looks like an argument to change farming and eating practices, which doesn’t necessarily mean going vegan.
The figures on that facts page will be based on US industrial agriculture which includes feedlots, and monocropping monsanto soy, all of which destroy soil and ecoystems (which we desparately need intact for many environmental reasons including CC). There are far better ways of growing food and ones that reduce GHG emissions in a sustainable way rather than a BAU way. By all means promote eating less meat and more plants, but please don’t promote swapping one insane food system for another.
Nah, I’ve seen it all before, over a very long period of time. Try addressing my actual points phil instead of just asserting I am wrong with no backup. Bet you can’t.
Two questions
What was the total emissions from the vast heards of ruminants pre mans ability to slaughter them and replace them with monoculture s. And how does it compare to today’s emissions.
And on a local scale if we all went vegan and stopped hunting how would you stop deer , pigs and other introduced animals over running and degrading nz to a desert.
I’m not taking the piss with these questions .
1. no idea, but I would love to know. I do know that there is some exceptional work being done by the regenag and associated people on mimicking those old herd systems, and what they are finding is that those herds were crucial for building soil and thus sequestering carbon. That soil and carbon gets released into the wider world when you plough. It is possible to grow grain and legume crops without plowing but I doubt it can be done on the scale that that film is talking about. Which leads us to the problem of human population. Stabilise the population and we have many more options.
2. if hunting as well as farming were stopped we would lose native species fairly rapidly, both animal and plant. There might be some interesting adjustments eg if sheep were taken off the land, and short pasture were converted to either forest or cropping, the rabbit population would probably drop (rabbits do well on short grazed pasture). But overall, if we don’t contain certain species, others will be lost.
The other interesting things about this question is that one obvious solution in NZ is to eat feral meat. That’s where the vegan argument ultimately fails. Would be interesting to see if the hardcore vegans would accept hunting if it meant the end to commerical stock farming. Mostly I just see hardcore vegans arguing that nature would sort out the balance or they don’t believe the situation would occur.
a review from a US grass-fed stock farmer with an eye for ecological (and logical) sensibility.
Here’s another way to look at it. There are about 88 million beef cows in America and just over 9 million dairy cows. In 1800 there were 60 million buffalo, and though the film claims that grassfed beef is more damaging than feedlot beef, I’m confident those buffalo weren’t routinely wandering into CAFOs in an effort to reduce their methane emissions. But I doubt Anderson would accept a target of 60 million grassfed cows as ecologically sustainable, even though keeping them on pasture, besides making them healthier and happier, would mostly eliminate the 5% of methane emission that are a result of manure fermenting in lagoons and piles.
Hey sheep, do you know if the type of feed affects the amount of methane produced by ruminants? eg grain vs conventional pasture vs organic perennial etc.
Hey sheep, do you know if the type of feed affects the amount of methane produced by ruminants? eg grain vs conventional pasture vs organic perennial etc.
Not an expert on that.
This story suggests that it is specific micro – organisms within the rumen “which utilise the hydrogen and carbon dioxide and make methane. This natural process has been occurring in ruminants for millions of years.
(The new discoveries) basically stop the activity of the micro-organisms that are converting the carbon dioxide and hydrogen to methane. It’s very simple – it kills them or severely suppresses their activity.”
Listening to it on National Radio the scientists stated that these organisms are not actually useful to the animal or the process – “they were just along for the ride”.
So reducing them was potentially a win for the animal and the environment.
I will probably take some convincing that messing with gut microbia is safe. We get this stuff wrong so often, esp to do with the microbial world (eg antibiotic overuse). Plus those silver bullet remedies rarely pan out. I’ll be interested to see how the research develops but at this stage it looks more like wishful thinking. We have to change how we farm instead of relying on isolated remedies.
“The great bison herds that swarmed across the US prairies before white settlement, along with other native ruminants like elk and deer, are estimated to have produced 86 per cent of the methane of the current US cattle herd.”
Thanks obviously you are better at the Google machine than me.
”Fossil fuels consist of carbon, sequestered using the energy of the sun, hundreds of millions of years ago. Just four litres of petrol uses what was 90 tonnes of ancient life. In the space of one year, the world is using over 400 years of stored ancient energy and carbon. The carbon dioxide produced will remain in the atmosphere for a century. It is a one way street.
But the carbon released by cattle in methane was sequestered just last week, last month, maybe even last year. And within 9 to 15 years, the carbon in that methane will be sequestered again in a plant, perhaps in grass, to go again through the same cycle. Cattle are part of a natural biological cycle. In it, carbon is sequestered, used, released in a gas and sequestered again. I fail to see how this is the moral equivalent of putting tens of tonnes of fossil life into your petrol tank.”
Mans the problem not the cow’s!!
The use of technology in food production seems to take us away from what were natural practices in farming methods.
I listened to a talk on Country Life on Radionz this morning and felt this was so. It seemed that the ideal was for a farm owner to have technical feedback from every aspect of the farm from his office. Then if the cow in bale 5 has dropped production then he contacts the farm manager to question him about it. Big boss is watching you. How much job satisfaction there would be I don’t know. I’m not sure what the cows think. I suppose any dissatisfaction would show up in a reduced milk yield.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/audio/player/201752682
Demo Dairy Farm in Colombia
Dairy Solutionz, a Hamilton based company, has worked in Colombia since 2012. In the past 18 months they’ve developed a demonstration dairy farm to show how a low cost dairy model could help small herd owners to stay in business as more European dairy imports threaten their livelihoods. Colombia’s President opened the farm at the end of April.
Satty, “The facts-site for this movie looked familiar to me (for people that don’t have the time or the money to watch it, this is a good starting point):”
And here’s a thoughtful and critically competent review of the film that critiques some of its basic premises. Some snippets,
Responding to a polemic that plays as fast and loose with facts as this film could easily devolve into a line by line response, which would be even more boring to read than it would be to write. Instead, I’ll focus on a few of the main topics, beginning with how cows drink, burp, fart, and most of all poop, which – not to brag – I have some experience with.
Methane is a more vexed question, since cows indisputably belch and fart. In the film Anderson implies that cows are the main source of methane and that reducing their numbers is the fastest way to reverse global warming. After too much time poking around in search of definitive numbers on methane emissions, I decided to use those provided on a NASA website, even though a number of reputable sources arrive at different conclusions, particularly concerning the amount of methane released by wetlands, listed at 22% in the data I am quoting. By these numbers, ruminant livestock directly account for 16% of global methane emissions, and the (mis)management of all livestock manure accounts for another 5%. Human sewage treatment is 5%, biomass burning is 8%, fossil fuels production is 19%, and, surprisingly, rice cultivation is 12%. Various other manmade and natural sources fill out the remainder. While 21% of total methane is certainly significant, the idea that the elimination of livestock would clearly lead to a reversal of global warming trends is both an overstatement and an oversimplification, without getting into matters of methane’s half-life relative to carbon’s.
The great weakness of Cowspiracy, other than its title, is its single minded determination to prove that veganism is the only reasonable approach to feeding people, a proof it pursues without regard for facts or nuance. That’s not to say it’s worthless, for there are ideas for several good films within it. I would love to watch a truly investigative examination of any links between the industrial agriculture sector and large environmental non-profits, rather than one that infers connections from the vague responses of uncomfortable PR people. A devastating documentary could be made about the insanity of beef and dairy production in California, and I am all for consumers voting against them and other parts of the industrial food system with their dietary choices. I even think a fair examination of the ways small farms are not inherently better for land and livestock would be wonderful. Instead of any of these there is a failed effort to prove that one lifestyle choice can solve every environmental and agricultural problem.
This failure is not just a result of misleading and erroneous data, but even more so of superficiality. Though I watched carefully and took copious notes, I do not have a clear idea what Anderson’s vegan world would look like. Would excess land be converted to wilderness? Should the hills and fields of my farm return to forest and scrub like so much of the nearby land that used to be grass? Why is a monoculture of wheat preferable to a polyculture of pasture? Should we humans be connected to and reliant on the land around us and should these connections take different forms in response to local conditions? Yesterday, while out hunting turkey, I came across the remains of a deer, one of ten or so my brother and I have found this year. All of them starved or froze to death in the clutches of last winter. Now they are piles of mossy bones marking where living things curled up and never stood again. Why is this preferable to raising cows as I do, particularly when there’s room here for both?
On the basis of that, I will save my money, and assume that the film is an ideologically driven polemic that’s most likely not worth critiquing because it lacks basic logic and factual analysis.
Thanks weka for putting up that thoughtful and well expressed review of Cowspiracy. It is good to follow the thinking of people’s minds as they extensively consider a topic, to find if rationality covers all, but also reflects the necessary emotional input to give the full human response.
Why is a monoculture of wheat preferable to a polyculture of pasture?
Hey, that’s unfair. Vegans would like to see a lot of areas have a monoculture of soy rather than wheat. But this would be great because then we wouldn’t actually see the vast numbers of animals we’d be destroying in order to eat, and even better, we’d all be eating the way sanctimonious hippies think is best for us.
Being vegan is a top risk factor for being a hippie, right up there with envangelistic paeans to smoking dope and not having a job. Whether ‘hippie’ is an insult or not depends what you think of hippies.
Anyway, if I understand this correctly, you believe it would be a great idea to turn the planet’s arable land into crop monocultures for shit foods like soy and wheat so it can support 13 million soy-fed humans. This sounds more like a horrendous dystopia than anything else. And the film’s propaganda assertions regarding normal diets are no more than that.
Yeah, but you’re preaching to the converted there Robert.
I would like to pull out this bit
“It takes 500 years to replace 1 inch of topsoil”
That’s natural cycles. Regenerative agriculture is replacing soil at inches per decade (and sequestering carbon in the process). That’s already happening, and could easily be scaled up for whole countries. It does of course require shifting to a steady state economy/degrowth, and limiting population to what can be sustained by any given land mass (ie the end of industrial agriculture).
Uploaded on Sep 2, 2011
The Other Inconvenient Truth: How Agriculture is Changing the Face of Our Planet
We typically think of climate change as the biggest environmental issue we face today. But maybe it’s not? In this presentation, Jonathan Foley shows how agriculture and land use are maybe a bigger culprit in the global environment, and could grow even larger as we look to feed over 9 billion people in the future.
This is a 30 min interview with Co-director of ‘Cowspiracy’ Kip Andersen https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bcFzJfhyRdY I think he come across as more believable than say the PPP ?
RNZ – Brent Edwards summary yesterday.
Amongst other things Key was talking about trade prospects in the Emirates and was particularly enthusiastic about the prospects for wine sales – wonder why?
Key also appeared, from his comments, to be using Bronagh in a diplomatic role to spread the “human rights” message in the area.
First time she has been mentioned in a political context?
Actually the summary wasn’t particularly favourable towards Key, produced a couple of bordering-on-sarcastic comments from Edwards, which from him is unusual …
Scoop NZ has today announced it will be going behind a paywall for everyone except the general public. Will this mean those of us in the general public who share links from Scoop to others in the general public or on Facebook will no longer be able to do so ?
And are the Herald and other newspapers likely to follow suit ?
Ok, I haven’t read the whole thing, but it looks pretty clear to me that from now on commercial and professional use needs a licence. The site is still free to the public, including the public linking to Scoop in non-commercial/professional ways.
The following criteria are all for commercial/professional use, not general public,
These adverts direct readers to pages which explain our new “Invisible Paywall” – including its legal basis- and information on who is expected to pay and why we need to do this.
If you:
Routinely read work related material on Scoop.co.nz;
Send links to – or extracts from – Scoop.co.nz material to work colleagues or clients;
Search the web and find Scoop.co.nz results a reliable source of information about matters of professional interest to you;
Send Scoop press releases and then check to see if those press releases have been published and/or send links to those press releases to clients or colleagues;
Then you or your organisation probably needs to have a Scoop organisation licence to access Scoop.
I have emailed Alastair re shared links. Having read the Scoop page it does seem that they are targeting commercial operations like the Herald or TV for quoting Scoop stories rather than we public people. We will see.
Be interesting to have that reply, IanMac – when I was copying something yesterday to pass onto FB I received a sort-of “warning” pop-up re copying without a licence in the future.
I emailed Alastair : “I read blogs and in particular The Standard. Can I link to a Scoop story on the Standard without incurring a fee?”
Alastair replied: “Of course you can. Linking is fine…..”
That sorted then. 🙂
Amazing to see such big protests on this, and them shutting down the centre of two big cities. Do you know how did they managed that second bit? eg was that permitted action or did they just do it? I suspect the bonfire in the Block wasn’t permitted 😀
Thanks yeshe. Great to see such a huge action, that really is fantastic.
I agree with Hone, it’s really important that we stand beside Aboriginal Australians in their fight to retain the right to live on their own land, in their own communities. They need the support of their neighbours in this part of the woods.
Here is footage of the speeches at the May Day rally held in Wellington for the Aboriginal communities of W.A, all well worth a listen. Metiria repeats the chant used in the rallies from your link below:
Its quite amazing that this form of oppression still exists. Aboriginal people’s have had to fight colonial powers and anti aboriginal Government Act’s since day one, and it still continues.
For those interested in this history there is a Doco called First Australians that you might find interesting. It was aired on Maori TV about four years ago. I can’t seem to find any full length versions to post (they come up with a message about not being available) but here are some clips from that doco. They include an interview with Wurandjeri elder, Margaret Gardiner who was mentioned in the age article.
Last night TV news here finally started to talk about what Freddie Gray was subject to on the police ride that brought his young life to an end.
We’ve had the story up on Redline for five days, that outlines what happened to him and his injuries, We got it from people in Baltimore.
We’re half a dozen people with no money, no resources. Yet major NZ news companies are days behind us, on an important international story. When you read about what happened to Freddie gray it makes the anger being expressed on the streets of Baltimore and other US cities not only understandable but you wonder why there isn’t even more of it. https://rdln.wordpress.com/2015/04/27/us-the-states-systematic-violence-kills-another-young-black-man/
Here in New Zealand this National government uses ‘war on terror’, ‘war on drugs’, ‘war on welfare’, ‘war on state housing’ etc when all these initiatives directly affect the poor, the unemployed and the marginalised.
You don’t hear them fighting ‘war on capitalists’, ‘war on profiteers’, ‘war on corruption’, ‘war on rich crooks’, ‘war on tax dodgers’, ‘war on exploiters’, ‘war on dirty politics’ or even ‘war on poverty’.
