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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Yesterday, the government released its draft Cannabis Legalisation and Control Bill, which will be put to a non-binding referendum at the next election. I'm not a drug policy expert, but Russell Brown is, and he thinks its pretty good. And pretty obviously, it will be a massive improvement on the ...
As you're probably aware, the draft bill outlining the proposed legal cannabis regime to be put to a referendum late next year was published yesterday, and has already attracted a flurry of comment. It's notable that a good deal of the comment is about proposals that aren't actually new.A minimum ...
One of the big problems in New Zealand climate change policy is the government working at cross-purposes with itself. It wants to reduce fossil fuel use, but encourages oil and gas exploration. It wants to reduce transport emissions, but then builds enormous new roads. The problem could be avoided if ...
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.nzAccording to the United Nations, food shortages are a threat ...
Last year, the government announced it was ending offshore oil exploration by no longer issuing new permits. The idea was that the industry would then die off as permits expired. Except almost immediately the government revealed its bad faith, by saying they would extend permits and alter conditions to keep ...
The government introduced the Education and Training Bill to Parliament yesterday. Its a massive bill, which replaces both existing Education Acts, as well as various other bits of legislation (including some which are still proceeding through the House). I'll leave the serious analysis to teachers and people who actually know ...
Amelia SharmanThere’s no one-size-fits-all when it comes to micro-credentials, those bits of bite-sized learning that can help workers stay on top of technological change. What’s a micro-credential? While definitions vary, micro-credentials can be understood as short courses that allow people to learn new skills or have an existing competency recognised. ...
All Smiles Now: Claire Szabo is taking up her presidential role after serving as the CEO of Habitat For Humanity. Which is absolutely perfect! After KiwiBuild was so comprehensively mismanaged by Phil Twyford, the party has not only elected a new president from a thoroughly respectable not-for-profit, but one who ...
While much of the NZ left has transitioned to postmodern and identity politics in relation to transgender ideology, there are some very good articles about that deploy Marxist methodology in relation to this subject. The one below is from the British marxist group Counterfire and appeared on their site here ...
by Daphna Whitmore At Golden Oaks, a luxurious country retreat in the Hudson Valley, pregnant women have the best care money can buy. From the organic food, personalised exercise programmes, private yoga instruction and daily massages Golden Oaks looks like a country lodge for the upper class. Set some time ...
When Labour was running for election in 2017, it felt it needed to demonstrate "fiscal responsibility" and signed itself up to masochistic "budget responsibility rules". It was a fool's errand: the sorts of voters who demand fiscal responsibility are also the sorts of voters who believe that labour can never ...
Writing in Stuff, Joel MacManus looks at what we need to do to meet the Zero Carbon Act's targets. The core of it:1. Convert 85 per cent of vehicles on the road to electric. 2. Eliminate fossil fuels from all industrial heating up to 300 degrees Celsius. 3. Double our ...
Professors Janet Hoek and Richard Edwards, Emeritus Professor Phil Gendall, Jude Ball, Dr Judith McCool, Anaru Waa, Dr Becky FreemanRecent media reports have presented conflicting evidence on youth vaping in NZ. While some NZ school principals report concerns about increasing vaping on school grounds and confiscating vapes, ASH Year ...
“America the Beautiful!”, staunch defender of democracy, freedom and… a whole lot of despotic tyrants that play nice with what is called “the Washington Consensus.” America is indeed capable of immense good, but like any Nation, and most assuredly any aspirant to the mantle of Empire, great, immense evil. All ...
Image credit:The beginner’s guide to blogging I notice a few regulars no longer allow public access to the site counters. This may happen accidentally when the blog format is altered. If your blog is ...
1080 is used to control pests in NZ. Its use is contested by a noisy few. A new report claims high levels of 1080 in rats washed up on a beach. Flora and Fauna of Aotearoa (F&F) won’t name the laboratory that did their testing. It has sparked a hunt ...
