No sense, nonsense and a dearth of common sense.

Written By: - Date published: 9:46 am, November 29th, 2018 - 23 comments
Categories: capitalism, energy, Environment, farming, farming, food, global warming, International, making shit up, Media, science, sustainability, the praiseworthy and the pitiful, useless - Tags: , , ,

The Guardian is reporting on a study by the InterAcademy Partnership that has found the global food system is “broken”. According to The Guradian’s reporting, the study is recommending a complete transformation in the way we produce food and in the food we consume. So far, so good, and nothing that many people weren’t  already aware of. The press release is here, and the full report can be downloaded here.

According to the Guardian piece

The global food system is responsible for a third of all greenhouse gas emissions, which is more than all emissions from transport, heating, lighting and air conditioning combined.

From that, people might be forgiven for thinking that if only we changed our diets and how we obtained food, then emissions would drop by around 30%. And by the same measure, people might be forgiven for thinking that all the driving and flying and wasting of energy by industry and citizens isn’t such a big deal when stacked against the emissions from food production.

But the Guardian’s Environment Editor is engaging in some seriously dangerous “glossing over” of reality.

In terms of emissions, the global food system includes transport and heating and lighting and cooling. So I have no idea how Damian Carrington can seriously suggest setting aside the energy inputs required by the food system, just in order to get to a point that implies that by eating vegan burgers instead of a meat burgers we will somehow make a serious impact on the total emissions that are causing global warming (2 trillion tonnes and counting btw).

Almost all human generated emissions come by way of deriving energy from fossil. And eating a vegan burger may well entail more emissions being produced than would be the case with some other burgers. It depends on the energy required to sustain and process and transport whatever ingredients that go into the vegan burger as opposed to the other burger. That’s not me being anti-vegan or pro-meat. (Hell, I was a vegan for quite a number of years back in the 80s and a vegetarian for some years after).

My point is that if we are going to be serious about global warming then we can’t swan around spouting the type of bullshit the Guardian’s Environment Editor is spouting. Eat vegan food or vegetarian food or whatever. It’s not a bad thing to do. But eat the stuff with eyes wide open and not with a side-helping of virtuous “silver bullet” sauce.

The bottom line is that energy derived from fossil must be eradicated from all of our ways of living and all of our industrial and agricultural processes. Eating vegan or vegetarian food doesn’t do that. Removing fossil on the other hand, will push the necessary adaptations in the global food system and elsewhere.

Promoting “consumer choice” as a solution to AGW is an excuse for systemic inaction. Don’t buy it.

23 comments on “No sense, nonsense and a dearth of common sense. ”

  1. Sabine 1

    How about people actually don’t want to change.
    They don’t want to give up the super big truck, even tho they only drive to work with it.
    They don’t want to give up cheap plastic junk, cause that is all they got at the end of the day to make them feel good about ….something.
    They don’t want to give up cheap meat, cause it is cheaper then the veggies in the supermarkets who taste like nothing, often are close to rotting and are too expensive.
    They don’t want to give up their Friday night beersies and town going, new top bought just for that occasion..
    They don’t want to give up their cheap flights to go … somewhere.
    They don’t want to give up Macca’s cause chances are that for many it is the only ‘dine out’ they can afford.

    Really,t people, even many here on hte standard don’t want to change, if anything they want to go back to the good ole day of plenty, where the misery ,that we and especially our youngsters will suffer, has started. Cause they still feel entitled to what generations before them had, never mind the pollution and inequality that even existed then, plus the lack of regulations.

    Its in the too hard basket, or depending where you live, literally in the not possible basket.

    When people start framing what needs to be done in terms that most ordinary people can actually do, i.e. omnivore, eat locally, eat seasonally, eat less, i.e. take the bus/tram/train/walk/cycle – but only of course if you have the infrastructure, then maybe you can have a change, Also make it cheap as chips, like literally use the bus, 50 bucks the monthly ticket, and then watch people take the bus. Not Mike Hoskins of course, you will have to pry the keys to his Maserati out of his dead hands, but everyone else might just think that is cheap. We don’t need five cars per family.

