Open mike 02/06/2022

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, June 2nd, 2022 - 139 comments
Categories: open mike - Tags:


Open mike is your post.

For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose.

The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy).

Step up to the mike …

139 comments on “Open mike 02/06/2022 ”

  1. Jimmy 1

    I'm glad I don't live in South Auckland. It's like the wild west now.

    At least there were no ram raids last night.

    Auckland shootings: Person reportedly injured in drive-by shooting overnight – NZ Herald

  2. Sanctuary 2

    I guess the verdict in the Depp vs. Heard is a warning that fame, hubris and believing your own bullshit sometimes won't save you from a jury.

    I have no doubt that Heard and Depp had an absolutely awful time together, but quite why they simply can't admit it was a disastrous decision to get married, that they both went places they didn't think they were capable of going and just flush the dunny, take the lessons and move on older, wiser and a bit sadder I don't know. Now Heard will be forever championed as a victim by every freaking middle class postmodern feminist with a newspaper column and Depp will be legally vindicated, but never quite rehabilitated. Mud sticks, where there is smoke there is fire, etc etc etc.

    But both of them are now reputationally ruined and will probably never find really lucrative work again. Everyone lost except the lawyers and the media circus reporting on it.

    Is it too long a bow to connect this with this story and lament that we live in a world where it is always someone else's fault for your acts of commission or omission?

    • Belladonna 2.1

      Agree. I have champions on both sides in my family.
      I've resorted to the response, that I think they both behaved badly in the relationship, and I don't see any need for the media to report on the details of that behaviour – nor do I want to know!

      And in relation to the Otago incident:

      While I would like more ‘joined up’ care of the elderly – it is indeed challenging when there are multiple agencies involved – none of whom talk to each other, and all of whom rely on an often elderly, unwell or confused, patient to co-ordinate the care.

      The excuse of ‘privacy legislation’ has a lot to answer for.

      In this case, the daughter is clearly deflecting from the evident fact that neither she nor any other family member made any effort to contact her mother, or sound the alarm, in the weeks after she left hospital.
      It’s always easiest to blame ‘somebody else’

    • SPC 2.2

      I have not followed the court case. I am only aware it was 5 men and 2 women that made the decision to decide she defamed him by accusing him of domestic abuse and that this was malicious. Which means she is now bankrupt.

      Being an angry drunk is not domestic abuse but just cause for a divorce.

      I think an industry critic put it best, his career was already effectively over because he turned up at work not knowing his lines and getting angry on set.

      I don't know if feminists will champion Heard as a victim, but they will be more wary of the law being used to silence women who make claims about abuse.

      In Sweden there were a dozen cases where women who made public assault accusations were put on trial, and all were convicted.

      https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2022/05/06/in-sweden-defamation-claims-against-metoo-raise-fears-of-a-return-to-the-culture-of-silence_5982637_4.html

      https://www.europenowjournal.org/2020/03/09/saying-metoo-in-the-swedish-legal-system-the-importance-of-believing-women/

      https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/03/15/opinion/cissi-wallin-fredrik-virtanen-metoo-sweden.html

    • Chris T 2.3

      I hadn't actually followed it that much, but from the little I did see it was kind of obvious while he might be considered a bit of a weirdo by some, she could equally be considered a bit of a nutbar. (I am in the later camp btw. She obviously has issues)

      Wouldn't have wanted to be on a jury dealing in a case with 2 actors. Their living is making people believe they are not who they are. We are talking about a dude who made it look right there would be a dude with scissors for hands.

      I think at the end of the day the right decision was made, but she ain't going to do their careers any favours. Though he will probably still be alright, as he is a money drawing machine.

      If it were me and I was Depp and worth, even after throwing away so much money, and still worth 150 – 250 million would say "Keep the cash. I don't want to make you destitute", just to rub it in.

    • Tony 2.4

      Sanctuary says .. both of them are reputationally ruined and will probably never find really lucrative work again .. ha ha ha ha, thanks for the giggle at your ignorant statement. Did you not read the news that Tim Burton, Martin Scorsese and Quenton Tarintino are all lining up to get Mr Depp in their next movies?

  3. Adrian Thornton 3

    I wonder how many of this woman’s outrageous unverified propaganda stories our local war promotors Joe 90, Jenny How to get There and others have gleefully covered these pages with?…quite a few I would imagine….. some of these Standard commentators would do themselves this site and the cause of the Ukrainian people a service, if they closely read and take note of some of the contents of the open letter published by Ukrainian media on the subject of propaganda…some of which is pasted below.

    Ukraine Official Fired Over Handling of Russian Sexual Assault Claims

    "The move to dismiss Denisova came after outrage about the wording used in public reports about alleged sexual assaults committed by Russians, as well as the alleged dissemination in those reports of unverified information"

    "Ukrainian media outlets and journalists signed an open letter in which they requested that reports concerning rape and sexual assault be "published with caution,"

    ""it is important to understand that sexual crimes during war are an instrument of genocide, an instrument of waging war without rules, but they cannot serve as illustrative material to inflame the emotions of the audience."

    “one member of the Ukrainian parliament, Pavlo Frolov, provided a number of reasons why Denisova was removed, including “the numerous details of ‘unnatural sexual offenses’ and child sexual abuses in the occupied territories, which were unsupported by evidence and only harmed Ukraine.”

    https://www.newsweek.com/lyudmila-denisova-ukraine-commissioner-human-rights-removed-russian-sexual-assault-claims-1711680

    [stop taking pot shots at other commenters. You’ve already been warned about this. Next time you can expect a ban. If you can’t stick to the politics then you will lose your commenting privileges. Personally, I’m also sick of your patronising tone. – weka]

    • RedLogix 3.1

      Shows the Ukrainian govt authorities have a good deal more integrity and probity than than Russia – whose state run media pundits are routinely talking up in the most grotesque, irresponsible terms nuclear attack on NATO.

    • weka 3.2

      mod note.

    • weka 3.3

      and to focus your mind, the conversation in the backend will now be about how long a ban. Last ban for the same thing was only a month ago, and it was for a week. You seem to be ignoring moderation, so my feeling is to give a much longer educational ban and so mods can stop wasting our time on this.

      You are a long term commenter here, you know how the place works. Stop attacking or taking potshots at other commenters (hint: just stop talking about other commenters altogether), stick to the politics. Pay attention to what moderators says. If you are unclear, ask for clarification. Reread the Policy (top of the page).

      • Adrian Thornton 3.3.1

        OK fair enough I will take that on board…a question for you though.. doesn’t concern you that some very regular people here on TS, almost every day copy and paste wholly unsubstituted stories (propaganda) on the Ukraine conflict? and it is often of a revolting nature. And so lazily done, that they just paste up tweets straight from people like Lyudmila Denisova without a thought or bothering to take even a moment to check its authenticity….or a thought to the integrity of TS platform for that matter.
        I have often asked these people for verification to the claims,, but of course am just ignored.

        BTW my email address looks to be correct.

        • DB Brown 3.3.1.1

          'integrity' laugh

          He who claimed victimhood over my calling him names repeatedly continues his name calling and attempts at calling out all who oppose his obsessional unwavering dedication to HIS TRUTH AND ONLY HIS TRUTH.

          Which is something like: Russia's OK, just roll over and expose your belly.

          When I'm grasping for straws there's generally a milkshake at hand.

          • weka 3.3.1.1.1

            did you see the bit about not attacking other commenters? That applies to everyone. Give it a rest, the mods have this in hand.

          • Adrian Thornton 3.3.1.1.2

            @DB Brown…I have never in my life claimed victimhood on anything, anywhere at any time…so how about you put up a link.
            You are probably referring to the time when you began swearing at me on this site one evening….almost like that evening you really liked that DB Brown just a bit to much.
            I actually thought that was pretty funny.