What Kind Of Empire? The thing for Kiwis to decide is what kind of empire they want to belong to. The kind that, while offering its own citizens democratic rights, demands absolute obedience from its “friends”? Or, the kind that, while authoritarian at home, takes a relaxed attitude to the ...
It hasn't been a good week for the Conservatives, pollwise. All major recent polls are showing their lead shrinking.Comparing each pollster's current (between 29/11 and 22/11) and previous most recent poll.Com Res - Conservative lead down 3 points.You Gov - Conservative lead down 1 point.Kantar - Conservative lead down 4 ...
Within quick succession, Countdown maths wizard and twitterer Rachel Riley, alleged comedian David Baddiel and prominent lawyer Andrew Julius have all expressed very similar opinions / ideas:
These #3billboards are going round London today, organised by ex-Labour people, horrified by what their party has become. Their principles haven’t changed, they’re ...
So, there have been a bunch of bad polls out for Labour, and even the Leftie's friend, Survation, have recently given the Conservatives a rip-snorting 11% lead. You Gov's much vaunted MRP poll - which pretty much nailed the result in 2015 - is currently predicting a comfortable majority for ...
The European Parliament has voted overwhelmingly to declare a climate emergency:The European parliament has declared a global “climate and environmental emergency” as it urged all EU countries to commit to net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. The vote came as scientists warned that the world may have already crossed ...
Pure Fear: Worse than Heroin, this drug’s addictive power was terrifying. People under its influence didn’t drift off to Elysium. Nor did it persuade inadequate individuals that they could conquer the world. No, this drug – pure crystal methamphetamine, “P” for short – unlocked the gates of Hell itself. It ...
As the rate of measles infection, and of deaths, continues to climb in Samoa, antivaccination activists infectious disease proponents seem intent on doubling down on their claims about vaccination. (Check pretty much any news-media FB post about measles & you’ll see exactly what I mean.) Unfortunately, some of them have ...
Samoa are experiencing a devastating measles epidemic. It is possible that 2-3% of the population will ultimately be infected by the time it is over. Hopefully the mass immunisation campaign currently under way can mitigate some of this, for many it is too late. The first question many people ask ...
Meghan Murphy is a Canadian writer and journalist She runs the Feminist Current website which she founded in 2012. She was a keynote speaker for the Feminism2020 conference in Wellington this month. When Massey University cancelled the original venue booking Feminism2020 was hosted in Parliament by MP David Seymour. Meghan ...
Text and photos by Gearóid Ó Loingsigh Colombia has lived through one week of protests against the economic measures taken by president Duque. What looked like a protest that would fizzle out after its first day on November 21st is still going strong. Part of the reason for the continuance ...
Around a million billion pass through you each second, almost all originating from our sun, but few of them are likely to interact with you enroute. I was reading in a physics magazine earlier in the week about the nature of neutrinos. These are extremely numerous elementary particles, but only ...
By Pallab GhoshThere’s value in covering new research advances, even when the underlying science is unsettled. But there are also risks.The recent announcement that scientists discovered water on the planet K2-18b, 110 light years away, prompted a media swoon. News stories, including a piece written by me, billed ...
I wrote this review a couple of years ago when I was still in the process of getting my head around the politics of transgenderism, and specifically the claim that intersex conditions lend support to the notion that sex is ‘socially constructed’. Since writing this review I have come across ...
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.nzHow much does our use of air travel contribute to the ...
Minor planet/asteroid (2309) Mr. Spock is named not for the character in Star Trek, but for a cat that was itself imperturbable, logical, intelligent and had pointed ears. In a preceding blog post I introduced one of my favourite asteroids, (2472) Bradman, and also mentioned (6581) Sobers amongst a few ...
Today the death toll from measles in Samoa rose to 32. All but four of the dead were less than 5 years old. Absolutely terrible, heartbreaking, news. That statistic alone should be enough to give the lie to the common claim by antivaccination activists plague enthusiasts that “measles is a ...
by Gearóid Ó Loingsigh It is late here in Bogotá, almost 11.30pm on Monday the 25th of November as I write this. The day began full of hope with yet more massive marches throughout the country, a mix of the International Day of Non-Violence Against Women and the National Strike. ...
