Let’s green the red zone

Written By: - Date published: 8:00 am, May 22nd, 2017 - 91 comments
Categories: climate change, Environment, Social issues, sustainability - Tags:

Climate change and our increasing numbers of cows means that New Zealand needs to plant trees, lots of trees.

And Christchurch has a major issue with land in the red zone that that is not suitable for building on and needs to have some use for it.  And there are flooding issues which trees and native bush are very good at addressing.

So what better solution would there be than to plant native forest in the red zone?  Green Christchurch, make it a better place to live in and suck up carbon at the same time?

And at an estimated cost of $2.5 million to achieve 80% cover why not?

From Stuff:

Christchurch’s residential red zone could be turned into native forest for $2.5 million, a group in favour of the idea says.

Greening the Red Zone submitted its proposal to Regenerate Christchurch on Friday, saying 80 per cent of the Otakaro/Avon River Corridor, in the city’s east, could be turned into forest for that price.

The estimated cost, spread over five years, was based on the Tuhaitara Coastal Park in North Canterbury.

School and community groups have helped plant and maintain the 575-hectare park, between the Waimakariri River mouth and Waikuku, as part of a project to return it to native coastal forest.

“Ongoing annual costs in terms of management, labour and capital expenditure are likely to be around $250,000 per annum,” the Greening the Red Zone’s proposal says.

As at Tuhaitara, we anticipate that significant volunteer input will help to keep costs low.”

Great idea. Now all we need is a Government that will stump up with the cash and have the vision and environmental commitment to make sure that it happens.

If you want to fond out further detail Avon Otakaro project’s website is here.

91 comments on “Let’s green the red zone ”

  1. Ad 1

    Surely this would be a Council funded project?

    Great initiative.

    • mickysavage 1.1

      Probably but I feel sorry for Christchurch’s finances!

    • Thanks for the shout out Micky. One wee point – the website you’re pointing to is the Avon-Otakaro Network, which covers many, many ideas for the red zone, some of which we like, some not so much.

      Would you be able to point to ours instead. It’s got so much info, your readers will love it.

      Ta muchly 🙂

      [Have corrected and keep up the good work – MS]

    • Draco T Bastard 1.3

      After the earthquake it should be part of the assistance that the nation is giving the city. In fact, it’s probably worth declaring that part of the city a national park as it really can’t be used for anything else.

  2. Farmers say, “You can’t be green if you’re in the red” and thereby justify their continued fixation with financial profit. They have it wrong, I believe. The better rallying cry should be, “You can’t be in the black unless you’re green”. It’s long-term thinking and therefore challenging to short-term thinkers.

    • bwaghorn 2.1

      ”Farmers say, “You can’t be green if you’re in the red”

      Some Farmers say, “You can’t be green if you’re in the red ,fify

      • Some do, few don’t, in my experience. I believe it’s a widely held belief, not that it’s untrue, just that it’s not the best way to frame the issue. In fact, by saying and believing, “You can’t be green if you’re in the red” works against needed changes to the environment we operate in. My hope is that “some farmers” will devise and use a more appropriate “banner”.

        • bwaghorn 2.1.1.1

          It is causing a fortress mentality in farming the way we all all being lumped into one heap as destroyers of clean green nz.
          can you imagine the reaction i’d get if i said all maori are bad because some beat their wives. (i don’t believe that btw)

          Farming is here to stay , most farmers are science based thinkers so that is the angle to come from.

          • Draco T Bastard 2.1.1.1.1

            most farmers are science based thinkers so that is the angle to come from.

            That does not appear to be true. If it was the farmers would have been demanding that livestock be counted in the ETS. I certainly haven’t heard of any of them doing that but i have heard that many thought that they should be excluded from it.

          • weka 2.1.1.1.2

            I just wish the ones not in Fed Farmers would form another union, that isn’t a plunder monkey union.

      • roy cartland 2.1.2

        Nice fix Bwag. We should be getting the ‘good’ farmers on side, and all of us against the wreckers.

