It is National’s time for the brown trousers

Written By: - Date published: 11:26 pm, August 9th, 2017 - 92 comments
Categories: labour, mana, maori party, national, nz first, Politics, TOPS, united future - Tags: ,

If you want to know why the right is farting so much personal smoke, why David Farrar appears to now be panicking over at Kiwiblog, and why our old trolls appear to have suddenly awoken from their somnolent state at the sewer and started re-appearing here to the irritation of our moderators.

But swordfish has an good explanation in comments. He has also put in the links in this comment.

Lets look at swordfish’s numbers in a couple of public polls. I’ve tidied it up a little..

Poll Comparisons (2011-17)

UMR (One month out) Aug 2017 Aug 2014 Oct 2011
National 43 45 50
Labour 36 27 28
NZ First 8 6 3
Green 8 15 13
 
Newshub Reid Research (One month out) Aug 2017 Aug 2014 Oct 2011
National 44 48 57
Labour 33 29 27
NZ First 9 5 3
Green 8 13 10
 
NRR Preferred PM Aug 2017 Aug 2014 Oct 2011
National English: 28 Key: 44 Key: 55
Labour Arden: 26 Cunliffe: 10 Goff: 6

Of course this doesn’t paint the quite the whole picture. But for the purposes of electoral success it hardly matters for most of the remaining tiddler parties. There used to be a number of smaller parties that were also polling OK in those older polls. None of whom seem to be polling much these days.

Act and United Future seem to have become electorate client puppets of National. The Maori party is clinging on to their one seat by their fraying fingernails and appear to have no hope of cracking 5%. Even the new party of the block – TOP – appears to have little chance at either a seat or 5% as they are currently polling at less than 2%.

Like carnivorous spider with a short-term perspective about future prey, National appear to have squeezed the life out out of their possible coalition partners. Unless they do some kind of evil empire deal with NZ First, who they tried to demonise and kill off in 2008, they can’t win the treasury benches. If they do, then the residual demonising effect is likely to cause both parties considerable indigestion issues.

Sure the Greens just took a hit. But I suspect that they are just going to recover quite nicely now that they have raised the issues that causes the non-polled to get active (it has certainly made me more interested in voting for them). And Labour is likely to catch some of that benefit as well from those who are more cautious than I am.

But it isn’t hard to see why National and their dirty politics subsidiaries are worried. The trends are against them and appear to be getting worse.

It probably also explains why I’m having to watch my core temperatures  and fan speeds as the volumes of pageviews, comments, a our moderator irritation levels rise to unprecedented levels such a long way out from the election. But sysops of political blogs tend to see politics from a rather different perspective. 😈

It looks like this. While the numbers tend to be small compared to the national media websites, they are pretty damn high when you consider that this site has a monthly operational cost of $134 per month (feel free to donate).

And causes this (when I arrived home tonight) and looked at the CPU temperatures.


fan1: 1997 RPM (min = 10 RPM)
fan2: 2265 RPM (min = 10 RPM)
fan3: 1220 RPM (min = 10 RPM)
fan4: 2812 RPM (min = 10 RPM)
fan5: 0 RPM (min = 0 RPM)
temp1: +38.0°C (low = +127.0°C, high = +127.0°C) sensor = thermistor
temp2: +65.0°C (low = +127.0°C, high = +127.0°C) sensor = thermal diode
temp3: +64.0°C (low = +0.0°C, high = +90.0°C) sensor = Intel PECI

It caused me to do some rapid shifts in the fan and pump/radiator response heuristics. The trade offs between having a quiet apartment and a functioning webserver tend to be somewhat tricky.

92 comments on “It is National’s time for the brown trousers ”

  1. Exkiwiforces 1

    I hope your systems don’t crash, as I think this election is going to a tight one this time round. BTW did you that email I sent to you guys IRT Hybrid Warfare by Janes Information Services on by the Russians?

    • lprent 1.1

      Yep. Unfortunately I’m by far the best author to comment/post on it here (apart from maybe Macro). But I don’t have much time between finishing a project at work, doing a bit of moderation and trying to keep the systems online. This weekend looks like it will be consumed with putting another server online because we are way above the levels we were in the lead-up to the 2014 election.

      Hopefully that shit isn’t going to blow up until after the election.

      • Exkiwiforces 1.1.1

        Jeez, looks like you have your work cut out if you are already the 2014 levels. If I make over to NZ either late this yr as us Tankies are having a big bash in Plamy and that nameless place or sometime next time yr and if I come though Auckland I like to make a wee donation if that’s possible?

        That Janes stuff was more for interest for this yrs elections and possible dirty tricks from that other mob.

        • lprent 1.1.1.1

          No problem. We peaked at 46,921 page views on September 18th 2014 a few days before the election. At roughly this time before that election we were peaking at about 21k page views. There appears to be a bit of a difference in the interest this time around when we have had two days at over 38k page views in this week.

          And those are just the humans. There appear to be a whole lot more bots sniffing around as well.

          • Exkiwiforces 1.1.1.1.1

            mmm’m that’s very interesting that a few more bots are sniffing around and we are what 1mth out from the election.

          • ianmac 1.1.1.1.2

            Last night I counted 626approx. comments on TS from Open Mike till about 9pm. Is that a record?

      • Johan 1.1.2

        Hoping that my small financial contribution helps. Also, it’s probably like teaching grandma how to sux eggs, but I have a habit of removing my computer cover once a year, to get rid of collected dust, especially around he CPU. The fan(s), do have a habit of moving dust from outside the case onto computer components. Cheers

        • lprent 1.1.2.1

          I buy cases with external dust filters for power supplies and case fan entrances these days. They get taken out and washed every couple of months and the areas attacked with a dust buster. The inside of the cases stay pretty clean. Just a quick sweep with a dust buster at least once a year.

  2. mosa 2

    All we need is for Labour to tie with National in the party vote for it to become a edge of your seat election.

    Give Jacinda a few more weeks and for the first time since 2008 we will have a real contest.

    The Nats are looking buggered, smug , arrogant and old.

    The tide is running out Bill.

    • If Labour is tying with National in the Party Vote and the Greens and New Zealand First are still in the picture then it’s not “interesting,” it’s “National are toast.”

      Right now we’re somewhere close to neck-and-neck between Labour + Greens and National, with UMR saying the left is ahead, and Reid Research saying the right is ahead. I’ll wait on the Roy Morgan before commenting I think.

      Labour hasn’t really eaten much of National’s lunch just yet, most of their shoring up came from the Greens and NZ First, which is not really ideal on the former front, but there’s still time. This is just the start.

  3. swordfish 3

    Bear in mind, too, that – according to both Farrar and Hooton – National Party strategists credit Kim Dotcom’s “Moment of Truth” with the relative ease of John Key’s third election victory. Apparently, Farrar’s last two Curia Internals for National showed a 2 point swing to the Blue Team during the final 5 days of the 2014 Election Campaign (in the immediate wake of the “MoT”).

    Which suggests – all things being equal / in the normal course of events – that the Nats were heading for 45% in 2014.