Anti-fluoride activists are rubbing their hands in glee over what they claim is “yet another study” showing fluoride harms the brains of children. But their promotion relies on IQ relationships which the paper’s authors acknowledge disappearing when outliers or other factors are considered. And they completely ignore other relationships ...
The feature below is the conclusion of A History of Economic Thought, whose author was a leading Marxist economist in Russia in the early 20th century, Isaac Ilyich Rubin. The book arose from a course he ran at Moscow University following the Russian Revolution. First published in Russian in 1929, ...
There are many thousands of asteroids with formal names, some humdrum but other more noteworthy (depending on your predilections). One of my favourites, the name of which I was involved in suggesting, is (2472) Bradman, named for the Australian cricketing great. As a minor planet (synonym: asteroid) spotter, I have ...
Tory manifesto: big on austerity, low on promise, non-existent on delivery. The Tories: the party so big on ambition they couldn't be arsed writing a manifesto. MLK: "I have a dream!"BJ: "I'll just have a nap." Labour: Broadband!Tories: Narrow minds! Labour have hope, dreams and ambition. The Tories will save ...
The Ministry of Health has announced that “people under the age of 50 travelling from New Zealand to Samoa, Tonga, Philippines and Fiji” are now on the list of national priorities for MMR vaccination. Given the outbreaks of measles in Samoa, Tonga, Philippines and Fiji, the Ministry of Health is ...
Hong Kong has been protesting for six months for, demanding democracy, human rights, and an end to police violence. Today, they went to the polls in district council elections - a low-level of government with virtually no power, similar to community boards in New Zealand. But while the positions themselves ...
Text and photos by Gearóid Ó Loingsigh On Friday 22nd of November a curfew came into effect and troops were deployed on the streets, here in Bogota. It was the first time since September 1977 that a curfew had been imposed on the city. The decision was a cynical pre-planned ...
Meanwhile, while the government is planning to restore voting rights to prisoners, National is promising to turn our prisons into US-style slave-labour camps:The Opposition is proposing compulsory education, training or employment for prisoners who are serving sentences of two years or more. [...] On Sunday, National Party Leader Simon Bridges ...
Excerpts from Being and Being Bought, by Kajsa Ekis Ekman Spinifex Press, 2013. Ekman, a Swedish journalist and critic, brings together a Marxist and feminist analysis of prostitution and surrogacy in this groundbreaking book. This is the second part of a synopsis and brief commentary of the book by Daphna ...
Dalmeet Singh ChawlaIn 2008, psychologists proposed that when humans are shown an unfamiliar face, they judge it on two main dimensions: trustworthiness and physical strength. These form the basis of first impressions, which may help people make important social decisions, from who to vote for to how long a ...
Claas Kirchhelle, University of Oxford; Adam Roberts, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, and Andrew Singer, Centre for Ecology & HydrologyAntibiotics are among the most important medicines known to humankind, but we are running out of this crucial resource. Decisive action is needed if we are to retain access to ...
Things That Make You Go - Hmmmm: “All right. Let me come at this another way. I’m guessing that what you’ve got in that box contains names, dates, bank account numbers – all the details you need to put Winston Peters and Jacinda Ardern squarely in the cross-hairs. So, the first ...
Coasters Turn Out In Droves: It’s precisely the widening gulf between those with actual experience of things like guns, chainsaws and drilling machines, and those who regulate their use, that accounts for the angry crowd at Greymouth’s Messenger Park on Sunday, 17 November 2019. In the rarefied atmosphere where decisions ...
There are perennial arguments about the circumstances of the assassination of President Kennedy in 1963, and in particular whether more than one shooter is required by the evidence (such as the Zapruder film). Those who know little about physics frequently claim that the sharp backwards motion of JFK’s head as ...
Apparently, some people enjoy washing their cars. Each to his or her own, I suppose. I mean, some people like duck shooting, some people follow Coronation Street, and some people’s idea of a good day out is to sit on a grass bank at Seddon Park and watch cricket all ...
