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notices and features - Date published:
5:30 pm, July 17th, 2020 - 42 comments
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Who's the National Party spokesperson for the cannabis referendum?
Probably one of the young, progressive, unencumbered Nats, right?
Their justice dude, surely.
Maybe… or not!
Not Ol' Nick, surely!!
Unfortunately yes… dr custard got the gig.
Lolz I honestly thought you were joking Robert…but you were for real. Hows that for what the fuckery? nick smith…
I almost guarantee that he wanted it as a big FU to Rose Renton, because he's bitter like that.
Edit… come to think of it, he could also be doing a big FU to ex Nelson Mayor,<a href=http://www.nelson.govt.nz/council/news/recent-media-releases-and-news/getting-real-on-nelson-s-rates-rises/"Aldo". . Who called nick out for publishing misinformation.
Aldo is looking at creating a <a href=https://www.waimeaweekly.co.nz/brightwater-cannabis-facility-creates-jobs/"cannabis facility"
<a href="
Whoops, I hashed that up …. let me try that again …
Edit… come to think of it, he could also be doing a big FU to ex Nelson Mayor, Aldo as well. . Aldo called nick out for publishing misinformation.
Aldo is looking at creating a cannabis facility
Any tobacco lobbyists left in the party or have they all gone up in … thin air?
The Bish.
When is a Tax not a Tax?
When there is an alternative.
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2020/07/national-s-transport-plan-road-tolls-proposed-congestion-charging-on-the-cards.html
That’s what the rich & wealthy do: talk to their accountants and structure their affairs to minimise their Tax liability and euphemistically call it “an alternative”.
It would make a good Tui ad:
Listened to Bridges and Parker being interviewed by garner. Parker doing well. Smiling. Not defensive. Saying to Bridges not true when Bridges made claim. Bridges was calling Parker Davo . Ffs. Parker just said Davo, no that doesn’t work. Good stuff
Wonder why the Nats and business lobbies are not demanding we open the borders with Australia and start taking in overseas students? After all, they are (rather were) doing so well! They have gone all quiet on that.
Thank you Jacinda for not giving in to their pressure and demands.
The silence is deafening from the opposition when it comes to an Australian bubble.
The Covid-19 infections in Australia are alarming. Brisbane will be next just like Melbourne and Sydney unless a level 4 lockdown.
So, national announce a 30billion infrastructure spend. I thought, yahoo they're planning to spend on hospitals, education, mental health, et al.
Silly, silly johnr it's all on ROADS. Here I sit, head in hands.
It's not hard to tell when a party expects to lose an election.
Last time National won from opposition (2008) they knew they were already on track to be in government, so they followed the "small target" approach. If you think you will be asked to do what you promise, you keep those promises under control.
If you know you won't have to deliver any of the things you talk about, you promise the earth. Why only $31billion? Might as well make it 300 billion. With no tax to pay for it, yippee!
Absolutely correct
100,000 Kiwibuild homes
1,000,000 Trees
Child poverty reductions
Auckland light rail
easy to promise in opposition but harder to deliver in government
Oops 1,000,000,000 trees
In a speech in Auckland on Friday, Collins said that as well as building a four-lane expressway linking Whangārei, Auckland, Hamilton and Tauranga – transforming them into an “economic powerhouse".
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/122153158/national-announces-biggest-infrastructure-package-in-history
The road/rail integration of these centres would be vulnerable to sudden geological events.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/118431927/auckland-volcanoes-6km-blast-ash-hurricane-and-as-little-as-a-days-eruption-warning
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/bay-of-plenty-times/news/article.cfm?c_id=1503343&objectid=10918784
"How big is the tsunami risk facing New Zealand? New Zealand faces significant tsunami risk but has almost no direct experience so this risk is not widely appreciated. The geological record suggests New Zealand has experienced multiple large devastating tsunami in the past, and since 1840 there have been about 10 recorded tsunami higher than 4 metres. However there has been only one recorded fatality from a tsunami since European settlement. As a result the size and nature of New Zealand’s tsunami risk is not widely understood and the responses required are not widely appreciated. GNS Science modelling undertaken for this study highlighted the large exposure that New Zealand’s major population centres have to tsunami of varying sizes from a range of sources."
https://www.eqc.govt.nz/sites/public_files/Report%20on%20Tsunami%20Risk%20facing%20New%20Zealand%20Aug%202015.pdf
[Turned PDF into hyperlink – Incognito]
Better then to put money and effort into regional independence and resilience with robust state of the art electronic communications we are now getting a taste for thanks to Covid 19.
I see the National Party policy as backward looking and risky and I would not vote for it.
Yep. There's a town on the Westcoast that is preparing for 3 months of isolation when the big one hits. This is approaching sensible.
Covid and how we have responded gives us lots of opportunity for future proofing that most couldn't conceive of before. Nat are dinosaurs but there are plenty across the political spectrum who believe our future is BAU, more or less greener to an extent. This blocks doing what is necessary because when the issues are raised on TS for instance, the response too often is fear of nasty, brutish and short. People seem stuck in a very narrow view of wellbeing. I think this is changing a bit, but whether it is fast enough remains to be seen.
Correct me if I'm wrong. didn't they also start transmission gully?
