Lying : the preferred denier behavior

Written By: - Date published: 3:45 pm, September 22nd, 2019 - 26 comments
Categories: australian politics, climate change, Donald Trump, Environment, International, politicans, science - Tags: , , , , , ,

In a striking example of the typical climate change denier, the “Australian Young Coal Coalition” released a photo bemoaning the mess left by friday’s climate change strike rally in Hyde Park. Pity that it was a lying fake.

Being put out by climate change deniers, of course it was just a lie. That is all they ever do.

They re-shared a photo of the mess left behind by a impromptu hemp meeting back in April (looks like you don’t clean up if you are stoned). That in itself had already known have been attributed incorrectly to a previous climate change protest.

Not only do deniers lie, but this exercise demonstrates their other three characteristics – they are stupid, not very creative, and act more like parrots than intelligent beings.

From reddit – photo on left up by ‘AYCC’, one on the right is the Royal Parks pointing out the previous fakery

But consider the other bits of implicit lying that went on. The tiny wee coal coalition, started in 2015 and consisting of a facebook page just happen to have the initials of “AYCC”.  Just like the vastly larger and actually popular Australian Youth Climate Coalition who have been been campaigning since 2009, most recently against the Adani coal mine and the fracking in Northern Territories. At a educated guess, somewhere I’d say there was a coal industry coal PR person involved in the formation of this ‘youth coal coalition’ facebook page.

But this kind of clumsy lying isn’t just amongst the 30 something pseudo-kids in the PR industry. It is all the way through the denier industry from the heads of state like Donald Trump or Scott Morrison to the deluded trolls that have been trying to argue about it here for the last 12 years. They are all of a piece. Too dumb to bother to learn the basic science, too corrupt and immoral refuse the money of the carbon industry, and acting like parrots on speed repeating their obviously fake lines.

For instance this amusing piece at common dreams takes a shot at analysing just how many factual errors Donald Trump makes.

“They’re really at the leading edge of coal technology,” Trump said of Australia.

“Clean coal. Clean coal we call it,” Trump added, referring to something that does not really exist

The U.S. president went on to suggest that in terms of dangers to coal workers, Australia had “rectified that 100 percent,” though miners in the country continue to suffer from debilitating mine dust-related diseaes.

Speaking from the Oval Office next to the Australian leader, Trump praised Australia for extracting its minerals and apparent digging capabilities.

“Coal as an example—you’re a leader in safety in coal digging and we’ve actually studied it because we’re doing a lot of coal and you almost have no—you know, you used to have a thing called black lung disease and in Australia you almost don’t have it anymore,” said Trump. “You got all of the dust down and they become wet mines basically.”

“What you’ve been able to do with the environment having to do with taking minerals out of the ground, including—and especially because you know you’re leading in coal—your record is so good in terms of illnesses from digging better than anybody in the world,” Trump said.

Of course this last point can be looked up in seconds. You don’t have to wait for the vapid presenters on Fox News to look it up for you like Donald Trump does every day.

Top on the google lookup list “Black lung advocates say 20 Queenslanders diagnosed with coal dust diseases in a fortnight“. The Queensland State government disagreed, they said only 2 cases had been diagnosed in that week. Most of the article is a disagreements about diagnosis. 

From federal safe work site 

The mining industry has made significant improvements in health and safety over the last decade, reducing the incidence rates of both fatalities and serious injuries. However, the mining industry still has one of the highest rates of fatalities of any industry.

  • In the 12 years to 2015, the fatality rate in the mining industry decreased by 65% from 12.4 worker fatalities per 100 000 workers in 2003, to 4.4 in 2015. The mining industry still has the third highest fatality rate of any industry with an average of 9 workers dying each year.

It also has one of the worst records in Australian industry for both severe injuries and for endemic job related disease. But you’d have to look into the state records to find that out. From the outside of aussie, how such things are measured seems to largely depend on the amount of graft going into politicians pockets. Which is probably why the Liberal/National government keeps resisting forming a body to deal with it

But as the common dreams article ended.

Despite the country’s rising emissions and evidence of the climate crisis, Morrison—who once brought in a piece of coal to parliament and shouted “Don’t be afraid!”—has pursued a coal agenda.

In a statement last month, Greenpeace head of Pacific Joseph Moeono-Kolio, said, “The biggest driver of climate change is coal, and the Morrison government remains obsessed with it.”

Hundreds of thousands of students in Australia that took part in the Global Climate Strike on Friday made clear they want change.

It has been a long road towards having the kinds of widespread movements. When I was doing my BSc in Earth Sciences around 1980, the effect of the CO2 was just a theory with a trickle of evidence to indicate that it was credible. That was nearly 40 years ago. The evidence only ever got stronger, the time to significiant change reduced, and the effects expected kept getting worse.

My feelings about the subsequent actions to deal with the emerging evidence about climate change is just the same as Dave Lowe who set up Baring Head observatory in 1972.

Dave Lowe found measurable proof of climate change 50 years ago – he’s watched in horror ever since

I still find it incredible to watch the few remaining  climate change deniers try to argue the case, almost invariably putting up links to denier sites who that specialise in lying about the science. The behaviour that always annoyed me the most was when self-professed ‘moral’ people will happily lie about the conclusions on science papers by reframing the title of the paper. I always got the impression that they never read past the title as even the excerpts conflicted with their reframing. 

I’ll leave with this with some excerpts from the Stuff article on Dave Lowe, and a few parting comments.

On measurement technique for CO2.

It was perfect. At the right time, Baring Head gets air currents directly from Antarctica, an incredible undisturbed run through hundreds of kilometres of the Southern Ocean.

“What we got was incredible. Right from the outset you could see that we had struck gold.”

The first they learned was that Baring Head always measured a few ppm behind Mauna Loa. The majority of emissions are produced in the northern hemisphere, this showed that it took time for those gases to spread to the south. 

They also found that Baring Head didn’t show the same huge seasonal swings as the Mauna Loa readings. The huge continents of vegetation in the northern hemisphere were impacting the Hawaiian readings, but the measurements in the South Pacific, surrounded by ocean, were far more stable.

But the most important thing was that the measurements at Baring Head proved that Mauna Loa wasn’t an anomaly. In both the south and the north, the carbon in the atmosphere was slowly rising. 

And talking on the source of the extra CO2.

Lowe and other international researchers found that while total CO2 in the air was increasing, the percentage of Carbon-13 isotopes compared to Carbon-12 was decreasing. 

