Growing food from sea water:
“In a desert region of southern Australia is a farm that – without the use of soil, fresh water, or fossil fuels – grows and supplies 15 percent of the entire country’s tomatoes through state-of-the-art technology.
Mike Dixon, director of the Controlled Environment Systems Research Facility (CESRF) – a department at the University of Guelph in the Canadian province of Ontario – told Al Jazeera as “food security becomes a pressing issue with growing populations … energy is usually a limiting variable”.
He said although Sundrop Farm’s system may work well in desert regions in the Middle East, it would not be practical economically in places with an abundance of fresh water such as Canada.
I’m pretty sure that we used to have an abundance of fresh water at one point. Now it’s pretty much polluted because of the farms.
Asked whether Sundrop Farms’ techniques could be applied globally, he said it depends on each case.
“It all comes down to money. This bussiness plan will last only as long as its profit margin is in the black … if the company can economically use seawater.
Yep, this guy doesn’t understand economics.
A farm which massively decreases it’s inputs is, by definition, far more economical than one that doesn’t. Amazingly enough, quite often those processes which use more resources are more profitable which tells us that profit isn’t a good measure.
You can not compete with conventional farming … it [greenhouse production] will never achieve the same on those staple products. You need hundreds of thousands of acres for staples like rice to produce it in a highly competitive way.
So, what you’d do is build hundreds of thousands of acres of greenhouses.
If you’re not having to desalinate the water first then you can use the energy saved for other things.
Part of the appeal of the saltwater greenhouse system is that in addition to produce and salt they produce a modest but continuous supply of fresh water. Merge that technology with land with productivity constrained by perenial droughts like the area around Ward and you have a means of generating a gradual sustainable development. Green growth and jobs. We shall see none of those from this execrable government of course.
Monocropping massive amounts of tomatoes under glass (and I’m guessing for mass transport) probably can’t qualify as green or sustainable, even with the solar panels. I doubt that their carbon claims stack up either if you take into consideration cradle to grave and food miles.
We know how to restore land and grow food in dry climates in actual sustainable ways, might be good to focus on that.
Monocropping massive amounts of anything under glass for mass transport isn’t sustainable.
Polyculture, great 🙂
We could eat seasonally as well as locally.
“Knowing how is great but as a country we have to start actually doing it.”
True, but that’s a different conversation than the one about the link. Fortunately for NZ, many farmers and growers are just getting on with it and I think we will find that the transition will be easier because of that (we’re not doing very dry climate well yet though).
Sundrying makes sense, and I’m not suggesting all importing/exporting stops. We just need it to be an add on to our local food supply, not something we rely on economically or of sustenance.
I hope that NZ never gets to the point of having to desalinate water, but given what we’re doing, who knows?
Low entry cost – contemporary technology, and, like hydro, a relatively long productive life. The really good feature of the technology is that, unlike other desalination processes like membrane osmosis it leaves no salt fraction to accumulate in soil, and it requires little or no external energy input. Even the marine intake impact is likely to be modest – and warm controlled environments present multiple crop or culture options.
If we take Draco’s Permian doco seriously this sort of thing is the lowest level of radical change we need to entertain.
You don’t of course want a glass monoculture – but break up arid areas somewhat with these and trees and you should have a somewhat diverse and thus robust locality. Something to space the dairy farms out anyway.
Why would we need desalination in NZ? I’m not understanding the point. I get it in places where the rainfall is low and the ground water is fucked and the watershed no longer functions properly (although there are other solutions to that). But why here where we still have water?
If you take somewhere like Ward, or parts of central Otago, though they may be lush as compared to the Negev, existing water supplies are already in use – either for commercial or domestic use, or for wild use – (which may be preserving things the importance of which has thus far escaped us).
This form of development makes low demands on critical resources like water, in fact it is designed to alleviate water shortage. If my neighbour wants an intensive dairy farm I might have good ecological grounds to oppose them, but if these kinds of systems are properly engineered they are modestly enviro positive. Not needing to fight for water rights in the oversubscribed Waitaki catchment for example, is not a trivial advantage.
Are you suggesting desalinating water and pumping it up the Waitaki, or into Central? That’s massive infrastructure and it would use huge amounts of renewable power. We really shouldn’t be building more dams and there is limit to how many wind farms we can build, so wouldn’t it be better to just do sustainable agriculture instead?
The problem with the Waitaki is that people are trying to wet climate farm in a very dry place. That shit is going to be a disaster as CC kicks in more, financially and environmentally. Plus peak phosphate. But the Waitaki Valley is a huge water reservoir, much of it being wetland originally. Regenag techniques would work with that to grow food, not ignore that and try and impose something that has to work against the elements all the time.
Monocropping massive amounts of anything under glass for mass transport isn’t sustainable.
True, but diversity growing under glasshouses probably is. Done properly I believe that it will allow us to return a large part of what’s presently farmed to wilderness and the normal life-cycles that maintain the ecosystem.
I don’t have too much of a problem with localised food being done under glass. Plastic is a huge problem though, and even with glass there are issues in terms of the whole infrastructure and embodied energy. The energy may eventually be renewable, the materials aren’t. At some point we can probably reach a steady state in terms of long term repair and recycling as well as manufacturing from renewable materials e.g. for framing. But I think the ideal is to use things like glasshouses for specific needs e.g. extending growing seasons, rather than using it as a core technique for our staples.
Re farmland and wilderness, there is a third thing, which is managed wilderness. This is what humans have traditionally done. We could restore much of the farmland to true wilderness, and still use some for managed wilderness food production and the rest for intensive sustainable food production.
Alan Savory’s work is a good example of managed wilderness, but reading Robery Guyton’s work I can also see the potential for forests.
here you go, https://murrayhallam.com/12mnths9497624
all your veggie needs 23 square meters
regulations regarding keeping fish (edible) need to be overhauled for NZ,
Australia you can breed and own tasty fish, regulations to ensure closed system would be good, not total bans of costly licenses.
tl;dr get the design right at that start, focus on retaining and harvesting all moisture, in a desert you need more land in trees than crops/grazing. Trees provide the long term stable fertility that underpins sustainability.
