Daily Review 26/05/2017

Written By: - Date published: 5:33 pm, May 26th, 2017 - 32 comments
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Daily review is also your post.

This provides Standardistas the opportunity to review events of the day.

The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy).

Don’t forget to be kind to each other …

32 comments on “Daily Review 26/05/2017 ”

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  1. Draco T Bastard 1
    26 May 2017 at 5:51 pm

    Brian Anderson: Real beneficiaries of dam are not ratepayers

    This is just financial nonsense. Ignore any real costs you don’t like until you achieve the result you are looking for. Really!

    This is a continuation of the attempts to pull the wool over councillors’ eyes regarding the financial viability of the scheme by trying to convey the level of comfort that is normally accorded a proper definition of “break-even”.

    Just who are the real beneficiaries of the RWSS? It’s certainly not the HBRC and its ratepayers.

    Of course, systems like this aren’t designed to benefit the rate/taxpayers but the private businesses that will take all the gains that the rate/taxpayers are paying for for themselves.

  2. ianmac 2
    26 May 2017 at 6:12 pm

    Wow! TV 1 just played a statement from a miner who along with a number of others spent much time in the Drift and to a depth of at least 300 metres some years ago. He is angry that the people are being told that it cannot be done. Photos to go with the item.
    That puts English and others in a hole.

    • Ed 2.1
      26 May 2017 at 7:21 pm

      Link to story below.

      Excerpt……

      “Hayden Ferguson says the unmanned entry proposal has made him so angry, he wants to share his story.

      Leaked photos show men working deep inside the mine after the fatal explosion and Mr Ferguson was a Mines Rescue member who went in 300 metres, further than anyone else.

      “You stand there and you look up the drift and you think what’s up there, you know. And it’s so tempting to go and it’s one of my biggest regrets not going,” he told 1 NEWS exclusively.”

      https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/exclusive-mine-rescue-worker-whos-been-furthest-into-pike-river-since-tragedy-speaks-backing-manned-re-entry?auto=5449105930001

      • JC 2.1.1
        26 May 2017 at 8:01 pm

        His team left a note in the mine which reads: “We will not rest, we will never give up, we will return.”

        • ianmac 2.1.1.1
          26 May 2017 at 8:28 pm

          Recently one of the experts said that the tunnel is about 98% methane (?) which makes it safer now than before since there is so little oxygen.

          How will the polititians handle this? They kept saying that any entry was just a few yards inside the portal. Someone is telling lies.

    • alwyn 2.2
      26 May 2017 at 8:33 pm

      Have you only just discovered this? That people went into the shaft to a distance of 300 metres?
      After all the current seal in the mine was placed 170 metres along the drift after that survey down to 300 metres.
      There is a minor problem that the actual end of the drift is not 300 metres from the entrance. It is about 2.3 kilometres. The 300 metres into the drift wasn’t really anywhere near where the explosion occurred.

  3. JC 3
    26 May 2017 at 6:23 pm

    http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/331646/nz-seventh-worst-on-emissions-of-41-nations

    “New Zealand’s greenhouse gas emissions in 2015 were 24.1 percent higher than 1990 levels – a far cry from the country’s commitment in the Paris agreement.

    The government said the country was on track to meet (Their) target, by using a combination of carbon credits issued in 1990 and additional credits from Russia, Ukraine and elsewhere”.

    What a crox …

    http://morganfoundation.org.nz/climate-cheating-new-low-new-zealands-integrity/

  4. Ed 4
    26 May 2017 at 7:19 pm

    The UK Labour Party has reduced the gap to the Tories to 5%.
    From over 20%.
    By offering policies and a manifesto that offers an alternative to neoliberalism.
    Is the NZ Labour Party paying attention?

    http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/labour-poll-yougov-latest-jeremy-corbyn-tory-points-slashed-theresa-may-party-surge-a7756421.html

  5. Ed 5
    26 May 2017 at 7:27 pm

    Such a caring government with its miserable support partner the Maori Party should be ashamed of this.
    They won’t be of course………

    “Funding to reduce rheumatic fever in New Zealand has been halved in this week’s Budget.

    That is despite the Government’s failure to reach a target of reducing hospitalisations for the serious illness, which is one of its top 10 priorities for the public sector.

    The Budget shows funding for rheumatic fever has fallen from $10 million a year to $5 million a year.

    The disease is often caused by living in cold, damp homes and disproportionately affects young Maori and Pacific people.”

    http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11864132

  6. Ed 6
    26 May 2017 at 7:43 pm

    There are good people in this world.

    “For people down on their luck, the words “come inside and eat some food” have turned a central Auckland eatery into a welcoming refuge.

    Sandringham’s Paradise Indian Foods is trying to calm needy people’s shame as they fill their bellies by stocking a free food fridge with delicious, healthy food.

    Manager Ismail Mohammed said although his family-run takeaway and restaurant had been giving away free food for several years, it’s only in the last few weeks they had decided to install the cabinet.

    Mohammed credits his Muslim beliefs around helping the needy, something his baker father’s actions instilled in him.”

    http://www.stuff.co.nz/auckland/93034586/paradise-found-for-central-auckland-needy

    • RedLogix 6.1
      26 May 2017 at 9:54 pm

      Traditional Islam has a very strong component around personal charity. The usual practice was for the wealthy to gather on the steps outside their community mosque so the poor in the community could approach them for assistance.

      While this doesn’t gel with our modern outlook which places the state in the role of intermediary, in the context of the era it was a direct and very personal form of social welfare.