That proved that the additional CO2 in the atmosphere was coming from the burning of fossil fuels by humans, not anything else. 

“That’s the smoking gun. You can get every sceptic blue in the face but that’s just open and shut evidence that this extra CO2 came from humans,” he says. 

“Unequivocal, no doubt.”

That was proof, settled science. But the battle to convince the public of his findings was only just beginning

And on deniers.

In hindsight, the conservative approach of the scientific community probably held progress back for a number of years, he says.

“As a scientists, we thought, ‘No, you don’t jump up and down and scream, we’re not activists.’ Losing our credibility was the big issue.

“It was a totally different time. If only I knew then what I know now … Now it’s different, many of us are out there doing stuff. We have to, this is an emergency.”

Full-blown arguments with climate change deniers have been a common occurrence in Lowe’s life. His voice bristles with frustration when the topic comes up. 

“It’s better now, but it was hard yards. I’d be yelled at by people. It used to be constant shouting matches with sceptics.

“[Scientists] deal in data and facts and graphs and numbers, it’s really hard to get through with that. In my lifetime I’ve given hundreds of climate change talks and you’re always up against it with this distrust.”

Nothing grinds his gears more than scientists in the 1980s and 1990s who deliberately spread mistruths about climate change while on the payrolls of oil companies, like Fred Singer and others profiled in the 2010 book Merchants of Doubt

“I just think … the bastard, how dare he not look at the facts. That makes me angry, people who deliberately go out and falsify what’s going on.” 

Exactly, and there are a lot of people like that.

For me, Dave Lowe is someone I can look to for an inspiration. Someone with a real morality and a sense of duty who has persevered with it through an awful lot of denigration. 

Beats the hell out of the moralistic liars like ScoMo and his pedophilic excusing religious mentor, Trump,  and some unknown coal company PR person swiping the initials of a kids group and replaying old fake allegations.

But I also like that the kids are starting to surprise me. They did well with the worldwide climate change strike and it has a feeling of being more of a focused movement than one year PR wonders like the occupy movement. It may have come late and on the edge of significiant shifts in extreme weather patterns. But it does make me more hopeful that there is a growing momentum to change.

I suspect that it is far too late to do more than to just blunt the edge for these kids’ grandchildren. It is going to be extremely messy dealing with the CO2 over the next few centuries simply because the global climate system is so laggy. Almost all of the CO2 and extra heat from the residual atmospheric changes goes directly into the ocean currents, to be released decades or even centuries later.

Right now I suspect we’re just starting to see the some of the effects from the first half of last century – and that was a period with relatively low (compared to now) generation of waste combustion gases.

26 comments on “Lying : the preferred denier behavior ”

  1. Thanks for the heads up on this AYCC as I’ve never heard of them before, nor their of activities IRT fracking in the NT.

    I’ve just spent almost 6 days flighting fires in and around rural Darwin area, but mainly in the in Dundee area since last Sunday. Where we seen fire conditions that we thought we would never see in the Northern NT which are so common in the Eastern, Southern States in Oz, or my from own experience in NZ with Nth Canterbury Branch of the DoC High Country Fire Team in the 90’s.

    Would like to grab a bunch of these muppets and take them out to see the damage from the 3 major fire events around Rural Darwin that happened last week on Friday the 13th to Thursday and explained to them. That us volunteers who are unpaid clock up an average of 130hrs (I was nudging around the 110hrs) on the fire line and in most cases in a grass fire unit by themselves of in my driving the tankers or medium attack trucks as today’s generation won’t volunteer unless there is something in return.

    • lprent 1.1

      I’ve just spent almost 6 days flighting fires in and around rural Darwin area…

      It is going to get worse for a long time (at least a few hundred years) before it starts to get better. It won't be every year, but the frequency and scale of extreme weather will increase over the decades.

      That us volunteers who are unpaid clock up an average of 130hrs (I was nudging around the 110hrs) on the fire line and in most cases in a grass fire unit by themselves of in my driving the tankers or medium attack trucks as today’s generation won’t volunteer unless there is something in return.

      That is going to be the problem. You can do this as a volunteer if it happens infrequently. But as the frequency goes up, then that becomes not viable. The same thing happens with urban systems like storm water or sewage. When a '100 year' downpour starts to happen every decade, you can't just handle the repeated flooding the same way (thinking of brisbane last year now).

      Rural and semi-rural areas don't have the wherewithall to put in large commitments of backup structures like a standing fireforce or even paying for volunteers.

      Urban areas do, but the sheer number of people who could be affected means that the systems put in for 50 years have to be damn near gold-plated at the start to handle the conditions that are going to be present at the end.

      There is going to have to be a lot of cost going into it to provide the infrastructure to deal to weather, fire and floods a lot earlier – especially in continental areas.I have to say that hilly large islands like NZ are starting to look pretty good bets for the future now.

      Currently the only effective feedback system worth mentioning has been insurance rates. Emission trading systems simply haven’t been worth the paper they are written on (except to grifters of course). None of them work. Taxation systems get grafted into uselessness.

      I really don’t see it changing except from mass movements and probably the threat of using hemp for a non-pleasing political purpose.

  2. Andre 2

    Something I find intensely depressing about the denier embrace of coal and other fossil fuels is that we simply don't need fossil fuels. We just don't. I can't think of a single land-based energy use that couldn't electrify. Shipping, medium-and-long-haul aviation will be a lot harder to electrify, but shipping could use nukes and there's enough biofuels being produced worldwide already to prove aviation could be supplied from biofuel.

    Just to illustrate with a couple of examples, steelmaking is often cited as absolutely dependent on coal. But it's not, electrolytic steelmaking is possible. It might even be cheaper than using coal, but all the installed infrastructure is coal-based.

    Concrete production is often cited as absolutely dependent on coal. But it only uses coal for process heat, and that process heat could come from renewable electricity. Further into the future, portland cement might even be produced electrochemically, eliminating the need for massive amounts of heat.

    Modern society is not technologically dependent on fossil fuels. We're just continuing to use them because we're too lazy, timid, unimaginative, misinformed or whatever to make the change to zero-carbon alternatives. It's not even economics, getting serious about making the change would be a massive economic boost from all the work needed. The only losers would be the entrenched fossil-fuel interests.

    • lprent 2.1

      Concrete production is often cited as absolutely dependent on coal. But it only uses coal for process heat, and that process heat could come from renewable electricity.

