When the transport security and the costs of fixing the rail and road network are considered, coastal shipping suddenly looks a lot more viable and efficient in the long run.
Following Cyclone Gabrielle, Northern line out for months with major repairs needed, ditto the Hawke's Bay one. The Napier-Wairoa line will be even longer (if, indeed, it's ever repaired) – major rail bridges down and really significant washouts.
I'd like to know what the engineers are saying. It seems like a decent chunk of our rail is built in vulnerable places, so are there better places to put new rail?
I can't find any discussion of changing the route for rail. Probably due to the major (as in trillions of dollars) cost involved.
The most recent (apart from Gabrielle) major rail repair was in the SI following the Kaikoura earthquake. And, IIRC, there was no discussion over re-routing it from the seashore route.
NZ is a mountainous country (in general), rail needs to follow, as much as possible, a level pathway (trains don't cope with significant grades), which pretty much means running alongside rivers through gorges (yes, there are exceptions – but it's the general rule); and through cuttings through the hills. So significant risk both from river rise/flooding/bridge washout, and from landslips down the neighbouring steep terrain.
There is no route from Wairoa to Napier (the one I'm most familiar with), which does not involve significant and rugged hills/mountains.
My understanding is that the northern route had more than 50 slips over the railway- this is through gentler terrain, but got hammered even harder by the weather.
I can't find any discussion of changing the route for rail. Probably due to the major (as in trillions of dollars) cost involved.
That wasn't quite what I meant. I meant were engineers talking about the vulnerability of each line and what that means for events that take out the line (quakes, tsunami?, floods, slips).
I expect transition engineers are talking about it, I'll have a look.
As for costs, what's the cost of losing a line for a year? (rebuild and disruption costs). Then what happens if that happens 4 times in a decade? At what point do we start designing and redesigning for the world we now live in.
Build back better is old world thinking. We need to be transitioning.
Kaikoura is a good example. I'm not suggesting moving the bits that can't easily be moved. I'm saying that if we centre physical reality as we know it now, it looks quite different than when that line was built. Because of our knowledge about quakes and because of climate.
Sustainability design wouldn't start with 'we have to have a rail line and there are no options but here because it's too expensive'. It would start with what are the specific needs that this line exists for. Freight, public transport. what else?
Then look at the best ways to meet those needs in terms of sustainability and resiliency. eg to what extent can rail freight be replaced or supplemented by shipping or road (EV)? How can we integrate those systems so that when there is a disaster, the surviving systems are robust?
There's a further aspect that, which is why transition (whole systems) rather then build back better needs to be the conceptual frame. How much of the goods and people we are moving are essential? Necessary? Unnecessary?
How much food is being moved along that rail line? How much by road or sea? What would happen if we relocalised food production and supply?
Likewise, if we shifted from a consumerist society to a regenerative one, do we need to be travelling as much? Do we need to by buying as much Stuff?
Your argument is usually no-one will want to do that. Well no-one wants to abandon their house to silt damage either. Looking at the broader options rather than just BAU helps people to see that life could change for the better in a lot of ways if we transition. Both by creating resiliency, but also by creating lives that have a different kind of meaning, are less stressful and more pleasurable and where our core values are centred (I'm still betting that most New Zealanders don't place consumerism at the centre if they felt like they had a choice).
It was closed in 2012 after significant storm damage, and re-opened (Wairoa to Napier only) in 2020 for logging transport only. [That's not to say other items couldn't be shipped, just that they weren't]
The line through to Gisborne was never re-opened, and probably won't ever be – just not enough transport need to justify it.
So your artificial fern would be available in Auckland (international shipping port), but not in Gisborne. Or are you suggesting that it would be denied import permission (so no one can have it)?
[I have to say, this is not something I would ever contemplate buying – regardless of availability – by clearly there is a market]
Moving to things which are luxuries – we're all familiar with the black market which arises when they're banned or restricted. When, indeed, only the wealthy can afford them.
Just transition seems to operate at a macro level (e.g. the funding which went into Taranaki after the oil and gas exploration ban) – rather than at an individual level.
In a disaster in NZ, the poor people get quite a bit of immediate support – it's the middle class (what there is left of it) who struggle.
As an illustration, ATM we have 2 staff at work who had red-stickered houses. The one renting, has simply rented a new place – yes, they've lost furniture and possessions and personally important mementoes – but they're moving on with their life. The one who owns (well, owes the bank) the house, has to manage renting, as well as all of the other costs, stress and worry associated with dealing with government and Council and insurance, etc. Their bills (mortgage, rates, etc.) continue, as well as the costs of renting. They are much worse off than the renter.
Banning isn't where I would start. I'd start with the conversation about values and what really matters.
You can see it with those people in the Muriwai meeting. It's like the Chch quakes never happened. They're going through exactly what happened a decade ago. I remember watching the process by which the rest of NZ switched off from Chch and just moved on. If someone wants to stand up and make an argument for the right to buy plastic ferns, they can have at it. But more will stand up and talk about the need for housing and food security.
Just Transition is the idea that when we decarbonise and move to a regenerative economy, we build in from the start processes that take into account socioeconomic disparities.
Your staff sound like two middle class households (or at least, your example isn't inherently class-based). A poor family would struggle to replace clothes, food staples, their car if they even owned one.
WINZ had a 90 minute wait on the call centre last week. Imagine being so poor that you don't have enough money to buy food and you have to spend 90 minutes on the phone just to *ask for a food grant (no guarantee you will get it). How do you even do that if you have a job?
Which isn't to say the house owner isn't going through a heap of major stress. They are.
Responding to this "Your staff sound like two middle class households "
That's a pretty whopping assumption, when the only information I'd given is that one family owned a house (with a huge mortgage) and the other was renting.
The family renting are certainly not middle class. Minimum wage employee. Very solidly in the (rather struggling in NZ) working-class.
Found a new rental (smaller than the previous one, but needs must) – and can just walk away from their previous tenancy because red-stickered. Have had new-to-them (but in good condition) appliances and furniture donated via charities; food and toiletry parcels from other charities (to get them back on their feet). Have lost family mementoes (which is sad), and there’s nothing that can make up for that.
They’ve had a shock, and lost some stuff – but aren’t materially in a much worse position than they were pre-floods.
NB: They tried talking to WINZ – but basically gave up – it was just too hard.
That’s a pretty whopping assumption, when the only information I’d given is that one family owned a house (with a huge mortgage) and the other was renting.
There was a bit more information
The one renting, has simply rented a new place – yes, they’ve lost furniture and possessions and personally important mementoes – but they’re moving on with their life
that and what you’ve just shared tells me they’re not on the bones of their arse. But fair enough, and I was expecting to be corrected.
I do think it’s worthwhile acknowledging the strata within the working and underclasses (and middle class). That they could give up on WINZ is a signifier of some degree of resources despite working class life having financial struggle.
They’ve had a shock, and lost some stuff – but aren’t materially in a much worse position than they were pre-floods.
We measure things in different ways. You’re comparing people who were not well off to begin with just getting on with it, with people who were well off and have lost significant materially.
I’m talking about people that are poor all the time and what happens to them during and after a disaster.
I think both are valid.
We started talking about that I think because I raised Just Transition and asked “What do you think happens to poor people during and after a disaster?”
I asked that because you seemed to think that in transition the rich can still travel and the poor can’t. That’s already the case. My line about poor people was a lazy point about we don’t have a just society now, that translates into emergencies, and it will translate with catastrophic climate only much, much worse. It doesn’t have to be that way. We can both prevent the worst of CC, and we can transition Justly.
Easy, the staff member with the mortgage gives the insurance payout to the bank and walks away. Then they are "simply" renters like the other staff member.
Your definition of 'poor' seems to be beneficiary-only. Not just ordinary working class.
I'm not arguing that WINZ (and many other Government departments) have done a good job – because I don't think they have. The waiting times on 'hold' are a shocking indictment – and even worse that this is the new 'normal'. I'd have a hell of a lot more respect for Sepuloni if she was sorting that out at WINZ, rather than swanning around emergency shelters.
But people who truly have nothing are in the emergency shelters, they are the ones being put into temporary accommodation (even though it may be not particularly desirable temporary accommodation), they're getting the food handouts – they're already in the 'system'.
The next step up the economic scale just get ignored.
Your definition of 'poor' seems to be beneficiary-only. Not just ordinary working class.
Not at all. The person who doesn't have time to spend 90mins on the phone just to get through has a minimum wage job. Probably several. My definition of poor/not poor doesn't hinge on whether one own's a home or rents. It's about whether one can afford the basics.
The next step up the economic scale just get ignored.
not sure exactly who you are referring to but anyone without sufficient income or savings can get an SNG for food, not just beneficiaries.
I would count people who can afford insurance as probably not poor, but maybe you are talking about the group of people who are about to drop down a class, possibly permanently, as they use up their small amount of savings while waiting for the house situation to be sorted out and then struggle to ever recover. I feel for these people, especially if they've not been there before. This is the story of many New Zealanders in past decades.
I'm less confident than you that the really poor are being looked after, but you have more local knowledge. Mostly I think that lots of people are suffering and struggling, some with support some without, and that as a country we're better at acute emergencies, but not so good with the long weeks and months after.
"Well no-one wants to abandon their house to silt damage either."
I certainly agree with this.
Take a look at Auckland's west coast beaches – Piha, Muriwai, Karekare. Inhabitants would have to be some of the 'greenest' of the Auckland population (on average) – but they'll be fighting tooth-and-nail against managed retreat – which is the obvious option for that area – unstable steep cliffs, housing either on the cliffs (landslides); or at sea level (storm surge damage and rising water levels).
They're already holding public meetings demanding to know when the Council/Government are going to let them back into their houses.
They like their lifestyle – and want to stay where they are.
As a city, Auckland would be better off rescinding all housing permission from the cliff edge down, and removing the roading infrastructure – retaining hiking tracks only.
Watched the video and read part of the article. The main thing that stands out is that there is a major comms issue. People are understandably stressed and council is giving clear enough rationales, but that's not enough in a situation like this, you have to meet people where they are.
eg residents want an ETA on getting back to their house. Council can't give that for the area that is too dangerous to inspect. But they could tell residents what the conditions are that need to change to do further inspections and when that might happen eg do they need a fortnight of dry weather? Not guarantees but information about the process.
The stuff about people not knowing if their pets are ok is just a complete fail, and bullshit. Humans that are traumatised need emotional safety in addition to physical safety. Helping resolve the pet issue is low hanging fruit.
Agree that building on cliffs (and down stream from cliffs) like that just has to stop. That we still build in so many stupid places is an indictment of just how much councils have been neoliberalised.
Fair enough if you consider "demonising" is too strong an adjective. Perhaps vilifying or blaming, but replacing the word with something milder doesn't affect the point I was making.
