As we bind ourselves with the TPP, so other countries will fill the need

Written By: Colonial Viper - Date published: 5:58 pm, December 4th, 2015 - 112 comments
Categories: business, Economy, Environment, exports, farming, farming, food, sustainability, trade, uncategorized - Tags:

Insecure, insufficient and adulterated food supplies are set to become one of the major problems of the 21st century, causing societal upheaval and discontent. In Egypt and Syria, they were central elements which helped to foment revolution. In Tahrir Square, masses of anti-government protesters chanted, “Bread, Freedom, Dignity.”

But bread was first.

As NZ is a party to the TPP, our ability to restrain the use of GMOs, pesticides and other non-organic approaches to food production and ingredient sourcing is likely to become very limited. This is a shame as NZ produce has always been valued for its “clean, green” image (if not always the substance), at a time when the increasingly wealthy middle classes in rapidly growing countries like India and China become more health conscious.

By signing up to and keeping NZ in the TPP, both Labour and National are crippling the potential NZ has in this field.

Russia, still reeling from food and other sanctions placed on it by Western countries last year is using the opportunity not just to become self-sufficient in food production but to undertake a strategic journey to become a world leader in ‘ecologically clean’ organic food production.

Russia could become the world’s largest supplier of ecologically clean and high-quality organic food, said President Vladimir Putin on Thursday. He also called on the country to become completely self-sufficient in food production by 2020.

“We are not only able to feed ourselves taking into account our lands, water resources – Russia is able to become the largest world supplier of healthy, ecologically clean and high-quality food which the Western producers have long lost, especially given the fact that demand for such products in the world market is steadily growing,” said Putin, addressing the Russian Parliament on Thursday.

In contrast, with politicians and civil servants seemingly under the sway of trans-national corporate interests, NZ seems to be willingly surrendering this high-value, highly differentiated market to other players who have seen its possibilities.

According to Reuters/CNBC, official government pressure in Russia has seen the share of GMO foods in Russia decline from approx 12% a decade ago to virtually none today.

112 comments on “As we bind ourselves with the TPP, so other countries will fill the need ”

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weka 1

4 December 2015 at 6:04 pm

“As NZ is a party to the TPP, our ability to restrain the use of GMOs, pesticides and other non-organic approaches to food production and ingredient sourcing is likely to become very limited.”

Can you please be more specific?
- Colonial Viper 1.1
  
  4 December 2015 at 6:16 pm
  
  My expectation is that NZ will not be able to exclude or label food product ingredient imports or exports on the basis of GMO status.
  - Sacha 1.1.1
    
    4 December 2015 at 6:30 pm
    
    Unless we negotiated a carve-out, that seems correct. I haven’t checked.
  - Macro 1.1.2
    
    4 December 2015 at 7:48 pm
    
    That is how I understand it to be too. There are already many conditions put on the supply of new seed and that will be extended by TPP, all for the benefit of Monsanto…
    - weka 1.1.2.1
      
      4 December 2015 at 8:25 pm
      
      Are you suggesting that Monsanto (or any company) can force NZ growers to use GMO seed? Or that they can try and sell it here despite any NZ law prohibiting GMO crops?
      - Macro 1.1.2.1.1
        
        4 December 2015 at 8:55 pm
        
        Well that would be a restriction of trade wouldn’t it if the NZ govt persisted in banning GMO’s so I’m sure Monsanto would be off to the ISDS:
        
        Here is Andrew Geddis on the matter
        “If a country seizes an investment or passes new laws which make it worthless (for example, it suddenly bans a product produced in a factory owned by a foreign investor) and pays insufficient compensation, or none at all, the investor could use ISDS to bring a claim directly against that country, claiming a breach of the expropriation provision in the agreement and seeking compensation. ”
        http://pundit.co.nz/content/of-tpps-isdss-and-the-constitution
        
        weka 1.1.2.1.1.1
        
        4 December 2015 at 9:04 pm
        
        That’s referring to existing businesses. CV appears to be suggesting (although it’s unclear) that new businesses could start selling GMO crops here. Why not body parts, or child slaves then?
        
        Macro …
        
        4 December 2015 at 9:26 pm
        
        That’s referring to existing businesses
        “Round up” is an existing product which is used extensively in this country. Many countries have now banned its use. Including South Africa, France, Chile, Brazil and Sri Lanka. It was banned years ago in Canada.
        http://ultraculture.org/blog/2014/04/01/5-countries-throwing-monsanto-ass/
        and
        http://theantimedia.org/more-european-countries-banning-glyphosate-monsantos-roundup/
        Under the TPP NZ could not do that.
        
        also – many GMO’s are developed specifically because they are as Monsanto claim “Round-up Ready”
        
        All the more reason for Monsanto to put pressure on NZ to introduce them.
        
        weka …
        
        4 December 2015 at 11:24 pm
        
        ““Round up” is an existing product which is used extensively in this country.”
        
        Yes, but AFAIK it’s illegal to grow GMO crops in NZ without specific permission from the EPA. Which is what I was asking CV about, GE crops.
        
        “All the more reason for Monsanto to put pressure on NZ to introduce them.”
        
        Right. But that’s true whether the TPP exists or not. There is this idea that the TPP will allow companies to force contracts that don’t exist yet. I’d like to see that confirmed. I haven’t followed that closely but I thought it was only existing contracts that had to be honoured eg if Monsanto were growing crops in NZ and we tried to ban Roundup then we’d have to pay for the loss of business. Not sure if that applies to other companies using Roundup (eg if councils stop using glysphosate, can Roundup sue them?). But I don’t see how it applies to GE crops given there are so few of them in NZ currently.
        
        I get the concerns, but the TPP is bad enough without overstating it’s reach.
        
        Bill …
        
        4 December 2015 at 11:45 pm
        
        I believe the case of Canada seeking to ban a pre-existing, but “not for sale in Canada” US manufactured petrol additive might be a case in point. Canadian H&S found against the product. Their government department was over-ridden through a ISDS. At about the same time the EU banned the substance. No ISDS available in that case. A complaint from the company was heard in a UK court and rejected.
        
        Petrol additives and GMO crops. I can’t see where any difference would lie between the two in terms of a company launching an ISDS claiming their trade was being restricted.
        
        weka …
        
        5 December 2015 at 12:08 am
        
        We already effectively have a ban in place on GE crops. Are you saying that is the same as the Canadian example (which I took to mean they tried to ban something after the agreement).
        
        Bill …
        
        5 December 2015 at 12:10 am
        
        Hmm. Could be a bit different I guess. Might say in the Canadian example that something cropped up? 😉
        
        weka …
        
        5 December 2015 at 12:17 am
        
        Or that process was well oiled ;-p
        
        Sacha …
        
        5 December 2015 at 5:19 pm
        
        “There is this idea that the TPP will allow companies to force contracts that don’t exist yet. ”
        
        Gives them more leverage to force concessions, regardless of the legal outcome. That’s the concern with Pharmac too.
        
        greywarshark …
        
        5 December 2015 at 8:47 pm
        
        weka
        That’s conflating the argument surely. I thought you liked to keep coolly to the point under discussion. Just coping with the seedgod companies is bad enough without extras like body parts and child slaves entering the attempted discussion.
        
        weka …
        
        5 December 2015 at 8:56 pm
        
        CV appears to be saying that NZ can be forced to do X (grow GE crops) against its own existing laws. Other people have said this is true. I’m asking if that is true is it also true for other things that we have existing laws about. That doesn’t seem an unreasonable question and the examples seem relevant to the point. Use cannabis if body parts and child labour are too inflammatory.
      - AmaKiwi 1.1.2.1.2
        
        5 December 2015 at 12:58 am
        
        “Are you suggesting that Monsanto (or any company) can force NZ growers to use GMO seed? Or that they can try and sell it here despite any NZ law prohibiting GMO crops?”
        
        Absolutely.
        
        That’s the purpose of TPPA. To make American standards (or lack thereof) universal across the Pacific region.
        
        weka 1.1.2.1.2.1
        
        5 December 2015 at 10:06 am
        
        AK, I’m asking how the TPP means that companies can force NZ to do either of those two things. Please explain how, in detail.
        
        Matthew Whitehead …
        
        6 December 2015 at 8:36 pm
        
        In the case of GM crops, anything has to go through the approval process. However, if we let something through the approval process that we shouldn’t and try to change the legislation so that we can ban it… THEN the ISDS will apply and would most likely have us paying for the privilege of writing our own law.
  - weka 1.1.3
    
    4 December 2015 at 8:24 pm
    
    “My expectation is that NZ will not be able to exclude or label food product ingredient imports or exports on the basis of GMO status.”
    
    That’s for processing right? How does that affect growing?
    - Bill 1.1.3.1
      
      5 December 2015 at 9:27 am
      
      This example certainly applies to various consumer goods where price is impacted by standards (eg – safety standards). Just putting it out here in a GMO context for you to mull over.
      
      If GMO crops are cheaper for us consumers and if they are cheap enough that local non-GMO food producers are at risk of going out of business, then industry could pressure for the GMO free thing to be dropped in order to establish a level playing field.
      - weka 1.1.3.1.1
        
        5 December 2015 at 10:10 am
        
        Sure, but that situation (or potential for it) already exists and doesn’t have anything to do with the TPP.
        
        Pretty sure that industry pressure groups have been lobbying the NZ government all through the GE debates and processes over the last few decades. If they hadn’t, we’d have had absolute GE-free status (which is what by far the most of NZers wanted).
        
        Bill 1.1.3.1.1.1
        
        5 December 2015 at 5:23 pm
        
        No, the difference is that a country could, via various ploys, restrict sales of given products depending on safety regs etc. That’s now a restriction on trade and the lowest denominator will prevail…think ‘car safety regs’ that differ over countries etc.
        
        weka …
        
        5 December 2015 at 9:54 pm
        
        Yes, trade. But not growing crops in NZ. Am I missing something here? If NZ companies want to grow GE crops in NZ they have to go through a process that is mandated by law. I assume it’s the same process for overseas companies. What you are suggesting is that that law has to be repealed because a new company wants to do a new thing (grow GE crops) in NZ. If that’s true, then why not the other examples I’ve given in this thread?
        
        I feel like we’re just going around in circles here. What are the various ploys specific to the TPP? Perhaps if that was made clear (the ‘how’) then it would make sense to me.
- savenz 1.2
  
  5 December 2015 at 11:16 am
  
  TPPA not only supports Genetically Modified food (and monsanto is a big driver of TPPA) but also does not allow it to be labelled AND limits the ability to challenge at the border unsafe food.
  
  The limits of border control is a HUGE issue to NZ in particular as we have very few diseases here. Look at PSA virus – caused by the government changing the regulations of unmilled pollen for Kiwifruit. Under TPPA the government can be sued if they try to stop potentially diseased food coming in.
  
  TPPA is a race to the bottom of the lowest possible level of regulation with the highest possible regulation of litigation to stop poor, unsafe, unproven or diseased food entering each country.
  - savenz 1.2.1
    
    5 December 2015 at 11:27 am
    
    Far from being a help to an exporter of food like NZ, TPPA has the ability to actually wipe out our entire food economy by increasing our risk of bringing in diseases like Mad cow, foot and mouth, fruit fly and so forth…
    
    There are other issues too, like bloodstock in NZ which is disease free.
    
    The risks are HIGH the rewards are non existent… remind me again why we should be signing such a terrible deal to ALL the countries?
    
    (Oh yes, Obama’s legacy and the energy polluters need to get the governments to guarantee their existing pollution profits in case they go to clean power, etc etc ).
  - weka 1.2.2
    
    5 December 2015 at 12:06 pm
    
    Can you please cite something credible to support the assertion that the TPP means NZ can be forced by companies to grow GE crops?
    
    I’ve now asked this multiple times in this thread and no-one has been able to either link or explain how that would happen.
    - savenz 1.2.2.1
      
      5 December 2015 at 3:49 pm
      
      “Under the TPP, food labels could also be challenged as “trade barriers.” The TPP would impose limits on labels providing information on where a food product comes from. The TPP also would endanger labels identifying genetically modified foods and labels identifying how food was produced. The TPP would expand the limits on consumer labels already included in existing
      http://www.citizen.org/tpp-food-safety-facts
      
      “trade” agreements, like the World Trade Organization (WTO). But already under the WTO, the U.S. “dolphin-safe” tuna fish label and our country-of-origin meat labels have been successfully attacked by other countries. And, under the TPP, a foreign meat processing or food corporation operating within the United States could directly challenge our policies that they claim undermine their expectations – meaning a barrage of new demands for taxpayer compensation.”
      
      “Under the TPP, any U.S. food safety rule on pesticides, labeling or additives that is higher than international standards would be subject to challenge as “illegal trade barriers.” The U.S. could be required to eliminate these rules and allow in the unsafe food under threat of trade sanctions.
      
      The U.S. Food and Drug Administration already inspects less than 1% of all seafood imports for health hazards. Entering into the TPP with Malaysia and Vietnam, both TPP negotiating parties and major seafood exporters, would increase seafood imports and further overwhelm inspectors’ limited ability to ensure the safety of our food. Some TPP countries have serious shrimp and fish safety issues. For example, even with the minimal inspections, high levels of contaminants have been found in Vietnam’s seafood.”
      - weka 1.2.2.1.1
        
        5 December 2015 at 4:08 pm
        
        That doesn’t answer my question. Can you please go and reread what I have said in this thread. I am asking specifically how GROWING GE CROPS could be forced in NZ due to the TPP. Sorry for shouting, but I feel I have been clear on this and everyone is answering questions I haven’t asked.
        
        CV in his post implied that NZ could be forced to grow GE crops. I’d like to know how the TPP makes that true. Labelling for international markets is a different issue. The link you provide is talking about food imports, not growing food domestically.
        
        savenz 1.2.2.1.1.1
        
        5 December 2015 at 4:18 pm
        
        @Weka – I’ll try to find the link for you. I think it is to do with the competition clause that means that TPPA signatories can not dis allow practises that are recognised internationally. i.e. if you want to plant a GM crop the local council or government can not stop you, as this would be considered anti competitive and stopping some ones rights to a profit.
        
        In addition this is a ‘living’ agreement too, whereby clauses can be continually added to the agreement by the signatories.
        
        And the US can also somehow add clauses in post the agreement as well.
        
        http://justinvestment.org/2014/08/tppa-shocking-us-certification-process-that-violates-countrys-sovereignty/
        
        savenz …
        
        5 December 2015 at 4:35 pm
        
        @Weka
        
        Interesting link – our ability to market our GMO-free status under threat as well as a whole host of other issues.
        
        http://www.iatp.org/blog/201511/tpp-fine-print-biotech-seed-companies-win-again
        
        “Of the TPP countries, Brunei, Malaysia, Mexico and New Zealand are not yet members of the UPOV 91. Chile is also not yet a member, though it is already required to become a member under a previous Free Trade Agreement with the U.S. Under the TPP, these countries could face major changes to laws and rules that protect farmers’ rights when it comes to plant breeding and seed saving. The TPP IPR chapter also requires any additional countries that join the TPP to become members of UPOV 91. Countries currently considering joining the TPP include South Korea, Indonesia, the Philippines and Taiwan—none of which are members of UPOV 91.”
        
