Climate Change & Poverty

Written By: - Date published: 8:04 am, January 9th, 2013 - 54 comments
Categories: capitalism, climate change, Conservation, disaster, Economy, education, health, infrastructure, poverty, sustainability - Tags:

The current heat wave and wildfires in Australia are an immediate cause for concern, threatening large scale damage to homes and life.  They have also caused some to focus on the possibility of an increase in such catastrophes as average global temperatures rise.  Meanwhile, Joseph Stigliz warns of an urgent need for structural change to respond to the simultaneous threats to the long term future of society resulting from climate change, poverty and inequality.

In Australia yesterday, Julia Gillard warned that:

Gillard said extreme bushfires were part of life in a hot and dry country.

”And while you would not put any one event down to climate change … we do know that over time as a result of climate change we are going to see more extreme weather events,” she said.

The biggest disasters in Australia’s recorded history have been during the summer months and such disastrous events are likely to increase.  However, it is not just temperature rises that cause such events, but unusual climatic conditions:

Climate scientists predict average temperatures are set to increase by somewhere between two and five degrees by the end of the century, but it’s not average temperatures that create cyclones and bushfires. The big ones – those that kill scores of people and inflict hundreds of millions of dollars in property damage – occur in exceptional climactic conditions.

This includes a prolonged drought, followed by a day or so of high temperatures, low humidity and gusty winds.  Chris Hammer explains:

Australia’s hot dry summers already ensure that such exceptional circumstances will inevitably occur. They occurred in Victoria and South Australia in the Ash Wednesday fires of 1983, and the Black Friday fires of 1939, long before climate change was perceived as a threat.

Some may take comfort in that, but it would be a misplaced comfort.

An average increase in summer temperatures will increase the frequency of bushfires, perhaps exponentially. The modelling cannot be precise on this, but the direction is clear.

This is because with an increase in background temperatures, climate scientists also expect an increase in climactic volatility. In other words, more exceptional weather events: drier droughts, wetter floods and more catastrophic bushfires.

Such environmental catastrophes are inevitably linked with social and economic conditions as are any possible solutions.  I’m not sure about Stiglitz claim that an adequate response to climate change will “restore adequate demand and growth“, rather than aim for a sustainable, steady state economy. However, he does outline some of the causes of global economic and social problems.  Stiglitz argues that world is needing to adjust from a society based in manufacturing to a service-based one.

While processes of manufacturing necessities have become cheaper and more efficient, the demand for services such as health and education has grown: a demand that is far from being fully met internationally. Stligltiz argues:

New firms must be created, and modern financial markets are better at speculation and exploitation than they are at providing funds for new enterprises, especially small- and medium-size companies.

Moreover, making the transition requires investments in human capital that individuals often cannot afford. Among the services that people want are health and education, two sectors in which government naturally plays an important role (owing to inherent market imperfections in these sectors and concerns about equity).

In this context, Stiglitz points to a crisis of inequality as being one of the major global problems that threatens the long term future for human society.

Indeed, I (and others) have argued that growing inequality is one of the reasons for the economic slowdown, and is partly a consequence of the global economy’s deep, ongoing structural changes.

An economic and political system that does not deliver for most citizens is one that is not sustainable in the long run. Eventually, faith in democracy and the market economy will erode, and the legitimacy of existing institutions and arrangements will be called into question.

The “market” will not provide the solutions to the inter-related problems of climate, environment, inequalities and poverty. It requires “structural transitions” and provisions that include governments taking an active role.  As Stiglitz concludes:

As we struggle with today’s crises, we should be asking whether we are responding in ways that exacerbate our long-term problems. The path marked out by the deficit hawks and austerity advocates both weakens the economy today and undermines future prospects. The irony is that, with insufficient aggregate demand the major source of global weakness today, there is an alternative: invest in our future, in ways that help us to address simultaneously the problems of global warming, global inequality and poverty, and the necessity of structural change.

54 comments on “Climate Change & Poverty ”

  1. King Kong 1

    If only you could have sneaked something about gays in then you would have hit the “ranting lefty trifecta”. Climate change, poverty and gays.

  2. Coronial Typer 2

    And it’s not only a threat, it’s an opportunity for New Zealand. We need to prepare for huge storms, both north and south islands, and huge droughts. That requres stronger catchment management. We need a whole bunch of new storage dams like the ones proposed for Hawkes Bay and Canterbury. Storage dams are tough debates within a community and region. But we need them, both to manage floods and to manage droughts, and to sustain production.

    The debate about the complete commodification of fresh water use in New Zealand is coming at us this year. I think it’s time. Water is our only major natural economic competitive advantage. I don’t agree with the corporatised approach to water – that’s a separate issue to commoditising it so that people pay for what they use and pay for what they damage as a result.

    • Colonial Weka 2.1

      Why do we need more storage dams?

      • Coronial Typer 2.1.1

        “But we need them, both to manage floods and to manage droughts, and to sustain production”

        • Colonial Weka 2.1.1.1

          Dude, I can read. Production of what? Why are ‘more storage dams’ needed in the face of CC? How will storage dams help manage floods and droughts? I agree better catchment management is needed (we need that irrespective of CC btw). Storage dams on their own, esp large scale ones, are not going to save us though.

          • Coronial Typer 2.1.1.1.1

            No they won’t save us. They are not optimal and in some senses damaging. They manage river levels in a flood (even a little), and save water for a long time during drought. New Zealand’s most intensive agricultural land use is highly water-dependent (viticulture, dairy in particular).

            I am definitely in favour of dense riparian planting to soften flood impacts. But they are not enough either. Every centimetre of absorbed flood height saved helps.

  3. Bill 3

    And while you would not put any one event down to climate change..

    (Gillard and ‘a million’ others)

    Just realised that I’m completely over this dishonest and stupid bullshit.

    See, Gillard acknowledges that there is climate change, yet in the same breath, and under cover of supposed reasonableness, asserts that climate change cannot be said to be the determinant factor of particular weather .

    All weather occurs because of the climatic context it take place in. And the climatic context has changed and is changing due to increases in global temperature. And just because today’s weather wherever is recognisable as weather we might have expected during the past 10 000 years or whatever; that doesn’t mean that that weather is not the result of the current climatic context…of course it is! It cannot concievably be down to any other reason.

    Global warming shifts climatic parameters that in turn determine possible weathers. End.