Why conclude an informative and thoughtful comment with that parting shot – to an industry not responsible for shipping at all?
In the first set of storms that hit Auckland, for over 24 hours you could not get in or out by plane because the airport was smashed, by rail because there were multiple track stoppages, and or by State Highway since that had multiple floods. We were completely cut off.
That's supplies and exports cut for 33% of NZ's population and 45% of its economy.
We totally need coastal shipping now.
Three weeks ago from Gisborne through to Napier for 3 days we had no flights in or out, no rail because it was smashed, and no state highway access from any side. The final resort for Gisborne was to bring in the NZNavy's HMNZS Manawanui.
Just in case it needs stating, the NZDF are our last thread when the whole of civil society is shredded. For a solid week we were on the bones of our ass. Thankyou NZDF for your collective work.
That was in a city where the cyclone actually struck. The Cook Strait ferries, which are of course coastal shipping were also cancelled for the same time period. That was in places that weren't even directly hit by the cyclone.
Why do you expect coastal shipping to help in the future as it doesn't seem any more available than planes or trucks?
The 27 January event was the result of an "atmospheric river" which had developed from a former tropical depression in the Coral Sea area. It stretched south from New Caledonia through to the eastern ocean area of NZ. It was in this river of warm, moisture laden air that the big rains of late January and early February in Northland, Auckland and Bay of Plenty were sustained.
That river of moisture laden tropical air also provided the conduit for both Tropical Cyclones Hale and Gabrielle to hit us with the full force of their fury. Glad to say it has now dissipated and hopefully will not return.
Yes, the storm he was talking about was not during the cyclone. However the cyclone didn't hit Wellington and the weather on the day they cancelled all the ferries had weather which seems to have been very similar to the Auckland event a couple of week earlier when the planes were out.
The weather in Wellington wasn't very nice but it was exactly what we get half a dozen times a year. It is quite normal for the ferries to not sail and it merely illustrates that the ferries, which are coastal shipping, are quite routinely disrupted by our normal NZ storms. I don't think having coastal shipping available is really going to provide greater reliability than aircraft or roads do.
The biggest problem with the NZDF atm is the massive separation rate from NZDF which is over +30%
Army at +17.2%
Navy at +12.5%
The Regular Army is struggling to force generate manpower to deal with concurrent HADR Ops in NZ on top of not having a enough equipment or spares as capabilities have been allowed to run down over the last 30yrs & I including the Reserve Forces who have actually made up the bulk up of the Army's Response.
It's got that bad in the Army Engineers side of things, that they had call a upon QAMR to deploy a Cav Sabre Tp C/S V22 to do Route Reconnaissance which is QAMR/ RNZAC Wartime Role as the Engineers had no spare manpower.
The Navy isn't much chop either, some ships haven't deploy due to manning or for a lack of maintenance due to a manning.
The Airforce is lacking Fix & Rotary Wing Assets.
Only 6 of the 8 NH90's were flying, one has been waiting for a new gearbox since 2018 & additional funding has been denied by Robbo to get this fixed! The other one is in for deep level maintenance. The current 8 NH90's flying already have highest flying hrs for it's type in world for any user & yet RNZAF is still below the minimum required number for it to under sustain concurrent Operations which is 12 NH90's.
The A109's were meant to have taken up some of the slack & help reduce the amount flying hrs of the NH90's, but they proven to be so bloody useless as expected by RNZAF when the A109's was forced on by the Labour Alliance Coalition & NZ Treasury! That they are good for Training Pilots, Crewman & VIP Flights!
The scary thing about this, is Ron Mark forewarned the NZG that this was coming when he delivered his CC speech & what it might for the NZDF which also included his enhanced DCP.
But previous & this Stupid Labour Government kicked the bloody can down the Rd again like every other bastard NZG has done since the 90's.
NZ has dodge a bullet this time round & given the amount damage this time round! It won't be so lucky next time especially if the NZDF is busy elsewhere in NZ on a HADR or somewhere in the Sth Pacific or further afield on a Peacekeeping or HADR Op!
SHI south was open (so far as I recall) – it was only the route further north which was closed.
Whenuapai was open (indeed that's how Hipkins got to Auckland) – which perhaps should raise the question (again) of an airport north of Auckland – given the vulnerabilities of Auckland Airport which is virtually at sea level.
Apart from the areas badly affected by flooding and/or slips – which are relatively small, though tragic for those involved – Auckland was pretty much operating as usual 48 hours after the flooding. Our (as in the business I work for) imports and exports (national and international) were running as usual – though there were local delivery impacts across the country (we're still not delivering to Wairoa, for example).
The fragile nature of the infrastructure around Gisborne isn't new (only 2 roads in/out). The main SH are regularly closed for a day or so following major storms to clear slips.
Gisborne is a shipping port – mostly logs – but could easily accommodate other vessels – transport costs, timing and flexibility will be the limiting factors. According to family in Gisborne, the frustration now, is over limited water supplies – the water pipeline was damaged and will take months to repair), and over other flood repairs – not over transport.
Wairoa (which is still effectively cut off) is not really a suitable shipping destination – the bar at the river mouth is highly dangerous, and shifts frequently (not surprising in a major river) – dredging is only of limited use.
I'm not arguing against coastal shipping – but it is only one option in the mix following a disaster.
As Zeihan points out, there is now more official opinion that Covid was the result of an accidental lab leak rather than a jump between species.
But, as Zeihan points out, that is not really the main issue. The main issue is that China shut down its domestic flights when it realised there was an issue, but allowed international flights to continue. Thus, the virus was allowed to spread internationally.
That suggests a degree of intentionality on the part of Chinese authorities in that they appeared to realise there was a dangerous pathogen on the loose. They appeared to be prepared to try and protect their own population while at the same time enabling the spread of it worldwide.
It was blindingly obvious to me at the time that China knew it should shut down international travel by expat Chinese for the Lunar New Year. The virus spread to Italy from returning Chinese workers, for example.
The other immoral/agressive act was ordering Chinese companies around the world (all, not just medical) to buy up available PPE in the time before the pandemic became full-blown. I read in an article round that time, from abc I think, that Chinese firms had bought up and sent 8,000 tonnes of high quality PPE from Australia alone back to China. Then, of course, China kept the best, and resold what it didn't need at inflated prices back to the countries it had come from initially.
Pretty sure China stopped their citizens travelling internationally very early, the Chinese tourism market was the first sector to shut down here and that was before Chinese New Year. Americans and Brits on the other hand kept demanding to come here, then ignored isolation requirements, saying they had been here two weeks but unable to say where they had been for that two weeks.
By the time they were welding apartment doors shut in Wuhan the horse had well and truly bolted internationally. It's unfortunate that most of the world wasn't able to take the measures that China and a very few other countries, NZ is one of that few, were able to take and contain the virus in it's early forms.
I remember the Chinese government kicked up a stink, and officially complained to Jacinda Ardern's government when we closed our borders, saying it was an affront to China. So they were still happy to export their citizens round the world well into March.
From discussion with a Chinese businessman almost next door to us at the time the two actions were pretty much coincidental, his view was that China got in first but didn't say anything, people's passports just didn't arrive, then it was made official a bit later. There were some parts of the Chinese government doing very much the right thing, and other parts being stereotypical Chinese autocrats, but that happened in a lot of other countries too.
It was the WHO that dropped the ball with travel restrictions early on.
Before the lockdown, in January 2020 my son and I had already caught covid, based on the sweats, the body aches and dry bradykinin cough. We only worked it out afterwards. My son had ongoing chest and lung pains and fatigue for three months after. That was before any government diagnostic testing, and we didn't get sick enough to need medical help.
Where did we get it from? When my son went to the supermarket a few days before he got sick, an elderly Chinese man with blood-shot eyes was hacking and coughing his lungs out at the checkout. My son thought at the time that he looked too sick to be out and about, not to mention the anti-social behaviour of spreading whatever flu he had.
So, based on our (first) personal experience of covid, we reckon that Chinese NZ resident had either caught covid while coming back from China, or from his returning relatives. I'm pretty sure the government knew that there were already quite a few unreported cases across NZ at the time of lockdown, and that's why they 'went hard'. And no, we don't live in a main centre.
So why, if China knew it was letting overseas Chinese return to their countries with likely infections, did they pressure NZ to stay open?
You have no idea whether this 'Chinese seeming' elderly man was from China (or was a Kiwi of Chinese origin who'd been here for 4 generations); whether he was ethnically from China (or any of the other Asian countries Westerners often confuse with China); if he was from China, that he'd come from the very small area affected by Covid in January 2020; and, indeed, if he or members of his family had been travelling at all.
Your 'reckons' are pure racism.
If you did have Covid (which is highly unlikely at that date), then you actually have zero idea of the vector.
Did I call for this man's death on the basis of his race or threaten violence or retaliation? No. Did I or my son personally abuse him? No. I stated the facts.
An elderly, extremely ill, ethnic Chinese man tottered around a large supermarket, coughing and sputtering, We got sick, my son three days, and me five days later, with an illness so similar in symptoms to the covid we had again later, that gosh, it was covid. We didn't socialise elsewhere in that time.
Was there any judgemental comment about him that I made, except to say, as for any sick person, of ANY race to be so ill and to cough all over others in a public space is anti-social? Did I suggest he knew he had covid and was making us sick on purpose? No, because I don't believe he was.
And, no, I don't hate him personally for his behaviour, because, hey people get sick and don't think straight. Even if I did, it still wouldn't be racist, because it's an opinion about an INDIVIDUAL'S behaviour, not about a RACE'S perceived traits.
It is not racist to criticise a GOVERNMENT, which is what I have been doing. One poster put forward weak ANECDOTAL evidence that China slowed the egress of Chinese citizens informally. China didn't stop expat individuals, almost certainly some sick with covid, returning from China. Direct Shanghai-Auckland flights, for one, were still running at the time of lockdown.
I put forward plausible personal anecdotal evidence in response. Nothing I wrote was racist, so take that slur off the table, thanks. I infer from your behaviour that you would believe criticising the STATE of Israel for political choices that ghetto-ise West Bank Palestinians is an attack on Jews as a RACE, rather than valid criticism of extreme Zionist policies that are themselves racist.
And below is a link to valid, substantiated reports that the Chinese GOVERNMENT surreptitiously stockpiled and bought huge amounts of PPE internationally in late 2019 and early 2020, by commanding overseas Chinese companies of any sort to buy and ship PPE back.
NZ nurses wearing binliners comes to mind. Hmm. Surely, this GOVERNMENT action undeniably compromised other countries' health response to covid, and resulted in avoidable healthworker deaths in other parts of the world.
