Take note New Zealand. The logistics and geographies in the Greenpeace International article below are different, but the principles are the same. Flying harms nature. The GHG emissions from flying are not just the flight, but all the additional infrastructure and processes that are used in the trip. Neolib flight economics means that airports and airlines need to keep increasing revenue, which means more airport and more flights, which means more GHGs. The explanations from sustainability and regenerative experts are at Maybe We Shouldn’t Take the Plane.
Sorry people who are aching to get the borders open so they can travel freely again. Mass flight travel is directly against climate action and preventing the ecological crises. Maybe in the future we will have the technology for a lot of flying again, but we don’t currently and right now the imperative is to stop burning fossil fuels.
And tourism sector: give it up and adapt like the rest of us. It’s not the end of the world. Climate change and ecosystem collapse will be. Instead of trying to revive a dinosaur industry, put the energy into developing the New Zealand version of the What Needs to Happen list in the Greenpeace article below.
Just stop mass flying. There are plenty of other exciting and useful things for humans to be getting on with.
Earlier this month, activists from Greenpeace Spain installed a 12 metre long train model in the Barcelona-El Prat airport to protest the impact of the airline sector and the planned expansion of the airport.
The expansion of the Barcelona-El Prat airport would cause tremendous damage to precious wetlands and cost 1.7 million euros. Businesses and representatives promoting this project would like people to believe that opposing the expansion will hurt the city and its inhabitants. It is not true. No city can prosper based exclusively on a “low cost” tourism model that negatively impacts the population with more expensive rents while devouring public resources.
This train model was designed to highlight the shocking lack of rail connectivity among European countries and across the continent. It will travel across Europe in the coming months.
With the arrival of summer in Europe, the easing of restrictions means a return to travel throughout the continent. However, of the people who are lucky enough to be able to travel, many folks have no choice but to resort to the car or plane for their vacations due to the lack of trains. We urgently need European governments to invest in a geographically robust and accessible railway system for everyone everywhere, not just those routes with the highest demand.
In Eastern and Northern Europe, for example, distances are big and alternatives still need to be designed and delivered. If Europe truly wants to be united, train travel time between places like Bucharest (Romania) and Sofia (Bulgaria), the capitals of the two largest countries in Eastern Europe, should be 5 hours, not 11 hours with multiple transfers.
Investing in trains is a key to fighting the climate emergency while connecting Europeans and other travelers with their cities and countries in a sustainable way. But diminishing connections has forced people to use more polluting means of transport.
The European Commission has declared 2021 the “European Year of Rail”, highlighting the essential role of the train in fighting the climate crisis. Traveling by plane pollutes up to 20 times more than travelling by train. Greenpeace demands that EU institutions and national governments be consistent with their climate objectives and promote a system whereby the train — already climate-friendly, safe — is an affordable alternative to short-haul flights and the car.
Create at least 30 new day and night connections between European countries by 2025
Improve the compatibility of trains between countries so that journeys between different European territories are possible
Make the train easier and more affordable by eliminating subsidies to airlines, e.g. introducing a kerosene tax. End short-haul flights when there is a competitive train alternative in terms of time and price
Ensure train operators have compatible sales systems so that buying a train ticket is as easy as buying a plane ticket
Facilitate access to trains for all people, including those who travel with their bicycle or pet.
Mobility For All is working in collaboration with allies to promote the benefits of alternative mobility for improved city life for all city dwellers, whatever their background or socioeconomic status.
We're in transitional mode. Folks will have to get their heads around it, but BAU thinking will tempt them into seeking a back to normal route next year.
By May 2019, the number of known electric aircraft development programmes was closer to 170, with a majority of them aimed at the urban air taxi role. US/UK startup ZeroAvia develops zero-emissions fuel-cell propulsion systems for small aircraft, and tests its HyFlyer in Orkney supported by £2.7 million from the UK government.
A demonstrator for the German Scylax E10 10-seater should fly in 2022. It should be used by FLN Frisia Luftverkehr to connect East Frisian islands with its 300 km range and 300 m short takeoff and landing distance. On 10 June 2020, the Velis Electro variant of the two-seat Pipistrel Virus was the first electric aircraft to secure type certification, from the EASA. Powered by a 76 hp (58 kW) electric motor developed with Emrax, it offers a payload of 170 kg, a cruise speed of 170 km/h, and a 50 min endurance. Pipistrel plans to deliver over 30 examples in 2020, to be operated as a trainer aircraft.
On 23 September 2020, Gothenburg-based Heart Aerospace presented its ES-19 design, a 19-seat all-electric commercial aircraft planned to fly by mid-2026. With a conventional aluminium airframe and wing, its planned range is 400 km and expects to operate from runways as short as 800 m. Initially targeting airlines operating in the Nordic countries, Heart has received "expressions of interest" for 147 ES-19 aircraft worth about US $1.3 billion (or $8.8 million each) from at least eight airlines.
On 22 March 2021, Toulouse-based Aura Aero announced the development of its ERA (Electric Regional Aircraft), a 19 passenger electric aircraft, planned to be certified in 2026.
So the good news is that transition is here to stay. Bad news is that the political left (current govt here) remains addicted to neoliberalism. I suspect the PM believes too many voters are addicts. Democracy, the numbers game…
Well, a neoliberal would point to the market, right? So if demand suffices, some entrepreneur will figure out how to supply, and the price will determine who & how many choose to take what's on offer.
If, on the other hand, folks were to switch to Green socialism, economics would be driven by the common good. Makes electric vehicles & trains more likely.
The crux is that electricity to power anything comes from the grid as a common good, and private providers of electricity are currently negligible in proportion to that. A social shift via high-tech design could tilt that proportion into balance.
where would NZ get the electricity from to power aircraft?
In the wider scheme of things air travel does not consume all that much energy. I agree with Dennis – the future of short haul is electric and it's probably going to arrive sooner than imagined.
I've nothing against trains and public transport generally – but the ability to travel is woven into the modern world. The idea that NZ should return to an era when only the very wealthy could afford the time and cost to leave our shores by sea, is a retro-grade one in my view.
NZ is in fact one of the most isolated places on earth, pick up a globe and rotate it so that this country is at the polar-centric middle – we're surrounded by ocean. I'd estimate that 95% of humanity lives on the other side of the planet to us. I keep wanting to write a sentence here that includes 'hemit kingdom' – but you get my gist.
Climate science and inaction strongly suggests that the window of green BAU has passed. We'll be lucky if we get trains in a reasonable time frame.
Wasn't too sure if Denis was saying yaay e-planes, or pointing out that e-planes aren't a serious possibility. We will have some, but I can't see us replacing all the FF planes without increasing emissions in the short term, and doing it in a reasonable time frame (next five years)
I wasn't expressing personal approval or disapproval of the tech, merely reporting it. Re your query at 1.1.2.2, seems that you didn't see my answer as an explanation so I'll try to reframe it.
Regardless of any current limit on power availability, price rules the supply & demand equation until/unless govt intervenes in the market.
Consequently those who offer electric plane rides, and those who accept the price of those on offer, will use available energy from the grid if the plane can't generate enough for the flight. Whether the grid supplies terminals for the plane to recharge from depends on service provider & their commercial contract – if that forces up prices for the poor, c'est la vie. Govt will have to ensure the poor can afford electricity somehow – or fake that…
It will come from both Manapouri and the NZ Battery Project in Lake Onslow. That will provide the replacement base load for Huntly, and also enable more wind farms offshore.
other opinions say that freeing up the Tiwai usage won't cover getting our current 20% fossil fuels to renewables alongside the increased demand from converting land transport to EV.