    What the fuck does Gillard and the ‘1001’ apologetic spineless bastard scientists – who should be utterly ashamed of themselves; the ones who are trundled out from time to time to pronounce that ‘we just don’t know for certain if *this* is due to global warming’ think causes fucking weather?! The finer nuances of a cockerel’s crow or what? I’d love to know.

    • Colonial Viper 3.1

      Yeah its word games and games with clever stochastic languaging. While every day the edge of the cliff looms closer and ever faster.

    • One Tāne Viper 3.2

      There is a great deal of money involved. If we start attributing specific losses to Greenhouse events, the next thing you know we’ll be suing polluters for the damages and prosecuting them for the deaths, and we can’t have that, now can we?

    • karol 3.3

      Yes, the “deniers” are leading the agenda. And one of the first things they ask, when someone says such an event is part of climate change, “prove it.” And it’s hard to link any one event to climate change. But the answer is in the evidence of global warming, plus the causes of any one event.

      Pandering to deniers doesn’t help. Politicians particularly need to be leading on the issue.

      • Bill 3.3.1

        Proving it is as easy as looking out the window. *This* weather is determined by the climate. Global warming determines the parameters of climate. *This* weather is the result of global warming.

        Why does this idea; that only ‘shocking’ weather stems from global warming induced climate change persist? All weather…good weather, bad weather, indifferent weather…all of it stems from global warming induced climate change…unless there’s something to the way that cockerel crows afterall.

      • geoff 3.3.2

        There probably won’t be societal change until the frequency of extreme weather events makes business as usual impossible.

        For example, look at the global response to the GFC; no major regulatory changes and very few of the people responsible for it were prosecuted.

      • Jenny 3.3.3

        Yes, the “deniers” are leading the agenda.

        karol

        Rubbish. The deniers have been pushed to the edge of this debate. The “deniers” are not leading the agenda, the apologists and ignorers are. Every rational political leader in every government around the world admits to the reality of climate change. But, apologists like John key say that the economy and jobs are more important than doing anything about climate change. And ignorers like David Shearer, (taking his que from the US presidential elections), simply say nothing, and promise nothing.

        • karol 3.3.3.1

          I think there’s a mixture of both deniers and ignorers/apologists. Julia Gillard may have been anticipating the kind of response she did actually get from the acting leader of the Aussie opposition, as reported this afternoon in the SMH:

          Acting opposition leader Warren Truss says it is ”too simplistic” to link the current heatwave and fires to climate change.
          In Brisbane on Wednesday, Mr Truss acknowledged the record heatwave, but said Australia’s climate was changeable, with hot times and cold times.
          ”The reality is, it’s being utterly simplistic to suggest that we have these fires because of climate change,” he said.
          ”It’s too simplistic to link one hot spell to climate change.”

          This Guardian article by George Monbiot offers as an explanation for why denial is a national past time in Aussie:

          The Australian opposition leader has repeatedly questioned the science and impacts of climate change. …

          Australia is the world’s largest exporter of coal – the most carbon intensive fossil fuel….

          As James Hansen and colleagues showed in a paper published last year in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the occurrence of extremely hot events has risen by a factor of around 50 by comparison to the decades before 1980. …

          It requires that they confront some of the powerful narratives that have shaped Australians’ view of themselves, just as we in the United Kingdom must challenge our own founding myths. In Australia’s case, climate change clashes with a story of great cultural power: of a land of opportunity, in which progress is limited only by the rate at which natural resources can be extracted; in which this accelerating extraction leads to the inexorable improvement of the lives of its people.

          However, while Monbiot’s article title promises a “new politics” the article doesn’t live up to that, and Gillard goes no further than acknowledging that a warming planet is a problem for Aussie’s future.

        • klem 3.3.3.2

          Exactly, the deniers are not merely leading it, they have completely dominated and totally won it.

          cheers

    • Jenny 3.4

      The Colour Purple

      http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/australia/8152723/NSW-under-catastrophic-fire-threat

      The Australian Bureau of Meteorology has added extra colours to its temperature scale for the next week, lifting it to 54 degrees.

      That was well above the all-time record temperature of 50.7 degrees reached on January 2, 1960 at Oodnadatta Airport in South Australia – and the forecast outlook is starting to deploy the new colours.

      While recent days have seen Australian temperature maps displaying maximums ranging from 40 degrees to 48 degrees – depicted in the colour scheme as burnt orange to black – both next Sunday and Monday are now showing regions likely to hit 50 degrees or more, coloured purple.

      “The scale has just been increased today and I would anticipate it is because the forecast coming from the bureau’s model is showing temperatures in excess of 50 degrees,” said David Jones, head of the bureau’s climate monitoring and prediction unit.

      stuff.co.nz

      • karol 3.4.1

        That article doesn’t directly link the adding of colours to the scale, with a warming planet. Other articles do, like this one in the Independent:

        This is thought to be the first time that any country in the world has actually redrawn its charts to take account of temperatures which are thought likely to go off the scale which had been previously applied, and climate scientists indicated it was a warning for the future.

        ‘”The current heatwave – in terms of its duration, its intensity and its extent – is unprecedented in our records,” said the Bureau of Meteorology’s manager of climate monitoring and prediction, David Jones.

        ”Clearly, the climate system is responding to the background warming trend. Everything that happens in the climate system now is taking place on a planet which is a degree hotter than it used to be.”

  4. RedBat 4

    The ‘Market’ (whatever that is) will not, but socialism will?

    • mike e vipe e 4.1

      redbat the market will but it will be to late as with the gfc it will collapse along with life as we know it. Mad Max style!

  5. Bill 5

    From one of the linked articles

    Global warming is a quintessential “public goods” problem.

    (Stiglitz)

    What the fuck does that even mean? Global warming is the direct result of extracting carbon that was buried underground millions of years ago, burning it and putting it all back into the atmosphere. I mean, it’s pretty simple, isn’t it?

    Meanwhile poverty is a direct result of capitalism and it’s inherent market systems that ensure a mis-allocation of resources and of the access to them.

    And Stilgitz reckons that if only we reconfigure the focus of the market economy then everything will be tickety-boo? That’s so disconnected as to deserve being filed under the category ‘Of The Absurd and Insane’ and then just forgotten about.

    • karol 5.1

      Stiglitz is a respected economist, and has some following on the left – mainly because these days he’s against unfettered free markets. He favours a balance between government intervention and market provisions. However, while his constantly evolving theories offer a critique of “neoliberalism”, he doesn’t seem to favour an end to capitalism – just wants a better regulated one

      His linked article is a problem because it flicks over a range of issues, and assumes some background knowledge of economics. However, I think he does correctly identify the inter-linked problems of global economic, social and environmental realities, and that the dominant free-market approaches won’t solve them. It’s his solutions that are open to question. He does seem to still be favouring ‘growth” over steady state.