        • bwaghorn 2.1.2.1

          Unless you are going to run the wreckers off the land you have to find a way to get them to change their ways , attacking only works if you are prepared to go all the way.

          • Robert Guyton 2.1.2.1.1

            bwaghorn – agriculture damages the environment, no matter how carefully it is practiced. The best we can hope for, if we continue with agriculture, especially pastoral forms of agriculture, is to slow down that rate of damage. The end result though, will be collapse, imo. This view will inflame you, I expect, but consider the baseline from which I’m judging the situation. The best farm, in the minds of most New Zealanders, is one with lush green grass from fence to fence, populated with plump animals with glistening coats, heads down, eating contentedly, yes? That scene is bucolic splendor to some, dire to others. Compare the vibrant, diverse, complex, unique space that was that farm before agriculture appeared in the planet’s timeline; when kokako and huia strutted through the branches of the forest of (as yet un-named) totara, kahikitea, kauri etc. and reptiles and frogs abounded, along with birds the likes of which were no where else to be found. Living creatures uncountable occupied the “farm” to such intensity and density that we cannot,in these ecologically degraded times, imagine. The best we are hoping for now, is to “stop further degradation” but that’s not going to happen while the presently-held mindset prevails, imo.
            The just-retired Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment, Jan Wright, concluded at the end of her tenure in the role, that best practice is not enough to protect New Zealand’s environment from farming. She’s a clear-thinking, well researched, experienced authority on the matter and I believe her pronouncement to be accurate.

            • Ian 2.1.2.1.1.1

              substitute Agriculture with cities,grass with asphalt and animals with people.

              • Substitute agriculture with permaculture or another innovative alternative to the old system that has shown itself to be destructive of the ecosystem we need in order to survive much longer. Should we list agriculture’s harm? It’d take some time. Cities, for starters, are the product of agriculture. Asphalt too. Arguably people, by which I take it you mean “too many people”, yes?

                • Ian

                  Yeah right. Get rid of the people and we don’t need agriculture or cities. Brilliant. You should get into politics.

                  • One Anonymous Bloke

                    Get a life you bitter old fool. Robert Guyton has more intelligence and capability than you can conceive of.

                    • Ian

                      I have met many intelligent people over the years. You are not one of them . Robert ,no doubt is a very smart and innovative guy. I was just pointing out to him that people need cities,and cities totally destroy the ecosystem they displace.
                      People also need to eat and agriculture provides food.
                      People also produce effluent and most cities in New Zealand partially treat that effluent and pump it into the nearest river or beach.
                      Commonly called shitting in your own nest.
                      A good case study would be how the Gisborne City Council disposes of all the human Faeces ,urine,household and industrial waste . When it rains they pump it into the river.

                    • One Anonymous Bloke

                      The difference is that Gisborne CC doesn’t make a profit by doing so.

                      When it rains they pump it into the river.

                      PS: that looks like a stupid lie, you bitter old fool.

                    • “I have met many intelligent people over the years. You are not one of them”

                      As I read it, that just means you and Ian haven’t met, OAB; you’re one of the intelligent people whose path has not yet crossed Ian’s.

                      And thanks for the advice re politics, Ian. I’m going to give it serious thought. I think I’m leaning toward local, rather than central government.

                  • greywarshark

                    Ian
                    Robert was just translating your telegram into long form to understand what your point was. It was you who pointed out the problem with cities.

                    All you point out is obvious to all though. As you say what we have to do is think how we cope better with cities now we have them.

                    • Ian

                      Your soo deep ,my mental detector can’t even register a beep ,sorry. Perhaps Robert could explain for himself ,please.