Chinese tourists with really bad flu wasn't that uncommon, and often they picked it up here. Got to bear in mind that China didn't have much of an idea what was going on either, combine that with the CCP administrative culture and Chinese bureaucracy right up the chain will be a bit resistant to anything that might rock the boat. Once they figured out what was going on the place got shut down pdq.
Working in tourism I was watching this unfold and contradictory statements by most governments, often on a daily basis, were common. We look back on it now and think politicians and bureaucrats were being duplicitous, but in reality they were doing their best in an unknown environment. We also have the disadvantage of viewing it from the position of a very effective and co-ordinated response, in a lot of countries it was complete chaos in February 2020.
Credit to the Chinese government that they were able to shut it down once they figured out what was going on and how to deal with it. That Chinese bureaucratic machine is a huge beast, turning it from maintaining social cohesion and status quo to responding to a novel pandemic is going to be a bit inconsistent, I'm impressed how effectively they responded. If USA and EU, and WHO, had been as emphatic and effective the world might be in a much better place right now.
Well, Old…. self proclaimed "tough guy" Mitchell has had previous. And there was this of course.
When private security contractor Mark Mitchell returned cashed-up from Iraq with an interest in politics, he engaged the one operative in New Zealand whose tactics were as militant: Simon Lusk.
And was Old… Mark "head injury" Mitchell hiding this?
Mitchell revealed he suffered a similar injury, which needed surgery at Waikato Hospital to plate and pin his face back together and months of medication to control tremors.
"With great medical support and advice I was back on the job within weeks but fatigue and blinding headaches are unwelcome guests that have been hard to get rid of.
Are the Organisers aware of this? Pretty sure he shouldnt be allowed in any ring let alone a Charity event…or to boast shit in the media about his …readiness to fight.
Mitchell's challenge raises some serious questions for National's leadership to answer. 1. Was it ok'd by Luxon? 2. What is National's and Luxon's view on boxing for fundraising?
For me this challenge demonstrates (again) an unhealthy macho aspect to Mitchell's character; does National condone and maybe even encourage this trait.
Perhaps the mods on this site need to have a rethink of their policy. Couple of days ago I was reprimanded for offering to give "ghost who walks" a smack in the mouth. I accept that. But,
We have this discussion about "fight for life" and the violence that ensues.
Interesting that Mitchell has suffered brain damage, which explains to me a lot of his attitudes. Should he be heading into a violent situation again.
And, given this sites anti violent policy should it even be a subject
[You were moderated for your comment and I am still waiting for you to comply with your moderation (https://thestandard.org.nz/daily-review-01-03-2023/#comment-1937312). It will decide whether you receive a one-month ban or not. You’ll have until Sunday night to finish your task or cop the ban – Incognito]
Looks like "Take Your Paraphilia to Work Day" is finally over. This is what happens when you add the "means what I say it means" terms like "Gender Expression" to your anti discrimination laws.
I tend to think this was a long game, played by the teacher for personal benefit, but highlighting the contortions people in positions of authority will do in order to meet gender ideology demands.
After being incapable of addressing his use of fetish wear in the classroom – because it was deemed an expression of his gender identity – this man has essentially been stood down for what he wears at home.
Either way, it was a guaranteed road to a discrimination case.
The only reason I saw that it could be a piss take was the fact that he wore comfortable shoes. Usually, the standard autogynephiliac wardrobe includes stripper high heels.
So Mr Luxon is to present his much practised "State of the Nation" speech tomorrow Sunday at 11am, after church. He will give it to a selected bunch of friends who I suppose includes Jessica MM and Mr Coughlin. No doubt we will get a medicated/sanitised version.
They could start by using the modern term for what used to called "Intersex". These days they are differences or variations of sex development. There are about 40 known syndromes which fall under this category. They are actually variations on male (Klinefelter's syndrome), or female (Turner's syndrome) for example. This is shown by the fact that those that are fertile (and many are not) produce either sperm or eggs.
Unfortunately, these medical conditions have been weaponised by the Gender Ideology pushers to try and show that sex is some sort of spectrum, which it is not.
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Macklemore isn’t someone I’d usually think about. Sure I liked his big hit from a few years back, everybody did it was catchy and cool with some memorable lines. But if I was going to think of artists who might speak out on political matters or world events, he wouldn’t ...
Another week goes by in the Luxon government’s efforts to roll back the past 70 years of social progress. The school lunches programme is to be downgraded by $107 million, and women need bother their heads no longer about pay equity, let alone expect ACC to provide adequate sexual violence ...
Brrr, the first cold snap of the year. Hope you’re rugged up nice and warm. Here are some stories that caught our eye this week… This Week on Greater Auckland On Monday, we had a post from a new contributor, Connor Sharp, who dug into the public feedback ...
Almost all of the Wellington City Council’s recommended zoning changes to allow many more apartments and townhouses in its inner-suburbs have been approved.Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The podcast above of the weekly ‘hoon’ webinar for subscribers features co-hosts and , along with regular guest on geopolitics, ...
Open access notablesA Global Increase in Nearshore Tropical Cyclone Intensification, Balaguru et al., Earth's Future:Tropical Cyclones (TCs) inflict substantial coastal damages, making it pertinent to understand changing storm characteristics in the important nearshore region. Past work examined several aspects of TCs relevant for impacts in coastal regions. However, ...
Do you believe New Zealand runs its general elections fairly and competently? As a voter, can you be confident that the votes on your ballot will be counted towards the final result? As a political scientist, I’ve been asked these questions many times and always answered “yes”, with very few ...
Thus far May has followed on from a quiet April in the blogging department, but in fairness, it has been another case of doing what I am supposed to be doing, namely writing original fiction. Plus reading. So don’t worry – I have been productive. But in order to reassure ...
Buzz from the Beehive A new government agency will open for business on July 1 – the Social Investment Agency. As a new standalone central agency effective from 1 July, it will lead the development of social investment across Government, helping ministers understand who they need to invest in, what ...
Bryce Edwards writes – “Follow the money” is the classic directive to journalists trying to understand where power and influence lie in society. In terms of uncovering who influences various New Zealand political parties and governments, it therefore pays to look at who is funding them. The ...
Alwyn Poole writes – After being elected to Parliament in 2008 the maiden speech of Hipkins was substantially around education policy. He was Labour’s spokesperson for education 2011 – 2017. He was Minister for Education from 2017 until February 2023. This is approximately 88% of the time Labour ...
Eric Crampton writes – A fashion industry group is lobbying for protections. They make the usual arguments and a newer one. None of it makes sense. An industry group says it pumped $7.8 billion into the economy last year – that’s 1.9 percent of New Zealand’s GDP. ...
In December 2006, Fiji's military leader Voreqe Bainimarama overthrew the elected government in a coup. He ruled Fiji for the next 16 years, first as dictator, then as "elected" Prime Minister. But now, he's finally been sent to jail where he belongs. Sadly, this isn't for his real crime of ...
Don't like National's corrupt Muldoonist "fast-track" law? Aotearoa's environmental NGO's - Greenpeace, Forest & Bird, WWF, Coromandel Watchdog, Coal Action Network Aotearoa, Kiwis Against Seabed Mining, and others - have announced a joint march against it in Auckland in June: When: 13:00, 8 June, 2024 Where: Aotea Square, Auckland You ...
Seymour describes sushi as too woke for school meals. There are no fish sushi meals recommended by the School Lunches programme. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / Getty ImagesTL;DR: The Government will swap out hot meals for packaged sandwiches to save $107 million on school lunches for poor kids. MSD has pulled ...
I don't mind stealin' bread from the mouths of decadenceBut I can't feed on the powerless when my cup's already overfilled, yeahBut it's on the table, the fire's cookin'And they're farmin' babies, while slaves are workin'The blood is on the table and the mouths are chokin'But I'm goin' hungry, yeahSome ...
The Ardern Government’s chickens came home to roost yesterday with the news that the country is short of natural gas. In 2018, Labour banned offshore petroleum exploration, and industry executives say that the attendant loss of confidence by the industry impacted overall investment in onshore gas fields. Energy Resources Minister ...
Hi,If you’ve been digging through the newly launched Webworm store (orders are being dispatched worldwide as I type!) you’ll have noticed the best model we had was Calvin.This is Calvin.Calvin.Calvin is 7, and is the son of my producer over on Flightless Bird, Rob — aka “Wobby Wob”. Rob also ...
This video includes conclusions of the creator climate scientist Dr. Adam Levy. It is presented to our readers as an informed perspective. Please see video description for references (if any). Climate change is everywhere. And when something's everywhere it can feel like it's nowhere. So how do we get our heads ...
Its a law like gravity: whenever a right-wing government is elected, they start attacking democracy. And now, after talking to their Republican and Tory and Fidesz chums at the International Democracy Union forum in Wellington, National is doing it here, announcing plans to remove election-day enrolment. Or, to put it ...
Yesterday Winston Peters focussed his attention on the important matter at hand. Tweeting. Like the former, and quite possibly next, orange POTUS, from whom he takes much of his political strategy, Winston is an avid X’er.His message didn’t resemble an historic address this time. In fact it was more reminiscent ...
Buzz from the Beehive A significant decline in natural gas production has given Resources Minister Shane Jones an opportunity to reiterate his enthusiasm for the mining and burning of coal. For good measure, he has praised an announcement from Genesis Energy that it will resume importing coal. He and Energy ...
“Follow the money” is the classic directive to journalists trying to understand where power and influence lie in society. In terms of uncovering who influences various New Zealand political parties and governments, it therefore pays to look at who is funding them. The political parties are legally obliged to make ...
Rob MacCullough writes – Here is my subjective ranking on a “most-left” to “most-right” scale of most of our major NZ Universities, with some anecdotal (and at times amusing) evidence to back up the claim.Extreme Left Auckland University of TechnologyEvidenceThe ...
Eric Crampton writes – I hadn’t thought about this one until a helpful email showed up in my inbox.It’s pretty obvious that income tax thresholds should automatically index with inflation – whether to anchor the thresholds in percentiles of the income distribution, or to anchor against a real ...
Jacqui Van Der Kaay writes – Parliament’s speaker had no option but to refer Green MP Julie Anne Genter to the Privileges Committee for her behaviour in the House last Wednesday evening. The incident, in which she crossed the floor to wave a book and yell at National ...
Gary Judd writes – The Dean of the law school at the Auckland University of Technology is someone called Khylee Quince. I have been sent her social media posting in which she has, over the LawNews headline “Senior King’s Counsel files complaint about compulsory tikanga Maori studies for ...
Cleo Paskal writes – WASHINGTON, D.C.: ‘Many of us have received phone calls from [the opposing camp] telling them if they join the camp they will be given projects for their wards and $300,000 [around US$35,000] each’, says former Malaita Premier Daniel Suidani. The elections in Solomon Islands aren’t ...
