broad situation like this - ...Written By: Hunter Thompson II - Date published: 6:47 pm, January 15th, 2025
Local government minister Simeon Brown (according to media reports) wants to cut red tape and get Auckland projects done and dusted, one being a second harbour crossing. Apparently this sort of thing will improve quality of life. Do these clods never learn ...Written By: Hunter Thompson II - Date published: 9:24 am, January 13th, 2025
The LA fires are a disaster, that's for sure, but it jars to see reports of 16 deaths from that event replace the 41,000 killed in Gaza by Israel's efforts. I assume Israel's leaders think that if they hammer Gaza into oblivion, no more Arab extremists ...Written By: Hunter Thompson II - Date published: 9:10 pm, January 9th, 2025
Glad that they're thinking of prevention, rather than just doing a cleanup job without changing the way people live. Now if only that approach could be applied to dairy waste in this country. I understand Boyan Slat dropped out of university (he was ...Written By: Hunter Thompson II - Date published: 12:28 pm, January 9th, 2025
Parliament's select committee has allowed more time (to 1pm on 14 Jan) for people to make submissions on the Treaty Principles Bill. Only problem is the Parliamentary website still lists the bill as having closed for submissions on 7 Jan. It does not ...Written By: Hunter Thompson II - Date published: 11:52 am, December 30th, 2024
At the end of Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, Frodo Baggins goes on to the next world, leaving his faithful helper, Sam, to carry on in the Shire and restore it to its former state. Sam wants to go with his master but Frodo does not allow it, explaining ...Written By: Hunter Thompson II - Date published: 10:06 am, December 29th, 2024
Now we are told (29 Dec) that faecal contamination in the Waimakariri river in Canterbury makes it dangerous to humans. And before that we had slash on Gisborne beaches along with a "don't swim" warning for people attending the Rythm and Vines festival. ...Written By: Hunter Thompson II - Date published: 11:03 am, December 27th, 2024
Things aren't any better for swimmers in the south. The ODT ( 26 Dec) reports that faecal counts are too high in a popular lake near Christchurch: https://www.odt.co.nz/news/national/faecal-bacteria-warning-christchurch-lake Not the sort of image that the ...Written By: Hunter Thompson II - Date published: 12:55 pm, December 21st, 2024
From the headline, I thought you were talking about the Fast-track Approvals Act. That legislation will change our country, but not "like never before". In fact, we've already seen it with Muldoon and Birch's Think Big plan, the Clutha Development (Clyde ...Written By: Hunter Thompson II - Date published: 2:12 pm, December 18th, 2024
Odd that a New Zealander of the Year candidate should need to issue a public apology. Perhaps Judge Aitken felt she was giving effect to the well-known legal maxim "audi alteram partem" (hear the other side). The only problem is that she was not invited to ...Written By: Hunter Thompson II - Date published: 9:59 am, December 7th, 2024
The government has announced a $3 million handout of taxpayer funds for the purpose of investigating whether the Ruataniwha dam proposal in Hawkes Bay should be revived. The scheme has already been turned down in the courts (with a sneaky effort to ...
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