                    • Hi, Ian – sorry, we seem to have got off on the wrong foot. “mental detector” was good, I thought. You wrote:
                      ” I was just pointing out to him that people need cities,and cities totally destroy the ecosystem they displace.”
                      Thanks for pointing that out. I was labouring under the belief that only some people need cities and that for the greater part of humans time on earth, they/we went nowhere near them, as cities didn’t exist. I assumed that meant that life without cities was at least a possibility. Nowadays, cities certainly are hard on the ecosystems they replace. They sometimes become functional systems themselves, but rarely are they anything like the habitats they replace, as with farms. Farms, at least those in New Zealand, generally destroy almost completely, the complex ecosystems that existed before the farm was created; native wetlands, for example, drained and sown in pasture grasses are very much less biologically diverse as farm than they were as wetland. You added:
                      “People also need to eat and agriculture provides food.” Both of those statements are true but, have you heard of “non sequitur”? I’ve met people who have eaten food that wasn’t produced by agriculture. I know! Hard to believe!

            • weka 2.1.2.1.1.2

              “The best we can hope for, if we continue with agriculture, especially pastoral forms of agriculture, is to slow down that rate of damage.”

              You don’t think the various regenags, biodynamics etc can reverse damage? Obviously not to what the land was before, but to another form of pro-life systems?

              • Hi weka – curly question and the answer depends on how “wide” you want to go. The best agricultural system will still result in an expansion of the associated “infrastructures”: the cities, asphalt roads and people, people, people that Ian describes. We’ll get better food, better soil environments, healthier ruminants from, say, biodynamic agriculture, but where will that lead us? Undoing the Gordian knot we’ve tied ourselves in is a huge challenge even to do theoretically and will require, I feel, a re-imagining of what it is to be human and then invoking a multitude of changes to how we act. In my view, this will happen, is happening now; it’s not tidy and success is not assured but, here we go!

                • greywarshark

                  Robert
                  I have been reading up what existentialism is about. And seeing that as they say, life is what WE make it and think it, getting some re-imagining going needs to be what we do. To change the whole creaking apparatus of our minds – and not so fast that our heads go out of shape – perhaps we need to work on changing each week some habit taken from a list to work through.

                  What do you then reckon the list might contain that’s simple stuff.
                  e.g.
                  1 Grow a lettuce parsley and something else in a tub or a small kitchen garden and eat some leaves in a simple tossed salad each day.
                  2 Put many shopping bags into a larger hold-all and put it near the door for when you shop. (Use up plastic bags you already have.)

                  • One Anonymous Bloke

                    Just one example why Existentialism is bunk.

                    Epigenetics: relating to or arising from non-genetic influences on gene expression.

                    • greywarshark

                      Thanks OAB I can rely on you to quickly reply and advise me how I am wrong (and you are right).

                    • One Anonymous Bloke

                      Rational free will, as proposed by Existentialism, is withering away in the face of this and other recent findings, in neuroscience, genetics and epidemiology.

                      Shoot the messenger as much as you like.

                  • Hi Greywarshark – it’s all about intent, isn’t it. Action follows intention, so it’s a good idea to spend some time forming elegant intentions and those behaviours you describe are on the way but I believe injecting a dose of beauty into your day will be the most effective creaking-apparatus changer; there’s lots of it around, though much of it will seem odd to begin with, as you’ll be wanting to try some new flavours, sounds and scents in order that your mind can form it’s intentions with fresh material. For me, the most recent “shower” of high-value novelty came from watching Latcho Drom , you may know it, a film about gypsies, featuring their music; like a dose of fragrant salts to a bound-up mind 🙂 I didn’t take specific ideas from the experience, more let it seep into my calcified parts and soften them up so that they work better when the time for whisking up intentions arrives (usually unbidden and sudden). This may not make much sense, but that’s the point, cryptic, obscure, veiled and hard-to-pin-down-with-logic stuff is what intention is built from.

                    • greywarshark

                      Robert G
                      You’re a bright spark to point the way to those veiled, obscure good intentions and actions. Keep the flame glowing, keep a sort of ahi kaa that holds the ground of respectful thought for our world.