I am rather bemused by a couple of things after reading todays posts.
Firstly the discussions are being overrun by RWKJs, making them boring to the point of skipping large sections.
Secondly it amuses me to see CV being accused of being of the radical right. What a load of bollocks.
Today Labour MP – now mayor of Auckland – Phil Goff has appointed a National Party guy as deputy mayor. That came just weeks after John Key had vigorously supported Helen Clark for the top UN job.
Yet again we see National and Labour complement each other as the A and B team for capitalism. While it’s true that National are not as xenophobic as Labour, there’s little else that they disagree on. National-Labour really are an alliance, and it’s obvious to all except those who are wilfully blind.
@ Daphna
1) This is NOT about national (small n) politics in any shape or form.
2) It seems they are good friends and Goff obviously believes he can trust him.
3) Goff gave the undertaking prior to the Local Body elections that he would do his utmost to bring the Auckland Council together for the betterment of the city.
4) I do not know this new deputy mayor personally, but from all accounts he is well liked across the board.
5) To have a National Party member in a senior position will assist Goff to gain positive access to central government over matters that affect the city.
Just some of the reasons off the top of my head which indicates to me Goff is being pragmatic and sensible.
I don’t care all that much about political allegiances in Local Body politics. I want to see a united council working in the interests of the city as a whole. Goff is the best person available to bring this about.
Regardless of the political affiliation, if they showed any propensity to sell off assets they wouldn’t get my vote. That would probably rule out the majority of the rw candidates. But as a case in point. There was a National Party candidate in my part of Auckland who has a very good cv. Had it not been for the fact there was a lw candidate with an equally good cv, I would have considered voting for her.
Goff’s not left wing, and I suspect that many in Labour are relieved to see him not a Labour MP. I don’t think Labour can be held responsible for his actions as mayor except at the level of having endorsed his career all these years. Which is a substantial responsibility but not a lot current Labour can do about it.
True. I think I was more meaning they’re not part of his decisions now as mayor. But yeah, they certainly are responsible for him being in a position to make whatever decisions he does.
Gable Tostee verdict has come through – he has been aquitted. Phew, I don’t know how to comprehend this, it was a very weird case from the start. I thought the jury might come through the middle and give a manslaughter verdict. It is a case which will perturb some for the difficulty of it, certainly it is disturbing and hopefully we won’t see another like it.
Yep I thought he was a real obnoxious dickhead and I would shudder if he was around my daughters. But I did not think he should be convicted of murder on the facts.
Looked a lot like the Sounds murder to me – frightened guy departs to cook up defence. Scot free doesn’t do it for me – he didn’t let her out, he effectively imprisoned her on his property.
Misadventure? This wasn’t some drunken game to emulate spiderman. From my read of it his manipulative and threatening behaviour played a big part in her death, there’s just no smoking gun. The justice system has really failed in this case in my view.
I think lot of people would struggle with the fact of his recording the entire drama. If he had not done this, absolutely no-one would have believed his version of the events.
And oddly enough resonates with the emerging reality that we are rapidly heading to a world where everything everyone does gets recorded 24/7/365. We are remarkably close to ubiquitous surveillance now, and within two decades it will be complete.
Having said this, I wouldn’t be surprised if Tostee finishes up facing other charges.
“absolutely no-one would have believed his version of the events.”
There is a witness who saw her climbing down his balcony, before she fell off.
So that there is fairly good evidence that he didn’t push her. May be difficult to infer that he wasn’t on the balcony threatening her in some way, though.
Prior to the trial Tostee had fully admitted that he had a long-standing problem with binge-drinking. Plus being a good looking bloke he seemed to have no problem with finding any number of women happy to have sex with him. Perhaps it’s not terribly surprising this resulted in an unhealthy, cynical attitude towards women. While it’s true many young men are far too naive and idealistic about relationships, Tostee’s experience seems to have pushed him to the other extreme.
And a recipe for trouble. Prior to the trial he said the reason why he was in the habit of recording his drunken escapades was to “protect” himself. How and why he learned that little life lesson is an interesting question in of itself. I’m not aware of him using the recordings afterwards for any other nefarious purpose, so we have to take him at face value on this.
Nor can we entirely overlook Warriena’s behaviour that night. What I cannot help but wonder is that if the gender roles were reversed here, and it was Gable who’d been repeatedly violent, Warriena who’d managed to lock him onto the balcony for her safety, and he’d plunged to his death … would this have ever gotten to trial?
A sad, sorry and tragic glimpse into two lives that should never have met.
“The problem with these and many other scenarios that emerge in the mainstream, is the intellectual editing that occurs before they even begin. Most share two overwhelming, linked characteristics that strictly limit any subsequent room for manoeuvre. Firstly the demand for energy itself is seen as something innate, unchallengeable and unmanageable. It must be met, and the only question is how.
Secondly, the assumption remains that the principles and practices of the economic model that has dominated for the last 30 years will remain for at least the next 30 years. There is no sign yet of the ferocious challenge to neoliberal orthodoxy happening at the margins of economics shaping mainstream visions of our possible futures. The merest glance at the history of changing ideas suggests this is short-sighted.”
…unfortunately the current paradigm is short sighted in spades
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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, ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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”. ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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. ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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? ...
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 → ...
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 ...
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. ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
…it has a restricted jurisdiction which must not be abused: it is not an inquisitionNOTE – 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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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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. ...
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 ...
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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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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Every day now just seems to bring in more fresh meat for the grinder.In their relentlessly ideological drive to cut back on the “excessive bloat” (as they see it) of the previous Labour-led government, on the mountains of evidence accumulated in such a short period of time do not ...