            [no way am I spending time today on a flame war. I told you to focus on the politics and not the other commenters. You can clearly see that I told DB to leave it alone, yet here you are poking it with a stick. You appear to not understand what is happening here, but I am sick of explaining it and you’ve been told in the past. One month ban. – weka]

            • weka 3.3.1.1.2.1

              mod note. My very strong suggestion is you pay attention to what mods are saying to you and consider what this site is for.

        • joe90 3.3.1.2

          Here ya go.

          /

          Russian state outlet TASS reported Monday that an initial cargo of 2,700 tonnes of Ukrainian steel would be shipped some 100 miles from Mariupol to the Russian port of Rostov-on-Don. No commercial transaction or payment for the cargo was mentioned; the nearest producer, Mariupol's massive Azovstal plant, was destroyed and seized after a monthslong siege.

          Metinvest, the Ukrainian owner and operator of Azovstal, has accused Russian forces of stealing its products from the seaport.

          https://www.maritime-executive.com/article/russian-state-media-confirms-extraction-of-grain-steel-from-ukraine

          https://rossaprimavera-ru.translate.goog/news/6213fe34?_x_tr_sl=ru&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=sc

          • weston 3.3.1.2.1

            Did you see this joe ? from your link , The Truman Show very interesting article concerning the fantasy concoction part of the Ukraine story .

            https://rossaprimavera-ru.translate.goog/article/6453b6f5?utm_source=widget&_x_tr_sl=ru&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=sc

            • Joe90 3.3.1.2.1.1

              And the relevance to the innate corruption and dishonesty of the Russian invaders is…?

              • weston

                Relevance ? What was the relevance of your comment in the first place ?oh right russians are thieves etc etc etc etc etc kinda boring joe .Pretty obvious the russians having just got the port open again wouldve just loaded the first ship with anything they could find lying around and in that regard they wouldve been able to find any amount of scrap steel if once upon a time it belonged to the ukrainians id say it was the least of their worries !

                The point about the article The Truman Show is that it completely dissects the whole Zelensky fantasy show revealing the shabby truth behind the facade of course its just one persons opinion but the author obviously knows his stuff and presents a very compelling and imo far more ' relevant ' take than yours for example.

                Thanks for the link much obliged !!

        • weka 3.3.1.3

          I don't follow the Russian invasion of the Ukraine discussions, including on TS, so I literally don't know what you are talking about. If you have a problem you want to point out to the mods, then explain it clearly and provide direct links.

          If instead you are saying that people on TS post politics that you disagree with, welcome to the club, we're all in that position. This is the point of TS. Authors put up posts, people get to discuss that, we have a robust debate ethic which means that people can argue hard. We have some rules around providing evidence for claims of fact, but people are free to express their opinion about whatever they choose.

          If you believe that something someone has posted has no basis on fact, then the mahi is for you to demonstrate how. Put up your own arguments, your own links and explain what is wrong with someone's argument.

          (saying that someone's source is inauthentic isn't enough, you have to explain how)

          If you find people are ignoring you, perhaps consider that this is at least in part related to your own behaviours. The patronising tone I've mentioned, and the attacking people. Calling people lazy. And so on.

    • aj 3.4

      It's hard to know how deep the manipulation of public discourse is. The bottom has never been found.

      Last night, @BBCRadio4 aired a documentary which repeatedly accused me and other academics of spreading Russian disinformation.
      In a glaring and twisted irony, this amounted to an apparent smear operation that would not seem out of place on Kremlin media. Here’s why…

      After all, there is such a thing as truth ~ Victor Serge

      https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1531889802001391616.html

    • Jenny how to get there 3.5

      Adrian Thornton

      2 June 2022 at 8:11 am

      I wonder how many of this woman’s outrageous unverified propaganda Fastories our local war promotors Joe 90, Jenny How to get There…..

      No need to wonder any more Adrian, I can tell you exactly how many. For me, personally, exactly zero.
      Because of the 'Fog Of War', because I know propaganda is tool of war for all sides.
      I have deliberately avoided discussions of atrocities which are disputed, For instance I have never got involved in the disputes over the alleged massacre In Bucha.
      And instead have concentrated on evidence that can't be disputed or denied. Like for instance the destruction of Homs, and I have put up this evidence and asked the question of apologists for Russian and Assad atrocities, if this is not evidence of genocide? Not one of you have ever had the courage to venture an opinion.

      Putting up evidence of blasted cities, evidence which cannot be denied, or explained away, or excused, is always met with silence.

      Only recently have I strayed from this policy. It was after I saw the video and read the evidence of the Tadamon massacre. And immediately I realised that the evidence of this act of genocide, like the flattening of cities, was also irrefutable.

      The Tadamon Massacre…

      Amnesty International. Posted 14 May 2022 1:38pm
      By Kristvan Benedict

      By Mansour Omari

      …When a leaked video of a horrific massacre committed in 2013 by Assad regime officials came out on 28 April, I tried to avoid watching it or writing about it. This was impossible. The killings occurred in an area close to where I lived in Damascus. I had to watch it to check if I recognised any victims….

      ….Assad regime officials shot 41 blindfolded, handcuffed men into a pit. Their bodies were set on fire – some were possibly still alive, already in agony from being shot and falling into the death pit. They were set on fire with nowhere to run to and nobody to help them….

      ….The first victim to be recognised and confirmed by his family was Wasim Siyam, a Syrian-Palestinian baker from Yarmouk camp in Damascus, married with two daughters.

      https://www.amnesty.org.uk/blogs/campaigns-blog/tadamon-massacre-six-minutes-shocked-nation

      I have only one message that I want you, and the others like you to hear, Adrian. They are the words spoken by the Russian speaking villagers of Eastern Ukraine.

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PgmKygmkqSA

      .

  4. Gabby 4

    Doesn't make the Pootinistas the good guys.

    • weka 4.1

      If you change your email address in the field, the system treats you as a new commenter and holds back the comment. Please keep a record of what email address you are using.

      • Gabby 4.1.1

        I think I reentered my usual email address because it was blank. I am an ignoramus in these matters though.

        • weka 4.1.1.1

          you’ve changed your email address (it used to be a shorter version). This is why I said keep a copy, so if you don’t post for a while you can remember what it is. Lots of people use fake addresses, that’s not a problem. Using a new or altered one does what I said above.

    • Adrian Thornton 4.2

      What does that even mean?…and how does that relate in any way to my comment?

      Maybe you meant to say something like this…yes the Russians probably don’t rape babies but you just remember they are still the baddies…

      • Shanreagh 4.2.1

        I read that as a response (from Weka) to Gabby not to Adrian Thornton.

        • weka 4.2.1.1

          people on a mobile can switch to the Desktop version if they want to see comments properly nested and tell who is replying to whom. Link at the bottom of every page.

  5. Joe90 5

    Genocidal thugs are threatening Europe, again.

    https://twitter.com/SenatorMarkDaly/status/1532073563435724800

    Russian parliament member Oleg Matveychev then sent a chilling warning to Poland, declaring its borders would be “worthless” if it chooses to intervene more directly in the conflict.

    https://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/a-real-war-has-started-russian-state-media-warns-nato-nations-against-assisting-ukraine/I6A4PP2CR2I7MM7WCJEAYG5OHM/

  6. ianmac 6

    With the lack of MSM fair coverage of the PM it is refreshing to read Jo Moir's more balanced approach. Her take on the Oval Office visit was a case in point.

    https://www.newsroom.co.nz/the-twists-and-turns-of-six-minutes-in-the-oval-office?utm_source=Friends+of+the+Newsroom&utm_campaign=825adace1a-Daily_Briefing+02.06.2022&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_71de5c4b35-825adace1a-95522477

  7. tsmithfield 7

    A phrase I hear bandied around a lot by mainly left-wing politicians is the phrase "excessive profits".

    I thought what better place to ask the question about how to determine whether profits are "excessive" or not.

    From a right wing perspective, profits reflect factors such as, competition in the market, the need to generate capital for future growth, the need to cover risk, and return on the assets invested compared to less risky options.