With hindsight, it was inevitable that (a) Hamas would agree to the ceasefire deal brokered by Egypt and Qatar and that ( b) Israel would then immediately launch attacks on Rafah, regardless. We might have hoped the concessions made by Hamas would cause Israel to desist from slaughtering thousands more ...
Placards and mourners outside the Kilbirnie Mosque following the Christchurch terror attack: MSD has terminated the Kaiwhakaoranga service, which has been used by 415 families since the attacks. Photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: The Government’s pledge to only cut ‘back office’ staff rather than ‘frontline’ services is on increasingly shaky ground, with ...
There’s been a few smaller public transport announcements over the last week or so that I thought I’d cover in a single post. Fareshare I’ve long called for Auckland Transport to offer a way to enable employer-subsidised public transport options. The need for this took on even more importance ...
Parliament’s speaker had no option but to refer Green MP Julie Anne Genter to the Privileges Committee for her behaviour in the House last Wednesday evening. The incident, in which she crossed the floor to wave a book and yell at National Minister Matt Doocey, reflects poorly on Genter and ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
Who likes being sneered at? Nobody. Worse yet, when the sneerer has their facts all wrong, and might well be an idiot.The sneer in question is The adults are in charge now, and it is a sneer offered in retort to criticism of this new Government, no matter how well ...
When in government, Labour pushed to extend the Parliamentary term to four years, to reduce accountability and our ability to vote out a bad government. And now, they're trying to do it through the member's ballot, with a Four-Year Parliamentary Term Legislation Bill. The bill at least requires a referendum ...
A ballot for a single Member's Bill was held today, and the following bill was drawn: Public Works (Prohibition of Compulsory Acquisition of Māori Land) Amendment Bill (Hūhana Lyndon) The bill would prevent the government from stealing Māori land in breach of Te Tiriti o Waitangi. It ...
Simeon Brown, alongside Wayne Brown, is favouring a political figleaf now in exchange for loading up tens of millions in extra interest costs on Auckland ratepayers. Photo: Lynn GrievesonTL;DR: Ratings agency Standard & Poor’s is pushing back hard at suggestions from Local Government Minister Simeon Brown and Mayor Wayne Brown ...
Buzz from the Beehive One headline-grabber from the Beehive yesterday was the OECD’s advice that the government must bring the Budget deficit under control or face higher interest rates. Another was the announcement of a $1.9 billion “investment” in Corrections over the next four years. In the best interests of ...
Chris Trotter writes – Had Zheng He’s fleet sailed east, not west, in the early Fifteenth Century, how different our world would be. There is little reason to suppose that the sea-going junks of the Ming Dynasty, among the largest and most sophisticated sailing vessels ever constructed, would have failed ...
David Farrar writes – Two articles give a useful contrast in balance. Both seek to be neutral explainer articles. This one in the Herald on Social Investment covers the pros and cons nicely. It links to critical pieces and talks about aspects that failed and aspects that are more ...
The tikanga regulations will compel law students to be taught that a system which does not conform with the rule of law is nevertheless law which should be observed and applied…Gary Judd KC writes – I have made a complaint to Parliament’s Regulation ...
The future of Te Huia, the train between Hamilton and Auckland, has been getting a lot of attention recently as current funding for it is only in place till the end of June. The government initially agreed to a five year trial, through to April 2026, but that was subject ...
TL;DR: Hamas has just agreed to Israel’s ceasefire plan. Nelson hospital’s rebuild has been cut back to save money. The OECD suggests New Zealand break up network monopolies, including in electricity. PM Christopher Luxon’s news conference on a prison expansion announcement last night was his messiest yet.Here’s my top six ...
A homicide in Ponsonby, a manhunt with a killer on the run. The nation’s leader stands before a press conference reassuring a frightened nation that he’ll sort it out, he’ll keep them safe, he’ll build some new prison spaces.Sorry what? There’s a scary dude on the run with a gun ...
Hi,I know it’s been awhile since there’s been any Webworm merch — and today that all changes!Over the last four months, I’ve been working with New Zealand artist Jess Johnson to create a series of t-shirts, caps and stickers that are infused with Webworm DNA — and as of right ...
The OECD’s chief economist yesterday laid it on the line for the new Government: bring the deficit under control or face higher Reserve Bank interest rates for longer. And to bring the deficit under control, she meant not borrowing for tax cuts. But there was more. Without policy changes—introducing a ...
After a hiatus of over four months Selwyn Manning and I finally got it together to re-start the “A View from Afar” podcast series. We shall see how we go but aim to do 2 episodes per month if possible. … Continue reading → ...
In 2008, the UK Parliament passed the Climate Change Act 2008. The law established a system of targets, budgets, and plans, with inbuilt accountability mechanisms; the aim was to break the cycle of empty promises and replace it with actual progress towards emissions reduction. The law was passed with near-universal ...
Buzz from the Beehive Local Water Done Well – let’s be blunt – is a silly name, but the first big initiative to put it into practice has gone done well. This success is reflected in the headline on an RNZ report:District mayors welcome Auckland’s new water deal with ...
This is a re-post from Yale Climate ConnectionsA farmworker cleans the solar panels of a solar water pump in the village of Jagadhri, Haryana Country, India. (Photo credit: Prashanth Vishwanathan/ IWMI) Decisions made in India over the next few years will play a key role in global ...
Lindsay Mitchell writes – The Children’s Minister, Karen Chhour, intends to repeal Section 7AA from the Oranga Tamariki Act 1989 because it creates conflict between claimed Crown Treaty obligations and the child’s best interests. In her words, “Oranga Tamariki’s governing principles and its act should be colour ...
Geoffrey Miller writes – The gloves are off. That might seem to be the undertone of surprisingly tough talk from New Zealand’s foreign and trade ministers. Winston Peters, the foreign minister, may be facing legal action after making allegations about former Australian foreign minister Bob Carr on Radio New Zealand. ...
Brian Easton writes – This is about the time that the Treasury will be locking up its economic forecasts to be published in the 2024 Budget Economic and Fiscal Update (BEFU) on budget day, 30 May. I am not privy to what they will be (I will report on them ...
TL;DR:Winston Peters is reported to have won a budget increase for MFAT. David Seymour wanted his Ministry of Regulation to be three times bigger than the Productivity Commission. Simeon Brown is appointing a Crown Monitor to Watercare to protect the Claytons Crown Guarantee he had to give ratings agencies ...
The gloves are off. That might seem to be the undertone of surprisingly tough talk from New Zealand’s foreign and trade ministers. Winston Peters, the foreign minister, may be facing legal action after making allegations about former Australian foreign minister Bob Carr on Radio New Zealand. Carr had made highly ...
I could be a florist'Round the corner from Rye LaneI'll be giving daisies to craziesBut, baby, I'll wrap you up real safe Oh, I can give you flowers At the end of every dayFor the center of your table, a rainbowIn case you have people 'round to stay Depending on ...
TL;DR: The six key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to May 12 include:PM Christopher Luxon is scheduled to hold a post-Cabinet news conference at 4 pm today. Finance Minister Nicola Willis will give a pre-budget speech on Thursday.Parliament sits from Question Time at 2pm on ...
The price of the foreign affairs “reset” is now becoming apparent, with Defence set to get a funding boost in the Budget. Finance Minister Nicola Willis has confirmed that it will be one of the few votes, apart from Health and Education and possibly Police, which will get an increase ...
Today New Zealand First will introduce a Member’s Bill that will protect women’s spaces. The ‘Fair Access to Bathrooms Bill’ will require, primarily in the interest and safety of women and girls, that all new non-domestic publicly accessible buildings provide separate, clearly demarcated, unisex and single sex bathrooms. This Bill ...
The Green Party is welcoming Climate Change Minister Simon Watts’ continuation of Hon. James Shaw’s cross-party work on climate adaptation, now in the form of a Finance and Expenditure Committee Inquiry. ...
The National Government plans to cut 390 jobs at ACC, including roles in the areas of prevention of sexual violence, road safety and workplace safety. ...
The Government has been caught in opposition to evidence once again as it looks to usher in tried, tested and failed work seminar obligations for job-seeking beneficiaries. ...
The Green Party is welcoming the announcement by the Minister Responsible for RMA Reform Chris Bishop to approve most of the Wellington City Council’s District Plan recommendations. ...
David Seymour has failed to get the sweeping cuts he wanted to the free and healthy school lunch programme, Labour education spokesperson Jan Tinetti said. ...
Hon Willie Jackson has been invited by the Oxford Union to debate the motion “This House Believes British Museums are not Very British’ on May 23rd. ...
Green Party MP Hūhana Lyndon says her Public Works (Prohibition of Compulsory Acquisition of Māori Land) Amendment Bill is an opportunity to right some past wrongs around the alienation of Māori land. ...
A senior, highly respected King’s Counsel with decades of experience in our law courts, Gary Judd KC, has filed a complaint about compulsory tikanga Māori studies for law students - highlighting the utter depths of absurdity this woke cultural madness has taken our society. The tikanga regulations will compel law ...
The Government needs to be clear with the people of the Nelson Marlborough region about the changes it is considering for the Nelson Hospital rebuild, Labour health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall said. ...
Ministers must front up about which projects it will push through under its Fast Track Approvals legislation, Labour environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
The Government is again adding to New Zealand’s growing unemployment, this time cutting jobs at the agencies responsible for urban development and growing much needed housing stock. ...
With Minister Karen Chhour indicating in the House today that she either doesn’t know or care about the frontline cuts she’s making to Oranga Tamariki, we risk seeing more and more of our children falling through the cracks. ...
The Labour Party is saddened to learn of the death of Sir Robert Martin, a globally renowned disability advocate who led the way for disability rights both in New Zealand and internationally. ...
Labour is calling for the Government to urgently rethink its coalition commitment to restart live animal exports, Labour animal welfare spokesperson Rachel Boyack said. ...
Today’s Financial Stability Report has once again highlighted that poverty and deep inequality are political choices - and this Government is choosing to make them worse. ...
The Green Party is calling on the Government to do more for our households in most need as unemployment rises and the cost of living crisis endures. ...
Unemployment is on the rise and it’s only going to get worse under this Government, Labour finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds said. Stats NZ figures show the unemployment rate grew to 4.3 percent in the March quarter from 4 percent in the December quarter. “This is the second rise in unemployment ...
The New Zealand Labour Party welcomes the entering into force of the European Union and New Zealand free trade agreement. This agreement opens the door for a huge increase in trade opportunities with a market of 450 million people who are high value discerning consumers of New Zealand goods and ...
The National-led Government continues its fiscal jiggery pokery with its Pharmac announcement today, Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall says. “The government has increased Pharmac funding but conceded it will only make minimal increases in access to medicine”, said Ayesha Verrall “This is far from the bold promises made to fund ...
This afternoon’s interim Waitangi Tribunal report must be taken seriously as it affects our most vulnerable children, Labour children’s spokesperson Willow-Jean Prime. ...