By the end of 2024, when Tiwai Point is due to close, electric vehicles will make up little more than 2% of our total national fleet. That's functionally nothing.
Just one windfarm alone – Turitea – will generate enough electricity for over 230,000 cars.
But let's take it to a logical extreme.
If all light vehicles in New Zealand were electric (say in 2060 with a running start and dumploads of subsidy), our current total electricity demand would increase by around 20 percent, EECA (Energy Efficiency & Conservation Authority) estimates. Enough renewable electricity infrastructure is being built that, added to our existing network, will easily accommodate a larger EV fleet, especially with off-peak charging.
Personally, I'd call time on the Bluff Smelter. Have seen articles looking at hydrogen fuel cells for planes, not keen on hydrogen sourced via oil industry, but using power overnight when the grid is at a trough to separate water could be promising.
Where? Wind, solar, geothermal, the tide that rushes thru Cook Straight lots of sources – but before we deal with aircraft let's start by taking the power from Tiwai and use it to shut down some coal and gas fired generation.
There are also efficiencies we can't get because of the way power companies 'compete' in the market – imagine we installed extra generation capacity in the Clyde dam and let its lake fill when the wind blows – at the moment those two power sources compete because they are owned by different companies, there's no oppurtunity for efficiency because – profit
also issues of energy returned on investment. There are natural limits to all those techs, and we keep talking about them as if the limits don't exist.
and yes, use the Tiwai freed up energy to get to 100% renewable. Then EV public transport and freight, then personal EVs, increase in population etc. I can't see how we can do green BAU and perpetual growth and decrease GHGs at the same time (we're burning fossil fuels to make most of that infrastructure)
To be fair, i would be happy with a steam train, if only we could get someone in government to finally look at trains for heavy goods and passenger transport as a reliable, affordable, and accessible tool to transport masses of people and goods. .
I would also to be happy if every major road would have a cycle lane tacked on to it, not to cycle on the bloody motorway but on a dedicated line on either side of the motorway.
And above all i would be really rejoicing if that give a way of taxpayers funds so that a few well to do and rich heeled people can buy themselves and their children some EV were to be cancelled and that money rather be spend on free bus and train tickets for people who need it and who don’t have any other option of transport. They can pay for that shit themselves, after all everyone who does ride a bus, or a train or a bike is not getting any hand outs from the Kitty of the taxpayers. Surely we can do better then that.
"It goes like this: fewer is used to refer to number among things that are counted, as in "fewer choices" and "fewer problems"; less is used to refer to quantity or amount among things that are measured, as in "less time" and "less effort."
Personally I mostly travel overseas when I am working. That means from 1991 to 2013 I didn't bother doing it at all – and had an expired passport for most of that time. From 2015 to 2019, I spent about a quarter of my time offshore in multiple work deployments of between 2 weeks and 6 weeks at a time. It was part of the job that I took in 2014.
Currently I am not planning on travelling offshore again. It offers little to me personally. I see the things that I expect to see – because I can read and look at video. And being overseas wastes a lot of my limited time. Not just the 30 hour trip of my longest jaunt, but also that travelling causes a lack of hardware and fragile connectivity that limits my real international connectivity.
Because I live on an international network of people I work with, information that I feeds my mind and helps my creativity, and access to the markets that we provide products and services for. As a geek, that is what I do for a living and for just my own pleasure.
If I want to relax and have a break – I can do it here without living with hundreds of others in a tube, and thousands in a terminal. For me, getting away from people is a holiday.
Never really understood the attraction some people have for clustering like sheep on a 'holiday'.
Ages ago I heard someone say that contemporary tourists resemble runaway slaves – their gaiety and excitement like a defence against the knowledge of certain re-capture and return to bondage. Probably a nasty and elitist thing to say – but I kind of see the imagined resemblance.
Was there an improvement in train services under NZF?
Did train accuracy and speed improve for passengers in Auckland or Wellington? No.
Did Auckland gain another metre of rail for shifting passengers off roads? No – in fact CRL was started under National.
Was there a big shift from road to rail in freight? No.
Was there a big shift from diesel to electric rail freight? No. Not even dual-engine trains for the new South Island replacements.
They helped regain the Wairoa-Napier line, but the Ohai-Invercargill line is ready to close, the West Coast branch lines are near-dead, the Christchurch-Westport line is close-to-defunct, Northland line remains mothballed, nothing happened to the port in Whangarei.
The Papakura-Pukekohe electrification is underway, but now they have a daily passenger service to Hamilton with no plans for electrifying the full route.
Your claim struggles.
Though the same struggle holds for Labour and the Greens.
Prebble saved rail, then ran with them. When I was young Chinese politicos referred to such folk as the "running dogs of capitalism". Maybe the only time the communists actually called a spade a spade eh?
And with all that gold in their pockets weighing them down, would've been easy to catch them on the run with pitchforks, like the Italian peasants did to the fascist overlord running thro the fields in that movie 1941. Kiwis are such nice folk they didn't even bother to discover how much dosh Prebs invested in his sell-off…
Personally I would like to see the government (whichever) investigate how to make rail for goods more user friendly in NZ
Invercargill to Dunedin to Timaru to Christchurch to Picton to Nelson plus West Coast to Christchurch with logistics hubs so more freight moved by rail and less trucks on the road, or at least on the main highway
Smaller unloading facilities at places like Oamaru, Ashburton and Blenheim but it would take talking to a lot of different entities and businesses to even begin this kind of undertaking
Yep. Seen it constantly on my main road into New Plymouth from the fringe where I live, during the five years I've been here. Logging trucks around one every few minutes. Similarly-sized other truck & trailer combos, about the same rate. Some are even triads (two trailerloads joined). Sometimes three of them in a row. Most headed for the nearby port. Road gangs doing repairs every few months.
Need to get some Japanese Consultants and learn how to do things properly, Jacinda should fly to Japan and take Michael Wood with her and see how a country with a proper rail system works. Labour's idea of a silly little trolley set to Auckland Airport is a joke.
Japan has 25+ times the population. I think you will find that makes a huge difference, mainly in the fact that the fares would be 25 times greater here.
I have loved every overseas trip I have made. Even with lost luggage, flight delays and huge airports the size of a city, and teeming crowds of people. To see wonderful sights and scenery (New Zealand is not the only beautiful country), to soak up the ancient history, experience different cultures and people. It opens one up to that big wide world out there which is very different to a rather insular New Zealand.
Saying all that, New Zealand is the best place to come back home to.
Having travelled around Europe a bit over recent years, I can highly recommend the train.
They have the advantage of economies of scale of course, so can make train journeys viable.
The high speed trains (up to 300kph) are fantastic, and are often faster than planes, especially when check in and waiting around is taken into account for air travel.
We travelled from Frankfurt to Avignon by train (approx 850km). It took about 7 hours. We had a lot more freedom than on a plane and could enjoy the sights out of the window.
In contrast, a plane trip was going to require us to fly to London first, stay overnight, then fly to Avignon from there.
Agree spent quite a bit of time in Japan 20-30 years ago, the trains are great, you get no where in a car unless you have plenty of time and like looking at buildings especially in Tokyo.
Yes rail travel overseas is generally a great experience. Rail is unfortunately a bit of a lost cause in NZ. We built a cheap system (narrow gauge) and we will never be able to upgrade it to a wider one… it's just too expensive to do it (and they knew it from the beginning).That's what happens when you are a small under populated Country at the end of the Earth with no money. We had to settle for cheap and nasty and now we are stuck with it.
NZ doesn’t need to change KiwiRails operating gauge of 3ft 6in Cape Gauge. What needs to happen is to increase the loading gauge ie axle weights & the width of the wagons & locomotives.