      I'd be more worried about the burning to get the lime for concrete. That is what throws off the majority of CO2.

      The cement industry is one of the two largest producers of carbon dioxide (CO2), creating up to 8% of worldwide man-made emissions of this gas, of which 50% is from the chemical process and 40% from burning fuel.

      And specifically

      Cement manufacture contributes greenhouse gases both directly through the production of carbon dioxide when calcium carbonate is thermally decomposed, producing lime and carbon dioxide

      The fuel might be removed at a cost. But there aren't that many good alternatives for a formable rock like concrete – if you think through the alternatives in the wikipedia article – none of them look very viable.

      • Andre 2.1.1

        Burning coal to get the lime is the process heat part of it, which could come from zero-ghg electricity. It's just the heat that's required, not any of the chemical reactions that happen during coal combustion. This heat could be electrical, or hell, could even by concentrated solar.

        In this way, it's different to coal used in steelmaking or the carbon anodes used in aluminium production, where the energy released by the carbon reacting with oxygen supplies a significant part of the energy required to strip the oxygen from the metal oxide being reduced.

        Going a bit further, the calcination process where the calcium carbonate is heated to thermally decompose into lime and carbon dioxide could be done in a closed chamber and the CO2 easily captured (no costly separation process needed) and stored (slightly less easily done, but there's already plenty of CO2 getting injected underground where it stays).

        Then, if the heat comes from zero-GHG electricity, and the calcination CO2 captured and stored, concrete production would become net-negative CO2. Because concrete actually reabsorbs CO2 during its lifetime.

        We don't need alternatives to concrete for some kind of formable rock. The concrete technology we already have right now could be transformed from a large damaging emitter into a small absorbing mitigator just by giving the producers the right incentives to change to non-emitting energy supply, and to capture and store the emissions from the chemical reactions that must occur to produce cement.

        • lprent 2.1.1.1

          The heating isn't really the issue.

          You can in theory replace its generation from several sources – climatech has some of them. I rather think that the biomass one is overrated – usual issues. Nuclear sounds just farfetched – how exactly do you transfer the heat. Cogeneration with waste plants sounds promising – the temps requires are about the right level and the higher density waste gases provide the transfer mechanism.

          But if you are capturing the gases off the calcite anyway for a viable sequestration, then it simply doesn’t matter if you add the fuel exhaust gases into that as well. So just concentrate on the CO2 from the calcite and its sequestration – which is where the problem lies.

          The binding strength and in particular its fast binding strength comes from breaking down various minerals of calcite at high temperatures is the primary problem.

          …but there's already plenty of CO2 getting injected underground where it stays…

          Now there is a foolishly optimistic statement if I ever read one. I don't think that there is a single geologist who'd take a bet on ground injected gases staying if they had to stake their gonads on it.

          So far I haven't heard of any historic oil or gas field that has ever been pressurised that hasn't leaked nearly immediately and wasn't close to flat within decades after injection stopped. It is easy to measure. All you have to do is to leave pressure sensors in place. It'd be big news if one did. But draining an oil or gas field has to date inevitably destroyed it as a gas tight earthquake proof container.

          There have been some moderate short-term results in non-fracked recent fields where the pressurisation was carefully controlled. But you probably have to just wait for a decent earthquake at the right depth. So in 50-100 years we might have a better idea if it will work in practice.

          If you look at the number of potential empty fields around that prove to have drained long ago, you understand why. The earth moves and the optimistic drillers lose their licenses when they drill a dry field.

          There are literally no working examples of humans being able to reliably store gases underground safely for even historic periods, let alone the kinds of time that we'd have to store cement CO2. The oil and gas fields that we have been tapping are just the freakish statistical accidents.

          But the consequences of an immense burp of stored gases from a sequestration field in the wake of earthquake are a statistical certainty within decades. It'd be safer to keep emitting slowly than lose a lot of gas in a single event if you look at the track record on CO2 emitting volcanoes – which would be the nearest analogy.

          And that is just the start. Have you been around cement works? Those immense hot drums or beds, largely open to the atmosphere to vent the generated gases and heat. Most of the heat put in is to start the process on very large quantities of calcite. But much of the energy used to create cement is actually for the processing of raw calcite and the grinding of the sintered lime at the end.

          And as far as I'm aware no-one has ever used a non-fuel source like electricity to cook the calcite. I'm having issues even trying to even conceive of a mechanism to do it. Metals you can do by various kinds of induction. But something as inert as calcite would require a hell of a current and would probably lead to dealing with dangerous as liquid calcium metal.

          There are other ways, for instance, traditional shaft calciners could be enclosed. You'd have to use some kind of fuelled gas system at the hot point to get a even transfer of heat. The heat rises to blow off the water.

          But there are issues. With calcite, once it hits calcining temps, then a lot of the reactions are exothermic. Heat release gets to be a problem. They'd have to design a whole new technique to even try to capture the gases whilst handling the extra heat.

          It'd probably involve reverting to pre-industrial job sizes. It also would cause issues with the bloody complex systems uses to get the precise cement gradings and composition control.

          etc… Plus always remember that cement is a structural material. It'd probably take a *long* time (over human timescales) to test the resulting materials.

          For me, cement and concrete has always been the worst issue for climate change. The oil and gas eventually gets too expensive and other methods will catch on. I still can't see a good way to either get concrete without too much CO2 or a viable substitute for our formable rock.

          • Andre 2.1.1.1.1

            Ok, put the sequestration of CO2 in the "yet to be achieved" basket. Although, in the context of the growing realisation that if we want to avoid incredibly unpleasant consequences we're going to have to figure out how to pull massive quantities of CO2 out of the atmosphere, even putting it underground for a few decades or centuries before it leaks back out still buys a bit of time and breathing space.

            When it comes to electric heating of the calcite, the calcination and sintering process has some similarities and temperatures to induration of iron ore into pellets. There's been some development of massive 900kW plasma torches to replace fossil fuels for heating. Admittedly, a cement kiln will need an order of magnitude or more scale-up from that, and I've no idea what the technical obstacles might be for that scale up (if I had to speculate, electrode life and cooling).

            In any case, as long as the required electricity is still likely to come from coal or gas (at 40% or 60% best case thermal efficiency), it would be a step backwards to swap fossil fuel burn for process heat (with 80% + thermal efficiency) for fossil fuel fired electricity.