And the people strangely, selfishly or ignorantly keep voting in this disgraceful cunning lying RW government again and again!
I think the Key and his RW spin machine is very good at fooling the people by their propaganda and another reason is that most people are only either uninterested or only marginally interested in in depth political news as evidenced by the fact for example that less than 100,000 in total out of 5,000,000 people actually watch the news even at peak news time of 6 pm!
I suspect only a much smaller number watch political programmes such as The Nation or Q and A. Sad for freedom and democracy!
PORTS OF AUCKLAND PROPAGANDA
Today on RNZ news , an item claiming that because only one extension to wharf will proceed a new cruise ship will not be able to berth in Auckland and therefore it will not visit New Zealand at all in 2016 and we will miss out on millions of $$$$$
The vessel is Ovation of the Seas and is similar in size to the Queen Mary II. which has visited Auckland without any apparent problem?
Really interesting was the claim by the Chair of POA that they weren’t permitted to talk to councillors as a group so they invited them individually to POA to “explain” the situation…
Divide and conquer my friend, divide and conquer (it is waht they tried with their industrial dispute.
Ironically some who didn’t give a shit about how those workers were treated now care about the behaviour of POA executive and Board, you know, cos the bullying and manipulation is impacting their yachting space 🙂
Arthur Anae spoke on RNZ the day after his special one en masse education from POA (notwithstanding councillors were told not to speak to the media until a final decision was made) , he just couldn’t get past the obligation of Auckland councillors to make economically good decisions and to keep the rates down. Given that Arthur thinks that is his only obligation, may I suggest he stand down on the basis that he is incapable fo meeting the requirements of a councillor?
He did suggest a good solution was to merge POA, Tauranga and Nothland but doesn’t actually appear to want to work toward that from what I can see from my basic google searches on the idea.
I heard someone from POA stating that it was unwise/ unsuitable for there to be any political intervention and they should not get involved in commercial decisions which should be left to directors. Some how I felt that it missed the point completely as who does he thinks owns the place. Arthur seems to similarly blind.
What price is there for the non tradeable public good of a sparkling harbour wide enough to actually sail down? The value of this is established by the community hence politicians.
And its not too hard to see the long game- the wharf is just about at Devonport already – next they will want to build a toll bridge over the last gap.
and fill in the harbour all the way back east up to Hobsonville ? Nick Smith and English might see it as a way of fixing Auckland’s housing crisis !!! roflmao
So Chris Bishop thinks it’s unrealistic for schoolkids to have a say on the flag, but apparently has no problem with Julie Christie sitting on the panel that picks the options.
Seriously, how does that work? How is Julie Christie’s opinion on flags more relevant than the opinions of a few hundred thousand children?
Thanks Tracey.
I was trying to link to a smaller graph on a secondary website and it gave me heaps of problems with https, file etc! Finally at the end of the day, I awkshully went to the Nate Silver’s website like you did. Psssstttt!
Thursday, March 26, 2015, TV2 one of Denmark’s national television stations aired a documentary on HPV vaccines entitled, The Vaccinated Girls – Sick and Betrayed. It focused on the condition of 3 girls suffering from serious new medical conditions after being vaccinated against HPV with Gardasil. The one thing they have in common with thousands of other girls around the world is they were healthy before they got the vaccine – now, they are seriously ill
Its an unnecessary vaccination. It is something being promoted heavily by the drug companies. Goodness knows what else they’ll come up with in the future to vaccinate everyone against.
What is certain is that a profit driven corporate business model drives the ‘drug industry’ which ensures an ‘expanding market’ and ‘new products’ must continue to keep up the ‘growth’
The positive I take from the Scandinavian documentary is that there are parts of the world where opportunity exists for the appropriate level of involved discussion required to unravel and expose the sham can occur
The cult of vaccination can be witnessed deeply ingrained in the anglo west where discussion is effectively banished because the ‘science is proven’ and can’t be challenged
That the vaccine and wider drug industry divorced itself from ‘science’ and is no longer related appears to be unobserved by large numbers but those who have been following are rapidly expanding
Importantly there will be large numbers who are pro vaccination but against compulsion because they understand the seriousness of where compulsion will lead to
The drug industry is being challenged (exposed) and it is my sense that the push in the USA and Australia towards compulsory vaccination is due to an awareness that the industry is heading for a bust
Any state which attempts to enforce compulsion will experience a form of revolt such is the combustiveness of the matter
A mathematical prediction of Thursday’s UK election result by Nate Silver:
If the polls directly translated into seats, then UKIP would be a power broker in parliament. The fact is that UK elections come down to a small number of constituencies. Vast swathes of the country will always be Labour and vast swathes will always be Tory. The key is what is likely to happen in the key undecided or ‘marginal’ seats.
Political polling is a highly sophisticated affair nowadays, but one person to listen to is Nate Silver of fivethirtyeight.com who gained a huge following after correctly calling the last two US elections. This stats genius has partnered with a number of UK academics to produce what is likely to be the most accurate prediction of the general election.
FiveThirtyEight’s Election Prediction in the link below:
FiveThirtyEight’s Election Prediction takes into account everything from marginal polling from the Likes of Lord Ashcroft to historical voting patterns. In one graph you have what is likely to be a highly accurate prediction of the 2015 election.
This is NOT the final prediction because he updates/revises the prediction daily. So, if you are interested, you will need to watch it everyday, until Friday our time the day of the election. (Thursday their time).
Would be interesting to see how close his prediction is in UK. I read that he had stunning accuracy in US for the last two elections.
In my original post above, the statement which I copied from the secondary site that ‘UKIP will be the power broker’ is obviously incorrect going by the prediction graph where it is only expected to win 1 seat! So, I am not sure if that secondary site made an inadvertent error or were playing ‘dirty politics’ trying to influence their readers!
Aagh after spending 6 weeks working my way through the ‘luminaries’ I know who did what to who and were the gold started and finished and have a fare idea who killed crosbie and carver but I’m buggered if I kept a good enough eye on the gold to be confident about all its moves.
What public good? Lower demand for full-wage workers on the outside?
Paying less than minimum wage and punishing them if they don’t “volunteer” / “refuse rehabilitation opportunities” (as happens in the US) forces prisoners into doing work for which they don’t receive even the pretence of fair reward. Whether one wishes to get into a semantic debate about if this meets the precise definition of “slavery”, it’s still close enough to being ethically fucked up. Forced labour should never be used for profit.
The public good the Corrections Minister alluded too. Assisting inmates to gain skills (catering to an industry shortfall aiding the rebuild/housing shortage) while improving future employment opportunities and incomes, thus rehabilitation numbers.
Forced participation would be a concern.
Not being privy to the contract between Serco and PlaceMakers nor what inmates will be paid, one can only assume wages will be low, thus also a concern.
Additionally, a point overlooked is the impact on commercial competitors. Will wage savings be split between Serco and PlaceMakers giving PlaceMakers a labour cost advantage over their competitors?
A decent government wouldn’t wait until people are in prison before giving them employment skills.
I think the entire thing stinks, and that’s even if it lives up to the bumper sticker portrayed in ministry press releases as opposed to the reality wherever it’s been actually implemented.
One could, but it would be irrelevant to the issue of whether placemakers is paying fair wages for genuinely voluntary work by a literally captive workforce.
As opposed to the speculation that this is the first time in history that a corporation does something solely for the public good? Without leveraging it to advertise ad nauseum how awesome they’re being?
If the speculation is the general consensus, one has to ask why the public good argument continues to be so successful in allowing the private sector into the public sector?
Personally, I don’t think it is particularly successful as an argument. It is a thin excuse that tories use to degrade and privatise the public sector.
Think of it as the tassles that strippers used to wear on their nipples so as to not run foul of indecency laws. They didn’t really cover all that much up, either, and one could argue that having them twirl like propellors lent more to the imagination than not having them at all. But they were a technicality that the club owner could argue made the performance a 100% legal enterprise.
Don’t agree with “seldom challenged”. “Public good” is also fairly rare when it comes to privatisation arguments beyond an ethereal appeal to “efficiency”.
You seem to think that the public good argument and other privatisation excuses are used to gain popular consent. They aren’t. I believe that such arguments are used to reduce resistance by implying that the outcome is unavoidable, that the act is rational, and resistance is futile. But the tories don’t care whether we like privatisation, and they’d think us fools if we did. They just want us to think that it’s inevitable so that we don’t fight it.
Browbeating someone to the point that they no longer fight is different to swaying them with the public good argument that we’re discussing.
Really? Thirty years of being fucked while they insist that it’s for our own good, that the electricity network is much better even though the power bills were through the roof, that we didn’t really need rail anyway, that it’s better to contract to China for substandard railcars than to build them right in Dunedin, that yet another round of taxcuts will make everything alright, that unemployment will fall soon because of the latest gdp figures. And almost every time there’s been a protest or someone else has been voted in nothing really changes or stops the rot. And if you argue then there’s always some fucking economist willing to tell you to your face that black is white and you’re much better off than when you owned your own home.
That’s browbeating with a farcical public good argument. They no longer bother to “sway” us, they just fucking screw us and demand thanks for the privilege.
If you think the public are swayed by such a flimsy iteration of the argument, your opinion of the NZ public is worse than my opinion of National party mps. But your opinion of The Nation’s ratings is wildly optimistic.
Thirty odd years of privatization would suggest they generally are. If the majority weren’t swayed by such arguments they would have put an end to privatization long ago.
Moreover, politicians would be far to wary to continue to use the argument or even suggest such a thing (let alone campaign on asset sales) yet they still do.
oh, but the asset sales weren’t asset sales, don’t you recall? We still own half of them… fooling some of the people, some of the time.
The fact is that people did vote to stop asset sales. Can’t recall what the nats sales policies were in 1990, but lockwood definitely pledged to get rid of student fees. Then fucked us.
So in 93 we had a choice between rogernomes and nats, so chose MMP when faced with two evils. Then in 96 anderton fucked the coalition prospects to get rid of the nats. In 99 we went labour again, but the renationalization process was too slow (but at least anderton got some advances out of it before fucking the alliance. Bit of a rollercoaster, that man). And in 08 labour was dead in the water, and key seemed so nice. 2011 he was our man in a crisis pledging “whatever it takes”. 2014, see above.
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The Waikato Regional Council is actually enforcing the RMA for once: Three Waikato farmers have been fined a total of $116,100 for illegally discharging farm effluent. [...] Gerard Wolvers from South Waikato, who has farmed for nearly 50 years, was convicted on three charges after an unknown amount of ...
The return of COVID-19 community transmission, with Auckland back in a level 3 lockdown and the rest of New Zealand at level 2, raises real questions about New Zealand’s upcoming general election.Polling day is scheduled for September 19 but the planned election process would actually start far earlier. All candidates were to be ...
Conspiracy theorist - Gerry BrownleeWhat on earth is going on with the National Party? Now that Crusher Collins is in charge, it seems like it’s their policy to say really dumb things just to get attention. Unfortunately it’s working, with most of the mainstream media bending over backwards to provide ...
A corrupt public sector manager abuses their office to funnel public money to companies set up by himself and a friend. America? Australia? No, its New Zealand: Consultancy firm Deloitte has delivered a damning report on the New Zealand Transport Agency that says it failed to follow its own ...
The novel coronavirus mutates as it travels between people and around the world. By sequencing the genome, we can try to work out which case is linked with another. As Aotearoa confronted its first cases of Covid-19 community transmission in more than 100 days, the director general of health, Ashley ...
INT: ILAM ELECTORATE OFFICES – TUESDAY GERRY: Morning everybody. ADVISORS 1, 2, AND 3: Morning Gerry. GERRY: Now… this is a bit of a crisis meeting. Several rogue polls have come out putting the National Party on or around 40% ADVISOR 2: 26? ADVISOR 1: 12? ADVISOR 3: 29? GERRY: ...
What's National's first move under lockdown? Call for elections to be delayed: National leader Judith Collins is demanding Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern delay the September election after the discovery of Covid-19 community transmission cases in Auckland. A clearly frustrated Collins on Wednesday afternoon said she was directly asking Ardern ...
Respecting the journal editorial process Each week we scan between 450 and 650 articles for relevance to Skeptical Science's remit: communication of the science of climate change itself the many affected branches of scientific inquiry by climate change. The 100+ journals we cover encompass a galaxy of expertise we cannot ...
You may have heard that there were queues at the supermarket last night, and again this morning. This will probably carry on for a while, even though it’s clear that supermarkets and other essential outlets and services will remain open and stocked throughout Alert Level 3 (and Alert Level 4, ...
Russia are deploying a COVID-19 vaccine to its people without knowing if it works or if it is safe. They also appear to be taking advance orders for doses from other countries. It is almost hard to know where to start with why this is so wrong. Reckless, unethical, and ...
Another rural business is complaining about being unable to find staff, despite offering "high" pay. So what do they want people to do? “There’s also a perception that contractors work from sunrise to sunset but that’s not accurate, either,” Hawker said. “Health and safety is our biggest concern – ...
By Aleksandra Pawlik, Ngoni Faya, Joseph Guhlin, Megan Guidry, Tom Harrop, Dinindu SenanayakeRapid development of computational bioinformatics tools mean we can more easily push research boundaries. However, it comes at a cost. The complexity of the software chain that needs to be installed and configured to run advanced ...
So, the inevitable has happened and we have Covid in the community again. So now we have to do it all again to try and get it back under control. And already the usual suspects are whining, pretending that they don't know what the plan is when really they simply ...
Climate Explained is a collaboration between The Conversation, Stuff and the New Zealand Science Media Centre to answer your questions about climate change.If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, please send it to climate.change@stuff.co.nzGeothermal electricity produces emissions but is categorised with wind and ...
Aotearoa surpassed 100 days without a case of community transmission of Covid-19. Last night that virus-free streak ended and we’re moving back up the alert levels. For months now, we’ve been intercepting cases of Covid-19 at the border. But just as has happened in many other countries, somehow the sneaky ...
Today the National Party have annouced plans to get tough on gangs. Again. We at MyThinks thought it was important to identify a list of gangs the National Party were planning on getting tough on. National have said if they are elected their new “The Gang Unit” gang unit will ...
In the musical Wicked, a re-imagining of The Wizard of Oz, the hit song Defying Gravity comes at the end of the first act and talks of how one woman (who would become the Wicked Witch of the West) breaks from what’s expected to strike off on her own path. ...
