Federated Farmers launches petition against its business model

Written By: - Date published: 9:20 am, January 19th, 2020 - 157 comments
Categories: act, climate change, Culture wars, david seymour, Environment, farming, farming, Politics, science, Shane Jones, the praiseworthy and the pitiful, uncategorized - Tags:

I don’t get farmers, or at least their representative organisations. You would think that a sector whose business model depends completely and entirely on the environment would be concerned at the prospect of environmental devastation.  And that melting ice caps and out of control recent fires in Australia and California would be all the confirmation that they need that the environment is indeed changing.

But too many of them and their representative organisations have bought into the notion that there is a culture war being raged against them.  Whereas all we actually want to do is save the planet.

The latest indicator of this is the manufactured scandal over a teaching resource aimed at getting our kids ready to address climate change.  Federated Farmers is that upset by the notion of our young citizens being taught science that they have started a petition.

From Rachael Kelly at Stuff:

Federated Farmers has launched a petition asking the Ministry of Education to change its new climate change teaching resource.

The resource, which was launched earlier this month, was designed for year seven to 10 pupils and schools could include it in their curriculums this year.

The farmer lobby group say the resource, “Climate Change: Prepare today, live well tomorrow” was not appropriate for use by teachers in classrooms in its current form.

Federated Farmers climate change spokesman Andrew Hoggard said there were a number of mistakes in the resource that the Ministry needed to go back to and review before they put it out to teachers, because it supported misinformation about New Zealand agriculture’s contribution to global warming.

“We’re not denying climate change, we’re just saying some of the facts are wrong.”

What were the features that caused them concern? Well they want information about the short-lived nature of methane included, want the methane based nature of NZ’s agriculture reinforced, want to teach about “food miles” and “buy local”, remove suggestions about food choices beyond “avoid waste”, remove reference to “activism” and ensure all material is relevant and appropriate for the New Zealand context.

There are some references to Methane in the material which refer to it being a potent Greenhouse gas, which it is.  But we should bear in mind we are talking about educational material for years 7 to 10, not University level, so I am not sure that relative break down levels is a vital piece of the material.

And the material contains reference to food miles and buy local.  For instance it contains this passage:

“When you buy local food or products it means that your food hasn’t had to travel so far (in a vehicle which uses fossil fuels). You are also helping our economy.”

As for the teaching of activism why not?  And should we purge educational material of references to Martin Luther King, Mahatma Ghandi or Mother Theresa because they were also activists?  Not teaching our children about activism is an affront to them and to our education system.

The Taxpayers [not a] Union has come in with one of its typical stupid takes.

And David Seymour went full conspiracy on the resource saying it was state organised bullying of kids.  He is afraid that it does not allow kids to debate the science.

From Zane Small at Newshub:

Seymour, leader of the ACT Party, said he’s concerned the curriculum doesn’t allow for students to debate the science, telling Magic Talk he fears it’s designed to suppress opposing views. 

“There is a supporting document that is all about how to deal with kids that disagree and one of the things it says is that if you’ve got a difficult kid that disagrees just change the seating plan.”

Seymour was referring to the “wellbeing guide” provided to teachers, which tells them: “With angry or obstructive students (depending on your understanding of them), consider seating plan, offer choices for ways to proceed, or share authority by delegating a student.”

He then totally contradicted himself.

The Epsom MP also criticised an activity in the syllabus called “myth buster role-play” where one student will play the role of an ‘activist’ for climate change and the other a ‘sceptic’. 

“I just think that sort of exercise, given that it doesn’t provide any sort of resource or credence to why people might be sceptical, amounts to state-organised bullying of kids,” Seymour said. 

No doubt the dissenters can source all the material they need.  There is a whole internet full of it.  Shame it is not scientifically rigorous and it is ridiculous that a Member of Parliament should be insisting on bogus scientific material being included in what is taught to our kids.

He also accused the resource of undermining national education standards, even though it has only been used so far in one school.  Who could imagine that a teaching resource that has only just been released could be so powerful?

Semour and the Taxpayer’s Union are not the only ones complaining about the resource.  In a statement that looks like it was focus group tested on a group of geriatrics Zane Small in Newshub has quoted Jones in this article:

New Zealand First MPs Shane Jones and Mark Patterson are speaking out against a new climate change teaching resource that advises students to eat less meat to save the planet. 

The resource, announced on Sunday by Education Minister Chris Hipkins and Climate Change Minister James Shaw, tells students how they can help to reduce emissions, including advice to “eat less meat and dairy”. 

Jones, a Cabinet minister, slammed the dietary advice, telling Newshub he “grew up on a farm unlike a lot of these green apostles” and said he regularly feeds his children “copious amounts” of fish and other meats.

“I don’t want the politically correct brigade colonising my dietary habits – it will never, ever happen… Schools have absolutely no authority to stigmatise and demonise us meat-eaters.”

Patterson tweeted the following tweet.  One wonders if he has actually read the material.

And they don’t get it.  Sure New Zealand’s agriculture may be more efficient than overseas models.  But it still produces huge amounts of greenhouse gasses, just more efficiently.

We could dumb down our kids and confuse them by feeding them material that has been scientifically debunked time and time again. And we could turn them into nodding automatons by not teaching them of some of the greatest and most transformational movements that humanity has ever seen.

I prefer we don’t do that.

And dear Federated Farmers. Without the environment your businesses will fail. You should be joining the campaign against climate change. Not fighting it.

157 comments on “Federated Farmers launches petition against its business model ”

  1. Sacha 1

    So much competition for the selfish vote. We need to be promoting the benefits of cooperation so people are clear there's another choice.

  2. Descendant Of Smith 2

    The irony of telling us to buy local while at the same time telling us we have to pay market driven international prices. Nearly everyone I know has reduced their meat consumption due to price. There's days I even refuse to buy mince or sausages because they are too expensive.

    • bwaghorn 2.1

      If you could by high food miles foreign stuff or less than home grown would ya?

      • Descendant Of Smith 2.1.1

        At times I weigh that up and do so if we haven't had meat for four or five days. I like meat and ultimately buy what I can afford what looks palatable – e.g. my rule of thumb for sausages is the whiter they are the less meat in them, the less likely I am to buy them.

        I consider that it's hypocritical to live in a country that exports much of it's product and then refuse to buy overseas product. Nor do I subscribe to the notion we should stop eating meat those who want to can.

        I am more inclined to buy local and more inclined to buy from small businesses. However I, like many others, simply don't have the cash to indulge in such a way. Over the years even farmers markets have got pricey. The more well off love them, the poor are conspicuous by their absence.

        I remember the days when there were vegetable auctions houses and you could all pitch in and buy the unsold stuff quite cheaply at the end of the day. These days the surplus gets simply bulldozed into the ground as per contracted demand. You have been paid for it and it is not needed so you can't sell it or give it away. We produce enough food for it to be cheaper- the profit models being used prevent it from being so.

    • woodart 2.2

      you have to be a dairy farmer to afford sheep meat now. red meat is a twice a month thing with me now. chicken is always $5 a kilo cheaper at my local tri-n-save

  3. bwaghorn 3

    Does the new curriculum teach kids that flying off on holidays is far more avoidable and creates pointless emmisions as opposed to growing high protein mineral dense foods. Just for balance .

    • mickysavage 3.1

      Why yes it does:

      "Actions you can take

      • Walk or cycle – it is free, has the least impact on the environment and is good for your health.

      • Take the bus.

      • Carpool with friends.

      • Reduce the number of flights you take, when possible (this has been shown to be one of the most effective climate change actions you can take).

      • When you fly, pay to offset your emissions.

      • Buy things that have been made or grown locally, so they haven’t had to travel far."

      • Sacha 3.1.1

        So much more practical than deniers are.

        • Poission 3.1.1.1

          When you fly, pay to offset your emissions.

          You can offset nox,and stratospheric water vapour on a flight?

      • Climaction 3.1.2

        Love the caveat

        “reduce the number of flights (where possible)”

        no doubt climate talk fests attended by a list celebs is a listed exclusion

        • Incognito 3.1.2.1

          I don’t know many celebs attending a NZ school and following the Yr 7-10 curriculum, do you?

          No doubt, this is yet another one of your disingenuous and unhelpful comments on this site and a continuation of your trolling. How many more of these kinds of comments do you think you’ll get away with?

          • Climaction 3.1.2.1.1

            Have a sense of humour will you?

            its no secret that the climate change action supporters weakest point is there continuing reliance on massive conferences all over the globe that seemingly require attendance.

            I would love to see everyone fly less, I just found it humorous that on the Achilles heal of the climate change movements, the easiest thing to change is that which is given exceptions to allow its continuity which the more cynical amongst the population would see as carte Blanche to attend climate conferences.

            [lprent: It appears you lack a sense of humour. Perhaps you should try to find one before I lose mine. ]

            • Incognito 3.1.2.1.1.1

              its no secret that the climate change action supporters weakest point is there continuing reliance on massive conferences all over the globe that seemingly require attendance.

              Is this your attempt at humour because it sure is the silliest thing I’ve read today and not even remotely funny?

              I case you missed it, the OP is about incorporation of CC into the NZ curriculum and suggestions what NZ kids can do to reduce of minimise their contributions to CC. Not many of those pupils fly off to attend those “massive conferences all over the globe”. You’ve created another strawman, which is typical of trolls and CC deniers.

              I count this comment as one.

      • bwaghorn 3.1.3

        Cheers for the leg work .

        Is the anti animal consumption just one small sentence as well .

        Or is it lengthier. ?

        See I believe when aiming for reduction we need to categorize it in to a scale whereby frivolous shit ,like flying off to see the Louvre or sunning ones fat pale arse on the gold coast gets hammered,much harder than food production

        [lprent: Perhaps you’d like to google the source material so you can read it. Then you stop being such lazy prick, learn to get off your fat arse, do some basic research, and learn to stop having to get other people to do your thinking and work for you.