    But until then, i venture a guess, most people would not know how to start. And obviously walking from South Auckland to the min wage job down town is not gonna work. Right? And the bus costs you nigh on 15 bucks one way, so that ain’t gonna work either, right?

    As for veganism, or any other extreme culinary experience, maybe we have become so spoiled that literally we can afford to be picky about what we eat. What i would like to know, without imports of many ‘vegan’ foods, and the likes, would that be a livestyle that can be lived here in NZ year round without issues to the body? But do we need to grow anymore cows? No, no we don’t. Absolutely not. We need to go back to producing our requirements locally, preferably as organic as can be, and eat seasonally. I don’t need to have a strawberry pavlova in July.

    But to demand of anyone who is not at least solidly middle class with ‘spending money’ to actually change their habits? I think that is a bit far fetched.

    maybe we should ask people if they really need to pull a boat across the island to go pollute someone elses river/lake. maybe this is where we should start. Make the excesses of the likes of Hoskins with his Maseratis un-fashionable and an object of ridicule, rather then expect someone who lives in a Food free zone in the outer rings of town to show better eating habits and take the bus to work.

    Also i would like a second hand mall as they have in Finland. A hole Mall with shops that are all pre-used, re-cycled, up-cycled and returned to the consuming masses.
    We need smart solutions that ordinary people, with the little bit of energy, time and money left at the end of the day can support.

    Everything else is just virtue signalling for the sake of virtue signalling.

    • Cinny 1.1

      “Also i would like a second hand mall as they have in Finland. A hole Mall with shops that are all pre-used, re-cycled, up-cycled and returned to the consuming masses.
      We need smart solutions that ordinary people, with the little bit of energy, time and money left at the end of the day can support. ”

      That sounds awesome.

      Christmas is just around the corner, and this year our family will be gifting 2nd hand, upcycled or homemade presents. It’s way more fun and better for the planet.

    • Bill 1.2

      Obviously most people resist making the necessary changes. If that wasn’t the case, we’d have made the changes already. Although, to be fair, seeing as how we’re locked in at the structural level, it simply isn’t possible to go “carbon zero” at the level of an individual – everything we buy has a carbon component built in because of how we derive the energy used for production and distribution.

      So we need a hard sinking cap on fossil, and there is no reason, beyond the stupid ideology of the economics that brought us to this point in the first place, why fossil subjected to a hard sinking cap can’t be available for free (thus ensuring equity).

      Basically, we can be fossil free in whatever space of time we choose if we adopt the mechanism of a hard sinking cap. And individuals, agriculture and industry will have precisely that same amount of time to adapt to doing whatever is done in the context of a fossil free world.

      It’s not complicated.

      On the other hand, we can run around like headless chooks flapping on about how anything and everything bar dumping fossil will somehow save the day.

      • greywarshark 1.2.1

        A hard sinking cap. How would we implement that? Can it be done nationwide only, or begun at least in one country and then picked up by others? Are countries already starting to operate this policy? Which?

        • Bill 1.2.1.1

          I’ve done posts on it. (For example here and here)

          New Zealand, by virtue of being an island nation, is one of a few places that can do it unilaterally and set an example for the international community to follow.

          At the time I did the posts, the cost of government buying all of the petrol and diesel used in NZ was about the same as what the government had set aside for buying carbon credits – so do-able. (NZ$2 billion in the first year and, obviously, ever less in subsequent years)

          My suggestion was and is that we use current distribution networks and with the addition of some simple software to “run” the hard sinking cap alongside already existing ‘flow rate’ software on pumps, people then access their requirements for free.

          Business that wishes to survive would do well to take any shot term savings from such a scenario and invest those savings in non-fossil sources of energy.

          • greywarshark 1.2.1.1.1

            If we cut out the free, which is idealistic, we can still get a message over that we have to limit our use of reducing resources but also that there iare increasing levels of climate changing emissions. Making something free doesn’t get people on the right track.

