So if you'd like to take a stand against China's bullying of Australia, which includes its slapping of a 212% tariff on Australian wine, there's just one thing to do:
Join with thousands of other Parliamentarians around the world and buy an Australian wine today. in the video, even Minister Sepuloni joins in:
"You know what? Japanese sake is the best!" says Shiori Yamao, an independent member of Japan's House of Representatives before Republican Senator Ted Yoho declares "two words – Napa Valley", before saying it is time to "drink something a little bit different" and buy Australian wine, "because our friends need our help".
"We are asking you all to join us in standing against Xi Jinping's authoritarian bullying," says Miriam Lexmann, a Christian Democrat Member of the European Parliament.
"By drinking a bottle or two of Australian wine and letting the Chinese Communist Party know that we will not be bullied," says Swedish Christian Democratic, Elisabet Lann, a municipal councillor who holds up a glass of Penfolds.
China has lost such trust through its belligerent behaviour towards Japan, India, Nepal, Bhutan, Hong Kong, Taiwan, the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia and a host of trading partners.
But its diplomats don’t care. The Chinese Communist Party is striving for complete control at home. The forces of the People’s Liberation Army are rapidly overtaking those of the US. Its economic influence is already second to none.
So why bother backing down?
“Once we’ve given up communicating, the danger level rises on everything,” Dr Rogers said.
Yet China's massive economic clout, a weapon it's now openly using to coerce Australia, is entirely dependent on the trust of other nations. Perhaps more than any other modern large nation it's wealth and influence has only come about because of a unique set of circumstances that have prevailed since the end of WW2.
Yet it is also incredibly vulnerable:
It's a nation with very poor food security, ranked lower than India. In particular it has a very low arable land area per capita, worse still much of that land highly dependent on imported inputs to remain productive.
It's an ageing nation dependent on export markets to sustain it's industries. There will be no consumption led growth for China, it's demographic precludes this.
And for all the hype and noise about going green, China like the rest of the world still gets 85% of it's energy from fossil fuels. Much of which is imported and highly vulnerable to disruption.
It's surrounded by 14 other nations, most of which are distrusting or engaged in low level hostilities. It may have a large navy, but for the moment it's constrained by a First Island Chain of neighbours that limit the kind of blue water projection of power necessary to protect it's shipping routes.
It's financial system is so monstrously overleveraged that it makes the rest of the world look like a model of probity.
And while we have grown up thinking of China as a monolithic nation, it's history is quite otherwise. There are numerous geographic, ethnic and economic reasons that constantly pull in the other direction. This is the reason why the CCP exert such draconian control over their population, they fear this more than anything else.
It really doesn't matter which one of these factors blows up first, when one goes it will be the perfect storm. The question I keep asking myself, is exactly what are the CCP's intentions here? And sadly I keep coming back to Xi Xinping's own words when he repeatedly commands his military to prepare for war. The CCP understand their vulnerabilities; none of it is rocket science. Their answer they have arrived at is imperial dominance.
Sometimes when someone says they want to kill you, it's not wholly paranoid to believe them.
I understand where you're coming from; nowhere have I claimed the US-led system did not make mistakes and fall short of it's professed ideals. Yet focusing solely on the failures means we also miss the enormous successes. Because while it's important to accept and take responsibility for our failures, unless we also know what we have done right, we have no starting point and no compass to guide us to better.
For the purpose of a useful discussion I'm going to take all those failures as read; and at then look to what it got right, and how it shaped all the good things about the modern world you live in.
I can't think of a more middle class first world protest than drink the Aussie wine that's killed Aussie rivers and displaced indigenous communities
Wineries may have some impact, but it's nothing compared to the far more massive consequences of cotton and rice farming.
As for the displacement of indigenous communities … well I ask you this … is there any people in all of human history that have not been 'displaced' at some point? It was almost always a brutal, ugly process and it's only a fairly modern idea that maybe we could do this differently.
I'd prefer not to part company if possible. If you'd bear with me maybe we could explore another more constructive framework to view the US at some other time.
I was just looking at the issue of vinasse yesterday, and wondering what kiwis do with this waste. It's one of the dirty aspects of crop residue type biofuels too. Some articles hinted at solutions, but wanted me to pay money for science we as taxpayers already paid for. Ideas like microbial processing for byproducts, making biochar from it, co-composting with other waste streams…
One article went so far as to claim vinasse as a valuable resource which I had wondered at, again, an article behind a paywall.
I made a mistake I'm thinking of vinasse the distillation, not fermentation waste, which is significantly more toxic.
But the bokashi bugs might very well work on vinasse after a composting cocktail to dilute/make the stuff less toxic. I like bokashi for killing weeds that otherwise sprout in the compost, real mongrels like jasmine and kikuyu can be pickled.
@francesca +1, not to mention Australia has obviously taken the USA's lead and become extremely aggressive in their dealing with China ever since it became apparent that China will lead the world with their 5G technologies…then all of a sudden China is public enemy number one, it's not that hard to put the pieces together..is it? though as usual, the usual suspects around here get lead around like dogs on a leash…barking at those they are told to bark at, time and again always the same ones… it's kind of pathetic really
Huawei Australia says ban is a ‘slap in the face’ to China
Former PM Malcolm Turnbull has defended his decision to ban Huawei from Australia’s 5G rollout. But the Chinese tech giant is still offended.
No the answer is yes…I assume that everything on the net is traceable at any time to most powerful governments/secret services in the world which is why I don't bother trying to hide my identity.
Like you I wonder at whether Xi Jinping's government really is as coherent as it proposes.
In particular we have often seen the Belt and Road Initiative is portrayed as a geopolitical strategy that ensnares countries into unsustainable debt and then allows China undue influence in a country.
But the on-ground evidence shows that China's development financing system is too fragmented and poorly coordinated to pursue detailed strategic objectives; and developing-country governments and their associated political and economic interests are still acting like they are sovereign when it comes to determining the nature of BRI projects.
If BRI had some Jinping masterplan for global control, it would not have been rolled out piecemeal through a series of diverse bilateral interactions.
Also, if BRI really were out to rule the world there simply wouldn't have been that many stuffups and poorly conceived and managed projects. They would have adjusted and altered rather than piling up the negative economic, social, political and environmental negative consequences.
In Sri Lanka and Malaysia, the two most widely cited ‘victims’ of China’s ‘debt-trap diplomacy’, the most controversial BRI projects were initiated by the recipient governments, which pursued their own domestic agendas. Their debt problems arose mainly from the misconduct of local elites and Western-dominated financial markets. China has faced negative reactions and pushback in both countries, though to a lesser extent than is commonly believed, given the high-level interests at stake in the recipient countries.
Being an infrastructure nerd I still think BRI is one of their best ways to stop behaving like the new global asshole. Chiense policymakers should develop a coherent, integrated decision-making system with sufficient risk assessment capabilities and strict and clear and enforceable rules. That means Xi Jinping demonstrates he can truly regain control of its massive state owned enterprise (SOE) construction and development and infrastructure sector.
To me it's a trap if Australia or New Zealand or Singapore looks at BRI as if it were being strategically directed from the top down.
And of course if they want to reverse Chinese influence with such developing-country governments they should provide alternative development financing options to recipient states, and keep encouraging open-society journalists to improve the transparency of these megaprojects.
And there's that thing called sunlight: the large developed-world construction companies can keep needling and pushing higher demands for transparency and public participation around the design, feasibility, selection, tendering, and management of BRI megaprojects.
Chatham House details the Sri Lanka and Indonesia cases for BRI here:
Yes. BRI was at heart a good idea if it had been pursued on an open multilateral, global development basis. But instead it was primarily captured by crude China centric merchantile interests that undermined it's credibility from the outset.
Otherwise I appreciate your perspective on this. I find BRI such a herd of cats it's hard to form a coherent picture of it.
Australia has long been the US “Deputy Dog” in the South Pacific, so can likely be taken as a US proxy–though who knows to what end given the Trump period. Most significant wars are imperialist wars whether fought out ideologically, technologically, via trade, or armed conflict.
So what is in it for the NZ working class, siding with Australia in this pathetic case?
Donald Trump could put out multiple highly offensive international tweets in the time between dinner and his midnight happy meal.
We should all be very alarmed at this stoush between Australia and China. Neither side seems prepared to back down. This has to be seen in the context of Australia's current massive military build up. Over the next 10 years, Australia will spend $200 billion on defence in the nation’s largest ever peacetime rearmament program, and make no mistake – the current ANZAC + Singapore has a combined GDP in excess of 2 trillion dollars and is a middle power and major player in the Asia-Pacific region that controls key shipping routes and access to the Indian Ocean. China clearly has marked Australia's card as the sort of medium sized power it can cut down to size pour encourager les autres. especially in light of the isolationist chaos of the Trump regime perhaps offering the chance to pick off a key US ally.We should be very alarmed because Australia is NZ's main security partner. To paraphrase MJ Savage, where Australia goes we go, where Australia stands we stand. If China picks a fight with Australia, then eventually, if push comes to shove, they pick a fight with us.
Xi's ascendancy is an utter tragedy for China. Just when it looked like China would join the world as a constructive player, they've slid backwards into the embrace of wild nationalism, authoritarian posturing about China's "dignity" and aggression.
The Chinese leadership seems determined to pursue an agenda of confrontation with anyone who dares stand up to their artless and crude bullying, and will blatantly use trade to do so. They are signaling they are an untrustworthy trade partner whose scant respect for the rule of law internally is now being turned onto anyone who deviates from the butcher's of Bejings line. Appeasement though is unlikely to work with brutal and bullying dictatorships who fundamentally regard Western social democracy and freedoms as a threat to their own dictatorship.
Unless China changes path war will become inevitable, mark my words.
In line with my reply above at 1.1 yes I have to fully agree with you. It's astonishing just how rapidly COVID has accelerated the final dissolution of the post WW2 US led trade order. Like all things human it was flawed, and many here still like to attribute to it all the wickedness in the world. But the fact is that it also enabled virtually everything we take for granted about our modern lives.
"The Chinese leadership seems determined to pursue an agenda of confrontation with anyone who dares stand up to their artless and crude bullying, and will blatantly use trade to do so"
..man you have a short memory there pal, I seem to remember that we were all fine with trade with China when it meant shifting all our industries and manufacturers over there so they could exploit their cheap labour to make more and more profits for themselves their shareholders (don't you remember that just a few months ago hardly one western country could even supply themselves face masks FFS!) and workers could all go and buy cheap shoes and TV's to make themselves all feel better about their stagnant wage growth …now all of a sudden when China becomes a powerful world player, and as a direct result of our own western liberal free market trade policies, we get all shitty at them…what a fucking joke…you and Ad and Red Logic and few others around here need to go and take a long hard look in the mirror….China's position in the world today is the direct result of western liberalism as conducted by the governments New Zealand and Australia over the past 30 years pure and simple.
Lin Wood tweeted a press release this morning calling on Trump to declare martial law to hold a new election if the Courts and Congress fail to uphold the Constitution. Not sure if it's appropriate to link, but should be easy enough to find because there is a full page ad in the Washington Times.
Don't think it's possible given the constitutional deadlines (a bit contradictory…instate martial law to hold election/thereby ignoring consitutional deadline). Plus parts of the government are shutting down for Christmas and will no longer have the ability to act until the next lot come in.
When the lies go too far for even Bill Barr to get behind them, it's not likely to go anywhere.
Barr didn’t name Powell specifically but said: “There’s been one assertion that would be systemic fraud and that would be the claim that machines were programmed essentially to skew the election results. And the DHS and DOJ have looked into that, and so far, we haven’t seen anything to substantiate that,” Barr said.
Child Poverty needs fixing $500 to $1 billion per year to fix.
We can buy flash military equipment worth billions yet we can't fix child poverty these children will be paying for these posiedens( which most likely never be used ) but on miminimum wage jobs or benefits .
We need to invest in our future workforce parents etc keeping another generation in poverty is a crime against humanity.
if we could just do something about Parent Poverty. I wonder if that would then trickle down and have an effect on Child Poverty.
Nah, that would not fix anything, lest waste another three years on consultants and hey, maybe a free sandwich at school, no second tho, we would not want to spoil the little bludgers, right?
In my childhood in the 1960s people had vegie gardens.
The government need to invest in portable gardens, supply plants and run classes in halls. I realise this would take extra effort for those in rentals and that the landlord would need to agree. At least what was grown would be healthy.
Community gardens would also work and orchardists could donate surplus fruit.
We easily grow enough food to feed everyone without home vege gardens – we just can't afford to buy it or it gets deliberately wasted e.g. Watties contracts that require surplus to their (Watties) requirements to be destroyed and not sold elsewhere.