        Asking loaded leading questions repeatably – I think it is just trolling. This will be your only warning about this behaviour. ]

        • Ross 3.1.3.1

          bwaghorn

          The great thing about global warming is that no one needs to fly to the Gold Coast to sun one's arse. That really is inexcusable.

    • Sabine 3.2

      how many kids in NZ do you think fly of on holidays?

      • bwaghorn 3.2.1

        Quite a few from the leafy suburbs I suspect . I just want to be sure that all those little cherubs that are hassling the old to stop consuming animal products are also ripping into them about the flight habits.

        The amount of people flying here there and everywhere in my small circle of acquaintances is staggering and most of them are at the lower end of the wealth spectrum. (Still well above shepherd pay scales though)

  4. Ross 4

    all we actually want to do is save the planet.

    The planet isn't going anywhere and doesn't need "saving". Although restricting population growth wouldn't be a bad thing.

    As long as the resource highlights the fact that NZ is one of the smallest emitters and that even if every NZer was gifted an electric car it would have no effect on global warming, I’m all for kids being educated. 🙂

    [lprent: If you want to claim something then I suggest that you should research it first and define exactly what basis you’re making an assertion on. On a per capita basis we are 21st worst in the world on gross greenhouse gas emissions. If we looked at our effect of our emissions within the rest of this century on a per capita basis it is likely that we’d be amongst the top 10.

    I’s suggest that if you want to continue commenting here, then you’d better learn some precision in your assertions or I’ll ban you for lying with false facts. ]

    • Ross 4.1

      And I imagine kids will be told that 4.8 million divided by 7.8 billion equals 0.0006154. In other words, eating less meat will have absolutely no effect on global warming. I think it's great that kids are going to be better educated about global warming.

      • AB 4.1.1

        Does this mean that only those people with the misfortune to have been born in high population countries need to do anything?

        • Ross 4.1.1.1

          No, it doesn't. But it's true that it's not NZ's role to subsidise the inaction of the big emitters.

          Maybe you could explain why no political party in NZ, including the Greens, has promised to supply an electric car to every person with a current driver's license.

          • Psycho Milt 4.1.1.1.1

            No, it doesn't.

            And yet, it was the obvious conclusion to be drawn from your comment. Given that you're constantly having to tell people that your comments didn't mean the obvious meaning to be inferred from them, perhaps it's time to consider making your arguments more explicit?

            • In Vino 4.1.1.1.1.1

              Agree with PM. Ross- you say that the planet does not need saving. True – but has it crossed your mind that the planet we humans can live on may well need saving as such?

              Earth remaining without us seems to be a prospect you have either not considered, or have rejected for your own spurious reasons of an indeterminate nature.

      • Sacha 4.1.2

        Swift with those denialist talking points as ever, Ross.

        What should New Zealanders be doing, by your reckoning?

        • Ross 4.1.2.1

          Swift with those denialist talking points facts as ever, Ross.

          What should New Zealanders be doing, by your reckoning?

          Firstly, we should be telling children the truth. And given the mistakes that were made re Y2K, we should be doing everything we can to avoid making the same mistakes. In other words, we should be listening to alternative points of view. If that approach had been taken in Australia, it likely would have saved billions of dollars which it could have put towards disaster relief.

          • dv 4.1.2.1.1

            OK Ross list the truths.

            • Ross 4.1.2.1.1.1

              I have listed some already. I did ask recently how much has been spent on fighting climate change and what the effect that spending has had, presumably the new curriculum will cover that off.

          • Sacha 4.1.2.1.2

            given the mistakes that were made re Y2K

            Based on that one article you read, as against the opposite experience of myself and everyone I've ever seen writing about it who was part of fixing the problem.

            • Ross 4.1.2.1.2.1

              You were in Eastern Europe? What did you do to computer operating systems in EE?

              [lprent: The fix for y2k was done in the 5-10 years leading up to it. That is why it didn’t have significiant effects globally.

              Unlike you or Lomberg (reading down at your other diversions), I worked on the edges of the y2k updates in the decade beforehand, and have a pretty good idea of just how much work went into the removal of that old mostly cobol code limitation. Basically in my expert opinion as a programmer, Lomberg is technically a lying cretin – and so are you.

              Banned for 4 weeks for stupid trolling that appears to be designed to break up the topic in the post. I detest diversion trolling. ]

          • Sacha 4.1.2.1.3

            we should be listening to alternative points of view

            Ooh, that will fix things real fast!

            More wisdoms, Obi Wan.

          • RedLogix 4.1.2.1.4

            And given the mistakes that were made re Y2K, we should be doing everything we can to avoid making the same mistakes.

            What mistake? Exactly why do you think that responding to increasing CO2 levels would be a mistake? I outlined my exact metrics for dealing climate change yesterday and you ignored them. Drop the evasive and get down to some actual details.

            The proposed safe level of CO2 long term is 350ppm. That number has been proposed by a preeminent scientist in the field. Why do you think achieving this would be a mistake?

            • Ross 4.1.2.1.4.1

              RL,

              Here's a paper that was written in 1999 suggesting that Y2K would be a dud, and so it proved to be. But the writer's voice was non-conformist which means it probably received little attention. It's apparent that more non-conformist views need to be expressed and heard.

              http://www.uq.edu.au/economics/johnquiggin/news99/Millennium9908.html

              The proposed safe level of CO2 long term is 350ppm. That number has been proposed by a preeminent scientist in the field. Why do you think achieving this would be a mistake?

              What I've said, which you are well aware of, is that it would be courageous to spend billions and trillions of dollars on an outcome that is indeterminate. You presumably don't visit the casino every day – or ever – in the hope that you may be able to retire early. Yet some countries seemed to apply that logic re Y2K despite evidence showing that such spending was unnecessary.

              How much money will need to be spent to reach nirvana, and what is the probability that that such spending to reach the figure proposed (350ppm) will produced the desired outcome? How much money has been spent thus far and what effect has that had on getting to the figure proposed?

              I asked why the Government here doesn't simply give every driver an electric car. The Government could require all people who take up their offer to trade in their existing vehicle(s). Out with the inefficient and in with the environmentally-friendly. Why hasn't that policy been announced by any political party, including the Greens? Wouldn’t the environment benefit from such a policy?

              • RedLogix

                We've discussed this before, Y2K is a totally separate and unrelated issue. It's a stupid non-argument; yes the boy cried wolf on that event, but that of course does not mean there are no predators.

                As for reaching 350ppm it's a simple matter of global CO2 balance and time; how fast we can reach not only carbon zero (and indeed carbon negative if we are to get back down a safe level in a safe time frame). This is an absolute and determinate metric. It is something we are compelled to do by the physics, in which case 'how much it is going to cost' is not a relevant question really.

                Claiming it is ‘indeterminate’ is simply a fancy way to say you ‘don’t believe it’.

                • Ross

                  Y2K is a totally separate and unrelated issue.

                  I'm sorry if you don't get it, but it's simple to understand. To quote Lomborg:

                  "This year, the world will spend $US162 billion ($230bn) subsidising renewable energy, propping up inefficient industries and supporting middle-class homeowners to erect solar panels, according to the International Energy Agency. In addition, the Paris Agreement on climate change will cost the world from $US1 trillion to $US2 trillion a year by 2030. Astonishingly, neither of these hugely expensive policies will have any measurable impact on temperatures by the end of the century.

                  Climate campaigners want to convince us that not only should we maintain these staggering costs, but that we should spend a fortune more on climate change, since our very survival is allegedly at stake. But they are mostly wrong, and we’re likely to end up wasting trillions during the coming decades."

                  Can you explain how wasting trillions is going to help us combat climate change? And if we can afford to waste trillions, why can't we waste money trying to prevent the deaths of 62 million kids over the next decade?

                  It is something we are compelled to do by the physics, in which case 'how much it is going to cost' is not a relevant question really.

                  Oh it's very relevant. It explains why no political party is promising free electric cars for everyone. The benefits don't outweigh the costs.

                  http://www.climatescience.org.nz/blog/bjorn-lomborg-trillions-of-dollars-being-frittered-in-the-wind/Lomborg-Trillions_frittered_in_the_wind.pdf

                  [You have been unclear, evasive, and indeterminate since 1 Jan and all you (can) do is citing and quoting Lomborg. You have created diversions and we have wasted much of our time on your comments. Y2K was highly focussed and a fixed point in time, literally. CC is hugely complex and a process that is not fixed in time and very well studied with many measurables. You have created a strawman in comparing the two as others have also pointed out to you. You even mentioned PHARMAC at one stage as well as the 62 million children who will be miraculously saved if only we stop trillions of dollars being “frittered in the wind” on CC. Obviously, only PHARMAC is in the NZ realm of reality.

                  I’m not going to attempt to unpack all your comments so far this year in one Moderation note. For all intents and purposes, you act as a CC denier and you have become a distraction on this site IMO. The second aspect concerns me and is the reason for this Moderation note.

                  You have been asked many times, by commenters and moderators alike, to clarify your views on what NZ should do with regards to CC and all we get is Lomborg. AFAIK, Lomborg doesn’t say anything specifically about NZ or what kind of policies we should adopt to deal with CC. Nor did Lomborg compare Y2K with CC although it wouldn’t surprise me if you were to find a link where he might have used these two in one sentence.

                  To cut a long story short, in lieu of you clarifying yourself on the NZ situation, you stop with these distractions such as Y2K. If not, I’ll give you study leave to prepare an adequate response that does not involve giving away free services and electric cars to all New Zealanders – Incognito]

                • Sacha

                  yes the boy cried wolf on that event

                  Wrong. Not a great building block for Ross to begin with.

                  Claiming it is ‘indeterminate’ is simply a fancy way to say you ‘don’t believe it’.

                  Totally. And impervious to correction.

                  • RedLogix

                    You're right. That remark was a shortcut carry over from a previous thread.

                    I agree the IT world did have a significant Y2K problem, especially in the context where money, billing, ledgers and so on where involved. All these are critically dependent on calendar date.