Both the WA & QLD Rail Networks used 3ft 6in Cape Gauge & show the way what can be done. To Pax Rail with High Speed Tilt Railcars, Tilt Trains incl Electric Tilt Trains for Inter- Regional Urban Services and if you increase the Axle Weights for Trains. Then this flows onto the Freight Sector with longer Freight & Heavier Trains which would make it even more competitive with Road Freight.
Heck even Japan uses 3ft 6in Cape Gauge Rail as well.
We live in a country which has abandoned the Billion Dollar pushbike bridge across the Auckland Harbour and has been totally incapable of putting "light rail" into our biggest city. What makes anyone think that our WHOLE rail system can be upgraded?
There is simply not enough BILLIONS available to even start as we are well behind the eight ball with our enormous "Covid" debt. Anything else at all would require vastly more debt.
A suggestion would be to utilize sail and its wind power in our supply chain somewhere. Rail is nice, but it is slow to get started. Doesn’t mean we shouldn’t, but it does seem we could be moving freight by wind power before we got rail consented or even funded. Look at the 5 year shemozzle over light rail. And that’s not an ambitious project compared to much of what is being discussed.
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Phil Ferguson is a founding editor of Redline and was a regular contributor. He has been out of action for the past year after suffering a stroke. He is learning to walk again and hoping to get back to writing. Tim Leadbeater sat down with Phil to talk about topics ...
Why Now? As Rebecca Wright pointed out to Justice Minister, Kiritapu Allan, on Newshub Nation, a great deal of political travail could have been avoided by the Labour Government if they’d simply accepted the Royal Commission’s recommendation to extend the already existing legal protections against the incitement of racial hatred ...
At the 2020 election, Labour promised to regulate property managers. Now, they're finally doing it: The Government’s announcement that rental property managers will be regulated has left the industry asking for more detail, and tenants calling for landlords to be regulated too. Regulating property managers was one of the ...
Let me just start out by saying that young people must be allowed to vote. Not because they are more enlightened than previous generations, but because the earlier people become voters, the more likely they will continue to participate in democracy.We have a serious problem in New Zealand with low ...
Plebity – a left free speech website looks at how to ‘counter hate speech with more speech’. This excellent article addresses one of the points discussed in the interview with Daniel Ben-Ami about how tolerance doesn’t mean silently allowing bad ideas or adopting a relativist outlook. WHAT DOES IT MEAN, ...
Sixteen-year-olds aren’t about to get the right to vote anytime soon. Despite yesterday’s Supreme Court declaration that a voting age of 18 violates the Bill of Rights, there are still many barriers to get over before the voting age could be lowered. In fact, as a best-case scenario, youth voting ...
In this Free Speech Union podcast Daphna Whitmore speaks with Dr Forough Amin about what’s happening in Iran after two months of growing protests across the country. Forough is a women’s rights activist and the founder of the Iranian Women in NZ Charitable Trust. Forough discusses the dire state of ...
As a Pakeha New Zealander who spent the majority of his school-level education in the lower North Island in the 1990s, I received a smattering of Maori cultural infusion. I learned how to count to ten in Maori, learned the names of colours, some rudiments of pronunciation from singing ...
The Green Party are celebrating today’s introduction of the Government’s Sale and Supply of Alcohol (Community Participation) Amendment Bill, effectively adopting Part One of Chlöe Swarbrick’s Harm Minimisation Bill. ...
The Green Party will continue to push for strong protections of core public assets so they cannot be sold off against the wishes of New Zealanders. ...
Every community in New Zealand should be a safe place to live, work and raise a family. Our Government is focused on tackling the complex issues that cause crime while also making sure that appropriate consequences are in place. ...
As countries around the world continue to face economic challenges, there is real reason for New Zealand to be optimistic about the future – and our primary sector is at the heart of that. ...
Parties from across Parliament have come together to call on the Government to take decisive action to hold those responsible for violence and human rights violations in Iran to account. ...
The Green Party is welcoming today’s announcement that pay equity will be extended to more social workers, and urges the Government to work with unions to get this sorted as quickly as possible. ...
The Government should adopt an excess profits tax and use any revenue raised to help people make ends meet, following the rise in the Official Cash Rate today. ...
Since taking office in 2017, our Government has worked hard to lift wages and make life more affordable for New Zealanders, as we move forward with our plan to create economic security for all. ...
Long overdue changes to the Crown Minerals Act are a welcome step in the right direction but the Government needs to go further to end the nonsensical search for fossil fuels. ...
The Government’s decision to exclude landlords from property management regulations means more than half of Kiwi rentals will be left out in the cold. And, where they’re kicking the can down the road on Healthy Homes Standards, the Government falls short on the basics that a Rental Warrant of Fitness ...
Our Government has put the wellbeing of children at the heart of everything we do. As we celebrate World Children’s Day, we’re taking a look at some of the ways Labour is working to make New Zealand the best place in the world to be a child. ...
The Green Party welcomes hate speech reform to protect religious groups, but is concerned that the exclusion of gender, rainbow, and disability communities sends a signal that these groups are less deserving of protection. ...
Whakataka te hau ki te uru, Whakataka te hau ki te tonga. Kia mākinakina ki uta, Kia mātaratara ki tai. E hī ake ana te atakura. He tio, he huka, he hauhū. Tihei Mauri Ora! Tēnā koutou katoa. Thank you to the University of Auckland for hosting this DevNet ...
Alcohol licensing hearings will become more accessible and less adversarial as the Government removes barriers preventing community voices from being heard, Justice Minister Kiri Allan said today. A Bill making targeted changes to the licensing process in the Sale and Supply of Alcohol Act 2012 has been introduced to the ...
The Government has decided to advance a further $6 million bridging funding to allow time for MBIE through Kanoa-RDU to support the development of an alternative commercial solution. “Following discussions with affected stakeholders, including other creditors and iwi, it has become clear that more time is needed to further explore ...
Associate Minister of Transport Kieran McAnulty was in Waimakariri this morning to mark the beginning of work on a $41 million programme to improve road safety in the Waimakariri district. “The projects started today is critical for the people of Waimakariri as it will address the stretch of SH1 between ...
Spend from all international visitors totalled $1.03 billion in the September 2022 quarter Holidaymakers spent $479 million Visitors for friends or relatives spent $292 million Tourism Electronic Card Transactions spend in 8 regions (out of 16) was higher than October 2019 levels pre-COVID The release of the International Visitor Survey ...
E ngā mātāwaka, E ngā iwi o te motu, Tēnā koutou katoa. Ko Ayesha Verrall ahau, Te Minita mō te Rangahau, Pūtaiao me te Auahatanga. Tēnā koutou i runga i te kaupapa o te wā, Nō reira, tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou, tēnā tatou katoa. Acknowledgements It is a privilege ...
The Government has set the direction for a future-focused science system says Research, Science and Innovation Minister Dr Ayesha Verrall. Our research, science and innovation system will be geared towards tackling New Zealand’s big challenges such as climate change, environmental degradation and the complex health and problems that undermine wellbeing. ...
Te Pānuitanga Tuatoru o te Pire mō te Puretumu Ngātahi mō Te Rohe o Rongokako I te rā nei, i Pāremata, ka oti te tuatoru me te whakamutunga o ngā pānuitanga o te Pire mō te Puretumu Ngātahi mō te Rohe o Rongokako. Ko tā te pire, he whakatinana i ...
New Zealanders will be able to enjoy spray-free strawberries grown through a hi-tech new system almost all year round through a Government-backed pilot project based in Foxton, Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor announced. “We’re focussed on innovations that lift the sustainability and productivity of our food and fibre sector and this ...