            Nukes just won't happen, they just don't get to high enough temps except in bombs. But biomass may play a small role. Apparently a lot of the heat transfer to the clinker happens radiatively, so powdered coal is preferred over gas for cement production, because of the glowing particles. So if a swap to massive plasma torches happens, it may still be beneficial to include some burnable material like rice husks into the gas stream leaving the plasma torches.

            The milling and grinding the clinker into cement powder is mechanical work being done at roomish temperature. Chances are that's already being done electrically in a lot of cement plants. The emissions attributed to this step would be from the coal fired power station generating that electricity.

    • Lucy 2.2

      "Modern society is not technologically dependent on fossil fuels. We're just continuing to use them because we're too lazy, timid, unimaginative, misinformed or whatever to make the change to zero-carbon alternatives"

      Unfortunately non fossil fuel alternatives are expensive and limited. An EV is twice the price of a normal car with less services and range. Also they rely on electricity which requires a coal generator when the less reliable renewables are not working.

      The concept of changing our shipping fleets to nuclear is horrifying – many ships crews currently live under slave like conditions and you would add the possibility of radiation contamination to their misery (or maybe you think the ship owners would suddenly improve conditions). We (the general population) are not adverse to alternatives but there is no incentives for the rich to change as fossil fuels give them money and power and until that changes nothing else changes.

      • lprent 2.2.1

        Unfortunately non fossil fuel alternatives are expensive and limited.

        Depends what you need the transport for. In my case I transitioned to a e-bike at the starting at end of 2017. These days that is what I use exclusively for commuting.

        Used to drive to work – but it really was such a pain-in-the-arse. Took hours each day. Getting rear-ended on the bridge by a dickhead talking to his female passenger didn't help. Spent thousands each year on a car – mostly for the benefit of my employer.

        Shifted to bussing and started to take jobs on the bus routes. Nice place to read and moderate – but I was getting seriously annoyed with changing buses. Still cost a thousand dollars or so per year.

        I set my radius limit to work at 5km nearly 9 years. Tended to drive or walk. That dropped my car usage down to a tank about every 6 weeks and seriously increased my 'spare' time. The walking stopped about 6 years ago after the pad between my right foot big toe and foot bone wore out.

        But it also allowed me to shift to ebike when their cost dropped and the cycleways started to seriously get put in. Dropped the car and the parking last year. Now I tend to ride everywhere unless I'm getting groceries or with going somewhere with my partner.

        Way way cheaper than a car, cheaper than even the parking, and it is way cheaper than a gym. I spend some money on wet weather gear – so I get great wet weather and hi-vis gear.

        But I stay on cycle ways so the motorists get less of a chance to try to kill me.

        My partner started working from home a few years ago. Her 1992 Toyota gets filled every few months. The insurance costs, WOF and rego are massively higher than the running cost and maintenance. But not enough so that it is buying a new old vehicle or just hiring cars.

        We'll buy a EV when the price drops or the car conks out or the Toyota can't handle a double bike rack. Probably get her a e-bike before then so we can go 'walking' together.

        Now obviously this isn't likely to work if you have kids. But if you're a couple or on your own look at commuting distance, the cycle paths and a ebike. Relatively cheap. fairly painless (I'm 120kgs, 60yo, had a heart attack in 2011, and ride up Grafton Gully each work day)

  3. joe90 3

    Deniers in wingnut circles have doubled down on bullying 16 year old climate activist Greta Thunberg and labeled her and her parents as satanic, antifa thugs.

    Bonus points for Soros, Gore, Bono, and Frankie the pope references, too.

    http://archive.li/e7cL9

    https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1175442382373969921.html

  4. Incognito 4

    Good strong post!

    Dave Lowe changed into Rob Lowe, twice, and the famous actor even made it into the tags of the post.

  5. Anne 5

    Not only do deniers lie, but this exercise demonstrates their other three characteristics – they are stupid, not very creative, and act more like parrots than intelligent beings.

    In other words they are dumb people who vote for dumb politicians who, in turn, appoint dumb people to run their administrations/governments for them.

  6. PhilA 6

    As a New Zealander I'm quite attached to Kea; Kaka; and Kakapo. As such I don't apreciate the attacks on Parrots in this article which I consider to be unnecessary and possibly indicative of a disregard for non human life by the author.

    • Gabby 6.1

      So you're a New Zealander then filet.

    • lprent 6.2

      Look while our denier trolls are capable of speaking (albeit usually with meaningless lines that they heard from somewhere – probably obscene), they do not resemble our native parrots.

      None of our native parrots will deign to do something as crass as to repeat the lines of others. They are too dignified to speak. I will not deign to dignify the obvious rejoinder – that they cannot speak as their beaks are full of window rubber. If you happen to park some convenient natural resources next to their beaks, then that is just what you should expect – along with the evil side eye.

      I was of course pointing out the comparision of deniers to the inferior parrots from offshore who like all humans has only immigrated here recently within the last 1000 years. Not my irritating neighbours

      Yours sincerely,

      Sharpbeak Wormhunter Kiwi.

  7. cleangreen 7

    Thanks for the heads up for this weeks Climate Action Emergency conference in New York, so we hope the politicians read this, as they cast their vote in UN this week. Edited (shortened) press release for Climate change week.

    https://www.news.com.au/technology/environment/climate-change/fiveyear-period-ending-2019-set-to-be-hottest-on-record/news-story/895e9c2239979888a2089a1311976c9f Latest 23/9/19 ‘Australian newscorp’

    [this comment got held up in Spam. Probably too many links. Way too much cut and paste as well, and I couldn’t easily tell what was going on so I’ve deleted it. Commenting here requires people to be selective in what they quote, to back up or illustrate something they are saying. – weka]

    • weka 7.1

      mod note for you CG

      • greywarshark 7.1.1

        Could lprent or someone knowledgable help with advice on putting links up. Cleangreen has got a great long one there as I did also but couldn't bring it down to a few 'live' words. My example is here in this https://thestandard.org.nz/the-climate-action-momentum/#comment-1656954 comment.

        We need to have instructions on how to do our our links now. I am still following the original info in the FAQs for Visible Text but it doesn't seem to work now the system has been reconfigured.

        Incidentally cleangreen if you see this, if you have a paragraph you want to paste and it has links in it you don't want, you can highlight the whole piece where the links are, press the link button which will bring up a window asking for an url, you put a dash in the space and press ok. That should bring up the next link removal window and you click on that. That means that you don't have to remove links individually.