                    Where the media got it badly wrong was to hype this into a potential crisis with utilities like power and water. This is my field and the PLC/DCS machines we use almost all had 4 digit year dates. And in any case we rarely write programs that depend on date.

                    Y2K was more than anything an example of crap media reporting. And has absolutely fuck all to do with CC, an entirely separate issue that has been heavily scrutinized for decades.

                    • Sacha

                      There were some huge problems with manufacturing plant control systems around the world. Some interesting factory test runs with dates shifted forwards. To say nothing of airline industry, etc, systems.

                      Media did not put enough effort into understanding scope, true, but it certainly was not fake news as some would now have it.

                    • RedLogix []

                      The vast majority of plant control system controllers used a 4 digit year dates and the code scarcely used it even. If the were issues then maybe at the SCADA level.

                      As it was the media predictions of the world coming to an end were insanely overblown. In this Ross has a teensie point, but you and I agree it has no useful relevance to CC. Period.

    • The planet isn't going anywhere and doesn't need "saving".

      The fact that some people use hyperbolic phrases when describing climate change doesn't alter the fact that we need to do something about it. If you use those kinds of errors to support claims that we don't need to do anything, you find yourself being treated as an AGW-denier.

  5. Avocadonz 5

    This is why we will see a one term Government. This is the “shower head” moment that Clark took nine years to get to.

  6. pat 6

    self inflicted siege mentality ….mind you the same tactics over the FART tax gained a 15 year reprieve.

  7. Dennis Frank 7

    Totally understandable that rightists would be paranoid about the possibility that education will get kids thinking. There's even a slim chance the populace in Aotearoa would end up no longer as thick as pigshit. Such a break with tradition would traumatise everyone. Just think of the mental health consequences!

    They all ought to drive their tractors up the steps of parliament simultaneously. Get it on national tv. Chaos & mayhem always works, eh? Goddam liberal do-gooders… 😎

  8. RedLogix 8

    Here we go again, politicising what is essentially a science or engineering problem. Has anyone previously noted this development?

    The UC Davis team has conducted two studies, with a third on the way. The first one, which replicated former tests in artificial cow stomachs, found that when seaweed made up just five percent of cows’ normal hay feed, methane production decreased by 95 percent.

    But the results were even more promising when the team tested Asparagopsis armata in the diets of lactating dairy cows. They reduced the amount of seaweed content in the cows’ feed to either .5 or one percent. Cows eating a diet with .5 percent seaweed saw a 26 percent decrease in methane, while those with a one percent diet produced 67 percent less methane

    Or a wider perspective here in The Guardian.

    As for meat eating … my partner and I have been mostly plant based for some years now, primarily for health reasons. We do eat meat or fish maybe once or twice a fortnight, usually on social occasions, but far less than than our prior diet. We're also aware that ruminants play an important role in the health of grasslands and the issue is more complex than most food ideologues like to portray it. We both feel that politicising what is a highly personal choice is entirely counterproductive; the world has quite enough people yelling at each other for stupid reasons already.

    • Ian 8.1

      Animal and dairy protein is what our species developed on. Plant protein was good for dinosaurs and herbivorous mammals. Vegans are going to be quickly out smarted by the omnivires and will probably end up like the Neandathal.

      • Muttonbird 8.1.1

        *Neanderthals, are an extinct species or subspecies of archaic humans who lived in Eurasia until about 40,000 years ago. They probably went extinct due to competition with or extermination by immigrating modern humans or due to great climatic change, disease, or a combination of these factors.

        Pretty sure Homo Neanderthalensis ate meat so perhaps you are going the way of the dodo too, for other reasons.

      • Incognito 8.1.2

        That’s not correct.

        We humans need amino acids as building blocks to function and survive and in particular, we need nine essential amino acids that we cannot produce in our bodies ourselves. As long as we get enough amino acids in our diet in the form of proteins, it doesn’t matter whether those proteins come from plant or animal sources.

        • weka 8.1.2.1

          I think this is true (according to current knowledge). But a couple of caveats. One is that vegans need a higher degree of knowledge than general to make sure they get the equivalent of complete proteins (daily?). Not always easy.

          The problem with vegan diet deficiencies isn't the protein per se if they're managing the amino acid issues, but might be how much protein they eat if they're eating grains to replace the meat/dairy. There do appear to be important differences in essential fatty acids between plants and animal sources. Likewise iron. I'm guessing those aren't the only ones.

          Point being that the theory about nutritional requirements isn't the same as the reality.

          • Incognito 8.1.2.1.1

            That’s all correct. Ian only mentioned protein hence my response, which was not an argument for or against any choice of diet.

            To make an informed choice people may need to seek advice. The young and elderly have different requirements and so on. IMHO, there is no way any professional worth their salt would dish out [sorry for the puns] generic advice here on TS as this must be tailored (personalised is the buzzword) to the specific individual. Common sense doesn’t cut the mustard if you start mucking around with (radical) diets.

            When I come to think of it, how many families only adjust portion size for the various members of the family, they all eat more or less the same stuff. I’m not saying this is necessarily ‘bad’ but is it optimal for each and all? I doubt it.

      • RedLogix 8.1.3

        Ian,

        No problem, as I was trying to make clear I regard diet as a personal matter and I've absolutely no problem with other people's choices. Plant based is not quite the same thing as vegan; it emphasises quality over quantity (and in this is not that different to paleo). We're not especially ideological about it, we still consume modest amounts of animal protein.

        It's my view that as more and more people in developing countries move into the middle class, there will be plenty of demand for our high quality animal protein for a long time to come.

  9. pat 9

    So these groups and individuals are of the opinion that NZ's 12 to 15 year olds live in some sort of bubble untroubled by the wider world and are going to be indoctrinated?….thats a high opinion of their offspring they dont have.

  10. weka 10

    The weird thing about the buy/eat local message is that it's very hard in NZ to buy local meat. If my neighbour wanted to sell me meat they'd have to transport their sheep/cow to an abattoir (usually at some distance), and then if they're lucky the abattoir might keep the meat out of the supply chain and give it back to them to sell locally (and hard to get the whole, butchered animal back if one wants the organ meats etc)

    What FF mean is buy NZ meat instead of imported, but meat transported from Southland to Wellington still has a fair wack of food miles on it (the ecofootprint of some food in NZ is higher for domestic produce than imported because of the domestic miles).

    To buy local meat, we'd need to transform two things. One is the regs around homekill, so that it can be sold. The other is the creation of local food economies so that small growers can make a living. I doubt that FF wants or supports either of those, although I would be interested to hear from farmers selling into local markets how much industry support they get.

    • Graeme 10.1

      Not just meat going from Southland to Wellington. It's just about everything in the food supply chain that goes from farm to processor to distribution centre to retail point. Quite normal for that path to be quite circular, or in NZ case out and back again, and easily several times.

      We've regulated food safety and efficiency by making the middle of the chain, processor and distributor, bigger rather than upping skills at the producer and retail end. But that's allowed the corporates to get bigger and make more profit.

      • weka 10.1.1

        yep (and not just food either, NZ Post doubles the miles on many letters).

        "We've regulated food safety and efficiency by making the middle of the chain, processor and distributor, bigger rather than upping skills at the producer and retail end."

        I can't see a compelling reason for not regulating licenced homekill for sale under specific circumstances, and labeling it appropriately. i.e we could do food safety on a small scale, and efficiently. The issues are often about how to make excess profits and regulatory bodies having an historical bias towards large scale.

        • Graeme 10.1.1.1

          I completely agree regarding home or butcher kill. Used to buy meat from someone who was doing it legally 20 years ago, amazing stuff. But he was really focused on quality and wasn't that cheap for the better cuts, but done with a passion. Sort of went off meat when I went out of that orbit.

          With NAIT and other modern systems a local butcher should be able to have full traceability and probably better compliance than the works. Heck it'd be putting value into the product.

          And NZ Post 'efficiency' is something else

          • weka 10.1.1.1.1

            I don't really understand why more farmers aren't doing the value-added, selling locally thing. I assume that there's not a lot of industry support for it, and compliance costs make it even harder going, esp for farmers with large debt. So it's only the lucky ones or the ones really committed or creative that can make it. Lots of room here for leadership from government departments, but I guess they're focused on export.

            Didn't realise selling home/butcherkill was legal 20 years ago. Do you know how/why that changed?

            • Graeme 10.1.1.1.1.1

              There's Isla Bank Butchery, they will come out and kill your beast on farm and process it for you, presumably you'd be able to sell it at a Farmer's Market

              You have to have owned the animal for 28 days and been involved in it's active management.

              • weka

                I was under the impression that farm/homekill couldn't be sold. One can buy a share in a beast and thus have an animal raised, killed and butchered on someone else’s land but that's for own use, not on-selling.

                  • weka

                    thanks, as I thought.

                    If we changed that, local food would get substantially easier.

                    • pat

                      is not that onerous as it is…and the restrictions on on sale are reasonable..i.e farmers markets. You can still buy a share in livestock for slaughter, or buy an animal and have it butchered.

                    • weka []

                      you can’t buy an animal and have it slaughtered. You can farm an animal on someone else’s land but you have to take hands on part in raising and caring for it. That animal can then be homekilled, and you can’t sell or trade it. Most people cannot manage that whole process, compared to going to the farmers market on the weekend.

                      What we could have instead is a set of regs for small growers, that are designed for that situation. Atm, regs are designed around large growers and are expensive and overly onerus. They also enforce large food miles, which is the thing that needs to change. I can’t see any reason that homekill regs that allow sale can’t be done safely.

                    • weka

                      those small grower regs could cover a range of issues that are currently barriers to people making a living and people being able to buy local. There are issues with dairy, and the sale of processed foods like jams at farmers markets. Again, the current regs are based around large growers and are not adapted to what people need on the ground.

                      As an example, in the US some states have cottage food bills, where you can make/preserve certain foods at home and sell them in limited ways eg farmers market. The label has to clearly say that this is how they were produced. This is what regulation for local economies would look like.