    So, one billion in profit might seem like a lot. But, if it is known that the organisation is making that return on $100 billion of invested assets (1% return), and the environment is highly risky, then the organisation may have been better to have not been in the market at all, and have left its money in the bank.

    • weka 7.1

      Profit is for things like

      • covering overheads
      • paying decent wages
      • improving the business
      • having a contingency for emergencies

      I don't get your last paragraph, an example would help. How can excessive be judged out of context?

      • tsmithfield 7.1.1

        The example I gave demonstrates the concept of a "safe"profit.

        So, lets say a business has a profit of $1000 on $50000 turnover. It doesn't take much to go wrong for that profit to be wiped out and switched into a loss. So, profits need to be large enough to account for the risk involved.

        In some markets, where businesses have extremely good controls, and there is a high degree of predictability, then they can likely operate on much lower profit margins because their risk is a lot lower.

        For instance, for all the stick that Supermarkets get, they actually generate very low profits in percentage terms. They aim to make their profits on high volume. The reason they are able to survive on such low margins is that they have such good controls.

        Most smaller businesses wouldn’t have anything like that degree of efficiency, and so would need a much higher profit margin in most cases.

        • Blazer 7.1.1.1

          How would you assess the big banks profits and their cost of.. capital?

          • tsmithfield 7.1.1.1.1

            It looks like banks have fairly thin margins as well.

            I would expect that to be the case as the market is very competitive and banks essentially operate in a cost-plus type environment. So, fixed term loans are backed by the same term loans the banks are financed by, and floating rates adjust automatically.

            And they tend to be larger organisations with strong control structures, so they shouldn't often be hit by unexpected costs that erode their position.

            In the US, the ROE (return on equity) for banks was recently 5.31%.

            https://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/040815/what-level-return-equity-common-company-banking-sector.asp

            So better than “leaving their money in the bank”, especially since they are already banks!!

            • In Vino 7.1.1.1.1.1

              To my mind both banks and supermarkets are highly-evolved versions of that eternal parasite – the clever, sly middleman.

              Squeeze the suppliers, and pay them the least possible. Then squeeze the end-customer so that they pay the most possible.

              Whilst doing so, build a dissembling structure to make it all seem fair, and so disguise the actual profit-gouging.

              Little changes over time…

              • tsmithfield

                So far as supermarkets go, I think we need to change our price expectations as consumers if we want suppliers treated fairly. That implies better prices for suppliers, which means higher prices for consumers.

      • Craig H 7.1.2

        The first two of those have to be covered by revenue rather than profit as they are ongoing expenses. The second two are definitely funded out of profit though. The other main uses for profit are income tax and distribution to owners who normally expect a higher return than term deposit interest rates to make it worth the effort.

        • weka 7.1.2.1

          The first two of those have to be covered by revenue rather than profit as they are ongoing expenses.

          Is that accounting semantics? If a company has money left over, why wouldn't they spend it on increasing wages or extra overheads?

          The second two are definitely funded out of profit though. The other main uses for profit are income tax and distribution to owners who normally expect a higher return than term deposit interest rates to make it worth the effort.

          I was thinking of those as overheads, but I'm not a business person so am probably using the wrong language 🙂

          • Belladonna 7.1.2.1.1

            Is that accounting semantics? If a company has money left over, why wouldn't they spend it on increasing wages or extra overheads?

            Employee salaries are op-ex, because it's a cost of doing business.

            [NB: this is why so many businesses were potentially in strife during the Covid lockdowns, since salaries are paid out of revenue. No money coming in, means no money to pay employees]

            Would the employees be equally keen to have their wages cut if the company isn't doing so well? That's what happens to shareholders – there's no dividend given in a bad year.

            What (I think) you're getting at here is some form of profit sharing model. Where employees share in the overall profit of the company at the end of the financial year. Some firms do this – often through a bonus scheme.

            https://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/010915/how-does-revenue-sharing-work-practice.asp

            • weka 7.1.2.1.1.1

              actually what I meant was that as a business becomes more profitable, it can use some of that profit to pay a higher wage. What I think you are saying is that they shouldn't because it's not income that can be relied upon?

              But yes, definitely sharing profit too, good idea.

              • Belladonna

                Yeah. Profit is not able to be relied on – and doesn't always come in a nice even stream (some months are 'good' for cashflow, others are not) – which makes it very difficult to just raise salaries in the expectation that you'll have a nice EOY result.

                If that's your goal (enabling employees to benefit from the business – when they're increasing the profitability of that business) – then I think that profit sharing is a better methodology.

                • weka

                  👍

                  What's the relationship between profit and revenue? Is profit always the excess that accrues unexpectedly?

                  • Belladonna

                    Stolen definition 🙂

                    Revenue is the total amount of income generated by the sale of goods or services related to the company's primary operations. Profit, which is typically called net profit or the bottom line, is the amount of income that remains after accounting for all expenses, debts, additional income streams, and operating costs.

                    https://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/122214/what-difference-between-revenue-and-profit.asp

                    Profit is the goal of a business (otherwise you might just as well leave the money in the bank, earning passive interest)
                    Any business should be aiming to be profitable: (though startups typically aren’t until multiple years in – they’re earning out their venture capital, and reinvesting in the growth of the business)
                    But the amount of profit can be aimed for, but not guaranteed.

          • Craig H 7.1.2.1.2

            There are two types of accounting profit commonly talked about in analysing business performance, gross profit and net profit, but practically net profit is the aim of business and what is usually being referred to when someone uses the word "profit" in a business context, where your examples leaned more on gross profit.

            To explain, revenue is generally made by selling or leasing something (e.g. goods or services), whether directly to consumers, or to other businesses.

            Whatever that product is, it needs to be sold for more than it cost to make/buy or the business will go under eventually. For a shop, they buy goods for less than they sell them, and we often call the difference between those two figures "the mark-up" if applied to the cost of the product or "margin" if applied to the selling price, and the accounting term for the profit from this is gross profit.

            For example, a dairy buys a box of 24 x 600mL bottles of Coke from Coca-Cola for $2 per bottle = $48 for the box, and sells them for $4 each = $96.

            In this example, the mark-up is 100% of the cost, the margin is 50% of the price, and the gross profit is $2 per bottle = $48 per box.

            For simplicity, this ignores GST, and issues with the stock like waste (e.g. expired product), mistakes (e.g. errors on the till), theft etc.

            Now we pay other expenses like wages and overheads e.g. lease/rental costs, utilities etc. out of the gross profit, and the remainder is net profit. The percentage of net profit compared to revenue is often also called the margin. From net profit, tax is paid, and then we decide what to do with the rest of it (distribute to owners, reinvest in the business, retain as cash buffer etc.).

            This is obviously a highly simplified example, but hopefully helps give an idea.

            • weka 7.1.2.1.2.1

              that's a really good explanation, thanks.

              Where do wages increases fit into that? The gross profit has to be stable enough over time?

              • Craig H

                In a shop, higher wages require one or more of higher gross profit, savings in other expenses, higher productivity and/or lower net profit.

                Higher gross profit can be a result of either or both of:

                • Higher mark-up/margin from higher prices and/or lower costs (e.g. in the above example, Coca-Cola offers a cheap deal or a free box of product)
                • Higher volumes

                Lower expenses is harder, but some examples are shopping around for cheaper utilities or moving location to somewhere with cheaper rent.

                Higher productivity is essentially staff taking less time for the same amount of work/output e.g. installing a self-checkout reduces the staff time required for the same sales, and the savings could be put towards higher wages.

                Lower net profit requires the employer to accept less money which is unlikely but might happen if there is a labour shortage or a union involved.

    • weka 7.2

      this is paywalled, so I can't see the context, but upshot appears to be that gas companies are saying that meeting climate obligations will cost them money. Yes, that's exactly what happens when we spend decades ignoring the advice and cautions. What I want to know is how much profit those companies are making and what is being done with that? Their business model needs to change.

      https://thestandardnz.b-cdn.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/company-profits-climate.jpg

      https://twitter.com/Davidxvx/status/1532113943857991680

      • weka 7.2.1

        I put up this example because it demonstrates a clear conflict between public good and the profit-drive business model. There are people who want to make money even if it costs us everything.