    • lprent 3.1

      I think that the much hyped but under performing blowout was damaging. The atmosphere in the press conference afterwards was hostile as it was possible to imagine. That was reflected in the next week’s press and the abrupt dropoff in support across the left afterwards. Extremely damaging.

      The difference this time is the lack of viable partners and the sheer lack of interest in English. I think. There is nothing to indicate anything to form a public interest around for National.

      Feels quite different.

  4. adam 4

    It’s been extremely nasty this time around.

    Mind you the Tory’s in this country are not gracious losers.

  5. eco maori 5

    This web site is a real brellaint it looks like its been run with the kicks way of running things keep it simpull . and from my exsperance the kicks way of running orgnisations is the best way to run them The site is user freiredly on lap top and phone .
    I have seen two buniness doing the same job the one using the kicks princables will have less staff the staff will work less ours and prouduce more profets .
    some people make thing to complex and stuff it all up .
    I do support labor but i like Gareth polices no bull shit strait to the point but that can be
    Tops weekness because NZ is not ready for polic that are resherched and are base on porviding a good future for everyone not polices just to win votes .
    I email Tops and said that Natinal will use every Trick they can to win this election cheat lie steal and that if they want to win they will have to do the same. The thing about the rich is they have been conning the people for centeries Key i will not rise GST the 1 cent in a dollar treaty settlements its right in frount of our faces Key used the seabed issiews to dived and conker labor voters The diffrent mine set of rich and poor is in the news now Metiria tells the truth she is cruserfide mean while Bennett sitting there and thinking the only way anyone is going to see my winz history is by a court order.
    And Tod and Bill you see people I is true that the rich laught at the poor being honesset
    I will most likely vote labor as Natinal are fucking up our country and need to be kicked out

    • Bob 5.1

      Great to read your views Eco Maori, your on the ball. The lies have been too much for too long, and the arrogance is really annoying. Yes Materia has made the subject open now & that’s good.
      Helen Clark was INCLUSIVE & so is Jacinda, Bend over Bill is from the old school and MIST GO.
      NZ needs youth at the helm for 21st Century progress. & Labour & the greens have plenty of Youth.
      #letdothis

      • eco maori 5.1.1

        Thanks Bob its sites like the standard that have given me the info on what the National is all about the . The main media outlets are all manipulated by National
        We need to make it compulsory to vote like Australia and compulsory Kiwi saver

  6. eco maori 6

    I will make a donation soon great work standard

  7. lurgee 7

    I do not see Winston coalescing with Labour and the Greens. Sorry, just don’t see it happening, unless Labour continue to eat up Green support and reduce them to the level they’re almost insignificant. But if they were in the coalition as near equal partners with Labour First and Labour, I think Winston would want nothing to do with it.

    So – ironically – the Greens’ current mood for self immolation may slightly strengthen that possibility.

    But can Labour increase further?

    Are we in the ‘sugar rush’ phase of Ardern’s leadership?

    How will the media portray any variation or Labour fall back in the polls?

    Remember the good old days when we used to fantasise about a Labour-Green coalition, without NZ First? I’m not comfortable with the Winston love. It smacks of a sort of Stockholm Syndrome.

    • lprent 7.1

      I am aware of the issues with NZ FIRST with the left. However think of it from the other sides.

      National with NZ First is way more of an issue. For both parties. All of those trade liberals cheek to jowl with a classic Muldoonist party. A party like NZ First whose economic policies look like the Greens ones. And whose members largely look like socially conservative ex-Labour members.

      It is a match made in hell. Because despite common perceptions about power hungry and baubles for both National and NZ First MPS there is a clear ideological split at a economic level between the two parties, it is far greater than those between NZ First and either Labour or the Greens,

      That is what I am talking about.

      It depends what the voters give parliament to work with, But voters will in effect demand that a government ishould built with what is given. Or the recalcitrant group will suffer.

      • Kaurinui 7.1.1

        Dear Labour (and supporters). If you really want to change government, tear up the MOU and cannibalise the Green vote. If you can get up to mid to high 30s, greens around 6-7 and NZ First double digits you may be able to rerun the Clark era. If Labour keeps propping up the Greens via MOU, you’re doing yourselves and the country a disservice.

        • Carolyn_nth 7.1.1.1

          For a change that isn’t really a change.

          Not a great win at a time when the Nats and their leader are pretty weak, for a third way party to change the government, and not have the heart or the strong left wing support, to make the big changes NZ needs for the future.

          Labour cannibalising the Greens is just repeating what the Nats have done to their allied parties.

        • You’re forgetting that the MoU is propping up confidence in Labour as well. At 33% with no guaranteed coalition partner and trying to eat the Greens’ votes, (which they’ve probably already done as much as possible) they would be in serious trouble, especially as it’s entirely possible some of those voters will come back to the Greens over the course of the campaign.

          • Draco T Bastard 7.1.1.2.1

            I’m still hoping that a large chunk of the ‘missing million’ will vote Green. The ones that don’t get polled because they tell the pollsters to fuck off.

            • RedLogix 7.1.1.2.1.1

              For a start there is only about 750,000 of them. And the only research I’ve seen suggests there is a range of reasons they don’t vote, by no means all of them due to your ‘fuck off’ factor.

              And even if you do get them into a booth there’s no particular reason to think they’ll overwhelmingly vote left, much less Green specifically.

              Such a strategy means energising around 100,000 new voters ticking the Green box to be counted a success. An unknown fraction will tick other boxes. Doable but high risk.

              • And the only research I’ve seen suggests there is a range of reasons they don’t vote, by no means all of them due to your ‘fuck off’ factor.

                I was only referring that to them not getting polled – not that that’s their reason not to vote. In any polling situation a number of people will simply refuse to answer the questions. These people don’t show up in the polls because ‘refused to answer the questions’ isn’t reported and probably isn’t even recorded.

                And even if you do get them into a booth there’s no particular reason to think they’ll overwhelmingly vote left, much less Green specifically.

                I’m thinking that these types of people would probably change to voting because of Metiria’s stand and would thus most likely vote Green.

        • Draco T Bastard 7.1.1.3

          If you really want to fuck up the country economically and environmentally then re-run the Clark era.

          We should have learned by now that the Clark era really wasn’t that great. It’s where the housing bubble started for one thing.

          • Andrea 7.1.1.3.1

            Had nine years to do something helpful with the whole social welfare nightmare and redress the misery from Richardson and did – very little at all.

            Agree, DTB. Very much so.

            • NewsFlash 7.1.1.3.1.1

              Yeah, but unemployment was only 2.7% under clark, and they produced a surplus each year, there weren’t that many beneficiaries cause most had a jobs, hence the surpluses.
              Name one Govt in the last 40 yrs that did more for NZ than the Clark govt, good luck with that.

              This applies to DTB and Andrea

        • Robert Guyton 7.1.1.4

          Confidence-eroding troll alert1

    • yep winnie will be loving the green situation – not so much the Jacinda surge – he won’t be liking that one bit I think. There can be only one and winnie likes to be that one.

    • peterh 7.3

      You are in hopeland or dreamland, Kelvin, Shane, Winston all mates, all at the front of running the country, all with the same ideas, that’s where its going

    • BM 7.4

      Yep Labours water policy pretty much ruled out an NZFirst/Labour government.