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Buzz from the Beehive Melissa Lee – as may be discerned from the screenshot above – has not been demoted for doing something seriously wrong as Minister of ...
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Mike Grimshaw writes – The recent announcement of the University Advisory Group, chaired by Sir Peter Gluckman, makes very clear where the Government’s focus and priorities lie. The remit of the Advisory Group is that Group members will consider challenges and opportunities for improvement in the university sector including: ...
Eric Crampton writes – The Reserve Bank of New Zealand desperately wants to find reasons to have workstreams in climate change. It makes little sense. They’ve run another stress test on the banks looking to see if they could find a prudential regulation case. They couldn’t. They ...
Rob MacCullough writes – Pundits from the left and the right are arguing that National’s Fast Track Bill that is designed to speed up infrastructure decisions could end up becoming mired in a cesspool of corruption. Political commentator ...
Looking at the headlines this morning it’s hard to feel anything other than pessimistic about the future of humanity.Note that I’m not speaking about the future of mankind, but the survival of our humanity. The values that we believe in seem to be ebbing away, by the day.Perhaps every generation ...
Swabbing mixed breed baby chicks to test for avian influenzaUh oh. Bird flu – often deadly to humans – is not only being transmitted from infected birds to dairy cows, but is now travelling between dairy cows. As of last Friday, Bloomberg News reports, there were 32 American dairy herds ...
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 ...
What is it with the mining industry? Its not enough for them to pillage the earth - they apparently can't even be bothered getting resource consent to do so: The proponent behind a major mine near the Clutha River had already been undertaking activity in the area without a ...
Photo # 1 I am a huge fan of Singapore’s approach to housing, as described here two years ago by copying and pasting from The ConversationWhat Singapore has that Australia does not is a public housing developer, the Housing Development Board, which puts new dwellings on public and reclaimed land, ...
This afternoon’s interim Waitangi Tribunal report must be taken seriously as it affects our most vulnerable children, Labour children’s spokesperson Willow-Jean Prime. ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
Te Pāti Māori is disgusted at the confirmation that hundreds are set to lose their jobs at Oranga Tamariki, and the disestablishment of the Treaty Response Unit. “This act of absolute carelessness and out of touch decision making is committing tamariki to state abuse.” Said Te Pāti Māori Oranga Tamariki ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi, and Mema Paremata mō Tāmaki-Makaurau, Takutai Tarsh Kemp, will travel to the Gold Coast to strengthen ties with Māori in Australia next week (15-21 April). The visit, in the lead-up to the 9th Australian National Kapa haka Festival, will be an opportunity for both ...
The Green Party has today launched a step-by-step guide to help New Zealanders make their voice heard on the Government’s democracy dodging and anti-environment fast track legislation. ...
The National Government’s proposed changes to the Residential Tenancies Act will mean tenants can be turfed from their homes by landlords with little notice, Labour housing spokesperson Kieran McAnulty said. ...
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson is calling on all parties to support a common-sense change that’s great for the planet and great for consumers after her member’s bill was drawn from the ballot today. ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford has outlined six education priorities to deliver a world-leading education system that sets Kiwi kids up for future success. “I’m putting ambition, achievement and outcomes at the heart of our education system. I want every child to be inspired and engaged in their learning so they ...
The new NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) App is a secure ‘one stop shop’ to provide the services drivers need, Transport Minister Simeon Brown and Digitising Government Minister Judith Collins say. “The NZTA App will enable an easier way for Kiwis to pay for Vehicle Registration and Road User Charges (RUC). ...
Whānau with tamariki growing up in emergency housing motels will be prioritised for social housing starting this week, says Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka. “Giving these whānau a better opportunity to build healthy stable lives for themselves and future generations is an essential part of the Government’s goal of reducing ...
Racing Minister Winston Peters has paid tribute to an icon of the industry with the recent passing of Dave O’Sullivan (OBE). “Our sympathies are with the O’Sullivan family with the sad news of Dave O’Sullivan’s recent passing,” Mr Peters says. “His contribution to racing, initially as a jockey and then ...
Assalaamu alaikum, greetings to you all. Eid Mubarak, everyone! I want to extend my warmest wishes to you and everyone celebrating this joyous occasion. It is a pleasure to be here. I have enjoyed Eid celebrations at Parliament before, but this is my first time joining you as the Minister ...
Associate Health Minister David Seymour has announced Pharmac’s largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff. “Access to medicines is a crucial part of many Kiwis’ lives. We’ve committed to a budget allocation of $1.774 billion over four years so Kiwis are ...
Hon Paula Bennett has been appointed as member and chair of the Pharmac board, Associate Health Minister David Seymour announced today. "Pharmac is a critical part of New Zealand's health system and plays a significant role in ensuring that Kiwis have the best possible access to medicines,” says Mr Seymour. ...
Hundreds of New Zealand families affected by Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) will benefit from a new Government focus on prevention and treatment, says Health Minister Dr Shane Reti. “We know FASD is a leading cause of preventable intellectual and neurodevelopmental disability in New Zealand,” Dr Reti says. “Every day, ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones today attended the official opening of Kaikohe’s new $14.7 million sports complex. “The completion of the Kaikohe Multi Sports Complex is a fantastic achievement for the Far North,” Mr Jones says. “This facility not only fulfils a long-held dream for local athletes, but also creates ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters’ engagements in Türkiye this week underlined the importance of diplomacy to meet growing global challenges. “Returning to the Gallipoli Peninsula to represent New Zealand at Anzac commemorations was a sombre reminder of the critical importance of diplomacy for de-escalating conflicts and easing tensions,” Mr Peters ...
Ambassador Millar, Burgemeester, Vandepitte, Excellencies, military representatives, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen – good morning and welcome to this sacred Anzac Day dawn service. It is an honour to be here on behalf of the Government and people of New Zealand at Buttes New British Cemetery, Polygon Wood – a deeply ...