        “Strong opposition may also arise in New Zealand, which currently has not approved any GMO crops for commercialization, requires any imported GMO foods to be labeled, and uses its GMO-free status as an export marketing tool. Brunei is just developing its regulatory framework for GMO crops.”
        
        weka …
        
        5 December 2015 at 4:38 pm
        
        Our ability to market our GE-free status internationally.
        
        And sorry, but that assertion still doesn’t explain HOW this could be done.
        
        savenz …
        
        5 December 2015 at 4:40 pm
        
        @Weka
        
        http://press.gefree.org.nz/press/20151008.htm
        
        “New Zealand depends on its clean green image and markets its GE-free status as a positive feature overseas. The damage to our national reputation could amount to a loss of billions of dollars over the years.
        
        The loss to New Zealand agriculture is likely to be much more than the $256 million expected to be gained by the removal of tariffs [6].”
        
        weka …
        
        5 December 2015 at 4:49 pm
        
        lolz, ok, I give up. (your quote about the effect on NZ’s exports is irrelevant to my question. I’m asking HOW the TPP countries can force us to grow GE crops).
        
        savenz …
        
        5 December 2015 at 4:57 pm
        
        Weka our farm land is already being sold from under us, with TPP then any corporation can challenge local rules under the ISDS scheme.
        
        Ie they can challenge in court NZ GE status – just like tobacco is currently challenging plain packaging in Australia which has cost 50 million to the government so far in legal action.
        
        weka …
        
        5 December 2015 at 10:23 pm
        
        Tobacco companies had business already in existence before the Australian government decided to bring in new laws. That’s different to the situation with GE in NZ.
        
        Under what law/court are the tobacco companies challenging the Australian govt?
        
        weka …
        
        5 December 2015 at 4:35 pm
        
        Thanks. I’d like to see some evidence because it’s not quite making sense to me.
        
        “i.e. if you want to plant a GM crop the local council or government can not stop you, as this would be considered anti competitive and stopping some ones rights to a profit.”
        
        Ok, so would this apply to child labour? Or harvesting organs? Growing cannabis? Opium? Where’s the limit if it’s not countries’ existing laws?
        
        savenz …
        
        5 December 2015 at 4:51 pm
        
        @ Weka – the agreement is 6000 pages for a reason. If it was about ‘removing tariffs’ then a few pages can suffice. It is not about that it is about deregulating countries rules and regulations and having a separate court to arbitrate it. Monsanto is one of the leaders of the TPPA so that gives you an example of the motivation within the agreement.
        
        TPPA would only apply to internationally legal things now, such as GMO which is legal in the US not child labour, harvesting organs, cannabis etc which are currently not legal internationally:)
        
        However minimum wages could potentially be subject to legal action.
        Currently in Wyoming, USA the minimum wage is $5.15 so that can give an idea of where NZ wages could go, even without the 65 cents minimum wages in Vietnam.
        
        If you feel you are having financial difficulty on the current NZ minimum wage, then think what is going to happen under TPP.
        
        weka …
        
        5 December 2015 at 10:21 pm
        
        Cannabis is legal in the US. Child labour appears to be practiced in Malaysia (although I couldn’t find the legal status of that). Two TPP signatories.
        
        Not sure what you mean by legal internationally.
        
        Macro 1.2.2.1.1.2
        
        5 December 2015 at 4:59 pm
        
        The fact is weka that Monsanto has very deep pockets and is very litigious… not only in the states
        http://gmwatch.org/news/archive/2014/15760-monsanto-and-dow-sue-maui-county-over-gmo-cultivation-ban
        but in other countries as well. The TPPA gives them the opportunity to start legal proceedings under ISDS (which incidentally are not in a court of law but 3 chosen corporate lap dogs). At this very moment they are attempting to overturn mexican law banning GMO’s
        http://sustainablepulse.com/2015/03/20/monsanto-and-dupont-lose-initial-appeals-over-mexico-gm-maize-ban/#.VmJfbnt8g7A
        The TPPA will make it much easier for them and NZ hasn’t quite the same depth of pocket as Monsanto.
        
        weka …
        
        5 December 2015 at 10:19 pm
        
        The upholding of the ban adds to a growing list of victories that includes the multinational corporation Monsanto, which last week saw its latest appeal rejected unanimously. On Wednesday February 25, the DuPont Corporation also lost an appeal. The class action case faces one more juridical review but there are an additional five amparos pending over limits the corporations seek, in effect, to block verifiable and effective application of precautionary measures previously ordered by the courts.
        
        That article appears to be saying that Monsanto can’t force Mexico to allow it to grow GE crops. Also, I think that Mexico allowed GE corn and then banned it, so that makes sense in terms of the TPP (Monsanto can argue that they’re being denied business they’ve already invested in).
        
        In that article the actions are being heard in domestic courts, so it’s not clear that this is an ISDS dispute. Do you know?
        
        I’m open to being wrong about this, but I still don’t see the evidence for NZ being forced into repealing laws that existed before the TPP was signed.
        
        greywarshark 1.2.2.1.1.3
        
        5 December 2015 at 9:31 pm
        
        weka
        There seems a difficulty in the opinionated commenters here to actually point to facts that presumably they know, and should be able to quote chapter and verse.
        
        Here is one from anti-GE group:
        http://itsourfuture.org.nz/trade-deal-threatens-farmers-and-food-businesses/
        “In essence the secret free trade agreement could be signed under the proviso that legislation will be changed to allow New Zealand to grow GE crops,” said Claire Bleakley, president of GE Free NZ (in food and environment)….
        
        The Ministry of Primary Industries is drafting changes to the HSNO regulations defining what a GMO is, and potentially subverting oversight and avoiding regulation. The changes could go even further, by mirroring the “Monsanto Bill” in Guatemala….
        
        “By advocating to remove the zero tolerance for transgenic seeds through changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) and Hazardous Substance and New Organisms (HSNO) legislation, they are kneecapping Brand New Zealand’s competitive position in the world market” said Claire Bleakley.
        
        Our unique reputation is based around producing healthy, safe high-quality food for consumers. More and more companies like Sanitarium and Goodman Fielder have sought to source all their ingredients as GE-free, using a verified segregated “non-GM” supply chain.
        However companies around the world are finding it increasingly difficult to source corn or soy that is uncontaminated, and look to countries such as New Zealand as a source of clean ingredients.
        
        And from Malcolm Eves a retired Hawkes Bay financial advisor:-
        http://www.nzherald.co.nz/hawkes-bay-today/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=1503459&objectid=11365319
        A sovereign country that attempts to enforce its laws against an American corporation can be sued by the corporation for “restraint of trade”.
        For example, New Zealand benefits from being a GE Free food producer. If Monsanto wants to sell GMO seeds in New Zealand or US corporations wish to sell genetically modified foods in New Zealand, and New Zealand enforces any laws against GMOs, the TPP allows New Zealand (or “GE Free” regions) to be sued in jurisdictions outside the courts of New Zealand for “restraint of trade”.
        
        and
        http://www.nationofchange.org/trans-pacific-partnership-and-monsanto-1372074730
        The chief agricultural negotiator for the US is the former Monsanto lobbyist, Islam Siddique. If ratified the TPP would impose punishing regulations that give multinational corporations unprecedented right to demand taxpayer compensation for policies that corporations deem a barrier to their profits….
        There appears not to be a specific agricultural chapter in the TPP. Instead, rules affecting food systems and food safety are woven throughout the text….
        The labeling of foods containing GMOs (Genetically Modified Organisms) will not be allowed. Japan currently has labeling laws for GMOs in food. Under the TPP Japan would no longer be able to label GMOs. This situation is the same for New Zealand and Australia….
        Monsanto (the US corporation controlling an estimated 90% of the world seed genetics) has a dark history with Vietnam. Many believe that Monsanto has no right to do business in a country where Monsanto’s product Agent Orange is estimated to have killed 400,000 Vietnamese, deformed another 500,000 and stricken another 2 million with various diseases….
        With little or no competition for large corporations Monsanto, DuPont and Syngenta now control 57 percent of the commercial food market.
        
        Note: The sentence in bold say that the references to food systems and safety are woven throughout the text rather than in a specific chapter for agriculture. Food, our most important need. Or is it water – what does This Pernicious Piece of Abuse say about that?
        
        The full text is apparently in this link.
        http://www.mfat.govt.nz/Treaties-and-International-Law/01-Treaties-for-which-NZ-is-Depositary/0-Trans-Pacific-Partnership-Text.php
        I started a word search on GMO and found none.
        Then I looked for Agriculture and it alternated between USA and Japan about four times.
        Changed to New Zealand and the first thing I came on was Tariff Elimination Rules (or similar wording). I thought – the usual suspects!
        Have no time for further searching.
billmurray 2

4 December 2015 at 7:00 pm

I fully support Labour walking away from the TPPA and making it a “point of difference” with National at the 2017 election but Labour are still having a ‘dollar each-way’ with the voters on the matter. By being both ‘for and against’ TPPA Labour is spreading confusion and idiocy in the electorate mind and they still bemoan their stalemate in the polls. The Greens do not want to ratify TPPA but Labour who need the Greens to form a coalition government are sitting on their hands whilst Rome burns. Who in their right mind could trust Labour with a government mandate.
- AmaKiwi 2.1
  
  5 December 2015 at 1:01 am
  
  Because Labour prides itself on being a “broad church.” To maintain caucus consensus, they are reduced to the lowest common denominator which is zero. Do nothing.
  - Macro 2.1.1
    
    5 December 2015 at 7:45 am
    
    I think you just nailed it there! And that is exactly the philosophy of National too. National’s only driving “principle” is do nothing to upset the economy (ie make sure that we are alright), Labour, are now, not so far from them, however – to be charitable – they are more inclusive as to who constitutes “we”.
    - Colonial Viper 2.1.1.1
      
      5 December 2015 at 11:48 am
      
      Agree with your conclusion there.
  - Chris 2.1.2
    
    6 December 2015 at 4:59 pm
    
    That’s right. Labour stands for nothing. The Nothing Party. They need to be honest with the public about this and say clearly to everyone that they stand for nothing in order to make room for a party that stands for what Labour stood for 30 years ago.
    - Chris 2.1.2.1
      
      6 December 2015 at 5:03 pm
      
      This would also have the added benefit of allowing those current Labour supporters who know that Labour stands for nothing to continue to vote for nothing and for those who haven’t caught up yet to vote for a party that stands for what Labour stood for 30 years ago.
    - greywarshark 2.1.2.2
      
      8 December 2015 at 1:14 pm
      
      All this standing! We are in earthquake territory here, nothing is steady and reliable since the neo-liberal termites took over, and ate away our regulations, our inspectors, our controls on shoddy workmanship in favour of being fast and high flyers.
      - Chris 2.1.2.2.1
        
        8 December 2015 at 1:52 pm
        
        Yes, Labour’s broad church belongs on the leaky homes register.
        
        greywarshark 2.1.2.2.1.1
        
        8 December 2015 at 9:21 pm
        
        Chrus
        😀
        and Matthew W Like your analogy. But ugh – gets you in the guts.
  - Matthew Whitehead 2.1.3
    
    6 December 2015 at 8:45 pm
    
    That’s the general gist of it.
    
    The more specific gist is that while the left wing of the party despises the TPPA, (perhaps a bit over-broadly, a few parts of the agreement are good, but unfortunately the rest of it is so bad it’s like trying to eat cereal someone’s puked in) the right wing of the party has a very significant faction of “trade liberals” who basically haven’t met a FTA they don’t like, who would likely walk away from the party (largely to its benefit) if it outright came out against the TPPA completely without some nuance.
    
    Not that nuance is bad in general, it’s simply that Labour has not come out swinging against all the parts of TPPA that are bad. Their reservations on the deal are hugely insufficient, but if they DO decide to be clear that they’re opposing it eventually, (or even proposing withdrawing from it if elected) then they get points for coming to the right conclusion.
- savenz 2.2
  
  5 December 2015 at 11:18 am
  
  @Bill Murray – +100 – its called blind neoliberal ideology plus, there is a TRADE DEAL not good but DONT MISS OUT!
  
  Gets them every time.
  - Tautuhi 2.2.1
    
    6 December 2015 at 4:38 pm
    
    Nationals stance on the TPPA is just sign it and worry about it later, just like Asset Sales just sell them and move on, they don’t actually think about the long term consequences of these decisions.
    
    A 6000 page legal document ?
    
    I wonder how many lawyers in NZ have studied it thoroughly and understood the ramifications of this document ?
    
    Why doesn’t Q + A get Key and Groser on their show live and ask them some pertinant questions after all they are the ones signing the document ?
    - Leftie 2.2.1.1
      
      6 December 2015 at 5:22 pm
      
      @Tautuhi
      
      +1000
    - greywarshark 2.2.1.2
      
      8 December 2015 at 9:26 pm
      
      Tautuhi
      Q. How many lawyers does it take to screw a country?
      A. (I can’t think of anything sharp enough. Anyone?)
      
      With certain exceptions to the above: Micky Savage etc.
Michael 3

4 December 2015 at 7:22 pm

CV, why do you post about Russia so much? I think you’ve been watching too much RT.

And GMOs don’t need to be banned, they aren’t unhealthy. The left should not be anti-science on GMOs like the right is anti-science on climate change.
- Colonial Viper 3.1
  
  4 December 2015 at 7:26 pm
  
  GMOs represent a systemic danger to the ecosystem.
  
  The science behind GMOs is driven by corporate greed and corporate shareholder profits.
  
  Russian scientists understand this and their leaders are acting on it.
  
  Why are you such a proponent of this adulterated, untested food?
  - Michael 3.1.1
    
    5 December 2015 at 9:24 am
    
    I personally support compulsory GMO labelling so that people who don’t want to buy/eat them don’t have to. But I don’t think there is strong enough scientific evidence to warrant a ban.
    - Colonial Viper 3.1.1.1
      
      5 December 2015 at 11:51 am
      
      You’re looking at this from the wrong perspective. You want to wait until there is evidence of systemic and permanent ecological damage before acting? How does this make sense?
      
      Why open our ecosystem to risks like this for the sake of corporate profit?
      - Kiwiri 3.1.1.1.1
        
        5 December 2015 at 6:13 pm
        
        Do check out Nassim Taleb and colleagues on the application of the Precautionary Principle to GMOs.
    - Matthew Whitehead 3.1.1.2
      
      6 December 2015 at 8:54 pm
      
      The scientific evidence is that there is currently nothing harmful about existing GMO crops, true.
      