      A quick online search throws up a range of links about “public goods” in economic theories.
      Climate change, or rather achieving climate stability, is a global public good that present very difficult problems. Public goods are are goods/services that need to be available to all, and there should be no competition over access – once provided they are available to all.

      Climate stability is a global public good. Public goods at a national level (e.g. public broadcasting) are provided by a mix of taxes, pricing mechanism etc. Doing this at an international level is a big problem. According to this link, it means that many people are likely to leave it to others to solve – if someone makes provisions for climate stability, then we all benefit – so why not wait for someone else pay for it?

      William Nordhaus (1999) argues that markets can’t solve global public good problems. Usually they are solved by treeaties (eg whaling or limiting ozone depletion). He looks at Kyoto, and back then could see it wouldn’t work: it’s way too expensive, has no rationale based in economic or environmental policies, it’s wasteful. Alternatively he argues for using pricing or taxes, rather than limiting emissions. He focuses on a carbon tax, but isn’t totally keen on that either. But he seems more keen on market type approaches (pricing/taxes) over command and control ones.

      So, Stiglitz (and others) is looking for an alternative (global) structure as a way to respond to climate change. But, most still seem to be looking for a solution within capitalism.

      • Bill 5.1.1

        My problem is this dressing up of obvious and simple problems in verbal garbage that is then presented back to us in ways that suggest ‘great minds’ are required to comprehend and solve said problems.

        It ain’t that complicated.

        Taking their hocus-pocus at face value- the greatest ‘public good’ then, is to kill off those things that are creating global warming and inequality. Yes? So, end the burning of fossil fuels and, with that, the market economy that cannot function without burning massive quantities of fossil fuels.

        That gives us affirmative action on global warming and poverty/inequality. Two birds with one stone. Simple.

        • karol 5.1.1.1

          Well, yes. It should be that simple. It’s made complicated because so many governments, economists, etc, are looking for a way to deal with these problems while still retaining capitalism. They want to find some prescription that can be applied globally, that won’t upset the capitalists too much.

          • Colonial Viper 5.1.1.1.1

            It’s made complicated because so many governments, economists, etc,

            Those who receive the most privilege, advantage and wealth from today’s system are amongst those most likely to resist real change. Either actively or passively.

            One other aspect is: we still have sufficient wealth and energy in the system to (barely) maintain high levels of hyper-complexity in our governmental, academic and economic activity. Hence Stiglitz et al feel they still have time to pontificate endlessly and demonstrate their worth in a dozen new journal papers over the next 5 years.

            What I see Bill advocating is perfectly sensible – collapse to simplicity right here right now, and avoid the rush (hat tip John Michael Greer). And if idiot governments refuse to take those steps in a timely manner, we do what we can to simplify and make more durable our own lives, homes and local communities.

            • Populuxe1 5.1.1.1.1.1

              However no democratic government on earth is going to be able to sell that to their voters. Hi everybody, we’re going to knock your standard of living back one or two centuries – vote for us. Nah. Think of something else. The only way you could do it would be a dictatorship, something all right-thinking people would rightly reject out of hand.

              • Colonial Viper

                In general, you’re spot on. After all, economic growth is right around the corner. Or maybe the corner after that. Or the one after that.

                The only way you could do it would be a dictatorship, something all right-thinking people would rightly reject out of hand.

                Expect to see multiple instances of “emergency powers” being used in ‘developed nations’ over the next 10 years.

                • Populuxe1

                  I live in Christchurch. I see it every fucking day.

                  • Colonial Viper

                    Hi everybody, we’re going to knock your standard of living back one or two centuries – vote for us. Nah.

                    By the way, if NZ does it right, we’d only need to reduce our levels of consumption and energy use back to the 1950’s or 1960’s, and we’d still have many elements of advanced technology. It’d be a good life. But we have to get ready now.

  6. Populuxe1 6

    Bush fires are probably not the best lead in for a piece about climate change and poverty, what with bush fires having always been a seasonal state of affairs in Australia – at least since the Eucalyptus evolved into it’s current explosive form – and the fact that the Australian (or for that matter American) suburbs most affected by bush fires are usually the most affluent (ie, can afford to live surrounded by all that nature).

    • klem 6.1

      Don’t tell that to the left leaning greenies, they might learn something.

      • karol 6.1.1

        *sigh* Did you and Pop read the articles and quotes from them about Aussies fires and climate change? They are saying fires in Aussie always existed, and that they happen under certain conditions. They then say, they will be more prevalent with higher temperatures. As I quoted in the post above:

        An average increase in summer temperatures will increase the frequency of bushfires, perhaps exponentially.

        • klem 6.1.1.1

          “..fires in Aussie always existed, and that they happen under certain conditions.”

          Conditions, like a car and a cigarette. In North America when someone tosses a cigarette from their car, it starts a bushfire. When someone in Australia tosses a cigarette from their car, its called climate change.

  7. Colonial Weka 7

    Here’s one for bad12 😉

    http://www.smh.com.au/environment/weather/temperatures-off-the-charts-as-australia-turns-deep-purple-20130108-2ce33.html

    “The Bureau of Meteorology’s interactive weather forecasting chart has added new colours – deep purple and pink – to extend its previous temperature range that had been capped at 50 degrees.

    The range now extends to 54 degrees – well above the all-time record temperature of 50.7 degrees reached on January 2, 1960 at Oodnadatta Airport in South Australia – and, perhaps worringly, the forecast outlook is starting to deploy the new colours.
    Advertisement
    “The scale has just been increased today and I would anticipate it is because the forecast coming from the bureau’s model is showing temperatures in excess of 50 degrees,” David Jones, head of the bureau’s climate monitoring and prediction unit, said.”

    • klem 7.1

      Wow, only 54 degrees. When I held my thermometer out there it read 62 degrees.

      Which one was correct?

    • bad12 7.2

      Yeah right, have seen that, why tho is it ‘one for me’, i have simply pointed out, as have others, that Australian bush-fires have been happening for 1000,s of years,

      Rather than point at bush-fires screeching climate change you should be worrying how much CO2 is pumped into the air year on year by these fires and those in the US and Africa…

  8. Rogue Trooper 8

    Well, an overview of the world sharemarkets suggest they’re not bovverd.