  11. weka 11

    Does anyone have a link to the new curriculum document?

      • Ross 11.1.1

        Did you know…?

        New Zealand makes a small contribution to global greenhouse gas emissions, yet has one of the highest per-person rates of emissions for an industrialised country. Most of our emissions come from livestock and road transport.

        Looks like free public transport and a free electric car are just around the corner…

        • Craig H 11.1.1.1

          Free public transport on electric buses would be an excellent start.

          • Incognito 11.1.1.1.1

            Has somebody told the bus companies yet that they must replace their rolling stock with electrics?

            FFS, they cannot even organise a national public transport card!

            https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/118636100/13-years-of-waiting-for-promised-national-public-transport-card

            In any case, the suggestion to provide free PT and free electric cars on the Taxpayers’ expense is another of Ross’s disingenuous comments because he reckons the money should be spent on other burning issues such as saving the lives of 62 million children with preventable diseases.

            • Ross 11.1.1.1.1.1

              In any case, the suggestion to provide free PT and free electric cars on the Taxpayers expense is another of Ross’s disingenuous comments because he reckons the money should be spent on other burning issues such as saving the lives of 62 million children with preventable diseases.

              Yeah who cares about children. Won't anyone think of the koalas!

              • Incognito

                Exactly how many millions of Koalas can we save by following your indeterminate suggestions, Ross? Pray tell, because you’ve left us severely wanting clarification and specifics of what we should and shouldn’t do, in your opinion, to reduce our contribution to global CC.

                So far, you’ve kindly offered free PT and free electric cars and your insights that Y2K was “a dud”, notwithstanding that comparing Y2K with CC is a false equivalence that is (deliberately?) misleading and creating a diversion from the debate on what NZ should do with regards to CC.

                You remind me of another commenter here who became petulant when challenged because they could or would not provide specifics. Coincidentally, they also made suggestions such as halving the NZ Defence Budget and reducing spending on Foreign Aid in order to deal with issues that were more important and pressing in their eyes. Just like yours, their comments became a distraction on this site – you haven’t really progressed from the comments you made since 1st Jan despite Weka’s moderation. That commenter is currently on extended gardening leave …

      • weka 11.1.2

        thanks!

  12. Incognito 12

    Out of interest, what information about the short-lived nature of methane do the farmer lobby wants to be included and why?

  13. Sure New Zealand’s agriculture may be more efficient than overseas models. But it still produces huge amounts of greenhouse gasses, just more efficiently.

    Unless someone thinks up a way for 8 billion humans to not have to eat anything, agriculture is going to produce huge amounts of greenhouse gases no matter what. Doing agriculture more efficiently does actually count for something.

    Jones is right – this is a highly contentious issue so we have to be careful what we put into any educational resources for children about it. It's certainly not the place of educational material to be making a sin of eating meat and a virtue out of abstaining from it.

    • Sacha 13.1

      It's certainly not the place of educational material to be making a sin of eating meat and a virtue out of abstaining from it.

      Unless of course that's what the evidence says.

      • weka 13.1.1

        the evidence says eating meat is a sin?

      • Psycho Milt 13.1.2

        What weka said. Also: the "evidence" of what types of agriculture in what types of environments have the least AGW effect is complicated and often vigorously disputed. Dumbing that down to a simplistic "Eat less X and help save the planet, kids!" isn't education – or at least, shouldn't be.

        • weka 13.1.2.1

          The go vegan stuff is hugely problematic. The eat less meat message is also a problem, because it assumes people are eating a lot to start with. Eat local/seasonal/regen is a better approach but that's too hard because it requires system change rather than just personal effort/choice. Which I think is a part of what is going on, and it's disappointing to see lefties with otherwise solid sociopolitical analysis adopt a personal choice position and one that supports industrial ag.

          There's plenty of evidence that regenag is better for climate mitigation than Monsanto soy meat replacements, but I agree it's complex and there are no simplistic messages that are going to work.

          • Tabletennis 13.1.2.1.1

            @Weka
            "The eat less meat message is also a problem, because it assumes people are eating a lot to start with."

            Really Weka? Maybe this helps to change it form "assuming" to facts:
            https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_meat_consumption

            • weka 13.1.2.1.1.1

              According to that the average NZ consumption is 2kg a week (roughly). I don't eat that much, so someone else must be eating more. NZ as a whole may very well need to reduce meat consumption, but individuals who don't have enough protein or other nutrients in their diet may be better off eating more.

              This is why the 'eat less meat' messaging is a problem. Telling poor, undernourished people to deprive themselves is not a good public health strategy (and by public health I'm including climate change issues). Telling people with high nutrients needs likewise.

              What we could be saying instead is 'if you eat meat then eat it in moderation, and here are some examples of what moderate consumption might be', and then give examples (and tie it into public health messages about eating more fruit and veg). For instance women who menstruate or who are pregnant/lactating have higher nutritional needs than others.

              • Tabletennis

                Is it telling that each time I see possible baby steps can be made, to do something practical about our impact on climate change, the "but the poor" argument gets used. I.O.W we really like things as they are.

                Your link shows too that NZ'er are eating far more meat in comparison.

                NZ politics and it ppl are really not that much different form our neighbours.. they have to see it before the penny drops…if ever

                • weka

                  Are you vegan or vegetarian by any chance?

                  Do you know about the Just Transition movement? Why would you exclude poor people from climate action?

                  Your base assumption seems to be that eating less or no meat is best for the climate. If someone eats meat once a month, how is that true?

            • weka 13.1.2.1.1.2

              that wiki figure isn't for consumption, it's for carcass mass and doesn't account wastage (across the whole supply chain, including things like bones).

              This is a better source for consumption, not least because it might prompt us to look at reducing wastage. Here NZ consumption is 1.4kg

              https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_meat_consumption_per_capita

  14. bwaghorn 14

    It's hard enough to get the little buggers to eat healthy with out scaring them off what is without doubt great food for growing said little buggers on .

    Meat is good for them

    • In Vino 14.1

      As long as it is not fed to them in over-sugary buns with too much processing, excessive salt, etc etc. Give us a break, bwaghorn. Most of our unhealthy, poor kids are not being fed unadulterated lion fillet or sirloin – they are being fed minced crap with bloody unhealthy accompaniments.

      Farmers who care so much about quality meat provision are surprisingly silent about this aspect.

      • bwaghorn 14.1.1

        Farmers are price takers not price setters . Talk to the supermarket s and the foriegn markets

        • weka 14.1.1.1

          Fed Farmers is neither, and they could instead take an ethical position for the wellbeing of NZ.

        • In Vino 14.1.1.2

          No, you farmers have to do that before you have any right to claim to be providers of only good, healthy food.

          Closing your eyes to middlemen's corruption of your product is not an option.

          You allow them to turn your good product into crap, and you lose the right to claim to be a producer of good product.

          You are profiting out of bad practice, which, as a producer of good product, you know bloody well should not be allowed to happen. You allow it, and you lower yourselves to crap-producers.

          End of story. Stop profiting out of crappy burger/sausage stuff, and I will start to give a little credence to your claims about being the world's most efficient producers of beautiful grass-fed (?) fillet steaks. Yeah, right.

          • weka 14.1.1.2.1

            Afaik bwaghorn isn't a land-owning farmer, so I don't think they can be held accountable for NZ's meat supply chains in the ways you imply.

            • In Vino 14.1.1.2.1.1

              Sorry – bwaghorn often sounded like an intelligent farmer to me. I may have over-assumed.

              • weka

                they seem smart enough to me. From memory they're a waged farmer, not a land owning one. I don't see the value insulting people to try and win them over politically.

    • I feel love 14.2

      Then make it cheaper for them? A good way to stop ppl buying so much is for the price to keep rising, more meatless meals.

      • In Vino 14.2.1

        The whole problem. The poor are currently being fed cheap crap with unhealthy accompaniment, and farmers are making out that they are saints for providing the "pure100% beef" patties.

        Never trust any advertisers.

    • weka 14.3

      There's going to be a public health crisis in the next ten to twenty years as we hit enough people raised vegan for the health problems to show up via epidemiology. Some people do well as vegan, many don't. We don't know what will happen to children long term. It's hard to get a vegan diet nutritionally replete, harder than most people are going to manage.

      • H0tok3 14.3.1

        I agree with you there, that it isn't easy to get good readily available foods of quality for Vegans – being one myself. But things are definitely improving with more products becoming available as New Vegan food outlets appear on the landscape. As for your suggestion of there might being an epidemiology epidemic in the future. Think about this, when a basic food source such as meat becomes priced of the shopping list of many low income households these days. What other source of food that is equally nutritional for meat eaters do you supplement it with, and where it remains affordable for those consumers. There's a lot to be said about having a garden out back, quite possibly furbished with a few rows of beans of all kinds. And if you look at it, for the price of a 1kg steak you can get 30 cans of beans off the supermarket shelf.

        • weka 14.3.1.1

          People can raise meat rabbits in their backyard or neighbourhood. Or hens. When Cuba went through its peak oil phase and suddenly didn't have cheap fossil fuels underpinning their economy, this is exactly what happened. They shifted a large part of their food production to local, including meat from rabbits.

          The problem with veganism as a solution to climate change is that people aren't by and large shifting to local food, they're relying on industrially grown and processed foods (with all the attendant ecofootprints). Much of that is imported, huge food miles.

          Yes, people eating more plants generally is a good thing, and we can adapt more of that to be grown locally relatively easily (including growing and eating more legumes and whole grains). But replacing all animal protein for all NZers is a different kete of ika. If we were going to do that we'd still need to shift to regenag, and there are still all the same barriers of land prices, large mortgages, and the need to produce exports. Most of the meat by far produced in NZ isn't eaten here. It just doesn't make sense for NZ to transition to vegan instead of transitioning to local/seasonal/regenag, which has multiple benefits. People can still choose to be vegan within that, but it's not society being led in the wrong direction (industrial ag and rejection of local food sources).