      However, there are still two good reasons not to use them.
      
      One is the problem of contamination. If anything subtle goes wrong with a GMO organism that isn’t grown in a clean lab, it’s pretty likely to escape where it’s being grown and spread before it can be destroyed. The obvious failures and disasters will likely be contained, but on the precautionary principle, would you really want to risk a subtle failure getting out and causing damage to the ecosystem somehow?
      
      Secondly, GMOs don’t market well. Wherever they’re required to be labelled, GMO products do not sell. Why would we want to have any GMO crops or animals in New Zealand and risk cross-contamination when GMO-free is a positive marketing value?
    - greywarshark 3.1.1.3
      
      8 December 2015 at 9:41 pm
      
      I think Michael wants to be a cute furry thing with spots – a guinea- pig. Which would be preferable being a guineapig with spots or just being oneself with unexplained spots from some allergic reaction.
      
      And GMO labelling – reading the label takes time if you need to do it with each item. And actually finding the wording you are looking for and then deciphering the spider writing with the important information. And have you ever watched a parent shopping, have they got time to study, while the children dash round and pull things off shelves or get bored and break into the food?
      
      The average person can’t imagine the mendacity of the country’s leaders and directors of departments. People think they do their job with full information applied to ensure the best outcomes for people. They would never recommend anything that could harm.
      
      And then there’s the drift of pollen into an innocent grower’s own crop and being sued for possession of proprietary pollen, or someone racing round their crop with Roundup and you notice all the other plants dying within two days instead of the usual week. And the lack of bees which have succumbed to a diet of chemicals like Roundup and a sprinkling of nicotinoids? on top. Not strictly GMO but part of the arsenal against Nature and your fellow man, woman, child and bee, butterfly, cat, or dog or…..
- One Two 3.2
  
  4 December 2015 at 7:49 pm
  
  And GMOs don’t need to be banned, they aren’t unhealthy
  
  You can’t prove that GMO are not unhealthy
  
  Simple risk assesment renders your comment to junk status
- maui 3.3
  
  4 December 2015 at 8:19 pm
  
  Unless you want to be eating food crops that have been genetically modified so they can be drenched in Roundup and still grow I would be very wary of GM. Roundup is now being banned from use across Europe because of health concerns.
  
  If Fonterror came up with a new milk that they said had double the calcium with a caveat that they had played around with the genetic makeup, I’m not how many would be keen to go for it.
  - Tautuhi 3.3.1
    
    6 December 2015 at 4:54 pm
    
    Interesting question marks are starting to arise about glysophate (Round Up) toxicity, could be a major if proven. Unfortunately with agricultural chemicals toxicity problems only tend to appear 20-30 years after the product has been released onto the market?
    
    Genetic engineering is another story and the long term effects will not be understood for another 20-30 years, we need to proceed with caution and make sure we do not lose the genetic seed/gene pool we already have.
    
    Interferring with nature and the use of chemicals in the environment I believe is causing major health problems in the 1st world countries ie bowel and breast cancer here in NZ where we have some of the highest rates in the Western World.
- Macro 3.4
  
  4 December 2015 at 8:29 pm
  
  It’s not so much the suspicion of adulterated food – although that is a factor. (Why is the precautionary principle never applied for example? It’s more a case of let’s just wait and see how it affects people.)
  There are all the environmental issues as well, mono culture, the degradation of the genetic base, the loss of species, almost all these new seeds are developed with the use of herbicide (roundup) in mind, with all the consequent problems associated with that, and there are many.
  But underlying all of this are the weazel words that all this is really to help feed the poor, when actually nothing could be further from the truth. The only people to gain from these new seeds are not the farmers or the poor, but the corporations who supply the seeds, fertilizers, and herbicides, manly Monsanto.
  All these are issues of the left, and so it is not being anti science to campaign against the impoverishment of farmers by corporations placing inequitable restrictions on farmers. It’s not anti science to see the dangers of monoculture and ecological degradation, it’s not anti science to point out that the persistent use of herbicides kills earthworms, and bees, and other soil organisms, upon which we depend for the maintenance of healthy soils.
  - AmaKiwi 3.4.1
    
    5 December 2015 at 1:13 am
    
    I was watching a documentary from the “good old days.” People were being drenched with DDT, which they were told was as harmless as baby powder.
    
    Then we had Agent Orange.
    
    Today DuPont is losing massive lawsuits in Ohio and West Virginia because the waste from their Teflon factory has poisoned a thousand square miles of farmland and its ground water (reference: The Intercept).
    
    The TPPA wasn’t written by the International Red Cross, Catholic Charities, Friends of the Earth, Save the Children, etc. It was written by the meanest people for the meanest motives.
    - Macro 3.4.1.1
      
      5 December 2015 at 7:36 am
      
      Yep! It’s all very short term, once over lightly thinking, with regard any new product, or silver bullet for this, that, or the other thing. Sometimes I think as I get old (and more grumpy) “maybe the Luddites were onto something?”
      I’ve banged on about plastic bags here before – but really – when you look at the environmental damage that this, supposedly benign product, has caused; you wonder – “what the F**K are we doing to this planet?”
Once was Tim 4

4 December 2015 at 8:01 pm

@ CV – looking at the headline – I presume you mean there are other nations (such as BRIC countries – but not necessarily them) waiting in the wings to fill the needs of the many when the inevitable happens? (Question Mark).
Pardon me if that sounds a bit fik, but if that is what you mean then I’d agree.

Right now politicians (predominantly the Right), more more generally, seem to unwittingly be putting themselves in a place (perhaps I mean ‘SPACE’) that will ensure they become totally irrelevant in Joe and Josephine’s thinking.

For example (but more broadly), Labour seems determined to alienate itself from its base, te Natzis never really did understand the concept of representative demockeracy (and choose every opportunity to defeat it), and the Greens ….. well they’re becoming harder to explain as the days go by (I mean ffs – imagine appointing a corporatist as a so called Leader – and imagining that is somehoe going to turn out OK)
Not much left really is there! What i do care about however is the idea of self-determination (and sovereignty) – firstly locally, secodly regionally, and then (AND ONLY YHEN) globally.
It’s scary to think which political party comes closest to that concept.
One thing is for sure tho’ …… Labour ain’t getting a vote UNTIL, and ONLY until they prove themselves committed to their founding principles and a GENUINE concern for the least well off in whatever society emerges.
- Colonial Viper 4.1
  
  5 December 2015 at 11:55 am
  
  Labour is a political vehicle that was hijacked 30-40 years ago, first for a completely different ideology than it was founded on (neoliberalism), and since then that crew has been replaced with a wishy washy careerist lot for whom keeping their positions and getting power is the main motivator.
  
  Sincerity, genuineness, authenticity around left wing ideology are therefore not things you will see out of Labour or out of Andrew Little.
  - Tautuhi 4.1.1
    
    5 December 2015 at 12:07 pm
    
    Labour lost it’s way in the 1980’s and has never recovered, however NZ needs Labour to get it’s act together otherwise we will have another 3-6 years of the neo-liberal Nact Party!
    - Colonial Viper 4.1.1.1
      
      5 December 2015 at 12:10 pm
      
      I agree that’s what NZ needs from Labour, but it’s not possible.
    - Kiwiri 4.1.1.2
      
      5 December 2015 at 6:15 pm
      
      More like Labour is gettings its ACT together ? heh.
      - greywarshark 4.1.1.2.1
        
        6 December 2015 at 5:27 pm
        
        Kiwiri
        Too Right!
        
        and Chooky
        Good if Labour was sitting on a picket fence. Maybe when they get called to answer for their crimes of omission and commission, they will be forced to do that for hours, suffering the sort of non-torture (according to the west) that the Guantanamo Bay prisoners did.
Chooky 5

4 December 2015 at 8:19 pm

+100… good post CV…New Zealand should not be signing the TPP …thus far NZF and the Greens are against signing

the NZLP as per usual is sitting on the fence …and will probably go along with signing it like Jonkey nactional
- Leftie 5.1
  
  5 December 2015 at 12:14 am
  
  @Chooky say that to the National government. It doesn’t matter to National what the other parties think, like us, Labour and the opposition do not have a say in it. National’s executive are wanting to sign it off. Most other TPPA countries are putting it to a parliamentary vote, why is John key refusing to do that here?
  - Colonial Viper 5.1.1
    
    5 December 2015 at 12:00 pm
    
    It doesn’t matter to National what the other parties think, like us, Labour and the opposition do not have a say in it.
    
    Labour can still bloody OPPOSE the TPPA instead of caving.
    
    And they can commit to exiting the TPPA when they take power.
    
    Instead of co-operating with National’s plans.
    - Leftie 5.1.1.1
      
      5 December 2015 at 12:27 pm
      
      And then what CV? it won’t stop National’s executive from signing it off, will it? All those who oppose the TPPA should be putting pressure on the current National government, not wasting time tearing the Labour party apart, who like us have NO SAY in it whatsoever.
      - savenz 5.1.1.1.1
        
        5 December 2015 at 3:39 pm
        
        @Leftie – of course Labour has a say in it. They can say they agree with it or not. Yes we know National bought it in, we know National are going to sign it, but the Greens and NZ First have a clear opinion on TPPA – don’t sign it.
        
        Labour have not been able to say yes or no, which is actually more of a cop out than all the other parties, arguably including the Natz.
        
        Labour don’t have a say in Christmas Island either, but still have a clear position on it, and have travelled to Christmas Island and had talks with the OZ PM about it. Nope it is not their decision but they have influence on it.
        
        So their excuse can’t be ‘We can do nothing on TPPA so we will not do anything” does not wash.
        
        Chooky 5.1.1.1.1.1
        
        5 December 2015 at 3:44 pm
        
        +100 savenz…well said
        
        …we have a gutless neolib Labour Party…which does not deserve to be called a Labour Party….it is a watered down version of jonkey nact
        
        Leftie …
        
        5 December 2015 at 6:44 pm
        
        Well you would say that Chooky, you have made your hate for the Labour party well known. Does it help? Does it change what the current National government are doing? Does it hold the current National government to account?
        
        What we really have here is a gutless self serving corrupt neolib National government that has largely placed itself above our laws and away from any kind of accountability, even from people like you.
        
        Chooky …
        
        5 December 2015 at 8:23 pm
        
        @ ‘Leftie'(?)…as you are such a sycophant of Andrew Little …read this…Little and Labour could have done a lot more to oppose the TPPA…
        
        ‘Flouting The Rules: Why has Andrew Little rejected a winning TPPA strategy for a guaranteed loser?’
        
        http://thedailyblog.co.nz/2015/10/14/flouting-the-rules-why-has-andrew-little-rejected-a-winning-tppa-strategy-for-a-guaranteed-loser/
        
        Leftie …
        
        6 December 2015 at 1:05 am
        
        @Chooky, yes you would say that too, but I am not a sycophant of Andrew Little, and not everyone holds the same opinion as Chris Trotter, who is a big fan of John Key, and is as anti Labour as you are.
        
        Still nothing on the sell out National government and it’s TPPA then.
        
        Chooky …
        
        6 December 2015 at 1:43 pm
        
        plenty has been said on the sellout of the jonkey Nactional government ….we just dont expect the Labour Party to support them
        
        ( quit the disingenuous pretence)
        
        …as for Chris Trotter being a big fan of John Key…this is an outright lie and if you have anything to back it up …i suggest you do so
        
        (imo you are not a ‘Leftie’ at all …wolves in sheeps clothing and all that)
        
        Chris …
        
        6 December 2015 at 2:04 pm
        
        And a fucking idiot, to boot.
        
        [lprent: Read the policy. Pointless abuse is unwelcome. I can’t see a point in this comment. ]
        
        Chooky …
        
        6 December 2015 at 8:00 pm
        
        @ Chris…’Leftie’ is a bit like punching the tar baby…this tar baby is into quantity and lies rather than quality of argument
        
        …in other words search for truth /facts is not where ‘Leftie’ is at …but rather defending the indefensible and having the last word
        
        imo ‘Leftie’ is a waste of time
        
        Leftie …
        
        6 December 2015 at 8:38 pm
        
        Well that’s pointless abuse Chooky, just in case you missed this comment posted earlier. In regards to your comment further above that I am unable to leave a reply on, “plenty has been said on the sellout of the jonkey Nactional government” but not really by you Chooky, and as for “we just dont expect the Labour Party to support them” as yet Labour have not made a decision on the TPPA.
        
        “( quit the disingenuous pretence)” maybe you follow your own advice.
        
        “…as for Chris Trotter being a big fan of John Key…this is an outright lie and if you have anything to back it up …i suggest you do so”
        
        In the last 7 years Chris Trotter has often wrote glowingly of John key, and there have only been about afew articles in the vast swathes of anti Labour pieces where he has shown annoyance at John key’s bad behaviour.
        Chris Trotter even made John Key his pick for New Zealander of the year.
        <a href="http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/opinion/columnists/chris-trotter/9565227/New-Zealander-of-the-Year
        
        “(imo you are not a ‘Leftie’ at all …wolves in sheeps clothing and all that)”
        
        I don’t think you are in a position to judge anyone on how left they are. At least I am not using lines from RWNJ’s to argue with, like you do.
        
        Chris …
        
        7 December 2015 at 12:57 am
        
        That’ll learn ’em, Leftie! You’re on fire!
        
        Leftie 5.1.1.1.1.2
        
        5 December 2015 at 6:31 pm
        
        You don’t get it Savenz, John Key is refusing to put it to a parliamentary vote, Labour, like us, DO NOT HAVE A SAY IN IT. It doesn’t matter one iota to John key what NZF, Greens or Labour says, and Labour have not made a decision on it yet, that’s their call, it’s not a cop out to be fully informed before they make their decision publicly known. National’s executive are the ones who want to sign it off, it’s no excuse when Labour said they can’t stop what National are doing. To repeat, Labour like us, have no say in it, John key made sure of that. You should be asking why is NZ not talking the TPPA for a parliamentary vote like most other TPPA countries are? All it would take is for one country not to ratify it and the whole deal is off.
        
        Labour were doing their job to highlight the abuse of human rights and a gutless John key sitting on his hands when it comes to standing up for NZers. Did anything change for the better? What influence are you talking about?
        
        Chris …
        
        5 December 2015 at 6:33 pm
        
        The role of the opposition isn’t limited to voting in the parliament.
        
        Leftie …
        
        5 December 2015 at 6:47 pm
        
        It helps though doesn’t it? Everyone knows being in opposition has a lot of limitations.
      - Chris 5.1.1.1.2
        
        5 December 2015 at 6:29 pm
        
        You’re right, leftie, Labour has no say in anything because they’re such a fucking hopeless opposition.
        