                      And it is a good analogy. After I thought of the importance of fire for ancient peoples and how they must have nurtured it, particularly in the cold regions, here is what I found on-line.

                      Environment and nighttime activity
                      The control of fire enabled important changes in human behavior, health, energy expenditure, and geographic expansion. As a result of “domesticating” fire as previously achieved with plants and animals, humans were able to modify their environments to their own benefit.[37] This ability to manipulate their environments allowed them to move into much colder regions that would have previously been uninhabitable after the loss of body hair.

                      Evidence of more complex management to change biomes can be found as far back as 100,000 to 200,000 years ago at a minimum. Furthermore, activity was no longer restricted to daylight hours due to the use of fire. Exposure to artificial light during later hours of the day changed humans’ circadian rhythms, contributing to a longer waking day.[38] The modern human’s waking day is 16 hours, while most mammals are only awake for half as many hours.[36] Additionally, humans are most awake during the early evening hours, while other primates’ days begin at dawn and end at sundown. Many of these behavioral changes can be attributed to the control of fire and its impact on daylight extension.[36]
                      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Control_of_fire_by_early_humans#Environment_and_nighttime_activity

                      Hints and tips:
                      http://www.instructables.com/id/7-Methods-of-Primitive-Fire-Starting/

                      And beware:
                      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyromania

          • roy cartland 2.1.2.1.2

            Gathering numbers, voting in legislation and compelling them to follow it is what I had in mind.

          • Draco T Bastard 2.1.2.1.3

            I’m in favour of getting them off the land by the simple expedient of taking it off of them – and leaving them with all of the debt that they accrued.

      • Ad 2.1.3

        If a farmer was Red, Green and Black, they would be in a coalition government.

        • bwaghorn 2.1.3.1

          what you have to add to blue to change it to one of those colours is the question, most a blue to the bone for no real reason other than no one else seems to reach them

          • garibaldi 2.1.3.1.1

            “Blue to the bone” because, in my ten years in dairyfarming, they were mainly a bunch of bigoted rednecks, yourself excluded bwaghorn.

  3. gsays 3

    What would be better?
    Having fruit and nut trees planted in the area.
    Provide food for the local people, birds and bees.

    • Plant a multitude of things that grow. It’s no time to be restricting our efforts to suit an “exclusive” ideology of any sort, including a “natives are best” belief. We’ve thousands of varieties and species to choose from; get them into the soil as quickly as possible, I reckon. Turn 2-dimensional space into 3. That factor alone is reason enough to get planting.

      • Eastsider 3.1.1

        We are not thinking of it as a restrictive ideology, but rather a regenerative and positive step toward healing our (very broken) river corridor, and doing our bit for conserving/returning NZ’s unique bio-diversity. The red zone is a massive space, so even if it were reforested to allow the return of breeding tui (80%), there is still around 80-100 hectares unspoken for, and many projects that layer up (the dark sky park, natural playgrounds etc). Christchurch doesn’t really lack places to grow food, we have a lot of fresh produce, some beautiful existing community gardens, and city-wide vege co-ops that make produce affordable. The benefits of the forest park are across many sectors – health, transport, tourism, conservation, green infrastructure, climate change mitigation – for those of us who live here, it is very clear that large swathes of the lower Avon are returning to wetland, whether we like it or not. Our proposal is basically to go with nature, not fight it. Plant what works best.

        • Robert Guyton 3.1.1.1

          Your plans sound excellent. I look forward to visiting and seeing all of the different facets. Bit worried about the kaka though 🙂 Nah! Bring ’em on!

          • Eastsider 3.1.1.1.1

            Thank you Robert! We would love to have you, and kaka are still in the wildly aspirational basket for us at the moment – we get excited when we see a fantail! So bird-starved are we… 😀

      • lloyd 3.1.2

        Unfortunately SOME exotics will quickly become weeds. Madly planting every plant you come across is not the most sustainable ecology.
        One example is pinus radiata. We can grow it just about anywhere in this country, but shouldn’t we be trying plantations of beech and totara? They grow a lot faster than most New Zealanders think, especially if you put sewage sludge or cow poo in heir soil. A totara plantation will contain a lot more native birds than a pine plantation, and the resulting timber will be much more valuable.