  8. BCE 8

    I also read the article on Dave Lowe on the weekend (in the hard copy of the Taranaki Daily News as well as on Stuff) and immediately came to the conclusion that this man deserves a knighthood.

  9. greywarshark 9

    Looking on google I read one of the ads on the page. This ad has got it all – sly denier-pretender with buttons for your favourite obsession.

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    Kia ora. These are some stories that caught our eye this week – as always, feel free to share yours in the comments. Our header image this week (via Eke Panuku) shows the planned upgrade for the Karanga Plaza Tidal Swimming Steps. The week in Greater Auckland On ...
    Greater AucklandBy Greater Auckland
    1 day ago
  • God what a relief

    1. What's not to love about the way the Harris campaign is turning things around?a. Nothingb. Love all of itc. God what a reliefd. Not that it will be by any means easye. All of the above 2. Documents released by the Ministry of Health show Associate Health Minister Casey ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    1 day ago
  • Trust In Me

    Trust in me in all you doHave the faith I have in youLove will see us through, if only you trust in meWhy don't you, you trust me?In a week that saw the release of the 3,000 page Abuse in Care report Christopher Luxon was being asked about Boot Camps. ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    1 day ago
  • The Hoon around the week to July 26

    TL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers last night features co-hosts and talking about the Royal Commission Inquiry into Abuse in Care report released this week, and with:The Kākā’s climate correspondent on a UN push to not recognise carbon offset markets and ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    1 day ago
  • The Kākā’s Journal of Record for Friday, July 26

    TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Friday, July 26, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Transport: Simeon Brown announced $802.9 million in funding for 18 new trains on the Wairarapa and Manawatū rail lines, which ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    1 day ago
  • Radical law changes needed to build road

    The northern expressway extension from Warkworth to Whangarei is likely to require radical changes to legislation if it is going to be built within the foreseeable future. The Government’s powers to purchase land, the planning process and current restrictions on road tolling are all going to need to be changed ...
    PolitikBy Richard Harman
    1 day ago
  • Skeptical Science New Research for Week #30 2024

    Open access notables Could an extremely cold central European winter such as 1963 happen again despite climate change?, Sippel et al., Weather and Climate Dynamics: Here, we first show based on multiple attribution methods that a winter of similar circulation conditions to 1963 would still lead to an extreme seasonal ...
    2 days ago
  • First they came for the Māori

    Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedFirst they came for the doctors But I was confused by the numbers and costs So I didn't speak up Then they came for our police and nurses And I didn't think we could afford those costs anyway So I ...
    Mountain TuiBy Mountain Tui
    2 days ago
  • Join us for the weekly Hoon on YouTube Live

    Photo by Joshua J. Cotten on UnsplashWe’re back again after our mid-winter break. We’re still with the ‘new’ day of the week (Thursday rather than Friday) when we have our ‘hoon’ webinar with paying subscribers to The Kākā for an hour at 5 pm.Jump on this link on YouTube Livestream ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    2 days ago
  • Will the real PM Luxon please stand up?

    Notes: This is a free article. Abuse in Care themes are mentioned. Video is at the bottom.BackgroundYesterday’s report into Abuse in Care revealed that at least 1 in 3 of all who went through state and faith based care were abused - often horrifically. At least, because not all survivors ...
    Mountain TuiBy Mountain Tui
    2 days ago
  • Will debt reduction trump abuse in care redress?

    Luxon speaks in Parliament yesterday about the Abuse in Care report. Photo: Hagen Hopkins/Getty ImagesTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:PM Christopher Luxon said yesterday in tabling the Abuse in Care report in Parliament he wanted to ‘do the ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    2 days ago
  • Olywhites and Time Bandits

    About a decade ago I worked with a bloke called Steve. He was the grizzled veteran coder, a few years older than me, who knew where the bodies were buried - code wise. Despite his best efforts to be approachable and friendly he could be kind of gruff, through to ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    2 days ago
  • Why were the 1930s so hot in North America?

    This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Jeff Masters and Bob Henson Those who’ve trawled social media during heat waves have likely encountered a tidbit frequently used to brush aside human-caused climate change: Many U.S. states and cities had their single hottest temperature on record during the 1930s, setting incredible heat marks ...
    2 days ago
  • Throwback Thursday – Thinking about Expressways

    Some of the recent announcements from the government have reminded us of posts we’ve written in the past. Here’s one from early 2020. There were plenty of reactions to the government’s infrastructure announcement a few weeks ago which saw them fund a bunch of big roading projects. One of ...
    Greater AucklandBy Greater Auckland
    2 days ago
  • The Kākā’s Pick 'n' Mix for Thursday, July 25

    TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Thursday, July 25 are:News: Why Electric Kiwi is closing to new customers - and why it matters RNZ’s Susan EdmundsScoop: Government drops ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    2 days ago
  • The Possum: Demon or Friend?

    Hi,I felt a small wet tongue snaking through one of the holes in my Crocs. It explored my big toe, darting down one side, then the other. “He’s looking for some toe cheese,” said the woman next to me, words that still haunt me to this day.Growing up in New ...
    David FarrierBy David Farrier
    2 days ago
  • Not a story

    Yesterday I happily quoted the Prime Minister without fact-checking him and sure enough, it turns out his numbers were all to hell. It’s not four kg of Royal Commission report, it’s fourteen.My friend and one-time colleague-in-comms Hazel Phillips gently alerted me to my error almost as soon as I’d hit ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    2 days ago
  • The Kākā’s Journal of Record for Thursday, July 25

    TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Thursday, July 25, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day were:The Abuse in Care Royal Commission of Inquiry published its final report yesterday.PM Christopher Luxon and The Minister responsible for ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    2 days ago
  • A tougher line on “proactive release”?

    The Official Information Act has always been a battle between requesters seeking information, and governments seeking to control it. Information is power, so Ministers and government agencies want to manage what is released and when, for their own convenience, and legality and democracy be damned. Their most recent tactic for ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    3 days ago
  • 'Let's build a motorway costing $100 million per km, before emissions costs'

    TL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:Transport and Energy Minister Simeon Brown is accelerating plans to spend at least $10 billion through Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) to extend State Highway One as a four-lane ‘Expressway’ from Warkworth to Whangarei ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    3 days ago
  • Lester's Prescription – Positive Bleeding.