Distinguished guests - It is an honour to return once again to this site which, as the resting place for so many of our war-dead, has become a sacred place for generations of New Zealanders. Our presence here and at the other special spaces of Gallipoli is made ...
Mai ia tawhiti pamamao, te moana nui a Kiwa, kua tae whakaiti mai matou, ki to koutou papa whenua. No koutou te tapuwae, no matou te tapuwae, kua honoa pumautia. Ko nga toa kua hinga nei, o te Waipounamu, o te Ika a Maui, he okioki tahi me o ...
Paul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. “Our Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...
Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...
Overseas models for regulating the oil and gas sector, including their decommissioning regimes, are being carefully scrutinised as a potential template for New Zealand’s own sector, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. The Coalition Government is focused on rebuilding investor confidence in New Zealand’s energy sector as it looks to strengthen ...
Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell has today released the Report of the Government Inquiry into the response to the North Island Severe Weather Events. “The report shows that New Zealand’s emergency management system is not fit-for-purpose and there are some significant gaps we need to address,” Mr Mitchell ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith is today travelling to Europe where he’ll update the United Nations Human Rights Council on the Government’s work to restore law and order. “Attending the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva provides us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while ...
Associate Agriculture Minister, Mark Patterson, formally reopened the world’s largest wool processing facility today in Awatoto, Napier, following a $50 million rebuild and refurbishment project. “The reopening of this facility will significantly lift the economic opportunities available to New Zealand’s wool sector, which already accounts for 20 per cent of ...
Hon Andrew Bayly, Minister for Small Business and Manufacturing At the Southland Otago Regional Engineering Collective (SOREC) Summit, 18 April, Dunedin Ngā mihi nui, Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Ko Whanganui aho Good Afternoon and thank you for inviting me to open your summit today. I am delighted ...
The Government is delivering on its commitment to bring back the Three Strikes legislation, Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee announced today. “Our Government is committed to restoring law and order and enforcing appropriate consequences on criminals. We are making it clear that repeat serious violent or sexual offending is not ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has today announced four new diplomatic appointments for New Zealand’s overseas missions. “Our diplomats have a vital role in maintaining and protecting New Zealand’s interests around the world,” Mr Peters says. “I am pleased to announce the appointment of these senior diplomats from the ...
New Zealand is contributing NZ$7 million to support communities affected by severe food insecurity and other urgent humanitarian needs in Ethiopia and Somalia, Foreign Minister Rt Hon Winston Peters announced today. “Over 21 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance across Ethiopia, with a further 6.9 million people ...
Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Paul Goldsmith is congratulating Mataaho Collective for winning the Golden Lion for best participant in the main exhibition at the Venice Biennale. "Congratulations to the Mataaho Collective for winning one of the world's most prestigious art prizes at the Venice Biennale. “It is good ...
The Government is reforming financial services to improve access to home loans and other lending, and strengthen customer protections, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly and Housing Minister Chris Bishop announced today. “Our coalition Government is committed to rebuilding the economy and making life simpler by cutting red tape. We are ...
“China remains a strong commercial opportunity for Kiwi exporters as Chinese businesses and consumers continue to value our high-quality safe produce,” Trade and Agriculture Minister Todd McClay says. Mr McClay has returned to New Zealand following visits to Beijing, Harbin and Shanghai where he met ministers, governors and mayors and engaged in trade and agricultural events with the New ...
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has completed a successful trip to Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines, deepening relationships and capitalising on opportunities. Mr Luxon was accompanied by a business delegation and says the choice of countries represents the priority the New Zealand Government places on South East Asia, and our relationships in ...
New Zealand is demonstrating its commitment to reducing global greenhouse emissions, and supporting clean energy transition in South East Asia, through a contribution of NZ$41 million (US$25 million) in climate finance to the Asian Development Bank (ADB)-led Energy Transition Mechanism (ETM). Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Climate Change Minister Simon Watts announced ...
The Government is today releasing a list of organisations who received letters about the Fast-track applications process, says RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop. “Recently Ministers and agencies have received a series of OIA requests for a list of organisations to whom I wrote with information on applying to have a ...
Attorney-General Judith Collins today announced the appointment of Wellington Barrister David Jonathan Boldt as a Judge of the High Court, and the Honourable Justice Matthew Palmer as a Judge of the Court of Appeal. Justice Boldt graduated with an LLB from Victoria University of Wellington in 1990, and also holds ...
Education Minister Erica Stanford will lead the New Zealand delegation at the 2024 International Summit on the Teaching Profession (ISTP) held in Singapore. The delegation includes representatives from the Post Primary Teachers’ Association (PPTA) Te Wehengarua and the New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) Te Riu Roa. The summit is co-hosted ...
A stopbank upgrade project in Tairawhiti partly funded by the Government has increased flood resilience for around 7000ha of residential and horticultural land so far, Regional Development Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones today attended a dawn service in Gisborne to mark the end of the first stage of the ...
“I had just come off the end of a major robbery case which I had been working on for six months when I got a call on the afternoon of September 1, 1992, that some remains had been found at a building site in Devonport, so I drove over with ...
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Comment: Journalists are very good at telling other people’s stories, but they fall well short when writing about their own profession. Perhaps that is why it is so undervalued. Every successive poll on the public’s attitude toward journalism is more alarming than the last. In the last month we have ...
Opinion: A young Māori woman and her Pacific partner arrive at their local hospital by ambulance. She has gone into labour at just under 24 weeks, but the couple haven’t recognised the symptoms – and don’t know the risks of premature birth for their baby. By the time they arrive, ...
Behind closed doors, NZ First will be arguing fiercely against any watering down of the ministerial decision-making powers in the Bill The post Bishop backtracks after fast-track backlash appeared first on Newsroom. ...
Opinion: The impression from the carpark is very inviting. The area is well fenced but barred so there is easy visibility of loved ones. Inside, the spaces are welcoming and clean and staff are friendly and clearly comfortable. I am greeted by ‘Kim’. She has worked here for three years, ...