        • greywarshark 3.1.2.1

          Lloyd
          that is interesting about beech and totara and what you say about perhaps using sewage sludge (in the right place where it can be contained.)
          Eastsider is this part of your plan, having plantations of useful and fast growing trees available for milling, and work and income later? Also some suitable for coppicing.

    • Craig H 3.2

      There are already heaps of fruit trees in the red zones because they generally didn’t remove existing trees when demolishing the houses, and most people had a few on their properties. By all means plant even more, but balance is important.

    • mauī 3.3

      Yeah I agree, all good to create a thriving ecosystem that mostly the middle classes are going to get a kick out of. Meanwhile the human ecosystem involves people buying $1 bread from the supermarket and not seeing any benefits of the enhanced natural world.

    • Gsays, Christchurch isn’t lacking in land to grow food for humans (and our proposal does say put community gardens and orchards around the edges, close to the communities that want them). But what it IS lacking in is food for our native birds.

      That’s why there are no tui in urban Christchurch – there is no food for them. Neither do we have ruru or kaka, or many other native species that – if not exactly common – are at least present in other cities.

      So the best thing to do with the red zone is to use it to bring back what we have lost. To provide food that will bring our birds back. Cos Christchurch people need just as much to be in touch with their natural environment as other Kiwis.

      • Greening the red zone – all power to your arm. Have you considered the multitude of fast growing trees that are both non-native and attractive to native birds? Kereru love tagasaste and laburnum more, perhaps, than anything native. For sure, plant kowhai for them, but exotics offer a great deal. My bellbirds adore red hot pokers and over-ripe apples and the tui love any tubular flower.

        • We have heaps of non-natives down here Robert. Squillions of them. What we need is more native habitat. It’s not an anti-exotic thing. It’s identifying what this city is missing, and wanting to address that lack. I think a lot of other Kiwis just aren’t aware how devoid of native bush Christchurch is. We’ve got an amazing chance to undo that damage, and it will be of huge benefit to all future generations if we can achieve it.

    • Lingling 3.5

      hi gsays, there’s going to be a ton of land for orchards and community gardens around the edges of the forest – it’s just not practical to have all 500ha as an orchard. Forest wetland is scientifically proven to be the best option for soaking up stormwater pollution and preventing floods that plague the surrounding suburbs. The fruit trees that are already there will stay – greening the red zone is all about planting trees, not cutting them down – but fruit/nut trees and gardens surrounding the forest will be easier to get to, and easier to find community groups to take care of.

      • mauī 3.5.1

        That sounds great. More light for the fruit trees round the edges too.

      • gsays 3.5.2

        Hi lingling, cheers for yours and green the red zone responses.
        It is heartening to hear there already is plenty of fruit trees in and around
        Chch.

        I made the comment with a view to resilience.

  4. AsleepWhileWalking 4

    They should capitalize on the news exposure and put up a GiveALittle/GoFundMe page right away.

  5. saveNZ 5

    Good idea and use of land.

  6. mac1 6

    If it’s trees for the environment that are the need then fruit and but trees are also a solution, as Gsays says above.

    Here in Marlborough nut and fruit trees in public spaces provide food for residents.

    As I drove around the red zone in January in ChCh I saw another part solution for this land, and that is to provide allotments like I saw in England and Scotland for growing vegetables, small fruits and the like.

    We have a similar scheme here- I am a plot renter of a 110 square metres and from It my mate and I provide more than enough for ourselves- pumpkins, potatoes, kumera, corn, beans, raspberries, blackcurrants, greens. Tomorrow we will provide a dozen cabbages and cauliflowers for the local food kitchen’s weekly free meal.