  9. infused 9

    Yeah, because this never happened hundreds of years ago. This is the reason no one takes posts on climate change seriously. Because you link it to some bullshit.

    I cringe every time there is some type of extreme climate, as I know it will be follow by countless, retarded articles on climate change.

    • Colonial Viper 9.1

      Try shifting your focus further than the tip of your nose.

    • One Tāne Huna 9.2

      Infused:

      The distribution of seasonal mean temperature anomalies has shifted toward higher temperatures and the range of anomalies has increased. An important change is the emergence of a category of summertime extremely hot outliers, more than three standard deviations (3σ) warmer than the climatology of the 1951–1980 base period. This hot extreme, which covered much less than 1% of Earth’s surface during the base period, now typically covers about 10% of the land area.

      Hansen and Sato, Perception of Climate Change. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2012 September 11; 109(37): E2415-E2423.

      The data used covers the period up to 2010. In 2012, 3,215 high-temperature records were broken or tied in the US, and record-breaking Australian temperatures just yesterday required new colours to be added at the top of the scale.

      Karol’s post is entirely apposite

  10. Galeandra 10

    infused tries confused.
    ( ‘retarded’ is just her way of describing anything she doesn’t agree with. )

    Pity about the indications of a mid-century 3+ degree temperature rise.
    Just a super-conspiracy concocted by those ivory-tower dullards scattered across the globe who rort all us honest-to-God job-creators through their pointless studies on melting ice and methane plumes?

    • karol 10.1

      How can there be such a conspiracy, when, in the wealthiest of nations, the climate deniers are given the strongest public voice?

      A US mediamatters study shows that evidence of climate change is being marginalised in the MSM:

      Study: Warmest Year on Record Received Cool Climate Coverage

      A Media Matters analysis finds that news coverage of climate change on ABC, CBS, NBC and FOX remained low in 2012 despite record temperatures and a series of extreme weather events in the U.S. When the Sunday shows did discuss climate change, scientists were shut out of the debate while Republican politicians were given a platform to question the science.

  11. Jan Freed 11

    I wonder how many cynics simply just don’t give a damn about what happens to the victims in Bangladesh, or the Phillipines, or whether we, the emitting nations, are the cause of the extremes. They are poor, brown and far far away.

    “Screw it!”, they crow; “turn up the A/C,blah, blah, blah” (O, what dashing, swashbuckling, indifference)

    I am reminded of Psalm 41: “Happy is the man who considereth the poor; the Lord will deliver him in the day of evil”

    • karol 11.1

      A good point, Jan. It does look like those that are well off are doing their best to maintain their privilege – perhaps hoping if there is a climate-driven economic decline, they’ll be alright & will leave the least well-off to suffer the worst effects.

    • >I wonder how many cynics simply just don’t give a damn about what happens to the victims in Bangladesh, or the Phillipines<

      Most people …. well about 99.6% don't even give a flying fuck about their own children, let alone some pore bugger in another country.
      And that goes for all politicians, and all local governments, they know every thing they do is going to kill future generations, but they chose to ignore the facts.
      This is just one example of some of the information they have been given and have ignored, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cd1Y3u-4SUk I don't know why Kevin bothers.
      And lets not forget the media.

      Got to ask Australia "Hot enough for ya cobber?" ….. not sure how our wheat and rice is growing at the moment?

  12. No if buts or maybes ……. quite simply we are SCREWED.

    http://guymcpherson.com/2013/01/climate-change-summary-and-update/

    Climate-change summary and update

    Sun, Jan 6, 2013

    ——————————-SNIP—————————————–

    Large-scale assessments

    Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (late 2007): 1 C by 2100

    Hadley Centre for Meteorological Research (late 2008): 2 C by 2100

    United Nations Environment Programme (mid 2009): 3.5 C by 2100

    Hadley Centre for Meteorological Research (October 2009): 4 C by 2060

    Global Carbon Project, Copenhagen Diagnosis (November 2009): 6 C, 7 C by 2100

    International Energy Agency (November 2010): 3.5 C by 2035 2100

    United Nations Environment Programme (December 2010): up to 5 C by 2050

    —————————————————————————

    Positive feedbacks

    Methane hydrates are bubbling out the Arctic Ocean (Science, March 2010)

    Warm Atlantic water is defrosting the Arctic as it shoots through the Fram Strait (Science, January 2011)

    Siberian methane vents have increased in size from less than a meter across in the summer of 2010 to about a kilometer across in 2011 (Tellus, February 2011)

    Drought in the Amazon triggered the release of more carbon than the United States in 2010 (Science, February 2011)

    Peat in the world’s boreal forests is decomposing at an astonishing rate (Nature Communications, November 2011)

    Methane is being released from the Antarctic, too (Nature, August 2012)

    Russian forest and bog fires are growing (NASA, August 2012)

    Cracking of glaciers accelerates in the presence of increased carbon dioxide (Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics, October 2012)

    Arctic drilling was fast-tracked by the Obama administration during the summer of 2012

    As nearly as I can distinguish, only the latter feedback process is reversible. Once you pull the tab on the can of beer, there’s no keeping the carbon dioxide from bubbling up and out

  13. Mark 13

    Just checked in to visit The Standard, God you people are deluded..
    ”There are ominous signs that the earth’s weather patterns have begun to change and cool dramatically and that these changes may portend a drastic decline in food production – with serious political implications for just about every nation on earth. The drop in food production could begin quite soon. The evidence in support of these predictions has now begun to accumulate so massively that meteorologist are hard-pressed to keep up with it.” – Newsweek, April 28, (1975)

    “This cooling has already killed hundreds of thousands of people. If it continues and no strong action is taken, it will cause world famine, world chaos and world war, and this could all come about before the year 2000.” – Lowell Ponte “The Cooling” (1976)

    “The continued rapid cooling of the earth since WWII is in accord with the increase in global air pollution associated with industrialization, mechanization, urbanization and exploding population.” – Reid Bryson, Global Ecology (1971)

    “The battle to feed humanity is over. In the 1970s, the world will undergo famines. Hundreds of millions of people are going to starve to death in spite of any crash programs embarked upon now. Population control is the only answer.” – Prof. Paul Ehrlich – The Population Bomb (1968)

    “In ten years all important animal life in the sea will be extinct. Large areas of coastline will have to be evacuated because of the stench of dead fish.” – Prof. Paul Ehrlich, Earth Day (1970)

