My images of Rena

Written By: - Date published: 1:15 pm, October 14th, 2011 - 20 comments
Categories: cartoons, disaster, humour, Satire - Tags: , ,

From my facebook

Some opportunistic bugger is trying to offload their boat

Tom Scott does his cogent take

The Herald (and I wonder what happened to HappyFeet)

And finally, my favorite…

Great image and message. It is a pity about the use of ‘pass’ rather than ‘past’.

But it really does get the sense of the important question.  Why in the hell are we wanting to put oil spill control for all of the deep sea exploration in the hands of the ill-equipped and grossly underfunded Maritime NZ. They clearly are not up to the task at present.

This is hardly news as authors here have pointed it out many times here, here, here, here, here, and for that matter there is a wealth of posts here. If we can see the dangers, why can’t the fools in government. It appears that there are no useful plans to clean up anything much apart from Brownlee’s fantasy from last year that minor tweaks to regulations affect anything in the real world.

But I guess the current government ministers are just too blinded by the budget deficit that they have caused. Perhaps they should reverse their frigging taxcuts for their wealthy mates so we can expand Maritime NZ so they can handle a small oil spill.

20 comments on “My images of Rena ”

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  1. Ianupnorth 1
    14 October 2011 at 1:22 pm

    You missed the ‘Building a bright future for oil and mining companies”

  2. insider 2
    14 October 2011 at 1:50 pm

    >90 of oil in marine spills is never recovered. Most of what is done to deal with cleaning up is cosmetic. Oil spills stop when the thing doing the spilling is controlled (eg oil well) or the oil has all gone (eg ship’s tanks empty).

    Giving MNZ more money and equipment is sadly probably not going to do a lot as they will never be equipped to do the actual work of fixing a leak. The focus should be on standards, prevention, monitoring and building of expertise. That is more a regulatory issue than a field-based one.

    • bbfloyd 2.1
      14 October 2011 at 2:32 pm

      that was remarkably cojent insider… considering that you were blowing it out of your arse, that made a surprising amount of sense… even the splatter pattern was elegant….

    • lprent 2.2
      14 October 2011 at 2:37 pm

      Not really. But lets play with your idea for just a couple of minutes.

      Just think of the Pikes mine. Sure there were a lot of regulations about they could and couldn’t do, and it also appears that these were observed more in the breach than in the observance (I’m slightly anticipating the royal commission here). Similarly there appears to have been very very few actual inspections of what they did do because there are only a few mining inspectors in the country after National cut them all in the 90’s.

      For some reason National appears to think that self-regulation under the honour system works well in private enterprises. So we had one of the worst mining disasters in generations. In the 90’s they also cut the actual requirements on building inspections – so there were lots of regulations and no actual on the ground with a teeth inspections. So I wound up with clearly deficient design and workmanship in a leaky building. And after about 5 years of extreme financial agony actually got the value of the repairs back – only because our property was inspected by the council and not contractors. Now I seem to remember that they also cut the number of frequency of ship inspections in the 90’s so the number of shipping inspectors could be reduced…

      So it is apparent to anyone with half a brain that regulation is useless without inspection with teeth. The honour system doesn’t work with private industries. And you really need a organisation who can’t disappear to be responsible and therefore to to have the abilities to clean up after the damage.

      How many inspectors does Maritime NZ have? How much of a budget do they have to go to offshore drilling? How big is their disaster fund? How big is the compensation fund for the frigging fishing vessels who just had their quotas cut for them?

      How ignorant do you think we are?

      • insider 2.2.1
        14 October 2011 at 2:54 pm

        You must have missed the bit where I said “The focus should be on standards, prevention, monitoring and building of expertise.”

        Tone down the outrage and imaginings, and wind up the reading comp.

        • bbfloyd 2.2.1.1
          14 October 2011 at 3:06 pm

          ts…the only thing missing is a desire on your part to actually say anything that is worth listening to. you produce a whining assumption of what can be achieved based on ignorance, then whinge when nobody will waste time arguing pointless minutiae with you…

          get this… you opinions are irrelevent, and inform no-one at all.. we are all way ahead of you… but you have provided me with an opportunity to lampoon a reactionary tory…. cheers for that…

        • rosy 2.2.1.2
          14 October 2011 at 8:05 pm

          ““The focus should be on standards, prevention, monitoring and building of expertise. That is more a regulatory issue than a field-based one””

          Exactly the sort of areas hit by the MSA funding freeze, according to Catherine Taylor in her countering the suggestion that funding affected the oil spill response.

          It’s the safety regulatory side of the organisation that is being subject for a value-for-money and a funding review, not the oil pollution fund.

        • Draco T Bastard 2.2.1.3
          14 October 2011 at 8:11 pm

          “The focus should be on standards, prevention, monitoring and building of expertise.”

          While also suggesting that they could do so with the same funding that they have now while the proof is there that they can’t.

  3. TEA 3
    14 October 2011 at 2:49 pm

    Here is todays (12/10/2011) News on the Queensland oil spill of March 2009.
    It will take NZ courts twice as long as Aussie courts to sort our mess, just in time for goodbye Nats elections 2014.