    I live my life (woo-ooh-ooh)With no control in my destinyYea-yeah, yea-yeah (woo-ooh-ooh)I can bleed when I want to bleedSo come on, come on (woo-ooh-ooh)You can bleed when you want to bleedYea-yeah, come on (woo-ooh-ooh)Everybody bleed when they want to bleedCome on and bleedGovernments face tough challenges. Selling unpopular decisions to ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    3 days ago
  • Casey Costello gaslights Labour in the House

    Please note:To skip directly to the- parliamentary footage in the video, scroll to 1:21 To skip to audio please click on the headphone icon on the left hand side of the screenThis video / audio section is under development. ...
    Mountain TuiBy Mountain Tui
    3 days ago
  • Why is the Texas grid in such bad shape?

    This is a re-post from the Climate Brink by Andrew Dessler Headline from 2021 The Texas grid, run by ERCOT, has had a rough few years. In 2021, winter storm Uri blacked out much of the state for several days. About a week ago, Hurricane Beryl knocked out ...
    3 days ago
  • Gordon Campbell on a textbook case of spending waste by the Luxon government

    Given the crackdown on wasteful government spending, it behooves me to point to a high profile example of spending by the Luxon government that looks like a big, fat waste of time and money. I’m talking about the deployment of NZDF personnel to support the US-led coalition in the Red ...
    WerewolfBy lyndon
    3 days ago
  • The Kākā’s Pick 'n' Mix for Wednesday, July 24

    TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:40 am on Wednesday, July 24 are:Deep Dive: Chipping away at the housing crisis, including my comments RNZ/Newsroom’s The DetailNews: Government softens on asset sales, ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    3 days ago
  • LXR Takaanini

    As I reported about the city centre, Auckland’s rail network is also going through a difficult and disruptive period which is rapidly approaching a culmination, this will result in a significant upgrade to the whole network. Hallelujah. Also like the city centre this is an upgrade predicated on the City ...
    Greater AucklandBy Patrick Reynolds
    3 days ago
  • Four kilograms of pain

    Today, a 4 kilogram report will be delivered to Parliament. We know this is what the report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State and Faith-based Care weighs, because our Prime Minister told us so.Some reporter had blindsided him by asking a question about something done by ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    3 days ago
  • The Kākā’s Journal of Record for Wednesday, July 24

    TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Wednesday, July 24, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Beehive: Transport Minister Simeon Brown announced plans to use PPPs to fund, build and run a four-lane expressway between Auckland ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    3 days ago
  • Luxon gets caught out

    NewstalkZB host Mike Hosking, who can usually be relied on to give Prime Minister Christopher Luxon an easy run, did not do so yesterday when he interviewed him about the HealthNZ deficit. Luxon is trying to use a deficit reported last year by HealthNZ as yet another example of the ...
    PolitikBy Richard Harman
    3 days ago
  • A worrying sign

    Back in January a StatsNZ employee gave a speech at Rātana on behalf of tangata whenua in which he insulted and criticised the government. The speech clearly violated the principle of a neutral public service, and StatsNZ started an investigation. Part of that was getting an external consultant to examine ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    4 days ago
  • Are we fine with 47.9% home-ownership by 2048?

    Renting for life: Shared ownership initiatives are unlikely to slow the slide in home ownership by much. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy today are:A Deloitte report for Westpac has projected Aotearoa’s home-ownership rate will ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    4 days ago
  • Let's Win This

    You're broken down and tiredOf living life on a merry go roundAnd you can't find the fighterBut I see it in you so we gonna walk it outAnd move mountainsWe gonna walk it outAnd move mountainsAnd I'll rise upI'll rise like the dayI'll rise upI'll rise unafraidI'll rise upAnd I'll ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    4 days ago
  • Waimahara: The Singing Spirit of Water

    There’s been a change in Myers Park. Down the steps from St. Kevin’s Arcade, past the grassy slopes, the children’s playground, the benches and that goat statue, there has been a transformation. The underpass for Mayoral Drive has gone from a barren, grey, concrete tunnel, to a place that thrums ...
    Greater AucklandBy Connor Sharp
    4 days ago
  • A major milestone: Global climate pollution may have just peaked

    This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections Global society may have finally slammed on the brakes for climate-warming pollution released by human fossil fuel combustion. According to the Carbon Monitor Project, the total global climate pollution released between February and May 2024 declined slightly from the amount released during the same ...
    4 days ago
  • The Kākā’s Pick 'n' Mix for Tuesday, July 23

    TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Tuesday, July 23 are:Deep Dive: Penlink: where tolling rhetoric meets reality BusinessDesk-$$$’s Oliver LewisScoop: Te Pūkenga plans for regional polytechs leak out ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    4 days ago
  • The Kākā’s Journal of Record for Tuesday, July 23

    TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Tuesday, July 23, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:Health: Shane Reti announced the Board of Te Whatu Ora- Health New Zealand was being replaced with Commissioner Lester Levy ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    4 days ago
  • HealthNZ and Luxon at cross purposes over budget blowout

    Health NZ warned the Government at the end of March that it was running over Budget. But the reasons it gave were very different to those offered by the Prime Minister yesterday. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon blamed the “botched merger” of the 20 District Health Boards (DHBs) to create Health ...
    PolitikBy Richard Harman
    4 days ago
  • 2500-3000 more healthcare staff expected to be fired, as Shane Reti blames Labour for a budget defic...

    Long ReadKey Summary: Although National increased the health budget by $1.4 billion in May, they used an old funding model to project health system costs, and never bothered to update their pre-election numbers. They were told during the Health Select Committees earlier in the year their budget amount was deficient, ...
    Mountain TuiBy Mountain Tui
    4 days ago
  • Might Kamala Harris be about to get a 'stardust' moment like Jacinda Ardern?