This is a re-post from Carbon Brief by Daisy Dunne Human-caused climate change has “intensified” patterns of extreme rainfall and drought across the globe, a new study finds. There is a detectable “human fingerprint” on decreasing rainfall over the US, central Asia and southern Africa, according to the results. It is ...
Back in June, Newsroom published a well-investigated piece about how the Department of Conservation had waived rehabilitation requirements for a mining company. Now, one of the company's directors - specifically David Wong-Tung, who just happens to be Judith Collins' husband and the director of environmental pillagers Oravida - is threatening ...
This year’s election campaign in New Zealand has attracted a number of “fringe” parties, at least some of whose supporters seem to have a fairly tenuous hold on reality and a highly flexible approach to the truth. I mean, how else could one describe some of those affiliated with the ...
Accused - Jami-Lee RossNobody would think poorly of you if you wrote former National Party MP Jami-Lee Ross off as just another crackpot! After all, now that he’s hitched his Advance NZ wagon to Billy Te Kahika’s crazy Public Party, there’s little chance of him ever redeeming himself or recovering ...
Students will be striking for the climate again on Friday, September 4: Students in Wellington are gearing up to strike from school this September 4th, to protest inaction on climate change. Their demands? That Government invests in a green COVID-19 response; that there is a just transition provided for ...
There’s no Covid on the Cook Islands. But isolation-free travel into New Zealand from the Cooks looks to be a long way off. The Prime Minister confirmed on Monday that Cabinet had considered draft text being worked on via officials which will become the basis of an agreement for quarantine-free travel ...
We should all know by now that Judith Collins, who has openly said she simply doesn’t care if wetlands are destroyed in the pursuit of swamp Kauri, isn’t exactly an environmentalist.In fact she has promised to roll back most of the small gains made by the Green Party in Government, ...
If you drive an electric car more than trivial distances between charges, you likely appreciate a state-of-charge meter (that is, what would be called a fuel-gauge in a petrol car) that is accurate. When it reports a range of 30 km, you do want to be sure it will actually ...
What to do to improve the public perception of the newly elected National party leader, when her performance so far has no doubt disappointed the expectations of her supporters? The answer is to get a National-supporting newspaper (the Herald) to organise a poll that could be guaranteed to provide an ...
Campaigns. Culture. Character. And perhaps most of all, Covid. Now the House has risen and politicians are hitting the road to pitch their woo to voters, those will be front of mind for the candidates.They were also where the new season of politics podcast Caucus began on Thursday. This year ...
There are only a few days left to make a submission on Statistics New Zealand's consultation on sex and gender identity statistical standards. This represents a really important step for recognising the very real diversity of gender, including people with no gender, and ensuring everyone has the option to see ...
Since finishing the Cranky Uncle vs. Climate Change book, I’ve frequently dipped into that 176-page clip-art library, reshaping the cartoons to fit the 1920 x 1080 pixel format for Powerpoint presentations. I’ve also adapted many of the cartoons for the Cranky Uncle video series. Over the last few weeks, a few people ...
NewsHub Nation has launched a new podcast, "Supplementary Question". Their inaugural episode is about the OIA, and asks "is our most important transparency law fit for purpose?" While they interviewed Justice Minister Andrew Little and Ombudsman Peter Boshier for this, there's not actually a lot of them in there, and ...
Remember the Ruataniwha dam? The Hawke's Bay Regional Council wasted $14 million trying to push this environmental disaster through before the Supreme Court ruled that the land swap it relied on with DoC was illegal. At the end of it, they wrote off the money and sold the existing consents ...
For years we've had a housing crisis in New Zealand, driven by immigration-driven population growth and the market refusing to build enough houses (and enough of the right sort of houses) to meet it. As a result, people can't get homes, while Boomer landlords leech away their income and parasitical ...
Story of the Week... Toon of the Week... Coming Soon on SkS... Poster of the Week... SkS Week in Review... Story of the Week... Drawdown Review 2020: How To Address Global Warming In A Responsible Manner Source: Project Drawdown Project Drawdown is a non-profit organization that relies ...
Dr Tim Chambers, Prof Nick Wilson, Jayne Richards, A/Prof Simon Hales, Dr Mike Joy, Prof Michael Baker (author affiliations*)Increasing water-related health threats, notably the waterborne campylobacter outbreak in Havelock North, have highlighted failings in NZ’s regulatory system for drinking water. In this blog we consider how the new Water ...
Yes, an election is in the offing – and we all know that elections can be polarising, as parties of the left and right square off against each other. But we should not allow our party and political allegiances to obscure the fact that, in a properly functioning democracy like ...
Dr Sommer Kapitan, Auckland University of Technology, and Dr Patrick van Esch, Auckland University of TechnologyThe Smokefree Environments and Regulated Products (Vaping) Amendment Bill will limit vape sales at dairies and service stations to only three flavours, and make vaping illegal in smokefree areas. Vaping laws will be more ...
A chronological listing of news articles linked to on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week: Sun, Aug 2, 2020 through Sat, Aug 8, 2020Editor's ChoiceFive Years After Speaking Out on Climate Change, Pope Francis Sounds an Urgent AlarmThe encyclical ‘Laudato Si’ motivated many people ...
From some quarters, incessant scaremongering. From others, it’s a full-on tilt into touching the alarmist buttons a little too readily (uncertain times make for very captive audiences with this angle of attack). The (so-called) Opposition (and merely regarding them as that seems to be a far looser term now ...
National Party leader - Judith CollinsElections often bring out the best and worst in politicians. Some rise to the occasion and provide us with a clear vision for the future. While others wallow in resentment and controversy, over-relying on attack politics to try to attain the interest of voters.That’s been ...
The attempts to sabotage Corbyn's leadership seems likely to do more damage than Corbyn supposedly ever could have done, even if all the stories about him were true:I was reluctant to say anything but this is too important, the full story needs to be told.Don’t let anyone ever tell ...
Good day to everyone. I’ve been asked by Mr Thinks to come here and talk to you all about my concerns regarding the government response to Covid-19. We’ve been living through this pandemic for, what seems like, years. Years and years and years. Why else would the National Party have ...
‘Good Economics for Hard Times’ should be on your reading list. New Zealand does not have a Minister of Labour. It has Ministers of Immigration and Workplace Relations and Safety but there is no minister with responsibility for the labour market. That responsibility was abolished in 2012 when ...
Back in the Kyoto era, the international climate change regime included a Clean Development Mechanism to fund emissions reduction projects in developing nations. Essentially someone would certify that a project - e.g. building a windfarm, or installing energy-efficient lightbulbs - would reduce emissions over and above "business-as-usual". The project would ...
Claire Breen, University of WaikatoWith COVID-19 vaccine developers reporting promising results, it is probable we will one day face a major public health question: can the government compel New Zealanders to be vaccinated? Just as inevitably, some people will refuse a vaccine. As we have seen overseas with debates ...
As the classic MMP cartoon goes, just look at who is against it. Yesterday, the Hamilton City Council voted to use STV for its next two local body elections. The move was initially opposed by deputy mayor Geoff Taylor. The reason? Because a voting system which provided accurate representation and ...
On Wednesday evening (which in Parliament’s weird world technically was still Tuesday because urgency had been taken and so time stood still), MPs united to remove a pretty terrible piece of law from our statute books. No real fanfare or fireworks accompanied this action. Indeed, I didn’t even know about it ...
By Geoffrey Miller Prominent refugee advocate Murdoch Stephens says he is disappointed by Judith Collins’ reaction to Immigration New Zealand’s decision to grant refugee status to Kurdish-Iranian writer Behrouz Boochani. Judith Collins told media last month that “there’s a lot of concern in New Zealand about what they see as ...
Hello all. Judith here to talk about how National are going to take the election in September. The National Party prides itself its unity and cohesion. We are working together to deliver for New Zealanders. First of all, ee are a strong team. We are a very strong team. Our ...
Parliament has just begun the adjournment debate, signalling the effective end of this Parliament. So it seems like an appropriate time to assess Labour's term in office. Unfortunately, its a pretty dismal assessment. Labour campaigned on one thing: change. Not just a change in who got the top jobs and ...
Our climate change policies are insufficient to achieve our goal of carbon neutrality by 2050, according to independent assessor Climate Action Tracker: New Zealand won’t be carbon neutral by 2050 without much stronger policies, says an independent analysis by Climate Action Tracker. The non-profit highlighted a lack of active ...
That was clearly a huge explosion. Just after the explosion, we see a cloud of ‘fog’ moving outwards at high speed. This is a shockwave, rather similar to that which causes a sonic boom. The ‘fog’ is caused by water condensing from the atmosphere in areas of intense low pressure ...
Government has decided in-principle to extend the wage subsidy scheme. We have also agreed in-principle to extend the mortgage deferral scheme, and to modify the COVID-19 Sick Leave Scheme to make it more accessible. Details will be finalised over the weekend and announced on Monday. ...
The Auckland region will remain at Alert Level 3, and the rest of New Zealand will remain at Alert Level 2, until 11.59pm Wednesday 26 August.Cabinet will meet again on the 21st of August to reassess these alert levels. ...
Green Party Co-leader James Shaw is awaiting the result of a precautionary COVID-19 test after travelling to the South Auckland area over the weekend. ...
The Auckland region moved to Alert Level 3 on 12 noon on Wednesday 12 August. The rest of New Zealand moved to Alert Level 2. Visit covid19.govt.nz for the latest information on alert levels, including an overview of restrictions in your area. ...
It's campaign time! The official countdown to Election Day is underway, with Labour supporters crowding into Auckland's Town Hall for our 2020 Campaign Launch. We recap some of the highlights below ...
It's campaign time! The official countdown to Election Day is underway, with Labour supporters crowding into Auckland's Town Hall for our 2020 Campaign Launch. We recap some of the highlights below ...
We've announced that we will expand the Flexi-wage programme to support up to 40,000 more people into work, or to help them start their own business. It's yet another way we're helping keep our economy moving by getting people into work and training. Read on to find out more ...
Business subsidy of on average $7500, and up to $22,000, to hire unemployed New ZealandersUp to 40,000 jobs to be supported by $311 million investment in keeping New Zealanders off the unemployment benefitRing-fenced fund to help unemployed start their own business ...
This week was the last of the 52nd Parliament: a major milestone for our Government and a great opportunity to look back at all the progress we've made for New Zealanders. This week, we increased support for businesses to take on apprentices, improved access to hospital care in Northland, and ...
Kia orana and kia ora koutou katoa. It is a privilege to be able to speak in this adjournment debate and to mark and acknowledge the fact that we are now two years and 10 months into the conclusion of a parliamentary term that has been extraordinary in so many ...
On 1 August, we marked the anniversary of Jacinda Ardern becoming the Leader of the Labour Party. On that day in 2017, Leader Andrew Little nominated Jacinda Ardern to succeed him and lead the party to victory.Now, three years on, we look back at some of the key moments ...
With the June 2020 quarter showing underemployment increasing, the Green Party is calling for a Guaranteed Minimum Income and an increase to the abatement threshold to ensure everyone has a dignified income. ...
We went hard and we went early in our health response to COVID-19, and we did everything we could to cushion the economic impact too. In fact, we can fill every letter of the alphabet with the steps we took to fight COVID-19 and ensure we were in a position ...
Investing in our people, backing businesses, and upgrading infrastructure and housing throughout the country - it's been another week of progress for New Zealanders as we deliver our plan to recover and rebuild. ...
July was another busy month, packed with key investments aimed at progressing our economic recovery as we rebuild New Zealand. We extended support for businesses, helped create jobs through local infrastructure projects, and kept working to clean up our waterways so Kiwis can access safe clean water. Check out the ...
The Green Party is calling for the Defence Force Chiefs in place between 2010-2017 to front up and explain how dishonesty, process and policy failures within the Defence Force led to ‘a series of incorrect statements in briefings to ministers and public releases’ regarding alleged breaches of international torture prevention ...
Thanks to our strong health response, New Zealand’s economy is more open than many other countries. But as COVID continues to surge around the world, the economic consequences of the virus will continue to be a challenge, which is why we have a detailed plan to help New Zealand bounce ...
Thanks to our strong health response, New Zealand’s economy is more open than many other countries. But as COVID continues to surge around the world, the economic consequences of the virus will continue to be a challenge, which is why we have a detailed plan to help New Zealand bounce ...
The Government is stepping up action to deal with environmentally harmful products – including plastic packaging, tyres and e-waste – before they become waste. ...
The Green Party are ensuring that New Zealanders who were overseas when COVID-19 hit will not be charged for the cost of isolation or quarantine if they return home to live. ...
In-principle decision to extend wage subsidy to support businesses and protect jobs Support will be nationwide in recognition of Auckland’s position in NZ economy and the impact of Level 2 Mortgage deferral scheme to be extended to support households The Government is taking action to support businesses and protect jobs ...
Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters today called for National Party and Opposition leader Judith Collins to stop undermining democracy. “New Zealanders are sadly being fed a steady stream of misinformation about the pre-election period from the National Party,” said Mr Peters. “Its effect is to sow doubt about the legitimacy ...
Graduation of Wing 340 2pm, 13 August 2020, The Royal New Zealand Police College [CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY] Introduction Ladies and gentlemen, it is a privilege to be here today to celebrate the graduation of Wing 340. Let us begin by acknowledging the presence of Coalition Government colleague, Police Minister the ...
More Police are being deployed to the frontline to help manage the COVID response, after the graduation today of 56 new officers. “The ceremonies for the graduation of Wing 340 at the Royal New Zealand Police College were trimmed to take account of new Alert Level 2 restrictions in Wellington,” ...
Transitional housing provides much needed support for Taumarunui whānau New emergency and transitional homes will help ease a housing shortage in Taumarunui and provide whānau with much needed support, say Māori Development Minister, Nanaia Mahuta and Whānau Ora Minister, Peeni Henare. The Ministers officially opened five two-bedroom units ...
Following the success of the phase out of single-use plastic shopping bags, the Government now has plans to phase out more single-use and problem plastics to reduce waste and protect the environment announced Associate Minister for the Environment Eugenie Sage. The proposals are to phase-out: some hard-to-recycle PVC and polystyrene ...
A commercial and industrial site in Thames-Coromandel will receive $8.2 million to revamp its marine-servicing infrastructure and create new economic development opportunities, Infrastructure Minister Shane Jones has announced. This project is being supported from the $3 billion ‘shovel ready’ fund set aside in Budget 2020 to kick-start the post COVID-19 ...