        • pat 7.2.1.1

          Ignore the money for a moment and consider what those assets are…..they underpin our lives currently and remain needed until replaced by something other even if nationalised, and many already are.

          • weka 7.2.1.1.1

            yes. However, at some point the idea that we have to have x service because we already have it, is not going to work. The sooner we talk about that, the better. We have time to change currently (no-one is saying remove all gas this year), but there will come a point when we don't.

            Like the gas companies, we've all had plenty of warning.

            • Poission 7.2.1.1.1.1

              FF for energy and cement production peaked in 2005 and are now at 1986 levels per capita,6.94t (co2 euiv) in 2020 vs 6.94t in 1986.Every wind farmed that has been installed has replaced FF generation.(little excess generation as consumption matches generation on avge.)

              The government thinking on the stranded assets (gas lines and pumps etc) is that there will be some use in the reticulation systems for biogas,and or methanol.( Biogas coming from the central plateau) You do not remove infrastructure that may have alternative uses.

              • weka

                I meant gas supply, not infrastructure. Afaik new installs are banned from 2025.

                My point remains. People can lament that they need gas, but there will be no gas when civilisation collapses so it's a moot point. We need to shift our thinking to 'how can we transition?', not "we can't transition because…'

                • Poission

                  we no how we can transition,it was in the released statements as well as pre announced.The limits for energy transition are on unexpected external costs and delays,high NZ construction costs (20% inflation last 12 months),RMA delays in the planning stage.

                  There needs to be either a large delay in large scale projects,or an increased series of smaller projects as distribution can contain costs.

                  Rule 1 is not to have excessive high capital costs in an energy project,as the costs will be inflationary.

                  • weka

                    when I say 'we' I was referring to the general population a la Pat's comment. Most people aren't willing to change at the pace we need to. Yet.

                    • Poission

                      The pace is that which we can afford,and inflation is making all options unsustainable unless demand and expectations are reduced.

                      https://wellington.scoop.co.nz/?p=144918

                      The RBNZ and all central bankers have both signaled and moved to strangle inflation,high interest rates are here and staying.

                    • Belladonna

                      The transition from gas to electric supply isn't quite as simple and straightforward as just buying a new appliance.

                      Fine for cooking and heating (you can switch to an electric stove, and get electric heating/heat pump). Just costs extra $$$ for appliances – but can schedule as part of appliance lifecycle.

                      But water isn't anything like as straightforward. Houses with gas hotwater systems do not have the inbuilt space to install a hotwater cylinder for electric generation. This may require very expensive retrofitting, or may actually not be possible in some units/apartments without infringing on the neighbours, or significantly reducing your living space.

                    • pat

                      My comment wasnt so much directed that people are unwilling (though i believe most are) it was more that we dont have either the wherewithal or the time to make the transition WHILE maintaining a semblance of order while we go from one paradigm to the other…and ultimately we dont understand the limitations the reduced energy consumption implies….but nevermind, we will find out soon enough.

                    • joe90

                      This may require very expensive retrofitting, or may actually not be possible in some units/apartments without infringing on the neighbours, or significantly reducing your living space.

                      Out door DHW heat pumps. $5/6K. Three times or more efficient than gas or conventional electric water heating so they'll pay for themselves pretty damn quickly.

                    • weka

                      My comment wasnt so much directed that people are unwilling (though i believe most are) it was more that we dont have either the wherewithal or the time to make the transition WHILE maintaining a semblance of order while we go from one paradigm to the other…

                      I disagree. The pace at which we locked down in March 2020 suggests that we can in fact make change fast. Different order of things, but chaos didn't ensue.

                      and ultimately we dont understand the limitations the reduced energy consumption implies

                      In what way? I've been in peak oil and then climate circles for more than a decade, and this is pretty well understood. Transition Towns and permaculture circles take a more proactive view and design systems that already powering down.

                    • weka

                      The biggest elemental price increases since its last update at the end of 2021 were for stairs and balustrades, which went up 17.4% due to increases in precast concrete and structural steel, followed by substructure (10.1%), site preparation (9.7%), framework (8.3%), and windows and exterior doors (8%).

                      Oh come on. We don't have to build houses the way we do. We know that concrete is going to become less viable as we get closer to catastrophe, and we know that we don't have a future proofed supply of steel. So keep those things for essentials and start developing building practices that work within the limits.

                      Retrofit existing buildings rather than replacing them.

                      Stop throwing large amounts of build materials in the dump and set up systems for reuse.

                      Build from timber. Transition our forestry to take account of this.

                      Develop other materials that can sit alongside that.

                      and so on.

                      We don't have a shortage of houses in NZ. We have a shortage of available rentals and buys. There are so many ways we could start to live within our limits, we just don't want to (or lack the imagination of how)

                    • weka

                      Belladonna, we have a long time to resolve those problems. And, every new build in most places in NZ should have passive solar design, including solar hot water.

                    • Belladonna

                      @Jo90

                      This may require very expensive retrofitting, or may actually not be possible in some units/apartments without infringing on the neighbours, or significantly reducing your living space.

                      Out door DHW heat pumps. $5/6K. Three times or more efficient than gas or conventional electric water heating so they'll pay for themselves pretty damn quickly.

                      So just how do you fit these into an apartment complex? Or a townhouse where the only outside space is nowhere near the required plumbing?

                      The point is that there are some dwellings which don't have outside space usable. And their inside space requires 13 m2 clear space – which is quite a lot out of a small apartment.

                      6K (plus whatever is required for installation) is also a really high up-front cost. Your water-heating costs would have to be in the range of $10/month in order for it to pay off over 10 years. Which I doubt.

                      Do you have a link to the 3x more efficient claim? I suspect that is in relation to conventional hw systems, not gas.

                • weston

                  Or we could just make our own gas weka its perfectly doable

    • The Al1en 7.3

      Yeah, won't someone think about the multi millionaires running companies with multi billions of assets.

    • joe90 7.4

      NYT piece on the legacy of Neutron Jack, the father of excessive profits.

      And in more than 100 conversations for “The Man Who Broke Capitalism,” my new book, from which this article is adapted, a broad range of people said some version of the same thing: While it has been more than two decades since Mr. Welch was C.E.O. of G.E., his legacy still affects millions of American households.

      Almost immediately after Mr. Welch retired in September 2001 with a $417 million severance package, G.E. went into a tailspin from which it would never recover.

      His pupils, though, went on to run dozens of other major companies, including Home Depot, Albertson’s, Chrysler and Boeing. Most of them failed.

      And in the decades since Mr. Welch assumed power, the economy at large has come to resemble his skewed priorities. Wages stagnated and jobs moved overseas. C.E.O. pay went stratospheric and buybacks and dividends boomed. Factories closed and companies found ways to pay fewer taxes

      https://archive.ph/tRrhB

    • Jimmy 7.5

      I have not heard any MP's define what "excessive profit " is. It makes me wonder if David Clark and other Labour MP's thinks anything above break even would be an 'excessive profit'.

      Not sure why Weka doesn't understand your last paragraph…seems perfectly clear. If I had $100 billion it would have been better to put in a term deposit (risk free) at 2% and earned $2 billion (instead of risking in a business venture and only earning $1 billion or 1%).

    • Craig H 7.6

      For the supermarkets, the Commerce Commission defined it by comparison to equivalent overseas markets as the starting point (I say starting point because obviously things like distance/shipping costs and NZ regulation/legislation can be factors as well). That's probably as useful a definition as any for NZ.

      Back when I was looking at buying a business, most business brokers considered a standard annual return on investment (ROI) to be 25% (to take into account risk), so that's a figure that could be used as a benchmark, perhaps increased for high-risk areas like cafes.

  8. SPC 9

    We have a new Mary Whitehouse prospect and she is no prude and looking for a husband, she will never ever divorce.