    “This cooling trend will reduce agricultural productivity for the rest of the century.” – Peter Gwynne, climatologist, Newsweek (1976)

    “If present trends continue, the world will be about four degrees colder for the global mean temperature in 1990, but eleven degrees colder by the year 2000…This is about twice what it would take to put us in an ice age.” – Kenneth Watt, Earth Day (1970)

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    Three opinion polls have been released in the last two days, all showing that the new government is failing to hold their popular support. The usual honeymoon experienced during the first year of a first term government is entirely absent. The political mood is still gloomy and discontented, mainly due ...
    Democracy ProjectBy bryce.edwards
    20 hours ago
  • Taking Tea with 42 & 38.
    National's Finance Minister once met a poor person.A scornful interview with National's finance guru who knows next to nothing about economics or people.There might have been something a bit familiar if that was the headline I’d gone with today. It would of course have been in tribute to the article ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    21 hours ago
  • Beware political propaganda: statistics are pointing to Grant Robertson never protecting “Lives an...
    Rob MacCulloch writes – Throughout the pandemic, the new Vice-Chancellor-of-Otago-University-on-$629,000 per annum-Can-you-believe-it-and-Former-Finance-Minister Grant Robertson repeated the mantra over and over that he saved “lives and livelihoods”. As we update how this claim is faring over the course of time, the facts are increasingly speaking differently. NZ ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    21 hours ago
  • Winding back the hands of history’s clock
    Chris Trotter writes – IT’S A COMMONPLACE of political speeches, especially those delivered in acknowledgement of electoral victory: “We’ll govern for all New Zealanders.” On the face of it, the pledge is a strange one. Why would any political leader govern in ways that advantaged the huge ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    22 hours ago
  • Paula Bennett’s political appointment will challenge public confidence
     Bryce Edwards writes – The list of former National Party Ministers being given plum and important roles got longer this week with the appointment of former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett as the chair of Pharmac. The Christopher Luxon-led Government has now made key appointments to Bill ...
    Point of OrderBy xtrdnry
    22 hours ago
  • Business confidence sliding into winter of discontent
    TL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 10:06am on Wednesday, May 1:The Lead: Business confidence fell across the board in April, falling in some areas to levels last seen during the lockdowns because of a collapse in ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    23 hours ago
  • Gordon Campbell on the coalition’s awful, not good, very bad poll results
    Over the past 36 hours, Christopher Luxon has been dong his best to portray the centre-right’s plummeting poll numbers as a mark of virtue. Allegedly, the negative verdicts are the result of hard economic times, and of a government bravely set out on a perilous rescue mission from which not ...
    1 day ago
  • New HOP readers for future payment options
    Auckland Transport have started rolling out new HOP card readers around the network and over the next three months, all of them on buses, at train stations and ferry wharves will be replaced. The change itself is not that remarkable, with the new readers looking similar to what is already ...
    1 day ago
  • 2024 Reading Summary: April (+ Writing Update)
    Completed reads for April: The Difference Engine, by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling Carnival of Saints, by George Herman The Snow Spider, by Jenny Nimmo Emlyn’s Moon, by Jenny Nimmo The Chestnut Soldier, by Jenny Nimmo Death Comes As the End, by Agatha Christie Lord of the Flies, by ...
    2 days ago
  • At a glance – Clearing up misconceptions regarding 'hide the decline'
    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 ...
    2 days ago
  • Road photos
    Have a story to share about St Paul’s, but today just picturesPopular novels written at this desk by a young man who managed to bootstrap himself out of father’s imprisonment and his own young life in a workhouse Read more ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    2 days ago
  • Bryce Edwards: Paula Bennett’s political appointment will challenge public confidence
    The list of former National Party Ministers being given plum and important roles got longer this week with the appointment of former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett as the chair of Pharmac. The Christopher Luxon-led Government has now made key appointments to Bill English, Simon Bridges, Steven Joyce, Roger Sowry, ...
    Democracy ProjectBy bryce.edwards
    2 days ago
  • NZDF is still hostile to oversight
    Newsroom has a story today about National's (fortunately failed) effort to disestablish the newly-created Inspector-General of Defence. The creation of this agency was the key recommendation of the Inquiry into Operation Burnham, and a vital means of restoring credibility and social licence to an agency which had been caught lying ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    2 days ago
  • Winding Back The Hands Of History’s Clock.
    Holding On To The Present: The moment a political movement arises that attacks the whole idea of social progress, and announces its intention to wind back the hands of History’s clock, then democracy, along with its unwritten rules, is in mortal danger.IT’S A COMMONPLACE of political speeches, especially those delivered in ...
    2 days ago
  • Sweet Moderation? What Christopher Luxon Could Learn From The Germans.
    Stuck In The Middle With You: As Christopher Luxon feels the hot breath of Act’s and NZ First’s extremists on the back of his neck and, as he reckons with the damage their policies are already inflicting upon a country he’s described as “fragile”, is there not some merit in reaching out ...
    2 days ago
  • A clear warning
    The unpopular coalition government is currently rushing to repeal section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act. The clause is Oranga Tamariki's Treaty clause, and was inserted after its systematic stealing of Māori children became a public scandal and resulted in physical resistance to further abductions. The clause created clear obligations ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    2 days ago
  • Poll results and Waitangi Tribunal report go unmentioned on the Beehive website – where racing tru...
    Buzz  from the Beehive The government’s official website – which Point of Order monitors daily – not for the first time has nothing much to say today about political happenings that are grabbing media headlines. It makes no mention of the latest 1News-Verian poll, for example.  This shows National down ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    2 days ago
  • Listening To The Traffic.
    It Takes A Train To Cry: Surely, there is nothing lonelier in all this world than the long wail of a distant steam locomotive on a cold Winter’s night.AS A CHILD, I would lie awake in my grandfather’s house and listen to the traffic. The big wooden house was only a ...
    2 days ago
  • Comity Be Damned! The State’s Legislative Arm Is Flexing Its Constitutional Muscles.
    Packing A Punch: The election of the present government, including in its ranks politicians dedicated to reasserting the rights of the legislature in shaping and determining the future of Māori and Pakeha in New Zealand, should have alerted the judiciary – including its anomalous appendage, the Waitangi Tribunal – that its ...
    2 days ago
  • Ending The Quest.
    Dead Woman Walking: New Zealand’s media industry had been moving steadily towards disaster for all the years Melissa Lee had been National’s media and communications policy spokesperson, and yet, when the crisis finally broke, on her watch, she had nothing intelligent to offer. Christopher Luxon is a patient man - but he’s not ...
    2 days ago
  • Will political polarisation intensify to the point where ‘normal’ government becomes impossible,...
    Chris Trotter writes –  New Zealand politics is remarkably easy-going: dangerously so, one might even say. With the notable exception of John Key’s flat ruling-out of the NZ First Party in 2008, all parties capable of clearing MMP’s five-percent threshold, or winning one or more electorate seats, tend ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    2 days ago
  • Bernard’s pick 'n' mix for Tuesday, April 30
    TL;DR: Here’s my top 10 ‘pick ‘n’ mix of links to news, analysis and opinion articles as of 10:30am on Tuesday, May 30:Scoop: NZ 'close to the tipping point' of measles epidemic, health experts warn NZ Herald Benjamin PlummerHealth: 'Absurd and totally unacceptable': Man has to wait a year for ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    2 days ago