It isn't really a supply and demand market where prices come down if production in in excess of demand – it is a command and control market where supply is deliberately controlled to maximise profit.
Saw this ad Vegepod: About $90 but should last – good idea. Made in Tauranga seems. Look up on google – link is too long. Email – info@vegepod.co.nz
Goodwood.nz Planter boxes untreated $79 kitset see on google
Or tubs – bore through plastic about 3 holes with drill cheap – hold 10-15litres usually – don't know whether flexi tubs would be strong enough – think rigid.
Also bunnings and mitre 10. Remember people make a living out of growing vegs and have jobs looking after them so being entirely self-sufficient would not be the way to go.
I have a young friend who uses any bits her or I can lay our hands on to plant stuff in. She grows plants from seeds and has just finished her degree with a toddler and a preschooler. Given the timber I could whack up some portable planter boxes and my strength is limited.
The gardening bug sticks once you start getting results. I started gardening 2 years ago.
The planter boxes you mentioned (or other) would make a great gift.
agreed…a sugar tax on (some of) the end product is incrementalism writ large..(in the sense of going 'look..!..we are doing something..!'..
..but in reality as far as addressing/solving the big problem…will achieve pretty much zilch..(which is of course the definition of incrementalism..)
what will work is setting maximum amounts of sugar/salt/fat allowed in any food/drink sold to the public ..
the reason the peddlers of these ill-health-in-a-bottle/packets love sugar so much..is 'cos it is as cheap as chips…and addictive..
these cynical bastards know exactly what they are doing ..and there is no way they will stop these practices..
regulating maximums is the only reform that will work..
and of course the politicians also know this..and it really pisses me off that I am going to have to endure the self-congratulary b.s. they will spout..
..as they move to do very little at all..
and moves that as far as our obesity problems are concerned..
There's a documentary somewhere about how scientists, including a NZ one, recommended a maximum level for the WHO guidelines which many companies/countries follow. When the final paper came out the maximums were missing.
Turns out the sugar companies had sponsored the work.
The scientists involved did fight back against this but made little traction. Fixing that would be a good start.
For those following the sex/gender wars, there's been a landmark judgement from a UK court today. Keira Bell, a previous patient at the Tavistock Clinic who took puberty blockers, later had a double mastectomy, and then detransitioned, along with a parent of an autistic 15 year old receiving gender dysphoria treatment, took the clinic to court on the basis that children under the age of 16 cannot give consent to irreversible medical treatments because they cannot understand the implications. Judgement today was in their favour.
The judges said there would be enormous difficulties for young children weighing up this information and deciding whether to consent to the use of puberty blocking medication.
“It is highly unlikely that a child aged 13 or under would be competent to give consent to the administration of puberty blockers,” the judges added. “It is doubtful that a child aged 14 or 15 could understand and weigh the long-term risks and consequences of the administration of puberty blockers.”
That's an example of a number of problems with the philosophy and practice at Tavistock. Hopefully now the general culture will start to change so that kids at risk of transitioning can be helped alongside trans kids that need medical intervention. Unfortunately Tavistock are going to appeal the decision.
for those who haven't been following, there's been a sharp increase in the UK in girls being referred for gender dysphoria treatment, which can fast track some into medical treatment.
Growing up, Keira Bell felt confused and distressed by her body.
At 16, she became one of thousands of girls, some as young as 10 or 11, referred to the Tavistock and Portman Trust.
After three one-hour appointments she was prescribed puberty blockers before she was put on testosterone.
"When I was 20 I had a double mastectomy," she said.
She believed the treatment would help her "achieve happiness".
Ms Bell, who began de-transitioning last year, said: "It was heartbreaking to realise I'd gone down the wrong path."
The Gender Critical Feminist position on this is that girls end up hating their bodies because society still gives them so many messages that being female is bad/wrong and being male is good/right, as well as society reinforcing gender stereotypes that make life hard for gender nonconforming (GNC) kids. For lesbians, sometimes its easier to come out as trans than gay especially if they are in a family or community that is homophobic. There are additional issues for autistic teens (who naturally have more gender nonconformity than the general population), and girls who have been sexually abused.
Tavistock should have been taking all that into account, but instead is using an affirmative model which says that if a child says they are a different gender then they should be treated as that.
Feminist solutions are to change society so that GNC is normalised.
Teacher leave the kids alone, and all you other sex orientation jerks. Let the kids talk about their feelings together, and have some older people talk too and refer to their own memories and life experiences. The people who would be expected to hate labelling are eager to interfere in others' growth of their inner self. 3 versions – great.
One of the concerns I have is the number of gender non-conforming children who are pathologised and medicalised. The "affirmation only" approach practiced in NZ, leads to extremely high numbers going onto puberty blockers and ultimately cross-sex hormones, and there are irreversible effects such as infertility, and impaired sexual function, as well as permanent changes to voice, facial hair etc. Children and young people cannot possibly understand the consequences of these types of decisions.
The saddest part is that in the past there was a model called "watchful waiting" where nothing was rushed, and the child was offered counselling and given time. Between 78-80% of kids on this pathway eventually grew out of their gender identity disorder and came to accept their sexed bodies as they are. Most of these kids grew up to be healthy gay and lesbian adults, without the long term medical consequences of hormone therapy.
I am concerned that gender non-conforming gay and lesbian youth are being driven into a medicalisation model that results in infertility and permanent damage to healthy bodies. What is happening currently in NZ is literally sterilising gay kids for gender non-conformity.
Keira Bell is an inspiration and a heroine for lesbian youth all the world, for the bravery she has shown.
Finally!!! About time the ethics of irreversible gender reassignment 'treatment' was put under a strong spotlight.
Thanks weka. I have been following this issue and will catch up with the reading later.
By that time the backlash from the trans 'community' should be coming through.
("community" because there are many trans people who are equally uncomfortable with the massive increase in the numbers of children being 'treated' for gender dysphoria chemically and surgically.)
Am hoping it will at least open up the discussion, that MSM will get their shit together and report better, and that there's now some change of both GCF and TA positions being talked about without the bullshit around all that.
I wouldn't say the trans community, so much as trans activists (which is both trans and not trans people). The main TA lobbies are lobbying against the ruling, but I think it's worth listening to TAs like Mallory above on the issues around trans health care. If we continue to polarise this, then trans kids will get thrown under the bus more.
Beyond that there's a bigger conversation around society's reliance on overmedicalising generally. I think that's a very hard conversation to have in this area but I still see the potential for societal change that makes GNC easier for women, men and trans/NB people, lessening the pressure for medication and surgery while making sure that people that need those things can access them more equitably.
Fuck transhumanism and it's anti-nature politics though, and fuck neoliberalism that is colonising feminism and gender nonconformity along with everything else.
Diagnosis of gender dysphoria involves children demonstrating at least six of a series of behavioural traits as well as an “associated significant distress or impairment in function, lasting at least six months”.
Those patterns of behaviour include:
• A strong desire to be of the other gender or an insistence that one is the other gender.
• A strong preference for wearing clothes typical of the other gender.
• A strong preference for cross-gender roles in make-believe play or fantasy play.
• A strong preference for toys, games or activities stereotypically used or engaged in by the other gender.
• A strong preference for playmates of the other gender.
• A strong rejection of toys, games and activities typical of one’s assigned gender.
• A strong dislike of one’s sexual anatomy.
• A strong desire for the physical sex characteristics that match one’s experienced gender.
Interesting to read exactly what the 'symptoms' of gender dysphoria are.
Growing up I could have easily ticked the required six boxes. Often criticized for my unfeminine/mannish behaviour and dress, and even to this day and three kids later I still get strange looks because I flatly refuse to wear heels and make up.
Ffs, can't we just learn to accept ourselves and others how we are? Feminism was supposed to liberate us from restrictive rules of sex/gender sterotypes. The appallingly drastic interventions that these children have been subjected to because some fuckwit decided that …
A strong preference for wearing clothes typical of the other gender.
A strong preference for cross-gender roles in make-believe play or fantasy play.
A strong preference for toys, games or activities stereotypically used or engaged in by the other gender. somehow proves that one was born into the wrong body. Utter bunkum and claptrap.
same, except that I grew up in a body-positive household, raised by a feminist mother, so my gender nonconforming behaviour didn't translate into hating my female body.
I've been fortunate to live a life where having to be feminine in dress code hasn't been an issue (for the most part, there's still all the background stuff).
What scares me about the Tavistock approach is there appears to be no acknowledgement that non-trans kids might have what they are calling gender dysphoria. I also think that there are differences in how girls and boys manifest that (due to the patriarchy but also due to sex differences).
Really disturbing to me is the tick box approach to diagnostics of complex human experiences.
Fuck transhumanism and it's anti-nature politics though, and fuck neoliberalism that is colonising feminism and gender nonconformity along with everything else
Trans humans are not necessarily Transhumanists. Judith Collins regards herself a a feminist too. though some might disagree. The "trans community" is no more monolithic than the feminism community. But if Tavistock told her that there was a better than even chance of her being happy in a trans existence then that'd be misleading of them (our suicide stats and median income are pretty dire, though no way to compare that against pre/un/in-trans). That said, exempting trans people from the ban on conversion therapy isn't ideal
Bell's treatment timeline seems to be; initial consults at age 14 (or whenever "soon" means), blockers at 16, testosterone at 17, mastectomy at 20, then detransitioning around 22. If she'd started the blockers earlier he might not have had to go through the trauma of surgery, but it doesn't seem improbable that waiting till 18 wouldn't have changed much in that trajectory. I don't much like reducing people to mere consumers of trans affirming medical resources like this, though that's all from publicly available information. Such a Truscum (/Transmedicalist) to Trender path has been trodden before. Can't help wondering how she'll get on in oncoming years.
I found Bell's own words on the issue more illuminating than whatever slant the various news sources put on her comments of the day. Personally, I hope that she loses on appeal, so am not going to be donating. But it is good to get a feel of where she is coming from:
to clarify, my comment about transhumanism wasn't to tie it to trans people but to the parts of the medical community who are overmedicalising and leading us down that path. Also ties to neoliberalism. And the parts of the trans community that are into transhumanism, but there people on the left or the green movement likewise, there will always be people that find that stuff attractive where it meets their needs and politics.
People that needs drugs and surgery need drugs and surgery. But I cannot see why trans health care would be exempt from overmedicalisation when all other humans aren't.
I consider the sanction against talking about overmedicalisation of GNC and trans kids as dangerous in the same way that not talking about it has been dangerous for women, psych patients/survivors and so on.
Received a vehicle registration renewal notice apparently from NZTA. Email has no sign of NZ in address. d3mina@sapo.pt. No registration number to renew. $79.95 does not relate to usual fee.
I do mine by post and get the instant gratification of the licence from the Post shop. What I do object to is the on the ground option being more expensive. If you own a car it is a government fee or charge that must be paid. Not every body has access to the internet emails or even a reasonably secure mail box. Plus there are very considerable but overlooked costs of hardening online systems against the various hacks and scams ( and in this case giving publicity to a scam) which appear not to be borne by online users in the same way as on the ground users are charged.
As far as I am concerned it's time for a whole of government approach to paying the various fees and levies they collect over all sorts of activities rather than every little fifedom going its own way. In particular people with limited access to computors and other online and banking or credit card systems should not be penalised with extra charges given the fraud levels in the online world.
The other kicker. I had a run out rego to pay on a sold vehicle. The options were either a cheque or pushing the buttons on the phone to access some unknown and completely unable to verify system of "who knows how secure" to pay by credit card. It's worth remembering that online or phone systems that take numbers are of very different and in some cases downright dubious security character.
While there are security costs in a network run at more that one location – the costs would be lower for going into say a bank branch and using that rather than accessing the same net work completely externally from the home computer.
The epidemic of on line fraud and the costs overseas are now pretty substantial. The UK is up to around half a billion of bank fraud per annum now I believe. Cut that back to an NZ perspective and that is still $10's of millions that are going to be extracted from customers who are not online. Staff costs are not that super large and if say the banks had any sense they could direct calls to frontline staff to answer in the real life gaps – plus leave jobs in the provinces.
In my quite wide experience they may know their gross costs but spreading it over various activities borders on the political. Frequently to make some new or pet project look a great deal better than it is because someone's KPI's /ego is on the line. And most forward costing is just a plus1 type model. They also choose to recoup in this case costs from only one class of customer. Just because a computer is involved doesn't make it cheaper. Frequently the reverse.
Government can be tough on some people – get tough on these ones as well. Not unreasonable, but they have to start paying something in every fortnight, and keep it up from their wages. A good old fashioned garnishee or such.