        Leftie 5.1.1.1.2.1
        
        5 December 2015 at 6:53 pm
        
        No surprise with that comment Chris. Was National hopeless when they were in opposition?
        
        Why won’t John Key and his National government put the TPPA to a parliamentary vote? Doesn’t seem democratic, does it?
        
        Chris …
        
        5 December 2015 at 8:12 pm
        
        I despise the National party and everything it stands for. I think Key is a nasty operator and his behaviour around the TPPA is just one example amongst many that shows that. But I’m not going to be told to shut up about Labour’s hopelessness as an opposition and that I need to be state the obvious about how fucked the government is.
        
        Your analysis is unbelievably shallow and superficial. You assume that criticising Labour is akin to giving National a free pass. Well, my friend, it’s actually the other way around. By failing to hold Labour to account as an effective opposition we’re giving Key and his mates a free pass. And that is what you’re doing and if you really did want to oust this horrible government you’d be doing all you could to make sure Labour woke up and started doing its job.
        
        Chooky …
        
        5 December 2015 at 8:33 pm
        
        +100 Chris
        
        Leftie …
        
        6 December 2015 at 1:32 am
        
        -100 Chris.
        
        Leftie …
        
        6 December 2015 at 3:36 pm
        
        @Chooky. In regards to your comment further above that I am unable to leave a reply on, “plenty has been said on the sellout of the jonkey Nactional government” but not really by you Chooky, and as for “we just dont expect the Labour Party to support them” as yet Labour have not made a decision on the TPPA.
        
        “( quit the disingenuous pretence)” maybe you follow your own advice.
        
        “…as for Chris Trotter being a big fan of John Key…this is an outright lie and if you have anything to back it up …i suggest you do so”
        
        In the last 7 years Chris Trotter has often wrote glowingly of John key, and there have only been about afew articles in the vast swathes of anti Labour pieces where he has shown annoyance at John key’s bad behaviour.
        Chris Trotter even made John Key his pick for New Zealander of the year.
        <a href="http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/opinion/columnists/chris-trotter/9565227/New-Zealander-of-the-Year
        
        “(imo you are not a ‘Leftie’ at all …wolves in sheeps clothing and all that)”
        
        I don’t think you are in a position to judge anyone on how left they are. At least I am not using lines from RWNJ’s to argue with, like you do.
        
        Chris …
        
        6 December 2015 at 4:17 pm
        
        Thanks for brightening up my otherwise work-filled afternoon, Leftie. You’re a gift that keeps on giving.
        
        Leftie …
        
        6 December 2015 at 1:30 am
        
        @Chris, why don’t you show it then? and no one is telling you to shut up about Labour, but be constructive, how about playing fair by speaking out about the National government, they are the ones signing the TPPA, not the Labour party, and while you tear Labour apart you ARE giving National a free pass, because you are not discussing National and highlighting what they are doing are you?
        Breaking news dude, Labour is NOT the government, National is. So how does slagging off Labour at every opportunity, while saying nothing about National hold the National government to account ?
        
        Was National hopeless while being in opposition for 9 years? Have the opposition ever truly been effective in our political history?
        
        Korero Pono …
        
        7 December 2015 at 10:28 pm
        
        +100 Chris
      - Chris 5.1.1.1.3
        
        7 December 2015 at 2:33 am
        
        Thanks Clem.
Tautuhi 6

4 December 2015 at 8:23 pm

Not sure about this GMO stuff from my experience nature always wins, ie chemical resistant weeds and fungi. Similar to human resistance to penicillin, only time will tell.

Corporate profit making is definitely behind GMO’s.
Stuart Munro 7

5 December 2015 at 2:25 am

I wouldn’t bet the farm on the organic purity of Russian produce either – Russian oligarchs do what they please, and if food purity especially offshore were to suffer they wouldn’t lose much sleep over it.

GMOs will be safeish one day – when they concentrate on low risk non-contentious applications like lysine synthesis or pharmaceuticals rather than terminator genes and herbicide tolerance. About a generation away, unless there’s a major screwup.
- weka 7.1
  
  5 December 2015 at 10:20 am
  
  If Russia wants to export organically produced food, like everywhere else it will need growers that are certified under a scheme that reports to IFOAM, the international certification body. Places like Europe aren’t going to accept a container of food labelled ‘organic’, it will need to be certified.
  
  As for internal consumption, the sustainability and food resiliency movements now work with concepts of moving in the right direction rather than concepts of purity. So producing local, spray-free, organic and beyond organic are all on a continuum with the intention of supporting best practice. Russia producing all its own food with the intention of that food being ‘clean’ is revolutionary compared to NZ which still only manages a 10 or 15% organic rate (I’m guessing) but still imports large amounts of food. This makes us vulnerable to oil shocks, GFC, PO and AGW.
- Colonial Viper 7.2
  
  5 December 2015 at 12:02 pm
  
  I wouldn’t bet the farm on the organic purity of Russian produce either – Russian oligarchs do what they please, and if food purity especially offshore were to suffer they wouldn’t lose much sleep over it.
  
  Putin has no problem jailing Billionaire Oligarchs who undermine his strategies.
  - Stuart Munro 7.2.1
    
    5 December 2015 at 12:37 pm
    
    Quite – but is Putin’s strategy organic food or the claim of organic food? Key’s carbon position in Paris shows that claims are cheap.
    
    Russia may not have gone down the GMO path but their regulation of agricultural poisons is an unknown. If they have treated the hazard the way they have radioactivity there are likely to be pretty serious problems.
    - Colonial Viper 7.2.1.1
      
      5 December 2015 at 1:17 pm
      
      Yep fair criticism…time will tell if its just hot air akin to our “Knowledege Economy” or “Jobs Summit”.
      - Stuart Munro 7.2.1.1.1
        
        5 December 2015 at 5:38 pm
        
        The interwebs point to declining pesticide use in Russia in the 90s (Russia was broke) but pesticide use is growing at over 20% a year, and Russia now manufactures most of its own. Could go either way.
Scottie 8

5 December 2015 at 7:40 am

Fantastic post with informative opinions. It strikes me the National government has taken the same approach with TTP as the corporates have with GMOs. Let’s just do it and see what happens. All the worse when the public has not been given all the information about TTP to take part in the decision.
One Two 9

5 December 2015 at 1:16 pm

http://www.thejournal.ie/eu-gmo-opt-out-2413905-Oct2015/

No GMO opt out ?
savenz 10

5 December 2015 at 4:07 pm

http://www.citizen.org/Page.aspx?pid=5411

(info on food and TPP)

also quite funny reading about TPP from a right wing American perspective. (who are also against TPP for similar reasons in many cases but from a different ideological perspective).

“Unfortunately, some of the loudest critics on this score are notorious leftists who regularly parade against capitalism. Republican leaders have been able to use that fact as a reason to disregard the compelling evidence that these criticisms of TPP/TTIP are solidly based. First of all, it is important to note that in most cases the big, international mega-corporations long ago ceased to consider themselves American companies and also long ago ceased to favor free enterprise capitalism: They are corporate welfare drones, the masters of government bailouts, government loans, government subsidies, government contracts. They are little different from the giant State Owned Enterprises (SOEs) or “private” corporations owned by communist princelings and commissars in China and Russia.

This is especially evident in the lineup of globalist corporations behind the TPP/TTIP: Goldman Sachs, Boeing, Dow Chemical, Unilever, Chevron, Caterpillar, UPS, Walmart, Chase, Citi — and a bevy of Big Business coalitions: Global Business Dialogue, Business Roundtable, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Transatlantic Policy Network, Atlantic Council, and more. These are “crony capitalists,” not free enterprise capitalists; they prefer to use the power of government rather than innovation, risk, and excellence to prosper. Many of these corporations and associations have their representatives working directly with the TPP/TTIP negotiators, and they are the “cleared” elites that get privileged access to the documents you and I don’t get to see, and our elected representatives only access under extreme controls.”

http://www.thenewamerican.com/usnews/constitution/item/21010-10-reasons-why-you-should-oppose-obamatrade

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BRYCE EDWARDS’ Political Roundup: NZ needs to distance itself from Australia’s anti-China nucl...
* Bryce Edwards writes – The New Zealand Government has been silent about Australia’s decision to commit up to $400bn acquiring nuclear submarines, even though this is a significant threat to peace and stability in the Asia Pacific. The deal was struck by the Albanese Labor Government as ...
Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
9 hours ago

Wayne Brown's #Auxit moment
Boomers voted him in, but Brown’s Trumpish moments might spook Aucklanders worried about what a change to National nationally might mean. Photo: Lynn Grieveson/Getty ImagesTL;DR: Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown has become our version of Donald Trump and Boris Johnson, except without any of the insatiable appetite for media appearances. He ...
The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
9 hours ago

Bryce Edwards: NZ needs to distance itself from Australia’s anti-China nuclear submarines
The New Zealand Government has been silent about Australia’s decision to commit up to $400bn acquiring nuclear submarines, even though this is a significant threat to peace and stability in the Asia Pacific. The deal was struck by the Albanese Labor Government as part of its Aukus pact with the ...
Democracy ProjectBy bryce.edwards
10 hours ago

Posie Parker vs Transgender Rights.
Recently you might have heard of a person called Posie Parker and her visit to Aotearoa. Perhaps you’re not quite sure what it’s all about. So let’s start with who this person is, why their visit is controversial, and what on earth a TERF is.Posie Parker is the super villain ...
Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
12 hours ago

Select Committee told slow down; you’re moving too fast
The chair of Parliament’s Select Committee looking at the Government’s resource management legislation wants the bills sent back for more public consultation. The proposal would effectively kill any chance of the bills making it into law before the election. Green MP, Eugenie Sage, stressing that she was speaking as ...
PolitikBy Richard Harman
14 hours ago

Skeptical Science New Research for Week #12 2023
Open access notables The United States experienced some historical low temperature records during the just-concluded winter. It's a reminder that climate and weather are quite noisy; with regard to our warming climate,, as with a road ascending a mountain range we may steadily change our conditions but with lots of ...
Skeptical Science
22 hours ago

What becomes of the broken hearted? Nanny State will step in to comfort them
Buzz from the Beehive The Nanny State has scored some wins (or claimed them) in the past day or two but it faltered when it came to protecting Kiwi citizens from being savaged by one woman armed with a sharp tongue. The wins are recorded by triumphant ministers on the ...
Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
1 day ago

Acceptance, decency, road food.
Sometimes you see your friends making the case so well on social media you think: just copy and share.On acceptance and decency, from Michèle A’CourtA notable thing about anti-trans people is they way they talk about transgender women and men as though they are strangers “over there” when in fact ...
More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
1 day ago

Climate Change: More Labour sabotage
Not that long ago, things were looking pretty good for climate change policy in Aotearoa. We finally had an ETS, and while it was full of pork and subsidies, it was delivering high and ever-rising carbon prices, sending a clear message to polluters to clean up or shut down. And ...
No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
1 day ago

Is bundling restricting electricity competition?
Comparing (and switching) electricity providers has become easier, but bundling power up with broadband and/or gas makes it more challenging. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The Kākā TL;DR: The new Consumer Advocacy Council set up as a result of the Labour Government’s Electricity Price Review in 2019 has called on either ...
The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
1 day ago

Westland Milk puts heat on competitors as global dairy demand remains softer for longer
Hokitika-based Westland Milk Products has put the heat on dairy giant Fonterra with a $120m profit turnaround in 2022, driven by record sales. Westland paid its suppliers a 10c premium above the forecast Fonterra price per kilo, contributing $535m to the West Coast and Canterbury economies. The dairy ...
Point of OrderBy tutere44
1 day ago

BRYCE EDWARDS’ Political Roundup: The Beehive’s revolving door and corporate mateship
* Bryce Edwards writes – New Zealanders are uncomfortable with the high level of influence corporate lobbyists have in New Zealand politics, and demands are growing for greater regulation. A recent poll shows 62 per cent of the public support having a two-year cooling off period between ministers leaving public ...
Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
1 day ago

Bryce Edwards: The Beehive’s revolving door and corporate mateship
New Zealanders are uncomfortable with the high level of influence corporate lobbyists have in New Zealand politics, and demands are growing for greater regulation. A recent poll shows 62 per cent of the public support having a two-year cooling off period between ministers leaving public office and becoming lobbyists and ...
Democracy ProjectBy bryce.edwards
1 day ago

A miracle pill for our transport ills
This is a guest post by accessibility and sustainable transport advocate Tim Adriaansen It originally appeared here. A friend calls you and asks for your help. They tell you that while out and about nearby, they slipped over and landed arms-first. Now their wrist is swollen, hurting like ...
Greater AucklandBy Guest Post
1 day ago

The Surprising Power of Floating Wind Turbines
Floating offshore wind turbines offer incredible opportunities to capture powerful winds far out at sea. By unlocking this wind energy potential, they could be a key weapon in our arsenal in the fight against climate change. But how developed are these climate fighting clean energy giants? And why do I ...
Skeptical Science
1 day ago

The next Maori challenge
Over the past two or three weeks, a procession of Maori iwi and hapu in a series of little-noticed appearances before two Select Committees have been asking for more say for Maori over resource management decisions along the co-governance lines of Three Waters. Their submissions and appearances run counter ...
PolitikBy Richard Harman
2 days ago

Secret “war-crime” warrants by International Criminal Court is mischief-making
The decision of the International Criminal Court (ICC) to issue war crimes arrest warrants for the Russian President and the Russia Children Ombudsman may have been welcomed by the ideologically committed but otherwise seems to have been greeted with widespread cynicism (see Situation in Ukraine: ICC judges issue arrest warrants ...
Open ParachuteBy Ken
2 days ago

How to answer Drunk Uncle Kevin's Climate Crisis reckons
Let’s say you’re clasping your drink at a wedding, or a 40th, or a King’s Birthday Weekend family reunion and Drunk Uncle Kevin has just got going.He’s in an expansive frame of mind because we’re finally rid of that silly girl. But he wants to ask an honest question about ...
More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
2 days ago

National’s Luxon may be glum about his poll ratings but has he found a winner in promising to rai...
National Party leader Christopher Luxon may be feeling glum about his poll ratings, but he could be tapping into a rich political vein in describing the current state of education as “alarming”. Luxon said educational achievement has been declining, with a recent NCEA pilot exposing just how far it has ...
Point of OrderBy tutere44
2 days ago

Climate Change: More Labour foot-dragging
Yesterday the IPCC released the final part of its Sixth Assessment Report, warning us that we have very little time left in which to act to prevent catastrophic climate change, but pointing out that it is a problem that we can solve, with existing technology, and that anything we do ...
No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
2 days ago

Te Pāti Māori Are Revolutionaries – Not Reformists.
Way Beyond Reform: Rawiri Waititi and Debbie Ngarewa-Packer have no more interest in remaining permanent members of “New Zealand’s” House of Representatives than did Lenin and Trotsky in remaining permanent members of Tsar Nicolas II’s “democratically-elected” Duma. Like the Bolsheviks, Te Pāti Māori is a party of revolutionaries – not reformists.THE CROWN ...
Bowalley Road
2 days ago