    Her name is Louise Perry and she writes for the New Statesperson.

    And the feminist bible for the 21stC (her book) is called The Case Against the Sexual Revolution: A New Guide to Sex in the 21st Century.

    Channeling every feminists inner Jordan Peterson she cites evolutionary theory

    Perhaps Perry’s most revolutionary move is to take apart the predominant feminist idea that rape is always about power, not sex – and turn to evolutionary theory.

    She argues that men and women are biologically different and that rape is somehow hard-wired into some males.

    She is facing head on the idea that rape cannot be stopped by “consent workshops” and rapists re-socialised. This is patently not working.

    https://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/wellbeing/300603182/the-sexual-revolution-has-backfired-on-women

    So she argues for women to opt out of enabling porn, legalised prostitution, drinking and hook-up dating apps (seeing these as part of rape culture) and encourages separation from men until marriage – and of course she opposes on demand divorce. She cites all the statistics about the declining rate of marriage and prefers church marriages to those with celebrants.

    She is so clearly offering herself to man who wants a church wedding to a feminist.

    A bit like Christabel Pankhurst

    Christabel urged abstention for men and women alike and argued vehemently against lowering high standards of sexual morality. She insisted that the suffragist's political militancy must be coupled with a lifestyle which was both sexually and morally above reproach. In her book on prostitution and VD, The Great Scourge, she summarized the behavioral mandates inherent in her theories in the slogan, "Votes for women, chastity for men!"

    By this time, a trace of racism had crept into Christabel's theories and policies. She began to argue that because male lust would lead to the degeneration of racial strength and the production of half-caste children, this eventually would weaken the British Empire. Therefore, women needed the vote for racial reasons as well as for personal ones because they had "a service to render to the state as well as the home, to the race as well as the family."

    While in Paris, Christabel also joined the lesbian feminist circle led by Princess Edmond de Polignac (Winnaretta Singer ), but there is no indication that she ever adopted a gay lifestyle.***

    In Confession #1, "Why I never Married," she explained that she had remained single in order to demonstrate "my own personal unending unyieldingness as a leader."

    When Christabel Pankhurst visited her mother in Canada and the United States in 1921, she became increasingly interested in Second Adventism, a movement which proclaimed the Second Coming of Christ. In 1922, she published her first Second Adventist books (The Lord Commeth! and Pressing Problems of the Closing Age) … In The Fighting Pankhursts, David Mitchell argues that "in the U.S. and Canada, Christabel Pankhurst raised Second Adventism almost single-handedly from its backstreet fundamentalist rut, lending it a dull gleam of intellectual prestige."

    https://www.encyclopedia.com/women/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/pankhurst-christabel-1880-1958

    Christabel's relationships *** (did not involve rape, nor produce children … but of course that was because … ).

    https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2000/jun/11/vanessathorpe.theobserver

    • Muttonbird 9.1

      I can't see men and women having changed that much.

      What has changed is disruptor tech in the sex space. We see it cause massive social damage in communication (Facebook/Twitter), housing (AirBnb), travel (Uber), and food (Uber Eats).

      And so Tinder, etc, is also emboldening both men and women into very high risk situations. Is swiping right seen as tacit consent by many under developed brains?

      I do agree with Perry that dating apps encourage rape culture, or at least don't do anything to reduce it.

      • SPC 9.1.1

        Not so many years ago the advice on first dates was to go to a safe place to vet the guy. Before then last century the female was most at risk when drunk and alone at off licence gatherings.

        Now it's leaving bars/night clubs with someone they had just met (esp if not looking out for spiked drinks), or the hook up app – maybe people might consider using one where guys get rated for risk (screening on registering and on site hook up inter-action feedback).

      • Descendant Of Smith 9.1.2

        What has changed more fundamentally is the law – removing the lawfulness of being allowed to rape your wife and the willingness to talk about it.

        I don't think we can ever know how much previous generations raped their spouses and partners. It was lawful and not talked about. I'm aware of one old acquaintance long since passed who was raped repeatedly on her wedding night, left, was returned to the marriage the next day by her parents and was raped practically every night (period, pregnant – didn't matter). She left once she got a pension at 60 and had her first income.

        A friend was raped in her workplace at 17. Never reported to the police, her family to this day don't know and she will never tell them. Still suffers emotionally 40 years later from that and the other violence that occurred at the time.

        It's a different world now. Having talked in my younger years to quite a few older women about this stuff I definitely think it is better. There is a certain rose tint to looking at the past that can hide how bad it was for many.

        James K Baxter's letters revealed some of this past norm. And for those who think it wasn't a norm should think about why it was legally protected for so long if it wasn't.

        In it Baxter writes: "Sex relations with wife resumed. This at least gives some common ground to stand on to clear up difficulties. Achieved by rape. From a very clear knowledge no other way could break down J's reservations & that she was gradually shoving herself round the bend. She seems ten times happier in herself. But it looks as if each new act will have to repeat the rape pattern."

        • Craig H 9.1.2.1

          Have seen a bit of that in researching our family tree and it was not just wives, sometimes it was daughters as well. Once I was an adult, my aunts opened up a bit more about life as children and it sure sounded like there were some older male relatives who were to be given a wide berth, including avoiding their company without another adult chaperone.

      • Molly 9.1.3

        There's been a noticeable increase in porn access for younger people.

        Porn itself has become more extreme and violent.

        It is reasonable to theorise that this, along with what you have mentioned has had some influence on sexual attitudes and behaviours, which also influence social public behaviours.

        I've recently done a lot of reading on the porn topic, and it's a really different landscape now from when I was young.

        It's hard to see how it wouldn't impact, and unfortunately the effect seems to be negative.

        • KJT 9.1.3.1

          Well. We have just had a whole bunch of people on here, claim that watching movies, especially violent military fantasies, have no effect on behaviour.

          So. Are they going to argue todays violent and over the top, porn, equally has no effect??

          Certainly different from our youth. Hunting out National Geographics to find naked breasts.

          • Molly 9.1.3.1.1

            "Well. We have just had a whole bunch of people on here, claim that watching movies, especially violent military fantasies, have no effect on behaviour."

            Missed that, thankfully, (Was probably busy reading about porn…wink)

            "Certainly different from our youth. Hunting out National Geographics to find naked breasts."

            Not my inclination, but I agree.

            It's a Brave New World out there in respect to porn.

            One item I read was a statistic on young people who used porn as a model for their own sexual behaviours. IIRC it was over 30% for young women, and over 50 % for young men.

            (I'll adjust/correct this if I can find the source, doing a mixture of digital and print media)

            Gonzo porn is a leader in porn viewership, and it is typically violent and misogynistic in nature. It's a real concern.

            • KJT 9.1.3.1.1.1

              Young people today seem to be better at keeping themselves safe. In regards to pregnancy anyway. Teenage fertility rate in New Zealand – Figure.NZ

              Which gives the lie to the right wing fantasy about "hordes of teenage mums on benefits”. More knowledge must help in that regard.

              However I was rather shocked going back to High school, as a Teacher, how much open dis-respect that exists now between young people. All the education about consent, respect and the rest, doesn't seem to be gelling.

              The younger people are, the more difficulty they have in distinguishing between acting and real life. Plenty of evidence that youngsters shouldn’t be exposed to porn. How you do that, is a problem that is likely unfixable.

          • Puckish Rogue 9.1.3.1.2

            If watching Top Gun: Maverick makes more people enlist in the military then thats a good thing

            I'll bow to your greater knowledge in regards to violent and over the top, porn.

            I prefer the over the top funny stuff: "Have you got stuck making the bed again stepmom?"

          • Brigid 9.1.3.1.3

            'Hunting out National Geographics to find naked breasts.'

            But why? Why did you need to? Did it not occur to you that the breasts were part of a sentient being. One like your sister, mother, aunt,daughter?

    • weka 9.2

      your first set of quotes needs a link SPC.