      Great for sucking in disillusioned Green voters though.

      • ScottGN 7.4.1

        You’d have to think though BM that Winston’s attempt to take down English over the Barclay Texts is a bigger stumbling block to a workable coalition than Labour’s fresh water policy.

        • BM 7.4.1.1

          Winston is just trying to grow his vote so is going after National voters attacking English is what he perceives to be the best way of achieving that.

          The more National voters he pulls across the more clout he’ll have in a National/NZ First government.

          Unfortunately, it’s a double edged sword for Winston, the people he’s pitching at are National voters, they don’t want a Labour/Greens/NZ First government, by sticking it to English and National all the time it creates uncertainty in the mind of the wavering National voter and so they won’t commit because they think there’s a chance he’ll do a deal with Labour.

          Going forward Peters needs to come out strong against Labours water policy and dial back the attacks on National a bit, I think the endless attacks are actually costing him votes, time to be a bit more statesman than muck raker.

          • ScottGN 7.4.1.1.1

            As I said earlier in the Newshub Poll post I reckon it’s likely that some recent acquired NZF voters are already moving back to National as the possibility of a Lab/NZF coalition government increases. This has masked the switching of urban soft National voters to Ardern in that poll. Clearly with Labour on an upswing there’s not many more votes for NZF from that quarter. Winston needs to keep hammering National in the regions.

            • Matthew Whitehead 7.4.1.1.1.1

              That’s an interesting take. I had assumed that the NZ First collapse was going directly to Labour, but that’s a legitimate direction of travel too. Likely the truth is that it’s a mix of both but with polling you never know exactly what mix!

              (Actually, that would make a really interesting polling experiment: you get yourself a representative panel of 1,000 people and constantly re-poll them to track how they move through the election campaign. It would be a very different statistical creature to a normal opinion poll, but unlike those it would tell you a lot more about what political tactics and strategies are actually working)

              edit: actually, you’d probably want to start with more than 1,000 as likely some would drop out.

          • Matthew Whitehead 7.4.1.1.2

            So wait, is he definitely going for National or not? Because if he is, his perceived alignment with Labour and the Greens should be a stumbling block to overcome which he can do by inching his alignment right, not an impenetrable obstacle. Overall your analysis is confused and sounds like trolling.

            My take is that Winston knows his preference and that of his caucus, and they are deliberately playing their cards close to their chest so as not to upset voters who would support either type of coalition so he can eke out that extra few percentage points in playing the centre, and he is doing reasonably well in winning more left-wing parts of regional New Zealand.

            I honestly don’t know what his preference is- I know if I were somehow transformed into a principle-less nationalist egomaniac that I wouldn’t trust National with a ten-foot pole, and that I think there are very rational reasons for them to be solidly in the Never National camp, but that doesn’t mean I really understand Peters’ motivations, beyond seeing that there is a very large element of unprincipled political pragmatism to them, and some elements of Muldoon-style centrist social conservatism. (which tells you how far to the right the overton window has moved in NZ since the 80s that “muldoon-style” can now be “centrist”) I also think there’s good evidence that his vote is much more likely to collapse afterwards from a National coalition than a Labour one, but it’s hard to tease that out from the Shipley death spiral, so I can concede that alternative takes at least have arguing room on that particular point.

          • McGrath 7.4.1.1.3

            When it comes to Winston though, it really is a case of “Brown man speaks with forked tongue”. He must be loving the Greens demise and will be hoping it continues. A straight Lab/NZ First arrangement really opens his options.

          • Tricledrown 7.4.1.1.4

            Winston water policy is similar charging exporters returning royalties to the regions.

      • Glenn 7.4.2

        NZ First water policy..
        Water is a common good and cannot be owned by any person or by the Crown.
        The Treaty of Waitangi does not confer rights to take or use water upon Māori which are greater or lesser than the rights of any other New Zealander.
        Maori have shared guardian status and therefore have a right to shared governance in some areas of water management.
        Any such rights residing in any person must be established under the common law through existing legal processes.
        Priorities for granting water rights must place public benefit before private benefit.
        Requirements for domestic supply of water must prevail over all other takes and uses.
        The current first in – first served approach for commercial water rights must be abandoned in favour of a strategic approach which places national needs in order of priority for the granting of water rights.
        Requirements for the use of water for industrial purposes, electricity generation or agricultural irrigation (including forestry) must only be met to the extent that both the requirements of the RMA are met and sustainable agricultural outcomes are also met, including optimisation of water use efficiency.
        Rights to take and use water are available only to New Zealand people (citizens and permanent residents) and New Zealand owned companies, and must not be alienated to overseas persons or interests whether directly or indirectly.
        Water must not be taxed or subjected to any charge beyond the recovery of capital, and the operational costs (including a fair rate of return) of taking storing and reticulating it for the uses intended.
        The special character of New Zealand’s remaining wild and scenic rivers must be protected by clearly identifying and listing them and by adopting specific policies for this purpose

      • lprent 7.4.3

        Labours water policy pretty much ruled out an NZFirst/Labour government.

        Have you actually read the NZ First water policy? Or is this just you repeating some one else’s line?

        It makes the Labour one look tame. Hell it makes the Greens policy look insipid.

        It is obvious that it would. NZ First isn’t great on having assets being stripped or polluters getting given free pollution rights.

        • BM 7.4.3.1

          I didn’t read anything about charging farmers.

          • lprent 7.4.3.1.1

            So you expect that they can do the things that they want to do without charging polluters? Like the report on Lake Ellesmere today. At the rate we are going every body of water near farming land is heading in the same direction

            I suspect that you are reading what you would like rather than what would have to happen to achieve the desired outcomes.

          • Tricledrown 7.4.3.1.2

            town and city businesses pay for water so why not bottlers and farmers.
            Farmers money being used to clean up rivers they have degraded.

      • http://www.nzfirst.org.nz/new_zealand_first_tables_water_royalty_bill
        http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/political/336793/labour-promises-to-make-commercial-water-bottlers-pay

        Seems pretty much in-line with each others actually. They’re not exactly the same but they’re both going in the same direction which means that they can talk and get a policy that’s acceptable to both parties.

        Meanwhile, National still simply plans to poison it and give it away free so that their donors can get maximum profit.

      • Robert Guyton 7.4.5

        Eroder alert!

  8. Cinny 8

    I’ve been thinking….. with everything that has been happening, when Bill finally realises that the Barclay saga is bringing down national and exposes Bills lies, will he stand down to save his party? The opposition parties take action, but national does not when things go wayward.

    Hooten just said on the wireless that Jacinda will probably be the next PM. His admission explains the brown trousers situation from the right wingers that Iprent illustrates so well in this post.

    • lprent 8.1

      The best political tactic for National at present is to try to make themselves look like the underdog and run scare tactics.

      • Cinny 8.1.1

        that makes sense, just like how they are perpetuating the water announcement, by attempting to scare growers and farmers

        • mac1 8.1.1.1

          The underdog ploy is a part of Kiwi sporting success says the NZ soccer All White’s coach, Anthony Hudson. “He also wasn’t disputing the underdog mentality, synonymous with Kiwi sporting success, has its place.”