    As a momentous, historic weekend in US politics unfolded, analysts and commentators grasped for precedents and comparisons to help explain the significance and power of the choice Joe Biden had made. The 46th president had swept the Democratic party’s primaries but just over 100 days from the election had chosen ...
    PunditBy Tim Watkin
    5 days ago
  • Solutions Interview: Steven Hail on MMT & ecological economics

    TL;DR: I’m casting around for new ideas and ways of thinking about Aotearoa’s political economy to find a few solutions to our cascading and self-reinforcing housing, poverty and climate crises.Associate Professor runs an online masters degree in the economics of sustainability at Torrens University in Australia and is organising ...
    The KakaBy Steven Hail
    5 days ago
  • Reported back

    The Finance and Expenditure Committee has reported back on National's Local Government (Water Services Preliminary Arrangements) Bill. The bill sets up water for privatisation, and was introduced under urgency, then rammed through select committee with no time even for local councils to make a proper submission. Naturally, national's select committee ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    5 days ago
  • Vandrad the Viking, Christopher Coombes, and Literary Archaeology

    Some years ago, I bought a book at Dunedin’s Regent Booksale for $1.50. As one does. Vandrad the Viking (1898), by J. Storer Clouston, is an obscure book these days – I cannot find a proper online review – but soon it was sitting on my shelf, gathering dust alongside ...
    5 days ago
  • Gordon Campbell On The Biden Withdrawal

    History is not on the side of the centre-left, when Democratic presidents fall behind in the polls and choose not to run for re-election. On both previous occasions in the past 75 years (Harry Truman in 1952, Lyndon Johnson in 1968) the Democrats proceeded to then lose the White House ...
    WerewolfBy lyndon
    5 days ago
  • Joe Biden's withdrawal puts the spotlight back on Kamala and the USA's complicated relatio...

    This is a free articleCoverageThis morning, US President Joe Biden announced his withdrawal from the Presidential race. And that is genuinely newsworthy. Thanks for your service, President Biden, and all the best to you and yours.However, the media in New Zealand, particularly the 1News nightly bulletin, has been breathlessly covering ...
    Mountain TuiBy Mountain Tui
    5 days ago
  • Why we have to challenge our national fiscal assumptions

    A homeless person’s camp beside a blocked-off slipped damage walkway in Freeman’s Bay: we are chasing our tail on our worsening and inter-related housing, poverty and climate crises. Photo: Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    5 days ago
  • Existential Crisis and Damaged Brains

    What has happened to it all?Crazy, some'd sayWhere is the life that I recognise?(Gone away)But I won't cry for yesterdayThere's an ordinary worldSomehow I have to findAnd as I try to make my wayTo the ordinary worldYesterday morning began as many others - what to write about today? I began ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    5 days ago
  • A speed limit is not a target, and yet…

    This is a guest post from longtime supporter Mr Plod, whose previous contributions include a proposal that Hamilton become New Zealand’s capital city, and that we should switch which side of the road we drive on. A recent Newsroom article, “Back to school for the Govt’s new speed limit policy“, ...
    Greater AucklandBy Guest Post
    5 days ago
  • The Kākā’s Pick 'n' Mix for Monday, July 22

    TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 7:00 am on Monday, July 22 are:Today’s Must Read: Father and son live in a tent, and have done for four years, in a million ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    5 days ago
  • The Kākā’s Journal of Record for Monday, July 22

    TL;DR: As of 7:00 am on Monday, July 22, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:US President Joe Biden announced via X this morning he would not stand for a second term.Multinational professional services firm ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    5 days ago
  • 2024 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #29

    A listing of 32 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, July 14, 2024 thru Sat, July 20, 2024. Story of the week As reflected by preponderance of coverage, our Story of the Week is Project 2025. Until now traveling ...
    6 days ago
  • I'd like to share what I did this weekend

    This weekend, a friend pointed out someone who said they’d like to read my posts, but didn’t want to pay. And my first reaction was sympathy.I’ve already told folks that if they can’t comfortably subscribe, and would like to read, I’d be happy to offer free subscriptions. I don’t want ...
    Mountain TuiBy Mountain Tui
    6 days ago
  • For the children – Why mere sentiment can be a misleading force in our lives, and lead to unex...

    National: The Party of ‘Law and Order’ IntroductionThis weekend, the Government formally kicked off one of their flagship policy programs: a military style boot camp that New Zealand has experimented with over the past 50 years. Cartoon credit: Guy BodyIt’s very popular with the National Party’s Law and Order image, ...
    Mountain TuiBy Mountain Tui
    6 days ago
  • A friend in uncertain times

    Day one of the solo leg of my long journey home begins with my favourite sound: footfalls in an empty street. 5.00 am and it’s already light and already too warm, almost.If I can make the train that leaves Budapest later this hour I could be in Belgrade by nightfall; ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    6 days ago
  • The Chaotic World of Male Diet Influencers

    Hi,We’ll get to the horrific world of male diet influencers (AKA Beefy Boys) shortly, but first you will be glad to know that since I sent out the Webworm explaining why the assassination attempt on Donald Trump was not a false flag operation, I’ve heard from a load of people ...
    David FarrierBy David Farrier
    6 days ago
  • It's Starting To Look A Lot Like… Y2K

    Do you remember Y2K, the threat that hung over humanity in the closing days of the twentieth century? Horror scenarios of planes falling from the sky, electronic payments failing and ATMs refusing to dispense cash. As for your VCR following instructions and recording your favourite show - forget about it.All ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    1 week ago
  • Bernard’s Saturday Soliloquy for the week to July 20

    Climate Change Minister Simon Watts being questioned by The Kākā’s Bernard Hickey.TL;DR: My top six things to note around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the week to July 20 were:1. A strategy that fails Zero Carbon Act & Paris targetsThe National-ACT-NZ First Coalition Government finally unveiled ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    1 week ago
  • Pharmac Director, Climate Change Commissioner, Health NZ Directors – The latest to quit this m...

    Summary:As New Zealand loses at least 12 leaders in the public service space of health, climate, and pharmaceuticals, this month alone, directly in response to the Government’s policies and budget choices, what lies ahead may be darker than it appears. Tui examines some of those departures and draws a long ...
    Mountain TuiBy Mountain Tui
    1 week ago
  • Flooding Housing Policy

    The Minister of Housing’s ambition is to reduce markedly the ratio of house prices to household incomes. If his strategy works it would transform the housing market, dramatically changing the prospects of housing as an investment.Leaving aside the Minister’s metaphor of ‘flooding the market’ I do not see how the ...
    PunditBy Brian Easton
    1 week ago
  • A Voyage Among the Vandals: Accepted (Again!)