Don't be so wet Labour – is there no-one adjusting the steam press in the steamy laundry of government; too much there release, pshoo – too little here, wind it up slowly, sigh? And think of the dear little working elves in the government basement. Picture the civil servants with little green caps with a bell on like Noddy!
As a health professional, in my experience young females transitioning to male, broadly fall into three catagories. 1. Those with a borderline personality disorder where the transition is another form of self mutilation. 2. Following a trend ie all my friends are doing it. 3. Those who have unfortunately been sexually abused and the transition is a means of making themselves unattractive and less likely to be preyed upon. None of which is likely to lead to a fulfilling adult life.
That's most interesting psych nurse. I am inclined to believe you because you are confirming my ideas. Considering the knowledge and experience you have amassed, it does seem to be a very likely summary of the facts. It seems to me to be a wave of almost protest or escape from the sad realities of the present. Transitioning to female probably seems a nicer, kinder option than staying with the persona that many males project.
The Government will require all its agencies and ministries to exclusively buy electric vehicles and will mandate all public sector buildings to be up to a "green standard".
This is part of the Government goal to make the entire public sector carbon neutral within the next five years.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has made the commitments as she declares a climate emergency in New Zealand in the House today.
The Government's electric vehicle mandate is a lofty goal – there are currently nearly 16,000 vehicles in the Government's fleet.
…
As well as this, Ardern has announced that the Government has begun phasing out coal boilers in its ministries and agencies.
There are roughly 200 coal-fired boilers currently heating water and buildings in the State Sector – the largest and most active will be phased out first.
This, and the purchasing of a greener fleet, will be funded through the previously announced $200 million State Sector Decarbonisation Fund.
I suspect it will cost much more than that before 2025, but good on them for getting on with it.
It does need some back up policy otherwise the petrol cars are just going to be dumped into the private fleet. Given the $value of petrol that users don't buy we need to get the whole fleet up to scratch. A $28k hybrid uses about $14K less petrol over a 200,000 journey
I'm afraid you left out the caveats that are given in the link you provide.
You say "to exclusively buy electric vehicles" They have no intention at all of sticking to exclusively electric vehicles.
The Herald story says
"When it comes to vehicles, Government agencies will be required to "optimise their car fleet" by purchasing electric vehicles or hybrids where EVs are not appropriate for the required use.
That is unless their operational requirements or other circumstances require – such as military vehicles where there is no electric alternatives."
In other words you give the headline bit but not the reality that provides a hole big enough for anyone to drive through. I'm afraid that BMW don't make an all electric model of the 7 series sedan though so it will have to be, at best, a hybrid for the cabinet Ministers.
The previous contract with BMW apparently expired last year. Haven't seen anything about it being renewed. Perhaps the current lot like Teslas better? The 600km+ range of a current Model S should be plenty for most needs within NZ.
The NZ government has ordered three Audi e-trons, which cost $NZ155,500 (before on-road costs) in long-range ’55’ format, and are being prepared to serve the highest state-level duties.
Two of these will serve to shuttle ministers between Wellington Airport and the government’s parliament, fondly known as the Beehive, while the third with baby seat will be placed in service in Ardern’s home town of Auckland.
The Auckland car is the personal vehicle for the PM's private use. I imagine Clarke is the main user.
John Key chose a Suzuki Swift for his car at one stage. That was only about a $20,000 cost to the taxpayer. Don't know whether there were other models during his term.
They might have a couple of Ioniqs, or Audis, but there are still an awful lot of CR plate BMW 730D cars around Wellington and CR1 is a BMW still.
I can't find a link for this. The best I can find in a link to an interview with Marcus Lush in 2011. The Audio doesn't seem to exist though. The topic came up, and surprised the reporters at the time but key said it was because Stephie was learning to drive and it was a good car for that.
As I said Sacha. ALL Ministers get a self drive car as do all former Prime Ministers and all former Governors-General. They also get free domestic air travel and the use of the Crown Limos.
Their surviving spouses after their death also get the perks for the rest of their lives.
No. However these vehicles are self drive cars. It is based in Auckland and I imagine that Clarke spends more time there than does Jacinda. She does, after all, have a limo available at all times and certainly if I were in her job I wouldn't want to bother driving myself. From my observation the back of a limo is where all the Ministers do most of their telephone calls.
Why waste valuable time driving yourself when you can get on with the work you are employed for?
Shuttling between the airport and the beehive is no such thing. The PM also has way too much to do these days to be wasting her time driving, as you say.
I should actually have said "that vehicle" rather than "these vehicles" I was talking about the third one in the quote rather than the two based in Wellington.
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is poised to switch to electric power for her ministerial car, from a BMW 7 Series diesel to an Audi e-Tron.
While the NZ government is about to take delivery of three Audi e-Trons for high-ranking politicians and VIP guests, two are expected to be based in the capital Wellington (in the far south of the North Island) – and at least one example is planned to be assigned to Auckland (650km away, in the far north) at Ms Ardern’s home alongside her personal vehicle, a Hyundai Ioniq electric car.
The impression you've got the Drumpfian habit of just making shit up is getting stronger again.
The Hyundai Ioniq that Ardern drives, including when she chauffered Colbert, appears to be a car she owns, not something supplied by the taxpayer. I've looked and found nothing suggesting it's supplied by the taxpayer, but I've found lots of reference to her owning it – eg:
You've also imagined that Clarke will be the main user of the government e-Tron to be based in Auckland. You really need to back that up if you don't want that to stand as an exhibit of "alwyn just making shit up".
Sure getting things wrong is OK if someone takes a step back and checks their facts and backs up their assertions or corrects as necessary when challenged.
But the challenges came a long way upthread, with zero subsequent actual backing up or change in behaviour from alwyn, just more dumping of the same unsubstantiated shit and an occasional diversion.
Oh dammit alwyn. You have uncovered the evil plan. So if there are to be no electric tanks, we had better cancel the whole plan. We could not possibly have a fleet of EV cars if the tanks are not EV also. Better let Jacinda know quickly.
What a funny little fellow you are. Does the Army actually own any real tanks, apart from the ones in the Museum at Waiouru? I thought they owned vast numbers of APCs but I can't imagine what they would do with a real tank. We probably couldn't afford main battle tanks anyway.
Actually you can get an electric Hummer although I don't think it is the military version.
To bad of course if you were out in the desert, had to withdraw in a hurry and the battery in your dinky little military vehicle was flat. I have been told that jeeps in WW2 didn't even have key. If you had to shift in a hurry you didn't want to waste time looking for the key.
This actually surprises me a bit as I always assumed the PMs BMW was the BMW spec custom armored version, like the Aussie PM's one (and a lot of other countries leaders with those models of BMWs).
Which would be pretty hard to kit with an electric replacement, purely by weight.
Interesting that they presumably drive round in standard.
Not many countries leaders could make that claim I would imagine.
Dutch government
The prime minister of the Netherlands uses an armoured Mercedes-Benz S-Class and sometimes an Audi A6. Previously, an armoured BMW 7 Series was used. Both cars are owned by the Royal and Diplomatic Security Service (DKDB).
Buzz from the Beehive Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters was bound to win headlines when he set out his thinking about AUKUS in his speech to the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. The headlines became bigger when – during an interview on RNZ’s Morning Report today – he criticised ...
The Post reports on how the government is refusing to release its advice on its corrupt Muldoonist fast-track law, instead using the "soon to be publicly available" refusal ground to hide it until after select committee submissions on the bill have closed. Fast-track Minister Chris Bishop's excuse? “It's not ...
As pressure on it grows, the livestock industry’s approach to the transition to Net Zero is increasingly being compared to that of fossil fuel interests. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / Getty ImagesTL;DR: Here’s the top five news items of note in climate news for Aotearoa-NZ this week, and a discussion above ...
The New Zealand Herald reports – Stats NZ has offered a voluntary redundancy scheme to all of its workers as a way to give staff some control over their “future” amidst widespread job losses in the public sector. In an update to staff this morning, seen by the Herald, Statistics New Zealand ...
On Werewolf/Scoop, I usually do two long form political columns a week. From now on, there will be an extra column each week about music and movies. But first, some late-breaking political events:The rise in unemployment numbers for the March quarter was bigger than expected – and especially sharp ...
David Farrar writes – The Herald reports: TVNZ says it is dealing with about 50 formal complaints over its coverage of the latest 1News-Verian political poll, with some viewers – as well as the Prime Minister and a former senior Labour MP – critical of the tone of the 6pm report. ...
Muriel Newman writes – When Meridian Energy was seeking resource consents for a West Coast hydro dam proposal in 2010, local Maori “strenuously” objected, claiming their mana was inextricably linked to ‘their’ river and could be damaged. After receiving a financial payment from the company, however, the Ngai Tahu ...
Alwyn Poole writes – “An SEP,’ he said, ‘is something that we can’t see, or don’t see, or our brain doesn’t let us see, because we think that it’s somebody else’s problem. That’s what SEP means. Somebody Else’s Problem. The brain just edits it out, it’s like a ...
Our trust in our political institutions is fast eroding, according to a Maxim Institute discussion paper, Shaky Foundations: Why our democracy needs trust. The paper – released today – raises concerns about declining trust in New Zealand’s political institutions and democratic processes, and the role that the overuse of Parliamentary urgency ...
This article was prepared for publication yesterday. More ministerial announcements have been posted on the government’s official website since it was written. We will report on these later today …. Buzz from the BeehiveThere we were, thinking the environment is in trouble, when along came Jones. Shane Jones. ...
New Zealand now has the fourth most depressed construction sector in the world behind China, Qatar and Hong Kong. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 8:46am on Thursday, May 2:The Lead: ...
Hi,I am just going to state something very obvious: American police are fucking crazy.That was a photo gracing the New York Times this morning, showing New York City police “entering Columbia University last night after receiving a request from the school.”Apparently in America, protesting the deaths of tens of thousands ...
Winston Peters’ much anticipated foreign policy speech last night was a work of two halves. Much of it was a standard “boilerplate” Foreign Ministry overview of the state of the world. There was some hardening up of rhetoric with talk of “benign” becoming “malign” and old truths giving way to ...
Graham Adams assesses the fallout of the Cass Review — The press release last Thursday from the UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls didn’t make the mainstream news in New Zealand but it really should have. The startling title of Reem Alsalem’s statement — “Implementation of ‘Cass ...
This open-for-business, under-new-management cliché-pockmarked government of Christopher Luxon is not the thing of beauty he imagines it to be. It is not the powerful expression of the will of the people that he asserts it to be. It is not a soaring eagle, it is a malodorous vulture. This newest poll should make ...
The latest labour market statistics, showing a rise in unemployment. There are now 134,000 unemployed - 14,000 more than when the National government took office. Which is I guess what happens when the Reserve Bank causes a recession in an effort to Keep Wages Low. The previous government saw a ...
Three opinion polls have been released in the last two days, all showing that the new government is failing to hold their popular support. The usual honeymoon experienced during the first year of a first term government is entirely absent. The political mood is still gloomy and discontented, mainly due ...
National's Finance Minister once met a poor person.A scornful interview with National's finance guru who knows next to nothing about economics or people.There might have been something a bit familiar if that was the headline I’d gone with today. It would of course have been in tribute to the article ...
Rob MacCulloch writes – Throughout the pandemic, the new Vice-Chancellor-of-Otago-University-on-$629,000 per annum-Can-you-believe-it-and-Former-Finance-Minister Grant Robertson repeated the mantra over and over that he saved “lives and livelihoods”.As we update how this claim is faring over the course of time, the facts are increasingly speaking differently. NZ ...
Chris Trotter writes – IT’S A COMMONPLACE of political speeches, especially those delivered in acknowledgement of electoral victory: “We’ll govern for all New Zealanders.” On the face of it, the pledge is a strange one. Why would any political leader govern in ways that advantaged the huge ...
Bryce Edwards writes – The list of former National Party Ministers being given plum and important roles got longer this week with the appointment of former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett as the chair of Pharmac. The Christopher Luxon-led Government has now made key appointments to Bill ...
TL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy at 10:06am on Wednesday, May 1:The Lead: Business confidence fell across the board in April, falling in some areas to levels last seen during the lockdowns because of a collapse in ...
Over the past 36 hours, Christopher Luxon has been dong his best to portray the centre-right’s plummeting poll numbers as a mark of virtue. Allegedly, the negative verdicts are the result of hard economic times, and of a government bravely set out on a perilous rescue mission from which not ...
Auckland Transport have started rolling out new HOP card readers around the network and over the next three months, all of them on buses, at train stations and ferry wharves will be replaced. The change itself is not that remarkable, with the new readers looking similar to what is already ...