After 102 days we have our first cases of Covid-19 outside of a Managed Isolation or Quarantine facility in New Zealand. Shortly I will ask Dr Bloomfield to set out the details of the case. While we have all worked incredibly hard to prevent this scenario, we have also planned ...
An iwi-Crown approach programme to restore the Raukūmara forest on the East Coast of the North Island and boost employment opportunities for whānau, particularly rangatahi/young people, will receive $34 million funding, Minister of Conservation Eugenie Sage has announced. “Raukūmara Pae Maunga is a partnership with Te Whānau-ā-Apanui, Ngāti Porou, and ...
Government agencies and partners are working closer together to provide more Māori Housing through the Te MAIHI o te Whare Māori – the Māori and Iwi Housing Innovation Framework for Action (MAIHI). MAIHI is a kaupapa Māori approach that drives a system change to give effect and impact on Māori ...
Site work is soon to begin on Te Ahu a Turanga: Manawatū Tararua Highway, the project to replace the former SH3 route through the Manawatū Gorge, Transport Minister Phil Twyford said today. Phil Twyford was today in Woodville at the signing of a formal agreement by members of the Alliance ...
The Pacific Islands Forum Economic Ministers Meeting (FEMM) begins today and will focus on the major economic and social impacts of COVID-19 on the Pacific. FEMM is an important congregation of Economic Ministers and senior officials from around the region, and for the first time, the annual meeting will be ...
Cabinet has approved a formal apology and ex gratia payment to former soldier George Nepata, announced Defence Minister Ron Mark. This payment is to recognise the New Zealand Defence Force’s failure to provide Mr Nepata with a safe system of work in April 1989 when, as a result of an ...
A report undertaken by Ministerial Services into Iain Lees-Galloway’s ministerial expenditure has found no evidence of any inappropriate transactions or spending. Ministerial Services undertook a line by line review of all his expenditure, including staff and spouse expenses for the period 1 January 2019 to 30 June 2020. “I commissioned ...
Managed isolation charges for returnees will come into force from 12.01am Tuesday 11th August, after they passed their last cabinet milestone today, Housing Minister Megan Woods said. “The new charging system balances the rights of New Zealanders to return home and helps reduce pressure on the managed isolation and quarantine ...
The Prime Minister of New Zealand Jacinda Ardern and the Prime Minister of the Cook Islands Henry Puna have welcomed the completion of phase one in the establishment of a travel bubble between New Zealand and the Cook Island. Negotiations on the text of an ‘Arrangement to Facilitate Quarantine-Free Travel ...
The Government has launched a new online, phone and onsite service to help New Zealanders connect to a range of employment support and products for workers and businesses affected by COVID-19, announced Minister of Education Chris Hipkins and Minister for Social Development Carmel Sepuloni. Connected.govt.nz is a one-stop-shop for jobseekers, ...
Security guards contracted to the Ministry of Social Development will be paid at least the Living Wage from next month supporting the Government’s commitment towards fair pay and employment conditions, announced Minister for Social Development Carmel Sepuloni. “MSD was among the first government agencies to pay its employees the living ...
The Minister of Conservation Eugenie Sage today launched Te Mana o te Taiao, the Aotearoa New Zealand Biodiversity Strategy - a way forward that envisions Aotearoa New Zealand as a place where ecosystems are healthy and resilient, and people embrace the natural world. “Many of New Zealand’s plants and wildlife species ...
“Pacific languages, cultures and identity are essential to the health, wellbeing and lifetime success of our Pacific peoples and their communities in Aotearoa. The strength and resilience of Pacific Aotearoa is not only vital to their own prosperity but integral to the prosperity of all New Zealanders, and is particularly ...
· $38 million to help schools cover unexpected costs related to COVID-19 · $69 million upgrade for online learning · $107 million contingency funding to support school construction suppliers facing additional costs due to the lockdown. The Government is releasing $214 million from the COVID-19 response and recovery fund to ...
Despite the Government installing safety upgrades around the country, people should still take care around rail crossings, said Transport Minister Phil Twyford launching Rail Safety Week. Phil Twyford said installing safety infrastructure is crucial, but we are encouraging people to be more careful around trains too. “We’re making good progress ...
The Government is providing a cash injection to help Palmerston North City Council complete a programme to provide 78 social housing units for vulnerable tenants. The $4.7 million to build 28 units in the Papaioea Place redevelopment comes from the $3 billion set aside for infrastructure in the Government’s COVID-19 ...
A pest free Banks Peninsula/Te Pātaka o Rākaihautū is one step closer with a $5.11 million boost to accelerate this project and create jobs, announced Conservation Minister Eugenie Sage in Canterbury today. “This is a game changer for this ambitious project to restore the native wildlife and plants on Ōtautahi/Christchurch’s doorstep ...
A Government grant of $6.4 million will expand the Pettigrew Arena in Taradale with new indoor courts of national standard. “The project is likely to take 18 months with approximately 300 people employed through the process,” Grant Robertson said. “The expansion will increase the indoor court space up to 11 ...
The Far North tourist destination of Mangonui is to receive Government funding to improve waterfront infrastructure, open up access to the harbour and improve water quality, Infrastructure Minister Shane Jones has announced. A total of $6.5 million from the $3 billion set aside in the COVID-19 Response and Recovery Fund ...
The Government has re-affirmed its commitment to supporting the hosting of the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup, which the ICC has delayed from 2021 to 2022. “This is obviously a disappointing decision for cricket players and fans around the world and for the White Ferns and their supporters here at ...
Cyclists and walkers will now have a safer way to get around Taupō, Tūrangi, and between Hamilton and Cambridge, with funding for shared paths and Te Awa River Ride, Associate Minister of Transport Julie Anne Genter announced today. “The Te Awa River Ride is the latest part of massive growth ...
Six major cycle routes will be completed in Christchurch thanks to funding from the Government’s investment in shovel-ready infrastructure as part of the COVID-19 recovery Associate Minister of Transport Julie Anne Genter announced today. $125 million will be invested to kick-start construction and fund the completion of the following cycleway ...
Plans are underway for a brand new state-of-the-art hub for Whanganui’s justice and social agencies, following confirmation the ageing Whanganui Central Police Station is to be replaced. Police Minister Stuart Nash has announced $25 million in new infrastructure spending to improve facilities for the wider community, and for staff who ...
An adjustment payment has been made to Waikato-Tainui and Ngāi Tahu under the relativity mechanisms in their 1995 and 1997 Treaty of Waitangi settlements, Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations Andrew Little announced today. The latest payments to Waikato-Tainui and Ngāi Tahu are $2,700,000 and $2,600,000 respectively to ensure the ...
Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters and Transport Minister Phil Twyford today kicked off the start of the Auckland NZ Upgrade Programme rail projects which will support over 400 jobs and help unlock our biggest city. Both ministers marked the start of enabling works on the third main rail line project ...
The Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) investment of $3.78 million in Wairoa will create much needed economic stimulus and jobs, Under-Secretary for Regional Economic Development Fletcher Tabuteau announced today. PGF projects announced today include: $200,000 loan to Nuhaka Kiwifruit Holdings Ltd (operated by Pine Valley Orchard Ltd) to increase the productivity ...
Tenants in public and Māori housing may be benefiting from their own affordable renewable energy in future – a fund to trial renewable energy technology for public and Māori housing has today been announced by Energy and Resources Minister Megan Woods and Associate Minister for Housing (Māori Housing) Nanaia Mahuta. ...
Hokianga will receive $2.7 million to redevelop four of its wharves and upgrade its water supply, Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones has announced. Far North District Council will receive $1.8 million from the Provincial Growth Fund for the work on the wharves. “The work will include the construction of ...
A $350 million Residential Development Response Fund is being established to support the residential construction sector and to minimise the economic impact from COVID-19, the Housing Minister Dr Megan Woods has announced. “The Residential Development Response Fund will help to progress stalled or at-risk developments that support our broader housing ...
As part of a broader plan to divert waste from landfill, the Government today announced $10.67 million for new infrastructure as part of the Resource Recovery Network across the Auckland region. “This key investment in Auckland’s community recycling network is part of the Government’s Infrastructure Reference Group ‘shovel ready’ projects ...
The Government is investing $45 million in the first stage of an ambitious urban development project for Tauranga that will employ up to 250 people and help the region grow, Urban Development Minister Phil Twyford announced today. Phil Twyford says the funding has been allocated out of the $3 billion ...
The Government is investing more than $1.6 million from the Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) for a wide range of community and environmental projects in Hawke’s Bay, Under-Secretary for Regional Economic Development Fletcher Tabuteau announced today. These announcements today are part of the Government’s commitment to supporting regional economies in the ...
Getting low-emission trucks on the road is a step closer with investment in infrastructure to support hydrogen vehicles, the Energy and Resources Minister Megan Woods has announced. The Infrastructure Reference Group has provisionally approved $20 million for New Plymouth company Hiringa Energy to establish a nationwide network of hydrogen-fuelling stations. ...
By Sri Krishnamurthi, reporting for the Pacific Media Centre“Climate change may be slower but its momentum is enormous.” – Stuart Chape, Acting Director-General, South Pacific Regional Environmental Programme (SPREP). Does anyone remember Greta Thunberg, the young Swedish environmentalist who caused a worldwide climate change stir – particularly among ...
An adventure story that splits the difference between action-packed intrigue and touching melancholy, Sam Brooks reviews Lizard’s Tale, which has just won the Wright Family Foundation Esther Glen Award for Junior Fiction. When you think of settings for a children’s novel, the dawn before the dusk of the Second World War ...
New Zealand reports seven new positive cases of Covid-19 but all are likely to be linked to an existing cluster, giving officials confidence of containment. Health Minister Chris Hipkins says the 37 current Covid-19 cases represent just 0.07 percent of people tested, and point towards this being a 'contained outbreak'. Today's seven ...
Latest from the Beehive Yes, we all now know Auckland must spend another fortnight at level 3 lockdown while the rest of New Zealand continues under level-2 restrictions. Until 11:59pm on August 26 Aucklanders are expected to stay home in a bid to stamp out what has been identified as ...
The current pandemic will be a brand new experience for most, but others have been here before. Kevin Hague explains what we can learn from the LGBTQ+ community’s experience of the HIV/AIDS outbreak from decades past.If there’s one group in our country who really knows about beating pandemics, it’s surely ...
By RNZ News A person who arrived in Japan from New Zealand with covid-19 visited Wairakei Terraces and Wai-O-Tapu Thermal Wonderland in Rotorua and Taupō shortly before their departure, health authorities have revealed. As a precaution, Toi Te Ora Public Health have alerted the public there was a “small possibility” ...
“Over 17,000 Kiwis signed a Parliamentary petition on vaping, which was then completely ignored until five days after the vaping bill was passed. It’s so disappointing and shows what a sham the whole process has been from beginning to end,” says Nancy ...
Some of the best shows on Neon will take between a day and weeks to get through. Here’s a guide to the classics you’ve been holding off on, how long they take to watch, and why you should watch them.It’s a scientific fact that there’s too much TV and nobody ...
In the first of a weekly election diary, Labour MP Deborah Russell explains how you campaign when the campaign is on hold. Tomorrow is National's Chris Bishop. This is now a campaign diary of not campaigning. Parliament finished up on Thursday last week, and in the way that Covid-time goes, that ...
From the trusty old blue disposable medical face mask to a bandana made out of a pair of gruts, New Zealand’s TV news and current affairs shows have been a veritable parade of PPE this week. José Barbosa has compiled all the best examples here:The news that Auckland was moving ...
It’s Amazon Prime Video’s new show about the most extreme adventure race in the world, and host Bear Grylls wants us to enjoy it from the comfort of our couch. I tried to kill Bear Grylls in You Vs Wild, really I did. I made him swim with crocodiles, I ...
By Cook Islands News Former Cook Islands prime minister Dr Joe Williams, 82, a distinguished medical practitioner in Auckland, has been admitted to hospital with covid-19. His medical practice was near the Americold cold store at the centre of the new community-transmission virus cluster in New Zealand. The practice is ...
She’s engaged, so why is the prime minister regularly appearing on a dating app? Zara Beauchamp investigates the strange case of Jacinda Ardern’s cameos on Tinder.I have recently gone back on dating apps. Since I was last in this murky, selfie-filled world of flirtation and despair, several things have changed ...
Source: Council on Hemispheric Affairs – Analysis-Reportage By Arturo López-LevyFrom Oakland, California Throughout the Democratic Party primary for the 2020 elections, for the first time all the candidates proposed a policy towards Cuba in line with the course of dialogue and exchange led by President Barack Obama in his ...
After 102 days without community transmission, New Zealand is once again grappling with increasing numbers of COVID-19 cases. The return to level 3 lockdown for Auckland is estimated to cost the city $150 million dollars. But what price are New Zealanders ...
Newshub’s bombshell story about a Newstalk ZB caller named Merv rocked New Zealand’s political landscape. Roger Bridge, who stands accused of also being Merv, yesterday resigned from the National Party board. But he is far from the first political figure to don a fake name and ring a talkback station. ...
Welcome to The Spinoff’s live updates for August 15, bringing you the latest on New Zealand news and Covid-19 as it returns to the community. Auckland is now in alert level three and the rest of NZ level two. More details here. Official information here. Contact us at info@thespinoff.co.nz.7.45am: Cook Islands ...
"One day, shifting him between grazing paddocks, they had to take the pony along the State Highway": a short story by Auckland writer Isabel Haarhaus. Melissa and her mother had moved into a garage. It was under the house of a friend of Tash’s. There they made a makeshift ...
Broadcaster Ryan Bridge will write a weekly column for Newsroom during the election campaign. Today, is the Prime Minister's lockdown strategy worth the price? The team of five million is splintering and there are early signs Jacinda Ardern’s campaign that wasn’t a campaign for re-election is wobbling. It’s becoming abundantly clear the Prime ...
The simple rules for wearing face masks during levels two and three – and how they can effectively limit the spread of Covid-19Lots of people might be wondering why we’re now being asked to wear face masks when we didn’t use them the first time we were stamping out Covid-19 ...
In Christchurch there’s a tiny shop with a big mantra - buy New Zealand made. Frank Film meets the passionate retailer and the clever Kiwis she’s helping. In Tessa Peach’s tightly crammed shop, you’ll find everything from drill bits and garden spades, to preserved fruits, frying pans, shoes and shoe ...