When does history become “ancient”, on Tinetti’s watch as Minister of Education – and what o...
Buzz from the Beehive Auckland was wiped off the map, when Education Minister Jan Tinetti delivered her speech of welcome as host of the inaugural Conference of Pacific Education Ministers “here in Tāmaki Makaurau”. But – fair to say – a reference was made later in the speech to a ...
Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
2 days ago

Climate Catastrophe, but first rugby.
Morning mate, how you going?Well, I was watching the news last night and they announced this scientific report on Climate Change. But before they got to it they had a story about the new All Blacks coach.Sounds like important news. It’s a bit of a worry really.Yeah, they were talking ...
Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
2 days ago

What the US and European bank rescues mean for us
Always a bailout: US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said the Government would fully guarantee all savers in all smaller US banks if needed. Photo: Getty ImagesTL;DR: No wonder an entire generation of investors are used to ‘buying the dip’ and ‘holding on for dear life’. US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen ...
The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
2 days ago

Bryce Edwards: Who will drain Wellington’s lobbying swamp?
Wealthy vested interests have an oversized influence on political decisions in New Zealand. Partly that’s due to their use of corporate lobbyists. Fortunately, the influence lobbyists can have on decisions made by politicians is currently under scrutiny in Guyon Espiner’s in-depth series published by RNZ. Two of Espiner’s research exposés ...
Democracy ProjectBy bryce.edwards
2 days ago

It’s Raining Congestion
Yesterday afternoon it rained and traffic around the region ground to a halt, once again highlighting why it is so important that our city gets on with improving the alternatives to driving. For additional irony, this happened on the same day the IPCC synthesis report landed, putting the focus on ...
Greater AucklandBy Matt L
2 days ago

Checking The Left: The Dreadful Logic Of Fascism.
The Beginning: Anti-Co-Governance agitator, Julian Batchelor, addresses the Dargaville stop of his travelling roadshow across New Zealand . Fascism almost always starts small. Sadly, it doesn’t always stay that way. Especially when the Left helps it to grow.THERE IS A DREADFUL LOGIC to the growth of fascism. To begin with, it ...
Bowalley Road
3 days ago

Good Friends and Terrible Food
Hi,From an incredibly rainy day in Los Angeles, I just wanted to check in. I guess this is the day Trump may or may not end up in cuffs? I’m attempting a somewhat slower, less frenzied week. I’ve had Unknown Mortal Orchestra’s new record on non-stop, and it’s been a ...
David FarrierBy David Farrier
3 days ago

At a glance – What evidence is there for the hockey stick?
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
Skeptical Science
3 days ago

Carry right on up there, Corporal Espiner
RNZ has been shining their torch into corners where lobbyists lurk and asking such questions as: Do we like the look of this?and Is this as democratic as it could be?These are most certainly questions worth asking, and every bit as valid as, say:Are we shortchanged democratically by the way ...
More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
3 days ago

This smells
RNZ has continued its look at the role of lobbyists by taking a closer look at the Prime Minister's Chief of Staff Andrew Kirton. He used to work for liquor companies, opposing (among other things) a container refund scheme which would have required them to take responsibility for their own ...
No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
3 days ago

Major issues on the table in Mahuta’s talks in Beijing with China’s new Foreign Minister
Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta has left for Beijing for the first ministerial visit to China since 2019. Mahuta is to meet China’s new foreign minister Qin Gang where she might have to call on all the diplomatic skills at her command. Almost certainly she will face questions on what role ...
Point of OrderBy tutere44
3 days ago

Inside TOP's Teal Card and political strategy
TL;DR: The Opportunities Party’s Leader Raf Manji is hopeful the party’s new Teal Card, a type of Gold card for under 30s, will be popular with students, and not just in his Ilam electorate where students make up more than a quarter of the voters and where Manji is confident ...
The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
3 days ago

Make Your Empties Go Another Round.
When I was a kid New Zealand was actually pretty green. We didn’t really have plastic. The fruit and veges came in a cardboard box, the meat was wrapped in paper, milk came in a glass bottle, and even rubbish sacks were made of paper. Today if you sit down ...
Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
3 days ago

Gordon Campbell on how similar Vladimir Putin is to George W. Bush
Looking back through the names of our Police Ministers down the years, the job has either been done by once or future party Bigfoots – Syd Holland, Richard Prebble, Juduth Collins, Chris Hipkins – or by far lesser lights like Keith Allen, Frank Gill, Ben Couch, Allen McCready, Clem Simich, ...
Gordon CampbellBy lyndon
3 days ago

CHRIS TROTTER: Te Pāti Māori’s uncompromising threat to the status quo
Chris Trotter writes – The Crown is a fickle friend. Any political movement deemed to be colourful but inconsequential is generally permitted to go about its business unmolested. The Crown’s media, RNZ and TVNZ, may even “celebrate” its existence (presumably as proof of Democracy’s broad-minded acceptance of diversity). ...
Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
3 days ago

Bryce Edwards: Shining a bright light on lobbyists in politics
Four out of the five people who have held the top role of Prime Minister’s Chief of Staff since 2017 have been lobbyists. That’s a fact that should worry anyone who believes vested interests shouldn’t have a place at the centre of decision making. Chris Hipkins’ newly appointed Chief of ...
Democracy ProjectBy bryce.edwards
3 days ago

Auckland Council Draft Budget – an unnecessary backwards step
Feedback on Auckland Council’s draft 2023/24 budget closes on March 28th. You can read the consultation document here, and provide feedback here. Auckland Council is currently consulting on what is one of its most important ever Annual Plans – the ‘budget’ of what it will spend money on between July ...
Greater AucklandBy Matt L
3 days ago

Talking’ Posey Parker Blues
by Molten Moira from Motueka If you want to be a woman let me tell you what to do Get a piece of paper and a biro tooWrite down your new identification And boom! You’re now a woman of this nationSpelled W O M A Na real trans woman that isAs opposed ...
RedlineBy Admin
4 days ago

More Māori words make it into the OED, and polytech boss (with rules on words like “students”) ...
Buzz from the Beehive New Zealand Education Minister Jan Tinetti is hosting the inaugural Conference of Pacific Education Ministers for three days from today, welcoming Education Ministers and senior officials from 18 Pacific Island countries and territories, and from Australia. Here’s hoping they have brought translators with them – or ...
Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
4 days ago

Social intercourse with haters and Nazis: an etiquette guide
Let’s say you’ve come all the way from His Majesty’s United Kingdom to share with the folk of Australia and New Zealand your antipathy towards certain other human beings. And let’s say you call yourself a women’s rights activist.And let’s say 99 out of 100 people who listen to you ...
More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
4 days ago

The Greens, Labour, and coalition enforcement
James Shaw gave the Green party's annual "state of the planet" address over the weekend, in which he expressed frustration with Labour for not doing enough on climate change. His solution is to elect more Green MPs, so they have more power within any government arrangement, and can hold Labour ...
No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
4 days ago

This sounds familiar…
RNZ this morning has the first story another investigative series by Guyon Espiner, this time into political lobbying. The first story focuses on lobbying by government agencies, specifically transpower, Pharmac, and assorted universities, and how they use lobbyists to manipulate public opinion and gather intelligence on the Ministers who oversee ...
No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
4 days ago

Letter to the NZ Herald: NCEA pseudoscience – “Mauri is present in all matter”
Nick Matzke writes – Dear NZ Herald, I am a Senior Lecturer in the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Auckland. I teach evolutionary biology, but I also have long experience in science education and (especially) political attempts to insert pseudoscience into science curricula in ...
Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
4 days ago

So what would be the point of a Green vote again?
James Shaw has again said the Greens would be better ‘in the tent’ with Labour than out, despite Labour’s policy bonfire last week torching much of what the Government was doing to reduce emissions. File Photo: Lynn Grieveson/Getty ImagesTL;DR: The Green Party has never been more popular than in some ...
The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
4 days ago

Gas stoves pose health risks. Are gas furnaces and other appliances safe to use?
This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Sarah Wesseler Poor air quality is a long-standing problem in Los Angeles, where the first major outbreak of smog during World War II was so intense that some residents thought the city had been attacked by chemical weapons. Cars were eventually discovered ...
Skeptical Science
4 days ago

Genetic Heritage and Co Governance
Yesterday I was reading an excellent newsletter from David Slack, and I started writing a comment “Sounds like some excellent genetic heritage…” and then I stopped.There was something about the phrase genetic heritage that stopped me in tracks. Is that a phrase I want to be saying? It’s kind of ...
Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
4 days ago

BRIAN EASTON: Radical Uncertainty
Brian Easton writes – Two senior economists challenge some of the foundations of current economics. It is easy to criticise economic science by misrepresenting it, by selective quotations, and by ignoring that it progresses, like all sciences, by improving and abandoning old theories. The critics may go ...
Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
4 days ago

Geoffrey Miller: New Zealand’s Middle East strategy, 20 years after the Iraq War
This week marks the twentieth anniversary of the Iraq War. While it strongly opposed the US-led invasion, New Zealand’s then Labour-led government led by Prime Minister Helen Clark did deploy military engineers to try to help rebuild Iraq in mid-2003. With violence soaring, their 12-month deployment ended without being renewed ...
Democracy ProjectBy Geoffrey Miller
4 days ago

The motorways are finished
After seventy years, Auckland’s motorway network is finally finished. In July 1953 the first section of motorway in Auckland was opened between Ellerslie-Panmure Highway and Mt Wellington Highway. The final stage opens to traffic this week with the completion of the motorway part of the Northern Corridor Improvements project. Aucklanders ...
Greater AucklandBy Matt L
4 days ago

Kicking National’s tyres
National’s appointment of Todd McClay as Agriculture spokesperson clearly signals that the party is in trouble with the farming vote. McClay was not an obvious choice, but he does have a record as a political scrapper. The party needs that because sources say it has been shedding farming votes ...
PolitikBy Richard Harman
5 days ago

As long as there is cricket, the world is somehow okay.
Rays of white light come flooding into my lounge, into my face from over the top of my neighbour’s hedge. I have to look away as the window of the conservatory is awash in light, as if you were driving towards the sun after a rain shower and suddenly blinded. ...
Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
5 days ago

So much of what was there remains
The columnists in Private Eye take pen names, so I have not the least idea who any of them are. But I greatly appreciate their expert insight, especially MD, who writes the medical column, offering informed and often damning critique of the UK health system and the politicians who keep ...
More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
6 days ago

2023 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #11
A chronological listing of news articles posted on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week: Sun, Mar 12, 2023 thru Sat, Mar 18, 2023. Story of the Week Guest post: What 13,500 citations reveal about the IPCC’s climate science report IPCC WG1 AR6 SPM Report Cover - Changing ...
Skeptical Science
6 days ago

Financial capability services are being bucked up, but Stuart Nash shouldn’t have to see if they c...
Buzz from the Beehive The building of financial capability was brought into our considerations when Social Development and Employment Minister Carmel Sepuloni announced she had dipped into the government’s coffers for $3 million for “providers” to help people and families access community-based Building Financial Capability services. That wording suggests some ...
Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
6 days ago

Things that make you go Hmmmm.
Do you ever come across something that makes you go Hmmmm?You mean like the song?No, I wasn’t thinking of the song, but I am now - thanks for that. I was thinking of things you read or hear that make you stop and go Hmmmm.Yeah, I know what you mean, ...
Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
6 days ago

The hoon for the week that was to March 19
By the end of the week, the dramas over Stuart Nash overshadowed Hipkins’ policy bonfire. File photo: Lynn GrieveasonTLDR: This week’s news in geopolitics and the political economy covered on The Kākā included:PM Chris Hipkins’ announcement of the rest of a policy bonfire to save a combined $1.7 billion, but ...
The KakaBy Peter Bale
6 days ago

Saving Stuart Nash: Explaining Chris Hipkins' unexpected political calculation
When word went out that Prime Minister Chris Hipkins would be making an announcement about Stuart Nash on the tiles at parliament at 2:45pm yesterday, the assumption was that it was over. That we had reached tipping point for Nash’s time as minister. But by 3pm - when, coincidentally, the ...
PunditBy Tim Watkin
7 days ago

Radical Uncertainty
Two senior economists challenge some of the foundations of current economics. It is easy to criticise economic science by misrepresenting it, by selective quotations, and by ignoring that it progresses, like all sciences, by improving and abandoning old theories. The critics may go on to attack physics by citing Newton.So ...
PunditBy Brian Easton
7 days ago

Jump onto the weekly hoon on Riverside at 5pm
Photo by Walker Fenton on UnsplashIt’s that time of the week again when and I co-host our ‘hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kaka for an hour at 5 pm. Jump on this link on Riverside (we’ve moved from Zoom) for our chat about the week’s news with ...
The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
1 week ago

The Dream of Florian Neame: Accepted
In a nice bit of news, my 2550-word deindustrial science-fiction piece, The Dream of Florian Neame, has been accepted for publication at New Maps Magazine (https://www.new-maps.com/). I have published there before, of course, with Of Tin and Tintagel coming out last year. While I still await the ...
A Phuulish FellowBy strda221
1 week ago

Snakes and leaders
And so this is Friday, and what have we learned?It was a week with all the usual luggage: minister brags and then he quits, Hollywood red carpet is full of twits. And all the while, hanging over the trivial stuff: existential dread, and portents of doom.Depending on who you read ...
More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
1 week ago

This station is Karanga-a-Hape, Chur!
When I changed the name of this newsletter from The Daily Read to Nick’s Kōrero I was a bit worried whether people would know what Kōrero meant or not. I added a definition when I announced the change and kind of assumed people who weren’t familiar with it would get ...
Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
1 week ago

Greens don’t shy from promoting a candidate’s queerness but are quiet about govt announcement on...
There was a time when a political party’s publicity people would counsel against promoting a candidate as queer. No matter which of two dictionary meanings the voting public might choose to apply – the old meaning of odd, strange, weird, or aberrant, or the more recent meaning of gay, homosexual ...
Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
1 week ago

Ask Me Anything about the week to March 17
Photo by Joakim Honkasalo on UnsplashIt’s that time of the week for an ‘Ask Me Anything’ session for paying subscribers about the week that was for the next hour, including:PM Chris Hipkins announcement of the rest of a policy bonfire to save a combined $1.7 billion, but which blew up ...
The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
1 week ago

Slow consenting could create $16b climate liability by 2050
Even though concern over the climate change threat is becoming more mainstream, our governments continue to opt out of the difficult decisions at the expense of time, and cost for future generations. Photo: Lynn Grieveson/Getty ImagesTLDR: Now we have a climate liability number to measure the potential failure of the ...
The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
1 week ago