            Can we start handing out information at the petrol pumps, put it on a voucher that will help pay for some local project of value?

            • Bill 1.2.1.1.1.1

              What’s idealistic about free? It’s not in tune with economic thinking (if that’s not an oxymoron), but there’s nothing idealistic about it.

              It ensures equity. It frees up money for business and what not to adapt. It’s a practical way forward that merely severs the binds to an economic dogma that insists everything must have a monetary value attached to it.

      • Sabine 1.2.2

        i am not running, but then i don’t expect miracles from people who already have nothing.

        Those of us that could afford to make changes are the ones making the least. Be that by degree of government or individual choices of the people.
        This is like expecting the people in the developing world to cut their emissions while the first world drives SUVs to the dairy for a bottle of milk. Nonsense.

        We need to come up with solutions that people can actually work with.

        i.e. in smaller communities not every one has a car, not everyone can afford a car, but chances are most everyone will need a car at some stage, so everyone has one car or several. Currently you are to go into debt buying that car, hope to everything that is holy that you wont be stopped with out Rego/WOF, and that you have enough pennies putting in enough gasoline to get you where you need and back.
        Solution: A community car or three. A community carpark – locked if you like, and a membership stipend. Thus the car is bought for a charity/org, is run maintained via memebership fees, and if you need a car, you can book yourself into that day. Imagine all the free space as no one needs three car parks/or a three car garage anymore.
        A good way to take cars of the road that should not be there in the first place.

        Currently a nice thing going on are Community Fruit Stalls, people growing veggies leave their surplus there, for everyone to take.

        We can not be ‘fossil free’ until we talk about how we are going to be fossil free.
        You still need electricity, you still need heating, you still need a form of transport.
        So how about we talk about not the need for public transport but the effect it would have if done well.

        As i said, put a law out that forbids the towing of recreational boats on our tiny roads to rural areas to pollute rivers and lakes there. Essentially, store your boat there, by the lake/river, or rent a boat there by hte lake / river, but do not truck it 300 k ms down on friday to truck it back up 300 kms on Sunday. This is the excess that could should stop immediatly. The poor person in Huntley is not gonna give up their cars they need to go work/shop, if the rich fuck from AKL/WLGTN/Qtwn etc continue their excesses without reprimand.

        It took me 5 years to talk my partner out of buying a MacMansion. Why? Cause that is what is build, this is ‘his kiwi dream’ etc. Now we own a 50 sqm two bedroom unit, brick n tile, insulated, with more garden then house. He can’t begin to understand why ever he wanted one of the big things. I never saw any attraction in them to begin with.
        20 Years ago people laughed at me and my bicycle, could not understand that i walked to work, that i always lived closed to work – but it be cheaper elsehwere …..no it isn’t, and now i see that people are finally coming to my point of few. That a car is not a need, but only ever a want. The family car is serving as a Community Car. It is old, cheap, and it provides transport to people that don’t have any.

        WE have solutions, we just need to bend our mind around, not the negative impact it would have , but the positive impact it will have.

        As for doom and gloom, at the end of our lives we will die. Be that man made or because we run out of time, its still all the same.

        • greywarshark 1.2.2.1

          Great ideas Sabine. And good end point. And doing something towards being a good citizen, is good for oneself, and sets example, and can build in numbers.

        • Bill 1.2.2.2

          We can not be ‘fossil free’ until we talk about how we are going to be fossil free.

          Maybe you missed the past decades of talking and meeting and talking some more that have produced zero action? (Global emissions are rising year on year).

          We find out how we operate in a different environment by entering that new environment – by, in this case, incrementally creating that new environment. And we create it by diminishing our use of fossil at a rate commensurate with the best scientific knowledge and data we have.

          Or we can allow politicians wanking on about carbon prices and what not to effectively throw the poor under the bus.

          • Sabine 1.2.2.2.1

            i honestly don’t give a shit about polititians talking. That is literally all they do with very little to show for.