Since July 2022, more than 610 cadets across 35 programmes have been approved, up from the 499 cadets approved by this time in the last financial year. The programme is growing. “The Cadetship programme’s ongoing success comes down to treating our young people with mana so that they can achieve ...
The government has announced a new set of rules to ensure proper and humane treatment of people detained by Police, Defence forces, or other New Zealand agencies during offshore deployments. The Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta says the new framework for offshore detention delivers on the fourth and final recommendation accepted ...
Associate Minister of Housing (Māori Housing) Peeni Henare today visited Kahungunu Whānau Services and their newly purchased 19 townhouses in Taita, Lower Hutt. “Through the Government’s Te Kahui Māori Housing programme, Tātai Mokopuna Holdings Limited (the asset holding company of Kahungunu Whānau Services) was granted a $7.1 million Māori housing ...
The Government will take action to increase competition in the residential building supplies sector, says Building and Construction Minister Dr Megan Woods and Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Dr David Clark, following the release of the Commerce Commission’s market study final report. “We asked the Commerce Commission to review our ...
A Royal Commission to prepare New Zealand for future pandemics through lessons learned from COVID-19 has been announced by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern today. “Every country in the world has grappled with COVID-19 and there was no playbook for managing it,” Jacinda Ardern said. “It had been over 100 years ...
Associate Foreign Affairs Minister Aupito William Sio travels to Indonesia this week to represent Aotearoa New Zealand at the Indonesia Pacific Forum for Development and the 15th Bali Democracy Forum. “Attending these international meetings enables Aotearoa New Zealand to connect with our partners kanohi ki te kanohi, or face to ...
Changes to partner work visas that were set to come into effect in December 2022 have been deferred to April 2023, Immigration Minister Michael Wood has announced today. “I have made the decision to defer these changes to April 2023,” Michael Wood said. “Our Government wants to provide greater certainty ...
The Government is taking action to reduce waste and lower emissions from the building and construction sector in significant Building Act amendments announced today. “This Government is proud to put the environment at the heart of how New Zealand builds. By enabling mandatory energy performance rating requirements for buildings, and ...
Pharmac’s plan to fund the cystic fibrosis medicine Trikafta is another example of the Government’s boost to the medicines budget helping New Zealanders, says Health Minister Andrew Little. “Pharmac, not politicians, makes the decisions on what treatments to fund, but politicians decide what funding to provide to Pharmac, and health ...
Forty-six councils across Aotearoa New Zealand, from large metro centres to small provincial towns, will receive funding to implement more transport options for communities, as part of the Transport Choices package 2022-24, Transport Minister Michael Wood announced today. “The Government is upgrading New Zealand’s transport infrastructure system to make it ...
Mihi Ko taku rourou iti a haere, maringi kai whenua Ko taku rourou iti a haere, maringi kai moana kia mau ki te kawau māro, whanake ake! kō Maniapoto e! Tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou katoa Greetings and Thanks As we gather here this morning I want to ...
Kua tukuna e te Pirimia, e Jacinda Ardern, i te taha o te Minita mō ngā Take Tiriti o Waitangi, a Andrew Little, te Whakapāhatanga a te Karauna ki a Ngāti Maniapoto mō āna mahi o mua i takahi i te Tiriti o Waitangi. I tū te hui i Te ...
The Government will legislate to require big online digital companies such as Google and Meta to pay a fair price to New Zealand media companies for the local news content they host and share on their platforms, Minister of Broadcasting Willie Jackson announced today. The legislation will be modelled on ...
The Government will fix the Water Services Entities Bill this week by removing the entrenchment clause that was voted on during committee stages, Leader of the House Chris Hipkins announced today. “It was a mistake to put the entrenchment clause in and the Government will fix the issue as soon ...
Associate Minister of Housing (Māori Housing) Peeni Henare joined Ngāi Tāmanuhiri and the wider Toitū Tairāwhiti collective, at the opening of 10 new homes built for kaumātua and whānau in Muriwai today. “Every whare that is built and whānau that is transferred from inadequate housing to a warm dry ...
Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs, Senator the Hon Penny Wong welcomed Aotearoa New Zealand's Minister for Foreign Affairs, Hon Nanaia Mahuta to Canberra today for biannual Australia – Aotearoa New Zealand Foreign Minister Consultations. The Ministers acknowledged the unique strength of the relationship between Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand, reaffirmed the shared ...
Associate Minister of Housing (Homelessness) Marama Davidson has announced a significant funding boost today for kaupapa Māori approaches that support whānau into housing. $24.7 million will be allocated to support the delivery of He Ara Hiki Mauri – a tangata whenua-led response to homelessness. “Homelessness is not inevitable. By working ...
Auckland barrister David Gary Johnstone has been appointed a judge of the High Court, Attorney‑General David Parker announced today. Justice Johnstone graduated from the University of Auckland in 1991 with a BCom/LLB(Hons), and joined Bell Gully as a solicitor, practising in general commercial litigation. During 1993 and 1994 he studied at the ...
New Maori Housing dashboard for better data sharing and better outcomes New development training programme to grow sector capability Associate Minister of Housing (Maori Housing) Peeni Henare today attended the annual MAIHI Whare Wananga hosted by Toitu Tairawhiti Housing Limited in Kaiti. “Our MAIHI Whare Wananga is an opportunity ...
Health Minister Andrew Little was at Gisborne Hospital today to mark the next step of Te Tairāwhiti’s new Te Whare Awhiora mental health facility build. The Health Minister turned a sod to mark the start of groundworks at the site, in preparation for the placement of a mauri stone. “The ...
New contracts will improve around 30,000 broadband connections in rural homes and communities Govt on track to see 99.8% of all New Zealanders receive access to improved broadband as a result of various connectivity programmes by the end of 2023, including those targeting rural regions Applications open for one-off ...
Tauranga will be the first region to use a new Government tool to raise funding for much-needed infrastructure. A Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) will be used to raise finance from private markets, which is then repaid via the levy on those who benefit from the infrastructure. The finance raised by ...
Some of the country’s most difficult health issues will be tackled by a newly established public health advisory committee, whose members have now been appointed. Associate Minister of Health Dr Ayesha Verrall says the new Public Health Advisory Committee will investigate and help address long-term health challenges facing Aotearoa. “We ...
$2.17 million for new food and fibre ventures in Taranaki $2.24m to develop high-value, sustainable cashmere industry $233,000 to prototype an acoustic, knitted textile product from strong wool for high-end commercial and residential interiors. $530 million co-invested with business through the Sustainable Food and Fibre Futures fund The Government closes ...
New Zealand has lost one our true sporting icons with the passing of Sir Murray Halberg, Grant Robertson, Minister of Sport and Recreation said today. “Sir Murray was an extraordinary athlete. His gold medal in the 5000m at the Rome Olympic Games in 1960 has been immortalised as part of New ...
The importance of cooperation in the Pacific to support the region’s recovery and resilience will be a focus of formal talks in Canberra tomorrow between the Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta and her Australian counterpart Penny Wong. Nanaia Mahuta will meet Senator Wong for the second formal Foreign Ministers’ Consultations following ...
Associate Minister of Housing (Māori Housing) Peeni Henare attended the official opening of 10 new rental homes built for working whānau of Ngā Pōtiki ā Tamapahore in Pāpāmoa today. “The Bay of Plenty region is one of many regions facing significant housing challenges and this Government is taking action by ...
Total exports by Māori businesses have grown by 38% since 2017 to $872 million, with the majority from the food and fibre sector Launch of Rautaki mo te Taurikura action plan to support the continued growth of Māori food and fibre sector Support for Māori agribusiness innovation and workforce development ...