Te Pāti Māori are demanding the New Zealand Government support an international independent investigation into mass graves that have been uncovered at two hospitals on the Gaza strip, following weeks of assault by Israeli troops. Among the 392 bodies that have been recovered, are children and elderly civilians. Many of ...
Our two-tiered system for veterans’ support is out of step with our closest partners, and all parties in Parliament should work together to fix it, Labour veterans’ affairs spokesperson Greg O’Connor said. ...
Stripping two Ministers of their portfolios just six months into the job shows Christopher Luxon’s management style is lacking, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said. ...
Tonight’s court decision to overturn the summons of the Children’s Minister has enabled the Crown to continue making decisions about Māori without evidence, says Te Pāti Māori spokesperson for Children, Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. “The judicial system has this evening told the nation that this government can do whatever they want when ...
It appears Nicola Willis is about to pull the rug out from under the feet of local communities still dealing with the aftermath of last year’s severe weather, and local councils relying on funding to build back from these disasters. ...
The Government is making short-sighted changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) that will take away environmental protection in favour of short-term profits, Labour’s environment spokesperson Rachel Brooking said today. ...
Labour welcomes the release of the report into the North Island weather events and looks forward to working with the Government to ensure that New Zealand is as prepared as it can be for the next natural disaster. ...
The Labour Party has called for the New Zealand Government to recognise Palestine, as a material step towards progressing the two-State solution needed to achieve a lasting peace in the region. ...
Some of our country’s most important work, stopping the sexual exploitation of children and violent extremism could go along with staff on the frontline at ports and airports. ...
The Government’s Fast Track Approvals Bill will give projects such as new coal mines a ‘get out of jail free’ card to wreak havoc on the environment, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said today. ...
New Zealand voted in favour of a resolution broadening Palestine’s participation at the United Nations General Assembly overnight, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “The resolution enhances the rights of Palestine to participate in the work of the UN General Assembly while stopping short of admitting Palestine as a full ...
Introduction Good morning. It’s a great privilege to be here at the 2024 Infrastructure Symposium. I was extremely happy when the Prime Minister asked me to be his Minister for Infrastructure. It is one of the great barriers holding the New Zealand economy back from achieving its potential. Building high ...
Defence Minister Judith Collins today announced the upcoming Budget will include new funding of $571 million for Defence Force pay and projects. “Our servicemen and women do New Zealand proud throughout the world and this funding will help ensure we retain their services and expertise as we navigate an increasingly ...
New Zealand’s ability to cope with climate change will be strengthened as part of the Government’s focus to build resilience as we rebuild the economy, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “An enduring and long-term approach is needed to provide New Zealanders and the economy with certainty as the climate ...
Jobseeker beneficiaries who have work obligations must now meet with MSD within two weeks of their benefit starting to determine their next step towards finding a job, Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston says. “A key part of the coalition Government’s plan to have 50,000 fewer people on Jobseeker ...
A new standalone Social Investment Agency will power-up the social investment approach, driving positive change for our most vulnerable New Zealanders, Social Investment Minister Nicola Willis says. “Despite the Government currently investing more than $70 billion every year into social services, we are not seeing the outcomes we want for ...
Check against delivery Good morning. It is a pleasure to be with you to outline the Coalition Government’s approach to our first Budget. Thank you Mark Skelly, President of the Hutt Valley Chamber of Commerce, together with your Board and team, for hosting me. I’d like to acknowledge His Worship ...
Your Excellency Ambassador Meredith, Members of the Diplomatic Corps and Ambassadors from European Union Member States, Ministerial colleagues, Members of Parliament, and other distinguished guests, Thank you everyone for joining us. Ladies and gentlemen - In diplomacy, we often speak of ‘close’ and ‘long-standing’ relations. ...
The Therapeutic Products Act (TPA) will be repealed this year so that a better regime can be put in place to provide New Zealanders safe and timely access to medicines, medical devices and health products, Associate Health Minister Casey Costello announced today. “The medicines and products we are talking about ...
The Minister Responsible for RMA Reform, Chris Bishop, today released his decision on twenty recommendations referred to him by the Wellington City Council relating to its Intensification Planning Instrument, after the Council rejected those recommendations of the Independent Hearings Panel and made alternative recommendations. “Wellington notified its District Plan on ...
Rape Awareness Week (6-10 May) is an important opportunity to acknowledge the continued effort required by government and communities to ensure that all New Zealanders can live free from violence, say Ministers Karen Chhour and Louise Upston. “With 1 in 3 women and 1 in 8 men experiencing sexual violence ...
Associate Education Minister David Seymour has today announced that the Government will be delivering a more efficient Healthy School Lunches Programme, saving taxpayers approximately $107 million a year compared to how Labour funded it, by embracing innovation and commercial expertise. “We are delivering on our commitment to treat taxpayers’ money ...
New research on the impacts of extreme weather on coastal marine habitats in Tairāwhiti and Hawke’s Bay will help fishery managers plan for and respond to any future events, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. A report released today on research by Niwa on behalf of Fisheries New Zealand ...
Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Winston Peters will lead a broad political delegation on a five-stop Pacific tour next week to strengthen New Zealand’s engagement with the region. The delegation will visit Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, New Caledonia, and Tuvalu. “New Zealand has deep and ...
There has been a material decline in gas production according to figures released today by the Gas Industry Co. Figures released by the Gas Industry Company show that there was a 12.5 per cent reduction in gas production during 2023, and a 27.8 per cent reduction in gas production in the ...
Defence Minister Judith Collins tonight announced the recipients of the Minister of Defence Awards of Excellence for Industry, saying they all contribute to New Zealanders’ security and wellbeing. “Congratulations to this year’s recipients, whose innovative products and services play a critical role in the delivery of New Zealand’s defence capabilities, ...
Welcome to you all - it is a pleasure to be here this evening.I would like to start by thanking Greg Lowe, Chair of the New Zealand Defence Industry Advisory Council, for co-hosting this reception with me. This evening is about recognising businesses from across New Zealand and overseas who in ...
It is a pleasure to be speaking to you as the Minister for Digitising Government. I would like to thank Akolade for the invitation to address this Summit, and to acknowledge the great effort you are making to grow New Zealand’s digital future. Today, we stand at the cusp of ...
New Zealand is urging both Israel and Hamas to agree to an immediate ceasefire to avoid the further humanitarian catastrophe that military action in Rafah would unleash, Foreign Minister Winston Peters says. “The immense suffering in Gaza cannot be allowed to worsen further. Both sides have a responsibility to ...
A new online data dashboard released today as part of the Government’s school attendance action plan makes more timely daily attendance data available to the public and parents, says Associate Education Minister David Seymour. The interactive dashboard will be updated once a week to show a national average of how ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has announced Rosemary Banks will be New Zealand’s next Ambassador to the United States of America. “Our relationship with the United States is crucial for New Zealand in strategic, security and economic terms,” Mr Peters says. “New Zealand and the United States have a ...
The Government is considering creating a new tier of minerals permitting that will make it easier for hobby miners to prospect for gold. “New Zealand was built on gold, it’s in our DNA. Our gold deposits, particularly in regions such as Otago and the West Coast have always attracted fortune-hunters. ...
Minister for Trade Todd McClay today announced that New Zealand and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) will commence negotiations on a free trade agreement (FTA). Minister McClay met with his counterpart UAE Trade Minister Dr Thani bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi in Dubai, where they announced the launch of negotiations on a ...
New Zealand Sign Language Week is an excellent opportunity for all Kiwis to give the language a go, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. This week (May 6 to 12) is New Zealand Sign Language (NZSL) Week. The theme is “an Aotearoa where anyone can sign anywhere” and aims to ...
Six tertiary students have been selected to work on NASA projects in the US through a New Zealand Space Scholarship, Space Minister Judith Collins announced today. “This is a fantastic opportunity for these talented students. They will undertake internships at NASA’s Ames Research Center or its Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), where ...
New Zealanders will be safer because of a $1.9 billion investment in more frontline Corrections officers, more support for offenders to turn away from crime, and more prison capacity, Corrections Minister Mark Mitchell says. “Our Government said we would crack down on crime. We promised to restore law and order, ...
The OECD’s latest report on New Zealand reinforces the importance of bringing Government spending under control, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The OECD conducts country surveys every two years to review its members’ economic policies. The 2024 New Zealand survey was presented in Wellington today by OECD Chief Economist Clare Lombardelli. ...
The Government has delivered on its election promise to provide a financially sustainable model for Auckland under its Local Water Done Well plan. The plan, which has been unanimously endorsed by Auckland Council’s Governing Body, will see Aucklanders avoid the previously projected 25.8 per cent water rates increases while retaining ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters discussed the need for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, and enhanced cooperation in the Pacific with German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock during her first official visit to New Zealand today. "New Zealand and Germany enjoy shared interests and values, including the rule of law, democracy, respect for the international system ...
The Minister Responsible for RMA Reform, Chris Bishop today released his decision on four recommendations referred to him by the Western Bay of Plenty District Council, opening the door to housing growth in the area. The Council’s Plan Change 92 allows more homes to be built in existing and new ...
Thank you, John McKinnon and the New Zealand China Council for the invitation to speak to you today. Thank you too, all members of the China Council. Your effort has played an essential role in helping to build, shape, and grow a balanced and resilient relationship between our two ...
The Government is modernising insurance law to better protect Kiwis and provide security in the event of a disaster, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly announced today. “These reforms are long overdue. New Zealand’s insurance law is complicated and dated, some of which is more than 100 years old. ...
The coalition Government is refreshing its approach to supporting pay equity claims as time-limited funding for the Pay Equity Taskforce comes to an end, Public Service Minister Nicola Willis says. “Three years ago, the then-government introduced changes to the Equal Pay Act to support pay equity bargaining. The changes were ...
Structured literacy will change the way New Zealand children learn to read - improving achievement and setting students up for success, Education Minister Erica Stanford says. “Being able to read and write is a fundamental life skill that too many young people are missing out on. Recent data shows that ...
Trade Minister Todd McClay says Canada’s refusal to comply in full with a CPTPP trade dispute ruling in our favour over dairy trade is cynical and New Zealand has no intention of backing down. Mr McClay said he has asked for urgent legal advice in respect of our ‘next move’ ...
The rights of our children and young people will be enhanced by changes the coalition Government will make to strengthen oversight of the Oranga Tamariki system, including restoring a single Children’s Commissioner. “The Government is committed to delivering better public services that care for our most at-risk young people and ...
The Government is making it easier for minor changes to be made to a building consent so building a home is easier and more affordable, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on making it easier and cheaper to build homes so we can ...