  • Why Tory Whanau has the lowest approval rating in the country
    Bryce Edwards writes – Polling shows that Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has the lowest approval rating of any mayor in the country. Siting at -12 per cent, the proportion of constituents who disapprove of her performance outweighs those who give her the thumbs up. This negative rating is ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    2 days ago
  • Worst poll result for a new Government in MMP history
    Luxon will no doubt put a brave face on it, but there is no escaping the pressure this latest poll will put on him and the government. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    2 days ago
  • Pinning down climate change's role in extreme weather
    This is a re-post from The Climate Brink by Andrew Dessler In the wake of any unusual weather event, someone inevitably asks, “Did climate change cause this?” In the most literal sense, that answer is almost always no. Climate change is never the sole cause of hurricanes, heat waves, droughts, or ...
    2 days ago
  • Serving at Seymour's pleasure.
    Something odd happened yesterday, and I’d love to know if there’s more to it. If there was something which preempted what happened, or if it was simply a throwaway line in response to a journalist.Yesterday David Seymour was asked at a press conference what the process would be if the ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    2 days ago
  • Webworm LA Pop-Up
    Hi,From time to time, I want to bring Webworm into the real world. We did it last year with the Jurassic Park event in New Zealand — which was a lot of fun!And so on Saturday May 11th, in Los Angeles, I am hosting a lil’ Webworm pop-up! I’ve been ...
    David FarrierBy David Farrier
    2 days ago
  • “Feel good” school is out
    Education Minister Erica Standford yesterday unveiled a fundamental reform of the way our school pupils are taught. She would not exactly say so, but she is all but dismantling the so-called “inquiry” “feel good” method of teaching, which has ruled in our classrooms since a major review of the New ...
    PolitikBy Richard Harman
    2 days ago
  • 6 Months in, surely our Report Card is “Ignored all warnings: recommend dismissal ASAP”?
    Exactly where are we seriously going with this government and its policies? That is, apart from following what may as well be a Truss-Lite approach on the purported economic plan, and Victorian-era regression when it comes to social policy. Oh it’ll work this time of course, we’re basically assured, “the ...
    exhALANtBy exhalantblog
    3 days ago
  • Bread, and how it gets buttered
    Hey Uncle Dave, When the Poms joined the EEC, I wasn't one of those defeatists who said, Well, that’s it for the dairy job. And I was right, eh? The Chinese can’t get enough of our milk powder and eventually, the Poms came to their senses and backed up the ute ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    3 days ago
  • Bryce Edwards: Why Tory Whanau has the lowest approval rating in the country
    Polling shows that Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has the lowest approval rating of any mayor in the country. Siting at -12 per cent, the proportion of constituents who disapprove of her performance outweighs those who give her the thumbs up. This negative rating is higher than for any other mayor ...
    Democracy ProjectBy bryce.edwards
    3 days ago
  • Justice for Gaza?
    The New York Times reports that the International Criminal Court is about to issue arrest warrants for Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, over their genocide in Gaza: Israeli officials increasingly believe that the International Criminal Court is preparing to issue arrest warrants for senior government officials on ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    3 days ago
  • If there has been any fiddling with Pharmac’s funding, we can count on Paula to figure out the fis...
    Buzz from the Beehive Pharmac has been given a financial transfusion and a new chair to oversee its spending in the pharmaceutical business. Associate Health Minister David Seymour described the funding for Pharmac as “its largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff”. ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    3 days ago
  • FastTrackWatch – The case for the Government’s Fast Track Bill
    Bryce Edwards writes – Many criticisms are being made of the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill, including by this writer. But as with everything in politics, every story has two sides, and both deserve attention. It’s important to understand what the Government is trying to achieve and its ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    3 days ago
  • Bernard’s pick 'n' mix for Monday, April 29
    TL;DR: Here’s my top 10 ‘pick ‘n’ mix of links to news, analysis and opinion articles as of 10:10am on Monday, April 29:Scoop: The children's ward at Rotorua Hospital will be missing a third of its beds as winter hits because Te Whatu Ora halted an upgrade partway through to ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    3 days ago
  • Gordon Campbell on Iran killing its rappers, and searching for the invisible Dr. Reti
    span class=”dropcap”>As hideous as David Seymour can be, it is worth keeping in mind occasionally that there are even worse political figures (and regimes) out there. Iran for instance, is about to execute the country’s leading hip hop musician Toomaj Salehi, for writing and performing raps that “corrupt” the nation’s ...
    3 days ago
  • Auckland Rail Electrification 10 years old
    Yesterday marked 10 years since the first electric train carried passengers in Auckland so it’s a good time to look back at it and the impact it has had. A brief history The first proposals for rail electrification in Auckland came in the 1920’s alongside the plans for earlier ...
    3 days ago
  • Coalition's dirge of austerity and uncertainty is driving the economy into a deeper recession
    Right now, in Aotearoa-NZ, our ‘animal spirits’ are darkening towards a winter of discontent, thanks at least partly to a chorus of negative comments and actions from the Government Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    3 days ago
  • Disability Funding or Tax Cuts.
    You make people evil to punish the paststuck inside a sequel with a rotating castThe following photos haven’t been generated with AI, or modified in any way. They are flesh and blood, human beings. On the left is Galatea Young, a young mum, and her daughter Fiadh who has Angelman ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    3 days ago
  • Of the Goodness of Tolkien’s Eru
    April has been a quiet month at A Phuulish Fellow. I have had an exceptionally good reading month, and a decently productive writing month – for original fiction, anyway – but not much has caught my eye that suggested a blog article. It has been vaguely frustrating, to be honest. ...
    3 days ago
  • 2024 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #17
    A listing of 31 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, April 21, 2024 thru Sat, April 27, 2024. Story of the week Anthropogenic climate change may be the ultimate shaggy dog story— but with a twist, because here ...
    4 days ago
  • Pastor Who Abused People, Blames People
    Hi,I spent about a year on Webworm reporting on an abusive megachurch called Arise, and it made me want to stab my eyes out with a fork.I don’t regret that reporting in 2022 and 2023 — I am proud of it — but it made me angry.Over three main stories ...
    David FarrierBy David Farrier
    4 days ago
  • Vic Uni shows how under threat free speech is
    The new Victoria University Vice-Chancellor decided to have a forum at the university about free speech and academic freedom as it is obviously a topical issue, and the Government is looking at legislating some carrots or sticks for universities to uphold their obligations under the Education and Training Act. They ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    4 days ago
  • Winston remembers Gettysburg.
    Do you remember when Melania Trump got caught out using a speech that sounded awfully like one Michelle Obama had given? Uncannily so.Well it turns out that Abraham Lincoln is to Winston Peters as Michelle was to Melania. With the ANZAC speech Uncle Winston gave at Gallipoli having much in ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    4 days ago
  • 25
    She was born 25 years ago today in North Shore hospital. Her eyes were closed tightly shut, her mouth was silently moving. The whole theatre was all quiet intensity as they marked her a 2 on the APGAR test. A one-minute eternity later, she was an 8.  The universe was ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    4 days ago
  • Fact Brief – Is Antarctica gaining land ice?
    Skeptical Science is partnering with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. This fact brief was written by Sue Bin Park in collaboration with members from our Skeptical Science team. You can submit claims you think need checking via the tipline. Is Antarctica gaining land ice? ...