The Government is adopting the majority of recommendations from an independent review into the actions of government agencies leading up to the death of 5-year-old Malachi Subecz, Minister for Children Kelvin Davis announced today. Following Malachi’s murder at the hands of his caregiver in 2021, Dame Karen Poutasi was appointed ...
Increase the maximum driver licence disqualification period for a second offence of failing to stop or remain stopped, from 12 months to between 12 months and 24 months; Amend the Sentencing Act 2002 so that a vehicle can be forfeited on conviction for failing to stop. Offenders could have their ...
The Crown accounts are in a solid position thanks to the Government’s careful financial management through a deteriorating global environment. For the four months to the end of October, the Operating Balance before Gains and Losses (OBEGAL) recorded a deficit of $2.8 billion, $274 million lower than forecast at Budget ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anthony Schuyler Marinac, Lecturer, College of Business, Law and Governance, James Cook University Shutterstock Last week, four Indonesian fishermen were convicted for taking shark fins and poaching fish in Australian waters. The four men were spotted off remote Niiwalarra/Sir Graham ...
Prices held steady at the latest Fonterra GDT auction. In USD terms, they were up 0.6% to an average $US3610, a smaller rise than the 2.4% at the previous auction. WMP prices held steady at $US3400 but SMP and cheddar both rose. Cheddar was up 1.8% to $US4826, ...
Buzz from the Beehive We have come – or gone – a long way, in the past two decades. In which direction is open to discussion. Writing for The Independent Business Weekly on 22 January 2003, I noted how a localised Māori belief in a taniwha had obliged ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Daryl Adair, Associate Professor of Sport Management, University of Technology Sydney Before the Qatar World Cup began, FIFA launched a social campaign called “Football Unites the World”. FIFA acknowledged “the world is divided […] with conflicts and global crises”, but promised the ...
National Party leader Christopher Luxon says the Prime Minister should sack Nanaia Mahuta. Ardern says the Local Government Minister has not breached the Cabinet manual. ...
It’s been a long time between drinks vaccines for most of us. But that could be set to change in 2023. The new director general of health Diana Sarfati suggested it would be useful for New Zealanders to be able to access a vaccine against specific strains of the omicron ...
Hamish Kilgour wasn’t just a creative genius and musical legend. He was a generous, sensitive friend to a great many, writes Gemma Gracewood.People don’t just drop round for tea in New York. Arrangements are made weeks in advance, mostly to meet somewhere outside our small apartments, to escape the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nathan Cooper, Associate Professor of Law, University of Waikato Getty Images Thousands of delegates have gathered in Montreal, Canada, for a once-in-a-decade chance to address the accelerating pace of species loss and the dangers of ecosystem breakdown. COP15 brings together ...
Hāpai te Hauora and Alcohol Healthwatch celebrate the changes put forward by Justice Minister Kiritapu Allan today to give power back to communities in decisions regarding controls on alcohol sales. The Sale and Supply of Alcohol (Community Participation) ...
“It’s time for Jacinda Ardern to show some leadership, hold [Nanaia] Mahuta accountable, and sack her.” That’s according to National Party leader Christopher Luxon, who has issued a scathing statement this afternoon in the wake of revelations by Newshub that Mahuta, the local government minister, was responsible for allowing the ...
Aotearoa’s new official marae traffic signs are an important addition to our roadsides, writes Airana Ngarewa. A number of new traffic signs are slowly popping up around Aotearoa. They come in two varieties, a yellow hazard sign picturing a kui and her moko hand-in-hand, and a kōkōwai cultural marae sign ...
Auckland’s mayor has taken aim at the city’s art gallery, labelling it the most uneconomic building and suggesting it sell off some of its collection. As Stuff reports, Brown said the gallery’s visitor numbers of about 9,500 between July and September were far too low. “9,500 wouldn’t run a dairy ...
Dylan Reeve asks the self-described ‘revolutionary new tool for natural language processing’ to write its own explainer.Dylan: Let’s write an introductory paragraph to an article about using ChatGPT to write about ChatGPT. It should touch on how ChatGPT is now becoming an online meme, explain very briefly what OpenAI ...
In what Greenpeace Aotearoa is calling another heavy blow to deep sea mining - the Canadian miner The Metals Company has received a delisting notice from the Nasdaq stock exchange - after trading below USD$1 at closing bid price for 30 days in a ...
The current crisis likely to lead to severe jet fuel rationing in the lead up to Christmas completely vindicates Social Credit's campaign to get the government to keep the Marsden Point Oil refinery operational. That campaign was supported by ...
Actors are asked to improvise dialogue, make up storylines and generally misbehave in front of camera. The result? New Zealand’s most chaotic – and funniest – TV comedy. Kura Forrester can’t help herself. Standing on stage in the assembly hall of a West Auckland school, she decides to do something ...
The first negotiating round of the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF) will be held in Brisbane from 10th to 15th December. “This is the most significant US-driven trade agreement since the deeply controversial and ill-fated Trans-Pacific Partnership ...
Jacinda Ardern has accepted some blame for confusion over major proposed government reforms like three waters – but she’s also suggested the opposition should take some responsibility as well. The government’s had a tough few weeks with ongoing debate and confusion over major policies like three waters and the merger ...
New Zealand doesn’t end at the shoreline; the ocean that surrounds us is a part of us all too. And being more mindful of the role our moana plays in our lives could ensure it stays healthy and thriving for generations to come. ...
The Ardern Government has taken a hammering in recent days. The weird aspect is that it has largely done the damage to itself, with the Opposition left only to rub salt into the ugly wounds. Pollsters have been on hand to measure the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Timothy McKenry, Professor of Music, Australian Catholic University Classical music is surprisingly controversial. For some, it’s a pinnacle of cultural achievement. For others it perpetuates class inequality and upholds “white middle class social domination”. To controversy, we can add contradiction! ...
It’s been a hell of year for a number of reasons, and that’s even before Rita Ora arrived with her tiny cigarettes and her big ideas. In this episode, we look at back at the best bits of real news that have come across our Real Pod news-desk in 2022 ...
By Serafina Silaitoga in Suva The solution to Fiji’s problems is to vote out the FijiFirst government, says People’s Alliance party leader Sitiveni Rabuka. Speaking to about 1000 supporters who welcomed Rabuka with cheers of “480” — his votng candidacy number — at the party rally in Labasa last Saturday, ...
Some modest advances in child poverty reduction have been made since the passing of the Child Poverty Reduction Act in 2018, but rangatahi (youth) with lived experience of poverty say it’s time for immediate action. At the launch of ...
Leading healthcare provider, ProCare, has this morning welcomed the Smokefree Environments and Regulated Products (Smoked Tobacco) Amendment Bill passing its second reading in the house last night. The Bill aims to reducing retail availability, amending ...
Government finance statistics (general government) gives an economic representation of New Zealand's central and local government financial activity. Key facts In the year ended June 2022: general government net operating deficit was $7.0 billion, ...
It’s never easy when your favourite kai disappears from the shelves. Charlotte Muru-Lanning stands to salute all the great food products that went to the big remainder bin in the sky this year. Just as sore backs and increasingly vicious hangovers are an inevitable part of growing older, so too ...
It’s Wednesday morning and we’re still talking about the disastrous Willie Jackson interview on Sunday’s Q+A. That’s the impact of an interview, good or bad. You can read Duncan Greive writing about the TVNZ-RNZ merger, and Willie Jackson, on The Spinoff today. Meanwhile, National’s leader Christopher Luxon joined RNZ this ...