    • mac1 6.1

      Regarding the reduction of our carbon footprint, this is what vegetable gardens can do.
      “Grow your own vegetables. Ambitious gardeners that use their garden to replace 20% of bought food, reduce their carbon footprint by about 68 lbs of CO2 per year! How does this compare to trees?

      Avoid synthetic fertilizers. Start composting food scraps and lawn clippings. Compost is the perfect solution to the fertilizer problem.

      Use planters and containers made from upcycled materials. Instead of creating demand for virgin materials, reuse something old as a planter such as otherwise unrecyclable tyres.

    • greywarshark 6.2

      mac1
      This providing food for meal supplements to those needing it, is a great idea, and especially if it can be grown organically.

      • mac1 6.2.1

        Greening the Red Zone above at 3.4 says that the proposal does feature community gardens, which is great.

  7. jcuknz 7

    Government or council funding is a hopeless exercise … more to the point if the Aussie story about saving their ‘childrens newpaper’ by public donation is to be believed is correct it is townies like me who need to fund it. This could be the way of the future with the level of political ability as low as it is…. used to be the ‘rich pricks’ did such projects but today a lot of little bits can get there as buying that bit of the coastline last year showed.
    Or helped the marae which was helping TA last winter for another example.

  8. McFlock 8

    Well, it’s not my monkey or cicus, so take it all with a grain of salt, but I quite like the look of it at the moment: wide parkland with trees as ghosts of the communities that once existed. Sort of a living memorial not so much to the dead as to the perils of developer-driven planning.

    But it’s Christchurch’s resource, short of repeating the mistakes of the past and building on it, they can’t go too far wrong.

  9. Brigid 9

    Will Kowhai grow in Christchurch? I can send you tons of seeds. Get a yoghurt pot, go out the back and get half a spade of dirt and plant each one. Since when did a forest need to be managed? You don’t need money, you need people to grow a tree and plant it.
    Collect the seeds you need from local bush (Riccarton bush perhaps) hand them out to people when you’re at the supermarket, and tell them to grow em. Or tell them to look in the interwebs for advice on growing. And don’t go buying expensive potting mix, there’s plenty of fertile dirt around Christchurch.

    If you’re going to wait for funding, you’ll never get a bush, or birds, or frogs.

    Start today.

    • We’ve got heaps of kowhai, pittosporum, lancewoods, cabbage trees, ribbonwoods and all sorts already growing having self-seeded from the trees that were in people’s gardens, Brigid. Nature will do a lot of the planting for us if we let her (hence the low estimate of how much it will cost to revegetate). But we will have to give her a hand, and weed out some of the invasive exotics.

      • mauī 9.1.1

        You may already have this covered but looking at the map it looks like you need tons and tons of totara seedlings which will take a couple of years to grow to get to a plantable size. I’ve seen lots of totara seedlings sprouting through bark mulch under large totaras in parks where I am. Just an idea 🙂

        • lprent 9.1.1.1

          Do Totara grow that far south?

          Around the north they grow like weeds. But I can’t recall seeing many when I have been in the south

          • Indeed totara do grow here, and there are many already in the red zone that people planted in their gardens. And we know of at least one totara in the red zone that is fruiting, so hopefully there will be lots of baby totara nearby soon. Recently, one of our members rang up and asked did we know anyone who wanted some totara seedlings, as otherwise they were going to have to throw them away. Which would be a huge pity. So we donated them to a Scout group that still meets in the red zone, and which is creating a native woodland in the council-owned park next door (with permission). It has totara, kahikatea, and more.

          • weka 9.1.1.1.2

            there’s totara in Southland.

    • Lingling 9.2

      we’re not so much waiting for funding as for permission 😉 wish we could just start planting, but it’s crown-owned land so all we can do is try convince people in power that the green the red zone proposal is the most practical idea (and saves the most money, they seem to care about that a lot).

    • tony 9.3

      Why are you calling soil dirt?