            WE – the people – need to come to grips that literally it is up to us to bring about change. And WE – the people – will have to get out of our cars, and of our high lofted ideas of what others should do – and start doing it ourself.

            So again, how would you bring about ‘power down’ if you still need electricity, gasoline, and the likes, because literally no one is changing a thing.

            you are writing the same thing over and over again, but what do you want to do, what would you be happy to do, cause our poor are already under the bus, and so are you and i and everyone else who does not own million dollar properties and bankaccounts hoping that that is enough to insulate them from the coming shit storm.

            • Bill 1.2.2.2.1.1

              New Zealand is going to have to commit to reducing fossil use by about 10% per year. That incrementally creates the environment we incrementally adapt to. (There’s nothing to be gained in “talking” before acting – it just pushes things back)

              I already produce 5/8ths of sfa carbon as an individual. But that counts for nothing given that the problem sits at a structural level and not at an individual level.

              If NZ got its shit together, then my carbon footprint, along with that of many other poorer people in NZ, would likely and properly rise in the short term. (ie – there’s a certain amount of carbon embedded in the necessary housing upgrades that poorer people need in order to have lower fuel/energy use in the longer term)

    • Brutus Iscariot 1.3

      His name is HOSKING.

      What is it with Kiwis and name malapropisms? Can’t remember how many times i heard JK referred to as “KEYS”. Do we have some tic where we need to insert random S’s into people’s names?

    • Draco T Bastard 1.4

      Also make it cheap as chips, like literally use the bus, 50 bucks the monthly ticket, and then watch people take the bus.

      Public transport needs to be free. But then you’ll get the ignoramuses that want to be in their own car in their own world complaining that they’re subsidising everyone else through their rates while they had to pay for their cars. Which they actually would be but it’s their choice to have a car and all the added expenses to go with it. If they didn’t want to subsidise everyone else then they should just take public transport.

      Cars need to be made far more expensive as well.

      But to demand of anyone who is not at least solidly middle class with ‘spending money’ to actually change their habits?

      The way to do it is to make imports far more expensive. Not through any regulation but through the exchange rate. In fact, that’s what a floating exchange rate is for. We’ve had trading deficits for decades which means that the NZ$ should be through the floor. We actually shouldn’t be able to import from China ATM.

      If we allowed that to happen (or, better, actually had our dollar floating with regards to trade flows) we’d have the RWNJs here demanding that the market not be allowed to function because it’d be an effective pay cut for everyone.

      maybe we should ask people if they really need to pull a boat across the island to go pollute someone elses river/lake.

      In a market economy the idea would be to ensure that the costs of polluting fall fully upon the polluter. In other words, being able to do that would cost too much for anyone to actually do it.

      We had Wayne Mapp telling us how cars are a symbol of how wealthy we are a few months back.

      • Sabine 1.4.1

        i tend to agree with most of what you say.

        not sure if you can get things to be ‘free’ considering that they have a cost, but public transport should be run as a Not for Profit. Any money made needs to be reinvested in full to maintain the fleet, upgrade the fleet and upgrade the grid that gets the service.

        Of course Wayne Mapp would tell us that cars are a symbol of wealth, to be honest, most of us can’t afford them, so they are bought on tick – thanks to ‘finance’, badly maintained, often not wof’d nor rego’d, and only with as much gasoline as one would need.
        But cars are also a testament to how lazy, fat and uninspired our society has become, if cars are still a symbol of wealth as they were in the late sixties and early seventies.

  2. greywarshark 2

    Good thoughtful piece Bill. Does it mean that we will have to face counting miles approach in Brit supermarkets. Won’t we be able to export – little or nothing? We have to think as changes will happen. Can’t rely on Australia as co-operative partner, facing the future friends shoulder to shoulder. We are being shouldered out at present.

    • Bill 2.1

      If we need to bring fossil use down by 10% per year over x number of years to get to zero carbon from energy soon enough that we might limit warming to 2 degrees (which we do), then we have that same span of time in which to figure a way to produce stuff and send it half way around the world without using fossil.

