Daily Review 17/08/2018
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5:30 pm, August 17th, 2018 - 20 comments
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Graphic borrowed from @LabourMemes.
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This provides Standardistas the opportunity to review events of the day.
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- Time Cut
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The Government should consider the outcome of an Auditor-General report into conflicts of interest before progressing the Fast track Approvals Bill through Parliament. ...1 day ago
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Te Pāti Māori is calling out the Government and New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) for their inaction and disgraceful downplaying of the impact caused by the sunken HMNZS Manawanui in Samoa. “We demand the Government move without further delay to clean up its shit from the sunken HMNZS Manawanui in Samoa,” said co-leader Debbie ...1 week ago
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Labour is backing Christchurch City Council’s decision not to do business with firms involved in Israel’s illegal settlements in the Occupied Territories. ...2 weeks ago
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The Government has created a hostile environment for companies seeking to build offshore wind farms. ...2 weeks ago
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Te Pāti Māori is enraged at the National government’s ruthless punishment of beneficiaries, all while jobs are disappearing. MSD data shows a 133% increase in sanctions over the past year, with over 14,000 sanctions in just three months. The kicker? The jobs this government insists people should find are nowhere ...2 weeks ago
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Te Pāti Māori MP for Waiariki, Rawiri Waititi, says today’s police-sponsored terrorism in Ōpōtiki is a continuation of the State’s predatory behaviour towards the iwi of Te Whakatōhea. "Ōpōtiki is once again being intentionally targeted and is the direct byproduct of this Government’s 'tough on crime' legislative changes,” said MP ...2 weeks ago
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The Government has gone back on its word and cut the full school lunch programme in primary schools after saying it wouldn’t. ...2 weeks ago
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The Green Party is calling for Youth Justice Residences to close, following a protest in which a group of young people spent the night on the roof of an Oranga Tamariki justice facility. ...2 weeks ago
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Te Tiriti o Waitangi is our country’s founding document. It forms the basis of the relationship between Māori and the Crown – and the Aotearoa New Zealand we live in today. ...2 weeks ago
- Release: Appalling process on three strikes law
The Government is subverting parliamentary process on laws the evidence already shows don’t work. ...2 weeks ago
- Release: Labour calls for investigation into tobacco tax cut
The Government’s decision to award a $216 million tax break for Philip Morris’ heated tobacco products reeks of tobacco industry interference and needs to be thoroughly investigated. ...2 weeks ago
- Release: Delay to retirement village review won’t help residents
The National Government is treading water on a much-needed review of the Retirement Villages Act, kicking any amendments down the road till the next parliamentary term in 2027. ...2 weeks ago
- Release: Serious concerns ignored in Govt’s fast track bill
National’s fast track bill enables the most radical and unbalanced consenting regime in living memory. ...3 weeks ago
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Despite resounding public opposition, the fast-track legislation is being pushed through Parliament with provisions that could have real consequences for people and planet. ...3 weeks ago
- Release: Labour supports continuing fight for dairy access
Labour welcomes the National Government’s decision to further pursue our access to the Canadian dairy market under the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) ...3 weeks ago
- Release: Job losses devastating for Timaru
Confirmed news that the Smithfield meatworks will close is devastating for the hundreds of people who work there, Timaru and the wider region. ...3 weeks ago
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Clue a marsupial
Chris Bishop. Now wasn’t he one of Amy Adam’s principle supporters in the campaign for the National Party leadership? No, I’m not saying he was the messenger. I think he is probably too smart to do that. But there are ways and means of imparting a message that can never be tracked back to a single source and they can sometimes be unconventional.
“The unit, which was mooted by Jones earlier this year, will provide expert advice, planning and strategy and will support the delivery of major infrastructure projects across the country.”
https://www.interest.co.nz/news/95389/minister-infrastructure-says-new-independent-body-will-help-sort-out-some-nz%E2%80%99s-major
Halfway house?
Sticking a bunch of policy analysts on a different floor and changing their email signatures from the looks of it.
the devil is always in the detail but from what i’ve seen so far its a Claytons MOW
Perhaps neither of you are familiar with the old Ministry of Works which was abandoned 30 years ago. Worked successfully for decades and was instrumental in over-seeing the govt. initiated infrastructure programmes of the times.
If this new body is based on that former scheme but updated to handle modern day requirements including in the private sector then it should eventually be a huge success story.
am very well aware of the old MOW….and this aint it….from what Ive read/heard so far its not even a pale imitation.
As long as there’s a Max Smith among the “New cohort” … Things could be worse…
Ledgend has it he created many of the amenty areas in the upper Mackensie, despite “Think Big”
https://www.odt.co.nz/lifestyle/magazine/works-and-schemes
“When Mr Smith took over as project engineer in 1970, he had a vision for the Upper Waitaki and Mackenzie areas: he wanted to create a resource that could be used by New Zealanders with small pay-packets or older folk living on little more than their pension.”
And he succeeded. Despite the destruction of the MacKenzie, catchments and Downstream …
https://www.nzgeo.com/stories/waitaki-water-of-tears-river-of-power/
http://www.stuff.co.nz/timaru-herald/news/9357871/Lake-creator-man-before-his-time
I suspect a Mr Smith would be kneecapped today…but maybe I’m wrong…heres hoping
Eventually he was …. Have You Ever been there .. Done that .. ?
kneecapped?
I am picking up what you are putting down, Anne.
So many benefits to a rebooted MOW.
One of the cliche reactions from the Tories is inefficiencies.
The lens through which they argue (a balance sheet), can not take into account (pun intended) the benefit of a child seeing their father going to work every day. Even if he is leaning on a shovel a bit.
By father, I obviously meant parent. (He said top toeing out of the room)
🙂
Anne (3.1.1.1) … Bring back MOW.
It worked well in the past, keeping the nation’s infrastructure up to scratch and turning over. Handled efficiently (and honestly), it could do the same now.
Not that Natz would approve of course of its return. MOW would affect too many of their construction cronies’ back pockets, as well as party funds!
I think the major clue is in the target for setting it up: “late 2019”. It’s probably planned to package and roll out a whole raft of costed and attractive ideas to bring to the table for the election in 2020. That could be either a bad or a good thing, but I think it’s a key part of the calculation.
any dept. is going to need comparable or superior capability than the private sector and thats going to take time, years…not to mention that Treasury appear to have a substantial hand in its formation and they will be looking after their patch which means there is unlikely to be significant independent economic analysis.
The thing is Pat, a determined government should be able to overcome the inevitable resistance to it’s plans. Michael Joseph and co. had to fight all manner of obstacles when they set up the Welfare State, but they achieved their goals in the end. I see no reason why this govt. could not be as successful, but I concede we’re going to have to wait a couple of years before we can make any sort of judgement.
They can and could…my concern is they are half hearted…thats what this looks like to me…I will be pleased to be proved wrong
“Following an unprecedented 270,000 downloads of his study, Johan Rockström, executive director of the Stockholm Resilience Centre, said he had not seen such a surge of interest since 2007, the year the Nobel prize was awarded to Al Gore and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.”
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/aug/17/world-waking-up-to-reality-climate-change-hothouse-earth-author
270.000……theres an estimated 3.2 billion people with internet access…so less than 0.009%, quite some ways to go i think.