  10. Eastsider 10

    There seems to be something of an obsession with gardening on this thread(!), but I would remind people, especially perhaps those who do not live in Christchurch, that this concept came from residents, many of whom lived in what is now the red zone; consistently this project has rated the most popular way to move the red zone forward. Since it was mooted, not long after the earthquakes, people have enthusiastically supported it. In popularity polls it always rates between 75 and 80% – streaks ahead of any other project. It isn’t a handful of academics waging an ideology-driven crusade, it is what the residents have consistently been asking for: they want their river back, they want the city-to-sea connection, and they want birdsong in urban Christchurch.

    • mac1 10.1

      Fair enough, Eastsider. I’m just pleased to see my old home town regenerating.

      • Eastsider 10.1.1

        Thank you mac1, that is what it is all about – bringing life back! 🙂

        • jcuknz 10.1.1.1

          An afterthought ….. if you believe in global waming it is going to be flooded soon so why bother?
          Sorry the idealistic in me was carried away earlier.

          • Eastsider 10.1.1.1.1

            My ‘belief’ is irrelevant – sea level rise is happening, climate change is happening. There are still many thousands of people living in the low-lying coastal suburbs around the red zone and the beach – and in fact to be honest, most of Christchurch is low-lying! Our best chance at extending the lifespan of those neighbourhoods, (and the city in general), giving ourselves more time to adapt, is the major implementation of green infrastructure like wetlands and forest. The Avon River red zone has virtually been designed by nature to meet that need. And it is going to be developed – the government, in their profit-driven fashion, want to see a return on that land ‘investment’ – we want them to understand the value of saving and restoring our quake-damaged waterway and surrounds – for all the incredible benefits, savings and future-mitigating it brings – and it’s cheap as chips to boot. Some projects require massive engineering and infrastructure and cash! Nothing comes close to the forest park in terms of cost-benefits.

  11. greywarshark 11

    Does the new cathedral come into this. Now that the CofE have decided to make up their own minds how they build and what they build of their own building, all the old men and women can go off and meddle in other affairs. Leaving the way wide open for the CofE to bring in something that is very nature-oriented and different,
    bringing back the Garden of Eden effect before we learned about good and evil and started our living in interesting times.

    Perhaps going to church could be like going into a forest with little fantails scooting about and the hymn would be the children’s naive hymn All Things Bright and Beautiful. We have gone far too far from being simple and naive to being devious and derelict in our duty to each other and our world. Bees could buzz and visit flowers in tubs at the end of the rows. There would be no thorns.

    • I’m stunned by your comment, Greywarshark. Stunned by its elegance!

      • greywarshark 11.1.1

        You are spreading your green ideas into the corners of our brains, or mental detectors!

    • Eastsider 11.2

      Funny you should say that – Greening the Red Zone’s head ecologist, Dr Colin Meurk, has big green eco-plans for the Square too – in fact he has his heart set on an eco-city! Once we get this thing started – there may be no stopping us… 😀

  12. lloyd 12

    After it is flooded mussel farming? Kelp farming?

    • Eastsider 12.1

      Haha! Very imaginative – in fact mahinga kai is a big part of the proposal too, and there are various exemplars being planted out by dedicated volunteers, all through the red zone.

  13. greywarshark 13

    Talking about greening and restoring wetlands and limiting flooding – I guess you are partly thinking of New Orleans which would not have been flooded so savagely if the Army Engineers hadn’t helped business by removing levees to make channels for shipping.

    And about allotments, a good idea for around the clumps of fruit bearing trees, native and exotic, the birds decision is what should be considered. Some wild areas just for them and then corridors over allotments.

    Fruit trees need a kaitiaki group to watch over them so they don’t become vectors for some nasty disease or fungus. Some responsible committed group, inspecting and taking care of them and advising when they are available for picking, and whether general public or some trees kept apart just for the handicapped children, solo parents, or nearby school would be good. There will always be raiders, some just mischievous children, but some grown rip-off artists.

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

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