THOMAS CRANMER: Challenging progressivism in New Zealand’s culture wars
Thomas Cranmer writes Like it or not, the culture wars have entered New Zealand politics and look set to broaden and intensify. The culture wars are often viewed as an exclusively American phenomenon, but the reality is that they are becoming increasingly prominent in countries around the world, ...
Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
1 week ago

Gordon Campbell on firing Stuart Nash, plus a music playlist
Here’s an analogy for the Stuart Nash saga. If people are to be forgiven for their sins, Catholic dogma requires two factors to be present. There has to be a sincere act of confession about what has been done, but also a sincere act of contrition, which signals a painful ...
Gordon CampbellBy lyndon
1 week ago

‘The Real State of the Nation’
Good afternoon. Thank you for the invitation to speak with you today and in your busy lives turning up to this meeting. Forty five years ago, in Howick, often described as racist, and where few Maori lived because it had been a ‘Fencible’ settlement at the time of the Anglo-Maori ...
NZ First Press Release
4 hours ago

National’s education policy gets an F
The Green Party has marked the National Party’s new education policy and given it a fail, especially for its failure to address the underlying drivers of school performance. ...
Greens
1 day ago

Child poverty stats show need for action
The Green Party is calling on the Government to immediately provide more support to families doing it toughest. ...
Greens
1 day ago

Greens ask Auckland MPs across party lines to speak up on Council budget proposals
Auckland Central Green MP, Chlöe Swarbrick, has written to all Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland based Members of Parliament requesting their urgent attention to Auckland Council’s unprecedented slash-and-burn proposals. ...
Greens
2 days ago

Enough slow progress, 2023 is a fight for our future
Political parties that want to negotiate with the Green Party must come to the table with much faster, bolder climate action, co-leaders James Shaw and Marama Davidson emphasised in their State of the Planet speech today. ...
Greens
5 days ago

Greens call time on slow progress
Political parties that want to negotiate with the Green Party after the election must come to the table with much faster, bolder climate action, co-leaders James Shaw and Marama Davidson emphasised today. ...
Greens
5 days ago

Green Party co-leader James Shaw's State of the Planet speech, 2023
You will never truly understand, from the pictures you’ve seen in the newspapers or on the six o-clock news, the sheer scale of the devastation wrought by Cyclone Gabrielle. ...
Greens
5 days ago

More cost of living support for Kiwis
We’re boosting incomes and helping ease cost of living pressures on Kiwis through a range of bread and butter support measures that will see pensioners, students, families, and those on main benefits better off from the start of next month. ...
Labour Blog
1 week ago

Greens back teachers’ demands
The Green Party backs the demands of the teachers’ strikers. ...
Greens
1 week ago

Greens will waste no time with Minister for Zero Waste
The error Labour Ministers made by stopping work on a beverage container return scheme will be reversed by the Greens at the earliest opportunity as part of the next Government. ...
Greens
1 week ago

Greens secure win for clean transport
The Green Party has made it easier for commuters to access e-bikes thanks to an amendment to tax rules. ...
Greens
1 week ago

Greens will always prioritise action on climate and inequality
“Cabinet needs to do better - and today has shown exactly why we need Green Ministers in cabinet, so we can prioritise action to cut climate pollution and support people to make ends meet,” says Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson. ...
Greens
2 weeks ago

Bold action needed to help people eat
Biggest increase in food prices for over three decades shows the need for an excess profit tax on corporations to help people put food on the table. ...
Greens
2 weeks ago

Another Green transport idea gets the green light
The Government’s announcement today that it will improve Christchurch’s bus system comes after Green and NGO pressure. ...
Greens
2 weeks ago

Greens back teachers’ strike
The Green Party stands with teachers in their request for fair pay and decision to strike. ...
Greens
2 weeks ago

Greens launch submission guide for Auckland Council budget
The Green Party has today launched a submission guide to help Aucklanders give crucial input and prevent potentially disastrous Auckland Council budget proposals. ...
Greens
2 weeks ago

When even the Nats agree bank profits are out of control, it’s time for an excess profits tax
With calls growing for inquiries and action on bank profits, the Greens say the Government has all the information it needs to act now and put a levy on banks. ...
Greens
2 weeks ago

Climate action must remain priority in transport investment
As large parts of Aotearoa recover from two of the worst climate disasters we have ever experienced, it would be a huge mistake for the Government to deprioritise climate action from future transport investments, the Green Party says. ...
Greens
3 weeks ago

Historic oceans treaty a wake-up call for Aotearoa
The Green Party is celebrating the signing of a historic United Nations Ocean Treaty, and calls on the new Oceans and Fisheries Minister to urgently step up protection for Aotearoa’s oceans. ...
Greens
3 weeks ago

National would make life harder for people
Christopher Luxon and the National Party are not telling the full story when it comes to childcare, the Green Party says. ...
Greens
3 weeks ago

District Court Judges appointed
Attorney-General David Parker has announced the appointment of Christopher John Dellabarca of Wellington, Dr Katie Jane Elkin of Wellington, Caroline Mary Hickman of Napier, Ngaroma Tahana of Rotorua, Tania Rose Williams Blyth of Hamilton and Nicola Jan Wills of Wellington as District Court Judges. Chris Dellabarca Mr Dellabarca commenced his ...
BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
5 hours ago

New project set to supercharge ocean economy in Nelson Tasman
A new Government-backed project will help ocean-related businesses in the Nelson Tasman region to accelerate their growth and boost jobs. “The Nelson Tasman region is home to more than 400 blue economy businesses, accounting for more than 30 percent of New Zealand’s economic activity in fishing, aquaculture, and seafood processing,” ...
BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
1 day ago

National’s education policy: where’s the funding?
After three years of COVID-19 disruptions schools are finally settling down and National want to throw that all in the air with major disruption to learning and underinvestment. “National’s education policy lacks the very thing teachers, parents and students need after a tough couple of years, certainty and stability,” Education ...
BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
1 day ago

Free programme to help older entrepreneurs and inventors
People aged over 50 with innovative business ideas will now be able to receive support to advance their ideas to the next stage of development, Minister for Seniors Ginny Andersen said today. “Seniors have some great entrepreneurial ideas, and this programme will give them the support to take that next ...
BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
1 day ago

Government target increased to keep powering up the Māori economy
A cross government target for relevant government procurement contracts for goods and services to be awarded to Māori businesses annually will increase to 8%, after the initial 5% target was exceeded. The progressive procurement policy was introduced in 2020 to increase supplier diversity, starting with Māori businesses, for the estimated ...
BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
1 day ago

Continued progress on reducing poverty in challenging times
77,000 fewer children living in low income households on the after-housing-costs primary measure since Labour took office Eight of the nine child poverty measures have seen a statistically significant reduction since 2018. All nine have reduced 28,700 fewer children experiencing material hardship since 2018 Measures taken by the Government during ...
BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
1 day ago

Speech at Fiji Investment and Trade Business Forum
Deputy Prime Minister Kamikamica; distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen. Tēnā koutou katoa, ni sa bula vinaka saka, namaste. Deputy Prime Minister, a very warm welcome to Aotearoa. I trust you have been enjoying your time here and thank you for joining us here today. To all delegates who have travelled to be ...
BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
1 day ago

Government investments boost and diversify local economies in lower South Island
$2.9 million convertible loan for Scapegrace Distillery to meet growing national and international demand $4.5m underwrite to support Silverlight Studios’ project to establish a film studio in Wanaka Gore’s James Cumming Community Centre and Library to be official opened tomorrow with support of $3m from the COVID-19 Response and Recovery ...
BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
1 day ago

Government future-proofs EV charging
Transport Minister Michael Wood has today launched the first national EV (electric vehicle) charging strategy, Charging Our Future, which includes plans to provide EV charging stations in almost every town in New Zealand. “Our vision is for Aotearoa New Zealand to have world-class EV charging infrastructure that is accessible, affordable, ...
BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
2 days ago

World-leading family harm prevention campaign supports young NZers
Associate Minister for Social Development and Employment Priyanca Radhakrishnan has today launched the Love Better campaign in a world-leading approach to family harm prevention. Love Better will initially support young people through their experience of break-ups, developing positive and life-long attitudes to dealing with hurt. “Over 1,200 young kiwis told ...
BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
2 days ago

First Chief Clinical Advisor welcomed into Coroners Court
Hon Rino Tirikatene, Minister for Courts, welcomes the Ministry of Justice’s appointment of Dr Garry Clearwater as New Zealand’s first Chief Clinical Advisor working with the Coroners Court. “This appointment is significant for the Coroners Court and New Zealand’s wider coronial system.” Minister Tirikatene said. Through Budget 2022, the Government ...
BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
2 days ago

Next steps for affected properties post Cyclone and floods
The Government via the Cyclone Taskforce is working with local government and insurance companies to build a picture of high-risk areas following Cyclone Gabrielle and January floods. “The Taskforce, led by Sir Brian Roche, has been working with insurance companies to undertake an assessment of high-risk areas so we can ...
BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
2 days ago

New appointment to Māori Land Court bench
E te huia kaimanawa, ko Ngāpuhi e whakahari ana i tau aupikinga ki te tihi o te maunga. Ko te Ao Māori hoki e whakanui ana i a koe te whakaihu waka o te reo Māori i roto i te Ao Ture. (To the prized treasure, it is Ngāpuhi who ...
BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
2 days ago

Government focus on jobs sees record number of New Zealanders move from Benefits into work
113,400 exits into work in the year to June 2022 Young people are moving off Benefit faster than after the Global Financial Crisis Two reports released today by the Ministry of Social Development show the Government’s investment in the COVID-19 response helped drive record numbers of people off Benefits and ...
BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
2 days ago

Vertical farming partnership has upward momentum
The Government’s priority to keep New Zealand at the cutting edge of food production and lift our sustainability credentials continues by backing the next steps of a hi-tech vertical farming venture that uses up to 95 per cent less water, is climate resilient, and pesticide-free. Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor visited ...
BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
3 days ago

Conference of Pacific Education Ministers – Keynote Address
E nga mana, e nga iwi, e nga reo, e nga hau e wha, tena koutou, tena koutou, tena koutou kātoa. Warm Pacific greetings to all. It is an honour to host the inaugural Conference of Pacific Education Ministers here in Tāmaki Makaurau. Aotearoa is delighted to be hosting you ...
BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
3 days ago

New $13m renal unit supports Taranaki patients
The new renal unit at Taranaki Base Hospital has been officially opened by the Minister of Health Dr Ayesha Verrall this afternoon. Te Huhi Raupō received around $13 million in government funding as part of Project Maunga Stage 2, the redevelopment of the Taranaki Base Hospital campus. “It’s an honour ...
BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
3 days ago

Second Poseidon aircraft on home soil
Defence Minister Andrew Little has marked the arrival of the country’s second P-8A Poseidon aircraft alongside personnel at the Royal New Zealand Air Force’s Base at Ohakea today. “With two of the four P-8A Poseidons now on home soil this marks another significant milestone in the Government’s historic investment in ...
BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
3 days ago

Further humanitarian aid for Türkiye and Syria
Aotearoa New Zealand will provide further humanitarian support to those seriously affected by last month’s deadly earthquakes in Türkiye and Syria, says Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta. “The 6 February earthquakes have had devastating consequences, with almost 18 million people affected. More than 53,000 people have died and tens of thousands more ...
BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
3 days ago

Community voice to help shape immigration policy
Migrant communities across New Zealand are represented in the new Migrant Community Reference Group that will help shape immigration policy going forward, Immigration Minister Michael Wood announced today. “Since becoming Minister, a reoccurring message I have heard from migrants is the feeling their voice has often been missing around policy ...
BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
3 days ago

State Highway 3 project to deliver safer journeys, better travel connections for Taranaki
Construction has begun on major works that will deliver significant safety improvements on State Highway 3 from Waitara to Bell Block, Associate Minister of Transport Kiri Allan announced today. “This is an important route for communities, freight and visitors to Taranaki but too many people have lost their lives or ...
BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
3 days ago

Ginny Andersen appointed as Minister of Police
Prime Minister Chris Hipkins has today appointed Ginny Andersen as Minister of Police. “Ginny Andersen has a strong and relevant background in this important portfolio,” Chris Hipkins said. “Ginny Andersen worked for the Police as a non-sworn staff member for around 10 years and has more recently been chair of ...
BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
4 days ago

Government confirms vital roading reconnections
Six further bailey bridge sites confirmed Four additional bridge sites under consideration 91 per cent of damaged state highways reopened Recovery Dashboards for impacted regions released The Government has responded quickly to restore lifeline routes after Cyclone Gabrielle and can today confirm that an additional six bailey bridges will ...
BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
4 days ago

Foreign Minister Mahuta to meet with China’s new Foreign Minister
Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta departs for China tomorrow, where she will meet with her counterpart, State Councillor and Foreign Minister Qin Gang, in Beijing. This will be the first visit by a New Zealand Minister to China since 2019, and follows the easing of COVID-19 travel restrictions between New Zealand and China. ...
BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
4 days ago

Education Ministers from across the Pacific gather in Aotearoa
Education Ministers from across the Pacific will gather in Tāmaki Makaurau this week to share their collective knowledge and strategic vision, for the benefit of ākonga across the region. New Zealand Education Minister Jan Tinetti will host the inaugural Conference of Pacific Education Ministers (CPEM) for three days from today, ...
BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
4 days ago

State Highway 5 reopens between Napier and Taupō following Cyclone Gabrielle
A vital transport link for communities and local businesses has been restored following Cyclone Gabrielle with the reopening of State Highway 5 (SH5) between Napier and Taupō, Associate Minister of Transport Kiri Allan says. SH5 reopened to all traffic between 7am and 7pm from today, with closure points at SH2 (Kaimata ...
BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
4 days ago

Special Lotto draw raises $11.7 million for Cyclone Gabrielle recovery
Internal Affairs Minister Barbara Edmonds has thanked generous New Zealanders who took part in the special Lotto draw for communities affected by Cyclone Gabrielle. Held on Saturday night, the draw raised $11.7 million with half of all ticket sales going towards recovery efforts. “In a time of need, New Zealanders ...
BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
5 days ago

Government delivers a $3 million funding boost for Building Financial Capability services
The Government has announced funding of $3 million for providers to help people, and whānau access community-based Building Financial Capability services. “Demand for Financial Capability Services is growing as people face cost of living pressures. Those pressures are increasing further in areas affected by flooding and Cyclone Gabrielle,” Minister for ...
BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
1 week ago

Education New Zealand | Manapou ki te Ao – new Chair and member
Minister of Education, Hon Jan Tinetti, has announced appointments to the Board of Education New Zealand | Manapou ki te Ao. Tracey Bridges is joining the Board as the new Chair and Dr Therese Arseneau will be a new member. Current members Dr Linda Sissons CNZM and Daniel Wilson have ...
BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
1 week ago