New Zealand lost a true legend when internationally renowned disability advocate Sir Robert Martin (KNZM) passed away at his home in Whanganui last night, Disabilities Issues Minister Louise Upston says. “Our Government’s thoughts are with his wife Lynda, family and community, those he has worked with, the disability community in ...
Good evening – Before discussing the challenges and opportunities facing New Zealand’s foreign policy, we’d like to first acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs. You have contributed to debates about New Zealand foreign policy over a long period of time, and we thank you for hosting us. ...
From today, passengers travelling internationally from Auckland Airport will be able to keep laptops and liquids in their carry-on bags for security screening thanks to new technology, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Creating a more efficient and seamless travel experience is important for holidaymakers and businesses, enabling faster movement through ...
An Australian Strategic Policy Institute report says Pillar Two could raise the industry to state of the art capability - or "crush" it "under the weight of the globe's biggest player". ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Marlene Longbottom, Associate Professor, Indigenous Education & Research Centre, James Cook University ShutterstockThis article contains information on deaths in custody and the violence experienced by First Nations people in encounters with the Australian carceral system. It also contains references to ...
“Instead of following along countries that are investing in death and better ways of killing people faster, we need to invest in life and in making Aotearoa a fair, just and equitable place where everyone has what they need for a dignified life.” ...
MARIAMENO KAPA-KINGI, TPM MP FOR TAI TOKERAU This Government will not waver in its mission to exterminate Māori. CHRISTOPHER LUXON Oh well look you know I don’t think that hard-working Kiwis want to hear language like that. It’s just really unhelpful rhetoric. My Government is genuinely committed to advancing outcomes ...
The body positivity movement started with women confronting the unrealistic expectations and unrepresentative portrayals of them in media and advertising. Men weren’t part of it … their bodies hadn’t been sexualised to the same extremes and they didn’t really need it. But now that’s changed. And in a warped sort ...
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Far North Mayor Moko Tepania
And ..absolutely ! NZ NEEDS Coastal Shipping. It is essential. The Kaikoura earthquake highlighted this.
Other Standardistas have also pointed our need for Coastal Shipping.
I have linked this previously..its a PDF so I'll just give link.
We need to get past NZ's unsustainable truck/trailer obsession. Driven of course by the large and loud lobby group of truckers. And supporters.
Coastal Shipping. Now.
Kaikoura earthquake 2016…
Following Cyclone Gabrielle, Northern line out for months with major repairs needed, ditto the Hawke's Bay one. The Napier-Wairoa line will be even longer (if, indeed, it's ever repaired) – major rail bridges down and really significant washouts.
https://www.1news.co.nz/2023/02/23/photos-northland-rail-line-cut-off-from-auckland/
Rail just doesn't seem to be a resilient transport solution.
I'd like to know what the engineers are saying. It seems like a decent chunk of our rail is built in vulnerable places, so are there better places to put new rail?
I can't find any discussion of changing the route for rail. Probably due to the major (as in trillions of dollars) cost involved.
The most recent (apart from Gabrielle) major rail repair was in the SI following the Kaikoura earthquake. And, IIRC, there was no discussion over re-routing it from the seashore route.
NZ is a mountainous country (in general), rail needs to follow, as much as possible, a level pathway (trains don't cope with significant grades), which pretty much means running alongside rivers through gorges (yes, there are exceptions – but it's the general rule); and through cuttings through the hills. So significant risk both from river rise/flooding/bridge washout, and from landslips down the neighbouring steep terrain.
There is no route from Wairoa to Napier (the one I'm most familiar with), which does not involve significant and rugged hills/mountains.
My understanding is that the northern route had more than 50 slips over the railway- this is through gentler terrain, but got hammered even harder by the weather.
That wasn't quite what I meant. I meant were engineers talking about the vulnerability of each line and what that means for events that take out the line (quakes, tsunami?, floods, slips).
I expect transition engineers are talking about it, I'll have a look.
As for costs, what's the cost of losing a line for a year? (rebuild and disruption costs). Then what happens if that happens 4 times in a decade? At what point do we start designing and redesigning for the world we now live in.
Build back better is old world thinking. We need to be transitioning.
Kaikoura is a good example. I'm not suggesting moving the bits that can't easily be moved. I'm saying that if we centre physical reality as we know it now, it looks quite different than when that line was built. Because of our knowledge about quakes and because of climate.
Sustainability design wouldn't start with 'we have to have a rail line and there are no options but here because it's too expensive'. It would start with what are the specific needs that this line exists for. Freight, public transport. what else?
Then look at the best ways to meet those needs in terms of sustainability and resiliency. eg to what extent can rail freight be replaced or supplemented by shipping or road (EV)? How can we integrate those systems so that when there is a disaster, the surviving systems are robust?
There's a further aspect that, which is why transition (whole systems) rather then build back better needs to be the conceptual frame. How much of the goods and people we are moving are essential? Necessary? Unnecessary?
How much food is being moved along that rail line? How much by road or sea? What would happen if we relocalised food production and supply?
Likewise, if we shifted from a consumerist society to a regenerative one, do we need to be travelling as much? Do we need to by buying as much Stuff?
Your argument is usually no-one will want to do that. Well no-one wants to abandon their house to silt damage either. Looking at the broader options rather than just BAU helps people to see that life could change for the better in a lot of ways if we transition. Both by creating resiliency, but also by creating lives that have a different kind of meaning, are less stressful and more pleasurable and where our core values are centred (I'm still betting that most New Zealanders don't place consumerism at the centre if they felt like they had a choice).
Largely the cost of losing a railway line for a year isn't great – transport shifts to trucks (almost never to shipping), and just continues.
The cost to repair is also far greater than roads – and the ability to divert around breakages is less.
In NZ rail lines are not a trivial engineering challenge. See this about the original Napier to Gisborne line.
https://www.engineeringnz.org/programmes/heritage/heritage-records/napier-gisborne-railway/
It was closed in 2012 after significant storm damage, and re-opened (Wairoa to Napier only) in 2020 for logging transport only. [That's not to say other items couldn't be shipped, just that they weren't]
The line through to Gisborne was never re-opened, and probably won't ever be – just not enough transport need to justify it.
none of that is using a sustainability lens and some of it is anti-sustainability 🤷♀️
"How much of the goods and people we are moving are essential? Necessary? Unnecessary? "
Who decides what's necessary or unnecessary?
Does it simply become a cost factor (the rich can travel, the poor can't)?
take the easy stuff first. Staple foods are essential. Things like this aren't,
https://www.thewarehouse.co.nz/p/living-co-artificial-fern-foliage-spray-60cm-green-mid-60cm/R2779371.html
Are you familiar with the concept of Just Transition?
What do you think happens to poor people during and after a disaster?
So your artificial fern would be available in Auckland (international shipping port), but not in Gisborne. Or are you suggesting that it would be denied import permission (so no one can have it)?
[I have to say, this is not something I would ever contemplate buying – regardless of availability – by clearly there is a market]
Moving to things which are luxuries – we're all familiar with the black market which arises when they're banned or restricted. When, indeed, only the wealthy can afford them.
Just transition seems to operate at a macro level (e.g. the funding which went into Taranaki after the oil and gas exploration ban) – rather than at an individual level.
In a disaster in NZ, the poor people get quite a bit of immediate support – it's the middle class (what there is left of it) who struggle.
As an illustration, ATM we have 2 staff at work who had red-stickered houses. The one renting, has simply rented a new place – yes, they've lost furniture and possessions and personally important mementoes – but they're moving on with their life. The one who owns (well, owes the bank) the house, has to manage renting, as well as all of the other costs, stress and worry associated with dealing with government and Council and insurance, etc. Their bills (mortgage, rates, etc.) continue, as well as the costs of renting. They are much worse off than the renter.
Banning isn't where I would start. I'd start with the conversation about values and what really matters.
You can see it with those people in the Muriwai meeting. It's like the Chch quakes never happened. They're going through exactly what happened a decade ago. I remember watching the process by which the rest of NZ switched off from Chch and just moved on. If someone wants to stand up and make an argument for the right to buy plastic ferns, they can have at it. But more will stand up and talk about the need for housing and food security.
Just Transition is the idea that when we decarbonise and move to a regenerative economy, we build in from the start processes that take into account socioeconomic disparities.
Your staff sound like two middle class households (or at least, your example isn't inherently class-based). A poor family would struggle to replace clothes, food staples, their car if they even owned one.
WINZ had a 90 minute wait on the call centre last week. Imagine being so poor that you don't have enough money to buy food and you have to spend 90 minutes on the phone just to *ask for a food grant (no guarantee you will get it). How do you even do that if you have a job?
Which isn't to say the house owner isn't going through a heap of major stress. They are.
Responding to this "Your staff sound like two middle class households "
That's a pretty whopping assumption, when the only information I'd given is that one family owned a house (with a huge mortgage) and the other was renting.
The family renting are certainly not middle class. Minimum wage employee. Very solidly in the (rather struggling in NZ) working-class.
Found a new rental (smaller than the previous one, but needs must) – and can just walk away from their previous tenancy because red-stickered. Have had new-to-them (but in good condition) appliances and furniture donated via charities; food and toiletry parcels from other charities (to get them back on their feet). Have lost family mementoes (which is sad), and there’s nothing that can make up for that.
They’ve had a shock, and lost some stuff – but aren’t materially in a much worse position than they were pre-floods.
NB: They tried talking to WINZ – but basically gave up – it was just too hard.
There was a bit more information
that and what you’ve just shared tells me they’re not on the bones of their arse. But fair enough, and I was expecting to be corrected.
I do think it’s worthwhile acknowledging the strata within the working and underclasses (and middle class). That they could give up on WINZ is a signifier of some degree of resources despite working class life having financial struggle.
We measure things in different ways. You’re comparing people who were not well off to begin with just getting on with it, with people who were well off and have lost significant materially.
I’m talking about people that are poor all the time and what happens to them during and after a disaster.
I think both are valid.
We started talking about that I think because I raised Just Transition and asked “What do you think happens to poor people during and after a disaster?”
I asked that because you seemed to think that in transition the rich can still travel and the poor can’t. That’s already the case. My line about poor people was a lazy point about we don’t have a just society now, that translates into emergencies, and it will translate with catastrophic climate only much, much worse. It doesn’t have to be that way. We can both prevent the worst of CC, and we can transition Justly.
Easy, the staff member with the mortgage gives the insurance payout to the bank and walks away. Then they are "simply" renters like the other staff member.
Problem solved.
Your definition of 'poor' seems to be beneficiary-only. Not just ordinary working class.
I'm not arguing that WINZ (and many other Government departments) have done a good job – because I don't think they have. The waiting times on 'hold' are a shocking indictment – and even worse that this is the new 'normal'. I'd have a hell of a lot more respect for Sepuloni if she was sorting that out at WINZ, rather than swanning around emergency shelters.