After the Christchurch earthquake, the then-national civil defence boss compared his experience to “putting a team on the rugby field who have never ever played together before”. Now, eight years later – and following a damning inquiry into the emergency response of cyclones Gabrielle, Hale and the Auckland anniversary weekend floods – ...
Asia Pacific Report A Pacific civil society alliance has condemned French neocolonial policies in Kanaky New Caledonia, saying Paris is set on “maintaining the status quo” and denying the indigenous Kanak people their inalienable right to self-determination. The Pacific Regional Non-Governmental Organisations (PRNGOs) Alliance, representing some 15 groups, said in ...
Koi Tū New Zealand cannot sit back and see the collapse of its Fourth Estate, the director of Koi Tū: The Centre for Informed Futures, Sir Peter Gluckman, says in the foreword of a paper published today. The paper, “If not journalists, then who?” paints a picture of an industry ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra Foreign investment proposals with implications for Australia’s strategic or economic security will face tougher scrutiny, under a policy overhaul to be announced by Treasurer Jim Chalmers on Wednesday. At the same time, the government ...
A Waitangi Tribunal inquiry report has warned government that a repeal of Section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act could cause harm to children in care. ...
The Treasury has published today three new papers covering government consumption multipliers, automatic stabilisers and the impacts of global shocks on New Zealand’s economy. ...
Asia Pacific Report The Pacific state of Hawai’i’s House of Representatives has joined the state’s Senate in calling for a ceasefire in Israel’s war on Gaza, becoming the first state to pass such a resolution, reports Hawaii News Now. In March, the Senate passed a ceasefire resolution with a 24–1 ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Christopher Ferrie, A/Prof, UTS Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Research and ARC DECRA Fellow, University of Technology Sydney PsiQuantum The Australian government has announced a pledge of approximately A$940 million (US$617 million) to PsiQuantum, a quantum computing start-up company based in Silicon Valley. Half ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Hunter Bennett, Lecturer in Exercise Science, University of South Australia Cameron Prins/Shutterstock If you spend a lot of time exploring fitness content online, you might have come across the concept of heart rate zones. Heart rate zone training has become more ...
SPECIAL REPORT:By Eugene Doyle He is the most popular Palestinian leader alive today — and yet few people in the West even know his name. Absolutely no one in Gaza or the West Bank does not know him. That difference speaks volumes about who dominates the media narrative that ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Will McCallum, PhD Candidate – School of Communication and Creative Arts, Deakin University Earlier this year, Opposition Leader Peter Dutton accused Prime Minister Anthony Albanese of not supporting Operation Sovereign Borders – the military-led border security operation that has “closed Australia’s borders ...
By Melyne Baroi in Port Moresby A Papua New Guinea MP, Peter Isoaimo, who had been ousted by the National Court in an alleged bribery case, has been reinstated by the Supreme Court on appeal. A three-member Supreme Court bench found that the National Court had erred in finding that ...
Publisher Chris Holdaway reflects on the unique project of collecting the work of the late, terrific poet Schaeffer Lemalu. One of the nice things you can do as a truly independent publisher is to make the books that writers want to make, whatever they happen to be. That’s how I’ve ...
Those profiled in the stamp series served on overseas deployments from 1995 onwards, and all have been awarded theNew Zealand Operational Service Medal. ...
Last night’s dismal poll result for the coalition government shows the limits of trying to govern as an opposition, argues Joel MacManus. There’s a quote from the American political activist Barbara Deming: “Vengeance is not the point; change is. But the trouble is that in most people’s minds, the thought ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Shireen Morris, Associate Professor and Director of the Radical Centre Reform Lab at Macquarie University Law School, Macquarie University Leonid Andronov/Shutterstock Foreign interference in Australian democracy poses a growing risk to our national sovereignty. It refers to coercive, corrupt or ...
A defendant charged by the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has pleaded guilty to four charges of obtaining by deception in relation to a mortgage fraud scheme. Sentencing has been scheduled for 14 August 2024. ...
What to say when pesky journalists ask gotcha questions like ‘can you name a single book you’ve ever read?’ and ‘did you read it, or did you just see the movie?’This week, Act Party arts spokesperson Todd Stephenson foolishly agreed to an interview with Newsroom’s Steve Braunias regarding his ...
Explainer - What will a ban on cellphones in schools achieve? Can students use them during lunch breaks? And what happens if you need to contact your child? ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jodi Rowley, Curator, Amphibian & Reptile Conservation Biology, Australian Museum, UNSW Sydney Jodi Rowley, CC BY-NC-ND In winter 2021, Australia’s frogs started dropping dead. People began posting images of dead frogs on social media. Unable to travel to investigate the deaths ...
In the year ended March 2024, 0.4 percent of home transfers were to people who didn’t hold New Zealand citizenship or a resident visa, according to figures released by Stats NZ today. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Wasay Majid, Research Assistant , University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau New Zealand’s accommodation supplement scheme is facing scrutiny, with Social Development Minister Louise Upston recently saying “there is merit in considering whether the current settings are fair and sustainable long-term”. The ...
By Koroi Hawkins, RNZ Pacific editor The first prime ministerial candidate has been announced in Solomon Islands and it is not Manasseh Sogavare. The man of the hour is Jeremiah Manele, the MP for Hograno/Kia/Havulei constituency in Isabel Province, who served as minister of foreign affairs in the last government. ...
Protesting the removal of bins by leaving piles of your dog’s shit for others to deal with doesn’t make you a hero – it’s precious and entitled behaviour. You haven’t truly lived until you’ve stood on the shoreline of Auckland’s Cheltenham beach, desperately trying to scoop increasingly liquid dog shit ...
Analysis - Christopher Luxon will be alert to the factors driving the dire polling, but won't be waving the white flag just yet, RNZ political editor Jo Moir writes. ...