          National have the same ploy now to motivate its own troops and whistle up support.

          It also has the effect of making loss more bearable, and explicable, and for a section of society heavily into blame, less blameworthy- the “It was them” routine.

          The them of course will be the media, communists, sinners, unpatriotic, yellow, red, black, green, whiteanters, subversives, fifth columnists.

          We on the Left have to avoid the same error. It’s why being ‘relentlessly positive’ is a wise attitude. Blame is for those losing.

          • ianmac 8.1.1.1.1

            The underdogs could try “blaming the 9 long years of the Clark Labour Government?”

            • mac1 8.1.1.1.1.1

              I attended a meeting recently where a fellow delegate and fervid National member did blame Clark for the ills of the health system.

              Also, ianmac, we mustn’t forget the “They did it too”, much observed by teachers of adolescents.

      • ianmac 8.1.2

        Probably, about the underdog, but what a miserable position for a Government party to be in. How sad. 🙂

  9. Stephen Doyle 9

    Two things,
    NZ First have dropped in the polls, anyone calling for Winston’s head….didn’t think so.
    On the other hand, the head of Federated Farmers, on the Nation a couple of weeks ago, said that Winston was going gang busters in the provinces. What happens if National’s rural vote collapses?

    • Delia 9.1

      NZFirst was a threat now shedding support. All Labour needed was a more appealing leader.

      • Stephen Doyle 9.1.1

        I am so hoping that Labour get up to high 30s, and the Greens recover to low teens. Then we don’t need Winston.

  10. esoteric pineapples 10

    Keep up the good work!

  11. Enough is Enough 11

    I don’t think “panic” is a bad thing when running into an election. You need to be hungry and desperate for every last vote. For too long I have seen supporters of the left seem to dismiss poor polls and have this almost “she’ll be right” attitude that things will come right on election day.

    The Nats have always appeared more desperate at election time and history shows what that desperation and panic has brought them.

    I think Labour panicked in a big way last week and the result was Jacinda and this huge surge of grass roots support. That act of panic (which was criticised by many around here) has been a winner.

    So my message is be very worried about a National Party that is panicking. They will do anything to cling onto power.

  12. Carolyn_nth 12

    Curwen Ares Rolinson’s latest post on The Daily Blog is worth a read. He is a kind of slightly idiosyncratic NZ First person.

    He puts some of Turei’s demise down to a baying pack of media hounds, pointing to NZ First’s similar drop in last night’s polls. He does lean towards NZ First’s future outlook being better than than for the GP. But, along the way, I tend to agree with much of his analysis.

    He points to long term polls saying that when Labour support drops, the GP support goes up, and vice versa:

    For much of the last week, I’d been watching the increasingly frenzied baying from various quarters of our commentariat and political establishment in relation to Metiria Turei, and the concluding lines of T.S. Eliot’s excellent ‘Difficulties of a Statesman’ just kept ringing in my head:

    “Oh Mother
    What shall I cry?
    We demand a committee, a representative committee, a committee of investigation

    RESIGN RESIGN RESIGN”

    Between Patrick Gower almost seeming disappointed that Turei had resigned before he could spend this evening’s newscast haranguing her himself to do so, and the rather pointed connections being drawn between the Greens’ 4.7% drop in their latest poll and the timing of Turei’s resignation … viewers were left in no doubt that Newshub felt itself to be rather akin to an inverse of The Sun for the UK Conservatives in 1992 – “It Was The Sun Wot Won It“, indeed.

    Importantly, I’m not saying that Turei’s ongoing quagmire’d imbroglio had no role to play in the Greens’ recent negative fortunes. Simply that this was ONE factor amidst several, and pretty patently obviously not the most important one (although for obvious reasons, inarguably the most publicized – not least because it’s a simple and straightforward narrative).

    • ianmac 12.1

      Paddy introduced his poll result with a comment that this poll caused the Materia resignation. Materia decided in a taxi on Tuesday morning long before she heard about the Poll. Paddy is really an idiot.

  13. tsmithfield 13

    Your analysis above may well be correct. Time will tell on whether history repeats.

    However, one issue with using the past to predict the future is that it includes an inherent assumption that the same preconditions are present on this occasion as in the past to justify the repetition of the trend. However, things are considerably different this time around.

    I think Jacinda is doing a great job for Labour, and is likely going to improve their position considerably. However, the polls referred show very little, if any evidence that she has started eating into National’s vote. She also hasn’t really been tested yet, and has had a lot of uncritical media attention. It will be interesting to see what happens when the blow torch goes on a bit more.

    Also, National was on the pointy end of some fairly major negative stories in the last few elections that could have affected their result. This time it doesn’t seem to be the case in any major way. Whereas the Greens seems more affected in that respect this time.

    A lot will depend on factors such as how the NZ First and Green vote is affected. For instance, will the Greens end up making the 5% threshold or are they fatally damaged? Will the protest vote element in NZ First redistribute itself to the main parties as voters question whether they should play it safe given the changing dynamics?

    Certainly one of the most interesting elections for a long time, and the result is far from certain.

    • lprent 13.1

      I think that you are mistaking minor shifts for structural ones. It simply doesn’t matter where the polls move if National doesn’t get votes back again to get 60 MPs or more with their existing coalition partners.

      The problem for National is that they aren’t moving except downwards compared to previous elections.

      Their coalition partners have withered in National’s embrace to the point that they really don’t seem to exist any more as anything except as a trophy room of desiccated corpses.

      I’m pretty sure that NZ First doesn’t want to go there to be sucked dry and added to the National’s wall of short-term thinking.

      So at best National could wind up with a confidence and supply agreement with NZ First. But the Muldoonist NZF vetoing much of the legislation that large factions inside National would like to move forward on.

      So what exactly would National be trying to achieve ? Be the walking dead government who are there for perks for their MPs?

      The votes are moving around the opposition parties, but they certainly aren’t heading back to a limp, tired, and clearly a National party with few new ideas and no mandate to do much.

      • tsmithfield 13.1.1

        Like I said, you could be right….

        However, I see this sort of analysis as similar to technical analysis for predicting movement of stock prices. Lots of patterns are identified historically (e.g. head and shoulders, golden cross etc).

        However, they often show little in the way of predictive value when predicting the current price movement of a stock. This is due to the fact that historically it is always possible to find evidence of certain patterns if one looks hard enough. But those previous stock movements have been on the basis of whatever factors which were at play then, but may not be at play now. So, technical analysis has largely been discarded as unreliable by many for this reason.

        Same with this situation. There is so much different this time that no assumptions can be made. I could see National conceivably as low as 38% or as high as 47% depending on what plays out.

        What are your thoughts on the Maori seats btw. Do you think Labour will encourage split voting, or will they try and kill the Maori party off to remove a potential ally for National?

  14. Infused 14

    Just fund rack space in a dc. Why you host this shit at home on ufb.. wouldn’t be all that much more. 300 400 a month. Or vm it.

    • Muttonbird 14.1

      Hard concept for you to grasp, I know, but have you considered he might enjoy it?

      • infused 14.1.1

        Yet he constantly complains about it.

        • Muttonbird 14.1.1.1

          Really? Isn’t he just sharing his experience with the users? I feel involved even if you feel like an outsider.