For now, New Zealand seems to have dodged a Covid-shaped bullet - but there are plenty of hard questions to be asked in the coming weeks, Sam Sachdeva writes You could almost hear five million sets of lungs exhaling in unison. A week ago, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s announcement that Auckland ...
In this week's Extra Time, Barry Guy speaks to New Zealand canoe sprinter Alice Hoskin on the heart problem that threatened her career, and her life. Gisborne paddler Alicia Hoskin would have expected to have competed in her first-ever Olympics by now, but she isn't too concerned. She doesn't get upset ...
Tasked with scrutinising the agencies of state, Peter Boshier says being chief ombudsman is all about fairness and empathy. Michelle Langstone finds outf how life has prepared him for the role.Portraits by Edith Amituanai.Peter Boshier was robbed at knifepoint in a home invasion in Suva in 2002, had his eye ...
Jacinda Ardern and her cabinet yesterday chose the middle and least bad option. The next week will be critical in assessing whether the right choice was made, writes Justin Giovannetti from parliament.The sense of relief in the basement of the Beehive was unspoken but plain yesterday as Jacinda Ardern and ...
By RNZ News Auckland will remain in alert level three for a full two weeks, with the New Zealand government announcing that the country will remain at current covid-19 alert levels for 12 more days. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield have announced the decision ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra The inquiry commissioned by the Berejiklian government into the Ruby Princess COVID-19 disaster has laid blame on NSW health officials, who made “inexcusable” and “inexplicable” mistakes. It also exonerated the Australian Border Force. In the ...
Finance Minister Grant Robertson says he's looking at every support scheme on the Government's books to help cushion the blow of extended Level 3 restrictions in Auckland Wage subsidies will be extended nationwide as the effects of Auckland's Level 3 restrictions ripple across the country. However, questions are being asked ...
Analysis by Keith Rankin. Today’s chart compares this week’s Covid-19 outbreak in New Zealand with the latest case-data from other comparable countries. Note that the data plots new daily cases, smoothed using seven-day averages. However, the ‘black square’ represents New Zealand’s most recent daily total of new cases, at 260 ...
Safer Future trustees, from left, Richard Martin, Henoch Kloosterboer and Gael Goulter The Covid-19 extended restrictions will limit public discussion and education about the important issues involved in the End of Life Choice Act referendum. For that ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Janak Rogers, Associate Lecturer, Broadcast Journalism, RMIT University A Johannes Leak cartoon published in The Australian today, in which US Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden is depicted calling his vice-presidential running mate Kamala Harris a “little brown girl”, has drawn widespread condemnation. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Esterman, Professor of Biostatistics, University of South Australia Security guards at Melbourne’s quarantine hotels have been widely blamed for Victoria’s current outbreak of COVID-19. Reports have suggested they mixed inappropriately with people under quarantine, and did not properly follow instructions around ...
This Sunday on Q+A with Jack Tame Can New Zealand beat COVID-19 again? On Sunday, Jack interviews Health Minister Chris Hipkins and National leader Judith Collins. The Australian state of Victoria has been battling its own second wave. Melbourne ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Tony Walker, Adjunct Professor, School of Communications, La Trobe University The normalisation of diplomatic ties between Israel and the United Arab Emirates has variously been described as a “breakthrough” and an important staging moment towards a comprehensive Middle East peace. These conclusions ...
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has announced Auckland will remain at Level 3 and the rest of New Zealand at Level 2 for 12 days Auckland's lockdown will continue until 11.59pm on Wednesday August 26. Cabinet has come to a decision on the next steps for managing a cluster of community ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Claire Hooker, Senior Lecturer and Coordinator, Health and Medical Humanities, University of Sydney It could be a brother or sister. It could be a neighbour. It could be a person you work with. We probably all know someone who doesn’t wear a ...
The Save the Maitai campaigners have postponed their address to the Nelson City Council this week due to Covid 19 restrictions. About 100 people were to attend Council’s Thursday meeting to support their representatives due to advise the Council that ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Timothy Graham, Senior Lecturer, Queensland University of Technology At midday on August 12 2020, the hashtag #DanLiedPeopleDied started trending on Twitter. By evening it had attracted over 10,000 tweets. The hashtag appeared to reflect widespread public distrust in Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews’ ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gregory Moore, Doctor of Botany, University of Melbourne With massive fronds creating a luxuriously green canopy in the understory of Australian forests, tree ferns are a familiar sight on many long drives or bushwalks. But how much do you really know about ...
Government minister James Shaw is in the clear after being tested for coronavirus as a precaution Green Party co-leader James Shaw has tested negative for Covid-19 after undergoing a precautionary test following a campaign trip to South Auckland last weekend. Shaw announced on Thursday he was self-isolating at home and awaiting ...
The Government is scrambling to ramp up the testing of border workers and the Health Minister has conceded he would have liked to have seen more of it earlier Health Minister Chris Hipkins is about to sign an order making it compulsory to test staff working at the border and in managed ...
The Public Service Association is strongly in favour of border control, managed isolation and quarantine workers getting a Covid-19 test as soon as possible, and supports the tests being mandatory and regular. PSA members from multiple government ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra University of Canberra Professorial Fellow Michelle Grattan and University of Canberra Vice-Chancellor and President Professor Paddy Nixon discuss the week in politics. This week Michelle and Paddy discuss the week of hearings before the Royal ...
A senior National party figure accused of attempting to derail a candidate for the Auckland Central seat with a late-night call to talkback radio has stood down. ...
We waste $1.6b in food in NZ every year. With more people struggling to put food on the table thanks to Covid-19, Two Cents' Worth looks at what we can do to change our habits. ...
Theatre owners are up in arms that potential blockbuster Mulan – filmed in New Zealand and directed by hometown hero Niki Caro – is to be premiered not in cinemas, but on Disney’s streaming platform, Disney+.On an office wall somewhere hangs a picture of Disney CEO Bob Chapek – target ...
A Wellington restaurateur was told by health officials that one of his venues had been visited by a Covid-positive person. So why did the health minister and director general of health not know anything? Stewart Sowman-Lund reports.You’d think the possibility that Covid-19 was in capital would be big news. Big ...
Whatever new arrangements may be put in place in response to Covid 19 for the General Election 2020, the Electoral Commission have been questioned as to what changes they have made to ensure the multiple problems experienced by Māori voters in the last ...
The Covid resurgence cluster is now at 29 confirmed cases, with one further unlinked case. Chris McDowall presents the latest information in visual form.With thanks to the Science Media Centre.Information about the resurgence of confirmed and probable cases of Covid-19 in New Zealand is changing rapidly. These posts collate the ...
Analysis - Judith Collins pushes for the election to be delayed due to the Covid-19 outbreak and Gerry Brownlee is accused of undermining efforts to control the virus. ...
Senior doctors at the Canterbury DHB are calling on the Board to front up to staff and to the people of Canterbury. More than 100 members of the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists and the Canterbury Hospitals’ Medical Staff Association met ...
By RNZ News New Zealand has announced there are 12 new cases and one probable case of covid-19 in Auckland and Waikato today. Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield revealed at today’s daily briefing there were now a total of 48 active cases, with 30 linked to the community outbreak. ...
Some Cook Islanders are expressing anger at the failure to implement stronger border control public health measures in response to 17 new community-transmitted covid-19 cases in New Zealand – and a further 13 today. Social media is abuzz with comments from some concerned locals. The island’s 10 volunteer puna cannot ...
New Zealanders are being encouraged to look at nature through new eyes during Conservation Week 2020, which this year is from 15 to 23 August. Conservation Week is an annual event led by the Department of Conservation (DOC), and this year’s focus is on ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adele Marum, PhD Candidate in English, University of Melbourne Review: Little Birds, Sky Atlantic, released on Stan August 5 2020Little Birds adapts a 1979 collection of French-born diarist Anaïs Nin’s unsettling erotic short stories published two years after her death. Nin ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Lorraine Finlay, Lecturer in Law, Murdoch University The events of the past few days in Western Australia have been extraordinary as the protracted conflict between the government and mining billionaire Clive Palmer reached a fever pitch. Premier Mark McGowan declared the state ...
How is New Zealand faring during the Covid-19 pandemic? Newsroom is taking a weekly look at the latest numbers related to the virus and the impact on the economy.Excess deaths Overseas the death toll in some countries has risen sharply, with ...
Responding to National Party Leader Judith Collins's comments this morning , the New Zealand Taxpayers' Union is criticising the National Party for softening its stance on reducing debt. Spokesperson Islay Aitchison says, "Reducing public ...
New Zealand's first cluster of community cases of Covid-19 in months has now spread to the Waikato, Marc Daalder reports Two new cases of Covid-19 associated with the community transmission cases identified on Tuesday have been found in the Waikato, Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield said on Friday. Previously, all active ...
'Go hard, go early' has undoubtedly been a successful medical strategy. However, unpredictable, on-again off-again stringent lockdowns may produce so much uncertainty that other outcomes start to deteriorate, writes Robert MacCulloch. New Zealand's approach to keeping Coronavirus away from our shores, or at least stuck in our quarantine facilities, has been ...
Before we get to the top 10s, a note from the good folk at Unity Auckland: Wednesday, first thing, we found people knocking on the shop door before we had a chance to flick the lights on. This time around folk were not going to be without their reading materials. There ...
By Barbara Dreaver, 1 NEWS Pacific correspondent Pasifika family or just an Auckland family? There has been much debate over whether it was wrong to identify the family at the centre of New Zealand’s covid-cluster as a “Pasifika family”. As Pacific correspondent let me make this clear – it would ...
A new poem from Christchurch poet and environmental activist E Wen Wong.passport to the seasonsleaves f a l l crisp like coconut husks, fraying threads of winter’s snow. the hairs of the pōhutukawa stand on their necks doused in a chilli seeds they hang ...
Māori must move to Level 4 Lockdown and the borders must be closed for the next 14 days - even to overseas whānau wanting to return home – to ensure proper border control. That’s the call from the Māori Party who are calling on Māori to unite ...
Opinion: Why is JK Rowling so mad about periods, and why are so many people mad at JK Rowling? Alice Snedden waded into the volatile waters of Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminism for the latest episode of Bad News.After the horrible year we’ve had, the last thing anybody needed was for ...
By RNZ News The lack of testing of staff at New Zealand’s border is extraordinary, a prominent epidemiologist says. Health officials are frantically trying to trace the origin of the covid-19 cluster in Auckland, which could have come from the border. Otago University professor Sir David Skegg told RNZ Morning ...
Federated Farmers says the government needs to reconsider and let small business fresh food sellers stay open under level 3 and, if necessary, at level 4. "Let the little guys stay open, and sell fresh food, because it’s safer, fairer and ...
Latest from the Beehive Cabinet’s preoccupation with the re-emergence of Covid-19 in the community – we suppose – explains why there has been a lack of pronouncements from the Beehive over the past day or two. We found only three new posts on the Beehive website since we last reported. ...
Auckland is at alert level three, and the rest of the country level two, until midnight tonight. At 5.30pm this evening, we’ll find out what happens next. These are the factors cabinet is likely to consider in making the decision.During the first wave, the announcement we were moving into lockdown ...
Open mike 02/05/2015 
Open mike is your post.