Writer, teacher and academic Vincent O’Sullivan died on Sunday 28 April. Here we gather tributes from friends, colleagues, and students who remember his extraordinary contributions. I went down to the garage tonight. There was a bird shrieking out in the bush, in the dark, maybe a kākā. Miraculously, through the ...
As part of our series exploring how New Zealanders live and our relationship with money, a burnt-out corporate escapee explains how she gets by ‘working as little as possible’. Want to be part of The Cost of Being? Fill out the questionnaire here.Gender: Female Age: 31 Ethnicity: Pākehā Role: Contractor in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Timothy Schmidt, Professor of Chemistry, UNSW Sydney Albert Russ / Shutterstock The icebreaker of many a barbeque conversation is something like “what do you do for a crust?” “I teach chemistry at university,” is what we usually reply. Then silence. Our ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Asher Flynn, Associate Professor of Criminology, Monash University Shutterstock Sexual harassment is often considered to be a person-to-person act, but new research shows Australians are also experiencing and perpetrating workplace harassment in large numbers through technology. Our latest study shows one ...
A petition signed by more than 16,500 people, demanding the government take stronger action to halt the genocide of Palestinians by the State of Israel, is being presented to the House of Representatives today by Hon Phil Twyford. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Burnett, Honorary Associate Professor, ANU College of Law, Australian National University jenmartin/Shutterstock April has been a bad month for the Australian environment. The Great Barrier Reef was hit, yet again, by intense coral bleaching. And Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek delayed ...
Winston Peters might not give a ‘rat’s derriere’ about last night’s poll, but it revealed the unusual absence of a honeymoon period and little payoff for the government’s action plan approach, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Marco de Jong, Lecturer, Law School, Auckland University of Technology Getty Images Details released by the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet under the Official Information Act reveal New Zealand officials have been considering involvement in AUKUS from the outset. ...
The government's treatment of Māori raised eyebrows, with countries saying New Zealand needed to do more to reduce health, education and justice inequities. ...
The age of criminal responsibility was one of numerous human rights issues raised during Aotearoa New Zealand’s UPR. Other key themes were racism and discrimination, the disproportionate representation of Māori in prison, and to uphold the UN Declaration ...
In a sitdown interview ahead of his final day at Parliament this week, the former Green Party co-leader tells RNZ about his lowest point during 2017's rough election campaign. ...
Is the fringe radio station really in a financial crisis, or is it just running a hyped-up donation drive? Fringe internet radio station Reality Check Radio was launched by the anti-vaccine mandates group Voices for Freedom in March 2023. For the next year, it undertook probably the most aggressive promotional ...
Above the Fold: On Monday, the biggest Māori screen production company faced down the biggest funder of Māori content at the High Court. It was an incredibly tense moment – then, just as quickly, it resolved. Duncan Greive breaks down a strange day in the screen sector.Yesterday morning, Māori ...
He won everything and he earned a knighthood and he was a senior literary figure to the point that he was a living monument to himself until his death in the weekend at 86, but there was something about Vincent O’Sullivan that flew under the radar, that was independent and ...
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It’s a ride that’s lasted almost 30 years for mother and daughter BMX riders Nancy and Toni James, and the next stop is the World Championships in Rock Hill, South Carolina. Almost 27 years ago, Nancy and her husband Gerrard took their oldest child, Daniel, to the Waitākere BMX Club. ...
When it comes to talking about the Government’s controversial fast-track consenting process, political scientist Richard Shaw refers to the famous Chinese sci-fi novel Three-Body Problem, while RNZ’s In Depth journalist Farah Hancock talks about zombie projects. Shaw is referring to the three-party coalition Government and how the proposed legislation is ...
Opinion: The debate over single gender versus co-educational schooling has long been controversial. I went to a co-ed school and was inspired by a remarkable woman who was my maths teacher, and because of her deep knowledge and passion for the subject, I knew that maths was definitely an option ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rick Sarre, Emeritus Professor of Law and Criminal Justice, University of South Australia The rate of women killed by their partners in Australia grew by 28% from 2021–22 to 2022–23, according to new statistics released today by the Australian Institute of Criminology ...
Ministry of Disabled People employees were promised a permanent role, but were told to start packing three weeks before their fixed term contract finished, says a former employee. ...
Growing food from sea water:
“In a desert region of southern Australia is a farm that – without the use of soil, fresh water, or fossil fuels – grows and supplies 15 percent of the entire country’s tomatoes through state-of-the-art technology.
“Earlier this month Sundrop Farms marked the launch of what it called the “first commercial-scale facility of this calibre in the world”, which uses solar power to de-salinate seawater and operate greenhouses in order to grow more than 15,000 tonnes of the red fruit each year. ” http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2016/10/growing-food-seawater-solar-power-161019174224231.html
I’m pretty sure that we used to have an abundance of fresh water at one point. Now it’s pretty much polluted because of the farms.
Yep, this guy doesn’t understand economics.
A farm which massively decreases it’s inputs is, by definition, far more economical than one that doesn’t. Amazingly enough, quite often those processes which use more resources are more profitable which tells us that profit isn’t a good measure.
So, what you’d do is build hundreds of thousands of acres of greenhouses.
If you’re not having to desalinate the water first then you can use the energy saved for other things.
Part of the appeal of the saltwater greenhouse system is that in addition to produce and salt they produce a modest but continuous supply of fresh water. Merge that technology with land with productivity constrained by perenial droughts like the area around Ward and you have a means of generating a gradual sustainable development. Green growth and jobs. We shall see none of those from this execrable government of course.
Monocropping massive amounts of tomatoes under glass (and I’m guessing for mass transport) probably can’t qualify as green or sustainable, even with the solar panels. I doubt that their carbon claims stack up either if you take into consideration cradle to grave and food miles.
We know how to restore land and grow food in dry climates in actual sustainable ways, might be good to focus on that.
Doesn’t have to be tomatoes.
New Alchemists used to do a polyculture of tomatoes/water hyacinth/tilapia/machobian prawns. 40 years ago.