Last week we learned that New Zealand First had apparently tried to enrich itself from public office, with a dodgy forestry company linked to a number of NZ First figures sticking its hand out repeatedly for government money. Today in Question Time Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones had his ...
Finally, governments seem slowly to be beginning to act on climate change. But its not enough. While they're publicly signing up to targets, they're planning to destroy the world by continuing fossil fuel extraction:The world’s nations are on track to produce more than twice as much coal, oil and gas ...
Stuff has begun interviewing NZ First's secret donors, and it turns out that its as bad as we expected. They start with racing industry figure Garry Chittick, who is predictably grumpy about NZ First's coalition choices. Meanwhile, I'm looking at the list of pork NZ First has effectively given its ...
Stag At Bay: Twelve years ago, Winston Peters was still robust enough to come back from the political crucifixion which his political and media enemies had prepared for him. In his seventies now, the chances of a second resurrection are slim. We should, therefore, prepare for the last gasp of ...
Satellites pass over NZ all the time (literally). Here I focus on the 187 Planet Labs ‘Dove’ Earth-imaging satellites, and I show that one can determine in advance where they will be, enabling scientists on the ground to correlate their environmental and other data collection with opportunities to get imaging ...
Mark Patterson, Spokesperson for Primary Industries New Zealand First spokesperson for Primary Industries, Mark Patterson, has called for awareness to be raised and more stringent biosecurity checks to be put in place for African Swine Fever (ASF), a widespread virus that is uncontrolled in most of Asia and a serious ...
Jenny Marcroft MP, Spokesperson for Human Rights A critical step has been taken to end gender based violence against women and girls in Parliament this evening. New Zealand First Spokesperson for Human Rights Jenny Marcroft MP has welcomed the passing of the first reading of the Crimes (Definition of Female ...
New Zealand First MP Shane Jones says it's time to recognise market forces haven't led to the expected reduction in Māori smoking rates and try a new approach. The Party had recently invoked the agree to disagree clause in their Coalition Agreement with the Labour Party, and will not support ...
Live from the Whanganui Opera House, on the final day of the 2019 Labour Party Conference, Jacinda Ardern announced the largest investment in school property in 25 years. ...
The Coalition Government will be banning foreign donations to political parties and candidates, ahead of next year’s general elections. Legislation will be introduced to Parliament and passed under urgency – emphasising the need for such restrictions to safeguard our democracy. The bill introduces a new requirement that party secretaries and ...
Associate Transport Minister Shane Jones opened Taipā's $19 million bridge recently, improving transport infrastructure in the Northland region. The two-lane bridge is 107m long with a 2.5m-wide shared walking and cycling path, and will reduce the congestion that the old one-lane bridge was notorious for. The project had also included ...
The Overseas Investment Office have rejected the application of Mercury Agriculture LP, which is 92 per cent controlled by Canadian interests, to purchase more than 2000 hectares of South Canterbury and Otago land. Mercury wanted to buy 2000ha at Rangitata, 1494ha near Ashburton, 816ha near Cromwell and 212ha near Temuka. ...
This weekend was Labour's 103rd Party Conference! We welcomed over 500 of our Labour whānau in red to Whanganui, where we reflected on the last two years in Government, and looked ahead to 2020 and beyond. We know the long-term challenges facing New Zealand won't be tackled overnight, but we're making ...
Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones announced that the Provincial Growth Fund will invest $9.6 million to seal the final unsealed section of State Highway 43 from Stratford to Taumarunui. The Minister said sealing the 12-kilometre gravel section of the highway – also called the “Forgotten World Highway” - through ...
Former Finance Minister and former chair of the Tax Working Group, Sir Michael Cullen, has voiced his support for New Zealand First’s decision to oppose the planned increase in tobacco excise tax. In an interview with The Weekend Collective, he said that increasing the price was no longer effective in ...