    • The decrypter 7.1
      26 May 2017 at 8:37 pm

      Just joking Maggie, as you know he is helping me with on going and fluid budgets and election tactics.–As he did recently in Northland.

  8. AB 8
    26 May 2017 at 9:17 pm

    Latest Morgan out tonight.
    National 43% – that makes their last 3 Morgan results as 43.5, 43, 43. At no other time since the last election have they had two successive Morgan results under 45%. They have dipped below 45 from time to time, but have always bounced up straight after.

    The closest they have previously come to this was a patch in Apr-Jun 2016 with 42,5, 45.5, 43. (And that 43 was followed by a 53).

    We may be seeing a genuine shift – albeit a small one. The next Morgan will be interesting – we will see any effect of this week’s budget.
    Personally, I won’t be smiling unless I see them go under 40.

    • weka 8.1
      26 May 2017 at 9:23 pm

      NZF is the one to watch too. But if that drop continues to hold for National then it will be more hopeful to see Labour and the Greens go for governing alone. And then we will also need to be paying more attention to the Mp and the Māori seats.

    • Enough is Enough 8.2
      26 May 2017 at 10:28 pm

      I think we need to attack NZ First.

      People need to know that a vote for NZ First is potentially a vote for a fourth term National Government.

      The only way to ensure a change of government is to vote Green or Labour.

      Send the racist Trump wannabe packing. Please do not vote for a bigot who may side with National.

      • James 8.2.1
        27 May 2017 at 5:53 am

        Of course they won’t attach him – they need him.

        I’ve said for a long time that winny has already agreed to go with the nats- jk leaving was the price of this.

        I could be wrong – but come sept I reckon there isn’t a hope in hell he will go with angry Andy.

    • James 8.3
      27 May 2017 at 5:51 am

      3 constant polls and you think it’s “a genuine shift”.

      Meanwhile you miss that labour have dropped a point.

      I predict you won’t be smiling for a long time. And certynot in September

  9. Jenny Kirk 9
    26 May 2017 at 9:31 pm

    WHY did The Green Party and NZ First vote with the Nats on their budget ? Are they thinking they should look friendly with the Nats ……. as potential coalition partners ? Why are both these minor parties playing Budget footsie with the Nats when there is so much at stake in this coming election?

    • weka 9.1
      26 May 2017 at 9:56 pm

      No idea why NZF did*, but for the Greens it has nothing to do with cosying up to National, and I’ll just keep repeating, the Greens have no intention whatsoever of supporting the formation of a 4th National govt. Please stop promoting that idea, because it is a meme that the right will use during the election campaign against a potential L/G coalition.

      You can see Marama Davidson’s post on why the Greens are against the tax and social spending cuts but voted for the bill. Link and conversations here, as well as the explanation about why the Greens won’t and can’t support National.

      https://thestandard.org.nz/the-greens-respond-to-the-budget/

      (*although of course NZF are quite capable of supporting National to a 4th term).

      • Jason Warrington 9.1.1
        26 May 2017 at 11:08 pm

        Blue/Green message heard loud and clear and a desperate Bill English couldn’t hide his glee. A number of Green Mp’s have mumbled to me they aren’t as Left as you would think. A recent door slam raised my eyebrow, expect the expected if NZF rolls over top of them party vote wise.

        • weka 9.1.1.1
          26 May 2017 at 11:21 pm

          Door slam?

          “A number of Green Mp’s have mumbled to me they aren’t as Left as you would think”

          What does that mean?

    • Enough is Enough 9.2
      26 May 2017 at 10:24 pm

      Because Jenny if you close your eyes and ignore silly partisan objections there are things in this budget that will benefit kiwis.

      Yes the budget could and should have been better. But opposition for oppositions sake is negative and silly.

      Well done the Green Party for its pragmatism. Our Green Party is the single party that innovates and introduces “crazy” policy that is slowly emulated by all others. The kinder parts of this budget are solely down to the policy development that the Green Party initiates and slowly becomes mainstream bi partisan policy.

      • Jenny Kirk 9.2.1
        27 May 2017 at 8:44 am

        Haven’t any of you noticed that these so-called gains for the poorer will not happen until April 2018 – and there is an election in between then. So the Greens are voting with the Nats on the basis that there will be some pitiful “gains” for the poor in April.
        BUT this does not take into account whatever Labour might be thinking of as an alternative budget after the election. Labour has already set out some of its basic thinking. And that includes much better “gains” for the poorer – than the Nat’s pitiful April 2018 offering.
        The Greens are game-playing here. And that game play is towards National.

  10. JC 10
    26 May 2017 at 9:39 pm

    “The mining would not take place in a pristine environment – the area already had a lot of commercial activity, he said.” ……

    http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/business/331674/company-denies-seabed-mining-would-wreck-environment

    “It has already been turned down by the Environmental Protection Authority once, and has come back for a second attempt.”

    http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/te-manu-korihi/247579/seabed-mine-rejection-'sets-precedent‘

    • Draco T Bastard 10.1
      27 May 2017 at 12:02 pm

      That company estimates that there’s some 2000 million tonnes of iron sand there.

      A few years ago it was saying that there was 300 million but back then they had a license to take 20 million tonnes per year which would have used up all the iron sands in ~15 years.

      I find it suspicious that after they got the 20 million tonne licence that they suddenly found another 1700 million tonnes and that they then used that as a basis to increase the take.

      I’m glad that it was rejected. We need to conserve our wealth and not simply sell it off ASAP as National and even Labour seem to insist that we do.

  11. rhinocrates 11
    26 May 2017 at 11:39 pm

    Har har har!

    Katie Hopkins to leave LBC ‘immediately’

    http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-40057165