          • infused 14.1.1.1.1

            I run datacenters, have machines at home – and I hate them being on. So yeah, I don’t think he enjoys it *that* much.

            • lprent 14.1.1.1.1.1

              The reason I mention this stuff here is because it is important that people have some idea about how such things happen. After all they may want to do this themselves.

              But I suspect I work differently to you. I like eliminating problems rather than perpetuating them.

              I spent some time over the last few years (once I had some time to do it) working on how to make machines silent even when they are shoving through a lot of air. At home in my partners 54 sq metre apartment these days the compressor on the new fridge is way louder than the 6 machines (3 servers and 3 laptops) that could be running.

              I’m still getting used to the sound of rain now that I have moved out of the my apartment cave.

              My rack servers at work just irritate me when I have to pull them out to work on them (there is no way that I’d actually work in the IT area). Stupid tiny fans whining at high speeds.

              It is pretty amazing how the well configured systems these days with low tip speed large fans, water coolers, silent smart HDDS and SSDs have changed computer noise issues of yesteryear.

              • RedLogix

                Stupid tiny fans whining at high speeds.

                Over the past 6 years I used a lot of the Intel NUC boxes. Typing this on one right now.

                Sure they aren’t servers, but I’ve always enjoyed the very low power, low heat and almost no fan noise. Especially good in dirty plants and factories.

                • infused

                  Well, the Skull NUC’s are approved by VMWare to run test labs. They are pretty decent machines. We use them for all our work pcs.

                  • RedLogix

                    Yeah. The place I’m at now has done the same after I suggest the idea. All the desktop boxes are gone; it’s either laptops or NUC’s exclusively now.

                    One model even supported vPRO which was incredibly useful in our usage scenarios. Sadly they’ve don’t seem to have carried it forward into their current generation.

                • lprent

                  I was planning on getting a NUC a couple of months ago to try one out. I have a antique mail server running Server 2003 R2 on a VM and I’d like to run it standalone off the servers. Usually I’d use a raspberry pi for teeny jobs like that. But it is bloody windows and I realized that I need a x86 instruction set rather than Arm and a NUC looked about right.

                  But my partner brought an apartment, so I used a old sony laptop from 2009 to save money for any setup and moving costs 🙁

              • adam

                I take it you are not a gamer then lprent.

                We are still stuck with the “Stupid tiny fans whining at high speeds” with graphics cards.

                • lprent

                  Not that kind of game – at least not for a couple of decades.

                  Although I do have Asus Radeon RX480 in my workstation but that is mainly for playing with using GPU code for solving certain types of algorithms. But that doesn’t have stupid little 40 or 80mm fans like a rack. Not sure what it does have fan wise. But it is pretty quiet even when I push the temperature up a bit.

    • lprent 14.2

      I think that you have a rather limited understanding of the scale that the site runs at.

      The existing main server is running 8 cores at 4.7-5Ghz. It was striking 80% CPU yesterday – 6 weeks before the election. I have two other systems that I can call in to increase capacity if I need it with 8 and 16 cores respectively, and no additional costs for anything apart from my time. Outside of short election time they get used for other purposes – one for my programming and the other now repurposed to making video,

      If needs be I can get additional capacity using AWS. But I don’t expect to need it.

      As it stands, the site costs $134 per operational month plus some minimal annual costs ALL of the time. The only variable cost is my time. More importantly I don’t have to expend ANY of my valuable time chasing funding to keep the site alive like I was doing when the site was hosted.

      So in my small amount of spare time outside of work and relationships, I can concentrate on the important issues. Capacity, development, authors, moderation and the odd post are all of way more interest than scratching around for money. They interest me far more than scratching for cash.

      When I last had it hosted with AWS back in 2014, it was cost more than $900 in July before the election. I was having to add more capacity for August because I was up to average cluster of 2 high CPU systems + database server and spiking up to 8 additional on-demand webservers during the day – and still having issues due what turned out to be bots.

      The local costs to host a similar capacity started at about $600 per month before adding in traffic costs – and didn’t have anything like the flexibility of AWS.

      More importantly it was frigging hard to debug what was driving the increases in traffic and getting it under control when I was having to remote in. This had been a continuous issue for the previous 6 years on various hosted systems.

      Fortunately I was able to finally get UFB online in August 2014, had the site shifted in a weekend to a moderate capacity single system with a backup warm server and a offsite S3 cool store. The cost then was over $200 pm for a business 50/50 and 1Tb/mo. Over the last 3 years, each time I renew with voyager I get more capacity with less. Now it is 100/100 and unlimited data for $134. And I get to use the line for Netflix.

      Once I had local access, I took a few days off and had the site debugged and the irritation bots crushed (along with some persistent human trolls). It didn’t falter over the election period. And I stopped having to break out from my work projects to go and fix issues. Just the saving in my development time has been incredible. It has allowed me to bug off a number of work trips to Europe because I’d had an ability to do more work in less time beforehand.

      Throwing open-ended money at an issue as you’re advocating is always a stupid response outside of real unexpected emergencies. Who is fuck has spare time to do that? I sure don’t. This is a peripheral part of my life that is done because I think we need this kind of debate.

      The smart way of doing anything is to plan on making sure that have capacity in advance, figuring out how to make it scale without any cost increases, and minimizing at all points the total degree of effort required to achieve the desired results. That covers all areas of operations from the hardware through to the moderation systems and how to handle relatively open commenting systems.

      I just made a choice in 2013 that continuing to escalate the chase for money to maintain the site was a waste of my time and was likely at some point to compromise the integrity and independence of the site.

      You don’t have to look far to see sites that do have such ethical issues – Whaleoil being the obvious one. But I think that Kiwiblog and even The Daily Blog have similar problems at various levels. For that matter virtually all of the media sites in NZ have similar ethical complications.

      By dropping the requirement for funding after moving it on to a business fibre at home, we avoid all of that.

      • infused 14.2.1

        Yeah, you don’t use cloud (aws or azure) for big workloads. It’s expensive.

        But you could shove 1-2 2u servers in a datacenter and split load using some apache/docker stuff. I suspect it would lower load significantly.

        Use aws route 53 for dns/cache to take load off (it costs bugger all). I actually bet a ton of traffic would disappear using something like route 53.

        I just checked and you’re already using their dns, so I suspect you’re doing this?

        • lprent 14.2.1.1

          I use route 53 already, plus CloudFront which pulls most of the graphics load off my server.

          But I also have the aws load balancer (whatever its name is) if I need it. Plus I have all of the automatic creation of memcached machine instances running back to NFS at home if I need it. The site also sends encrypted delta backups every hour to S3 from the warm second server at home, which has a replicated database and filesystem. The S3 is the cool and/or overload backup.

          Problem is that the load is pretty lumpy. Most of the electoral cycle I need just a couple of cores. I have run the site using a i5 laptop. Coming into an election I will need a lot of cores. Hiring a server becomes waste.

          Plus what is on my local system are the sections that are privacy sensitive (ie the database) and what I use for site development. It is way easier to fix and develop using slickedit directly on the local NFS drive or even a local drive for the test sites than it is using remote NFS or SFTP.