    5 days ago
  • Policing protests.
    Images of US students (and others) protesting and setting up tent cities on US university campuses have been broadcast world wide and clearly demonstrate the growing rifts in US society caused by US policy toward Israel and Israel’s prosecution of … Continue reading ...
    KiwipoliticoBy Pablo
    5 days ago
  • Open letter to Hon Paul Goldsmith
    Barrie Saunders writes – Dear Paul As the new Minister of Media and Communications, you will be inundated with heaps of free advice and special pleading, all in the national interest of course. For what it’s worth here is my assessment: Traditional broadcasting free to air content through ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    5 days ago
  • Bryce Edwards: FastTrackWatch – The Case for the Government’s Fast Track Bill
    Many criticisms are being made of the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill, including by this writer. But as with everything in politics, every story has two sides, and both deserve attention. It’s important to understand what the Government is trying to achieve and its arguments for such a bold reform. ...
    Democracy ProjectBy bryce.edwards
    5 days ago
  • Luxon gets out his butcher’s knife – briefly
    Peter Dunne writes –  The great nineteenth British Prime Minister, William Gladstone, once observed that “the first essential for a Prime Minister is to be a good butcher.” When a later British Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan, sacked a third of his Cabinet in July 1962, in what became ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    5 days ago
  • More tax for less
    Ele Ludemann writes – New Zealanders had the OECD’s second highest tax increase last year: New Zealanders faced the second-biggest tax raises in the developed world last year, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) says. The intergovernmental agency said the average change in personal income tax ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    5 days ago
  • Real News vs Fake News.
    We all know something’s not right with our elections. The spread of misinformation, people being targeted with soundbites and emotional triggers that ignore the facts, even the truth, and influence their votes.The use of technology to produce deep fakes. How can you tell if something is real or not? Can ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    5 days ago
  • Another way to roll
    Hello! Here comes the Saturday edition of More Than A Feilding, catching you up on the past week’s editions.Share ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    5 days ago
  • Simon Clark: The climate lies you'll hear this year
    This video includes conclusions of the creator climate scientist Dr. Simon Clark. It is presented to our readers as an informed perspective. Please see video description for references (if any). This year you will be lied to! Simon Clark helps prebunk some misleading statements you'll hear about climate. The video includes ...
    5 days ago
  • Cutting the Public Service
    It is all very well cutting the backrooms of public agencies but it may compromise the frontlines. One of the frustrations of the Productivity Commission’s 2017 review of universities is that while it observed that their non-academic staff were increasing faster than their academic staff, it did not bother to ...
    PunditBy Brian Easton
    6 days ago
  • Luxon’s demoted ministers might take comfort from the British politician who bounced back after th...
    Buzz from the Beehive Two speeches delivered by Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters at Anzac Day ceremonies in Turkey are the only new posts on the government’s official website since the PM announced his Cabinet shake-up. In one of the speeches, Peters stated the obvious:  we live in a troubled ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    6 days ago
  • This is how I roll over
    1. Which of these would you not expect to read in The Waikato Invader?a. Luxon is here to do business, don’t you worry about thatb. Mr KPI expects results, and you better believe itc. This decisive man of action is getting me all hot and excitedd. Melissa Lee is how ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    6 days ago
  • The Waitangi Tribunal is not “a roving Commission”…
    …it has a restricted jurisdiction which must not be abused: it is not an inquisition   NOTE – this article was published before the High Court ruled that Karen Chhour does not have to appear before the Waitangi Tribunal Gary Judd writes –  The High Court ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    6 days ago
  • Is Oranga Tamariki guilty of neglect?
    Lindsay Mitchell writes – One of reasons Oranga Tamariki exists is to prevent child neglect. But could the organisation itself be guilty of the same? Oranga Tamariki’s statistics show a decrease in the number and age of children in care. “There are less children ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    6 days ago
  • Three Strikes saw lower reoffending
    David Farrar writes: Graeme Edgeler wrote in 2017: In the first five years after three strikes came into effect 5248 offenders received a ‘first strike’ (that is, a “stage-1 conviction” under the three strikes sentencing regime), and 68 offenders received a ‘second strike’. In the five years prior to ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    6 days ago
  • Luxon’s ruthless show of strength is perfect for our angry era
    Bryce Edwards writes – Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has surprised everyone with his ruthlessness in sacking two of his ministers from their crucial portfolios. Removing ministers for poor performance after only five months in the job just doesn’t normally happen in politics. That’s refreshing and will be extremely ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    6 days ago
  • 'Lacks attention to detail and is creating double-standards.'
    TL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the two days to 6:06am on Thursday, April 25:Politics: PM Christopher Luxon has set up a dual standard for ministerial competence by demoting two National Cabinet ministers while leaving also-struggling ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    6 days ago
  • One Night Only!
    Hi,Today I mainly want to share some of your thoughts about the recent piece I wrote about success and failure, and the forces that seemingly guide our lives. But first, a quick bit of housekeeping: I am doing a Webworm popup in Los Angeles on Saturday May 11 at 2pm. ...
    David FarrierBy David Farrier
    6 days ago
  • What did Melissa Lee do?
    It is hard to see what Melissa Lee might have done to “save” the media. National went into the election with no public media policy and appears not to have developed one subsequently. Lee claimed that she had prepared a policy paper before the election but it had been decided ...
    PolitikBy Richard Harman
    6 days ago
  • Skeptical Science New Research for Week #17 2024
    Open access notables Ice acceleration and rotation in the Greenland Ice Sheet interior in recent decades, Løkkegaard et al., Communications Earth & Environment: In the past two decades, mass loss from the Greenland ice sheet has accelerated, partly due to the speedup of glaciers. However, uncertainty in speed derived from satellite products ...
    7 days ago
  • Maori Party (with “disgust”) draws attention to Chhour’s race after the High Court rules on Wa...
    Buzz from the Beehive A statement from Children’s Minister Karen Chhour – yet to be posted on the Government’s official website – arrived in Point of Order’s email in-tray last night. It welcomes the High Court ruling on whether the Waitangi Tribunal can demand she appear before it. It does ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    7 days ago
  • Who’s Going Up The Media Mountain?
    Mr Bombastic: Ironically, the media the academic experts wanted is, in many ways, the media they got. In place of the tyrannical editors of yesteryear, advancing without fear or favour the interests of the ruling class; the New Zealand news media of today boasts a troop of enlightened journalists dedicated to ...
    7 days ago
  • “That's how I roll”
    It's hard times try to make a livingYou wake up every morning in the unforgivingOut there somewhere in the cityThere's people living lives without mercy or pityI feel good, yeah I'm feeling fineI feel better then I have for the longest timeI think these pills have been good for meI ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    1 week ago
  • “Comity” versus the rule of law
    In 1974, the US Supreme Court issued its decision in United States v. Nixon, finding that the President was not a King, but was subject to the law and was required to turn over the evidence of his wrongdoing to the courts. It was a landmark decision for the rule ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    1 week ago