Scholarships honouring Ngarimu VC and the 28th (Māori) Battalion announced
Fifteen ākonga Māori from across Aotearoa have been awarded the prestigious Ngarimu VC and 28th (Māori) Battalion Memorial Scholarships and Awards for 2023, Associate Education Minister and Ngarimu Board Chair, Kelvin Davis announced today. The recipients include doctoral, masters’ and undergraduate students. Three vocational training students and five wharekura students, ...
BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
1 week ago

Appointment of Judge of the Court of Appeal and Judge of the High Court
High Court Judge Jillian Maree Mallon has been appointed a Judge of the Court of Appeal, and District Court Judge Andrew John Becroft QSO has been appointed a Judge of the High Court, Attorney‑General David Parker announced today. Justice Mallon graduated from Otago University in 1988 with an LLB (Hons), and with ...
BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
1 week ago

NZ still well placed to meet global challenges
The economy has continued to show its resilience despite today’s GDP figures showing a modest decline in the December quarter, leaving the Government well positioned to help New Zealanders face cost of living pressures in a challenging global environment. “The economy had grown strongly in the two quarters before this ...
BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
1 week ago

Western Ring Route Complete
Aucklanders now have more ways to get around as Transport Minister Michael Wood opened the direct State Highway 1 (SH1) to State Highway 18 (SH18) underpass today, marking the completion of the 48-kilometre Western Ring Route (WRR). “The Government is upgrading New Zealand’s transport system to make it safer, more ...
BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
1 week ago

Briefings to Incoming Ministers
This section contains briefings received by incoming ministers following changes to Cabinet in January. Some information may have been withheld in accordance with the Official Information Act 1982. Where information has been withheld that is indicated within the document. ...
BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
1 week ago

Teaming up for a stronger, more resilient Fiji
Aotearoa New Zealand Foreign Affairs Minister Nanaia Mahuta reaffirmed her commitment to working together with the new Government of Fiji on issues of shared importance, including on the prioritisation of climate change and sustainability, at a meeting today, in Nadi. Fiji and Aotearoa New Zealand’s close relationship is underpinned by the Duavata ...
BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
1 week ago

Investment in blue highway a lifeline for regional economies and cyclone recovery
The Government is delivering a coastal shipping lifeline for businesses, residents and the primary sector in the cyclone-stricken regions of Hawkes Bay and Tairāwhiti, Regional Development Minister Kiri Allan announced today. The Rangitata vessel has been chartered for an emergency coastal shipping route between Gisborne and Napier, with potential for ...
BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
1 week ago

Next steps developing clean energy for NZ
The Government will progress to the next stage of the NZ Battery Project, looking at the viability of pumped hydro as well as an alternative, multi-technology approach as part of the Government’s long term-plan to build a resilient, affordable, secure and decarbonised energy system in New Zealand, Energy and Resources ...
BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
1 week ago

Statement from the Prime Minister on Stuart Nash
This morning I was made aware of a media interview in which Minister Stuart Nash criticised a decision of the Court and said he had contacted the Police Commissioner to suggest the Police appeal the decision. The phone call took place in 2021 when he was not the Police Minister. ...
BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
1 week ago

CPTPP Trade Ministers coming to Auckland
The Government’s sharp focus on trade continues with Aotearoa New Zealand set to host Trade Ministers and delegations from 10 Asia Pacific economies at a meeting of Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) Commission members in July, Minister for Trade and Export Growth Damien O’Connor announced today. “New Zealand ...
BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
1 week ago

Govt approves $25 million extension for cyclone-affected businesses
$25 million boost to support more businesses with clean-up in cyclone affected regions, taking total business support to more than $50 million Demand for grants has been strong, with estimates showing applications will exceed the initial $25 million business support package Grants of up to a maximum of $40,000 per ...
BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
1 week ago

Analysis: Teachers need a lot of things, another curriculum 'rewrite' isn't one
We all clearly want the best learning outcomes for our nation's children, but there are deep ideological divisions, writes Cathy Buntting. ...
Radio NZ – political
37 mins ago

The Winston Peters greatest hits hour
The New Zealand First leader took to the altar of an East Auckland church today to set out his 2023 election agenda. It was, as Stewart Sowman-Lund found out, pretty much what you’d expect. Winston Peters rolled into Howick today with a state of the nation speech that, he claimed ...
The SpinoffBy Stewart Sowman-Lund
1 hour ago

Woolworths is getting into telehealth – but patients need to be treated as more than customers
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jon Wardle, Professor of Public Health, Southern Cross University Shutterstock Earlier this week, Australian retail giant Woolworths announced a move into health-care delivery via development of its subsidiary HealthyLife’s online portal. Through this portal, Australians can book a same-day ...
Evening ReportBy The Conversation
1 hour ago

Winston Peters rails against secret 'woke agenda' in campaign speech
New Zealand First leader Winston Peters - eyeing a political comeback - has used a scene-setting speech in Auckland warning against a "conceited, conniving, cultural cabal". ...
Radio NZ – political
2 hours ago

At the 2023 Adelaide Festival, the best works shimmer with a brutal honesty on incarceration, exile ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By William Peterson, Adjunct Associate Professor, Auckland University of Technology The Sheep Song. Tim Standing/Daylight Breaks/Adelaide Festival Few Adelaideans remember a time before the Adelaide Festival. Formed in 1960 as a civic enterprise and financed against loss by prominent Adelaide businessmen, the ...
Evening ReportBy The Conversation
3 hours ago

Week in Politics: Minor parties could hold unprecedented influence post-election
Analysis - The Greens lay down a challenge as the minor parties approach an election in which both National and Labour are going to need coalition partners to form a government, writes Peter Wilson. ...
Radio NZ – political
3 hours ago

Repeal Fiji’s media law and start with ‘clean slate’, says CFL chief
By Arieta Vakasukawaqa in Suva Communications Fiji Ltd (CFL) chair William Parkinson has called for a repeal of Fiji’s Media Industry Development Act 2010 and more discussion on the proposed Media Ownership and Registration Bill 2023. He said this during a public consultation on the review of MIDA Act 2010 ...
Evening ReportBy Asia Pacific Report
3 hours ago

Posie Parker wins the beautiful freedom to make an ugly argument
High Court Justice David Gendall regretfully allows anti-trans activist to enter New Zealand, but warns the expression of her views may be harmful to our vulnerable rainbow community. Jonathan Milne does his best to be civil. Opinion: Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull calls herself Posie Parker. And that's what I'm going to call her. Because she is ...
Newsroom
3 hours ago

Guy Montgomery’s Guy Mont Spelling Bee is an absolute joy
It’s about time somebody made a wacky TV show about how bonkers spelling is. Enter comedian Guy Montgomery and his Guy Mont Spelling Bee. The three years since Covid-19 began have been pretty rocky, but one of the best things to come out of the chaos was Guy Montgomery’s Guy ...
The SpinoffBy Tara Ward
4 hours ago

Psychologists Condemn Anti-trans Hate Speech And Urge The Government To Put Hate Speech Laws Back On...
Te Rōpū Mātai Hinengaro o Aotearoa, The New Zealand Psychological Society (NZPsS) stands beside LGBTQIA+ and Takatāpui communities rallying against anti-trans rhetoric in light of the impending visit of Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull (Posie Parker). We are ...
Scoop politics
4 hours ago

Shocking and controversial: MAFS Australia has outrated 1News
Earlier this month, everybody’s favourite Monster of the Week series Married at First Sight Australia toppled 1News to become the highest rating television show for New Zealand viewers aged 25-54. The controversial reality series garnered an average audience of 137,000, or 6.7% audience share from March 5 until March 11. ...
The SpinoffBy Alex Casey
4 hours ago

Ingredient of the week: Feijoas
It’s the most wonderful time of the year for feijoa lovers – here’s how to make the most of it. Fragrant and sweet, with a delicate jelly centre surrounded by gritty, tangy flesh, all encased in a green sour skin. My parents’ feijoa tree has just dropped its first fruit, ...
The SpinoffBy Wyoming Paul
4 hours ago

The Friday Poem: ‘Bang a Drum’ by Maggie Rainey-Smith
A new poem by poet and novelist Maggie Rainey-Smith. Bang a Drum We’ve hit Gentle Annie passed the pub at Okaramio and on the left, at Wakapuaka there’s Sunnybank where parents left their children An oddly named orphanage manned (ha) by Nuns childless women in black habits, scapula, cowls and ...
The SpinoffBy Maggie Rainey-Smith
4 hours ago

Teachers need a lot of things right now, but another curriculum ‘rewrite’ isn’t one of them
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Cathy Buntting, Director, Wilf Malcolm Institute of Educational Research, University of Waikato Getty Images Less than a fortnight after teachers staged a national strike, education was back in the headlines with the National Party’s release of its curriculum policy – ...
Evening ReportBy The Conversation
4 hours ago

The Unity Books bestseller chart for the week ending March 24
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. AUCKLAND 1 Birnam Wood by Eleanor Catton (Te Herenga Waka University Press, $38) Number one in both ...
The SpinoffBy The Spinoff Review of Books
5 hours ago

High Court Decision The Only Right Result For Nation That Values Free Speech
The Free Speech Union welcomes the decision of the High Court to reject the application to overrule the decision of the Minister of Immigration to allow Kellie-Jay entry into New Zealand. This was the only right result for a nation that ...
Scoop politics
5 hours ago

AI chatbots with Chinese characteristics: why Baidu’s ChatGPT rival may never measure up
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Fan Yang, Research Associate at RMIT and Alfred Deakin Institute, Deakin University Baidu’s ERNIE Bot was launched to considerable disappointment. Ng Han Guan / AP On March 16, Baidu unveiled China’s latest rival to OpenAI’s ChatGPT – ERNIE Bot (short for “Enhanced ...
Evening ReportBy The Conversation
5 hours ago

Ask Fiji military about ‘guns on plane’ claims, says Sayed-Khaiyum
By Meri Radinibaravi in Suva Former attorney-general Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum has told The Fiji Times to ask the Republic of Fiji Military Forces about claims that his bodyguards were allowed to take guns on to Fiji Link flights without proper authorisation. “I understand that there’s some enquiries going on regarding that ...
Evening ReportBy Asia Pacific Report
5 hours ago

Melbourne Now: a vast, sprawling and inspiring exhibition that seems to burst out of its architectur...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sasha Grishin, Adjunct Professor of Art History, Australian National University Installation view of Troy Emery’s work Mountain climber 2022 on display as part of the Melbourne Now exhibition at The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia, Melbourne from 24 March – 20 August ...
Evening ReportBy The Conversation
6 hours ago

KPIs are for businesses and boardrooms, not children and schools
National’s education policy reinforces an old-fashioned and hierarchical curriculum that does lasting harm to many students, writes educational specialist Dr Sarah Aiono. Announcing the National Party’s new education policy this week, leader Christopher Luxon cited a recent NCEA pilot in which two-thirds of students were unable to meet the minimum ...
The SpinoffBy Sarah Aiono
6 hours ago

Last ditch attempt to stop anti-trans speaker from entering NZ fails
Attempts by rainbow groups to stop an anti-trans campaigner entering the country have failed. The High Court has dismissed a judicial review application from Gender Minorities Aotearoa, InsideOUT Kōara and Auckland Pride, aimed at the immigration minister for allowing Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull into New Zealand. As part of the application, the ...
The SpinoffBy Stewart Sowman-Lund
6 hours ago

Urgent hearing under way to determine if anti-trans speaker can enter NZ
The High Court is this morning considering an interim order that would prevent an anti-trans campaigner from making it into New Zealand. Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull is expected to arrive on our shores today ahead of two planned rallies in Auckland and Wellington over the weekend. After immigration officials deemed her safe ...
The SpinoffBy Stewart Sowman-Lund
7 hours ago

Statement From Mayor Paula Southgate: Hamilton’s LGNZ Membership
I was disappointed to see yesterday afternoon’s announcement that Auckland has chosen to leave Local Government NZ (LGNZ). Hamilton’s membership of LGNZ is one of collaboration and sharing. Being a member gives us important views from other ...
Scoop politics
8 hours ago

Review: The Unruly Tourists is fun, but facile
It’s the most talked about local opera production in years – but does it live up to the chatter? The lowdown You’ve probably heard of the “unruly tourists”, the British family who created a media firestorm as they toured around the country leaving trash and turmoil in their wake. You’ve ...
The SpinoffBy Sam Brooks
8 hours ago

Ministry of Health removed trans advice after pressure from activists
As reported by Newsroom’s Marc Daalder this morning, correspondence released under the Official Information Act shows advice about puberty blockers was removed from the Ministry of Health website “in the hopes it creates fewer queries” from anti-trans campaigners. The line that was removed from the site said puberty blockers “are ...
The SpinoffBy Anna Rawhiti-Connell
8 hours ago

Bryce Edwards’ Political Roundup: NZ needs to distance itself from Australia’s anti-China nucle...
Analysis by Dr Bryce Edwards. Political Roundup: NZ needs to distance itself from Australia’s anti-China nuclear submarines The New Zealand Government has been silent about Australia’s decision to commit up to $400bn acquiring nuclear submarines, even though this is a significant threat to peace and stability in the Asia Pacific. The ...
Evening ReportBy Bryce Edwards
8 hours ago

Secondary teachers confirm next strike
Secondary teachers will strike again next week after an agreement on improved pay and working conditions was not reached. The strike will take place on Wednesday, less than two weeks after thousands of educators took to the streets across the country. “PPTA Te Wehengarua members have shown they are serious ...
The SpinoffBy Stewart Sowman-Lund
8 hours ago

Share Your Views On Human Rights Progress In Aotearoa New Zealand
Te Kāhui Tika Tangata Human Rights Commission is encouraging organisations and individuals to share their views on human rights in Aotearoa New Zealand for the government’s upcoming report to the United Nations. The report informs a process ...
Scoop politics
8 hours ago

Secondary And Area School Teachers Plan More Industrial Action
Secondary and area school teachers around the country have voted overwhelmingly in favour of more industrial action, including a one day national strike next Wednesday, in support of their collective agreement negotiations. “PPTA Te Wehengarua members ...
Scoop politics
9 hours ago

Aaron Hawkins: Auckland Council has turned its back on the rest of the country
At a time when our need for collective action is stronger than ever, Auckland Council has opted out to save each of its residents just 25c a year, writes former Dunedin mayor Aaron Hawkins. I grew up in rural Southland, in the shadows of the Cut The Cable movement. In ...
The SpinoffBy Aaron Hawkins
9 hours ago

Fishing for data: commercial fishers help monitor rising temperatures in coastal seas
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Julie Jakoboski, Oceanographic Data Scientist, Moana Project’s Te Tiro Moana Team Lead, MetService — Te Ratonga Tirorangi Moana project, CC BY-ND The world’s oceans are buffering us from the worst climate impacts by taking up more than 90% of the ...
Evening ReportBy The Conversation
9 hours ago