      Alternatively, we can ignore the elephant and get stomped by climate changes that will render a lot of current production simply impossible.

      At the moment, the political and business world are pursuing the second option – trying to maintain “business as usual” and hoping for some kind of a miracle to pop up and take away global warming and any resultant climate change.

      It’s a course that doesn’t drop us off at any nice destination.

  3. WeTheBleeple 3

    Everybody talking, very few acting. We WANT this, but we’re waiting for leadership. Stop waiting and be the leader. Humans seem to fear being seen as stupid or wrong more than unimaginable hardship and death… Vanity and ego have to go.

    You are either scared, or deluded, being: insane… or ill informed. There are no other options.

    Your lawn is a fossil fuel sink. Try a rebellious planet saving act and turn it into food, medicine, fuel and flowers. Start today.

    Your food is shipped all over the world and sprayed with all manner of poisons. Think of your garden as the new main supplier of your diet, and the supermarket as your supplement. Now, keep that in mind and work towards it.

    Your body is a tool. Get fit again. Walk, bike, garden, breathe. All of these exercises can help your mental health as well as the planet. And if you’ve been paying attention, your mental health could do with the support.

    Your children are your legacy. Save them, or kiss them goodbye as selfishness will ultimately wipe your genetic line off the face of the planet.

    This is not a drill.

    • Robert Guyton 3.1

      Biogym, WTB. That’s what gardening is, a free-to-use, all weather, multi-base biogym where your whole self; body, mind and other bits, can recreate their worn-thin-by-civilization, selves. I recommend buying nothing in preparation for your sessions in the biogym; no devices or tools, no special clothing or shoes, just keep it simple, loose and practical. Biogyms are typically cheap to operate; the floors are self-cleaning, the air changes without fans or conditioners, anything you break will self-replicate and any minor damage you do to your body while you’re building yourself up; cuts and scratches, bumps and bruises etc. can all be mended with what’s at hand; plantain for cuts and stings, comfrey for sprains, willow bark for headaches, horehound for sore throats, elecampane for coughs and wheezes and so on. Biogym! It’s new! It’s you!

      • WeTheBleeple 3.1.1

        Today’s Biogym involves a weed whacker! Electric… to do the last vestiges of lawn, now paths between raised gardens, out front. It is a work in progress, this war on lawn. Then, it’s half a dozen sets of wheelbarrow wheeling down to make mulch mounds and stuff tomato cuttings in them.

        I’m trying to fool the general populace with a landscaped ‘bark garden’ look out front. It is the storm hit sweetgum logs now used as garden surrounds and a dozen productive trees planted in its mulch. While I love a wild look, a lot of people can’t handle it as they don’t understand it…

        Part of my mission, then, is to make sustainable gardening/permaculture more palatable. The front draws compliments from random strangers, a very low maintenance (cept those pesky lawn paths) highly productive set of gardens. Log surrounds, chip mulch, fruit and native trees, and a smorgasbord of flowers, berries and veg beneath. A stump with a bowl carved out for a birdbath. A random log lying in some mulch to break it up. Rectangles, a square, a triangle…

        Beautiful, yet not out of place in a suburb.

        The back is being converted to food forest, slowly but surely. So the section is a mullet. Business up front party in the rear. I hope to be able to present several types of garden design on the one section to give people more ideas/inspiration. A more formal landscape look, a cottage garden look, and a food forest.

        I must say, your articles have made me think a lot. This is a good effect aye. There’s only so much leaving it to nature I’ll be doing with the light hogging canopy of 15 m tree privet down back. Some will get coppiced, all will get cut down to size. Hugelkultur, borders, firewood, vine frames, mulch… I’ll make do. I think I can run vines on the coppiced specimens and bring down the food/wood harvests simultaneously. I want to lop them in autumn for the winter light so it works well in that regard. No trees come down till I have replacements though.