A reform of the country's science system is needed to tackle the big environmental challenges, says Research, Science and Innovation Minister Ayesha Verrall. ...
“Today in the Social Services Select Committee it was revealed that the Ministry for Social Development has spent $5.907m of misappropriated spending on accommodation assistance in the past five years, what’s worse is that they knew about it for ...
Ukraine ppresident Volodymyr Zelensky will address New Zealand parliament next Wednesday morning – via video link, of course. He’ll speak to MPs at 8am. He becomes only the second world leader to address our parliament, after Australia’s Julia Gillard back in 2011. Jacinda Ardern, in a statement, reiterated New Zealand’s ...
The Herald’s George Block has a detailed report from yesterday’s court proceedings in the guardianship case involving a baby whose parents have refused the use of vaccinated blood in a life-saving operation the child needs to have. The parent’s lawyer and anti-vaccination campaigner Sue Grey opposed the application for guardianship from ...
A popular TikTok meme and a column featuring a wobbly dessert capture a run of unforced errors and a government “staggering to Christmas”, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell in this excerpt from The Bulletin. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday morning, sign up here. Government “staggering to Christmas” ...
New Zealand, your annual search results have been compiled – and they’re pretty weird. It has, by any imaginable measure, been a strange old year. It started with the threat of lockdowns, and it’s ending with rising Covid case numbers. Along the way, the Queen died, Johnny Depp inexplicably thrived, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Nathan Garland, Lecturer in Applied Mathematics and Physics, Griffith University Mega Ampere Spherical Tokamak in Oxfordshire, UK.Courtesy of MAST, CC BY-SA Our society faces the grand challenge of providing sustainable, secure and affordable means of generating energy, while trying to reduce ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Paul Kildea, Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Law & Justice, UNSW Sydney Lukas Coch/AAP Last week, the Albanese government took another important step towards the referendum on a Voice to Parliament. It introduced a bill to make changes to our referendum ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrienne O’Neil, Professor & Co-Director Food & Mood Centre, Deakin University Netflix/Stutz Jonah Hill’s Netflix documentary, Stutz, is an insightful journey into the mind of his therapist, renowned psychiatrist Phil Stutz. Hill delves into Stutz’ model of care, creatively using ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Alison Cleary, Sustainable Economies Lead, Climateworks Centre, Monash University Shutterstock We might look back on 2022 as the year when Australian governments finally started taking climate change as seriously as it needs to be. Our new report shows federal, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jack Beetson, Executive Director, The Literacy for Life Foundation; Adjunct Professor, University of New England Photo credit: Adam Sharman, Author provided Despite years of discussion and countless reviews, the incarceration rate of First Nations adults continues to increase in Australia. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Chari Larsson, Senior Lecturer of art history, Griffith University NASA December 7 marks the 50-year anniversary of the Blue Marble photograph. The crew of NASA’s Apollo 17 spacecraft – the last manned mission to the Moon – took a photograph ...
Silo Theatre today made the unprecedented move to announce that it would be spending most of 2023 developing three new works, rather than focussing on presenting live, in-person, performances. The theatre company cited the need to survive in a post-pandemic world with smaller audience numbers, rising prices, diminishing government support ...
There are two easy ways to get rich: find one very wealthy sucker or find a million very poor suckers. As a public, it’s our duty to make sure we don’t become the million poor suckers, argues Dan Taipua. A wealth of public buildings, a poverty of millionaire developers In ...
An interview widely described as a trainwreck was a missed opportunity to explain some vital reforms, writes Duncan Greive.Thomas Coughlan did not hold back. In a surgically deft opinion piece for the NZ Herald, the site’s deputy political editor described media minister Willie Jackson’s appearance on Q+A last Sunday ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Dominic O’Sullivan, Adjunct Professor, Faculty of Health and Environmental Sciences, Auckland University of Technology and Professor of Political Science, Charles Sturt University Getty Images When Fijians elect a new parliament on December 14, it’s likely their votes will be counted ...
RNZ News A Pasifika health leader hopes the Royal Commission into the Covid-19 pandemic will look into the equity of the response and resource allocation. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern yesterday announced a Royal Commission into the government’s covid-19 response which will be chaired by Professor Tony Blakely, an epidemiologist working ...
The new Reporters Without Borders campaign video about Russian’s invasion propaganda. Video: RSFPacific Media Watch As Russia’s propaganda and crackdown on journalism continue to wreak havoc, the Paris-based global media freedom watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has released its new campaign video. Devised and produced by the Paris-based advertising ...
RNZ Pacific Activists have protested at Indonesia’s Ternate Police headquarters in North Maluku demanding that the security forces release eight people arrested while commemorating West Papua Independence Day on December 1. December 1 marked 61 years since the first raising of West Papua’s symbol of independence, the Morning Star flag. ...
The Broadcasting Minister says his recent interview about the RNZ-TVNZ merger was a mistake, but is downplaying concerns as coming largely from the media. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter Martin, Visiting Fellow, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University Shutterstock You might not know it from reading Tuesday’s statement announcing Australia’s eighth consecutive increase in interest rates, but our Reserve Bank might finally have done enough. The statement ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Marcel Scharth, Lecturer in Business Analytics, University of Sydney Shutterstock We’ve all had some kind of interaction with a chatbot. It’s usually a little pop-up in the corner of a website, offering customer support – often clunky to navigate – ...
Analysis by Keith Rankin. Keith Rankin, trained as an economic historian, is a retired lecturer in Economics and Statistics. He lives in Auckland, New Zealand. On 29 October 2022, the New Zealand Listener published 10 Billion reasons to be cheerful, an article by Greg Dixon summarising “futurologist” Hamish McRae’s 2022 ...
Maybe the arts need more presence in mainstream media, but why does that automatically equate to less coverage of sport?The headline on Stuff had a Groundhog Day-like element to it: “The arts need to get a slice of sport’s blanket media coverage”. It came close to a year after ...
How has what you read, watch, and listen to been shaped by the economic structures that control creative production? Shanti Mathias reviews Rebecca Giblin and Cory Doctorow’s Chokepoint Capitalism.The chaos of the Taylor Swift Ticketmaster debacle affected millions of very angry fans earlier in November. In brief: Taylor Swift, ...
The High Court in Auckland has learned that a critically sick baby had previously been given a blood transfusion. That’s despite the parents refusing further treatment unless their son is given only blood from unvaccinated people. Health New Zealand wants custody of the child so that they can ensure he ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Chin, Professor of Asian Studies, University of Tasmania It’s been some journey for Anwar Ibrahim, the new Malaysian prime minister appointed last month. It took 24 years to go from being the country’s deputy prime minister in 1998 to becoming the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Martyn Pedler, PhD Candidate, Swinburne University of Technology Shutterstock/ Disney In Travis Linnemann’s book The Horror Of Police, he quotes David Grossman, founder of the “bulletproof warrior” seminar series, notorious for teaching police that killing is “just not that big ...
Dylan Reeve asks the self-described ‘revolutionary new tool for natural language processing’ to explain itself.Dylan: Let’s write an introductory paragraph to an article about using ChatGPT to write about ChatGPT. It should touch on how ChatGPT is now becoming an online meme, explain very briefly what OpenAI is and ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Peter J. Dean, Director, Foreign Policy and Defence, United States Studies Centre, University of Sydney Mick Tsikas/AAP Climate action is firmly on the political agenda in both Australia and the United States, following a recent change in government in both ...