Completed reads for April: The Difference Engine, by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling Carnival of Saints, by George Herman The Snow Spider, by Jenny Nimmo Emlyn’s Moon, by Jenny Nimmo The Chestnut Soldier, by Jenny Nimmo Death Comes As the End, by Agatha Christie Lord of the Flies, by ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
Have a story to share about St Paul’s, but today just picturesPopular novels written at this desk by a young man who managed to bootstrap himself out of father’s imprisonment and his own young life in a workhouse Read more ...
The list of former National Party Ministers being given plum and important roles got longer this week with the appointment of former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett as the chair of Pharmac. The Christopher Luxon-led Government has now made key appointments to Bill English, Simon Bridges, Steven Joyce, Roger Sowry, ...
Newsroom has a story today about National's (fortunately failed) effort to disestablish the newly-created Inspector-General of Defence. The creation of this agency was the key recommendation of the Inquiry into Operation Burnham, and a vital means of restoring credibility and social licence to an agency which had been caught lying ...
Holding On To The Present:The moment a political movement arises that attacks the whole idea of social progress, and announces its intention to wind back the hands of History’s clock, then democracy, along with its unwritten rules, is in mortal danger.IT’S A COMMONPLACE of political speeches, especially those delivered in ...
Stuck In The Middle With You:As Christopher Luxon feels the hot breath of Act’s and NZ First’s extremists on the back of his neck and, as he reckons with the damage their policies are already inflicting upon a country he’s described as “fragile”, is there not some merit in reaching out ...
The unpopular coalition government is currently rushing to repeal section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act. The clause is Oranga Tamariki's Treaty clause, and was inserted after its systematic stealing of Māori children became a public scandal and resulted in physical resistance to further abductions. The clause created clear obligations ...
Buzz from the Beehive The government’s official website – which Point of Order monitors daily – not for the first time has nothing much to say today about political happenings that are grabbing media headlines. It makes no mention of the latest 1News-Verian poll, for example. This shows National down ...
It Takes A Train To Cry:Surely, there is nothing lonelier in all this world than the long wail of a distant steam locomotive on a cold Winter’s night.AS A CHILD, I would lie awake in my grandfather’s house and listen to the traffic. The big wooden house was only a ...
Packing A Punch: The election of the present government, including in its ranks politicians dedicated to reasserting the rights of the legislature in shaping and determining the future of Māori and Pakeha in New Zealand, should have alerted the judiciary – including its anomalous appendage, the Waitangi Tribunal – that its ...
Dead Woman Walking: New Zealand’s media industry had been moving steadily towards disaster for all the years Melissa Lee had been National’s media and communications policy spokesperson, and yet, when the crisis finally broke, on her watch, she had nothing intelligent to offer. Christopher Luxon is a patient man - but he’s not ...
Chris Trotter writes – New Zealand politics is remarkably easy-going: dangerously so, one might even say. With the notable exception of John Key’s flat ruling-out of the NZ First Party in 2008, all parties capable of clearing MMP’s five-percent threshold, or winning one or more electorate seats, tend ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Polling shows that Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has the lowest approval rating of any mayor in the country. Siting at -12 per cent, the proportion of constituents who disapprove of her performance outweighs those who give her the thumbs up. This negative rating is ...
Luxon will no doubt put a brave face on it, but there is no escaping the pressure this latest poll will put on him and the government. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: These are the six things that stood out to me in news and commentary on Aotearoa-NZ’s political ...
This is a re-post from The Climate Brink by Andrew Dessler In the wake of any unusual weather event, someone inevitably asks, “Did climate change cause this?” In the most literal sense, that answer is almost always no. Climate change is never the sole cause of hurricanes, heat waves, droughts, or ...
Something odd happened yesterday, and I’d love to know if there’s more to it. If there was something which preempted what happened, or if it was simply a throwaway line in response to a journalist.Yesterday David Seymour was asked at a press conference what the process would be if the ...
Hi,From time to time, I want to bring Webworm into the real world. We did it last year with the Jurassic Park event in New Zealand — which was a lot of fun!And so on Saturday May 11th, in Los Angeles, I am hosting a lil’ Webworm pop-up! I’ve been ...
Education Minister Erica Standford yesterday unveiled a fundamental reform of the way our school pupils are taught. She would not exactly say so, but she is all but dismantling the so-called “inquiry” “feel good” method of teaching, which has ruled in our classrooms since a major review of the New ...
Exactly where are we seriously going with this government and its policies? That is, apart from following what may as well be a Truss-Lite approach on the purported economic “plan“, and Victorian-era regression when it comes to social policy.Oh it’ll work this time of course, we’re basically assured, “the ...
Hey Uncle Dave, When the Poms joined the EEC, I wasn't one of those defeatists who said, Well, that’s it for the dairy job. And I was right, eh? The Chinese can’t get enough of our milk powder and eventually, the Poms came to their senses and backed up the ute ...
Polling shows that Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau has the lowest approval rating of any mayor in the country. Siting at -12 per cent, the proportion of constituents who disapprove of her performance outweighs those who give her the thumbs up. This negative rating is higher than for any other mayor ...
Buzz from the Beehive Pharmac has been given a financial transfusion and a new chair to oversee its spending in the pharmaceutical business. Associate Health Minister David Seymour described the funding for Pharmac as “its largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff”. ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Many criticisms are being made of the Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill, including by this writer. But as with everything in politics, every story has two sides, and both deserve attention. It’s important to understand what the Government is trying to achieve and its ...
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Hi,I spent about a year on Webworm reporting on an abusive megachurch called Arise, and it made me want to stab my eyes out with a fork.I don’t regret that reporting in 2022 and 2023 — I am proud of it — but it made me angry.Over three main stories ...
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Do you remember when Melania Trump got caught out using a speech that sounded awfully like one Michelle Obama had given? Uncannily so.Well it turns out that Abraham Lincoln is to Winston Peters as Michelle was to Melania. With the ANZAC speech Uncle Winston gave at Gallipoli having much in ...
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Skeptical Science is partnering with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. This fact brief was written by Sue Bin Park in collaboration with members from our Skeptical Science team. You can submit claims you think need checking via the tipline. Is Antarctica gaining land ice? ...
Images of US students (and others) protesting and setting up tent cities on US university campuses have been broadcast world wide and clearly demonstrate the growing rifts in US society caused by US policy toward Israel and Israel’s prosecution of … Continue reading → ...
Barrie Saunders writes – Dear Paul As the new Minister of Media and Communications, you will be inundated with heaps of free advice and special pleading, all in the national interest of course. For what it’s worth here is my assessment: Traditional broadcasting free to air content through ...
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Peter Dunne writes – The great nineteenth British Prime Minister, William Gladstone, once observed that “the first essential for a Prime Minister is to be a good butcher.” When a later British Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan, sacked a third of his Cabinet in July 1962, in what became ...
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We all know something’s not right with our elections. The spread of misinformation, people being targeted with soundbites and emotional triggers that ignore the facts, even the truth, and influence their votes.The use of technology to produce deep fakes. How can you tell if something is real or not? Can ...
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It is all very well cutting the backrooms of public agencies but it may compromise the frontlines. One of the frustrations of the Productivity Commission’s 2017 review of universities is that while it observed that their non-academic staff were increasing faster than their academic staff, it did not bother to ...
Buzz from the Beehive Two speeches delivered by Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters at Anzac Day ceremonies in Turkey are the only new posts on the government’s official website since the PM announced his Cabinet shake-up. In one of the speeches, Peters stated the obvious: we live in a troubled ...
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The Government is again adding to New Zealand’s growing unemployment, this time cutting jobs at the agencies responsible for urban development and growing much needed housing stock. ...
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The Labour Party is saddened to learn of the death of Sir Robert Martin, a globally renowned disability advocate who led the way for disability rights both in New Zealand and internationally. ...
Labour is calling for the Government to urgently rethink its coalition commitment to restart live animal exports, Labour animal welfare spokesperson Rachel Boyack said. ...
Today’s Financial Stability Report has once again highlighted that poverty and deep inequality are political choices - and this Government is choosing to make them worse. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to do more for our households in most need as unemployment rises and the cost of living crisis endures. ...
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This afternoon’s interim Waitangi Tribunal report must be taken seriously as it affects our most vulnerable children, Labour children’s spokesperson Willow-Jean Prime. ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
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It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
The government's decision to reintroduce Three Strikes is a destructive and ineffective piece of law-making that will only exacerbate an inherently biased and racist criminal justice system, said Te Pāti Māori Justice Spokesperson, Tākuta Ferris, today. During the time Three Strikes was in place in Aotearoa, Māori and Pasifika received ...
Cuts to frontline hospital staff are not only a broken election promise, it shows the reckless tax cuts have well and truly hit the frontline of the health system, says Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall. ...
The Green Party has joined the call for public submissions on the fast-track legislation to be extended after the Ombudsman forced the Government to release the list of organisations invited to apply just hours before submissions close. ...
New Zealand’s good work at reducing climate emissions for three years in a row will be undone by the National government’s lack of ambition and scrapping programmes that were making a difference, Labour Party climate spokesperson Megan Woods said today. ...
More essential jobs could be on the chopping block, this time Ministry of Education staff on the school lunches team are set to find out whether they're in line to lose their jobs. ...
Te Pāti Māori is disgusted at the confirmation that hundreds are set to lose their jobs at Oranga Tamariki, and the disestablishment of the Treaty Response Unit. “This act of absolute carelessness and out of touch decision making is committing tamariki to state abuse.” Said Te Pāti Māori Oranga Tamariki ...
The Government is trying to bring in a law that will allow Ministers to cut corners and kill off native species, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said. ...
Cancelling urgently needed new Cook Strait ferries and hiking the cost of public transport for many Kiwis so that National can announce the prospect of another tunnel for Wellington is not making good choices, Labour Transport Spokesperson Tangi Utikere said. ...
A laundry list of additional costs for Tāmaki Makarau Auckland shows the Minister for the city is not delivering for the people who live there, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi, and Mema Paremata mō Tāmaki-Makaurau, Takutai Tarsh Kemp, will travel to the Gold Coast to strengthen ties with Māori in Australia next week (15-21 April). The visit, in the lead-up to the 9th Australian National Kapa haka Festival, will be an opportunity for both ...
The Government is modernising insurance law to better protect Kiwis and provide security in the event of a disaster, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly announced today. “These reforms are long overdue. New Zealand’s insurance law is complicated and dated, some of which is more than 100 years old. ...
The coalition Government is refreshing its approach to supporting pay equity claims as time-limited funding for the Pay Equity Taskforce comes to an end, Public Service Minister Nicola Willis says. “Three years ago, the then-government introduced changes to the Equal Pay Act to support pay equity bargaining. The changes were ...
Structured literacy will change the way New Zealand children learn to read - improving achievement and setting students up for success, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “Being able to read and write is a fundamental life skill that too many young people are missing out on. Recent data shows that ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay says Canada’s refusal to comply in full with a CPTPP trade dispute ruling in our favour over dairy trade is cynical and New Zealand has no intention of backing down. Mr McClay said he has asked for urgent legal advice in respect of our ‘next move’ ...
The rights of our children and young people will be enhanced by changes the coalition Government will make to strengthen oversight of the Oranga Tamariki system, including restoring a single Children’s Commissioner. “The Government is committed to delivering better public services that care for our most at-risk young people and ...
The Government is making it easier for minor changes to be made to a building consent so building a home is easier and more affordable, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on making it easier and cheaper to build homes so we can ...
New Zealand lost a true legend when internationally renowned disability advocate Sir Robert Martin (KNZM) passed away at his home in Whanganui last night, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. “Our Government’s thoughts are with his wife Lynda, family and community, those he has worked with, the disability community in ...
Good evening – Before discussing the challenges and opportunities facing New Zealand’s foreign policy, we’d like to first acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. You have contributed to debates about New Zealand foreign policy over a long period of time, and we thank you for hosting us. ...
From today, passengers travelling internationally from Auckland Airport will be able to keep laptops and liquids in their carry-on bags for security screening thanks to new technology, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Creating a more efficient and seamless travel experience is important for holidaymakers and businesses, enabling faster movement through ...
People with an interest in the health of Northland’s marine ecosystems are invited to a public meeting to discuss how to deal with kina barrens, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. Mr Jones will lead the discussion, which will take place on Friday, 10 May, at Awanui Hotel in ...
Kiwi exporters are $100 million better off today with the NZ EU FTA entering into force says Trade Minister Todd McClay. “This is all part of our plan to grow the economy. New Zealand's prosperity depends on international trade, making up 60 per cent of the country’s total economic activity. ...
There are heartening signs that the extractive sector is once again becoming an attractive prospect for investors and a source of economic prosperity for New Zealand, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. “The beginnings of a resurgence in extractive industries are apparent in media reports of the sector in the past ...