Māori are natural storytellers. On the marae we use stories to tell our history, to teach the next generation life lessons and to let people know, in our most creative of ways, who we are and where we have come from. ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters, New Zealand First Leader New Zealand First has invoked the ‘Agree to Disagree’ provisions of the Coalition Agreement because it cannot support the announced 11.46 percent increase in the tobacco excise from 1 January 2020. “Studies show that the automatic tobacco excise increases are having less effect ...
Taupō-based company Geo40 has made a breakthrough in extracting near battery-grade lithium from geothermal fluid which its says could be a gamechanger. Its chief executive John Worth said the earth mineral was highly prized, with battery-grade lithium selling for US$10,000 (NZ$15,600) a tonne. Geo40 was founded in 2010 to find ...
Crown research institute AgResearch Ltd, as part of its Future Footprint plan, had intended to relocate top scientists and support staff — particularly those focused on sheep genetics and genomics — from Invermay to Lincoln. However, those plans seem to have been shelved at the request of the Coalition Government. ...
Ten engineering firms in Southland are receiving a total of $2.13 million in Provincial Growth Fund funding to lift productivity and create new jobs. Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones announced in Invercargill that the 10 engineering and manufacturing firms would receive funding to assist them with buying equipment that ...
The number of new residents to New Zealand is the lowest it has been in nearly two decades and it has earned the ire of the immigration industry. The industry alleges that 'Trump-style extreme vetting' is being put in place aimed at keeping a lid on immigration numbers. June Ranson, ...
The Royal New Zealand Air Force is one step closer to modernising its fleet after the United States State Department recently approved the sale of five new C-130J Hercules aircraft to New Zealand. Arms manufacturer Lockheed Martin, in Fort Worth, Texas, will provide the aircraft, but as a "foreign military ...
Forestry Minister Shane Jones wants to create a log barging facility at Hicks Bay and turn the area into a Special Economic Zone. The move would be part of protecting New Zealand's forests from being depleted by India and China, he said. It follows his announcement last week to strengthen ...
New Zealand First supports the changes recommended by the Winter Grazing Taskforce to improve animal welfare outcomes through the winter months, and the establishment of a pan-sector action group to implement them. New Zealand First Primary Industries Spokesperson Mark Patterson says the report highlights areas of concern about the animal ...
Former prime ministers Helen Clark and Sir John Key, formerly from the Labour and National parties respectively, have joined forces in support of New Zealand First’s plan to relocate Auckland's port to Whangārei. While Ms Clark and Sir John spent their political careers on opposite sides of the political divide, ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters is in Japan for the Foreign Ministers' meeting of the G20 grouping of countries as one of nine "invited" countries. He has used the opportunity to cast a spotlight on the plight of Pacific countries, calling out countries which still offered subsidies or Government assistance to ...
It's been a great week of progress: we've celebrated Children's Day, we've made communities safer with 1800 new police, and we've seen almost 90% of eligible schools take up Government funding to scrap school donations - taking pressure off the families of more than 416,000 students. ...
Hon Shane Jones, Minister of Forestry The Government will further strengthen New Zealand’s wood processing sector as part of our focus on ‘value over volume’ in our forestry industry, Forestry Minister Shane Jones says. Minister Jones will today meet with forestry representatives in Northland to signal new measures to help the ...
New Zealand First are celebrating the announcement of an investment of $3.5 million into five new trapping devices. These are a range of bait and trap devices, all designed to be left unattended for long periods of time. NZ First conservation spokesperson Jenny Marcroft says that this latest development will ...
Jenny Marcroft, Spokesperson for Conservation New Zealand First is proud to announce the Provincial Growth Fund (PGF) has allocated $3.5 million to develop innovative predator control approaches which will reduce the need for repeated 1080 use. $19.5 million of PGF funding was announced for Predator Free 2050 Limited in February ...
Darroch Ball, Spokesperson for Police New Zealand First is proud to have delivered on a key Coalition Agreement commitment to adding 1800 new frontline police, with the graduation of Recruit Wing 332 in Porirua today. Law and Order Spokesperson Darroch Ball says increasing police numbers and boosting their resources was one ...