  9. AB 10

    Has anyone seen the bit where Joe Biden tells Ardern that her "addiction to wasteful spending" has caused global inflation? I heard a whisper that he was especially agitated about a "slow train to Hamilton". I've tried to find it – but no luck.

  10. Molly 11

    Two adult men with huge amounts of followers talking about their expression of girlhood.

    https://www.tiktok.com/@dylanmulvaney/video/7103679534020742446?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc&web_id=6910238550492448258

    Support for those with gender dysphoria distress, has morphed into non-scrutiny of other aspects of queer theory.

    There would rightly be criticism of two grown women acting this way, but this display and similar are promoted and celebrated.

    • weka 11.1

      the idea that men can be feminine is to be supported. But what those two are doing is colonisation. Jeffrey wants girls to transcend their sex, this is misogyny. If you are NB, you can't be girl. Be feminine (adopt expressions not traditionally allowed for men), but don't co-opt girlhood.

      And at the very least, grow the fuck up and stop blurring the line between children, adults and sexuality. That's me giving them the benefit of the doubt.

      There will of course be people who think this is prudish, or transphobic, but I'll give them the benefit of the doubt too that they don't know about the history of PIE, or men with their sexual fetishes on display in the kids tent at Pride, or naked with the child drag queens, or the push for acceptance of non-practicing pedophiles and so on. All this is happening openly and publicly and the left is see no evil monkey going lalala. Oh yeah, and rainbow dildo butt monkey.

      https://twitter.com/varindeus/status/1532275914284965888

      • weka 11.1.1

        Trans people should also be standing up and saying no fucking way are we associating ourselves with this.

        • Molly 11.1.1.1

          The blurring of multiple lines, due to the unquestioning acceptance of Queer Theory is leading to multiple safeguarding and unconsented involvement in sexual acts, such as exhibitionism, indecent exposure and humiliation fetishes.

          Pride events, originally intended to show that homosexuality was a sexual orientation, not a sexual behaviour, in some countries, has morphed into a bizarre display of adult sexual fetishes and exhibitionism that many gays and lesbians want no part of.

          Public invitations are issued to families to bring kids to let them learn about diversity. Wider public funding often supports such events.

          The tweet below is a breaking of child safeguarding principles at a Pride parade.

          Upthread, is another unverified origin dogging fetish image. Didn't want to post it directly on TS. You'll understand why if you view. It looks to be in a public space, and a more extreme version of the one with the small girl.

          The major child safeguarding breach has already happened though in the first picture. From then on it's a question of degrees. The introduction, familiarisation and normalisation of adult sexual behaviours and fetishes for that child has already taken place..

          NZ is not here, thank goodness, but neither was the UK at one point.

          https://twitter.com/tcbtttc/status/1532441519105490955

          • weka 11.1.1.1.1

            completely agree. How did we get to the point of dropping safeguarding? Is it because most people don't know what it is?

            Fatherly is in the US, their own unique brand of crazy.

            (I addressed the tail image on twitter, because I don't think that is at Pride, but it could easily have been).

            • Molly 11.1.1.1.1.1

              Yes, I couldn't find the source so wanted to be clear it was not attributed to a Pride event.

              However, the line between the image above and that one – to me – is fairly thin.

              Appropriate boundaries have already been breached.

              • weka

                same.

                The other issue here is that when one performs one's kink in public, it can be a sexual act without consent from the people nearby. This is another line being crossed and eroded without any political or social scrutiny (apart from GC people online). This matters for obvious consent reasons (and we're still not good at that) and also because if you take the kids out of the picture there are still issues for adults and this erosion in the name of sex positivity then also plays into child safeguarding.

                We're a long way from the privacy of one's bedroom concepts.

            • Molly 11.1.1.1.1.2

              That Fatherly article is full of red flags…

              I despise this promotion of the most egregious parts of Queer Theory to kids, under the rainbow umbrella.

              • Anker

                Thanks again Weka and Molly for posting.

                I am wondering what it will take for some progressives to wake up

  11. Molly 12

    Unfortunate but not unforseeable result:

    https://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/wellington/128838319/police-tracking-climate-activists-after-tampering-with-car-causing-near-miss

    "

    The driver had returned to their vehicle on Willis St on Tuesday evening to find a flyer on the windscreen saying “your gas guzzler kills”.

    The flyer said the tyres had been deflated, but a check of the vehicle didn’t reveal any apparent damage.

    However, the driver nearly crashed just past the Porirua off ramp, on Transmission Gully, when one of their tyres deflated.

    A source involved in the investigation said a stone, or piece of gravel, was screwed into the valve cap, causing a slow deflation of the tyre.

    It follows directions given by the global Tyre Extinguishers group…

    Activism that targets and attempts attempts to shame random individuals is a self-indulgent performatice farce. (And wilfully malicious and dangerous.)

    The hard work is getting the public on side when demanding institutional and regulatory reform, These 'acts' will not help.

    • Belladonna 12.1

      Heavens! This could so easily have resulted in a death – either the people in the vehicle or some other random member of the public – in another vehicle or a cyclist/pedestrian.

      If caught, I'd hope to see them prosecuted severely – attempted manslaughter, perhaps. A deliberate action, taken with the foreknowledge that severe harm could result. The 'gravel-in-the-valve-cap' action can only be seen as a deliberate attempt to have a tyre deflate while driving – massively increasing the risk to the people in the vehicle and everyone around it.

      This is an entirely 'forseeable' result from their illegal action. Illegal, because they don't own the car and are tampering with the safe operation of it.

      I think that there was something similar a few years ago – with 1080 protestors loosening the nuts on the wheels of DOC worker cars, which was referred to the police, but I don't know the outcome.

      Profoundly stupid action.

    • KJT 12.2

      Annoying that silly acts like these are giving anti AGW activists a bad name.

      Things like that just piss people off.

      I cheered the people chaining themselves to exploration rigs. I'm not going to cheer for those letting tyres down.

      • Belladonna 12.2.1

        Not just silly, criminally dangerous.

        Silly is letting down tyres. Criminally dangerous is jamming gravel in the valve, so the tyre only deflates while being driven.

        Also cowardly. Protestors chaining themselves to drilling rigs or gluing themselves to roads (XR in Britain) have the courage of their convictions – they're prepared to be arrested, tried and even sentenced for their actions. These cowards can't even sign their own threats.

    • Robert Guyton 12.3

      Unintended consequences. This why all protest action needs wise counsel.

      • Belladonna 12.3.1

        What was 'unintended' about the consequences? They clearly (through their actions) wanted the tyre to deflate while the car was being driven. Nothing unintended about that.

        • Robert Guyton 12.3.1.1

          How do you know this, Belladonna?

          Have you experience with gravel and valves? Are you party to the groups planning?

          I expect not, yet you confidently declare an understanding of their motives.

          • Belladonna 12.3.1.1.1

            Nope. Criminal stupidity isn't in my CV.

            Can you suggest any alternative motive that they might have had?

            Or are you just proposing that they are so stupid, that they can't foresee the obvious consequences of their actions.

        • Robert Guyton 12.3.1.2

          Consider this: a "tyre extinguisher" inserts gravel into a valve so that they can scarper while the noisy deflation takes place. They do not imagine for a moment that the tire might deflate at a later date. They are horrified by the outcome.

          I'm only speculating, as you are, but can you show that your theory is more valid than mine?

          • Belladonna 12.3.1.2.1

            OK. I can buy your possible scenario. Though the sound of escaping air isn't particularly loud (as anyone who's actually pumped up a tyre knows).
            [Not that I think it’s likely – and it makes them out to be fairly stupid, in the best of lights.]

            If they are actually horrified at the outcome. I confidently look forward to them handing themselves in at the local police station, and owning their actions.

            Oooh, Look. Flying pigs…..

            • Puckish Rogue 12.3.1.2.1.1

              Don't hold your breath

            • Robert Guyton 12.3.1.2.1.2

              Here's the clue you need to solve the question, Belladonna (from Molly's comment)

              "A source involved in the investigation said a stone, or piece of gravel, was screwed into the valve cap, causing a slow deflation of the tyre.