The return of the historic Ō-Rākau battle site to the descendants of those who fought there moved one step closer today with the first reading of Te Pire mō Ō-Rākau, Te Pae o Maumahara / The Ō-Rākau Remembrance Bill. The Bill will entrust the 9.7-hectare battle site, five kilometres west ...
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The Government and Rotorua Lakes Council are committed to working closely together to end the use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua. Associate Minister of Housing (Social Housing) Tama Potaka says the Government remains committed to ending the long-term use of contracted emergency housing motels in Rotorua by the ...
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Racing Minister Winston Peters has paid tribute to an icon of the industry with the recent passing of Dave O’Sullivan (OBE). “Our sympathies are with the O’Sullivan family with the sad news of Dave O’Sullivan’s recent passing,” Mr Peters says. “His contribution to racing, initially as a jockey and then ...
Assalaamu alaikum, greetings to you all. Eid Mubarak, everyone! I want to extend my warmest wishes to you and everyone celebrating this joyous occasion. It is a pleasure to be here. I have enjoyed Eid celebrations at Parliament before, but this is my first time joining you as the Minister ...
Associate Health Minister David Seymour has announced Pharmac’s largest ever budget of $6.294 billion over four years, fixing a $1.774 billion fiscal cliff. “Access to medicines is a crucial part of many Kiwis’ lives. We’ve committed to a budget allocation of $1.774 billion over four years so Kiwis are ...
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Hundreds of New Zealand families affected by Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) will benefit from a new Government focus on prevention and treatment, says Health Minister Dr Shane Reti. “We know FASD is a leading cause of preventable intellectual and neurodevelopmental disability in New Zealand,” Dr Reti says. “Every day, ...
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones today attended the official opening of Kaikohe’s new $14.7 million sports complex. “The completion of the Kaikohe Multi Sports Complex is a fantastic achievement for the Far North,” Mr Jones says. “This facility not only fulfils a long-held dream for local athletes, but also creates ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters’ engagements in Türkiye this week underlined the importance of diplomacy to meet growing global challenges. “Returning to the Gallipoli Peninsula to represent New Zealand at Anzac commemorations was a sombre reminder of the critical importance of diplomacy for de-escalating conflicts and easing tensions,” Mr Peters ...
Ambassador Millar, Burgemeester, Vandepitte, Excellencies, military representatives, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen – good morning and welcome to this sacred Anzac Day dawn service. It is an honour to be here on behalf of the Government and people of New Zealand at Buttes New British Cemetery, Polygon Wood – a deeply ...
Distinguished guests - It is an honour to return once again to this site which, as the resting place for so many of our war-dead, has become a sacred place for generations of New Zealanders. Our presence here and at the other special spaces of Gallipoli is made ...
Mai ia tawhiti pamamao, te moana nui a Kiwa, kua tae whakaiti mai matou, ki to koutou papa whenua. No koutou te tapuwae, no matou te tapuwae, kua honoa pumautia. Ko nga toa kua hinga nei, o te Waipounamu, o te Ika a Maui, he okioki tahi me o ...
Paul Goldsmith will take on responsibility for the Media and Communications portfolio, while Louise Upston will pick up the Disability Issues portfolio, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced today. “Our Government is relentlessly focused on getting New Zealand back on track. As issues change in prominence, I plan to adjust Ministerial ...
Recreational catch limits will be reduced in areas of Fiordland and the Chatham Islands to help keep those fisheries healthy and sustainable, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The lower recreational daily catch limits for a range of finfish and shellfish species caught in the Fiordland Marine Area and ...
Energy Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed an important milestone in New Zealand’s hydrogen future, with the opening of the country’s first network of hydrogen refuelling stations in Wiri. “I want to congratulate the team at Hiringa Energy and its partners K one W one (K1W1), Mitsui & Co New Zealand ...
The coalition Government is delivering on its commitment to improve resource management laws and give greater certainty to consent applicants, with a Bill to amend the Resource Management Act (RMA) expected to be introduced to Parliament next month. RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop has today outlined the first RMA Amendment ...
Overseas models for regulating the oil and gas sector, including their decommissioning regimes, are being carefully scrutinised as a potential template for New Zealand’s own sector, Resources Minister Shane Jones says. The Coalition Government is focused on rebuilding investor confidence in New Zealand’s energy sector as it looks to strengthen ...
Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell has today released the Report of the Government Inquiry into the response to the North Island Severe Weather Events. “The report shows that New Zealand’s emergency management system is not fit-for-purpose and there are some significant gaps we need to address,” Mr Mitchell ...
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith is today travelling to Europe where he’ll update the United Nations Human Rights Council on the Government’s work to restore law and order. “Attending the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva provides us with an opportunity to present New Zealand’s human rights progress, priorities, and challenges, while ...
Associate Agriculture Minister, Mark Patterson, formally reopened the world’s largest wool processing facility today in Awatoto, Napier, following a $50 million rebuild and refurbishment project. “The reopening of this facility will significantly lift the economic opportunities available to New Zealand’s wool sector, which already accounts for 20 per cent of ...
To celebrate the start of New Zealand music month, we look back at the best local tuneage that managed to weasel its way into Hollywood productions. There’s nothing quite like the thrilling zap of recognition when New Zealand weasels its way into a glamorous Hollywood production. Crack open a Tui ...
People trust other people more than institutions. So how can the media gain that trust through journalists without losing what’s important about the institution? Anna Rawhiti-Connell reflects on two years of curating the news for The Bulletin.Amonth ago, armed cops descended on my neighbourhood as calls to “lock your ...
Opinion: PFAS – per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances – are a class of thousands of man-made chemicals used widely in everyday consumer items such as textiles, packaging, and cookware, popular for their water, grease and stain-repellent properties. However, the very properties that make PFAS so attractive to manufacturers are also what ...
NONFICTION 1 The Last Secret Agent by Pippa Latour & Jude Dobson (Allen & Unwin, $37.99)’ This is the hottest book in New Zealand, number one with a bullet in its first week, selling more than any overseas title, and demand is so huge that it’s already been reprinted. A ...
Loading…(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){var ql=document.querySelectorAll('A,DIV,A[data-quiz],DIV[data-quiz]'); if(ql){if(ql.length){for(var k=0;k<ql.length;k++){ql[k].id='quiz-embed-'+k;ql[k].href="javascript:var i=document.getElementById('quiz-embed-"+k+"');try{qz.startQuiz(i)}catch(e){i.start=1;i.style.cursor='wait';i.style.opacity='0.5'};void(0);"}}};i['QP']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){(i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)})(window,document,'script','https://take.quiz-maker.com/3012/CDN/quiz-embed-v1.js','qp'); Got a good quiz question?Send Newsroom your questions. The post Newsroom daily quiz, Friday 3 May appeared first on Newsroom. ...
A warning – suicide is discussed in this podcast New Zealand’s own long-running soap Shortland Street doesn’t hesitate to kill off its much-loved characters. But would TVNZ dare to kill off our favourite soap? That’s the fear as times get tough in television – even though it’s been pointed out ...
Essay: If the Crown harms children, how do you hold it accountable? Analysis by Aaron Smale in light of the Waitangi Tribunal court decision. The post The Crown versus Māori Children appeared first on Newsroom. ...
Asia Pacific Report A West Papuan resistance leader has condemned the United Nations role in allowing Indonesia to “integrate” the Melanesian Pacific region in what is claimed to be an “egregious act of inhumanity” on 1 May 1963. In an open letter to UN Secretary-General António Guterres, Organisasi Papua Merdeka-OPM ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra A key part of the Albanese government’s political strategy is to fill the news cycle with its presence and messaging. Ministers are deployed to the maximum, even when they’ve little to say. This week ...
Recent extreme weather events showed the importance of a well-functioning insurance system, says Commerce and Consumer Affairs minister Andrew Bayly. ...
By Jo Moir, RNZ News political editor, and Craig McCulloch, deputy political editor New Zealand’s Labour Party is demanding Winston Peters be stood down as Foreign Minister for opening up the government to legal action over his “totally unacceptable” attack on a prominent AUKUS critic. In an interview on RNZ’s ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Christian Brakenridge, Postdoctoral research fellow at Swinburne University, Centre for Urban Transitions, Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute The Conversation, Gorodenkoff/Shutterstock People have a pretty intuitive sense of what is healthy – standing is better than sitting, exercise is great for overall ...
The Wellington-based Reserve Force soldier is now almost three years into his New Zealand Army career with 5th/7th Battalion, Royal New Zealand Infantry Regiment. ...
"The Government needs to release the review immediately as this reckless approach to change risks disjointed decision making and creates more distress and uncertainty for staff," Fitzsimons said. ...
By Koroi Hawkins, RNZ Pacific editor Jeremiah Manele has been elected Prime Minister of Solomon Islands, polling 31 votes to 18 over rival candidate and former opposition leader Mathew Wale with one abstention. The final result of the election by secret ballot was announced by the Governor-General, Sir David Vunagi, ...
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The NZQA proposal released to staff today would involve a net loss of 35 roles. There are 66 roles being disestablished with 13 of those currently vacant, and 31 new roles proposed, said Fleur Fitzsimons Public Service Association Te Pūkenga Here Tikanga ...
Alex Casey talks to Loren Taylor, the writer, director and star of new film The Moon is Upside Down, about assembling her dream ensemble cast, toilet paper pads and turning literal dreams into reality. There’s a moment in The Moon is Upside Down where frazzled anaesthetist Briar (Loren Taylor) gets ...
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Workers at a major ASB contact centre in Auckland have voted to take strike action and withdraw their labour following disappointing pay negotiations with the employer and an "offer" to workers that would leave them worse off than the previous year. ...
As the government tries to get the country back on track with a school phone ban, Tara Ward has an idea for where they should turn their attention to next.New Zealand students returned to school on Monday morning, but their cellphones did not. The government’s new phone ban began ...
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The Inter-Parliamentary Alliance, whose members were victims of a China-backed cyber attack, is discussing forming a standing committee to deal with foreign influence. ...
The PSA is concerned that the voluntary redundancies being offered to staff by Stats NZ will impact on the agency’s ability to deliver on its core functions. ...
Results ranged from surprisingly yum to soul-destroying. I love cooking. The kitchen is a hearth of culinary creation, of sensory delights, of gastronomic poetry. I also can’t afford anything nice. Why does a pack of instant noodles and some milk cost ten bucks? I love you, Aotearoa, but I miss ...
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He’s fine but it feels like I’m losing a friend and it’s making me bitter. How do I say ‘enough is enough’? Want Hera’s help? Email your problem to helpme@thespinoff.co.nzHey Hera,I’ve recently moved in with a girlfriend, her partner Steve, and his friend. We all live in a lovely little house. ...
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Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jessica Balanzategui, Senior Lecturer in Media, RMIT University ABC “Bluey mania” shows no sign of abating. Bluey’s season finale, The Sign, was the most viewed ABC program of all time on iView. A “hidden” follow-up episode, aptly named The Surprise, created ...
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The campaign will engage the community and encourage submissions on the bill to the New Zealand government by the closing submission deadline of Friday 31st of May 2024 4pm. ...
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Terence O’Brien had the rare and no doubt undesired distinction of rising to one of the most exalted positions in New Zealand diplomacy, then being unceremoniously recalled to Wellington without explanation just when his career was at its zenith. What is perhaps more surprising is that he appears to have ...
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Why has New Zealand slipped from third to 12th on Quality of Death Indexes over the past decade or so? Hospice New Zealand Chief Executive Wayne Naylor has a list of reasons. “We don’t have a current national strategy – the Government hasn’t renewed our 2001 strategy, so we don’t ...
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So if you'd like to take a stand against China's bullying of Australia, which includes its slapping of a 212% tariff on Australian wine, there's just one thing to do:
https://www.theage.com.au/world/europe/will-not-be-bullied-citizens-around-the-world-told-to-buy-australian-wine-in-stand-against-china-20201201-p56jew.html
Join with thousands of other Parliamentarians around the world and buy an Australian wine today. in the video, even Minister Sepuloni joins in:
"You know what? Japanese sake is the best!" says Shiori Yamao, an independent member of Japan's House of Representatives before Republican Senator Ted Yoho declares "two words – Napa Valley", before saying it is time to "drink something a little bit different" and buy Australian wine, "because our friends need our help".
"We are asking you all to join us in standing against Xi Jinping's authoritarian bullying," says Miriam Lexmann, a Christian Democrat Member of the European Parliament.
"By drinking a bottle or two of Australian wine and letting the Chinese Communist Party know that we will not be bullied," says Swedish Christian Democratic, Elisabet Lann, a municipal councillor who holds up a glass of Penfolds.