          Oh yeah, and plough ag (think grains and beans en masse) is a problem for our GHGs. I haven't seen an analysis of this, but I expect the consequences of converting pasture to annual cropping are not as good as some currently believe.

          • Dennis Frank 14.3.1.1.1

            In the hippie era, tofu was the thing. Textured Vegetable Protein (TVP) was a fad which I recall being fed a few times, also tempeh. Rabbit stew was a British staple for centuries & I often was puzzled that I never encountered it here despite oodles of rabbits.

            My daughter is vegan & doing okay with it at age 38 after around five years of it. I'm omni but have been making vegetarian meals since the early seventies. Taste will the driver of the transition, but nutrition must prevail in the design.

            • weka 14.3.1.1.1.1

              I'm of the TVP generation /shudder.

              In NZ rabbit is seen as peasant food I think. Lots of people had all that sheep and beef at our disposal early on, and poor people ate other kinds of meat.

              "Taste will the driver of the transition, but nutrition must prevail in the design."

              Problem is that theoretically a vegan diet should work if the person takes nutrition into account. Reality is that a) for many people it isn't possible to eat a balanced vegan diet and b) people have different nutritional needs and what works on a spreadsheet doesn't necessarily work in real life. Lots of people are treating nutrients as if they're isolated things and we know how may units are needed for a human (the mechanistic view). The problem I have with the vegan movement is the pressure applied to not eat any animal products even if doing so would improve the person's health.

      • Incognito 14.3.2

        As it stands, many people make fairly unwise lifestyle choices and their nutrition (AKA what and how much they eat & drink) – “diet” has become a loaded word – is just one facet. One size doesn’t fit all when it comes to nutrition.

        • weka 14.3.2.1

          One size doesn't fit all would be a game changing public health message.

          • Incognito 14.3.2.1.1

            On the one hand people don’t like to be told what to eat or not eat, what is good for them and what isn’t, how to make smart wise choices and avoid the ones with ‘less appealing consequences’. In other words, people don’t want to be told how to live their lives, least of all by the state/government (AKA the Nanny State}. OTOH, many (!!) people could do with sound advice and some really need it! Of course, stating this may end you up being accused of being patronising and condescending and people will simply ignore you and any good advice in spite of your best intentions. It’s like telling your children to eat their ‘yucky’ vegies or the GP trying to tell their patient to make some changes and all the patient hears is that it is ‘their fault’ and all they want from the GP is a prescription or, even better, a referral to a specialist.

            • weka 14.3.2.1.1.1

              There are some people like that for sure. I'm not sure it's most though. Lots of people want to look after their health. Even more would if there weren't barriers in the way.

              There's a difference between providing people with information and advice about nutrition, and telling people what to eat. If people want to eat in ways that compromise their long term health, that's ok by me so long as they're making an informed choice and the state is free to do public health promotion. (the exception there is children, which is going to be a future issue with veganism. Maybe society won't care because too many people will be convinced that eating industrial soy will prevent climate change and the trade off is worth it).

              Unfortunately our mainstream nutritional advice is one size fits all and it's outdated. It takes a long time for the front end to catch up.

      • bwaghorn 14.3.3

        I'm willing to bet it will be even harder to get good nutrition when Monsanto type companies are "growing' your food in a vat.

  15. H0tok3 15

    Climate Change is beyond a doubt the most expectant single event that will be our undoing as a species if we fail to act accordingly. We all understand how important the Agriculture Sector has been and continues to be to our Country’s reputation as a producer of premium quality export foods. However, in equal understanding, we need to shed light on what has been causing the decline in fresh water quality and correspondingly an increase in carbon emissions which have been unacceptable for far to long, if we are to be serious about getting on top of Global Warming.

    Under the NATs, the farming community was exempted from having to join the Emissions Trading Scheme in 2015 with no expected date as to when they had to sign up. A truth is a truth, in any shape, guise or form. If you have appeared as behaving with an overly inflated sense of entitlement, and only recently decided to really do something to improve your image. Timing is everything isn't it?

  16. Muttonbird 16

    Definitely not taking dietary advice from Shane Jones.

  17. Ad 17

    Good post insofar as it's responding to Federated Farmers.

    But just to pull the lens back a bit from the FF's.

    This government put aside $3b in the Provincial Growth Fund. Its purpose is pretty general; spend it on anything that doesn't look like a city will benefit – but it's supposed to generate higher regional productivity, better-paying jobs, and create to sustainable economy growth. Can anyone tell if it will have achieved that?

    The expenditure of this funding appears to have no connection to any wider effort to changing lower-quality farming into something that shifts the entire economy away from mass meat patties or bulk dairy products.

    And then you have Minister Parker's full-on assault against the Otago Regional Council for failing to propose decent water levels in catchment rivers. Which is part of his attempt to re-regulate fresh water a a whole … without price mechanisms (because they were excluded from the Coalition agreement).

    https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/AK1911/S00450/regional-council-chair-accepts-ministerial-direction.htm

    And then there's the DIRA review legislation led by O'Connor. Which TBF is going to achieve sweet fuck all. Both Fonterra and Federated Farmers are just fine with it overall.

    https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA1906/S00037/changes-to-dairy-industry-legislation.htm

    But nothing connects with anything.

    It's a government with one Minister with more regional money than it could possibly spend, another Minister trying to re-regulate fresh water but without the ability to price it, another Minister with the opportunity to really tilt our biggest producer and biggest collective polluters … with a complete absence of anything or anyone joining the dots into something that makes sense for the direction of the economy and society and environment of New Zealand.

    And the net result of not having a believable or effective strategy is you get this groundswell of sentiment which goes – written so that you can see it from a jet plane:

    "Comrade Ardern fuck of back to Russia."

    They ain't going to win any votes back from the provinces with this mish-mash.

    https://www.odt.co.nz/rural-life/rural-life-other/political-message-worked-field

    • Poission 17.1

      Agriculture emissions have fallen by around 4% since the peak in 2014.This is outweighed by the increase in transport emissions,larger deforestation ( plantation logging)

      This government put aside $3b in the Provincial Growth Fund. Its purpose is pretty general; spend it on anything that doesn't look like a city will benefit – but it's supposed to generate higher regional productivity, better-paying jobs, and create to sustainable economy growth. Can anyone tell if it will have achieved that?

      The pgf is to invest in job creation and retention in the provinces,where there is both surplus housing (in most) and underutilized infrastructure.Would this be a more sustainable model then pumping multiple billions into ak and wgtn .

      • Ad 17.1.1

        who knows?

        • Poission 17.1.1.1

          481m investment into the billion trees project.Is that a useful outcome?

          • Muttonbird 17.1.1.1.1

            I thought the (NZ First) idea was to build the forestry sector by adding value to NZ wood products instead of shipping raw logs overseas. They were to re-establish a forestry research centre in Rotorua I think.

            Obviously trees take some time to grow in order to provide building timber for international and domestic purposes but we have seen a few high profile timber mill shut-downs recently. It’s a terrible look.

            Why can't the NZ First arm of the government actually get a plan together?

            I'll tell you why.

            They are useless.

            Bar ACT, the worst of MMP.

            • Poission 17.1.1.1.1.1

              How many houses has labour built?More trees have been felled for paper for the millions spent on report after report,then 4×2 on construction for kiwibuild.

              • Muttonbird

                That's a silly comment. The Labour part of the government has had trouble delivering its housing wishes because of major obstruction from the centre and right, as per usual.

                You won't find me defending their record on Kiwibuild and the very very poor roll out of $650K houses that the target audience can’t afford.

                But as I see it the construction sector do not want their gravy train boarded by the the interests of the public in any way, shape or form.

    • Muttonbird 17.2

      Has there been an idea and minister more damaging to this government than the PGF and its director, Jones?

      When it was announced Mike Hosking thought it was a good idea and from that you know all you need to know.

      It's loose, unconnected and has very very poor vision and planning. It was a sop to NZ First and highlights the semi-corrupt way they work.

      Would shrug if this government lost if only to be rid of these amateur Centrist actors.

      I think you can see the confict within the philosophy of NZ First when Peters claimed he wanted to show a fairer face of Capitalism.

      Not possible.

      • Incognito 17.2.1

        Please, don’t use Mike Hosking as your guide. The only things he’s interested in is the number of people who click, read, view, or talk and write about his ‘oeuvre’. His name is mentioned far too often IMO.

      • Ad 17.2.2

        Coherence isn't everything.

        Unless you're a government seeking re-election.

        For that you need coherence and results which are convincing.

        • Muttonbird 17.2.2.1

          It's not fair to sheet home the blame to Ardern and Labour though. Who is the deputy PM after all? What has he done build coherence and results?

    • Graeme 17.3

      WRT the Deemed permits. ORC had set minimum flows in the catchments and then said permit holders could re-apply for consents up to historic usage on a first up, best dressed basis. Which worked for those that could get their heads around the issue and get an application into council.

      For the holders that thought they should have the permits rolled over (most catchments were grossly over allocated, but actual takes went from within minimum flow limits (Arrow) to well over (Lindis and Manuherikia). Lindis catchment irrigators appealed this to Environment Court and Judge Jackson came back and said that minimum flows in the catchment should be at a higher level than Councils determination. Part way through the appeal Council withdrew the whole minimum flow regime and said they would start again. In that judgement Jackson gives Fish and Game a serve saying they were defending introduced predators ( I'll dig it out tomorrow when I've more time, it's a big judement). This is a culmination (maybe) of a process that's been going on for 50 years and had a deadline put on it by the RMA for a reason. I thought Parker's response was measured and appropriate. The losers are Fish and Game who are cast into the political realms of the Outdoors party along wiht the anti 1080 and 5G brigade . After having to deal with F&G during a consent renewal on a scheme I manage a couple of years ago, it was coming and they are fortunate they didn't get really hammered for costs.