Many NZ tomatoes now come from Oz – the energy equation of changing that probably won’t be too bad.
Knowing how is great but as a country we have to start actually doing it.
Monocropping massive amounts of anything under glass for mass transport isn’t sustainable.
Polyculture, great 🙂
We could eat seasonally as well as locally.
“Knowing how is great but as a country we have to start actually doing it.”
True, but that’s a different conversation than the one about the link. Fortunately for NZ, many farmers and growers are just getting on with it and I think we will find that the transition will be easier because of that (we’re not doing very dry climate well yet though).
I don’t think there’s a single saltwater greenhouse in NZ. You’d need too many permits.
There was a solar still project in Africa about thirty years ago – producing parasite free drinking water indefinitely at a setup cost of $2 per unit.
It’s a sunk cost deal – few or no moving parts, very long lifetime given decent design.
Sundrying makes transport feasible if there were bulk crops – especially in arid areas.
Sundrying makes sense, and I’m not suggesting all importing/exporting stops. We just need it to be an add on to our local food supply, not something we rely on economically or of sustenance.
I hope that NZ never gets to the point of having to desalinate water, but given what we’re doing, who knows?
Low entry cost – contemporary technology, and, like hydro, a relatively long productive life. The really good feature of the technology is that, unlike other desalination processes like membrane osmosis it leaves no salt fraction to accumulate in soil, and it requires little or no external energy input. Even the marine intake impact is likely to be modest – and warm controlled environments present multiple crop or culture options.
If we take Draco’s Permian doco seriously this sort of thing is the lowest level of radical change we need to entertain.
You don’t of course want a glass monoculture – but break up arid areas somewhat with these and trees and you should have a somewhat diverse and thus robust locality. Something to space the dairy farms out anyway.
Why would we need desalination in NZ? I’m not understanding the point. I get it in places where the rainfall is low and the ground water is fucked and the watershed no longer functions properly (although there are other solutions to that). But why here where we still have water?
Because the excessive farming is polluting/polluted our fresh water?
yeah, I was meaning if we stopped doing that 😉
If you take somewhere like Ward, or parts of central Otago, though they may be lush as compared to the Negev, existing water supplies are already in use – either for commercial or domestic use, or for wild use – (which may be preserving things the importance of which has thus far escaped us).
This form of development makes low demands on critical resources like water, in fact it is designed to alleviate water shortage. If my neighbour wants an intensive dairy farm I might have good ecological grounds to oppose them, but if these kinds of systems are properly engineered they are modestly enviro positive. Not needing to fight for water rights in the oversubscribed Waitaki catchment for example, is not a trivial advantage.
Are you suggesting desalinating water and pumping it up the Waitaki, or into Central? That’s massive infrastructure and it would use huge amounts of renewable power. We really shouldn’t be building more dams and there is limit to how many wind farms we can build, so wouldn’t it be better to just do sustainable agriculture instead?
The problem with the Waitaki is that people are trying to wet climate farm in a very dry place. That shit is going to be a disaster as CC kicks in more, financially and environmentally. Plus peak phosphate. But the Waitaki Valley is a huge water reservoir, much of it being wetland originally. Regenag techniques would work with that to grow food, not ignore that and try and impose something that has to work against the elements all the time.
True, but diversity growing under glasshouses probably is. Done properly I believe that it will allow us to return a large part of what’s presently farmed to wilderness and the normal life-cycles that maintain the ecosystem.
I don’t have too much of a problem with localised food being done under glass. Plastic is a huge problem though, and even with glass there are issues in terms of the whole infrastructure and embodied energy. The energy may eventually be renewable, the materials aren’t. At some point we can probably reach a steady state in terms of long term repair and recycling as well as manufacturing from renewable materials e.g. for framing. But I think the ideal is to use things like glasshouses for specific needs e.g. extending growing seasons, rather than using it as a core technique for our staples.
Re farmland and wilderness, there is a third thing, which is managed wilderness. This is what humans have traditionally done. We could restore much of the farmland to true wilderness, and still use some for managed wilderness food production and the rest for intensive sustainable food production.
Alan Savory’s work is a good example of managed wilderness, but reading Robery Guyton’s work I can also see the potential for forests.
here you go,
https://murrayhallam.com/12mnths9497624
all your veggie needs 23 square meters
regulations regarding keeping fish (edible) need to be overhauled for NZ,
Australia you can breed and own tasty fish, regulations to ensure closed system would be good, not total bans of costly licenses.
https://murrayhallam.com/fish-food#
waste veggies can go back into system as fish food.
Some issues, but cuts out transport and makes people self reliant, pros and cons but worth investigating
How not to do it.
http://www.ecowatch.com/europes-dirty-little-secret-moroccan-slaves-and-a-sea-of-plastic-1882131257.html
Yep, without proper regulation it gets fucked up by the capitalists.
Just like anything really.
Fuck, that is intense.
Antidote, in Jordan, organic polyculture and food forest,
Design – http://permaculturenews.org/2010/08/06/letters-from-jordan-on-consultation-at-jordans-largest-farm-and-contemplating-transition/
3 years later – http://permaculturenews.org/2013/12/10/desert-food-forest-organic-commercial-production-three-years-update-wadi-rum-consultancy/
year 4 video update – http://permaculturenews.org/2014/02/01/desert-oasis-4-years-jordan/
tl;dr get the design right at that start, focus on retaining and harvesting all moisture, in a desert you need more land in trees than crops/grazing. Trees provide the long term stable fertility that underpins sustainability.
I am rather bemused by a couple of things after reading todays posts.
Firstly the discussions are being overrun by RWKJs, making them boring to the point of skipping large sections.
Secondly it amuses me to see CV being accused of being of the radical right. What a load of bollocks.
Today Labour MP – now mayor of Auckland – Phil Goff has appointed a National Party guy as deputy mayor. That came just weeks after John Key had vigorously supported Helen Clark for the top UN job.