Clayton Mitchell, Spokesperson for Consumer Affairs The ‘wheel clamping’ Bill that will cap clamper fees to $100 passed its third readinginParliament today. New Zealand First welcomes The Land Transport (Wheel Clamping) Amendment Bill to combat predatory wheel clamping behaviour in what is currently a largely unregulated business. Cowboy clampers are: gouging ...
Jenny Marcroft, Spokesperson for Health New Zealand First welcomes the passage of the Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission Bill through its first reading in Parliament. “Today’s progress takes serious action on the mental health and addiction crisis the country is facing,” says New Zealand First Health Spokesperson Jenny Marcroft. “The re-establishment ...
Mark Patterson, Spokesperson for Primary Industries Today the Government announced the delivery of the promise to protect New Zealand interests by applying a new National Interest Test to the sales of our most sensitive and high risk assets to overseas buyers. This further strengthening of the Overseas Investment Act will ...
Rt Hon Winston Peters, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Foreign Affairs Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters has announced further support as the Government of Samoa responds to a serious measles outbreak. “New Zealand will deploy a further 18 vaccination nurses, bringing the total to 30 working in Samoa over the next ...
The Coalition Government is delivering on its promise to protect New Zealanders’ interests by applying a new national interest test to the sales of our most sensitive and high-risk assets to overseas buyers. Under current Overseas Investment Act (OIA) rules, assets such as ports and airports, telecommunications infrastructure, electricity and ...
Rt Winston Peters, Leader of New Zealand First Allegations raised this morning by Stuff Limited / Fairfax concern a party matter but I am confident that New Zealand First has operated within electoral laws, now and for the last 27 years. Declarable donations were declared to the Electoral Commission. Our ...
The chairman of the Upper North Island Supply Chain Strategy (UNISCS) working group, Wayne Brown, has hit back at critics of his group’s recommendations to relocate the Ports of Auckland cargo operations to Whangarei’s deepwater port of Northport. The working group's recommendation to close Auckland waterfront to all but cruise ...
Health Minister Dr David Clark says new appointments to DHBs represent a significant changing of the guard, with 13 new chairs including four Māori chairs. Today 76 appointments have been announced to complement elected board members, as well as eight elected members appointed as either chair or deputy chair. Four ...
Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs, Fletcher Tabuteau, is travelling to Germany, Poland, Austria, and Spain next week to bolster New Zealand’s political and trade relationships in Europe. While in Spain, Mr Tabuteau will represent New Zealand at the 14th Asia-Europe (ASEM) Foreign Ministers’ Meeting in Madrid. “New Zealand strongly supports ...
“I’ve spoken to Minister Faafoi, who has apologised for his poor handling of this issue,” Jacinda Ardern said. “I have confidence in Kris as a hardworking and effective Minister, but this should have been dealt with in a much clearer manner, and I’ve made my views on that very clear ...
Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters met with Tongan Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Pohiva Tu'i'onetoa in Wellington today. The pair signed a Statement of Partnership setting out joint priorities for cooperation out to 2023. “We welcomed Prime Minister Tu'i'onetoa on his first visit to New Zealand as Prime Minister. Tonga ...
The Minister of Police Stuart Nash says his sympathies are with the family of a man who died after being shot by Police in Kurow. “Initial reports are that Police were called by a family member to help the man who was threatening to harm himself,” Mr Nash says. “However ...
Healthier waterways, better productivity and farmer wellbeing are front and centre in a new project involving more than 1000 Southland farmers and growers. Minister of Agriculture Damien O’Connor today announced that the Thriving Southland Change and Innovation Project is the first region-wide extension programme supported by the $229 million Sustainable ...
Work to look after nature and restore freshwater quality in Te Hoiere/Pelorus River catchment is getting a significant boost, thanks to new Government funding support Minister for Conservation Eugenie Sage announced in Canvastown today. “Every New Zealander should be able to swim in their local river without getting sick, and ...