Political editors panel: Schools, lobbying, and trans rights
Morning Report - RNZ and Newsroom's political editors consider National's education pitch, and the political responses to lobbying revelations and Posie Parker. ...
Radio NZ – political
9 hours ago

Free Speech Union Granted Intervening Status In Posie Parker Judicial Review
The Free Speech Union will be an intervener this morning as the High Court considers whether Immigration New Zealand's decision to allow Posie Parker (Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull) entry into New Zealand was legal, says Jonathan Ayling, Chief Executive of the Free ...
Scoop politics
9 hours ago

Why is this Auckland club clinging to a ‘discriminatory’ dress-code rule?
For over a decade, Manurewa Cosmopolitan Club has come under fire for denying entry to people wearing religious headwear. Despite the Human Rights Commission getting involved, it seems the rule remains unchanged. One of the definitions given by the Oxford dictionary for the word cosmopolitan is: “including people from many ...
The SpinoffBy Charlotte Muru-Lanning
10 hours ago

Listen: How Labour just hurt the Emissions Trading Scheme
Chris Hipkins’ dump of Ardern-era policy has potentially jeopardised a major part of the government’s climate change response. In this week’s episode of When the Facts Change, Bernard Hickey talks to climate policy expert Christina Hood from Climate Compass to find out why this month’s Emissions Trading Scheme auction failed and ...
The SpinoffBy The Spinoff
10 hours ago

LGNZ head confused by Wayne Brown’s claim about drunken conference
The head of Local Government NZ, the group representing councils across the country, has hit back at claims made by Auckland mayor Wayne Brown. It was his casting vote that saw Auckland Council leave the representative group yesterday evening, with councillors divided on whether or not it was the right ...
The SpinoffBy Stewart Sowman-Lund
10 hours ago

A new study on Australian volcanoes has changed what we know about explosive ‘hotspot’ volcanism
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Al-Tamini Tapu, Geoscientist, The University of Queensland Warrumbungle national park. colinslack/Shutterstock Our new study published in Nature Geoscience on an ancient chain of Australian volcanoes is helping to change our understanding of “hotspot” volcanism. You may be surprised to learn eastern ...
Evening ReportBy The Conversation
10 hours ago

Time to grow up: Australia’s national security dilemma demands a mature debate
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Matthew Sussex, Fellow, Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, Australian National University There’s been a lot of recent shouting about Australia’s national security policy. It began with the Nine newspapers’ “Red Alert” extravaganza, spread over multiple articles. Featuring a graphic of warplanes ...
Evening ReportBy The Conversation
10 hours ago

Want an easy $400 a year? Ditch the gas heater in your home for an electric split system
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rachel Goldlust, Adjunct Research Fellow, School of Archaeology and History, La Trobe University Shutterstock Earlier this month, regulators flagged electricity price rises in Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia. Like many people, you’re probably wondering how you can ...
Evening ReportBy The Conversation
10 hours ago

4-day work week trials have been labelled a ‘resounding success’. But 4 big questions need answe...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anthony Veal, Adjunct Professor, Business School, University of Technology Sydney Shutterstock A little more than a century ago, most people in industrialised countries worked 60 hours a week – six ten-hour days. A 40-hour work week of five eight-hour days ...
Evening ReportBy The Conversation
10 hours ago

The gaming audience is ‘queerer than ever’ – so how are game creators responding?
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Xavier Ho, Lecturer in Interaction Design, Monash University Sony Entertainment Mainstream games are embracing openly queer characters – and so are many of their players and fans. The Last of Us, the prestige HBO adaptation of the critically lauded ...
Evening ReportBy The Conversation
10 hours ago

The Bulletin: Let’s Get Wellington Moving consultant costs in the crosshairs
The capital’s transport overhaul will have spent $130 million on consultant fees by the end of next year, Stuff reports. Let’s Get Wellington Moving (LGWM) expects to spend $60 million on outside experts in the coming year, after already spending $38.5m in the past three years and $35m this year. Greater ...
The SpinoffBy Catherine McGregor
11 hours ago

How Labour just hurt the Emissions Trading Scheme
Chris Hipkins’ dump of Ardern-era policy has potentially jeopardised a major part of the government’s climate change response. Bernard Hickey talks to climate policy expert Christina Hood from Climate Compass to find out why this month’s Emissions Trading Scheme auction failed and how she feels cabinet have destroyed confidence in ...
The SpinoffBy Calum Henderson
11 hours ago

National’s ‘back to basics’ plan to address the literacy crisis
Christopher Luxon says the policy is what’s needed to address serious issues with reading, writing and maths in primary schools. Others aren’t so sure, writes Catherine McGregor in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. Back ...
The SpinoffBy Catherine McGregor
12 hours ago

Flood-affected Aucklanders breathe a sigh of rates relief
Although Auckland Council’s big cleanup following this year’s extreme weather events continues, “things are getting more difficult at this point”. Five weeks after Cyclone Gabrielle, some 7,000 Aucklanders remain impacted by the aftermath of the floods, slips and heavy winds that battered the region in January and February. Auckland Council’s ...
Newsroom
13 hours ago

A new motorway took all the traffic away – but don’t write Huntly off just yet
A traffic bypass stole 20,000 potential daily visitors from its main streets and local businesses. Three years on, how are the Waikato town’s 9,000 residents coping? The tourism centre is closed – “permanently”, says the sign. The cafe next door, once called River Haven, now with two missing letters making ...
The SpinoffBy Chris Schulz
14 hours ago

A year on from the death of Levi James, what’s changed for Auckland cyclists?
After a 19-year-old was killed while riding his bike on a dangerous stretch of Auckland road, the tragedy became a rallying call to make the city safer for cyclists. Tommy de Silva looks at what’s been achieved in the 12 months since. On March 5, 2022, 19-year-old Levi James was ...
The SpinoffBy Tommy de Silva
14 hours ago

Health advice scrubbed due to anti-trans pressure
Pressure from anti-transgender activists led the Ministry of Health to remove health advice regarding puberty blockers from its website. ...
Newsroom
14 hours ago

Bring back the Ministry of Works
The now defunct ministry is the kind of agency needed to fix our current infrastructure disaster - not Civil Defence and independent sub-contracting and consulting firms. ...
Newsroom
14 hours ago

Twinkle toes teen runs riot in world sevens
Jorja Miller has quickly become one of the key players in the successful Black Ferns Sevens in her first season on the world series circuit, and it's a unique combination of sports that's helped her reach the top, Merryn Anderson discovers. Jorja Miller’s life has always been a balancing act between her ...
Newsroom
14 hours ago

A storm in a lolly jar? The pineapple chew controversy
Can you really call a mass-produced lolly dipped in chocolate "handmade"? The Detail finds out why it's important that products are what they say on the tin. The Potter Brothers saga In 2020, Courtnay Adele - who went on to be a contestant in The Great Kiwi Bake Off - posted a video ...
Newsroom
14 hours ago

Risk of political violence this election still high – Shaw
Someone could be injured, or worse, during this year’s election campaign, warns James Shaw ...
Newsroom
14 hours ago

Airport share sales fraught with difficulty – but retaining ownership is costly
The council's proposal to sell Auckland Airport shares is an uncanny throwback ...
Newsroom
14 hours ago

One small step towards banning ‘forever chemicals’
PFAS in cosmetics enter the environment through the water we drink, the food we eat, and the air we breathe Opinion: New Zealand’s Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) has proposed a ban on the use of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in cosmetics as part of its update to the Cosmetic ...
Newsroom
14 hours ago

Daily crossword, Friday 24 March
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Newsroom
15 hours ago

Newsroom daily quiz, Friday 24 March
Loading...(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){var ql=document.querySelectorAll('A[quiz],DIV[quiz],A[data-quiz],DIV[data-quiz]'); if(ql){if(ql.length){for(var k=0;k<ql.length;k++){ql[k].id='quiz-embed-'+k;ql[k].href="javascript:var i=document.getElementById('quiz-embed-"+k+"');try{qz.startQuiz(i)}catch(e){i.start=1;i.style.cursor='wait';i.style.opacity='0.5'};void(0);"}}};i['QP']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){(i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)})(window,document,'script','https://take.quiz-maker.com/3012/CDN/quiz-embed-v1.js','qp'); Got a good quiz question? Send Newsroom your questions. ...
Newsroom
15 hours ago

We used DNA from Beethoven’s hair to shed light on his poor health – and stumbled upon a family ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Robert Attenborough, Honorary Senior Lecturer in Bioanthropology, Australian National University Kevin Brown, Author provided Many astonishingly creative people have lived lives cut tragically short by illness. Johannes Vermeer, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Jane Austen, Franz Schubert and Emily Brontë are some ...
Evening ReportBy The Conversation
18 hours ago

Grattan on Friday: A ‘No’ vote in the Voice referendum would put a serious dent in Australia’s...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra At the end of the emotional news conference in which he unveiled the wording for the Voice referendum, Anthony Albanese touched on a central reason why a “yes” result is vital. Australia would be ...
Evening ReportBy The Conversation
18 hours ago

Why bioplastics won’t solve our plastic problems
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Elsa Dominish, Research Principal, Institute for Sustainable Futures, University of Technology Sydney Shutterstock Last month, Victoria banned plastic straws, crockery and polystyrene containers, following similar bans in South Australia, Western Australia, New South Wales and the ACT. All states and ...
Evening ReportBy The Conversation
24 hours ago

Union and Labour criticise National's new curriculum policy
Education union NZEI's president says National's new education policy is "like asking the All Blacks to have their goalposts painted a different colour of white and thinking you've made a change". ...
Radio NZ – political
24 hours ago

China’s only now revealed crucial COVID-19 origins data. Earlier disclosure may have saved us 3 ye...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dominic Dwyer, Director of Public Health Pathology, NSW Health Pathology, Westmead Hospital and University of Sydney, University of Sydney Once more, we’re talking about the origins of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. First the US Department of Energy’s review gave more ...
Evening ReportBy The Conversation
1 day ago

Vanuatu minister says harvests will take time to recover after cyclones
By Caleb Fotheringham, RNZ Pacific journalist Vanuatu’s Minister of Climate Change warns “there’s going to be a lot of hardship” for people waiting for their crops to grow back as dry rations are distributed to communities. Minister Ralph Regenvanu said the main food push started in the middle of last ...
Evening ReportBy Asia Pacific Report
1 day ago

As Pacific islanders, we bear the brunt of the climate crisis. The time to end fossil fuel dependenc...
Monday’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report has given a “final warning” to avert global catastrophe. Pacific cabinet ministers call on all world leaders to urgently transition to renewables. COMMENT: By Ralph Regenvanu and Seve Paeniu The cycle is repeating itself. A tropical cyclone of frightening strength strikes a ...
Evening ReportBy Asia Pacific Report
1 day ago

Politics with Michelle Grattan: Michael Brennan on Australia’s parlous productivity growth
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The Productivity Commission’s nine-volume report has a tough central message. It says productivity policy has to focus on the areas that have proven the hardest in the past, rather than those where previously progress has ...
Evening ReportBy The Conversation
1 day ago

Child poverty reduction stalls ahead of cost-of-living crisis
The latest child poverty stats show there was no statistically significant improvement in the year to June 2022. But Child Poverty Reduction Minister Jan Tinetti says even one child living in poverty is "too many". ...
Radio NZ – political
1 day ago

Wellington mayor decries ‘Auxit’ as Wayne Brown leads Auckland out of local government group
The Auckland mayor’s casting vote to take the Super City out of Local Government NZ shows a lack of team play, says Tory Whanau, while LGNZ’s president insists it will cost everyone, including Auckland ratepayers. The Auckland Council withdrawal from Local Government NZ, a national association of local, regional and ...
The SpinoffBy Toby Manhire
1 day ago

‘We’re all in’, declares an emotional Albanese as he launches the wording for the Voice refere...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra An emotional Anthony Albanese, flanked by members of the referendum working group, has released the final proposed wording of the question to be put to Australians to incorporate an Indigenous Voice to Parliament in the ...
Evening ReportBy The Conversation
1 day ago

Rainbow groups launch legal action over decision on Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull
A group of rainbow and human rights organisations has filed for judicial review in the High Court, following the lack of intervention by the immigration minister, Michael Wood, over the decision to allow Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull, an anti-trans-rights activist, to enter the country. Gender Minorities Aotearoa, InsideOUT Kōaro, and Auckland Pride ...
The SpinoffBy Toby Manhire
1 day ago

Rainbow groups take Immigration Minister to court over Posie Parker decision
A coalition of rainbow community groups are taking Immigration Minister Michael Wood to court over a decision to allow a controversial anti-transgender activist into the country. ...
Radio NZ – political
1 day ago

Immigration Minister’s Failure To Act Challenged In High Court By Rainbow Organisations
Today human rights organisations Gender Minorities Aotearoa, InsideOUT Kōaro, and Auckland Pride filed for judicial review in the High Court. Our case follows the Immigration Minister's decision to allow Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull, a known anti-transgender ...
Scoop politics
1 day ago

Amazon group's web services signs cooperation deal with New Zealand government
The US tech giant is building large data centres here and has been courting senior ministers for months. ...
Radio NZ – political
1 day ago

Auckland pulls a Brexit – on the mayor's casting vote
The great southern joke that New Zealand does indeed end at the Bombay Hills, but that it starts at Bluff, takes on a new hue now with Auckland Council breaking away from the sector organisation Local Government NZ Auckland Council has suddenly pulled its own version of Brexit. At the ...
Newsroom
1 day ago

Auckland Council to leave LGNZ, Wayne Brown casts deciding vote
Auckland Council will leave Local Government NZ, the group that represents councils acorss the country. It’s part of mayor Wayne Brown’s attempts to curb spending in the face of a multimillion dollar budget hole. About $400,000 could be saved from the decision to leave the group. According to tweets, the ...
The SpinoffBy Stewart Sowman-Lund
1 day ago

Ratepayer Victory: Auckland Council Resigns From Unaccountable Pressure Group Lgnz
The Auckland Ratepayers’ Alliance is welcoming Auckland Council’s decision to resign from Local Government New Zealand. On Thursday, the Governing Body voted 11-10 for Auckland Council to resign its membership of Local Government New Zealand (LGNZ). ...
Scoop politics
1 day ago

AI tools are generating convincing misinformation. Engaging with them means being on high alert
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lisa M. Given, Professor of Information Sciences & Director, Social Change Enabling Impact Platform, RMIT University This is a fake AI-generated image. Daniel Kempe via Twitter/Midjourney AI tools can help us create content, learn about the world and (perhaps) eliminate the more ...
Evening ReportBy The Conversation
1 day ago

As we bind ourselves with the TPP, so other countries will fill the need

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As we bind ourselves with the TPP, so other countries will fill the need

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