Buzz from the Beehive “Empowerment” is a bit like “Treaty partnership”. Just a decade or so ago you would rarely have heard of it. Since then, its use has burgeoned and its meaning – like the meaning of the Treaty of Waitangi’s three simple clauses – has evolved ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Neil Andrew, Professor of fisheries and international development, University of Wollongong Urchin barrensDavid Harasti, Author provided While crown-of-thorns starfish on the Great Barrier Reef have long been ecological villains in the popular imagination, sea urchins have mostly crawled under the national ...
By Sri Krishnamurthi While some women at the University of the South Pacific’s 14 campuses found working from home enjoyable during the covid-19 pandemic, others felt isolated, had overwhelming mental challenges and some experienced domestic violence, a Pacific survey has found. Titled “University Women Remote Work Challenges”, the survey was ...
Hamilton West voters will head to the polls this Saturday for the by-election triggered by former Labour MP Gaurav Sharma's resignation from Parliament in October. ...
Yet another local government review is underway - but will its recommendations actually be picked up, especially regarding cost fairness? The existing system of property value rates is loaded against agriculture. Farmers pay many more times than other ...
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We're in transitional mode. Folks will have to get their heads around it, but BAU thinking will tempt them into seeking a back to normal route next year.
So the good news is that transition is here to stay. Bad news is that the political left (current govt here) remains addicted to neoliberalism. I suspect the PM believes too many voters are addicts. Democracy, the numbers game…
where would NZ get the electricity from to power aircraft?
Well, a neoliberal would point to the market, right? So if demand suffices, some entrepreneur will figure out how to supply, and the price will determine who & how many choose to take what's on offer.
If, on the other hand, folks were to switch to Green socialism, economics would be driven by the common good. Makes electric vehicles & trains more likely.
The crux is that electricity to power anything comes from the grid as a common good, and private providers of electricity are currently negligible in proportion to that. A social shift via high-tech design could tilt that proportion into balance.
We need to privatise straight away ring Fay Richwhite.asap.
where would NZ get the electricity from to power aircraft?
In the wider scheme of things air travel does not consume all that much energy. I agree with Dennis – the future of short haul is electric and it's probably going to arrive sooner than imagined.
I've nothing against trains and public transport generally – but the ability to travel is woven into the modern world. The idea that NZ should return to an era when only the very wealthy could afford the time and cost to leave our shores by sea, is a retro-grade one in my view.
NZ is in fact one of the most isolated places on earth, pick up a globe and rotate it so that this country is at the polar-centric middle – we're surrounded by ocean. I'd estimate that 95% of humanity lives on the other side of the planet to us. I keep wanting to write a sentence here that includes 'hemit kingdom' – but you get my gist.
Climate science and inaction strongly suggests that the window of green BAU has passed. We'll be lucky if we get trains in a reasonable time frame.
Wasn't too sure if Denis was saying yaay e-planes, or pointing out that e-planes aren't a serious possibility. We will have some, but I can't see us replacing all the FF planes without increasing emissions in the short term, and doing it in a reasonable time frame (next five years)
I wasn't expressing personal approval or disapproval of the tech, merely reporting it. Re your query at 1.1.2.2, seems that you didn't see my answer as an explanation so I'll try to reframe it.
Regardless of any current limit on power availability, price rules the supply & demand equation until/unless govt intervenes in the market.
Consequently those who offer electric plane rides, and those who accept the price of those on offer, will use available energy from the grid if the plane can't generate enough for the flight. Whether the grid supplies terminals for the plane to recharge from depends on service provider & their commercial contract – if that forces up prices for the poor, c'est la vie. Govt will have to ensure the poor can afford electricity somehow – or fake that…
"In the wider scheme of things air travel does not consume all that much energy"
We don't have enough renewable generation for existing usage and the upcoming EVs. Where will the additional power come from?
It will come from both Manapouri and the NZ Battery Project in Lake Onslow. That will provide the replacement base load for Huntly, and also enable more wind farms offshore.
other opinions say that freeing up the Tiwai usage won't cover getting our current 20% fossil fuels to renewables alongside the increased demand from converting land transport to EV.
By the end of 2024, when Tiwai Point is due to close, electric vehicles will make up little more than 2% of our total national fleet. That's functionally nothing.
Just one windfarm alone – Turitea – will generate enough electricity for over 230,000 cars.
But let's take it to a logical extreme.
If all light vehicles in New Zealand were electric (say in 2060 with a running start and dumploads of subsidy), our current total electricity demand would increase by around 20 percent, EECA (Energy Efficiency & Conservation Authority) estimates. Enough renewable electricity infrastructure is being built that, added to our existing network, will easily accommodate a larger EV fleet, especially with off-peak charging.
Personally, I'd call time on the Bluff Smelter. Have seen articles looking at hydrogen fuel cells for planes, not keen on hydrogen sourced via oil industry, but using power overnight when the grid is at a trough to separate water could be promising.
Where? Wind, solar, geothermal, the tide that rushes thru Cook Straight lots of sources – but before we deal with aircraft let's start by taking the power from Tiwai and use it to shut down some coal and gas fired generation.
There are also efficiencies we can't get because of the way power companies 'compete' in the market – imagine we installed extra generation capacity in the Clyde dam and let its lake fill when the wind blows – at the moment those two power sources compete because they are owned by different companies, there's no oppurtunity for efficiency because – profit
also issues of energy returned on investment. There are natural limits to all those techs, and we keep talking about them as if the limits don't exist.
and yes, use the Tiwai freed up energy to get to 100% renewable. Then EV public transport and freight, then personal EVs, increase in population etc. I can't see how we can do green BAU and perpetual growth and decrease GHGs at the same time (we're burning fossil fuels to make most of that infrastructure)
To be fair, i would be happy with a steam train, if only we could get someone in government to finally look at trains for heavy goods and passenger transport as a reliable, affordable, and accessible tool to transport masses of people and goods. .
I would also to be happy if every major road would have a cycle lane tacked on to it, not to cycle on the bloody motorway but on a dedicated line on either side of the motorway.
And above all i would be really rejoicing if that give a way of taxpayers funds so that a few well to do and rich heeled people can buy themselves and their children some EV were to be cancelled and that money rather be spend on free bus and train tickets for people who need it and who don’t have any other option of transport. They can pay for that shit themselves, after all everyone who does ride a bus, or a train or a bike is not getting any hand outs from the Kitty of the taxpayers. Surely we can do better then that.
Really? Steam trains use coal. Timber does not produce enough heat.
As i said. I 'would' be happy with a steam train, if that is the best we could get. Heck, we might run it on frying oil or something.
Anything would be better then what we have got now for many parts of the country.
They are about to replace the coal fired engine on the Earnslaw Steamship on Lake Wakatipu.
Was mighty fun being able to see all that polished brass and steel stoked.
But if you want to see coal fired systems in action, the Fonterra milk powder dryers are where you really see it operating at scale.
good grief. seriously good grief.
i forgot the s/ tag and i will repent.
I know it's petty, but I wish they'd said "fewer" planes.
In fact, I'd happily never fly again – ship and rail should be the transport of the future. Slow down, enjoy the journey.
Correct. According to Merriam-Webster:
"It goes like this: fewer is used to refer to number among things that are counted, as in "fewer choices" and "fewer problems"; less is used to refer to quantity or amount among things that are measured, as in "less time" and "less effort."
So we need fewer people on this planet, not more.
Quite; it didn't used to bother me as much until they put that gag in Game of Thrones.
Personally I mostly travel overseas when I am working. That means from 1991 to 2013 I didn't bother doing it at all – and had an expired passport for most of that time. From 2015 to 2019, I spent about a quarter of my time offshore in multiple work deployments of between 2 weeks and 6 weeks at a time. It was part of the job that I took in 2014.