Below is the list of gender-critical material which appeared on Redline from November 1, 2019 to December 31, 2019. Submission for rationality and science against the assaults of pre-modernism and post-modernism The left and violent misogyny Marvelly shows us how to be a feminist without feminism Georgina Beyer: We need ...14 hours ago
Watching National's Health spokesman, Dr Shane Reti, on TVNZ yesterday morning was instructive:In four minutes, he managed to undermine both his leader and deputy leader - refusing to twist th knife Collins had attempted to plant in Labour, by acknowledging the government was doing "the best they can" and they ...19 hours ago
The old ways of thinking about the macroeconomy have been found wanting, but the alternative is not clear. Macroeconomics – understanding how the economy as a whole works – appears to be going through a time of exceptionally great turbulence. There is always a robust debate, but today ...1 day ago
by Daphna Whitmore The outbreak of Covid-19 in the community is getting people to starting to thinking about the elimination strategy. Initially the government said ‘flatten the curve’ in order to avoid hospitals being overloaded with a sudden influx of Covid-19 cases. This made sense, but there were some experts, most ...2 days ago
How corrupt is Queensland? Yesterday they actually tried to ban journalists from exposing political corruption during election campaigns. Fortunately, today they changed their minds: A day after introducing laws that would ban journalists from reporting corruption allegations during elections, the State Government has withdrawn the proposal in a spectacular ...2 days ago
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As New Zealand holds its breath waiting to find out the extent of the latest cases of COVID-19 community transmission, it’s hard to avoid the growing amount of mis- and dis-information online. It’s a very natural instinct to want to debunk this misinformation, but unfortunately, science communication theory shows that ...3 days ago
Campaigns suspended just as they began. Election day in doubt. And - following the 'words beginning with C' theme from last week's Caucus podcast - heated debate over conspiracies and constitutional conventions as Covid returns to the community. This week in politics is has been a disaster for Election 2020; you ...3 days ago
And sooner or later, the National Party will simply have to own up to the fact that the reason she was never chosen as Leader prior to her rolling Todd Muller a little less than a month ago was for very solid ones: the display of some truly ugly behaviour ...3 days ago
Conspiracy theorist - Gerry BrownleeWhat on earth is going on with the National Party? Now that Crusher Collins is in charge, it seems like it’s their policy to say really dumb things just to get attention. Unfortunately it’s working, with most of the mainstream media bending over backwards to provide ...3 days ago
INT: ILAM ELECTORATE OFFICES – TUESDAY GERRY: Morning everybody. ADVISORS 1, 2, AND 3: Morning Gerry. GERRY: Now… this is a bit of a crisis meeting. Several rogue polls have come out putting the National Party on or around 40% ADVISOR 2: 26? ADVISOR 1: 12? ADVISOR 3: 29? GERRY: ...3 days ago
Respecting the journal editorial process Each week we scan between 450 and 650 articles for relevance to Skeptical Science's remit: communication of the science of climate change itself the many affected branches of scientific inquiry by climate change. The 100+ journals we cover encompass a galaxy of expertise we cannot ...3 days ago
What to do to improve the public perception of the newly elected National party leader, when her performance so far has no doubt disappointed the expectations of her supporters? The answer is to get a National-supporting newspaper (the Herald) to organise a poll that could be guaranteed to provide an ...5 days ago
There are only a few days left to make a submission on Statistics New Zealand's consultation on sex and gender identity statistical standards. This represents a really important step for recognising the very real diversity of gender, including people with no gender, and ensuring everyone has the option to see ...5 days ago
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From some quarters, incessant scaremongering. From others, it’s a full-on tilt into touching the alarmist buttons a little too readily (uncertain times make for very captive audiences with this angle of attack). The (so-called) Opposition (and merely regarding them as that seems to be a far looser term now ...1 week ago
Government has decided in-principle to extend the wage subsidy scheme. We have also agreed in-principle to extend the mortgage deferral scheme, and to modify the COVID-19 Sick Leave Scheme to make it more accessible. Details will be finalised over the weekend and announced on Monday. ...13 hours ago
Green Party Co-leader James Shaw is awaiting the result of a precautionary COVID-19 test after travelling to the South Auckland area over the weekend. ...3 days ago
In-principle decision to extend wage subsidy to support businesses and protect jobs Support will be nationwide in recognition of Auckland’s position in NZ economy and the impact of Level 2 Mortgage deferral scheme to be extended to support households The Government is taking action to support businesses and protect jobs ...1 day ago
By Sri Krishnamurthi, reporting for the Pacific Media Centre “Climate change may be slower but its momentum is enormous.” – Stuart Chape, Acting Director-General, South Pacific Regional Environmental Programme (SPREP). Does anyone remember Greta Thunberg, the young Swedish environmentalist who caused a worldwide climate change stir – particularly among ...10 hours ago
An adventure story that splits the difference between action-packed intrigue and touching melancholy, Sam Brooks reviews Lizard’s Tale, which has just won the Wright Family Foundation Esther Glen Award for Junior Fiction. When you think of settings for a children’s novel, the dawn before the dusk of the Second World War ...13 hours ago
New Zealand reports seven new positive cases of Covid-19 but all are likely to be linked to an existing cluster, giving officials confidence of containment. Health Minister Chris Hipkins says the 37 current Covid-19 cases represent just 0.07 percent of people tested, and point towards this being a 'contained outbreak'. Today's seven ...14 hours ago
Latest from the Beehive Yes, we all now know Auckland must spend another fortnight at level 3 lockdown while the rest of New Zealand continues under level-2 restrictions. Until 11:59pm on August 26 Aucklanders are expected to stay home in a bid to stamp out what has been identified as ...16 hours ago
“Over 17,000 Kiwis signed a Parliamentary petition on vaping, which was then completely ignored until five days after the vaping bill was passed. It’s so disappointing and shows what a sham the whole process has been from beginning to end,” says Nancy ...17 hours ago
In the first of a weekly election diary, Labour MP Deborah Russell explains how you campaign when the campaign is on hold. Tomorrow is National's Chris Bishop. This is now a campaign diary of not campaigning. Parliament finished up on Thursday last week, and in the way that Covid-time goes, that ...17 hours ago
"One day, shifting him between grazing paddocks, they had to take the pony along the State Highway": a short story by Auckland writer Isabel Haarhaus. Melissa and her mother had moved into a garage. It was under the house of a friend of Tash’s. There they made a makeshift ...22 hours ago
Broadcaster Ryan Bridge will write a weekly column for Newsroom during the election campaign. Today, is the Prime Minister's lockdown strategy worth the price? The team of five million is splintering and there are early signs Jacinda Ardern’s campaign that wasn’t a campaign for re-election is wobbling. It’s becoming abundantly clear the Prime ...22 hours ago
In Christchurch there’s a tiny shop with a big mantra - buy New Zealand made. Frank Film meets the passionate retailer and the clever Kiwis she’s helping. In Tessa Peach’s tightly crammed shop, you’ll find everything from drill bits and garden spades, to preserved fruits, frying pans, shoes and shoe ...23 hours ago
For now, New Zealand seems to have dodged a Covid-shaped bullet - but there are plenty of hard questions to be asked in the coming weeks, Sam Sachdeva writes You could almost hear five million sets of lungs exhaling in unison. A week ago, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s announcement that Auckland ...23 hours ago
In this week's Extra Time, Barry Guy speaks to New Zealand canoe sprinter Alice Hoskin on the heart problem that threatened her career, and her life. Gisborne paddler Alicia Hoskin would have expected to have competed in her first-ever Olympics by now, but she isn't too concerned. She doesn't get upset ...23 hours ago
Finance Minister Grant Robertson says he's looking at every support scheme on the Government's books to help cushion the blow of extended Level 3 restrictions in Auckland Wage subsidies will be extended nationwide as the effects of Auckland's Level 3 restrictions ripple across the country. However, questions are being asked ...1 day ago
Green Party co-leader James Shaw has tested negative for Covid-19 following a trip to Auckland. ...1 day ago
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has announced Auckland will remain at Level 3 and the rest of New Zealand at Level 2 for 12 days Auckland's lockdown will continue until 11.59pm on Wednesday August 26. Cabinet has come to a decision on the next steps for managing a cluster of community ...1 day ago
Government minister James Shaw is in the clear after being tested for coronavirus as a precaution Green Party co-leader James Shaw has tested negative for Covid-19 after undergoing a precautionary test following a campaign trip to South Auckland last weekend. Shaw announced on Thursday he was self-isolating at home and awaiting ...1 day ago
The Government is scrambling to ramp up the testing of border workers and the Health Minister has conceded he would have liked to have seen more of it earlier Health Minister Chris Hipkins is about to sign an order making it compulsory to test staff working at the border and in managed ...1 day ago
We waste $1.6b in food in NZ every year. With more people struggling to put food on the table thanks to Covid-19, Two Cents' Worth looks at what we can do to change our habits. ...2 days ago
How is New Zealand faring during the Covid-19 pandemic? Newsroom is taking a weekly look at the latest numbers related to the virus and the impact on the economy. Excess deaths Overseas the death toll in some countries has risen sharply, with ...2 days ago
New Zealand's first cluster of community cases of Covid-19 in months has now spread to the Waikato, Marc Daalder reports Two new cases of Covid-19 associated with the community transmission cases identified on Tuesday have been found in the Waikato, Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield said on Friday. Previously, all active ...2 days ago
'Go hard, go early' has undoubtedly been a successful medical strategy. However, unpredictable, on-again off-again stringent lockdowns may produce so much uncertainty that other outcomes start to deteriorate, writes Robert MacCulloch. New Zealand's approach to keeping Coronavirus away from our shores, or at least stuck in our quarantine facilities, has been ...2 days ago
i watched this film last nite..(and give it the highest recommendations..must see!..really..)
..and it is one that the likes of greenpeace (and other ‘green’ organisations) will not want you to see..
..it lifts the lid on the ‘sustainability’-myths so many believe/peddle..
..and the false story/story with big holes in it – that is being pushed by the likes of greenpeace..and most other enviro-groups..
..i would urge anyone with even the slightest interest in these issues – to watch this flick..
http://www.cowspiracy.com/
Thanks.
The facts-site for this movie looked familiar to me (for people that don’t have the time or the money to watch it, this is a good starting point):
http://www.cowspiracy.com/facts/
Some of it is mentioned in this article:
Saving the planet – One meal at a time
Just hope a film like this doesn’t give the fossil fuel industries an out.
@ paul..
i don’t think it does..
..but it does focus on the follies/madness of continuing with just concentrating on those fossil-fuel industries..
..and ignoring the/this very large pachyderm looming over them/us..
(as greenpeace/green party/most enviro-groups currently do..)
..that way lies environmental-disaster/a cooked planet..
..how can it not..?
(and could i urge people to spread the word about this important visual-document..to their networks/friends..
..i think it has import exceeding al gores’ initial alarm-sounding effort..
..it get’s much closer to the real nub of the problem..and the solution..)
looks like an argument to change farming and eating practices, which doesn’t necessarily mean going vegan.
The figures on that facts page will be based on US industrial agriculture which includes feedlots, and monocropping monsanto soy, all of which destroy soil and ecoystems (which we desparately need intact for many environmental reasons including CC). There are far better ways of growing food and ones that reduce GHG emissions in a sustainable way rather than a BAU way. By all means promote eating less meat and more plants, but please don’t promote swapping one insane food system for another.
“..which doesn’t necessarily mean going vegan…”
it actually does..
..and you are just repeating some of the myths so effectively demolished/disproven in the film..
(that grass-fed-better group-delusion we labour under..is well and truly demolished..)
..and rather than a ‘looks like’ opinion..can i suggest you actually watch the film..(only 1hr 30 min..)..
..and then opine..?
..it would make yr opinion so much more informed in nature..
..wouldn’t you agree..?
Nah, I’ve seen it all before, over a very long period of time. Try addressing my actual points phil instead of just asserting I am wrong with no backup. Bet you can’t.
you haven’t ‘seen it all before’..
i hadn’t ‘seen it all before’..
..i am not overselling the import of this film..
…and the clarity of the undeniable (science-based) message it imparts..
..but continue braying from yr position of ignorance..
..if you must..
..you wear it well..
I tell you what, if you address my points in a clear and logical way without the slurs, I’ll watch the film and then comment on it.
the point is the points you raise are addressed far more coherently in the film..
..than i could in this forum..
and re ‘slurs’..calling a plant/ethics-based diet ‘insane’ isn’t a ‘slur’..?
..really..?
(b.t.w..that anti-vegan soy-myth you regularly trot out..is also addressed/answered/unpacked in the film..
..i urge you to open yr mind..)
“the point is the points you raise are addressed far more coherently in the film.”
Give me an example then. What did they say about monocropped monsanto soy?
watch the film..
Rolling my eyes now.
well, that was an easy bet 🙂
True, but I did learn some interesting things despite the odds. The farmer who wrote the film review had some good stuff to say.
Two questions
What was the total emissions from the vast heards of ruminants pre mans ability to slaughter them and replace them with monoculture s. And how does it compare to today’s emissions.
And on a local scale if we all went vegan and stopped hunting how would you stop deer , pigs and other introduced animals over running and degrading nz to a desert.
I’m not taking the piss with these questions .
@ waghorn..
..those (quite valid) questions are addressed in the film..
i repeat..i have been a vegan for about 15 yrs..
..and vegetarian for 15 yrs before that..
..i’ve liberated animals etc etc..
..and consider(ed) myself reasonably up to speed on these issues..
..this film taught me much more than i already knew..
..it brings everything very clearly into focus..
Interestings questions.
1. no idea, but I would love to know. I do know that there is some exceptional work being done by the regenag and associated people on mimicking those old herd systems, and what they are finding is that those herds were crucial for building soil and thus sequestering carbon. That soil and carbon gets released into the wider world when you plough. It is possible to grow grain and legume crops without plowing but I doubt it can be done on the scale that that film is talking about. Which leads us to the problem of human population. Stabilise the population and we have many more options.
2. if hunting as well as farming were stopped we would lose native species fairly rapidly, both animal and plant. There might be some interesting adjustments eg if sheep were taken off the land, and short pasture were converted to either forest or cropping, the rabbit population would probably drop (rabbits do well on short grazed pasture). But overall, if we don’t contain certain species, others will be lost.
The other interesting things about this question is that one obvious solution in NZ is to eat feral meat. That’s where the vegan argument ultimately fails. Would be interesting to see if the hardcore vegans would accept hunting if it meant the end to commerical stock farming. Mostly I just see hardcore vegans arguing that nature would sort out the balance or they don’t believe the situation would occur.
“..1. no idea, but I would love to know…”
watch the film..
‘2’..
..watch the film..
Are you saying that the film specifically looks at the old pre-agricultural herd systems, including what emissions were from them?
And that it addresses issues of pest control?
I suspect you are implying porkies there phil.
yr ability to opine on subjects you know nothing about (in this case..this film)..
..is really pretty much boundless..isn’t it..?
It’s alright phil, we know you’ve got nothing other than ‘watch this film about my belief system and it’s all true because I say so’.
b waghorn,
a review from a US grass-fed stock farmer with an eye for ecological (and logical) sensibility.
Here’s another way to look at it. There are about 88 million beef cows in America and just over 9 million dairy cows. In 1800 there were 60 million buffalo, and though the film claims that grassfed beef is more damaging than feedlot beef, I’m confident those buffalo weren’t routinely wandering into CAFOs in an effort to reduce their methane emissions. But I doubt Anderson would accept a target of 60 million grassfed cows as ecologically sustainable, even though keeping them on pasture, besides making them healthier and happier, would mostly eliminate the 5% of methane emission that are a result of manure fermenting in lagoons and piles.
http://cairncrestfarm.blogspot.co.nz/2014/10/cowspiracy-movie-review.html
another chimera from you – that is addressed/unpacked in the film.
..that..the organic..grass-fed…’sustainable’..
..they are all focused on..in their turn..
..in the film..
and yet you’ve watched the film and still can’t address a single point. All you are doing here is propganda promo.
do you often argue over/about two flies crawling up a wall..?
..you have spent twice the time it wd take to watch the film..
..to attack the film – that you haven’t seen..
..do you see anything awry/amiss with that picture..?
Don’t panic just yet folks…..
Greenhouse emissions from animals are about to reduce significantly.
And no, not because the world is listening to Phil.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11439795
Hey sheep, do you know if the type of feed affects the amount of methane produced by ruminants? eg grain vs conventional pasture vs organic perennial etc.
phil, I’m pretty sure you wouldn’t want me to watch the film and critique it 😈
Hey sheep, do you know if the type of feed affects the amount of methane produced by ruminants? eg grain vs conventional pasture vs organic perennial etc.
Not an expert on that.
This story suggests that it is specific micro – organisms within the rumen “which utilise the hydrogen and carbon dioxide and make methane. This natural process has been occurring in ruminants for millions of years.
(The new discoveries) basically stop the activity of the micro-organisms that are converting the carbon dioxide and hydrogen to methane. It’s very simple – it kills them or severely suppresses their activity.”
Listening to it on National Radio the scientists stated that these organisms are not actually useful to the animal or the process – “they were just along for the ride”.
So reducing them was potentially a win for the animal and the environment.
I will probably take some convincing that messing with gut microbia is safe. We get this stuff wrong so often, esp to do with the microbial world (eg antibiotic overuse). Plus those silver bullet remedies rarely pan out. I’ll be interested to see how the research develops but at this stage it looks more like wishful thinking. We have to change how we farm instead of relying on isolated remedies.
“The great bison herds that swarmed across the US prairies before white settlement, along with other native ruminants like elk and deer, are estimated to have produced 86 per cent of the methane of the current US cattle herd.”
http://www.shapingtomorrowsworld.org/wahlquistmethane.html
Thanks obviously you are better at the Google machine than me.