              It follows directions given by the global Tyre Extinguishers group…"

              Those directions will reveal whether the group meant serious harm by their actions. All else is prejudiced "reckons", my own included 🙂

              • weka

                I don't believe that they wanted the car to be driven while it was still deflating. But they do appear to have been negligent on this. There's the idea that the NZ flier told the driver it was dangerous to drive, but I haven't seen evidence of that. Had a look at the UK version and it says nothing of the sort.

              • Molly

                https://www.tyreextinguishers.com/how-to-deflate-an-suv-tyre

                The action was immature, had no clear intent other than shaming or inconveniencing random individuals, and potentially harmful.

                It doesn't need excusing. Those activists need redirecting.

                • weka
                  • Avoid: Cars clearly used for people with disabilities, traders’ cars (even if they’re large), minibuses and normal-sized cars.

                  How will they know?

                • Robert Guyton

                  From the Tyre Extinguisher's pamphlet (thanks, Molly).

                  "The whole process should take about 10 seconds."

                  I am not condoning their behaviour, just clarifying their intentions/expectations around the use of gravel (or lentils 🙂

                  Any protest action could have serious outcomes; a driver, distracted by the placard a protester is holding aloft, could crash. A person with a heart-condition, apoplectic with rage could suffer cardiac arrest at the sight of children marching against climate change, etc.

                  Messing with tyres though, has proved more serious than (I bet) the Tyre Extinguishers first thought.

                  • weka

                    a woman needing to take her sick child to the doctor suddenly, in the rain in the middle of winter, goes out and finds the tyres deflated on her car. TE believe that "you will have no difficulty getting around without your gas guzzler, with walking, cycling or public transport".

                    The whole strategy looks flawed from the start. I'm guessing young men (and probably some older ones) who didn't run this past the Aunties first.

                    • Belladonna

                      Sadly, this escalation into 'extreme, violent and utterly stupid' actions by protestors, is likely to be met by equally escalating responses from their victims.

                      Look at the responses to this XR youtube video (designed to protest their activists being assaulted).
                      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZkii8Bnc1Q

                      Massive support for the security guys (regardless of the potential injury to the XR protester), very little for the protestor.

                    • weka

                      that's a different issue imo. The TE action is problematic in who it targets and how it does it.

                      The HS2 protest is pretty standard blockade (looking at that video) and the security guards are clearly assaulting them. You're always going to get people who don't support the protest being angry about it, but business are legit protest targets. We desperately need a lot of such protests to wake people up. They're non-violent.

                      The security guards aren't victims, nor are businesses. In some cases we can argue that workers are, but if they're still being paid and keeping their jobs that's a harder argument.

                      Public perception is a big part of whether protests work or not, but negative reactions aren't inherently bad. I don't know enough about the HS2 protests to have a sense of how they are going. I don't think stopping those kinds of actions is warranted though.

            • left for dead 12.3.1.2.1.3

              More Pub memes.the sound of escaping air can be quiet loud and violent.

              but do agree stupid and criminal.

      • Molly 12.3.2

        That's a poor excuse.

        The target for the action was poorly chosen.

        The impact of the action was either to shame or aggravate the very members of the public they should be persuaded to aid in political, regulatory or institutional change.

        The dangerous consequences of interfering with a motor vehicles ability to travel safely were apparent.