The video features one Australian MP – Labor Senator Kimberley Kitching from Victoria – who said that China's attempts to bully Australia, including its list of 14 grievances, was an attack on "free countries everywhere".
A good analysis here as well:
Yet China's massive economic clout, a weapon it's now openly using to coerce Australia, is entirely dependent on the trust of other nations. Perhaps more than any other modern large nation it's wealth and influence has only come about because of a unique set of circumstances that have prevailed since the end of WW2.
Yet it is also incredibly vulnerable:
It's a nation with very poor food security, ranked lower than India. In particular it has a very low arable land area per capita, worse still much of that land highly dependent on imported inputs to remain productive.
It's an ageing nation dependent on export markets to sustain it's industries. There will be no consumption led growth for China, it's demographic precludes this.
And for all the hype and noise about going green, China like the rest of the world still gets 85% of it's energy from fossil fuels. Much of which is imported and highly vulnerable to disruption.
It's surrounded by 14 other nations, most of which are distrusting or engaged in low level hostilities. It may have a large navy, but for the moment it's constrained by a First Island Chain of neighbours that limit the kind of blue water projection of power necessary to protect it's shipping routes.
It's financial system is so monstrously overleveraged that it makes the rest of the world look like a model of probity.
And while we have grown up thinking of China as a monolithic nation, it's history is quite otherwise. There are numerous geographic, ethnic and economic reasons that constantly pull in the other direction. This is the reason why the CCP exert such draconian control over their population, they fear this more than anything else.
It really doesn't matter which one of these factors blows up first, when one goes it will be the perfect storm. The question I keep asking myself, is exactly what are the CCP's intentions here? And sadly I keep coming back to Xi Xinping's own words when he repeatedly commands his military to prepare for war. The CCP understand their vulnerabilities; none of it is rocket science. Their answer they have arrived at is imperial dominance.
Sometimes when someone says they want to kill you, it's not wholly paranoid to believe them.
Sure, sure Red, when you also stand up against the economic sanctions imposed on poor countries causing poverty , illness and death .
Venezuela, Syria,Iran…the list goes on .But we can make a stand against imperialist bullying by knocking ourselves out on Aussie wine!!!!!!
I can't think of a more middle class first world protest than drink the Aussie wine that's killed Aussie rivers and displaced indigenous communities
I understand where you're coming from; nowhere have I claimed the US-led system did not make mistakes and fall short of it's professed ideals. Yet focusing solely on the failures means we also miss the enormous successes. Because while it's important to accept and take responsibility for our failures, unless we also know what we have done right, we have no starting point and no compass to guide us to better.
For the purpose of a useful discussion I'm going to take all those failures as read; and at then look to what it got right, and how it shaped all the good things about the modern world you live in.
I can't think of a more middle class first world protest than drink the Aussie wine that's killed Aussie rivers and displaced indigenous communities
Wineries may have some impact, but it's nothing compared to the far more massive consequences of cotton and rice farming.
As for the displacement of indigenous communities … well I ask you this … is there any people in all of human history that have not been 'displaced' at some point? It was almost always a brutal, ugly process and it's only a fairly modern idea that maybe we could do this differently.
That Human Progress site is a tonic.
Well thats where we part company Red
"mistakes"?
"falling short"?
I suggest all those "mistakes" and "shortfalls"are working just dandy for the monied interests that have captured "democracies" all over the globe
https://theintercept.com/2015/07/30/jimmy-carter-u-s-oligarchy-unlimited-political-bribery/
Monied interests backed up by national .military might .
It's been going on for long enough for those "mistakes and "shortfalls " to have been corrected several times over
The United Fruit Company in Guatemala is a case study for all
I'd prefer not to part company if possible. If you'd bear with me maybe we could explore another more constructive framework to view the US at some other time.
Cheers
I was just looking at the issue of vinasse yesterday, and wondering what kiwis do with this waste. It's one of the dirty aspects of crop residue type biofuels too. Some articles hinted at solutions, but wanted me to pay money for science we as taxpayers already paid for. Ideas like microbial processing for byproducts, making biochar from it, co-composting with other waste streams…
One article went so far as to claim vinasse as a valuable resource which I had wondered at, again, an article behind a paywall.
Wasn't bokashi being used somewhere in a NZ vineyard?
https://www.nzwine.com/en/winery/nautilus-estate-of-marlborough/bokashi-compost
I made a mistake I'm thinking of vinasse the distillation, not fermentation waste, which is significantly more toxic.
But the bokashi bugs might very well work on vinasse after a composting cocktail to dilute/make the stuff less toxic. I like bokashi for killing weeds that otherwise sprout in the compost, real mongrels like jasmine and kikuyu can be pickled.
What a thoughtful practical idea at the Nautilus vineyard francesca.
@francesca +1, not to mention Australia has obviously taken the USA's lead and become extremely aggressive in their dealing with China ever since it became apparent that China will lead the world with their 5G technologies…then all of a sudden China is public enemy number one, it's not that hard to put the pieces together..is it? though as usual, the usual suspects around here get lead around like dogs on a leash…barking at those they are told to bark at, time and again always the same ones… it's kind of pathetic really
Huawei Australia says ban is a ‘slap in the face’ to China
Former PM Malcolm Turnbull has defended his decision to ban Huawei from Australia’s 5G rollout. But the Chinese tech giant is still offended.
https://www.news.com.au/technology/online/internet/huawei-australia-says-ban-is-a-slap-in-the-face-to-china/news-story/4d6ba569b153c0e068a5be515e9da36f
Would you post here if you knew that the SIS had built and provided the server box Lynn uses to run The Standard on?
Hypothetically speaking.
So if we follow your your logic, then this severer would be being monitored directly by the CIA, so what's the difference?
I take it then that your answer is no.
No the answer is yes…I assume that everything on the net is traceable at any time to most powerful governments/secret services in the world which is why I don't bother trying to hide my identity.
OK so you have confirmed that you believe that IT infrastructure is essentially wide open to government monitoring and infiltration.
Now can you see why Western governments are reluctant to go with Huawei?
Heh.
“why are you turning red Prime Minister?…”
How much of Cuba's struggle for instance was because of the embargos put on by the USA? Without those embargos what would they have looked like….
Like you I wonder at whether Xi Jinping's government really is as coherent as it proposes.
In particular we have often seen the Belt and Road Initiative is portrayed as a geopolitical strategy that ensnares countries into unsustainable debt and then allows China undue influence in a country.
But the on-ground evidence shows that China's development financing system is too fragmented and poorly coordinated to pursue detailed strategic objectives; and developing-country governments and their associated political and economic interests are still acting like they are sovereign when it comes to determining the nature of BRI projects.
If BRI had some Jinping masterplan for global control, it would not have been rolled out piecemeal through a series of diverse bilateral interactions.
Also, if BRI really were out to rule the world there simply wouldn't have been that many stuffups and poorly conceived and managed projects. They would have adjusted and altered rather than piling up the negative economic, social, political and environmental negative consequences.
In Sri Lanka and Malaysia, the two most widely cited ‘victims’ of China’s ‘debt-trap diplomacy’, the most controversial BRI projects were initiated by the recipient governments, which pursued their own domestic agendas. Their debt problems arose mainly from the misconduct of local elites and Western-dominated financial markets. China has faced negative reactions and pushback in both countries, though to a lesser extent than is commonly believed, given the high-level interests at stake in the recipient countries.
Being an infrastructure nerd I still think BRI is one of their best ways to stop behaving like the new global asshole. Chiense policymakers should develop a coherent, integrated decision-making system with sufficient risk assessment capabilities and strict and clear and enforceable rules. That means Xi Jinping demonstrates he can truly regain control of its massive state owned enterprise (SOE) construction and development and infrastructure sector.
To me it's a trap if Australia or New Zealand or Singapore looks at BRI as if it were being strategically directed from the top down.
And of course if they want to reverse Chinese influence with such developing-country governments they should provide alternative development financing options to recipient states, and keep encouraging open-society journalists to improve the transparency of these megaprojects.
And there's that thing called sunlight: the large developed-world construction companies can keep needling and pushing higher demands for transparency and public participation around the design, feasibility, selection, tendering, and management of BRI megaprojects.
Chatham House details the Sri Lanka and Indonesia cases for BRI here:
https://www.chathamhouse.org/2020/08/debunking-myth-debt-trap-diplomacy
Yes. BRI was at heart a good idea if it had been pursued on an open multilateral, global development basis. But instead it was primarily captured by crude China centric merchantile interests that undermined it's credibility from the outset.
Otherwise I appreciate your perspective on this. I find BRI such a herd of cats it's hard to form a coherent picture of it.
What do you see long term that China will do with Hong Kong?
Food production hub, military base, financial hub.
Australia has long been the US “Deputy Dog” in the South Pacific, so can likely be taken as a US proxy–though who knows to what end given the Trump period. Most significant wars are imperialist wars whether fought out ideologically, technologically, via trade, or armed conflict.
So what is in it for the NZ working class, siding with Australia in this pathetic case?
Donald Trump could put out multiple highly offensive international tweets in the time between dinner and his midnight happy meal.
Yes, it's terrible.
I'll be sure to tweet my outrage on my device made by 10 year olds in China.
Hat tip, Frankie Boyle.
We should all be very alarmed at this stoush between Australia and China. Neither side seems prepared to back down. This has to be seen in the context of Australia's current massive military build up. Over the next 10 years, Australia will spend $200 billion on defence in the nation’s largest ever peacetime rearmament program, and make no mistake – the current ANZAC + Singapore has a combined GDP in excess of 2 trillion dollars and is a middle power and major player in the Asia-Pacific region that controls key shipping routes and access to the Indian Ocean. China clearly has marked Australia's card as the sort of medium sized power it can cut down to size pour encourager les autres. especially in light of the isolationist chaos of the Trump regime perhaps offering the chance to pick off a key US ally. We should be very alarmed because Australia is NZ's main security partner. To paraphrase MJ Savage, where Australia goes we go, where Australia stands we stand. If China picks a fight with Australia, then eventually, if push comes to shove, they pick a fight with us.
Xi's ascendancy is an utter tragedy for China. Just when it looked like China would join the world as a constructive player, they've slid backwards into the embrace of wild nationalism, authoritarian posturing about China's "dignity" and aggression.
The Chinese leadership seems determined to pursue an agenda of confrontation with anyone who dares stand up to their artless and crude bullying, and will blatantly use trade to do so. They are signaling they are an untrustworthy trade partner whose scant respect for the rule of law internally is now being turned onto anyone who deviates from the butcher's of Bejings line. Appeasement though is unlikely to work with brutal and bullying dictatorships who fundamentally regard Western social democracy and freedoms as a threat to their own dictatorship.
Unless China changes path war will become inevitable, mark my words.
Unfortunately, I think you are right.
In line with my reply above at 1.1 yes I have to fully agree with you. It's astonishing just how rapidly COVID has accelerated the final dissolution of the post WW2 US led trade order. Like all things human it was flawed, and many here still like to attribute to it all the wickedness in the world. But the fact is that it also enabled virtually everything we take for granted about our modern lives.
And it's just gone away.
Agreed – I liked Hu, he had an impressive work ethic – Xi, not so much.
"The Chinese leadership seems determined to pursue an agenda of confrontation with anyone who dares stand up to their artless and crude bullying, and will blatantly use trade to do so"
..man you have a short memory there pal, I seem to remember that we were all fine with trade with China when it meant shifting all our industries and manufacturers over there so they could exploit their cheap labour to make more and more profits for themselves their shareholders (don't you remember that just a few months ago hardly one western country could even supply themselves face masks FFS!) and workers could all go and buy cheap shoes and TV's to make themselves all feel better about their stagnant wage growth …now all of a sudden when China becomes a powerful world player, and as a direct result of our own western liberal free market trade policies, we get all shitty at them…what a fucking joke…you and Ad and Red Logic and few others around here need to go and take a long hard look in the mirror….China's position in the world today is the direct result of western liberalism as conducted by the governments New Zealand and Australia over the past 30 years pure and simple.
Turn Labour Left!
I agree with you there Adrian
Without cheap goods and electronic gadgets to sedate them, the low wage workers would have been out on the streets with pitchforks long ago
Utter hypocrisy to be pointing the finger at China.
Hear hear. Death (to the working class) by a thousand distractions.
Lin Wood tweeted a press release this morning calling on Trump to declare martial law to hold a new election if the Courts and Congress fail to uphold the Constitution. Not sure if it's appropriate to link, but should be easy enough to find because there is a full page ad in the Washington Times.
Don't think it's possible given the constitutional deadlines (a bit contradictory…instate martial law to hold election/thereby ignoring consitutional deadline). Plus parts of the government are shutting down for Christmas and will no longer have the ability to act until the next lot come in.