    As previously noted, my historical fantasy piece, set in the fifth-century Mediterranean, was accepted for a Pirate Horror anthology, only for the anthology to later fall through. But in a good bit of news, it turned out that the story could indeed be re-marketed as sword and sorcery. As of ...
    1 week ago
  • The Kākā's Chorus for Friday, July 19

    An employee of tobacco company Philip Morris International demonstrates a heated tobacco device. Photo: Getty ImagesTL;DR: The top six things I’ve noted around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy on Friday, July 19 are:At a time when the Coalition Government is cutting spending on health, infrastructure, education, housing ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    1 week ago
  • The Kākā’s Pick 'n' Mix for Friday, July 19

    TL;DR: My pick of the top six links elsewhere around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day or so to 8:30 am on Friday, July 19 are:Scoop: NZ First Minister Casey Costello orders 50% cut to excise tax on heated tobacco products. The minister has ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    1 week ago
  • Weekly Roundup 19-July-2024

    Kia ora, it’s time for another Friday roundup, in which we pull together some of the links and stories that caught our eye this week. Feel free to add more in the comments! Our header image this week shows a foggy day in Auckland town, captured by Patrick Reynolds. ...
    Greater AucklandBy Greater Auckland
    1 week ago
  • Weekly Climate Wrap: A market-led plan for failure

    TL;DR : Here’s the top six items climate news for Aotearoa this week, as selected by Bernard Hickey and The Kākā’s climate correspondent Cathrine Dyer. A discussion recorded yesterday is in the video above and the audio of that sent onto the podcast feed.The Government released its draft Emissions Reduction ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    1 week ago
  • Tobacco First

    Save some money, get rich and old, bring it back to Tobacco Road.Bring that dynamite and a crane, blow it up, start all over again.Roll up. Roll up. Or tailor made, if you prefer...Whether you’re selling ciggies, digging for gold, catching dolphins in your nets, or encouraging folks to flutter ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    1 week ago
  • Trump’s Adopted Son.

    Waiting In The Wings: For truly, if Trump is America’s un-assassinated Caesar, then J.D. Vance is America’s Octavian, the Republic’s youthful undertaker – and its first Emperor.DONALD TRUMP’S SELECTION of James D. Vance as his running-mate bodes ill for the American republic. A fervent supporter of Viktor Orban, the “illiberal” prime ...
    1 week ago
  • The Kākā’s Journal of Record for Friday, July 19

    TL;DR: As of 6:00 am on Friday, July 19, the top six announcements, speeches, reports and research around housing, climate and poverty in Aotearoa’s political economy in the last day are:The PSA announced the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) had ruled in the PSA’s favour in its case against the Ministry ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    1 week ago
  • The Hoon around the week to July 19

    TL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers last night features co-hosts and talking with:The Kākā’s climate correspondent talking about the National-ACT-NZ First Government’s release of its first Emissions Reduction Plan;University of Otago Foreign Relations Professor and special guest Dr Karin von ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    1 week ago
  • Skeptical Science New Research for Week #29 2024

    Open access notables Improving global temperature datasets to better account for non-uniform warming, Calvert, Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society: To better account for spatial non-uniform trends in warming, a new GITD [global instrumental temperature dataset] was created that used maximum likelihood estimation (MLE) to combine the land surface ...
    1 week ago

  • Joint statement from the Prime Ministers of Canada, Australia and New Zealand

    Australia, Canada and New Zealand today issued the following statement on the need for an urgent ceasefire in Gaza and the risk of expanded conflict between Hizballah and Israel. The situation in Gaza is catastrophic. The human suffering is unacceptable. It cannot continue.  We remain unequivocal in our condemnation of ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    17 hours ago
  • AG reminds institutions of legal obligations

    Attorney-General Judith Collins today reminded all State and faith-based institutions of their legal obligation to preserve records relevant to the safety and wellbeing of those in its care. “The Abuse in Care Inquiry’s report has found cases where records of the most vulnerable people in State and faith‑based institutions were ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    20 hours ago
  • More young people learning about digital safety

    Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden says the Government’s online safety website for children and young people has reached one million page views.  “It is great to see so many young people and their families accessing the site Keep It Real Online to learn how to stay safe online, and manage ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    20 hours ago
  • Speech to the Conference for General Practice 2024

    Tēnā tātou katoa,  Ngā mihi te rangi, ngā mihi te whenua, ngā mihi ki a koutou, kia ora mai koutou. Thank you for the opportunity to be here and the invitation to speak at this 50th anniversary conference. I acknowledge all those who have gone before us and paved the ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    22 hours ago
  • Employers and payroll providers ready for tax changes

    New Zealand’s payroll providers have successfully prepared to ensure 3.5 million individuals will, from Wednesday next week, be able to keep more of what they earn each pay, says Finance Minister Nicola Willis and Revenue Minister Simon Watts.  “The Government's tax policy changes are legally effective from Wednesday. Delivering this tax ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    24 hours ago
  • Experimental vineyard futureproofs wine industry

    An experimental vineyard which will help futureproof the wine sector has been opened in Blenheim by Associate Regional Development Minister Mark Patterson. The covered vineyard, based at the New Zealand Wine Centre – Te Pokapū Wāina o Aotearoa, enables controlled environmental conditions. “The research that will be produced at the Experimental ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 day ago
  • Funding confirmed for regions affected by North Island Weather Events

    The Coalition Government has confirmed the indicative regional breakdown of North Island Weather Event (NIWE) funding for state highway recovery projects funded through Budget 2024, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Regions in the North Island suffered extensive and devastating damage from Cyclone Gabrielle and the 2023 Auckland Anniversary Floods, and ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 day ago
  • Indonesian Foreign Minister to visit

    Indonesia’s Foreign Minister, Retno Marsudi, will visit New Zealand next week, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced.   “Indonesia is important to New Zealand’s security and economic interests and is our closest South East Asian neighbour,” says Mr Peters, who is currently in Laos to engage with South East Asian partners. ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    1 day ago
  • Strengthening partnership with Ngāti Maniapoto

    He aha te kai a te rangatira? He kōrero, he kōrero, he kōrero. The government has reaffirmed its commitment to supporting the aspirations of Ngāti Maniapoto, Minister for Māori Development Tama Potaka says. “My thanks to Te Nehenehenui Trust – Ngāti Maniapoto for bringing their important kōrero to a ministerial ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    2 days ago
  • Transport Minister thanks outgoing CAA Chair

    Transport Minister Simeon Brown has thanked outgoing Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority, Janice Fredric, for her service to the board.“I have received Ms Fredric’s resignation from the role of Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority,” Mr Brown says.“On behalf of the Government, I want to thank Ms Fredric for ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    2 days ago
  • Test for Customary Marine Title being restored

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    Regulation Minister David Seymour says that opposition parties have united in bad faith, opposing what they claim are ‘dangerous changes’ to the Early Childhood Education sector, despite no changes even being proposed yet.  “Issues with affordability and availability of early childhood education, and the complexity of its regulation, has led ...
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