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    6 hours ago
  • Bishop scores headlines with crackdown on unwelcome tenants – but Peters scores, too, as tub-thump...
    Buzz from the Beehive Housing Minister Chris Bishop delivered news – packed with the ingredients to enflame political passions – worthy of supplanting Winston Peters in headline writers’ priorities. He popped up at the post-Cabinet press conference to promise a crackdown on unruly and antisocial state housing tenants. His ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    7 hours ago
  • Will it make the boat go faster?
    Ele Ludemann writes – The Reserve Bank is advertising for a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion advisor. The Bank has one mandate – to keep inflation between one and three percent. It has failed in that and is only slowly getting inflation back down to the upper limit. Will it ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    10 hours ago
  • Bryce Edwards: Is Simon Bridges’ NZTA appointment a conflict of interest?
    Last week former National Party leader Simon Bridges was appointed by the Government as the new chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA). You can read about the appointment in Thomas Coughlan’s article, Simon Bridges to become chair of NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi The fact that a ...
    Democracy ProjectBy bryce.edwards
    10 hours ago
  • Is Simon Bridges’ NZTA appointment a conflict of interest?
    Bryce Edwards writes – Last week former National Party leader Simon Bridges was appointed by the Government as the new chair of the New Zealand Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA). You can read about the appointment in Thomas Coughlan’s article, Simon Bridges to become chair of NZ Transport Agency ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    10 hours ago
  • Bernard's Top 10 @ 10 'pick 'n' mix' at 10:10am on Tuesday, March 19
    TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: Gavin Jacobson talks to Thomas Piketty 10 years on from Capital in the 21st Century The SalvoLocal scoop: Green MP’s business being investigated over migrant exploitation claims Stuff Steve KilgallonLocal deep-dive: The commercial contractors making money from School ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    10 hours ago
  • Bernard's six newsy things on Tuesday, March 19
    It’s a home - but Kāinga Ora tenants accused of “abusing the privilege” may lose it. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The Government announced a crackdown on Kāinga Ora tenants who were unruly and/or behind on their rent, with Housing Minister Chris Bishop saying a place in a state ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    12 hours ago
  • New Life for Light Rail
    This is a guest post by Connor Sharp of Surface Light Rail  Light rail in Auckland: A way forward sooner than you think With the coup de grâce of Auckland Light Rail (ALR) earlier this year, and the shift of the government’s priorities to roads, roads, and more roads, it ...
    Greater AucklandBy Guest Post
    13 hours ago
  • Why Are Bosses Nearly All Buffoons?
    Note: As a paid-up Webworm member, I’ve recorded this Webworm as a mini-podcast for you as well. Some of you said you liked this option - so I aim to provide it when I get a chance to record! Read more ...
    David FarrierBy David Farrier
    15 hours ago
  • Bernard’s six-stack of substacks at 6.06 pm on March 18
    TL;DR: In my ‘six-stack’ of substacks at 6.06pm on Monday, March 18:IKEA is accused of planting big forests in New Zealand to green-wash; REDD-MonitorA City for People takes a well-deserved victory lap over Wellington’s pro-YIMBY District Plan votes; A City for PeopleSteven Anastasiou takes a close look at the sticky ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    1 day ago
  • Peters holds his ground on co-governance, but Willis wriggles on those tax cuts and SNA suspension l...
    Buzz from the Beehive Here’s hoping for a lively post-cabinet press conference when the PM and – perhaps – some of his ministers tell us what was discussed at their meeting today. Until then, Point of Order has precious little Beehive news to report after its latest monitoring of the ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    1 day ago
  • Labour’s final report card
    David Farrar writes –  We now have almost all 2023 data in, which has allowed me to update my annual table of how  went against its promises. This is basically their final report card. The promise The result Build 100,000 affordable homes over 10 ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    1 day ago
  • “Drunk Uncle at a Wedding”
    I’m a bit worried that I’ve started a previous newsletter with the words “just when you think they couldn’t get any worse…” Seems lately that I could begin pretty much every issue with that opening. Such is the nature of our coalition government that they seem to be outdoing each ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    1 day ago
  • Wang Yi’s perfectly-timed, Aukus-themed visit to New Zealand
    Geoffrey Miller writes – Timing is everything. And from China’s perspective, this week’s visit by its foreign minister to New Zealand could be coming at just the right moment. The visit by Wang Yi to Wellington will be his first since 2017. Anniversaries are important to Beijing. ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    1 day ago
  • Gordon Campbell on Dune 2, and images of Islam
    Depictions of Islam in Western popular culture have rarely been positive, even before 9/11. Five years on from the mosque shootings, this is one of the cultural headwinds that the Muslim community has to battle against. Whatever messages of tolerance and inclusion are offered in daylight, much of our culture ...
    1 day ago
  • New Rail Operations Centre Promises Better Train Services
    Last week Transport Minster Simeon Brown and Mayor Wayne Brown opened the new Auckland Rail Operations Centre. The new train control centre will see teams from KiwiRail, Auckland Transport and Auckland One Rail working more closely together to improve train services across the city. The Auckland Rail Operations Centre in ...
    2 days ago
  • Bernard's six newsy things at 6.36am on Monday, March 18
    Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: Retiring former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson said in an exit interview with Q+A yesterday the Government can and should sustain more debt to invest in infrastructure for future generations. Elsewhere in the news in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 6:36am: Read more ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    2 days ago
  • Geoffrey Miller: Wang Yi’s perfectly-timed, Aukus-themed visit to New Zealand
    Timing is everything. And from China’s perspective, this week’s visit by its foreign minister to New Zealand could be coming at just the right moment. The visit by Wang Yi to Wellington will be his first since 2017. Anniversaries are important to Beijing. It is more than just a happy ...
    Democracy ProjectBy Geoffrey Miller
    2 days 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
    2 days ago
  • Bitter and angry; Winston First
    New Zealand First Leader Winston Peters’s state-of-the-nation speech on Sunday was really a state-of-Winston-First speech. He barely mentioned any of the Government’s key policies and could not even wholly endorse its signature income tax cuts. Instead, he rehearsed all of his complaints about the Ardern Government, including an extraordinary claim ...
    PolitikBy Richard Harman
    2 days ago
  • 2024 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #11
    A listing of 35 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 10, 2024 thru Sat, March 16, 2024. Story of the week This week we'll give you a little glimpse into how we collect links to share and ...
    2 days ago
  • 2024 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #11
    A listing of 35 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 10, 2024 thru Sat, March 16, 2024. Story of the week This week we'll give you a little glimpse into how we collect links to share and ...
    2 days ago
  • Out of Touch.
    “I’ve been internalising a really complicated situation in my head.”When they kept telling us we should wait until we get to know him, were they taking the piss? Was it a case of, if you think this is bad, wait till you get to know the real Christopher, after the ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    2 days ago
  • Bring out your Dad
    Happy fourth anniversary, Pandemic That Upended Bloody Everything. I have been observing it by enjoying my second bout of COVID. It’s 5.30 on Sunday morning and only now are lights turning back on for me.Allow me to copy and paste what I told reader Sara yesterday:Depleted, fogged and crappy. Resting, ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    3 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
    3 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
    3 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
    4 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
    4 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
    5 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
    5 days ago
  • The Hoon around the week to March 15
    Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the last week included:PM Christopher Luxon said the reversal of interest deductibility for landlords was done to help renters, who ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    5 days ago
  • Labour’s policy gap
    It was not so much the Labour Party but really the Chris Hipkins party yesterday at Labour’s caucus retreat in Martinborough. The former Prime Minister was more or less consistent on wealth tax, which he was at best equivocal about, and social insurance, which he was not willing to revisit. ...
    PolitikBy Richard Harman
    5 days ago
  • Skeptical Science New Research for Week #11 2024
    Open access notables A Glimpse into the Future: The 2023 Ocean Temperature and Sea Ice Extremes in the Context of Longer-Term Climate Change, Kuhlbrodt et al., Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society: In the year 2023, we have seen extraordinary extrema in high sea surface temperature (SST) in the North Atlantic and in ...
    5 days ago
  • Melissa remains mute on media matters but has something to say (at a sporting event) about economic ...
     Buzz from the Beehive   The text reproduced above appears on a page which records all the media statements and speeches posted on the government’s official website by Melissa Lee as Minister of Media and Communications and/or by Jenny Marcroft, her Parliamentary Under-secretary.  It can be quickly analysed ...
    Point of OrderBy Bob Edlin
    5 days ago
  • The return of Muldoon
    For forty years, Robert Muldoon has been a dirty word in our politics. His style of government was so repulsive and authoritarian that the backlash to it helped set and entrench our constitutional norms. His pig-headedness over forcing through Think Big eventually gave us the RMA, with its participation and ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    5 days ago
  • Will the rental tax cut improve life for renters or landlords?
    Bryce Edwards writes –  Is the new government reducing tax on rental properties to benefit landlords or to cut the cost of rents? That’s the big question this week, after Associate Finance Minister David Seymour announced on Sunday that the Government would be reversing the Labour Government’s removal ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    5 days ago
  • Geoffrey Miller: What Saudi Arabia’s rapid changes mean for New Zealand
    Saudi Arabia is rarely far from the international spotlight. The war in Gaza has brought new scrutiny to Saudi plans to normalise relations with Israel, while the fifth anniversary of the controversial killing of Jamal Khashoggi was marked shortly before the war began on October 7. And as the home ...
    Democracy ProjectBy Geoffrey Miller
    5 days ago
  • Racism’s double standards
    Questions need to be asked on both sides of the world Peter Williams writes –   The NRL Judiciary hands down an eight week suspension to Sydney Roosters forward Spencer Leniu , an Auckland-born Samoan, after he calls Ezra Mam, Sydney-orn but of Aboriginal and Torres Strait ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    5 days ago
  • It’s not a tax break
    Ele Ludemann writes – Contrary to what many headlines and news stories are saying, residential landlords are not getting a tax break. The government is simply restoring to them the tax deductibility of interest they had until the previous government removed it. There is no logical reason ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    5 days ago
  • The Plastic Pig Collective and Chris' Imaginary Friends.
    I can't remember when it was goodMoments of happiness in bloomMaybe I just misunderstoodAll of the love we left behindWatching our flashbacks intertwineMemories I will never findIn spite of whatever you becomeForget that reckless thing turned onI think our lives have just begunI think our lives have just begunDoes anyone ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    5 days ago
  • Who is responsible for young offenders?
    Michael Bassett writes – At first reading, a front-page story in the New Zealand Herald on 13 March was bizarre. A group of severely intellectually limited teenagers, with little understanding of the law, have been pleading to the Justice Select Committee not to pass a bill dealing with ram ...
    Point of OrderBy poonzteam5443
    5 days ago
  • Gordon Campbell on National’s fantasy trip to La La Landlord Land
    How much political capital is Christopher Luxon willing to burn through in order to deliver his $2.9 billion gift to landlords? Evidently, Luxon is: (a) unable to cost the policy accurately. As Anna Burns-Francis pointed out to him on Breakfast TV, the original ”rock solid” $2.1 billion cost he was ...
    5 days ago
  • Bernard's Top 10 @ 10 'pick 'n' mix' for March 14
    TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: Jonathon Porritt calling bullshit in his own blog post on mainstream climate science as ‘The New Denialism’.Local scoop: The Wellington City Council’s list of proposed changes to the IHP recommendations to be debated later today was leaked this ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    5 days ago
  • No, Prime Minister, rents don’t rise or fall with landlords’ costs
    TL;DR: Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said yesterday tenants should be grateful for the reinstatement of interest deductibility because landlords would pass on their lower tax costs in the form of lower rents. That would be true if landlords were regulated monopolies such as Transpower or Auckland Airport1, but they’re not, ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    5 days ago
  • Cartoons: ‘At least I didn’t make things awkward’
    This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Tom Toro Tom Toro is a cartoonist and author. He has published over 200 cartoons in The New Yorker since 2010. His cartoons appear in Playboy, the Paris Review, the New York Times, American Bystander, and elsewhere. Related: What 10 EV lovers ...
    6 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
    6 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
    6 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

  • Government moves to quickly ratify the NZ-EU FTA
    "The Government is moving quickly to realise an additional $46 million in tariff savings in the EU market this season for Kiwi exporters,” Minister for Trade and Agriculture, Todd McClay says. Parliament is set, this week, to complete the final legislative processes required to bring the New Zealand – European ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    3 hours 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
    8 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
    10 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
    11 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
    1 day 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
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