Yet again we see National and Labour complement each other as the A and B team for capitalism. While it’s true that National are not as xenophobic as Labour, there’s little else that they disagree on. National-Labour really are an alliance, and it’s obvious to all except those who are wilfully blind.
@ Daphna
1) This is NOT about national (small n) politics in any shape or form.
2) It seems they are good friends and Goff obviously believes he can trust him.
3) Goff gave the undertaking prior to the Local Body elections that he would do his utmost to bring the Auckland Council together for the betterment of the city.
4) I do not know this new deputy mayor personally, but from all accounts he is well liked across the board.
5) To have a National Party member in a senior position will assist Goff to gain positive access to central government over matters that affect the city.
Just some of the reasons off the top of my head which indicates to me Goff is being pragmatic and sensible.
I don’t care all that much about political allegiances in Local Body politics. I want to see a united council working in the interests of the city as a whole. Goff is the best person available to bring this about.
“I don’t care all that much about political allegiances in Local Body politics.”
How about when councils predominantly made up of right wingers start selling assets off? For example:
http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/comment/6596585/When-we-sold-off-Wellingtons-power
Regardless of the political affiliation, if they showed any propensity to sell off assets they wouldn’t get my vote. That would probably rule out the majority of the rw candidates. But as a case in point. There was a National Party candidate in my part of Auckland who has a very good cv. Had it not been for the fact there was a lw candidate with an equally good cv, I would have considered voting for her.
Crony capitalism.
Goff’s not left wing, and I suspect that many in Labour are relieved to see him not a Labour MP. I don’t think Labour can be held responsible for his actions as mayor except at the level of having endorsed his career all these years. Which is a substantial responsibility but not a lot current Labour can do about it.
Labour actively helped Goff with his campaigning for the mayoralty.
True. I think I was more meaning they’re not part of his decisions now as mayor. But yeah, they certainly are responsible for him being in a position to make whatever decisions he does.
Goff may not be left-wing enough for many on this blog…but for the general population Goff = Labour.
Any decisions now as mayor, be it good or bad will reflect on Labour.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/national/news/video.cfm?c_id=1503075&gal_cid=1503075&gallery_id=166151
A spot of humour at the expense of Her Majesty’s NZ Police Force.
http://www.thecivilian.co.nz/suspect-leads-police-on-harrowing-13-hour-chase-round-panmure-roundabout/
lols.
Keystone cops !
Gable Tostee verdict has come through – he has been aquitted. Phew, I don’t know how to comprehend this, it was a very weird case from the start. I thought the jury might come through the middle and give a manslaughter verdict. It is a case which will perturb some for the difficulty of it, certainly it is disturbing and hopefully we won’t see another like it.
Yep I thought he was a real obnoxious dickhead and I would shudder if he was around my daughters. But I did not think he should be convicted of murder on the facts.
Fully agree. Seems to be death by misadventure rather than any sort of intentional plot
Looked a lot like the Sounds murder to me – frightened guy departs to cook up defence. Scot free doesn’t do it for me – he didn’t let her out, he effectively imprisoned her on his property.
Misadventure? This wasn’t some drunken game to emulate spiderman. From my read of it his manipulative and threatening behaviour played a big part in her death, there’s just no smoking gun. The justice system has really failed in this case in my view.
yeah – the jury asked whether words could be considered force. Judge said no.
In NZ, assault includes the threat of force. Must be different in Aus, or a gap for an appeal.
Murder is a big ask, but I’m surprised he walked completely.
I think lot of people would struggle with the fact of his recording the entire drama. If he had not done this, absolutely no-one would have believed his version of the events.
And oddly enough resonates with the emerging reality that we are rapidly heading to a world where everything everyone does gets recorded 24/7/365. We are remarkably close to ubiquitous surveillance now, and within two decades it will be complete.
Having said this, I wouldn’t be surprised if Tostee finishes up facing other charges.
“absolutely no-one would have believed his version of the events.”
There is a witness who saw her climbing down his balcony, before she fell off.
So that there is fairly good evidence that he didn’t push her. May be difficult to infer that he wasn’t on the balcony threatening her in some way, though.
Prior to the trial Tostee had fully admitted that he had a long-standing problem with binge-drinking. Plus being a good looking bloke he seemed to have no problem with finding any number of women happy to have sex with him. Perhaps it’s not terribly surprising this resulted in an unhealthy, cynical attitude towards women. While it’s true many young men are far too naive and idealistic about relationships, Tostee’s experience seems to have pushed him to the other extreme.
And a recipe for trouble. Prior to the trial he said the reason why he was in the habit of recording his drunken escapades was to “protect” himself. How and why he learned that little life lesson is an interesting question in of itself. I’m not aware of him using the recordings afterwards for any other nefarious purpose, so we have to take him at face value on this.
Nor can we entirely overlook Warriena’s behaviour that night. What I cannot help but wonder is that if the gender roles were reversed here, and it was Gable who’d been repeatedly violent, Warriena who’d managed to lock him onto the balcony for her safety, and he’d plunged to his death … would this have ever gotten to trial?
A sad, sorry and tragic glimpse into two lives that should never have met.
“The problem with these and many other scenarios that emerge in the mainstream, is the intellectual editing that occurs before they even begin. Most share two overwhelming, linked characteristics that strictly limit any subsequent room for manoeuvre. Firstly the demand for energy itself is seen as something innate, unchallengeable and unmanageable. It must be met, and the only question is how.
Secondly, the assumption remains that the principles and practices of the economic model that has dominated for the last 30 years will remain for at least the next 30 years. There is no sign yet of the ferocious challenge to neoliberal orthodoxy happening at the margins of economics shaping mainstream visions of our possible futures. The merest glance at the history of changing ideas suggests this is short-sighted.”
…unfortunately the current paradigm is short sighted in spades
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/oct/19/conventional-thinking-will-not-solve-the-climate-crisis