      Outcome will most likely be a sensible allocation of take along the lines of the science leading to the Lindis judgement, water users, ORC and government quietly going about their business and F&G subtlety having their legislative protection removed as they slide into nutter land

      • Ad 17.3.1

        Thankyou that is an excellent updating response.

        Great links also.

        • Graeme 17.3.1.1

          Cheers, that judgment is an interesting read and could have some interesting ramifications down the track regarding Fish and Game's status. The idea of the RMA giving special protection to introduced predators might be difficult to defend.

          I think the government will come out of the Deemed Permit renewal quite well as responsible managers facilitating the correct decisions. Marion Hobbs has that ability, ie her decision to not try and eradicate varroa when she was in cabinet.

  18. mike 18

    black rock withdrawing from fossil fuel investment black rock ceo Laurence fink calls them a stranded asset.
    https://theconversation.com/blackrock-is-the-canary-in-the-coalmine-its-decision-to-dump-coal-signals-whats-next-129972

    black rock are the worlds largest fund manager

  19. pat 19

    https://www.indexmundi.com/agriculture/?commodity=palm-kernel-meal&graph=imports

    It is worth noting that before 2002 PKE imports into NZ were zero….are we still more efficient?

  20. Fed farmers needs to go stand in the naughty corner for obstructing measures to deal with M. Bovis. https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/mpi-cracking-down-farmers-fail-track-their-animals-since-mycoplasma-bovis-outbreak

    Federated farmers at the beginning ran a vociferous and in my view pointlesss campaign against NAIT and it really ruined its adoption by farmers from the get go," said agricultural economist Peter Fraser.

    Farmers have been paid $123 million in compensation.

    https://twitter.com/tombutlin/status/1218827111089070082?s=20

    https://twitter.com/btlane/status/1218482661238263809?s=20

  21. Al Man 21

    One comment, why do you even care?

    When a Climate Change article comes out, it seems it gets supported.

    But when someone isn't even objecting to the base premise, but wants a key element (reduced meat consumption) even discussed – many jump up and down that the comment shouldn't be made.

    Frankly – I have had enough of this!

    I do not dispute Climate Change

    I do not dispute anthropogenic impacts upon the climate.

    But when I, or others, state the whole model of doomsday is only one outcome of thousands that I don't choose as a directive to my life, then many like me get slammed for having a view. Science NEVER has but one view, or modelled outcome.

    The 95% of scientists do NOT agree with this. That's a proven lie. Even read the Wiki page on that one, and the evidence bounces between 75% and 95%………I don't think anyone would even be able to find 95% of the worlds scientists – climate specialists or otherwise, to survey them!. I say Mikey – prove it!

    The whole climate change efforts should be on only two simple outcomes:

    1/ Reduce pollution…….that is harmful gases, plastic waste. In fact go back to the 1980's milk in a glass bottle programme and then we can reuse bottles. Where the hell did plastic bottles come from anyway. What a waste.

    2/ Find real alternatives to wasteful or polluting energy. Electric cars aren't the answer. Where does the Lithium come from (Australia), where does Cobalt come from (Chinese run mines in Africa), where does the aluminum and steel come from – foundries all over the world. They use diesel and coal power to make the base elements for electric vehicles. Solar panels only last 20 years, and yet they pay for themselves after about 15 years of use. Wow 5 years of reduced energy.

    Wind power takes up so much land, that you can't growth harvests or trees anywhere. Only at sea can they work and then the cost is they never pay for themselves.

    Nuclear is actually the only energy IN THE WORLD that has a full lifecycle management of input materials to output waste; mainly as its so dangerous. No one really wants it. But compare Germany that stopped Nuclear to France that increase it. Power in Germany is more than 2 or 3 times the retail cost as in France.

    Hydro is efficient, but only after huge capital projects, and then the NZ Government stops new dams (West Coast) because of the few users of the current river.

    So rather than stop every type of energy in favour of efficient new energies – no one has actually stopped to think – there actually ISN'T a safe efficient energy source that doesn't pollute!! Yes Coal isn't good! But nor is anything.

    I think some Climate activists actually want to turn back the clock 200 years to pre industrial economies. Things were really good then, the incomes per family were far worse, healthcare was worse, no computing power to help solve real issues, no science development.

    So what is the outcome.

    Will our sea levels increase a metre?

    Will global temperatures increase 1.5 degrees?

    So what if they do.

    Are we really being told the truth?

    Think about it…………..the outcome we are being told, who benefits from it?

    Again I DO believe in climate change, and our impact, but we actually need to work together toward real solutions, not to simply switch the world off.

    That could be worse medicine than the symptoms that we are told we have.

  22. Robert Guyton 22

    The Feds believe industry lobbyists should influence curriculum in New Zealand schools?

    • Incognito 22.1

      Surely not. That would be like irrigating Hades and even farmers would not do that, would they?