Currently I am not planning on travelling offshore again. It offers little to me personally. I see the things that I expect to see – because I can read and look at video. And being overseas wastes a lot of my limited time. Not just the 30 hour trip of my longest jaunt, but also that travelling causes a lack of hardware and fragile connectivity that limits my real international connectivity.
Because I live on an international network of people I work with, information that I feeds my mind and helps my creativity, and access to the markets that we provide products and services for. As a geek, that is what I do for a living and for just my own pleasure.
If I want to relax and have a break – I can do it here without living with hundreds of others in a tube, and thousands in a terminal. For me, getting away from people is a holiday.
Never really understood the attraction some people have for clustering like sheep on a 'holiday'.
I mapped out my next trip back to europe, it is going to be boat, ferry, train and motorbike. Should take about a year of two, and will be epic.
Ages ago I heard someone say that contemporary tourists resemble runaway slaves – their gaiety and excitement like a defence against the knowledge of certain re-capture and return to bondage. Probably a nasty and elitist thing to say – but I kind of see the imagined resemblance.
If you want trains Vote NZF.
Was there an improvement in train services under NZF?
Did train accuracy and speed improve for passengers in Auckland or Wellington? No.
Did Auckland gain another metre of rail for shifting passengers off roads? No – in fact CRL was started under National.
Was there a big shift from road to rail in freight? No.
Was there a big shift from diesel to electric rail freight? No. Not even dual-engine trains for the new South Island replacements.
They helped regain the Wairoa-Napier line, but the Ohai-Invercargill line is ready to close, the West Coast branch lines are near-dead, the Christchurch-Westport line is close-to-defunct, Northland line remains mothballed, nothing happened to the port in Whangarei.
The Papakura-Pukekohe electrification is underway, but now they have a daily passenger service to Hamilton with no plans for electrifying the full route.
Your claim struggles.
Though the same struggle holds for Labour and the Greens.
Was NZ First also the same party that was vilified for anything Labour fucked up?
Did anyone gave a fuck about what NZ First wanted?
NZFirst has been quite open about the need for heavy duty rail and passenger rail to some extend.
At least NZ First is not trying to sell us Tax payer funded give away for EV as an environmentally friendly solution.
Labour is a full majority government, in its second term and in its second year of that second term.
Insufficient fucks were given to NZFirst to get them back into power.
This is true too, but in saying that NZ First has advocated for trains. Go figure.
If you want a train wreck vote NZF
Ad our roads are f#$ked from heavy transport, Fay Richwhite were going to sort out NZ Rail however stripped it and ran.
stripped it and ran
Prebble saved rail, then ran with them. When I was young Chinese politicos referred to such folk as the "running dogs of capitalism". Maybe the only time the communists actually called a spade a spade eh?
And with all that gold in their pockets weighing them down, would've been easy to catch them on the run with pitchforks, like the Italian peasants did to the fascist overlord running thro the fields in that movie 1941. Kiwis are such nice folk they didn't even bother to discover how much dosh Prebs invested in his sell-off…
Prebble was a clown should have been starring in the Flintstones with Barney Rubble and Pebbles probably related.
Personally I would like to see the government (whichever) investigate how to make rail for goods more user friendly in NZ
Invercargill to Dunedin to Timaru to Christchurch to Picton to Nelson plus West Coast to Christchurch with logistics hubs so more freight moved by rail and less trucks on the road, or at least on the main highway
Smaller unloading facilities at places like Oamaru, Ashburton and Blenheim but it would take talking to a lot of different entities and businesses to even begin this kind of undertaking
Same for the North Island. We can not fix the roads fast enough for the logging trucks to come and fuck them up again.
Yep. Seen it constantly on my main road into New Plymouth from the fringe where I live, during the five years I've been here. Logging trucks around one every few minutes. Similarly-sized other truck & trailer combos, about the same rate. Some are even triads (two trailerloads joined). Sometimes three of them in a row. Most headed for the nearby port. Road gangs doing repairs every few months.
Need to get some Japanese Consultants and learn how to do things properly, Jacinda should fly to Japan and take Michael Wood with her and see how a country with a proper rail system works. Labour's idea of a silly little trolley set to Auckland Airport is a joke.
Japan has 25+ times the population. I think you will find that makes a huge difference, mainly in the fact that the fares would be 25 times greater here.
Ad so we need more trucks and more cars ?
They exist already and are used. The Blenheim one is substantial as it needs to service the Nelson province as well.
I have loved every overseas trip I have made. Even with lost luggage, flight delays and huge airports the size of a city, and teeming crowds of people. To see wonderful sights and scenery (New Zealand is not the only beautiful country), to soak up the ancient history, experience different cultures and people. It opens one up to that big wide world out there which is very different to a rather insular New Zealand.
Saying all that, New Zealand is the best place to come back home to.
Japan Rail run a pretty good operation in Japan.
A train trip from Auckland to Invercargill would take more than 20 hours.
Not if we had some high speed rail like Shinkaissen
And it would be some awesome hours spend travelling down the country.
slow travel brings many benefits.
Having travelled around Europe a bit over recent years, I can highly recommend the train.
They have the advantage of economies of scale of course, so can make train journeys viable.
The high speed trains (up to 300kph) are fantastic, and are often faster than planes, especially when check in and waiting around is taken into account for air travel.
We travelled from Frankfurt to Avignon by train (approx 850km). It took about 7 hours. We had a lot more freedom than on a plane and could enjoy the sights out of the window.
In contrast, a plane trip was going to require us to fly to London first, stay overnight, then fly to Avignon from there.
Agree spent quite a bit of time in Japan 20-30 years ago, the trains are great, you get no where in a car unless you have plenty of time and like looking at buildings especially in Tokyo.
Yes rail travel overseas is generally a great experience. Rail is unfortunately a bit of a lost cause in NZ. We built a cheap system (narrow gauge) and we will never be able to upgrade it to a wider one… it's just too expensive to do it (and they knew it from the beginning).That's what happens when you are a small under populated Country at the end of the Earth with no money. We had to settle for cheap and nasty and now we are stuck with it.
NZ doesn’t need to change KiwiRails operating gauge of 3ft 6in Cape Gauge. What needs to happen is to increase the loading gauge ie axle weights & the width of the wagons & locomotives.
Both the WA & QLD Rail Networks used 3ft 6in Cape Gauge & show the way what can be done. To Pax Rail with High Speed Tilt Railcars, Tilt Trains incl Electric Tilt Trains for Inter- Regional Urban Services and if you increase the Axle Weights for Trains. Then this flows onto the Freight Sector with longer Freight & Heavier Trains which would make it even more competitive with Road Freight.
Heck even Japan uses 3ft 6in Cape Gauge Rail as well.
Worth watching to the end. Trains are the technology of the low carbon future.
So let's all move to Europe, Tokyo or Shanghai where this is relevant.
We live in a country which has abandoned the Billion Dollar pushbike bridge across the Auckland Harbour and has been totally incapable of putting "light rail" into our biggest city. What makes anyone think that our WHOLE rail system can be upgraded?
There is simply not enough BILLIONS available to even start as we are well behind the eight ball with our enormous "Covid" debt. Anything else at all would require vastly more debt.
Oh we have billions to spend, it is just that for some reason we can't seem to spend them wisely, and with the future in mind. So shitty roads it is.
A suggestion would be to utilize sail and its wind power in our supply chain somewhere. Rail is nice, but it is slow to get started. Doesn’t mean we shouldn’t, but it does seem we could be moving freight by wind power before we got rail consented or even funded. Look at the 5 year shemozzle over light rail. And that’s not an ambitious project compared to much of what is being discussed.