But people who truly have nothing are in the emergency shelters, they are the ones being put into temporary accommodation (even though it may be not particularly desirable temporary accommodation), they're getting the food handouts – they're already in the 'system'.
The next step up the economic scale just get ignored.
Not at all. The person who doesn't have time to spend 90mins on the phone just to get through has a minimum wage job. Probably several. My definition of poor/not poor doesn't hinge on whether one own's a home or rents. It's about whether one can afford the basics.
not sure exactly who you are referring to but anyone without sufficient income or savings can get an SNG for food, not just beneficiaries.
I would count people who can afford insurance as probably not poor, but maybe you are talking about the group of people who are about to drop down a class, possibly permanently, as they use up their small amount of savings while waiting for the house situation to be sorted out and then struggle to ever recover. I feel for these people, especially if they've not been there before. This is the story of many New Zealanders in past decades.
I'm less confident than you that the really poor are being looked after, but you have more local knowledge. Mostly I think that lots of people are suffering and struggling, some with support some without, and that as a country we're better at acute emergencies, but not so good with the long weeks and months after.
"Well no-one wants to abandon their house to silt damage either."
I certainly agree with this.
Take a look at Auckland's west coast beaches – Piha, Muriwai, Karekare. Inhabitants would have to be some of the 'greenest' of the Auckland population (on average) – but they'll be fighting tooth-and-nail against managed retreat – which is the obvious option for that area – unstable steep cliffs, housing either on the cliffs (landslides); or at sea level (storm surge damage and rising water levels).
They're already holding public meetings demanding to know when the Council/Government are going to let them back into their houses.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/485187/muriwai-residents-vent-anger-at-auckland-council-staff-on-future-of-slip-hit-houses
They like their lifestyle – and want to stay where they are.
As a city, Auckland would be better off rescinding all housing permission from the cliff edge down, and removing the roading infrastructure – retaining hiking tracks only.
Watched the video and read part of the article. The main thing that stands out is that there is a major comms issue. People are understandably stressed and council is giving clear enough rationales, but that's not enough in a situation like this, you have to meet people where they are.
eg residents want an ETA on getting back to their house. Council can't give that for the area that is too dangerous to inspect. But they could tell residents what the conditions are that need to change to do further inspections and when that might happen eg do they need a fortnight of dry weather? Not guarantees but information about the process.
The stuff about people not knowing if their pets are ok is just a complete fail, and bullshit. Humans that are traumatised need emotional safety in addition to physical safety. Helping resolve the pet issue is low hanging fruit.
Agree that building on cliffs (and down stream from cliffs) like that just has to stop. That we still build in so many stupid places is an indictment of just how much councils have been neoliberalised.
Ports can act as hubs, but it needs to be planned, and the service both reliable and cost-effective.
Rail needs to improve connectivity, capacity and price.
Then local deliveries can then be the bulk of road freight. But the first two are not currently in place.
Transition discussions should be able to identify the obstacles without resorting to demonising handy political targets.
Ah, where was that?
"We need to get past NZ's unsustainable truck/trailer obsession. Driven of course by the large and loud lobby group of truckers. And supporters."
lol….you are maybe hunting for something if you think thats demonising ! And..I gave plenty of Links supporting Coastal Shipping. Have a Nice Day : )
Fair enough if you consider "demonising" is too strong an adjective. Perhaps vilifying or blaming, but replacing the word with something milder doesn't affect the point I was making.
Why conclude an informative and thoughtful comment with that parting shot – to an industry not responsible for shipping at all?
In the first set of storms that hit Auckland, for over 24 hours you could not get in or out by plane because the airport was smashed, by rail because there were multiple track stoppages, and or by State Highway since that had multiple floods. We were completely cut off.
That's supplies and exports cut for 33% of NZ's population and 45% of its economy.
We totally need coastal shipping now.
Three weeks ago from Gisborne through to Napier for 3 days we had no flights in or out, no rail because it was smashed, and no state highway access from any side. The final resort for Gisborne was to bring in the NZNavy's HMNZS Manawanui.
Just in case it needs stating, the NZDF are our last thread when the whole of civil society is shredded. For a solid week we were on the bones of our ass. Thankyou NZDF for your collective work.
https://www.nzdf.mil.nz/nzdf/significant-projects-and-issues/cyclone-gabrielle/
By the way congratulations to Commander Fiona Jameson, taking command of frigate HMNZS Te Kaha today from Commander Kane Sutherland.
In case it needs saying again, we need more coastal shipping to prepare for deep crisis, and the natural team to run it would by the NZNavy.
"for over 24 hours you could not get in or out"
That was in a city where the cyclone actually struck. The Cook Strait ferries, which are of course coastal shipping were also cancelled for the same time period. That was in places that weren't even directly hit by the cyclone.
Why do you expect coastal shipping to help in the future as it doesn't seem any more available than planes or trucks?
https://www.stuff.co.nz/marlborough-express/news/300805601/widespread-travel-disruptions-expected-as-cook-strait-ferries-to-be-cancelled-in-wake-of-cyclone-gabrielle
Nope, that was on 27 January when there was no cyclone anywhere in sight; Gabrielle came 2 weeks later in mid-February.
27 January was Cyclone Hale.
That’s not correct.
It was not a cyclone that took out Auckland Airport on 27 January.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022%E2%80%9323_South_Pacific_cyclone_season#Tropical_Depression_06F
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2023_North_Island_floods#Auckland_Airport
Cyclone Hale was an earlier weather event.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022%E2%80%9323_South_Pacific_cyclone_season#Tropical_Cyclone_Hale
The 27 January event was the result of an "atmospheric river" which had developed from a former tropical depression in the Coral Sea area. It stretched south from New Caledonia through to the eastern ocean area of NZ. It was in this river of warm, moisture laden air that the big rains of late January and early February in Northland, Auckland and Bay of Plenty were sustained.
That river of moisture laden tropical air also provided the conduit for both Tropical Cyclones Hale and Gabrielle to hit us with the full force of their fury. Glad to say it has now dissipated and hopefully will not return.
Oops… that was a reply to Shanreagh.
At the same time the rest of our coastal shipping was running fine.
Apart from congestion caused by lack of port infrastructure, which has been ongoing for some time.
"At the same time the rest of our coastal shipping was running fine."
Coastal shipping reliability has been compromised for a while now.
Bookings are changed or cancelled at late notice, while costs have increased significantly.
International shipping is notably unreliable, but there's issues domestically as well.
Yes, the storm he was talking about was not during the cyclone. However the cyclone didn't hit Wellington and the weather on the day they cancelled all the ferries had weather which seems to have been very similar to the Auckland event a couple of week earlier when the planes were out.
The weather in Wellington wasn't very nice but it was exactly what we get half a dozen times a year. It is quite normal for the ferries to not sail and it merely illustrates that the ferries, which are coastal shipping, are quite routinely disrupted by our normal NZ storms. I don't think having coastal shipping available is really going to provide greater reliability than aircraft or roads do.
The biggest problem with the NZDF atm is the massive separation rate from NZDF which is over +30%
Army at +17.2%
Navy at +12.5%
The Regular Army is struggling to force generate manpower to deal with concurrent HADR Ops in NZ on top of not having a enough equipment or spares as capabilities have been allowed to run down over the last 30yrs & I including the Reserve Forces who have actually made up the bulk up of the Army's Response.
It's got that bad in the Army Engineers side of things, that they had call a upon QAMR to deploy a Cav Sabre Tp C/S V22 to do Route Reconnaissance which is QAMR/ RNZAC Wartime Role as the Engineers had no spare manpower.
The Navy isn't much chop either, some ships haven't deploy due to manning or for a lack of maintenance due to a manning.
The Airforce is lacking Fix & Rotary Wing Assets.
Only 6 of the 8 NH90's were flying, one has been waiting for a new gearbox since 2018 & additional funding has been denied by Robbo to get this fixed! The other one is in for deep level maintenance. The current 8 NH90's flying already have highest flying hrs for it's type in world for any user & yet RNZAF is still below the minimum required number for it to under sustain concurrent Operations which is 12 NH90's.
The A109's were meant to have taken up some of the slack & help reduce the amount flying hrs of the NH90's, but they proven to be so bloody useless as expected by RNZAF when the A109's was forced on by the Labour Alliance Coalition & NZ Treasury! That they are good for Training Pilots, Crewman & VIP Flights!
The scary thing about this, is Ron Mark forewarned the NZG that this was coming when he delivered his CC speech & what it might for the NZDF which also included his enhanced DCP.
But previous & this Stupid Labour Government kicked the bloody can down the Rd again like every other bastard NZG has done since the 90's.
NZ has dodge a bullet this time round & given the amount damage this time round! It won't be so lucky next time especially if the NZDF is busy elsewhere in NZ on a HADR or somewhere in the Sth Pacific or further afield on a Peacekeeping or HADR Op!
Good old Navy (well, not so old really : ) and all our NZ Services. Respect !
24 hours is not really a significant period.
SHI south was open (so far as I recall) – it was only the route further north which was closed.
Whenuapai was open (indeed that's how Hipkins got to Auckland) – which perhaps should raise the question (again) of an airport north of Auckland – given the vulnerabilities of Auckland Airport which is virtually at sea level.
Apart from the areas badly affected by flooding and/or slips – which are relatively small, though tragic for those involved – Auckland was pretty much operating as usual 48 hours after the flooding. Our (as in the business I work for) imports and exports (national and international) were running as usual – though there were local delivery impacts across the country (we're still not delivering to Wairoa, for example).
The fragile nature of the infrastructure around Gisborne isn't new (only 2 roads in/out). The main SH are regularly closed for a day or so following major storms to clear slips.
Gisborne is a shipping port – mostly logs – but could easily accommodate other vessels – transport costs, timing and flexibility will be the limiting factors. According to family in Gisborne, the frustration now, is over limited water supplies – the water pipeline was damaged and will take months to repair), and over other flood repairs – not over transport.
Wairoa (which is still effectively cut off) is not really a suitable shipping destination – the bar at the river mouth is highly dangerous, and shifts frequently (not surprising in a major river) – dredging is only of limited use.
I'm not arguing against coastal shipping – but it is only one option in the mix following a disaster.
An interesting short video on the early days of covid from Peter Zeihan.
As Zeihan points out, there is now more official opinion that Covid was the result of an accidental lab leak rather than a jump between species.
But, as Zeihan points out, that is not really the main issue. The main issue is that China shut down its domestic flights when it realised there was an issue, but allowed international flights to continue. Thus, the virus was allowed to spread internationally.
That suggests a degree of intentionality on the part of Chinese authorities in that they appeared to realise there was a dangerous pathogen on the loose. They appeared to be prepared to try and protect their own population while at the same time enabling the spread of it worldwide.