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  • Relentlessly negative
    Negative yesterday, negative today. Negative all year, according to one departing reader telling me I’ve grown strident and predictable. Fair enough. If it’s any help, every time I go to write about a certain topic that begins with C and ends with arrrrs, I do brace myself and ask: Again? Are ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    40 mins ago
  • Scoring 4.6 out of 10, the new Government is struggling in the polls
    Bryce Edwards writes –  It’s been a tumultuous time in politics in recent months, as the new National-led Government has driven through its “First 100 Day programme”. During this period there’s been a handful of opinion polls, which overall just show a minimal amount of flux in public support ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    59 mins ago
  • Promiscuous Empathy: Chris Trotter Replies To His Critics.
    Inspirational: The Family of Man is a glorious hymn to human equality, but, more than that, it is a clarion call to human freedom. Because equality, unleavened by liberty, is a broken piano, an unstrung harp; upon which the songs of fraternity will never be played. “Somebody must have been telling lies about ...
    1 hour ago
  • Don’t run your business like a criminal enterprise
    The Detail this morning highlights the police's asset forfeiture case against convicted business criminal Ron Salter, who stands to have his business confiscated for systemic violations of health and safety law. Business are crying foul - but not for the reason you'd think. Instead of opposing the post-conviction punishment and ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    1 hour ago
  • Misremembering Justinian’s Taxes.
    Tax Lawyer Barbara Edmonds vs Emperor Justinian I - Nolo Contendere: False historical explanations of pivotal events are very far from being inconsequential.WHEN BARBARA EDMONDS made reference to the Roman Empire, my ears pricked up. It is, lamentably, very rare to hear a politician admit to any kind of familiarity ...
    2 hours ago
  • Bryce Edwards: Scoring 4.6 out of 10, the new Government is struggling in the polls
    It’s been a tumultuous time in politics in recent months, as the new National-led Government has driven through its “First 100 Day programme”. During this period there’s been a handful of opinion polls, which overall just show a minimal amount of flux in public support for the various parties in ...
    Democracy ProjectBy bryce.edwards
    3 hours ago
  • Bishop scores headlines with crackdown on unwelcome tenants – but Peters scores, too, as tub-thump...
    Buzz from the Beehive Housing Minister Chris Bishop delivered news – packed with the ingredients to enflame political passions – worthy of supplanting Winston Peters in headline writers’ priorities. He popped up at the post-Cabinet press conference to promise a crackdown on unruly and antisocial state housing tenants. His ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    4 hours ago
  • Will it make the boat go faster?
    Ele Ludemann writes – The Reserve Bank is advertising for a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion advisor. The Bank has one mandate – to keep inflation between one and three percent. It has failed in that and is only slowly getting inflation back down to the upper limit. Will it ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    7 hours ago
  • Bryce Edwards: Is Simon Bridges’ NZTA appointment a conflict of interest?
    Last week former National Party leader Simon Bridges was appointed by the Government as the new chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA). You can read about the appointment in Thomas Coughlan’s article, Simon Bridges to become chair of NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi The fact that a ...
    Democracy ProjectBy bryce.edwards
    7 hours ago
  • Is Simon Bridges’ NZTA appointment a conflict of interest?
    Bryce Edwards writes – Last week former National Party leader Simon Bridges was appointed by the Government as the new chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA). You can read about the appointment in Thomas Coughlan’s article, Simon Bridges to become chair of NZ Transport Agency ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    7 hours ago
  • Bernard's Top 10 @ 10 'pick 'n' mix' at 10:10am on Tuesday, March 19
    TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: Gavin Jacobson talks to Thomas Piketty 10 years on from Capital in the 21st Century The SalvoLocal scoop: Green MP’s business being investigated over migrant exploitation claims Stuff Steve KilgallonLocal deep-dive: The commercial contractors making money from School ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    7 hours ago
  • Bernard's six newsy things on Tuesday, March 19
    It’s a home - but Kāinga Ora tenants accused of “abusing the privilege” may lose it. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The Government announced a crackdown on Kāinga Ora tenants who were unruly and/or behind on their rent, with Housing Minister Chris Bishop saying a place in a state ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    9 hours ago
  • New Life for Light Rail
    This is a guest post by Connor Sharp of Surface Light Rail  Light rail in Auckland: A way forward sooner than you think With the coup de grâce of Auckland Light Rail (ALR) earlier this year, and the shift of the government’s priorities to roads, roads, and more roads, it ...
    Greater AucklandBy Guest Post
    9 hours ago
  • Why Are Bosses Nearly All Buffoons?
    Note: As a paid-up Webworm member, I’ve recorded this Webworm as a mini-podcast for you as well. Some of you said you liked this option - so I aim to provide it when I get a chance to record! Read more ...
    David FarrierBy David Farrier
    12 hours ago
  • Bernard’s six-stack of substacks at 6.06 pm on March 18
    TL;DR: In my ‘six-stack’ of substacks at 6.06pm on Monday, March 18:IKEA is accused of planting big forests in New Zealand to green-wash; REDD-MonitorA City for People takes a well-deserved victory lap over Wellington’s pro-YIMBY District Plan votes; A City for PeopleSteven Anastasiou takes a close look at the sticky ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    23 hours ago
  • Peters holds his ground on co-governance, but Willis wriggles on those tax cuts and SNA suspension l...
    Buzz from the Beehive Here’s hoping for a lively post-cabinet press conference when the PM and – perhaps – some of his ministers tell us what was discussed at their meeting today. Until then, Point of Order has precious little Beehive news to report after its latest monitoring of the ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    1 day ago
  • Labour’s final report card
    David Farrar writes –  We now have almost all 2023 data in, which has allowed me to update my annual table of how  went against its promises. This is basically their final report card. The promise The result Build 100,000 affordable homes over 10 ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    1 day ago
  • “Drunk Uncle at a Wedding”
    I’m a bit worried that I’ve started a previous newsletter with the words “just when you think they couldn’t get any worse…” Seems lately that I could begin pretty much every issue with that opening. Such is the nature of our coalition government that they seem to be outdoing each ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    1 day ago
  • Wang Yi’s perfectly-timed, Aukus-themed visit to New Zealand
    Geoffrey Miller writes – Timing is everything. And from China’s perspective, this week’s visit by its foreign minister to New Zealand could be coming at just the right moment. The visit by Wang Yi to Wellington will be his first since 2017. Anniversaries are important to Beijing. ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    1 day ago
  • Gordon Campbell on Dune 2, and images of Islam
    Depictions of Islam in Western popular culture have rarely been positive, even before 9/11. Five years on from the mosque shootings, this is one of the cultural headwinds that the Muslim community has to battle against. Whatever messages of tolerance and inclusion are offered in daylight, much of our culture ...
    1 day ago
  • New Rail Operations Centre Promises Better Train Services
    Last week Transport Minster Simeon Brown and Mayor Wayne Brown opened the new Auckland Rail Operations Centre. The new train control centre will see teams from KiwiRail, Auckland Transport and Auckland One Rail working more closely together to improve train services across the city. The Auckland Rail Operations Centre in ...
    1 day ago
  • Bernard's six newsy things at 6.36am on Monday, March 18
    Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Retiring former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson said in an exit interview with Q+A yesterday the Government can and should sustain more debt to invest in infrastructure for future generations. Elsewhere in the news in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 6:36am: Read more ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    1 day ago
  • Geoffrey Miller: Wang Yi’s perfectly-timed, Aukus-themed visit to New Zealand
    Timing is everything. And from China’s perspective, this week’s visit by its foreign minister to New Zealand could be coming at just the right moment. The visit by Wang Yi to Wellington will be his first since 2017. Anniversaries are important to Beijing. It is more than just a happy ...
    Democracy ProjectBy Geoffrey Miller
    1 day ago
  • The Kaka’s diary for the week to March 25 and beyond
    TL;DR: The key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to March 18 include:China’s Foreign Minister visiting Wellington today;A post-cabinet news conference this afternoon; the resumption of Parliament on Tuesday for two weeks before Easter;retiring former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson gives his valedictory speech in Parliament; ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    1 day ago
  • Bitter and angry; Winston First
    New Zealand First Leader Winston Peters’s state-of-the-nation speech on Sunday was really a state-of-Winston-First speech. He barely mentioned any of the Government’s key policies and could not even wholly endorse its signature income tax cuts. Instead, he rehearsed all of his complaints about the Ardern Government, including an extraordinary claim ...
    PolitikBy Richard Harman
    2 days ago
  • 2024 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #11
    A listing of 35 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 10, 2024 thru Sat, March 16, 2024. Story of the week This week we'll give you a little glimpse into how we collect links to share and ...
    2 days ago
  • 2024 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #11
    A listing of 35 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 10, 2024 thru Sat, March 16, 2024. Story of the week This week we'll give you a little glimpse into how we collect links to share and ...
    2 days ago
  • Out of Touch.
    “I’ve been internalising a really complicated situation in my head.”When they kept telling us we should wait until we get to know him, were they taking the piss? Was it a case of, if you think this is bad, wait till you get to know the real Christopher, after the ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    2 days ago
  • Bring out your Dad
    Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    2 days ago
  • Bring out your Dad
    Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    2 days ago
  • Bring out your Dad
    Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    2 days ago
  • The bewildering world of Chris Luxon – Guns for all, not no lunch for kids
    .“$10 and a target that bleeds” - Bleeding Targets for Under $10!.Thanks for reading Frankly Speaking ! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.This government appears hell-bent on either scrapping life-saving legislation or reintroducing things that - frustrated critics insist - will be dangerous and likely ...
    Frankly SpeakingBy Frank Macskasy
    3 days ago
  • Expert Opinion: Ageing Boomers, Laurie & Les, Talk Politics.
    It hardly strikes me as fair to criticise a government for doing exactly what it said it was going to do. For actually keeping its promises.”THUNDER WAS PLAYING TAG with lightning flashes amongst the distant peaks. Its rolling cadences interrupted by the here-I-come-here-I-go Doppler effect of the occasional passing car. ...
    3 days ago
  • Manufacturing The Truth.
    Subversive & Disruptive Technologies: Just as happened with that other great regulator of the masses, the Medieval Church, the advent of a new and hard-to-control technology – the Internet –  is weakening the ties that bind. Then, and now, those who enjoy a monopoly on the dissemination of lies, cannot and will ...
    3 days ago
  • A Powerful Sensation of Déjà Vu.
    Been Here Before: To find the precedents for what this Coalition Government is proposing, it is necessary to return to the “glory days” of Muldoonism.THE COALITION GOVERNMENT has celebrated its first 100 days in office by checking-off the last of its listed commitments. It remains, however, an angry government. It ...
    3 days ago
  • Can you guess where world attention is focussed (according to Greenpeace)? It’s focussed on an EPA...
    Bob Edlin writes –  And what is the world watching today…? The email newsletter from Associated Press which landed in our mailbox early this morning advised: In the news today: The father of a school shooter has been found guilty of involuntary manslaughter; prosecutors in Trump’s hush-money case ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    3 days ago
  • Further integrity problems for the Greens in suspending MP Darleen Tana
    Bryce Edwards writes – Is another Green MP on their way out? And are the Greens severely tarnished by another integrity scandal? For the second time in three months, the Green Party has secretly suspended an MP over integrity issues. Mystery is surrounding the party’s decision to ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    3 days ago
  • Jacqui Van Der Kaay: Greens’ transparency missing in action
    For the last few years, the Green Party has been the party that has managed to avoid the plague of multiple scandals that have beleaguered other political parties. It appears that their luck has run out with a second scandal which, unfortunately for them, coincided with Golraz Ghahraman, the focus ...
    Democracy ProjectBy bryce.edwards
    3 days ago
  • Bernard’s Dawn Chorus with six newsey things at 6:46am for Saturday, March 16
    TL;DR: The six newsey things that stood out to me as of 6:46am on Saturday, March 16.Andy Foster has accidentally allowed a Labour/Green amendment to cut road user chargers for plug-in hybrid vehicles, which the Government might accept; NZ Herald Thomas Coughlan Simeon Brown has rejected a plea from Westport ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    3 days ago
  • How Did FTX Crash?
    What seemed a booming success a couple of years ago has collapsed into fraud convictions.I looked at the crash of FTX (short for ‘Futures Exchange’) in November 2022 to see whether it would impact on the financial system as a whole. Fortunately there was barely a ripple, probably because it ...
    PunditBy Brian Easton
    4 days ago
  • Elections in Russia and Ukraine
    Anybody following the situation in Ukraine and Russia would probably have been amused by a recent Tweet on X NATO seems to be putting in an awful lot of effort to influence what is, at least according to them, a sham election in an autocracy.When do the Ukrainians go to ...
    4 days ago
  • Bernard’s six stack of substacks at 6pm on March 15
    TL;DR: Shaun Baker on Wynyard Quarter's transformation. Magdalene Taylor on the problem with smart phones. How private equity are now all over reinsurance. Dylan Cleaver on rugby and CTE. Emily Atkin on ‘Big Meat’ looking like ‘Big Oil’.Bernard’s six-stack of substacks at 6pm on March 15Photo by Jeppe Hove Jensen ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    4 days ago
  • Buzz from the Beehive Finance Minister Nicola Willis had plenty to say when addressing the Auckland Business Chamber on the economic growth that (she tells us) is flagging more than we thought. But the government intends to put new life into it:  We want our country to be a ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    4 days ago
  • National’s clean car tax advances
    The Transport and Infrastructure Committee has reported back on the Road User Charges (Light Electric RUC Vehicles) Amendment Bill, basicly rubberstamping it. While there was widespread support among submitters for the principle that EV and PHEV drivers should pay their fair share for the roads, they also overwhelmingly disagreed with ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    4 days ago
  • Government funding bailouts
    Peter Dunne writes – This week’s government bailout – the fifth in the last eighteen months – of the financially troubled Ruapehu Alpine Lifts company would have pleased many in the central North Island ski industry. The government’s stated rationale for the $7 million funding was that it ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    4 days ago
  • Two offenders, different treatments.
    See if you can spot the difference. An Iranian born female MP from a progressive party is accused of serial shoplifting. Her name is leaked to the media, which goes into a pack frenzy even before the Police launch an … Continue reading ...
    KiwipoliticoBy Pablo
    4 days ago
  • Treaty references omitted
    Ele Ludemann writes  – The government is omitting general Treaty references from legislation : The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last Government in a bid to get greater coherence in the public service on Treaty ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    4 days ago
  • The Ghahraman Conflict
    What was that judge thinking? Peter Williams writes –  That Golriz Ghahraman and District Court Judge Maria Pecotic were once lawyer colleagues is incontrovertible. There is published evidence that they took at least one case to the Court of Appeal together. There was a report on ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    4 days ago
  • Bernard's Top 10 @ 10 'pick 'n' mix' for March 15
    TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: Climate Scorpion – the sting is in the tail. Introducing planetary solvency. A paper via the University of Exeter’s Institute and Faculty of Actuaries.Local scoop: Kāinga Ora starts pulling out of its Auckland projects and selling land RNZ ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    4 days ago
  • The day Wellington up-zoned its future
    Wellington’s massively upzoned District Plan adds the opportunity for tens of thousands of new homes not just in the central city (such as these Webb St new builds) but also close to the CBD and public transport links. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Wellington gave itself the chance of ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    4 days ago
  • Weekly Roundup 15-March-2024
    It’s Friday and we’re halfway through March Madness. Here’s some of the things that caught our attention this week. This Week in Greater Auckland On Monday Matt asked how we can get better event trains and an option for grade separating Morningside Dr. On Tuesday Matt looked into ...
    Greater AucklandBy Greater Auckland
    4 days ago
  • That Word.
    Something you might not know about me is that I’m quite a stubborn person. No, really. I don’t much care for criticism I think’s unfair or that I disagree with. Few of us do I suppose.Back when I was a drinker I’d sometimes respond defensively, even angrily. There are things ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    4 days ago
  • The Hoon around the week to March 15
    Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the last week included:PM Christopher Luxon said the reversal of interest deductibility for landlords was done to help renters, who ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    5 days ago
  • Labour’s policy gap
    It was not so much the Labour Party but really the Chris Hipkins party yesterday at Labour’s caucus retreat in Martinborough. The former Prime Minister was more or less consistent on wealth tax, which he was at best equivocal about, and social insurance, which he was not willing to revisit. ...
    PolitikBy Richard Harman
    5 days ago
  • Skeptical Science New Research for Week #11 2024
    Open access notables A Glimpse into the Future: The 2023 Ocean Temperature and Sea Ice Extremes in the Context of Longer-Term Climate Change, Kuhlbrodt et al., Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society: In the year 2023, we have seen extraordinary extrema in high sea surface temperature (SST) in the North Atlantic and in ...
    5 days ago
  • Melissa remains mute on media matters but has something to say (at a sporting event) about economic ...
     Buzz from the Beehive   The text reproduced above appears on a page which records all the media statements and speeches posted on the government’s official website by Melissa Lee as Minister of Media and Communications and/or by Jenny Marcroft, her Parliamentary Under-secretary.  It can be quickly analysed ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    5 days ago
  • The return of Muldoon
    For forty years, Robert Muldoon has been a dirty word in our politics. His style of government was so repulsive and authoritarian that the backlash to it helped set and entrench our constitutional norms. His pig-headedness over forcing through Think Big eventually gave us the RMA, with its participation and ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    5 days ago
  • Will the rental tax cut improve life for renters or landlords?
    Bryce Edwards writes –  Is the new government reducing tax on rental properties to benefit landlords or to cut the cost of rents? That’s the big question this week, after Associate Finance Minister David Seymour announced on Sunday that the Government would be reversing the Labour Government’s removal ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    5 days ago
  • Geoffrey Miller: What Saudi Arabia’s rapid changes mean for New Zealand
    Saudi Arabia is rarely far from the international spotlight. The war in Gaza has brought new scrutiny to Saudi plans to normalise relations with Israel, while the fifth anniversary of the controversial killing of Jamal Khashoggi was marked shortly before the war began on October 7. And as the home ...
    Democracy ProjectBy Geoffrey Miller
    5 days ago
  • Racism’s double standards
    Questions need to be asked on both sides of the world Peter Williams writes –   The NRL Judiciary hands down an eight week suspension to Sydney Roosters forward Spencer Leniu , an Auckland-born Samoan, after he calls Ezra Mam, Sydney-orn but of Aboriginal and Torres Strait ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    5 days ago
  • It’s not a tax break
    Ele Ludemann writes – Contrary to what many headlines and news stories are saying, residential landlords are not getting a tax break. The government is simply restoring to them the tax deductibility of interest they had until the previous government removed it. There is no logical reason ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    5 days ago
  • The Plastic Pig Collective and Chris' Imaginary Friends.
    I can't remember when it was goodMoments of happiness in bloomMaybe I just misunderstoodAll of the love we left behindWatching our flashbacks intertwineMemories I will never findIn spite of whatever you becomeForget that reckless thing turned onI think our lives have just begunI think our lives have just begunDoes anyone ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    5 days ago
  • Who is responsible for young offenders?
    Michael Bassett writes – At first reading, a front-page story in the New Zealand Herald on 13 March was bizarre. A group of severely intellectually limited teenagers, with little understanding of the law, have been pleading to the Justice Select Committee not to pass a bill dealing with ram ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    5 days ago
  • Gordon Campbell on National’s fantasy trip to La La Landlord Land
    How much political capital is Christopher Luxon willing to burn through in order to deliver his $2.9 billion gift to landlords? Evidently, Luxon is: (a) unable to cost the policy accurately. As Anna Burns-Francis pointed out to him on Breakfast TV, the original ”rock solid” $2.1 billion cost he was ...
    5 days ago
  • Bernard's Top 10 @ 10 'pick 'n' mix' for March 14
    TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: Jonathon Porritt calling bullshit in his own blog post on mainstream climate science as ‘The New Denialism’.Local scoop: The Wellington City Council’s list of proposed changes to the IHP recommendations to be debated later today was leaked this ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    5 days ago
  • No, Prime Minister, rents don’t rise or fall with landlords’ costs
    TL;DR: Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said yesterday tenants should be grateful for the reinstatement of interest deductibility because landlords would pass on their lower tax costs in the form of lower rents. That would be true if landlords were regulated monopolies such as Transpower or Auckland Airport1, but they’re not, ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    5 days ago
  • Cartoons: ‘At least I didn’t make things awkward’
    This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Tom Toro Tom Toro is a cartoonist and author. He has published over 200 cartoons in The New Yorker since 2010. His cartoons appear in Playboy, the Paris Review, the New York Times, American Bystander, and elsewhere. Related: What 10 EV lovers ...
    5 days ago
  • Solving traffic congestion with Richard Prebble
    The business section of the NZ Herald is full of opinion. Among the more opinionated of all is the ex-Minister of Transport, ex-Minister of Railways, ex MP for Auckland Central (1975-93, Labour), Wellington Central (1996-99, ACT, then list-2005), ex-leader of the ACT Party, uncle to actor Antonia, the veritable granddaddy ...
    Greater AucklandBy Patrick Reynolds
    5 days ago
  • I Think I'm Done Flying Boeing
    Hi,Just quickly — I’m blown away by the stories you’ve shared with me over the last week since I put out the ‘Gary’ podcast, where I told you about the time my friend’s flatmate killed the neighbour.And you keep telling me stories — in the comments section, and in my ...
    David FarrierBy David Farrier
    5 days ago
  • Invoking Aristotle: Of Rings of Power, Stones, and Ships
    The first season of Rings of Power was not awful. It was thoroughly underwhelming, yes, and left a lingering sense of disappointment, but it was more expensive mediocrity than catastrophe. I wrote at length about the series as it came out (see the Review section of the blog, and go ...
    6 days ago
  • Van Velden brings free-market approach to changing labour laws – but her colleagues stick to distr...
    Buzz from the Beehive Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden told Auckland Business Chamber members they were the first audience to hear her priorities as a minister in a government committed to cutting red tape and regulations. She brandished her liberalising credentials, saying Flexible labour markets are the ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    6 days ago
  • Why Newshub failed
    Chris Trotter writes – TO UNDERSTAND WHY NEWSHUB FAILED, it is necessary to understand how TVNZ changed. Up until 1989, the state broadcaster had been funded by a broadcasting licence fee, collected from every citizen in possession of a television set, supplemented by a relatively modest (compared ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    6 days ago
  • Māori Party on the warpath against landlords and seabed miners – let’s see if mystical creature...
    Bob Edlin writes  –  The Māori Party has been busy issuing a mix of warnings and threats as its expresses its opposition to interest deductibility for landlords and the plans of seabed miners. It remains to be seen whether they  follow the example of indigenous litigants in Australia, ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    6 days ago
  • There’s a name for this
    Every year, in the Budget, Parliament forks out money to government agencies to do certain things. And every year, as part of the annual review cycle, those agencies are meant to report on whether they have done the things Parliament gave them that money for. Agencies which consistently fail to ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    6 days ago
  • Echoes of 1968 in 2024?  Pocock on the repetitive problems of the New Left
    Mike Grimshaw writes – Recent events in American universities point to an underlying crisis of coherent thinking, an issue that increasingly affects the progressive left across the Western world. This of course is nothing new as anyone who can either remember or has read of the late ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    6 days ago