Eight Queen’s Counsel have been appointed under a process that includes the new criterion of a commitment to improving access to justice, Attorney-General David Parker announced today. “The new criterion was included this year. It emphasises that excellence and leadership in the profession can be seen through a wider, community ...
Onslow College in Wellington will get 20 new classrooms for more than 400 students, Education Minister Chris Hipkins announced today. The much-needed investment will relieve growth pressure the school has been experiencing for some time. Seven existing classrooms which have deteriorated over time will also be replaced, bringing the total ...
More than 250 young New Zealanders will add international experience to their education, thanks to the latest Prime Minister’s Scholarships for Asia (PMSA) and Latin America (PMSLA), Education Minister Chris Hipkins announced today. This round of scholarships supports 252 recent graduates or current students to undertake study, research or internships ...
Consumers will benefit from a more competitive, transparent retail fuel market as a result of changes the Government will be making in response to the findings of the Commerce Commission’s study of the fuel sector. “We accept the Commission’s findings and, as the Prime Minister has said, we’re ready to ...
Five new cancer medicines have now been funded this year, meaning thousands of people have more treatment options PHARMAC has today announced that it has approved two new medicines for funding – fulvestrant for breast cancer and olaparib for ovarian cancer. This follows earlier decisions on advanced lung cancer treatment alectinib, ...
The Minister of Local Government, Hon Nanaia Mahuta says the Government will consider making changes to local electoral legislation before the 2022 elections to fix the problems that have arisen where elections are settled by a coin toss. The Minister says the recount process in the Murupara- Galatea ward at ...
New Zealand will sign up to new international maritime regulations to reduce ship emissions and lift air quality around ports and harbours, Associate Transport Minister Julie Anne Genter announced today. Subject to completion of the Parliamentary treaty examination process, New Zealand will sign up to Annex VI of MARPOL, an ...
New legislation to transform our urban areas and create sustainable, inclusive and thriving communities will tomorrow be introduced to Parliament, Urban Development Minister Phil Twyford said. “The Urban Development Bill gives Kāinga Ora-Homes and Communities the tools it needs to partner with councils, communities, mana whenua and private developers to ...
Today’s launch of He taonga te Tamaiti: Every child a taonga: The Early Learning Action Plan 2019-2029 provides the foundation for long-lasting changes to early learning, Education Minister Chris Hipkins says. “Early learning will be one of the Government’s top education priorities going into 2020,” Chris Hipkins said. ...
Major decisions made by the Government will now be considered under a climate change lens, Minister for Climate Change James Shaw announced today. “Cabinet routinely considers the effects of its decisions on human rights, the Treaty of Waitangi, rural communities, the disability community, and gender – now climate change will ...
Education Minister Chris Hipkins today announced the appointment of Māori education specialist Dr Wayne Ngata and Business NZ head Kirk Hope to the Board of the Tertiary Education Commission (TEC). Dr Alastair MacCormick has been reappointed for another term. “Wayne Ngata, Kirk Hope and Alastair MacCormick bring a great deal ...
The next phase of the Pike River Re-entry project is underway, Minister Responsible for Pike River Re-entry Andrew Little says. “Fresh air will be pumped into the Pike River Mine drift this week, following acceptance of the plan for re-entry beyond the 170m barrier by New Zealand’s independent health and ...
New Zealand consumers will have greater certainty about their insurance cover when they need to make claims as a result of proposed government changes. “Insurance is vitally important in supporting consumers and businesses to be financially resilient when unexpected events happen,” Minister of Commerce and Consumer Affairs Kris Faafoi said. ...
The Crown is providing an opportunity for the hapu of Ngāpuhi to rebuild its framework from the ground up for collective negotiations to deal with its historical Treaty claims, Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations Andrew Little and Minister for Māori Development Nanaia Mahuta announced today. The Crown is also ...
A Bill enabling referendums to be held with the 2020 General Election has passed its third reading. Justice Minister Andrew Little says the Act is important for upholding the integrity of New Zealand’s electoral process. “The Government has committed to holding a referendum on legalising recreational cannabis at the next ...