Trigger warning.
When the lies go too far for even Bill Barr to get behind them, it's not likely to go anywhere.
Child Poverty needs fixing $500 to $1 billion per year to fix.
We can buy flash military equipment worth billions yet we can't fix child poverty these children will be paying for these posiedens( which most likely never be used ) but on miminimum wage jobs or benefits .
We need to invest in our future workforce parents etc keeping another generation in poverty is a crime against humanity.
The way things are going with China, we'll have to re-arm soon and that'll cost a fortune.
send the poor people off to fight in a war..
problem solved..!
Like Phil's comments, rearming with an aim of defending against an aggressive full on China attack is a pointless exercise.
As an example of monetary waste it would be unprecedented. All that cash to get knocked out in a couple of days or weeks can't seriously be justified.
Better to build bridges than bombs.
[Link required]
if we could just do something about Parent Poverty. I wonder if that would then trickle down and have an effect on Child Poverty.
Nah, that would not fix anything, lest waste another three years on consultants and hey, maybe a free sandwich at school, no second tho, we would not want to spoil the little bludgers, right?
In my childhood in the 1960s people had vegie gardens.
The government need to invest in portable gardens, supply plants and run classes in halls. I realise this would take extra effort for those in rentals and that the landlord would need to agree. At least what was grown would be healthy.
Community gardens would also work and orchardists could donate surplus fruit.
We easily grow enough food to feed everyone without home vege gardens – we just can't afford to buy it or it gets deliberately wasted e.g. Watties contracts that require surplus to their (Watties) requirements to be destroyed and not sold elsewhere.
It isn't really a supply and demand market where prices come down if production in in excess of demand – it is a command and control market where supply is deliberately controlled to maximise profit.
Saw this ad Vegepod: About $90 but should last – good idea. Made in Tauranga seems. Look up on google – link is too long. Email – info@vegepod.co.nz
Goodwood.nz Planter boxes untreated $79 kitset see on google
Or tubs – bore through plastic about 3 holes with drill cheap – hold 10-15litres usually – don't know whether flexi tubs would be strong enough – think rigid.
Some suitable see – https://www.thewarehouse.co.nz/c/home-garden/homewares/storage/flexi-tubs
https://www.supercheapauto.co.nz/shop-by-category/car-care/detailing-accessories/buckets-and-tubs
Also bunnings and mitre 10. Remember people make a living out of growing vegs and have jobs looking after them so being entirely self-sufficient would not be the way to go.
I have a young friend who uses any bits her or I can lay our hands on to plant stuff in. She grows plants from seeds and has just finished her degree with a toddler and a preschooler. Given the timber I could whack up some portable planter boxes and my strength is limited.
The gardening bug sticks once you start getting results. I started gardening 2 years ago.
The planter boxes you mentioned (or other) would make a great gift.
Can you show evidence of Watties doing this?
In the 1950s and 60s people also had families where one of two parents stayed home full-time to tend to gardens and suchlike. Different world.
There are good gardening programmes in some schools now where the students invest the labour and the school organises the supplies.
Talking about this? NZ child poverty monitor released today.
Not sure where you get the cash figure from though.
There was also a child health report released yesterday.
Kathryn Rich at it again defending high sugar fruit juices .
Claiming Scientific evidence proves otherwise.
Yet we have one of the highest levels of obesity of any country in the world.
A sugar tax to pay for the epidemic of type 2 diabetes overloading our health system.
A leopard never changes her spots after picking on our duopoly grocery marketfor acting uncompetively. I knew she could not be trusted with the Truth.
[Link required]
Look, she is at it again – surely that should be enough for you? 🙂
I know …
Better I think to regulate maximums and creep them down incrementally – that way consumers are nudged away from sugar addiction.
Link is https://www.fgc.org.nz/another-look-at-sugar-labelling/
Taxes are not always the best answer.
agreed…a sugar tax on (some of) the end product is incrementalism writ large..(in the sense of going 'look..!..we are doing something..!'..
..but in reality as far as addressing/solving the big problem…will achieve pretty much zilch..(which is of course the definition of incrementalism..)
what will work is setting maximum amounts of sugar/salt/fat allowed in any food/drink sold to the public ..
the reason the peddlers of these ill-health-in-a-bottle/packets love sugar so much..is 'cos it is as cheap as chips…and addictive..
these cynical bastards know exactly what they are doing ..and there is no way they will stop these practices..
regulating maximums is the only reform that will work..
and of course the politicians also know this..and it really pisses me off that I am going to have to endure the self-congratulary b.s. they will spout..
..as they move to do very little at all..
and moves that as far as our obesity problems are concerned..
will do/achieve s.f.a…
There's a documentary somewhere about how scientists, including a NZ one, recommended a maximum level for the WHO guidelines which many companies/countries follow. When the final paper came out the maximums were missing.
Turns out the sugar companies had sponsored the work.
The scientists involved did fight back against this but made little traction. Fixing that would be a good start.
For those following the sex/gender wars, there's been a landmark judgement from a UK court today. Keira Bell, a previous patient at the Tavistock Clinic who took puberty blockers, later had a double mastectomy, and then detransitioned, along with a parent of an autistic 15 year old receiving gender dysphoria treatment, took the clinic to court on the basis that children under the age of 16 cannot give consent to irreversible medical treatments because they cannot understand the implications. Judgement today was in their favour.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/dec/01/children-who-want-puberty-blockers-must-understand-effects-high-court-rules
Reasonable overview write up from the Guardian.
https://twitter.com/NickCohen4/status/1333760530209714177
That's an example of a number of problems with the philosophy and practice at Tavistock. Hopefully now the general culture will start to change so that kids at risk of transitioning can be helped alongside trans kids that need medical intervention. Unfortunately Tavistock are going to appeal the decision.
Nick Cohen? Are you re-tweeting Nick Cohen? Are you f**king joking?
that's ironic.
for those who haven't been following, there's been a sharp increase in the UK in girls being referred for gender dysphoria treatment, which can fast track some into medical treatment.
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-cambridgeshire-55144148
The Gender Critical Feminist position on this is that girls end up hating their bodies because society still gives them so many messages that being female is bad/wrong and being male is good/right, as well as society reinforcing gender stereotypes that make life hard for gender nonconforming (GNC) kids. For lesbians, sometimes its easier to come out as trans than gay especially if they are in a family or community that is homophobic. There are additional issues for autistic teens (who naturally have more gender nonconformity than the general population), and girls who have been sexually abused.
Tavistock should have been taking all that into account, but instead is using an affirmative model which says that if a child says they are a different gender then they should be treated as that.
Feminist solutions are to change society so that GNC is normalised.
Teacher leave the kids alone, and all you other sex orientation jerks. Let the kids talk about their feelings together, and have some older people talk too and refer to their own memories and life experiences. The people who would be expected to hate labelling are eager to interfere in others' growth of their inner self. 3 versions – great.
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjvnTxWP7vo
(Turn the sound down)
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=krYK1jWz0Lo – concert enjoy 6m
Also this.
https://twitter.com/GoonerProf/status/1333806619503833091
@Chican3ry (trans woman) and @GoonerProf (GCF) are both worth following, thoughtful and intelligent tweets from both sides of the war.
One of the concerns I have is the number of gender non-conforming children who are pathologised and medicalised. The "affirmation only" approach practiced in NZ, leads to extremely high numbers going onto puberty blockers and ultimately cross-sex hormones, and there are irreversible effects such as infertility, and impaired sexual function, as well as permanent changes to voice, facial hair etc. Children and young people cannot possibly understand the consequences of these types of decisions.
The saddest part is that in the past there was a model called "watchful waiting" where nothing was rushed, and the child was offered counselling and given time. Between 78-80% of kids on this pathway eventually grew out of their gender identity disorder and came to accept their sexed bodies as they are. Most of these kids grew up to be healthy gay and lesbian adults, without the long term medical consequences of hormone therapy.
I am concerned that gender non-conforming gay and lesbian youth are being driven into a medicalisation model that results in infertility and permanent damage to healthy bodies. What is happening currently in NZ is literally sterilising gay kids for gender non-conformity.
Keira Bell is an inspiration and a heroine for lesbian youth all the world, for the bravery she has shown.
Finally!!! About time the ethics of irreversible gender reassignment 'treatment' was put under a strong spotlight.
Thanks weka. I have been following this issue and will catch up with the reading later.
By that time the backlash from the trans 'community' should be coming through.
("community" because there are many trans people who are equally uncomfortable with the massive increase in the numbers of children being 'treated' for gender dysphoria chemically and surgically.)
Am hoping it will at least open up the discussion, that MSM will get their shit together and report better, and that there's now some change of both GCF and TA positions being talked about without the bullshit around all that.
I wouldn't say the trans community, so much as trans activists (which is both trans and not trans people). The main TA lobbies are lobbying against the ruling, but I think it's worth listening to TAs like Mallory above on the issues around trans health care. If we continue to polarise this, then trans kids will get thrown under the bus more.
Beyond that there's a bigger conversation around society's reliance on overmedicalising generally. I think that's a very hard conversation to have in this area but I still see the potential for societal change that makes GNC easier for women, men and trans/NB people, lessening the pressure for medication and surgery while making sure that people that need those things can access them more equitably.
Fuck transhumanism and it's anti-nature politics though, and fuck neoliberalism that is colonising feminism and gender nonconformity along with everything else.
From the Guardian article you linked to..
Diagnosis of gender dysphoria involves children demonstrating at least six of a series of behavioural traits as well as an “associated significant distress or impairment in function, lasting at least six months”.
Those patterns of behaviour include:
• A strong desire to be of the other gender or an insistence that one is the other gender.
• A strong preference for wearing clothes typical of the other gender.
• A strong preference for cross-gender roles in make-believe play or fantasy play.
• A strong preference for toys, games or activities stereotypically used or engaged in by the other gender.
• A strong preference for playmates of the other gender.
• A strong rejection of toys, games and activities typical of one’s assigned gender.
• A strong dislike of one’s sexual anatomy.
• A strong desire for the physical sex characteristics that match one’s experienced gender.
Interesting to read exactly what the 'symptoms' of gender dysphoria are.
Growing up I could have easily ticked the required six boxes. Often criticized for my unfeminine/mannish behaviour and dress, and even to this day and three kids later I still get strange looks because I flatly refuse to wear heels and make up.
Ffs, can't we just learn to accept ourselves and others how we are? Feminism was supposed to liberate us from restrictive rules of sex/gender sterotypes. The appallingly drastic interventions that these children have been subjected to because some fuckwit decided that …
A strong preference for wearing clothes typical of the other gender.
A strong preference for cross-gender roles in make-believe play or fantasy play.
A strong preference for toys, games or activities stereotypically used or engaged in by the other gender. somehow proves that one was born into the wrong body. Utter bunkum and claptrap.
same, except that I grew up in a body-positive household, raised by a feminist mother, so my gender nonconforming behaviour didn't translate into hating my female body.
I've been fortunate to live a life where having to be feminine in dress code hasn't been an issue (for the most part, there's still all the background stuff).
What scares me about the Tavistock approach is there appears to be no acknowledgement that non-trans kids might have what they are calling gender dysphoria. I also think that there are differences in how girls and boys manifest that (due to the patriarchy but also due to sex differences).
Really disturbing to me is the tick box approach to diagnostics of complex human experiences.
Tautoko that Weka, Tautoko that.
Trans humans are not necessarily Transhumanists. Judith Collins regards herself a a feminist too. though some might disagree. The "trans community" is no more monolithic than the feminism community. But if Tavistock told her that there was a better than even chance of her being happy in a trans existence then that'd be misleading of them (our suicide stats and median income are pretty dire, though no way to compare that against pre/un/in-trans). That said, exempting trans people from the ban on conversion therapy isn't ideal
Bell's treatment timeline seems to be; initial consults at age 14 (or whenever "soon" means), blockers at 16, testosterone at 17, mastectomy at 20, then detransitioning around 22. If she'd started the blockers earlier he might not have had to go through the trauma of surgery, but it doesn't seem improbable that waiting till 18 wouldn't have changed much in that trajectory. I don't much like reducing people to mere consumers of trans affirming medical resources like this, though that's all from publicly available information. Such a Truscum (/Transmedicalist) to Trender path has been trodden before. Can't help wondering how she'll get on in oncoming years.
I found Bell's own words on the issue more illuminating than whatever slant the various news sources put on her comments of the day. Personally, I hope that she loses on appeal, so am not going to be donating. But it is good to get a feel of where she is coming from:
https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/challenge-innate-gender/
to clarify, my comment about transhumanism wasn't to tie it to trans people but to the parts of the medical community who are overmedicalising and leading us down that path. Also ties to neoliberalism. And the parts of the trans community that are into transhumanism, but there people on the left or the green movement likewise, there will always be people that find that stuff attractive where it meets their needs and politics.