    THE two shipping companies responsible for Queensland’s biggest oil spill will learn tomorrow how much they will be fined for the disaster.
    Swire Navigation Co Ltd and Bluewind Shipping Ltd both pleaded guilty earlier this week in the Supreme Court in Brisbane to disposing of oil in waters off southeast Queensland in March 2009.
    The court heard the spill occurred when the ship, the MV Pacific Adventurer, lost 31 containers off Cape Moreton as it encountered heavy seas whipped up by Cyclone Hamish.
    Some of the containers hit the vessel, resulting in a 270,000-litre fuel oil spill along Moreton and Bribie islands, off Brisbane, and some Sunshine Coast beaches.
    Peter Davis, SC, who appeared on behalf of the crown, told the court the spill occurred because the lashings keeping the containers in place were corroded and poorly maintained.
    The companies have denied this, saying there were a number of factors – including the weather – that contributed to the spill.
    Lawyers acting for the companies submitted in court that a total fine of $600,000 would be an appropriate penalty.
    Tony Glynn, SC, said his clients had already paid $17.5 million under a limitation order in the Federal Court, as well as an additional $7.5 million to help cover the $31 million cost of cleaning up the damage.
    However the crown has asked the court to fine each of the companies $1.75 million.
    They should also make a $50,000 payment to an environmental group, and make a public apology, the court heard.
    Justice Kiernan Dorney adjourned the sentence until tomorrow.
    Charges against the ship’s master Bernardino Santos, and the other corporate defendants, Swire Shipping Pty Ltd and China Navigation Co Ltd, were dropped earlier this week.

    Read more: http://www.news.com.au/business/breaking-news/oil-spill-companies-swire-navigation-co-ltd-and-bluewind-shipping-ltd-to-be-fined-tomorrow/story-e6frfkur-1226166542952#ixzz1aiRe5ZCC

  4. bbfloyd 4
    14 October 2011 at 2:51 pm

    lprent.. as ignorant as the average reactionary tory would be acceptable…… if we don’t see the problems, then there aren’t any…. why is that so hard for people to accept?

    assumption is always preferable to research.. it is faster, and doesn’t create “problems” that then require an effort to suppress….. not good for profits….

    • William Joyce 4.1
      14 October 2011 at 3:49 pm

      National’s Tertiary Education Minister announces creation of Institute of Advanced Assumptions to be staffed by old National party hacks, everyone in Treasury, EQC, Flat Earth Society, Alan Greenspan and Milton Friedman

      • prism 4.1.1
        14 October 2011 at 6:21 pm

        WJ I’m just reading some of the old Harry Potter books and that Institute sounds like a Hogwarts program offered to senior scholars for further study in advanced magic, parallel fantasy worlds and the Dark Arts.

  5. hoom 5
    14 October 2011 at 3:33 pm

    Pretty sure if Key would front to a decent interviewer it would come out something like this
    http://youtu.be/8-QNAwUdHUQ

  6. Leopold 6
    14 October 2011 at 4:11 pm

    I prefer Mr Trotter’s pic (see Bowalley Road – can’t copy it across and anyway Mr T and his posse of Waitakere men will probably beat me up in class conscious way for infringing his copyright…)

    [lprent: The URL is sufficient.. umm this one? I was going to put it in, but there has been some argument about the origional image prior to photoshopping…. But since Chris is supplying it… ]

  7. John D 7
    15 October 2011 at 10:16 pm

    Maybe if we diverted the $500 million a year we are sucking out of the economy with the ETS we could address some of these real problems instead?

    • Colonial Viper 7.1
      15 October 2011 at 11:00 pm

      John D implies that man made carbon emissions and global climate change are not ‘a real problem’.

      Hey John D, I suppose since National has turned the ETS into a giant subsidy for polluters, it could instead just take that money and give it out to the rich as tax cuts.

    • lprent 7.2
      15 October 2011 at 11:11 pm

      As far as I’m aware, and I’ll have to look at the PREFU to be sure, the ETS hasn’t caused a single red cent to leave the country yet.

      The deficit of 10’s of billions of dollars is in a large part caused by this governments very stupid tax cuts and tax shifts that effectively give benefits to the wealthy with no corresponding increases in government revenue. So they have a budget hole (just like Rena) leaking massive amounts of money offshore in the form of interest payments. They have been cutting critical services to try and shore up the outflow, but cost reduction is in the order of what you foolishly think that the ETS costs. Like you, this government is also consumed with ideological stupidity. Rather than concentrate on the problems they prefer to fritter their time (that I pay for) on frigging rats and mice rather than looking at the root problem – they are short of revenue and should kick up the taxes rather than going too deeply into crushing debt.

      Meanwhile you really need to get a grip of yourself (no – not like that damnit!) if you are concerned about loss of services, and concentrate on the revenue side

  8. james 8
    27 October 2011 at 3:58 am

    http://welovejohnkey.tumblr.com/

    best funny john key pics…