The first release of public information on the two referendums to be held at next year’s General Election was made today with an informative new Government website going live. Additionally, the draft Cannabis Legalisation and Control Bill has been released, showing the strict controls on cannabis that will apply if ...
The Government is taking action to protect New Zealand from foreign interference in our elections by banning foreign donations to political parties and candidates, Justice Minister Andrew Little announced today. Legislation will be introduced to Parliament this afternoon and passed under urgency. “There’s no need for anyone other than New ...
Governments and tech companies are holding a two-day workshop, hosted by YouTube/Google in Wellington, to test the Christchurch Call Shared Crisis Response Protocol. The workshop aims to refine and strengthen the response in the event of a terrorist attack with online implications. Companies, governments, civil society experts and NGOs will ...
The new independent Cancer Control Agency has formally opened today, delivering on the Government’s plan to improve cancer care in New Zealand. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Minister of Health David Clark marked the occasion by announcing the membership of the Advisory Council that will be supporting ...
Small businesses who deal with government departments are set to be paid faster and have improved cash flow as a result, under a new strategy released today. The Government is backing recommendations from the Small Business Council (SBC) and has agreed to implement three initiatives immediately to support business and ...
The Education and Training Bill 2019, introduced in Parliament today, proposes the biggest education changes in decades and is an important step towards improving success for all our learners, Education Minister Chris Hipkins said. “The Bill’s rewrite of education legislation is long overdue. Indeed one Education Act, parts of which ...
Minister for Pacific Peoples Aupito William Sio will travel to Bali to represent New Zealand at the 12th Bali Democracy Forum that will be held on the 5-6 December. “The Forum is a valuable opportunity for Asia-Pacific countries to share experiences and best practice in building home-grown democracy and fostering ...
A package of new and expanded technology and other tools will encourage responsible camping and help communities and local councils better manage freedom camping this summer, Tourism Minister Kelvin Davis announced today. “Our Government has been investing to improve the freedom camping experience for everyone because we want to support ...
The government is laying the groundwork to understanding our genes – work that can help us tackle some of our biggest health challenges, like heart disease and diabetes, says Research, Science and Innovation Minister Megan Woods. $4.7 million has been invested in the Genomics Aotearoa Rakeiora programme. The programme will ...
Nearly every state schools will receive a capital injection next year valued at $693 per student to bring forward urgent school property improvements, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Education Minister Chris Hipkins announced today. The one-off cash injection is the first project to be announced from the Government’s infrastructure package ...
The Government has decided to bring forward major investments in New Zealand’s infrastructure to future proof the economy. “Cabinet has agreed to a significant boost to infrastructure investment. I have directed the Treasury to help bring together a package of projects that can be brought into the Government’s short and ...
It is a great pleasure to be with you today in Whanganui. Like the Prime Minister I grew up with the TV clip of Selwyn Toogood booming “What do you say Whanganui, the money or the bag?” to an unsuspecting ‘It’s in the Bag’ audience. For those under the age ...
New Zealand’s newest Great Walk, the Paparoa Track, was officially opened in Blackball today by the Minister of Conservation Eugenie Sage alongside the family members of the Pike 29 and Ngāti Waewae. Local mayors and MP for the West Coast Hon Damien O’Connor were also in attendance. “Paparoa National Park ...
Minister of Defence Ron Mark turned the first sod of earth on the infrastructure works for the new P-8A Poseidon fleet at RNZAF Base Ohakea today. “The Coalition Government’s investment in Ohakea will ensure the Royal New Zealand Air Force can manage, maintain and task the new fleet efficiently ahead ...
Civil Defence Minister Hon Peeni Henare today announced the establishment of the new National Emergency Management Agency from 1 December 2019. The National Emergency Management Agency will replace the Ministry of Civil Defence & Emergency Management. It will be an autonomous departmental agency, hosted by the Department of the Prime ...
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Open mike 02/05/2015 
Open mike is your post.
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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.