  • Positive progress for social worker workforce
    New Zealand’s social workers are qualified, experienced, and more representative of the communities they serve, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “I want to acknowledge and applaud New Zealand’s social workers for the hard work they do, providing invaluable support for our most vulnerable. “To coincide with World ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    5 hours ago
  • Minister confirms reduced RUC rate for PHEVs
    Cabinet has agreed to a reduced road user charge (RUC) rate for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. Owners of PHEVs will be eligible for a reduced rate of $38 per 1,000km once all light electric vehicles (EVs) move into the RUC system from 1 April.  ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    7 hours ago
  • Trade access to overseas markets creates jobs
    Minister of Agriculture and Trade, Todd McClay, says that today’s opening of Riverland Foods manufacturing plant in Christchurch is a great example of how trade access to overseas markets creates jobs in New Zealand.  Speaking at the official opening of this state-of-the-art pet food factory the Minister noted that exports ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    8 hours ago
  • NZ and Chinese Foreign Ministers hold official talks
    Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Wellington today. “It was a pleasure to host Foreign Minister Wang Yi during his first official visit to New Zealand since 2017. Our discussions were wide-ranging and enabled engagement on many facets of New Zealand’s relationship with China, including trade, ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    21 hours ago
  • Kāinga Ora instructed to end Sustaining Tenancies
    Kāinga Ora – Homes & Communities has been instructed to end the Sustaining Tenancies Framework and take stronger measures against persistent antisocial behaviour by tenants, says Housing Minister Chris Bishop. “Earlier today Finance Minister Nicola Willis and I sent an interim Letter of Expectations to the Board of Kāinga Ora. ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 day ago
  • Speech to Auckland Business Chamber: Growth is the answer
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