People that needs drugs and surgery need drugs and surgery. But I cannot see why trans health care would be exempt from overmedicalisation when all other humans aren't.
I consider the sanction against talking about overmedicalisation of GNC and trans kids as dangerous in the same way that not talking about it has been dangerous for women, psych patients/survivors and so on.
Received a vehicle registration renewal notice apparently from NZTA. Email has no sign of NZ in address. d3mina@sapo.pt. No registration number to renew. $79.95 does not relate to usual fee.
Is this a SCAM?
Yes, it is a scam. I vaguely recall seeing alerts about scams like this going around, specifically using NZTA.
edit: here’s the NZTA page about the scam:
https://www.nzta.govt.nz/online-services/report-a-phishing-scam/latest-phishing-scams/vehicle-licence-rego-email-scam/
Thanks Andre. I had given none of my details as the notice looked dodgy. Have passed my scam onto the NZTA.
It might have changed, but just going by my experience all my rego' and and WOF reminders have been by post.
Never had an email from them.
As I say though. It may have changed.
All my NZTA renewals are online now Chris T. Reminder and payments are done online. Cheaper and labels arrive by post.
Cheers
I do mine by post and get the instant gratification of the licence from the Post shop. What I do object to is the on the ground option being more expensive. If you own a car it is a government fee or charge that must be paid. Not every body has access to the internet emails or even a reasonably secure mail box. Plus there are very considerable but overlooked costs of hardening online systems against the various hacks and scams ( and in this case giving publicity to a scam) which appear not to be borne by online users in the same way as on the ground users are charged.
As far as I am concerned it's time for a whole of government approach to paying the various fees and levies they collect over all sorts of activities rather than every little fifedom going its own way. In particular people with limited access to computors and other online and banking or credit card systems should not be penalised with extra charges given the fraud levels in the online world.
The other kicker. I had a run out rego to pay on a sold vehicle. The options were either a cheque or pushing the buttons on the phone to access some unknown and completely unable to verify system of "who knows how secure" to pay by credit card. It's worth remembering that online or phone systems that take numbers are of very different and in some cases downright dubious security character.
People who pay bills in person at a Postshop enjoy the physical security costs the same way online payers do.
However, staff costs are a big enough ongoing difference for organisations to try get customers to use online instead.
When it's a regulatory cost like a car rego, I agree that should not be the case.
While there are security costs in a network run at more that one location – the costs would be lower for going into say a bank branch and using that rather than accessing the same net work completely externally from the home computer.
The epidemic of on line fraud and the costs overseas are now pretty substantial. The UK is up to around half a billion of bank fraud per annum now I believe. Cut that back to an NZ perspective and that is still $10's of millions that are going to be extracted from customers who are not online. Staff costs are not that super large and if say the banks had any sense they could direct calls to frontline staff to answer in the real life gaps – plus leave jobs in the provinces.
Organisations are quite aware what their costs are.
Touching faith there.
In my quite wide experience they may know their gross costs but spreading it over various activities borders on the political. Frequently to make some new or pet project look a great deal better than it is because someone's KPI's /ego is on the line. And most forward costing is just a plus1 type model. They also choose to recoup in this case costs from only one class of customer. Just because a computer is involved doesn't make it cheaper. Frequently the reverse.
Be aware of a similar scam asking you to pay your net flix account
It's a scam we ge" t a reminder by email but it's from this address "no.reply@nzta.govt.nz"
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/431927/managed-isolation-charges-third-of-users-not-paid-fee-after-three-months
Government can be tough on some people – get tough on these ones as well. Not unreasonable, but they have to start paying something in every fortnight, and keep it up from their wages. A good old fashioned garnishee or such.
Don't be so wet Labour – is there no-one adjusting the steam press in the steamy laundry of government; too much there release, pshoo – too little here, wind it up slowly, sigh? And think of the dear little working elves in the government basement. Picture the civil servants with little green caps with a bell on like Noddy!
What – no payment up front with a credit card and then a compassionate refund later if one is eligible for one. If not why not.
As a health professional, in my experience young females transitioning to male, broadly fall into three catagories. 1. Those with a borderline personality disorder where the transition is another form of self mutilation. 2. Following a trend ie all my friends are doing it. 3. Those who have unfortunately been sexually abused and the transition is a means of making themselves unattractive and less likely to be preyed upon. None of which is likely to lead to a fulfilling adult life.
That's most interesting psych nurse. I am inclined to believe you because you are confirming my ideas. Considering the knowledge and experience you have amassed, it does seem to be a very likely summary of the facts. It seems to me to be a wave of almost protest or escape from the sad realities of the present. Transitioning to female probably seems a nicer, kinder option than staying with the persona that many males project.
Great to see Minister Wood putting an article straight to GreaterAuckland – way to circumvent the MSM.
There are these miraculous things called links..
https://www.greaterauckland.org.nz/2020/12/02/guest-post-michael-wood-minister-of-transport/
Great news! (Has this already been noted?)
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/all-govt-departments-now-required-to-buy-electric-vehicles-prime-minister-jacinda-ardern/BQNW3AQ3B7NZVP5MCANP2ILGFY/
I suspect it will cost much more than that before 2025, but good on them for getting on with it.
It does need some back up policy otherwise the petrol cars are just going to be dumped into the private fleet. Given the $value of petrol that users don't buy we need to get the whole fleet up to scratch. A $28k hybrid uses about $14K less petrol over a 200,000 journey
I'm afraid you left out the caveats that are given in the link you provide.
You say "to exclusively buy electric vehicles" They have no intention at all of sticking to exclusively electric vehicles.
The Herald story says
"When it comes to vehicles, Government agencies will be required to "optimise their car fleet" by purchasing electric vehicles or hybrids where EVs are not appropriate for the required use.
That is unless their operational requirements or other circumstances require – such as military vehicles where there is no electric alternatives."
In other words you give the headline bit but not the reality that provides a hole big enough for anyone to drive through. I'm afraid that BMW don't make an all electric model of the 7 series sedan though so it will have to be, at best, a hybrid for the cabinet Ministers.
The previous contract with BMW apparently expired last year. Haven't seen anything about it being renewed. Perhaps the current lot like Teslas better? The 600km+ range of a current Model S should be plenty for most needs within NZ.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/just-how-green-is-the-ministerial-car-fleet/6GHPLQHTSRQFBLWJLK2X6DSXJA/
Beemers already partly replaced: https://thedriven.io/2020/10/26/jacinda-ardern-to-get-all-electric-audi-e-tron-to-replace-diesel-fleet-car/
The Auckland car is the personal vehicle for the PM's private use. I imagine Clarke is the main user.
John Key chose a Suzuki Swift for his car at one stage. That was only about a $20,000 cost to the taxpayer. Don't know whether there were other models during his term.
They might have a couple of Ioniqs, or Audis, but there are still an awful lot of CR plate BMW 730D cars around Wellington and CR1 is a BMW still.
John Key chose a Suzuki Swift for his car at one stage. That was only about a $20,000 cost to the taxpayer.
[citation needed]
I can't find a link for this. The best I can find in a link to an interview with Marcus Lush in 2011. The Audio doesn't seem to exist though. The topic came up, and surprised the reporters at the time but key said it was because Stephie was learning to drive and it was a good car for that.
https://www.magic.co.nz/John-Key-owns-a-Suzuki-Swift/tabid/506/articleID/19787/Default.aspx
All the Ministers get a self drive car. Anette King's was probably the most notorious when it was in a crash and the driver had illegal drugs.
Perhaps he got us to fund a self-drive Swift for his daughter's driving lessons? While he was using the limo, as you'd expect of a PM.
Reminding me of Bill English's accommodation and housecleaning rorts. No wonder they think beneficiaries are all trying to rip us off.
As I said Sacha. ALL Ministers get a self drive car as do all former Prime Ministers and all former Governors-General. They also get free domestic air travel and the use of the Crown Limos.
Their surviving spouses after their death also get the perks for the rest of their lives.
And boy, do they take advantage of them.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/4472263/Former-governors-and-PMs-spend-up-large-on-travel
So the government buys cars and tranfers the ownership to the ministers for personal vehicles?
That seems inefficent.
Link for that claim?
No. However these vehicles are self drive cars. It is based in Auckland and I imagine that Clarke spends more time there than does Jacinda. She does, after all, have a limo available at all times and certainly if I were in her job I wouldn't want to bother driving myself. From my observation the back of a limo is where all the Ministers do most of their telephone calls.
Why waste valuable time driving yourself when you can get on with the work you are employed for?
Where do you get the idea they are self-drive?
Shuttling between the airport and the beehive is no such thing. The PM also has way too much to do these days to be wasting her time driving, as you say.
I should actually have said "that vehicle" rather than "these vehicles" I was talking about the third one in the quote rather than the two based in Wellington.
Again, where do you get the idea it is self-drive?
Because it came up when that Yank talk show guy Colbert was entertained here at taxpayer expense to do a show on Ardern.
Remember? She picked him up at the airport.
Sigh. https://www.caradvice.com.au/895516/new-zealand-prime-minister-adds-to-her-electric-car-fleet/
The impression you've got the Drumpfian habit of just making shit up is getting stronger again.
The Hyundai Ioniq that Ardern drives, including when she chauffered Colbert, appears to be a car she owns, not something supplied by the taxpayer. I've looked and found nothing suggesting it's supplied by the taxpayer, but I've found lots of reference to her owning it – eg:
You've also imagined that Clarke will be the main user of the government e-Tron to be based in Auckland. You really need to back that up if you don't want that to stand as an exhibit of "alwyn just making shit up".
It is OK to get things wrong.
Sure getting things wrong is OK if someone takes a step back and checks their facts and backs up their assertions or corrects as necessary when challenged.
But the challenges came a long way upthread, with zero subsequent actual backing up or change in behaviour from alwyn, just more dumping of the same unsubstantiated shit and an occasional diversion.
Sorry, my last sentence was directed purely at Alwyn. And yes, it is especially OK to admit you got it wrong.
$NZ155,500 (before on-road costs)…
Or they could show true commitment and buy a couple of these…
https://electricbikesnz.com/2020/10/26/wisper-wayfarer-mid-drive/
…and use the change to haul a few more kids out of poverty.
Perfect for reading those cabinet papers on the way..
Oh dammit alwyn. You have uncovered the evil plan. So if there are to be no electric tanks, we had better cancel the whole plan. We could not possibly have a fleet of EV cars if the tanks are not EV also. Better let Jacinda know quickly.
What a funny little fellow you are. Does the Army actually own any real tanks, apart from the ones in the Museum at Waiouru? I thought they owned vast numbers of APCs but I can't imagine what they would do with a real tank. We probably couldn't afford main battle tanks anyway.
Actually you can get an electric Hummer although I don't think it is the military version.
To bad of course if you were out in the desert, had to withdraw in a hurry and the battery in your dinky little military vehicle was flat. I have been told that jeeps in WW2 didn't even have key. If you had to shift in a hurry you didn't want to waste time looking for the key.
This actually surprises me a bit as I always assumed the PMs BMW was the BMW spec custom armored version, like the Aussie PM's one (and a lot of other countries leaders with those models of BMWs).
Which would be pretty hard to kit with an electric replacement, purely by weight.
Interesting that they presumably drive round in standard.
Not many countries leaders could make that claim I would imagine.
The Dutch Premier rides an armoured bicycle to work.
https://www.ecowatch.com/mark-rutte-bikes-to-work-2640672478.html
The Dutch Crown Princess cycles to school, also heavily armoured.
https://bicycledutch.wordpress.com/2013/04/25/the-new-king-of-the-netherlands-on-a-bicycle/
Fantastic
And thanks btw way for your moderator post the other day explaining how you don't single out posters.
I can explain the term "Not many" in return if helpful
Just doing a bit of reading he drives, (when doing car) an armored Merc spec custom
https://www.cyclingweekly.com/news/latest-news/dutch-pm-forms-new-government-rides-his-bike-to-the-palace-to-tell-the-king-and-even-locks-it-up-355466
Ahh
And the BMW factory spec armored BMW
Allegedly
Dutch government
The prime minister of the Netherlands uses an armoured Mercedes-Benz S-Class and sometimes an Audi A6. Previously, an armoured BMW 7 Series was used. Both cars are owned by the Royal and Diplomatic Security Service (DKDB).
Wondered where the noise was coming from today.
https://twitter.com/TorrensJonathan/status/1333943054772936706
https://twitter.com/THR/status/1333921406850117641