  • Streamlining Building Consent Changes
    The Government is making it easier for minor changes to be made to a building consent so building a home is easier and more affordable, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says.      “The coalition Government is focused on making it easier and cheaper to build homes so we can ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    5 hours ago
  • Minister acknowledges passing of Sir Robert Martin (KNZM)
    New Zealand lost a true legend when internationally renowned disability advocate Sir Robert Martin (KNZM) passed away at his home in Whanganui last night, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. “Our Government’s thoughts are with his wife Lynda, family and community, those he has worked with, the disability community in ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    16 hours ago
  • Speech to New Zealand Institute of International Affairs, Parliament – Annual Lecture: Challenges ...
    Good evening –   Before discussing the challenges and opportunities facing New Zealand’s foreign policy, we’d like to first acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. You have contributed to debates about New Zealand foreign policy over a long period of time, and we thank you for hosting us.  ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    16 hours ago
  • Accelerating airport security lines
    From today, passengers travelling internationally from Auckland Airport will be able to keep laptops and liquids in their carry-on bags for security screening thanks to new technology, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Creating a more efficient and seamless travel experience is important for holidaymakers and businesses, enabling faster movement through ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    18 hours ago
  • Community hui to talk about kina barrens
    People with an interest in the health of Northland’s marine ecosystems are invited to a public meeting to discuss how to deal with kina barrens, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones will lead the discussion, which will take place on Friday, 10 May, at Awanui Hotel in ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    24 hours ago
  • Kiwi exporters win as NZ-EU FTA enters into force
    Kiwi exporters are $100 million better off today with the NZ EU FTA entering into force says Trade Minister Todd McClay. “This is all part of our plan to grow the economy. New Zealand's prosperity depends on international trade, making up 60 per cent of the country’s total economic activity. ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 day ago
  • Mining resurgence a welcome sign
    There are heartening signs that the extractive sector is once again becoming an attractive prospect for investors and a source of economic prosperity for New Zealand, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The beginnings of a resurgence in extractive industries are apparent in media reports of the sector in the past ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 day ago
  • Ō-Rākau Remembrance Bill passes first reading
    The return of the historic Ō-Rākau battle site to the descendants of those who fought there moved one step closer today with the first reading of Te Pire mō Ō-Rākau, Te Pae o Maumahara / The Ō-Rākau Remembrance Bill. The Bill will entrust the 9.7-hectare battle site, five kilometres west ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    2 days ago
  • Government to boost public EV charging network
    Energy Minister Simeon Brown has announced 25 new high-speed EV charging hubs along key routes between major urban centres and outlined the Government’s plan to supercharge New Zealand’s EV infrastructure.  The hubs will each have several chargers and be capable of charging at least four – and up to 10 ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    2 days ago
  • Residential Property Managers Bill to not progress
    The coalition Government will not proceed with the previous Government’s plans to regulate residential property managers, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “I have written to the Chairperson of the Social Services and Community Committee to inform him that the Government does not intend to support the Residential Property Managers Bill ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    2 days ago
  • Independent review into disability support services
    The Government has announced an independent review into the disability support system funded by the Ministry of Disabled People – Whaikaha. Disability Issues Minister Louise Upston says the review will look at what can be done to strengthen the long-term sustainability of Disability Support Services to provide disabled people and ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    2 days ago
  • Justice Minister updates UN on law & order plan
    Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith has attended the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva and outlined the Government’s plan to restore law and order. “Speaking to the United Nations Human Rights Council provided us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while responding to issues and ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    2 days ago
  • Ending emergency housing motels in Rotorua
    The Government and Rotorua Lakes Council are committed to working closely together to end the use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua. Associate Minister of Housing (Social Housing) Tama Potaka says the Government remains committed to ending the long-term use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua by the ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    2 days ago
  • Trade Minister travels to Riyadh, OECD, and Dubai
    Trade Minister Todd McClay heads overseas today for high-level trade talks in the Gulf region, and a key OECD meeting in Paris. Mr McClay will travel to Riyadh to meet with counterparts from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). “New Zealand’s goods and services exports to the Gulf region ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    3 days ago
  • Education priorities focused on lifting achievement
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