          The trick is not to use any AWS and just have cheap local general purpose hardware that I can use for TS or for other purposes. And I have a lot of other purposes.

          Like doing gcc compiles using -j24, running video conversions for my partner, having terabytes of local storage for innumerable processing backups (like the 500 odd backups of TS or complete dd copies of my old laptops and other devices), playing with long renders or using GPUs to solve simulation space issues, testing software systems, storing every book, CD, or Bluray I ever buy, and just any other crap that I feel like doing. After all my profession is writing software. That involves learning about it by playing with the bits that I don’t currently use professionally (like HTML, CSS, Javascript, and the web stuff like aws or weird arse things like haskell). Sometimes I even just write code for the sheer exercise of learning. It is how I have kept moving fields inside programming in Nz over the last 30 odd years since I got more interested in building code than I was in running people.

          Basically hardware is pretty cheap if you buy it component wise. Outside of laptops and phones, I doubt that I spend even a grand a year on my box systems. Mostly in the odd hard drive or SSD that fails. This year I was extravagant and spent a lump of $980 for a motherboard, ryzen processor and DDR4 to replace my 2013 workstation (which is now the TS server).

  15. NZJester 15

    In regards to the fans making a lot of noise, I have heard using a liquid cooling system with good pumps hooked up to a few external radiators with low RPM fans controlled by an independent heat sensor on the radiator can cut the noise a lot but do take up a lot of space.

    • lprent 15.1

      They do. However it doesn’t help a lot when you have a factory overclocked 220W CPU getting up to over 80% for several hours. You can either hear the fans in the background competing with the fridge compressor or get the CPU getting hotter.

      I use a quiet pump with an internal radiator with a large pusher and puller fan. That means that the fan tip speed is low and lot of the fan and pipe noise is handled by the foam on the inside of the case.

      However the issue is more that I had to adjust the fancontrol speed profile to make sure that the CPU temperature didn’t get anywhere close to its automatic shutdown temperature. Normally it isn’t an issue because we don’t have activity burst that long except at election time. Last election I just put the fans to full on a 125W CPU and lived with it for a few weeks. This time I have much quieter fans and more precise control so I want it quiet even at high loads while making damn sure I don’t get shutdowns.

    • Heh, did that once – and had an undetected leak chew out my motherboard for me 🙁

      • lprent 15.2.1

        I don’t roll my own. Too much work.

        • Draco T Bastard 15.2.1.1

          I did that one back before water cooling was more a hobbyists option than a commercial one. Kept the CPU nice and cool. At idle it was @39 degrees and at full load it was @39 degrees – and that CPU was OC’d by about 1GHz (Better than 50% OC – Best I ever got).

          And it was quiet.

          Still, the busted motherboard put me off doing water cooling again.

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    5 days ago
  • Skeptical Science New Research for Week #39 2023
    Open access notables "Net zero is only a distraction— we just have to end fossil fuel emissions." The latter is true but the former isn't, or  not in the real world as it's likely to be in the immediate future. And "just" just doesn't enter into it; we don't have ...
    5 days ago
  • Chris Trotter: Losing the Left
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    Democracy ProjectBy bryce.edwards
    5 days ago
  • Road rage at Kia Kaha Primary School
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    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    5 days ago
  • Road rage at Kia Kaha Primary School
    It is not the school holidays yet at Kia Kaha Primary School!It can be any time when you are telling a story.Telling stories about things that happened in the past is how we learn from our mistakes.If we want to.Anyway, it is not the school holidays yet at Kia Kaha ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    5 days ago
  • Road rage at Kia Kaha Primary School
    It is not the school holidays yet at Kia Kaha Primary School!It can be any time when you are telling a story.Telling stories about things that happened in the past is how we learn from our mistakes.If we want to.Anyway, it is not the school holidays yet at Kia Kaha ...
    More than a fieldingBy David Slack
    5 days ago
  • Hipkins fires up in leaders’ debate, but has the curtain already fallen on the Labour-led coalitio...
    Labour’s  Chris Hipkins came out firing, in the  leaders’ debate  on Newshub’s evening programme, and most of  the pundits  rated  him the winner against National’s  Christopher Luxon. But will this make any difference when New  Zealanders  start casting their ballots? The problem  for  Hipkins is  that  voters are  all too ...
    Point of OrderBy tutere44
    5 days ago
  • Govt is energising housing projects with solar power – and fuelling the public’s concept of a di...
    Buzz from the Beehive  Not long after Point of Order published data which show the substantial number of New Zealanders (77%) who believe NZ is becoming more divided, government ministers were braying about a programme which distributes some money to “the public” and some to “Maori”. The ministers were dishing ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    5 days ago
  • MIKE GRIMSHAW: Election 2023 – a totemic & charisma failure?
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    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    5 days ago
  • FROM BFD: Will Winston be the spectre we think?
    Kissy kissy. Cartoon credit BoomSlang. The BFD. JC writes-  Allow me to preface this contribution with the following statement: If I were asked to express a preference between a National/ACT coalition or a National/ACT/NZF coalition then it would be the former. This week Luxon declared his position, ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    5 days ago
  • California’s climate disclosure bill could have a huge impact across the U.S.
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    6 days ago
  • Untangling South East Queensland’s Public Transport
    This is a cross post Adventures in Transitland by Darren Davis. I recently visited Brisbane and South East Queensland and came away both impressed while also pondering some key changes to make public transport even better in the region. Here goes with my take on things. A bit of ...
    Greater AucklandBy Guest Post
    6 days ago
  • Try A Little Kindness.
    My daughter arrived home from the supermarket yesterday and she seemed a bit worried about something. It turned out she wanted to know if someone could get her bank number from a receipt.We wound the story back.She was in the store and there was a man there who was distressed, ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    6 days ago
  • What makes NZFirst tick
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    PolitikBy Richard Harman
    6 days ago
  • September AMA
    Hi,As September draws to a close — I feel it’s probably time to do an Ask Me Anything. You know how it goes: If you have any burning questions, fire away in the comments and I will do my best to answer. You might have questions about Webworm, or podcast ...
    David FarrierBy David Farrier
    6 days ago
  • Bludgers lying in the scratcher making fools of us all
    The mediocrity who stands to be a Prime Minister has a litany.He uses it a bit like a Koru Lounge card. He will brandish it to say: these people are eligible. And more than that, too: These people are deserving. They have earned this policy.They have a right to this policy. What ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    6 days ago
  • More “partnerships” (by the look of it) and redress of over $30 million in Treaty settlement wit...
    Buzz from the Beehive Point of Order has waited until now – 3.45pm – for today’s officially posted government announcements.  There have been none. The only addition to the news on the Beehive’s website was posted later yesterday, after we had published our September 26 Buzz report. It came from ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    6 days ago
  • ALEX HOLLAND: Labour’s spending
    Alex Holland writes –  In 2017 when Labour came to power, crown spending was $76 billion per year. Now in 2023 it is $139 billion per year, which equates to a $63 billion annual increase (over $1 billion extra spend every week!) In 2017, New Zealand’s government debt ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    6 days ago
  • If not now, then when?
    Labour released its fiscal plan today, promising the same old, same old: "responsibility", balanced books, and of course no new taxes: "Labour will maintain income tax settings to provide consistency and certainty in these volatile times. Now is not the time for additional taxes or to promise billions of ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    6 days ago
  • THE FACTS:  77% of Kiwis believe NZ is becoming more divided
    The Facts has posted –        KEY INSIGHTSOf New Zealander’s polled: Social unity/division 77%believe NZ is becoming more divided (42% ‘much more’ + 35% ‘a little more’) 3%believe NZ is becoming less divided (1% ‘much less’ + 2% ‘a little less’) ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    6 days ago
  • Gordon Campbell on the cynical brutality of the centre-right’s welfare policies
    The centre-right’s enthusiasm for forcing people off the benefit and into paid work is matched only by the enthusiasm (shared by Treasury and the Reserve Bank) for throwing people out of paid work to curb inflation, and achieve the optimal balance of workers to job seekers deemed to be desirable ...
    6 days ago
  • Wednesday’s Chorus: Arthur Grimes on why building many, many more social houses is so critical
    New research shows that tenants in social housing - such as these Wellington apartments - are just as happy as home owners and much happier than private tenants. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The election campaign took an ugly turn yesterday, and in completely the wrong direction. All three ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    7 days ago
  • Bennie Bashing.
    If there’s one thing the mob loves more than keeping Māori in their place, more than getting tough on the gangs, maybe even more than tax cuts. It’s a good old round of beneficiary bashing.Are those meanies in the ACT party stealing your votes because they think David Seymour is ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    7 days ago
  • The kindest cuts
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    PolitikBy Richard Harman
    7 days ago
  • Green right turn in Britain? Well, a start
    While it may be unlikely to register in New Zealand’s general election, Britain’s PM Rishi Sunak has done something which might just be important in the long run. He’s announced a far-reaching change in his Conservative government’s approach to environmental, and particularly net zero, policy. The starting point – ...
    Point of OrderBy xtrdnry
    7 days ago
  • At a glance – How do human CO2 emissions compare to natural CO2 emissions?
    On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
    1 week ago
  • How could this happen?
    Canada is in uproar after the exposure that its parliament on September 22 provided a standing ovation to a Nazi veteran who had been invited into the chamber to participate in the parliamentary welcome to Ukrainian President Zelensky. Yaroslav Hunka, 98, a Ukrainian man who volunteered for service in ...
    1 week ago
  • Always Be Campaigning
    The big screen is a great place to lay out the ways of the salesman. He comes ready-made for Panto, ripe for lampooning.This is not to disparage that life. I have known many good people of that kind. But there is a type, brazen as all get out. The camera ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    1 week ago