”Fossil fuels consist of carbon, sequestered using the energy of the sun, hundreds of millions of years ago. Just four litres of petrol uses what was 90 tonnes of ancient life. In the space of one year, the world is using over 400 years of stored ancient energy and carbon. The carbon dioxide produced will remain in the atmosphere for a century. It is a one way street.
But the carbon released by cattle in methane was sequestered just last week, last month, maybe even last year. And within 9 to 15 years, the carbon in that methane will be sequestered again in a plant, perhaps in grass, to go again through the same cycle. Cattle are part of a natural biological cycle. In it, carbon is sequestered, used, released in a gas and sequestered again. I fail to see how this is the moral equivalent of putting tens of tonnes of fossil life into your petrol tank.”
Mans the problem not the cow’s!!
The use of technology in food production seems to take us away from what were natural practices in farming methods.
I listened to a talk on Country Life on Radionz this morning and felt this was so. It seemed that the ideal was for a farm owner to have technical feedback from every aspect of the farm from his office. Then if the cow in bale 5 has dropped production then he contacts the farm manager to question him about it. Big boss is watching you. How much job satisfaction there would be I don’t know. I’m not sure what the cows think. I suppose any dissatisfaction would show up in a reduced milk yield.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/audio/player/201752682
Demo Dairy Farm in Colombia
Dairy Solutionz, a Hamilton based company, has worked in Colombia since 2012. In the past 18 months they’ve developed a demonstration dairy farm to show how a low cost dairy model could help small herd owners to stay in business as more European dairy imports threaten their livelihoods. Colombia’s President opened the farm at the end of April.
Satty, “The facts-site for this movie looked familiar to me (for people that don’t have the time or the money to watch it, this is a good starting point):”
And here’s a thoughtful and critically competent review of the film that critiques some of its basic premises. Some snippets,
Responding to a polemic that plays as fast and loose with facts as this film could easily devolve into a line by line response, which would be even more boring to read than it would be to write. Instead, I’ll focus on a few of the main topics, beginning with how cows drink, burp, fart, and most of all poop, which – not to brag – I have some experience with.
Methane is a more vexed question, since cows indisputably belch and fart. In the film Anderson implies that cows are the main source of methane and that reducing their numbers is the fastest way to reverse global warming. After too much time poking around in search of definitive numbers on methane emissions, I decided to use those provided on a NASA website, even though a number of reputable sources arrive at different conclusions, particularly concerning the amount of methane released by wetlands, listed at 22% in the data I am quoting. By these numbers, ruminant livestock directly account for 16% of global methane emissions, and the (mis)management of all livestock manure accounts for another 5%. Human sewage treatment is 5%, biomass burning is 8%, fossil fuels production is 19%, and, surprisingly, rice cultivation is 12%. Various other manmade and natural sources fill out the remainder. While 21% of total methane is certainly significant, the idea that the elimination of livestock would clearly lead to a reversal of global warming trends is both an overstatement and an oversimplification, without getting into matters of methane’s half-life relative to carbon’s.
The great weakness of Cowspiracy, other than its title, is its single minded determination to prove that veganism is the only reasonable approach to feeding people, a proof it pursues without regard for facts or nuance. That’s not to say it’s worthless, for there are ideas for several good films within it. I would love to watch a truly investigative examination of any links between the industrial agriculture sector and large environmental non-profits, rather than one that infers connections from the vague responses of uncomfortable PR people. A devastating documentary could be made about the insanity of beef and dairy production in California, and I am all for consumers voting against them and other parts of the industrial food system with their dietary choices. I even think a fair examination of the ways small farms are not inherently better for land and livestock would be wonderful. Instead of any of these there is a failed effort to prove that one lifestyle choice can solve every environmental and agricultural problem.
This failure is not just a result of misleading and erroneous data, but even more so of superficiality. Though I watched carefully and took copious notes, I do not have a clear idea what Anderson’s vegan world would look like. Would excess land be converted to wilderness? Should the hills and fields of my farm return to forest and scrub like so much of the nearby land that used to be grass? Why is a monoculture of wheat preferable to a polyculture of pasture? Should we humans be connected to and reliant on the land around us and should these connections take different forms in response to local conditions? Yesterday, while out hunting turkey, I came across the remains of a deer, one of ten or so my brother and I have found this year. All of them starved or froze to death in the clutches of last winter. Now they are piles of mossy bones marking where living things curled up and never stood again. Why is this preferable to raising cows as I do, particularly when there’s room here for both?
http://cairncrestfarm.blogspot.co.nz/2014/10/cowspiracy-movie-review.html
On the basis of that, I will save my money, and assume that the film is an ideologically driven polemic that’s most likely not worth critiquing because it lacks basic logic and factual analysis.
good that you have presented the hunter/farmer p.o.v..
..one you clearly share..?
Thanks weka for putting up that thoughtful and well expressed review of Cowspiracy. It is good to follow the thinking of people’s minds as they extensively consider a topic, to find if rationality covers all, but also reflects the necessary emotional input to give the full human response.
ah yes..the ‘humane’ animal-farmer’..(that oxymoron..)
..one of the funniest scenes in the movie is a ‘grass-fed-only’ couple sitting in a grassy meadow..
..(with elbow/shoulder issues from patting themselves on the back – so full of self-regard/rightousness they are..)
..who say they do it ‘because they love the animals’…
..(does that love swell to a chorus as they wave goodbye to the slaughterhouse trucks full of those animals they ‘love’..?..
..are the cheques they receive for selling these animals guilt-tear-stained by the time they reach the bank..?..
..so much bullshit you could blow up balloons with it..)
as i said above – that is the view presented by that review – the p.ov. of the animal-farmer/hunter/killer of animals for fun..
..meh..!
Why is a monoculture of wheat preferable to a polyculture of pasture?
Hey, that’s unfair. Vegans would like to see a lot of areas have a monoculture of soy rather than wheat. But this would be great because then we wouldn’t actually see the vast numbers of animals we’d be destroying in order to eat, and even better, we’d all be eating the way sanctimonious hippies think is best for us.
climbing up for a bray from that rock of ignorance..?..there..eh..?
..you’ll have to ask weka to shuffle over/make room..
..and ‘hippie’ as a form of insult..eh..?
..you ‘retro’ old man you..eh..?
..and a little fact for you to digest..
..the earth has 7 billion people..
..a planet eating a plant-based diet..
..could support a population of 13 billion..
..whereas this is the point of the movie – that animal-flesh based diet/farming are in no way sustainable..
..not even with the population we have now..
..it is all those ‘sustainabilty’-myths peddled by greenpeace/green party etc..
..that are so successfully shown for the chimera they are..
Being vegan is a top risk factor for being a hippie, right up there with envangelistic paeans to smoking dope and not having a job. Whether ‘hippie’ is an insult or not depends what you think of hippies.
Anyway, if I understand this correctly, you believe it would be a great idea to turn the planet’s arable land into crop monocultures for shit foods like soy and wheat so it can support 13 million soy-fed humans. This sounds more like a horrendous dystopia than anything else. And the film’s propaganda assertions regarding normal diets are no more than that.
p.m. said:..”..And the film’s propaganda assertions regarding normal diets are no more than that…”
..and is that opinion derived from watching the film..?
..or is a weka-style opinion..?
(..just an orifice-pluck..and evidence-be-damned..!)
@ PM ….. I’m not sure you could accuse PU of ever having been a ‘hippie’
heh..!..and he would know – pm..
An oldie but maybe a goody ? http://oilcrash.com/articles/eating.htm
Yeah, but you’re preaching to the converted there Robert.
I would like to pull out this bit
“It takes 500 years to replace 1 inch of topsoil”
That’s natural cycles. Regenerative agriculture is replacing soil at inches per decade (and sequestering carbon in the process). That’s already happening, and could easily be scaled up for whole countries. It does of course require shifting to a steady state economy/degrowth, and limiting population to what can be sustained by any given land mass (ie the end of industrial agriculture).
Again – nothing will slow what is in motion.
But this TED talk covers similar stuff as Cow.
Uploaded on Sep 2, 2011
The Other Inconvenient Truth: How Agriculture is Changing the Face of Our Planet
We typically think of climate change as the biggest environmental issue we face today. But maybe it’s not? In this presentation, Jonathan Foley shows how agriculture and land use are maybe a bigger culprit in the global environment, and could grow even larger as we look to feed over 9 billion people in the future.
This is a 30 min interview with Co-director of ‘Cowspiracy’ Kip Andersen https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bcFzJfhyRdY I think he come across as more believable than say the PPP ?
Sharon Murdoch’s cartoons are superb.
Work on several levels.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/comment/cartoons/
RNZ – Brent Edwards summary yesterday.
Amongst other things Key was talking about trade prospects in the Emirates and was particularly enthusiastic about the prospects for wine sales – wonder why?
Key also appeared, from his comments, to be using Bronagh in a diplomatic role to spread the “human rights” message in the area.
First time she has been mentioned in a political context?
Actually the summary wasn’t particularly favourable towards Key, produced a couple of bordering-on-sarcastic comments from Edwards, which from him is unusual …
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/focusonpolitics/audio/201752729/focus-on-politics-for-1-may-2015
The MSM in NZ doesn’t use journalists anymore.
It just watches people’s Facebook pages.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/68176582/robbed-family-go-undercover-to-catch-burglars
Scoop NZ has today announced it will be going behind a paywall for everyone except the general public. Will this mean those of us in the general public who share links from Scoop to others in the general public or on Facebook will no longer be able to do so ?
And are the Herald and other newspapers likely to follow suit ?
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL1504/S00198/why-scoopconz-can-no-longer-be-free-chrysalis-update-5.htm
Just having a read.
Ok, I haven’t read the whole thing, but it looks pretty clear to me that from now on commercial and professional use needs a licence. The site is still free to the public, including the public linking to Scoop in non-commercial/professional ways.
The following criteria are all for commercial/professional use, not general public,
These adverts direct readers to pages which explain our new “Invisible Paywall” – including its legal basis- and information on who is expected to pay and why we need to do this.
If you:
Routinely read work related material on Scoop.co.nz;
Send links to – or extracts from – Scoop.co.nz material to work colleagues or clients;
Search the web and find Scoop.co.nz results a reliable source of information about matters of professional interest to you;
Send Scoop press releases and then check to see if those press releases have been published and/or send links to those press releases to clients or colleagues;
Then you or your organisation probably needs to have a Scoop organisation licence to access Scoop.
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL1504/S00198/why-scoopconz-can-no-longer-be-free-chrysalis-update-5.htm
Scoop are answering questions on loomio,
https://scoop.loomio.org/
I have emailed Alastair re shared links. Having read the Scoop page it does seem that they are targeting commercial operations like the Herald or TV for quoting Scoop stories rather than we public people. We will see.
Be interesting to have that reply, IanMac – when I was copying something yesterday to pass onto FB I received a sort-of “warning” pop-up re copying without a licence in the future.
was that from the copy on Scoop? Or when you went to FB?
Finally getting back to the computer again, Weka. The warning pop-up was while I was copying a piece on Scoop.
ah, ok thanks, that’s interesting.
I emailed Alastair : “I read blogs and in particular The Standard. Can I link to a Scoop story on the Standard without incurring a fee?”
Alastair replied: “Of course you can. Linking is fine…..”
That sorted then. 🙂
Ok – thanks. Linking in future, not straight-out copying. Ta ianmac.
See these images from #SOSBLAKAUSTRALIA.
Kia kaha to you, one and all .. this battle must be won …
https://twitter.com/search?t=1&cn=cmVjb3NfbmV0d29ya19kaWdlc3RfYWI%3D&sig=2a893840b4554f258052d2c7a0df96f3dc5da0b1&al=1&refsrc=email&iid=ee2c136bb211450097fcf7bacdd8dcab&q=%23SOSBLAKAUSTRALIA&autoactions=1430514276&uid=338135547&nid=244+293+20150429
Love the ‘Not to be Operated by Fuckwits’ one.
“Australia is Nothing without its Blak Soul”
Amazing to see such big protests on this, and them shutting down the centre of two big cities. Do you know how did they managed that second bit? eg was that permitted action or did they just do it? I suspect the bonfire in the Block wasn’t permitted 😀
here’s more which might answer some of your questions … the people are awake !
http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/major-headaches-for-commuters-and-footy-fans-as-protesters-vow-to-shut-melbourne-down-20150501-1mxmac.html
it doesn’t say whether the protests were permitted or not, but an interesting read, thanks.
Thanks yeshe. Great to see such a huge action, that really is fantastic.
I agree with Hone, it’s really important that we stand beside Aboriginal Australians in their fight to retain the right to live on their own land, in their own communities. They need the support of their neighbours in this part of the woods.
Here is footage of the speeches at the May Day rally held in Wellington for the Aboriginal communities of W.A, all well worth a listen. Metiria repeats the chant used in the rallies from your link below:
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL1505/S00003/harawira-turei-address-aboriginal-rights-mayday-protests.htm
Its quite amazing that this form of oppression still exists. Aboriginal people’s have had to fight colonial powers and anti aboriginal Government Act’s since day one, and it still continues.
For those interested in this history there is a Doco called First Australians that you might find interesting. It was aired on Maori TV about four years ago. I can’t seem to find any full length versions to post (they come up with a message about not being available) but here are some clips from that doco. They include an interview with Wurandjeri elder, Margaret Gardiner who was mentioned in the age article.
http://aso.gov.au/titles/documentaries/first-australians-episode-1/clip1/
We have much to be ashamed of with our PM but so do the Aussies with Abbott.
Last night TV news here finally started to talk about what Freddie Gray was subject to on the police ride that brought his young life to an end.
We’ve had the story up on Redline for five days, that outlines what happened to him and his injuries, We got it from people in Baltimore.
We’re half a dozen people with no money, no resources. Yet major NZ news companies are days behind us, on an important international story. When you read about what happened to Freddie gray it makes the anger being expressed on the streets of Baltimore and other US cities not only understandable but you wonder why there isn’t even more of it.
https://rdln.wordpress.com/2015/04/27/us-the-states-systematic-violence-kills-another-young-black-man/
Phil
That is so terrible!
Here in New Zealand this National government uses ‘war on terror’, ‘war on drugs’, ‘war on welfare’, ‘war on state housing’ etc when all these initiatives directly affect the poor, the unemployed and the marginalised.