Dont worry its to be spent over a ten year period, and given they are unlikely to be in power for another ten years or more that means around about 2032, so all this 30 billion is irrelevant.
It is not irrelevant to its impact on National voters who will use this bit of candyfloss to plug holes in their shonky political offering billboards. To them it is important to have some sort of 'think big' offerings to make them sound grand and virile.
Incidentally can a mod cut 5.2 down to size, it would be easier to read the interesting comments here.
Not sure what you mean. The width is fixed AFAIK and it (PDF) looks ok to me on a laptop.
Edit: I’ve changed it to a proper hyperlink rather than a PDF that opens in the PDF Reader.
https://www.eqc.govt.nz/sites/public_files/Report%20on%20Tsunami%20Risk%20facing%20New%20Zealand%20Aug%202015.pdf
See, this is why you can't do pandemic response half way. You either respect it or you don't. There is no 'management' of this disease where you can tweak settings in the health vs economy dichotomy.
This Coronavirus will run away from governments if they blink.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=12348968
Yes, the US a case in point, chasing their tails over there, hospitals at maximum, health workers utterly exhausted, with second lockdowns businesses going to the wall (utterly heartbreaking hearing those guys talk), & Trump poses on the Resolute Desk with cans of beans.
Yoda for Leader of the Wise in NZ! Do or do not. There is no try!
Go hard or go home.
Any government (national or state or region or city) that hasn't learnt this most likely doesn't care about its people dying.
138,000 deaths in the USA, 1% of the population infected (confirmed – most likely an undercount).
Our rate is 3 hundreds of 1%. A lot of that is luck, and a lot of it is resisting the "plan B"-type dickheads and nats constantly undermining the isolation and elimination efforts.
I notice Judith and the Nats have completely abandoned their previous position of demanding bubbles, organising funeral exemptions and lauding Australia.
This is a complete and very very public acknowledgement that JA and her government got it right and they, the opposition, got it so badly wrong.
100% luck, luck we have the current lot in charge as opposed to the other lot.
Are there going to be any more resignations from the National Party next week?
Is there going to be another cabinet reshuffle?
I am ruling out a leadership coup in the National Party.
Here's a headline to make you sit up and notice:
"Greens plan $30 billion defence spend-up!".
Wow, what is going on? The Greens are mad militarists now? OK, don't bother Googling, they haven't really done this. All I've done is take the current annual defence budget (around $4 billion) and cut it in half, which would actually be a pretty drastic cut. Then I've pushed that $2 billion out to 2035, with no allowance for inflation or any other cost increases.
And there's your $30 billion.
If you want a bigger number, just add more years. And there's your headline, all over the news. Bigly big!
Very good explanation, Observer.
Personally, in view of reports on conditions in Siberia (30º in areas that normally stay bloody cold by our standards) I wonder why the silly road-builders imagine we will need those roads in 10 years' time.
No matter how many roads we build, we import more and more cheap cars per year, and constantly flood the roads with those cars faster than we can build new roads. Idiocy.
Where is Judith's great plan to beat that problem? Gridlock will never end with policies she is pushing.
Oh, you mean like this?
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/80835677/defence-white-paper-20b-defence-upgrades-for-new-planes-boats-and-cyber-security
I see Collins' promise of a second harbour crossing as ill thought out as JA's promise of light rail to the airport. Leaders do weird stuff before elections.
Get decent people (off shore if need be) to agree on a broad 100 year plan, then spend the money, wisely.
Collins seems so focused on the congestion of traffic in Auckland that fixing the problem is finally a high priority. Auckland is her stomping ground and Collins appears to be after the Auckland vote.
No mention of improving passenger rail between Auckland and Wellington.
Economically it makes sense for roading to be four lanes from Auckland to Hamilton and Tauranga. Air travel between Auckland, Hamilton and Tauranga may become limited and too expensive or people may not fly short distances anymore. Were the Auckland Port to be shifted further up north four lanes would be needed.
As for the Auckland Harbour Bridge a second bridge is required three times the width. Were anything major to occur to the bridge this would impact heavily.
I await the housing policy from National. National finally woke up when it came to flogging off state houses thinking that they were not desperately needed.
A 100 year plan? Are you young and unknowing, or old and hopeful despite obvious signs we cannot plan beyond about 10 years (20th century, now say 5 years).
If cautionary plans are made so as to be prepared for future developments or for an emergency, probably they will not be complied with to legal levels by about 10 years on. It is too hard for humans to restrain themselves if there is money to be made, from doing what is expedient.
100 year plans; by that time anyone involved in those plans will be dead and their sons and daughters will be into utilising anything of value for immediate consumption within thirty years or less.
The pay of bloggers has not kept up with inflation if WO was allegedly paid $300 per blog post.
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/the-return-of-dirty-politics
Why can't people learn the law?
No politics at schools.
It's not Politics, DTB – It's an Important Social Issue about which we have every right to tell you what to think for the sake of our young ones! Politics is things like Labour or National… (sarc)
It's legal for churches to preach on abstinence from things they decide people shouldn't do, and to restrain thought, so they are only doing what is normal for them.
First drought, now this
https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/northland-residents-told-stay-off-roads-because-flooding
Yep, that happens. Drought in one area while next door is in flood.