  • Youth justice programme expands to break cycle of offending
    The successful ‘Circuit Breaker’ fast track programme designed to stop repeat youth offending was launched in two new locations today by Children’s Minister Kelvin Davis. The programme, first piloted in West and South Auckland in December last year, is aimed at children aged 10-13 who commit serious offending or continue ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    10 hours ago
  • Major milestone with 20,000 employers using Apprenticeship Boost
    The Government’s Apprenticeship Boost initiative has now supported 20,000 employers to help keep on and train up apprentices, Minister for Social Development and Employment Carmel Sepuloni announced in Christchurch today. Almost 62,000 apprentices have been supported to start and keep training for a trade since the initiative was introduced in ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    11 hours ago
  • Government supporting wood processing jobs and more diverse industry
    The Government is supporting non-pine tree sawmilling and backing further job creation in sawmills in Rotorua and Whangarei, Forestry Minister Peeni Henare said.   “The Forestry and Wood Processing Industry Transformation Plan identified the need to add more diversity to our productions forests, wood products and markets,” Peeni Henare said. ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    13 hours ago
  • Government backing Canterbury’s future in aerospace industry
    The Government is helping Canterbury’s aerospace industry take off with further infrastructure support for the Tāwhaki Aerospace Centre at Kaitorete, Infrastructure Minister Dr Megan Woods has announced. “Today I can confirm we will provide a $5.4 million grant to the Tāwhaki Joint Venture to fund a sealed runway and hangar ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    13 hours ago
  • Updated forestry regulations increase council controls and require large slash removal
    Local councils will have more power to decide where new commercial forests – including carbon forests – are located, to reduce impacts on communities and the environment, Environment Minister David Parker said today. “New national standards give councils greater control over commercial forestry, including clear rules on harvesting practices and ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    14 hours ago
  • New Zealand resumes peacekeeping force leadership
    New Zealand will again contribute to the leadership of the Multinational Force and Observers (MFO) in the Sinai Peninsula, Egypt, with a senior New Zealand Defence Force officer returning as Interim Force Commander. Defence Minister Andrew Little and Foreign Affairs Minister Nanaia Mahuta have announced the deployment of New Zealand ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 day ago
  • New national direction provides clarity for development and the environment
    The Government has taken an important step in implementing the new resource management system, by issuing a draft National Planning Framework (NPF) document under the new legislation, Environment Minister David Parker said today. “The NPF consolidates existing national direction, bringing together around 20 existing instruments including policy statements, standards, and ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 day ago
  • Government shows further commitment to pay equity for healthcare workers
    The Government welcomes the proposed pay equity settlement that will see significant pay increases for around 18,000 Te Whatu Ora Allied, Scientific, and Technical employees, if accepted said Health Minister Ayesha Verrall. The proposal reached between Te Whatu Ora, the New Zealand Public Service Association Te Pūkenga Here Tikanga Mahi ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 day ago
  • 100 new public EV chargers to be added to national network
    The public EV charging network has received a significant boost with government co-funding announced today for over 100 EV chargers – with over 200 charging ports altogether – across New Zealand, and many planned to be up and running on key holiday routes by Christmas this year. Minister of Energy ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    2 days ago
  • Safeguarding Tuvalu language and identity
    Tuvalu is in the spotlight this week as communities across New Zealand celebrate Vaiaso o te Gagana Tuvalu – Tuvalu Language Week. “The Government has a proven record of supporting Pacific communities and ensuring more of our languages are spoken, heard and celebrated,” Pacific Peoples Minister Barbara Edmonds said. “Many ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    3 days ago
  • New community-level energy projects to support more than 800 Māori households
    Seven more innovative community-scale energy projects will receive government funding through the Māori and Public Housing Renewable Energy Fund to bring more affordable, locally generated clean energy to more than 800 Māori households, Energy and Resources Minister Dr Megan Woods says. “We’ve already funded 42 small-scale clean energy projects that ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    6 days ago
  • Huge boost to Te Tai Tokerau flood resilience
    The Government has approved new funding that will boost resilience and greatly reduce the risk of major flood damage across Te Tai Tokerau. Significant weather events this year caused severe flooding and damage across the region. The $8.9m will be used to provide some of the smaller communities and maraes ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    6 days ago
  • Napier’s largest public housing development comes with solar
    The largest public housing development in Napier for many years has been recently completed and has the added benefit of innovative solar technology, thanks to Government programmes, says Housing Minister Dr Megan Woods. The 24 warm, dry homes are in Seddon Crescent, Marewa and Megan Woods says the whanau living ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    7 days ago
  • Te Whānau a Apanui and the Crown initial Deed of Settlement I Kua waitohua e Te Whānau a Apanui me...
    Māori: Kua waitohua e Te Whānau a Apanui me te Karauna te Whakaaetanga Whakataunga Kua waitohua e Te Whānau a Apanui me te Karauna i tētahi Whakaaetanga Whakataunga hei whakamihi i ō rātou tāhuhu kerēme Tiriti o Waitangi. E tekau mā rua ngā hapū o roto mai o Te Whānau ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 week ago
  • Plan for 3,000 more public homes by 2025 – regions set to benefit
    Regions around the country will get significant boosts of public housing in the next two years, as outlined in the latest public housing plan update, released by the Housing Minister, Dr Megan Woods. “We’re delivering the most public homes each year since the Nash government of the 1950s with one ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 week ago
  • Immigration settings updates
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    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    2 weeks ago
  • Poroporoaki: Tā Patrick (Patu) Wahanga Hohepa
    Tangi ngunguru ana ngā tai ki te wahapū o Hokianga Whakapau Karakia. Tārehu ana ngā pae maunga ki Te Puna o te Ao Marama. Korihi tangi ana ngā manu, kua hinga he kauri nui ki te Wao Nui o Tāne. He Toa. He Pou. He Ahorangi. E papaki tū ana ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    2 weeks ago
  • Renewable energy fund to support community resilience