        When going for a tidier look, one rule of thumb you’ve probably figured out: Add more flowers. This simple rule can make a drab landscape pop.

        • WeTheBleeple 3.1.1.1

          “There’s only so much leaving it to nature”

          It’s ironic I said that just this morning. I dutifully barrowed down a load of mulch and dropped it where I’d deemed a good spot for tomatoes. I started to shape a mound and saw, only two feet away, five wild tomato volunteers.

          I could have been drinking lemonade on the couch…

          I pampered my new wild friends snipping the young nightshade out with fingernails and placing mulch all around the toms. I’ll still put some other varieties on the spot I’d spotted. I will laugh if the wild ones do better.

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    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
    1 day 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 ...
    1 day 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 ...
    1 day 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
    4 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
    4 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
  • Two bar blues
    The thing about life’s little victories is that they can be followed by a defeat.Reader Darryl told me on Monday night:Test again Dave. My “head cold” last week became COVID within 24 hours, and is still with me. I hear the new variants take a bit longer to show up ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    6 days ago
  • Bernard's Top 10 @ 10 'pick 'n' mix' for March 13
    TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: Angus Deaton on rethinking his economics IMFLocal scoop: The people behind Tamarind, the firm that left a $500m cleanup bill for taxpayers at Taranaki’s Tui oil well, are back operating in Taranaki under a different company name. Jonathan ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    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
    4 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
    6 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
    7 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
    20 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
    Tēna koutou katoa. Greetings everyone. Thank you to the Auckland Chamber of Commerce and the Honourable Simon Bridges for hosting this address today. I acknowledge the business leaders in this room, the leaders and governors, the employers, the entrepreneurs, the investors, and the wealth creators. The coalition Government shares your ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    3 days ago
  • Singapore rounds out regional trip
    Minister Winston Peters completed the final leg of his visit to South and South East Asia in Singapore today, where he focused on enhancing one of New Zealand’s indispensable strategic partnerships.      “Singapore is our most important defence partner in South East Asia, our fourth-largest trading partner and a ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    4 days ago
  • Minister van Velden represents New Zealand at International Democracy Summit
    Minister of Internal Affairs and Workplace Relations and Safety, Hon. Brooke van Velden, will travel to the Republic of Korea to represent New Zealand at the Third Summit for Democracy on 18 March. The summit, hosted by the Republic of Korea, was first convened by the United States in 2021, ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    4 days ago
  • Insurance Council of NZ Speech, 7 March 2024, Auckland
    ICNZ Speech 7 March 2024, Auckland  Acknowledgements and opening  Mōrena, ngā mihi nui. Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho.  Good morning, it’s a privilege to be here to open the ICNZ annual conference, thank you to Mark for the Mihi Whakatau  My thanks to Tim Grafton for inviting me ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    4 days ago
  • Five-year anniversary of Christchurch terror attacks
    Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Lead Coordination Minister Judith Collins have expressed their deepest sympathy on the five-year anniversary of the Christchurch terror attacks. “March 15, 2019, was a day when families, communities and the country came together both in sorrow and solidarity,” Mr Luxon says.  “Today we pay our respects to the 51 shuhada ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    4 days ago
  • Speech for Financial Advice NZ Conference 5 March 2024
    Speech for Financial Advice NZ Conference 5 March 2024  Acknowledgements and opening  Morena, Nga Mihi Nui.  Ko Andrew Bayly aho, Nor Whanganui aho. Thanks Nate for your Mihi Whakatau  Good morning. It’s a pleasure to formally open your conference this morning. What a lovely day in Wellington, What a great ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    4 days ago
  • Early visit to Indonesia strengthens ties
    Foreign Minister Winston Peters held discussions in Jakarta today about the future of relations between New Zealand and South East Asia’s most populous country.   “We are in Jakarta so early in our new government’s term to reflect the huge importance we place on our relationship with Indonesia and South ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    5 days ago
  • China Foreign Minister to visit
    Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters has announced that the Foreign Minister of China, Wang Yi, will visit New Zealand next week.  “We look forward to re-engaging with Foreign Minister Wang Yi and discussing the full breadth of the bilateral relationship, which is one of New Zealand’s ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    5 days ago
  • Minister opens new Auckland Rail Operations Centre
    Transport Minister Simeon Brown has today opened the new Auckland Rail Operations Centre, which will bring together KiwiRail, Auckland Transport, and Auckland One Rail to improve service reliability for Aucklanders. “The recent train disruptions in Auckland have highlighted how important it is KiwiRail and Auckland’s rail agencies work together to ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    5 days ago
  • Celebrating 10 years of Crankworx Rotorua
    The Government is proud to support the 10th edition of Crankworx Rotorua as the Crankworx World Tour returns to Rotorua from 16-24 March 2024, says Minister for Economic Development Melissa Lee.  “Over the past 10 years as Crankworx Rotorua has grown, so too have the economic and social benefits that ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    5 days ago
  • Government delivering on tax commitments
    Legislation implementing coalition Government tax commitments and addressing long-standing tax anomalies will be progressed in Parliament next week, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The legislation is contained in an Amendment Paper to the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill issued today.  “The Amendment Paper represents ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    5 days ago
  • Significant Natural Areas requirement to be suspended
    Associate Environment Minister Andrew Hoggard has today announced that the Government has agreed to suspend the requirement for councils to comply with the Significant Natural Areas (SNA) provisions of the National Policy Statement for Indigenous Biodiversity for three years, while it replaces the Resource Management Act (RMA).“As it stands, SNAs ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    5 days ago
  • Government classifies drought conditions in Top of the South as medium-scale adverse event
    Agriculture Minister Todd McClay has classified the drought conditions in the Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts as a medium-scale adverse event, acknowledging the challenging conditions facing farmers and growers in the district. “Parts of Marlborough, Tasman, and Nelson districts are in the grip of an intense dry spell. I know ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    5 days ago
  • Government partnership to tackle $332m facial eczema problem
    The Government is helping farmers eradicate the significant impact of facial eczema (FE) in pastoral animals, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced.  “A $20 million partnership jointly funded by Beef + Lamb NZ, the Government, and the primary sector will save farmers an estimated NZD$332 million per year, and aims to ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    5 days ago
  • NZ, India chart path to enhanced relationship
    Foreign Minister Winston Peters has completed a successful visit to India, saying it was an important step in taking the relationship between the two countries to the next level.   “We have laid a strong foundation for the Coalition Government’s priority of enhancing New Zealand-India relations to generate significant future benefit for both countries,” says Mr Peters, ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    5 days ago
  • Ruapehu Alpine Lifts bailout the last, say Ministers
    Cabinet has agreed to provide $7 million to ensure the 2024 ski season can go ahead on the Whakapapa ski field in the central North Island but has told the operator Ruapehu Alpine Lifts it is the last financial support it will receive from taxpayers. Cabinet also agreed to provide ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    6 days ago
  • Govt takes action to drive better cancer services
    Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says the launch of a new mobile breast screening unit in Counties Manukau reinforces the coalition Government’s commitment to drive better cancer services for all New Zealanders. Speaking at the launch of the new mobile clinic, Dr Reti says it’s a great example of taking ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    6 days ago
  • Govt takes action to drive better cancer services
    Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says the launch of a new mobile breast screening unit in Counties Manukau reinforces the coalition Government’s commitment to drive better cancer services for all New Zealanders. Speaking at the launch of the new mobile clinic, Dr Reti says it’s a great example of taking ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    6 days ago
  • Work begins on SH29 upgrades near Tauriko
    Unlocking economic growth and land for housing are critical elements of the Government’s plan for our transport network, and planned upgrades to State Highway 29 (SH29) near Tauriko will deliver strongly on those priorities, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “The SH29 upgrades near Tauriko will improve safety at the intersections ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    6 days ago
  • Work begins on SH29 upgrades near Tauriko
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  • Statement to the 68th United Nations Commission on the Status of Women
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