You don’t hear them fighting ‘war on capitalists’, ‘war on profiteers’, ‘war on corruption’, ‘war on rich crooks’, ‘war on tax dodgers’, ‘war on exploiters’, ‘war on dirty politics’ or even ‘war on poverty’.
And the people strangely, selfishly or ignorantly keep voting in this disgraceful cunning lying RW government again and again!
“” And the people strangely, selfishly or ignorantly keep voting in this disgraceful cunning lying RW government again and again! “”
Two reasons that I can think of, Clemgeopin:
1. They (we the people) are brainwashed by the MSM and/or
2. They (we the people) don’t really want to know about these nasty things.
Otherwise, I’m as puzzled as you are. I just don’t understand why the people all around us cannot see what we can see.
I think the Key and his RW spin machine is very good at fooling the people by their propaganda and another reason is that most people are only either uninterested or only marginally interested in in depth political news as evidenced by the fact for example that less than 100,000 in total out of 5,000,000 people actually watch the news even at peak news time of 6 pm!
I suspect only a much smaller number watch political programmes such as The Nation or Q and A. Sad for freedom and democracy!
PORTS OF AUCKLAND PROPAGANDA
Today on RNZ news , an item claiming that because only one extension to wharf will proceed a new cruise ship will not be able to berth in Auckland and therefore it will not visit New Zealand at all in 2016 and we will miss out on millions of $$$$$
The vessel is Ovation of the Seas and is similar in size to the Queen Mary II. which has visited Auckland without any apparent problem?
What is behind this news release and who?
Really interesting was the claim by the Chair of POA that they weren’t permitted to talk to councillors as a group so they invited them individually to POA to “explain” the situation…
Divide and conquer my friend, divide and conquer (it is waht they tried with their industrial dispute.
Ironically some who didn’t give a shit about how those workers were treated now care about the behaviour of POA executive and Board, you know, cos the bullying and manipulation is impacting their yachting space 🙂
Arthur Anae spoke on RNZ the day after his special one en masse education from POA (notwithstanding councillors were told not to speak to the media until a final decision was made) , he just couldn’t get past the obligation of Auckland councillors to make economically good decisions and to keep the rates down. Given that Arthur thinks that is his only obligation, may I suggest he stand down on the basis that he is incapable fo meeting the requirements of a councillor?
http://www.radionz.co.nz/audio/player/201751770
Alfred is toward the end as I recall.
He did suggest a good solution was to merge POA, Tauranga and Nothland but doesn’t actually appear to want to work toward that from what I can see from my basic google searches on the idea.
I heard someone from POA stating that it was unwise/ unsuitable for there to be any political intervention and they should not get involved in commercial decisions which should be left to directors. Some how I felt that it missed the point completely as who does he thinks owns the place. Arthur seems to similarly blind.
What price is there for the non tradeable public good of a sparkling harbour wide enough to actually sail down? The value of this is established by the community hence politicians.
And its not too hard to see the long game- the wharf is just about at Devonport already – next they will want to build a toll bridge over the last gap.
and fill in the harbour all the way back east up to Hobsonville ? Nick Smith and English might see it as a way of fixing Auckland’s housing crisis !!! roflmao
http://iview.abc.net.au/programs/super-rich-and-us/ZW0292A001S00
‘The Super rich and us’
Worth a look IMO
TV Ratings: 1 May 2015 By regan Most watched
One News: 636,040 (TV ONE, 6:00pm – 7:00pm)
Seven Sharp: 426,870 (TV ONE, 7:00pm – 7:30pm)
Location Location Location: 403,730 (TV ONE, 7:30pm – 8:35pm)
Campbell Live: 324,740 (TV3, 7:00pm – 7:35pm)
Millionaire Hot Seat: 321,340 (TV ONE, 5:25pm – 6:00pm)
————–
If you missed it, here is the video from last night:
http://www.tv3.co.nz/tabid/3692/MCat/2908/Default.aspx
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/68157864/chris-bishop-votes-but-not-my-cat
So Chris Bishop thinks it’s unrealistic for schoolkids to have a say on the flag, but apparently has no problem with Julie Christie sitting on the panel that picks the options.
Seriously, how does that work? How is Julie Christie’s opinion on flags more relevant than the opinions of a few hundred thousand children?
Or for that matter, more relevant than the opinion of a dead dog and a small pile of rocks?
In an evolutionary way, she may be related to Paul the Octopus.
If 1x Julie Christie = 1 x octopus,
and 1x dead dog + pile of stones = 100k children,
then 100k children =
You know, I think you’re right.
Hasn’t she made her millions getting children to text in a vote?????
lol
link doesnt work for me
this does
http://fivethirtyeight.com/interactives/uk-general-election-predictions/
Love the format 🙂
Thanks Tracey.
I was trying to link to a smaller graph on a secondary website and it gave me heaps of problems with https, file etc! Finally at the end of the day, I awkshully went to the Nate Silver’s website like you did. Psssstttt!
oops. The link doesn’t link Clem.
Edit. Yes to Tracey’s link.
Thursday, March 26, 2015, TV2 one of Denmark’s national television stations aired a documentary on HPV vaccines entitled, The Vaccinated Girls – Sick and Betrayed. It focused on the condition of 3 girls suffering from serious new medical conditions after being vaccinated against HPV with Gardasil. The one thing they have in common with thousands of other girls around the world is they were healthy before they got the vaccine – now, they are seriously ill
http://sanevax.org/hpv-vaccines-a-danish-documentary/
Scandinavian nations have much which the world can study and learn from including balanced discussion illustrated through this documentary
Its an unnecessary vaccination. It is something being promoted heavily by the drug companies. Goodness knows what else they’ll come up with in the future to vaccinate everyone against.
What is certain is that a profit driven corporate business model drives the ‘drug industry’ which ensures an ‘expanding market’ and ‘new products’ must continue to keep up the ‘growth’
The positive I take from the Scandinavian documentary is that there are parts of the world where opportunity exists for the appropriate level of involved discussion required to unravel and expose the sham can occur
The cult of vaccination can be witnessed deeply ingrained in the anglo west where discussion is effectively banished because the ‘science is proven’ and can’t be challenged
That the vaccine and wider drug industry divorced itself from ‘science’ and is no longer related appears to be unobserved by large numbers but those who have been following are rapidly expanding
Importantly there will be large numbers who are pro vaccination but against compulsion because they understand the seriousness of where compulsion will lead to
The drug industry is being challenged (exposed) and it is my sense that the push in the USA and Australia towards compulsory vaccination is due to an awareness that the industry is heading for a bust
Any state which attempts to enforce compulsion will experience a form of revolt such is the combustiveness of the matter
A mathematical prediction of Thursday’s UK election result by Nate Silver:
If the polls directly translated into seats, then UKIP would be a power broker in parliament. The fact is that UK elections come down to a small number of constituencies. Vast swathes of the country will always be Labour and vast swathes will always be Tory. The key is what is likely to happen in the key undecided or ‘marginal’ seats.
Political polling is a highly sophisticated affair nowadays, but one person to listen to is Nate Silver of fivethirtyeight.com who gained a huge following after correctly calling the last two US elections. This stats genius has partnered with a number of UK academics to produce what is likely to be the most accurate prediction of the general election.
FiveThirtyEight’s Election Prediction in the link below:
http://fivethirtyeight.com/interactives/uk-general-election-predictions/
FiveThirtyEight’s Election Prediction takes into account everything from marginal polling from the Likes of Lord Ashcroft to historical voting patterns. In one graph you have what is likely to be a highly accurate prediction of the 2015 election.
Please Note :
This is NOT the final prediction because he updates/revises the prediction daily. So, if you are interested, you will need to watch it everyday, until Friday our time the day of the election. (Thursday their time).
Would be interesting to see how close his prediction is in UK. I read that he had stunning accuracy in US for the last two elections.
One other point :
In my original post above, the statement which I copied from the secondary site that ‘UKIP will be the power broker’ is obviously incorrect going by the prediction graph where it is only expected to win 1 seat! So, I am not sure if that secondary site made an inadvertent error or were playing ‘dirty politics’ trying to influence their readers!
Again the Maori channel excels with a great documentary last week.
The futility and injustices of the so-called ‘war on drugs’
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_House_I_Live_In_(2012_film)
Workers rally on May Day around the world – (in pictures)
http://www.theguardian.com/world/gallery/2015/may/01/may-day-rallies-protests-labour-wages-conditions-workers
Aagh after spending 6 weeks working my way through the ‘luminaries’ I know who did what to who and were the gold started and finished and have a fare idea who killed crosbie and carver but I’m buggered if I kept a good enough eye on the gold to be confident about all its moves.
It has been suggested Serco can improve performance, save taxpayers $180 million and still turn a profit.
http://www.nbr.co.nz/article/corrections-minister-doesnt-know-how-much-inmates-are-being-paid-private-prisons-172188
Thoughts?
Slave labour has always been able to produce products at a competitive price.
When the government pays for the housing and feeding of your slaves, this is doubly so.
Modern day slavery or a public good?
According to Corrections Minister Sam Lotu-Iiga, PlaceMakers see the public good in making an investment into the prison system.
What public good? Lower demand for full-wage workers on the outside?
Paying less than minimum wage and punishing them if they don’t “volunteer” / “refuse rehabilitation opportunities” (as happens in the US) forces prisoners into doing work for which they don’t receive even the pretence of fair reward. Whether one wishes to get into a semantic debate about if this meets the precise definition of “slavery”, it’s still close enough to being ethically fucked up. Forced labour should never be used for profit.
The public good the Corrections Minister alluded too. Assisting inmates to gain skills (catering to an industry shortfall aiding the rebuild/housing shortage) while improving future employment opportunities and incomes, thus rehabilitation numbers.
Forced participation would be a concern.
Not being privy to the contract between Serco and PlaceMakers nor what inmates will be paid, one can only assume wages will be low, thus also a concern.
Additionally, a point overlooked is the impact on commercial competitors. Will wage savings be split between Serco and PlaceMakers giving PlaceMakers a labour cost advantage over their competitors?
A decent government wouldn’t wait until people are in prison before giving them employment skills.
I think the entire thing stinks, and that’s even if it lives up to the bumper sticker portrayed in ministry press releases as opposed to the reality wherever it’s been actually implemented.
One could ask if PlaceMakers also approached or plan to work with WINZ?
One could, but it would be irrelevant to the issue of whether placemakers is paying fair wages for genuinely voluntary work by a literally captive workforce.
Not at all. If WINZ haven’t been approached, it would re-enforce speculation savings in labour costs were driving the investment.
As opposed to the speculation that this is the first time in history that a corporation does something solely for the public good? Without leveraging it to advertise ad nauseum how awesome they’re being?
Yeah, right…
If the speculation is the general consensus, one has to ask why the public good argument continues to be so successful in allowing the private sector into the public sector?
Personally, I don’t think it is particularly successful as an argument. It is a thin excuse that tories use to degrade and privatise the public sector.
Think of it as the tassles that strippers used to wear on their nipples so as to not run foul of indecency laws. They didn’t really cover all that much up, either, and one could argue that having them twirl like propellors lent more to the imagination than not having them at all. But they were a technicality that the club owner could argue made the performance a 100% legal enterprise.
The argument is often used, seldom challenged with the resulting privatization underlining its effectiveness.
Don’t agree with “seldom challenged”. “Public good” is also fairly rare when it comes to privatisation arguments beyond an ethereal appeal to “efficiency”.
You seem to think that the public good argument and other privatisation excuses are used to gain popular consent. They aren’t. I believe that such arguments are used to reduce resistance by implying that the outcome is unavoidable, that the act is rational, and resistance is futile. But the tories don’t care whether we like privatisation, and they’d think us fools if we did. They just want us to think that it’s inevitable so that we don’t fight it.
Gaining consent and reducing resistance is exactly the intention.
It is tied to the efficiency argument, that is also often used and seldom challenged.
And when I say seldom challenged, I’m referring to the MSM.
I think that “reducing resistance” is a significantly different goal from “gaining consent”.
Browbeating someone to the point that they no longer fight is different to inspiring them to support you.
As for the MSM… well, enough said. They don’t bite the hand that feeds them, generally
As resistance is reduced, acceptance tends to gain.
Browbeating someone to the point that they no longer fight is different to swaying them with the public good argument that we’re discussing.
Really? Thirty years of being fucked while they insist that it’s for our own good, that the electricity network is much better even though the power bills were through the roof, that we didn’t really need rail anyway, that it’s better to contract to China for substandard railcars than to build them right in Dunedin, that yet another round of taxcuts will make everything alright, that unemployment will fall soon because of the latest gdp figures. And almost every time there’s been a protest or someone else has been voted in nothing really changes or stops the rot. And if you argue then there’s always some fucking economist willing to tell you to your face that black is white and you’re much better off than when you owned your own home.
That’s browbeating with a farcical public good argument. They no longer bother to “sway” us, they just fucking screw us and demand thanks for the privilege.
The argument is used, the public are generally swayed and then it’s put away till the next privatization, thus it’s not a continuous browbeating.
The Minster was attempting to sway us with the argument on the Nation just the other day.
If you think the public are swayed by such a flimsy iteration of the argument, your opinion of the NZ public is worse than my opinion of National party mps. But your opinion of The Nation’s ratings is wildly optimistic.
Thirty odd years of privatization would suggest they generally are. If the majority weren’t swayed by such arguments they would have put an end to privatization long ago.
Moreover, politicians would be far to wary to continue to use the argument or even suggest such a thing (let alone campaign on asset sales) yet they still do.
oh, but the asset sales weren’t asset sales, don’t you recall? We still own half of them… fooling some of the people, some of the time.
The fact is that people did vote to stop asset sales. Can’t recall what the nats sales policies were in 1990, but lockwood definitely pledged to get rid of student fees. Then fucked us.
So in 93 we had a choice between rogernomes and nats, so chose MMP when faced with two evils. Then in 96 anderton fucked the coalition prospects to get rid of the nats. In 99 we went labour again, but the renationalization process was too slow (but at least anderton got some advances out of it before fucking the alliance. Bit of a rollercoaster, that man). And in 08 labour was dead in the water, and key seemed so nice. 2011 he was our man in a crisis pledging “whatever it takes”. 2014, see above.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3044227/Kate-Middleton-Prince-William-s-new-royal-baby-GIRL.html
It’s a girl!!!
On Q and A at 9 pm on TV1 two people will be interviewed:
* Andrew Little, hopefully the next Prime Minister
and
* Judith Collins, possibly the next Nat. party leader.