    40 solar energy systems on community buildings in regions affected by Cyclone Gabrielle and other severe weather events Virtual capability-building hub to support community organisations get projects off the ground Boost for community-level renewable energy projects across the country At least 40 community buildings used to support the emergency response ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    2 weeks ago
  • COVID-19 funding returned to Government
    The lifting of COVID-19 isolation and mask mandates in August has resulted in a return of almost $50m in savings and recovered contingencies, Minister of Health Dr Ayesha Verrall announced today. Following the revocation of mandates and isolation, specialised COVID-19 telehealth and alternative isolation accommodation are among the operational elements ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    2 weeks ago
  • Appointment of District Court Judge
    Susie Houghton of Auckland has been appointed as a new District Court Judge, to serve on the Family Court, Attorney-General David Parker said today.  Judge Houghton has acted as a lawyer for child for more than 20 years. She has acted on matters relating to the Hague Convention, an international ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    2 weeks ago
  • Government invests further in Central Hawke’s Bay resilience
    The Government has today confirmed $2.5 million to fund a replace and upgrade a stopbank to protect the Waipawa Drinking Water Treatment Plant. “As a result of Cyclone Gabrielle, the original stopbank protecting the Waipawa Drinking Water Treatment Plant was destroyed. The plant was operational within 6 weeks of the ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    2 weeks ago
  • Govt boost for Hawke’s Bay cyclone waste clean-up
    Another $2.1 million to boost capacity to deal with waste left in Cyclone Gabrielle’s wake. Funds for Hastings District Council, Phoenix Contracting and Hog Fuel NZ to increase local waste-processing infrastructure. The Government is beefing up Hawke’s Bay’s Cyclone Gabrielle clean-up capacity with more support dealing with the massive amount ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    2 weeks ago
  • Taupō Supercars revs up with Government support
    The future of Supercars events in New Zealand has been secured with new Government support. The Government is getting engines started through the Major Events Fund, a special fund to support high profile events in New Zealand that provide long-term economic, social and cultural benefits. “The Repco Supercars Championship is ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    2 weeks ago
  • There is no recession in NZ, economy grows nearly 1 percent in June quarter
    The economy has turned a corner with confirmation today New Zealand never was in recession and stronger than expected growth in the June quarter, Finance Minister Grant Robertson said. “The New Zealand economy is doing better than expected,” Grant Robertson said. “It’s continuing to grow, with the latest figures showing ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    2 weeks ago
  • Highest legal protection for New Zealand’s largest freshwater springs
    The Government has accepted the Environment Court’s recommendation to give special legal protection to New Zealand’s largest freshwater springs, Te Waikoropupū Springs (also known as Pupū Springs), Environment Minister David Parker announced today.   “Te Waikoropupū Springs, near Takaka in Golden Bay, have the second clearest water in New Zealand after ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    2 weeks ago
  • More support for victims of migrant exploitation
    Temporary package of funding for accommodation and essential living support for victims of migrant exploitation Exploited migrant workers able to apply for a further Migrant Exploitation Protection Visa (MEPV), giving people more time to find a job Free job search assistance to get people back into work Use of 90-day ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    2 weeks ago
  • Strong export boost as NZ economy turns corner
    An export boost is supporting New Zealand’s economy to grow, adding to signs that the economy has turned a corner and is on a stronger footing as we rebuild from Cyclone Gabrielle and lock in the benefits of multiple new trade deals, Finance Minister Grant Robertson says. “The economy is ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    2 weeks ago
  • Funding approved for flood resilience work in Te Karaka
    The Government has approved $15 million to raise about 200 homes at risk of future flooding. More than half of this is expected to be spent in the Tairāwhiti settlement of Te Karaka, lifting about 100 homes there. “Te Karaka was badly hit during Cyclone Gabrielle when the Waipāoa River ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    2 weeks ago
  • Further business support for cyclone-affected regions
    The Government is helping businesses recover from Cyclone Gabrielle and attract more people back into their regions. “Cyclone Gabrielle has caused considerable damage across North Island regions with impacts continuing to be felt by businesses and communities,” Economic Development Minister Barbara Edmonds said. “Building on our earlier business support, this ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    2 weeks ago
  • New maintenance facility at Burnham Military Camp underway
    Defence Minister Andrew Little has turned the first sod to start construction of a new Maintenance Support Facility (MSF) at Burnham Military Camp today. “This new state-of-art facility replaces Second World War-era buildings and will enable our Defence Force to better maintain and repair equipment,” Andrew Little said. “This Government ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    2 weeks ago
  • Foreign Minister to attend United Nations General Assembly
    Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta will represent New Zealand at the 78th Session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York this week, before visiting Washington DC for further Pacific focussed meetings. Nanaia Mahuta will be in New York from Wednesday 20 September, and will participate in UNGA leaders ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    2 weeks ago
  • Midwives’ pay equity offer reached
    Around 1,700 Te Whatu Ora employed midwives and maternity care assistants will soon vote on a proposed pay equity settlement agreed by Te Whatu Ora, the Midwifery Employee Representation and Advisory Service (MERAS) and New Zealand Nurses Association (NZNO), Minister of Health Dr Ayesha Verrall announced today. “Addressing historical pay ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    3 weeks ago
  • New Zealand provides support to Morocco
    Aotearoa New Zealand will provide humanitarian support to those affected by last week’s earthquake in Morocco, Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta announced today. “We are making a contribution of $1 million to the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) to help meet humanitarian needs,” Nanaia Mahuta said. ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    3 weeks ago
  • Government invests in West Coast’s roading resilience
    The Government is investing over $22 million across 18 projects to improve the resilience of roads in the West Coast that have been affected by recent extreme weather, Prime Minister Chris Hipkins confirmed today.  A dedicated Transport Resilience Fund has been established for early preventative works to protect the state ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    3 weeks ago

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