It was blindingly obvious to me at the time that China knew it should shut down international travel by expat Chinese for the Lunar New Year. The virus spread to Italy from returning Chinese workers, for example.
The other immoral/agressive act was ordering Chinese companies around the world (all, not just medical) to buy up available PPE in the time before the pandemic became full-blown. I read in an article round that time, from abc I think, that Chinese firms had bought up and sent 8,000 tonnes of high quality PPE from Australia alone back to China. Then, of course, China kept the best, and resold what it didn't need at inflated prices back to the countries it had come from initially.
Pretty sure China stopped their citizens travelling internationally very early, the Chinese tourism market was the first sector to shut down here and that was before Chinese New Year. Americans and Brits on the other hand kept demanding to come here, then ignored isolation requirements, saying they had been here two weeks but unable to say where they had been for that two weeks.
By the time they were welding apartment doors shut in Wuhan the horse had well and truly bolted internationally. It's unfortunate that most of the world wasn't able to take the measures that China and a very few other countries, NZ is one of that few, were able to take and contain the virus in it's early forms.
I remember the Chinese government kicked up a stink, and officially complained to Jacinda Ardern's government when we closed our borders, saying it was an affront to China. So they were still happy to export their citizens round the world well into March.
We may have got in first closing the border on 3/2/20, but China also stopped issuing passports for overseas travel very early in the pandemic
From discussion with a Chinese businessman almost next door to us at the time the two actions were pretty much coincidental, his view was that China got in first but didn't say anything, people's passports just didn't arrive, then it was made official a bit later. There were some parts of the Chinese government doing very much the right thing, and other parts being stereotypical Chinese autocrats, but that happened in a lot of other countries too.
It was the WHO that dropped the ball with travel restrictions early on.
Yup, I got the lockdown dates wrong. Here's one article where China complained about NZ's lockdown.
https://www.newsweek.com/new-zealand-china-winston-peters-coronavirus-lockdown-1504016
Before the lockdown, in January 2020 my son and I had already caught covid, based on the sweats, the body aches and dry bradykinin cough. We only worked it out afterwards. My son had ongoing chest and lung pains and fatigue for three months after. That was before any government diagnostic testing, and we didn't get sick enough to need medical help.
Where did we get it from? When my son went to the supermarket a few days before he got sick, an elderly Chinese man with blood-shot eyes was hacking and coughing his lungs out at the checkout. My son thought at the time that he looked too sick to be out and about, not to mention the anti-social behaviour of spreading whatever flu he had.
So, based on our (first) personal experience of covid, we reckon that Chinese NZ resident had either caught covid while coming back from China, or from his returning relatives. I'm pretty sure the government knew that there were already quite a few unreported cases across NZ at the time of lockdown, and that's why they 'went hard'. And no, we don't live in a main centre.
So why, if China knew it was letting overseas Chinese return to their countries with likely infections, did they pressure NZ to stay open?
This is pure racist dogwhistling.
You have no idea whether this 'Chinese seeming' elderly man was from China (or was a Kiwi of Chinese origin who'd been here for 4 generations); whether he was ethnically from China (or any of the other Asian countries Westerners often confuse with China); if he was from China, that he'd come from the very small area affected by Covid in January 2020; and, indeed, if he or members of his family had been travelling at all.
Your 'reckons' are pure racism.
If you did have Covid (which is highly unlikely at that date), then you actually have zero idea of the vector.
Did I call for this man's death on the basis of his race or threaten violence or retaliation? No. Did I or my son personally abuse him? No. I stated the facts.
An elderly, extremely ill, ethnic Chinese man tottered around a large supermarket, coughing and sputtering, We got sick, my son three days, and me five days later, with an illness so similar in symptoms to the covid we had again later, that gosh, it was covid. We didn't socialise elsewhere in that time.
Was there any judgemental comment about him that I made, except to say, as for any sick person, of ANY race to be so ill and to cough all over others in a public space is anti-social? Did I suggest he knew he had covid and was making us sick on purpose? No, because I don't believe he was.
And, no, I don't hate him personally for his behaviour, because, hey people get sick and don't think straight. Even if I did, it still wouldn't be racist, because it's an opinion about an INDIVIDUAL'S behaviour, not about a RACE'S perceived traits.
It is not racist to criticise a GOVERNMENT, which is what I have been doing. One poster put forward weak ANECDOTAL evidence that China slowed the egress of Chinese citizens informally. China didn't stop expat individuals, almost certainly some sick with covid, returning from China. Direct Shanghai-Auckland flights, for one, were still running at the time of lockdown.
I put forward plausible personal anecdotal evidence in response. Nothing I wrote was racist, so take that slur off the table, thanks. I infer from your behaviour that you would believe criticising the STATE of Israel for political choices that ghetto-ise West Bank Palestinians is an attack on Jews as a RACE, rather than valid criticism of extreme Zionist policies that are themselves racist.
And below is a link to valid, substantiated reports that the Chinese GOVERNMENT surreptitiously stockpiled and bought huge amounts of PPE internationally in late 2019 and early 2020, by commanding overseas Chinese companies of any sort to buy and ship PPE back.
NZ nurses wearing binliners comes to mind. Hmm. Surely, this GOVERNMENT action undeniably compromised other countries' health response to covid, and resulted in avoidable healthworker deaths in other parts of the world.
news.com australia article on China stockpiling of PPE
Chinese tourists with really bad flu wasn't that uncommon, and often they picked it up here. Got to bear in mind that China didn't have much of an idea what was going on either, combine that with the CCP administrative culture and Chinese bureaucracy right up the chain will be a bit resistant to anything that might rock the boat. Once they figured out what was going on the place got shut down pdq.
Working in tourism I was watching this unfold and contradictory statements by most governments, often on a daily basis, were common. We look back on it now and think politicians and bureaucrats were being duplicitous, but in reality they were doing their best in an unknown environment. We also have the disadvantage of viewing it from the position of a very effective and co-ordinated response, in a lot of countries it was complete chaos in February 2020.
Credit to the Chinese government that they were able to shut it down once they figured out what was going on and how to deal with it. That Chinese bureaucratic machine is a huge beast, turning it from maintaining social cohesion and status quo to responding to a novel pandemic is going to be a bit inconsistent, I'm impressed how effectively they responded. If USA and EU, and WHO, had been as emphatic and effective the world might be in a much better place right now.
Let's give Mark Mitchell the publicity he so desperately craves. He's challenged Stuart Nash to meet him in the ring in a charity boxing match.
Mitchell said participating is a “no-brainer". If it's to be a no-brainer Mitchell won't need any opponent in with him.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/politics/fight-for-life-national-mp-calls-on-minister-of-muscles-to-meet-him-in-the-ring/PGATMDBPANHUFB3Q4LGLWIJEJE/
Well, Old…. self proclaimed "tough guy" Mitchell has had previous. And there was this of course.
"If" it ever happened, the Ref would need to be on his toes watching for low blow Dirty Tricks
And was Old… Mark "head injury" Mitchell hiding this?
Are the Organisers aware of this? Pretty sure he shouldnt be allowed in any ring let alone a Charity event…or to boast shit in the media about his …readiness to fight.
Laughable….
Mitchell's challenge raises some serious questions for National's leadership to answer. 1. Was it ok'd by Luxon? 2. What is National's and Luxon's view on boxing for fundraising?
For me this challenge demonstrates (again) an unhealthy macho aspect to Mitchell's character; does National condone and maybe even encourage this trait.
I think this is ghastly. These are untrained wannabes. Mitchell should not be going anywhere near competitive sports where head injuries are common.
I hope Nash turns him down for something like gym endurance, bench pressing etc, rowing machine, etc. Even a day & a night relay team.
Perhaps the mods on this site need to have a rethink of their policy. Couple of days ago I was reprimanded for offering to give "ghost who walks" a smack in the mouth. I accept that. But,
We have this discussion about "fight for life" and the violence that ensues.
Interesting that Mitchell has suffered brain damage, which explains to me a lot of his attitudes. Should he be heading into a violent situation again.
And, given this sites anti violent policy should it even be a subject
[You were moderated for your comment and I am still waiting for you to comply with your moderation (https://thestandard.org.nz/daily-review-01-03-2023/#comment-1937312). It will decide whether you receive a one-month ban or not. You’ll have until Sunday night to finish your task or cop the ban – Incognito]
Mod note
No worries a months ban is fine with me
Okidoki, thanks for letting us know. See you in a month.
Mark Mitchell will have to hope it doesn't go the same way as the last Lusk protégée to try their hand a charity boxing, they got KOed in first round
[image resized]
Looks like "Take Your Paraphilia to Work Day" is finally over. This is what happens when you add the "means what I say it means" terms like "Gender Expression" to your anti discrimination laws.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11810349/Teacher-prosthetic-Z-cup-breast-FINALLY-leave.html
I tend to think this was a long game, played by the teacher for personal benefit, but highlighting the contortions people in positions of authority will do in order to meet gender ideology demands.
After being incapable of addressing his use of fetish wear in the classroom – because it was deemed an expression of his gender identity – this man has essentially been stood down for what he wears at home.
Either way, it was a guaranteed road to a discrimination case.
Good thread here:
https://twitter.com/iowahawkblog/status/1631298305861746691?s=20
what happens when a society rejects reality and embraces fantasy identities and magical thinking?
those who see through the illusions and use them for cynical means will take advantage
the truth will only be spoken in whispers
https://twitter.com/iowahawkblog/status/1631318509249544193?s=20
The only reason I saw that it could be a piss take was the fact that he wore comfortable shoes. Usually, the standard autogynephiliac wardrobe includes stripper high heels.
So Mr Luxon is to present his much practised "State of the Nation" speech tomorrow Sunday at 11am, after church. He will give it to a selected bunch of friends who I suppose includes Jessica MM and Mr Coughlin. No doubt we will get a medicated/sanitised version.
I expect the speech to be published in full, as is custom, so that we can judge for ourselves without the punditry and spin put on it by others.
https://www.national.org.nz/speech-state-of-the-nation-2022
When in doubt, ask ChatGPT to analyse the contents of the speech and prompt it with a few simple questions:
Yes ianmac, and quite a lot more of his devoted poodles will be in attendence too.
Surely a would-be PM would want to wow the public and even so called Journalists. If not why not? Can't hide forever.
Intrusive, informative, or imperative?
https://www.stuff.co.nz/pou-tiaki/131382320/census-2023-intersex-new-zealanders-encouraged-to-tick-the-box
I’ve already seen some here on TS getting hot under the collar about it.
If they are going to start asking medical questions they should include some of the more common disorders rather than glamourising gender pathology
Which question(s) is/are ‘glamourising gender pathology’ in your opinion and why?
Which ‘more common [medical] disorders’ are missing and should be included in your opinion and why?
https://www.census.govt.nz/what-questions-are-in-the-2023-census/
They could start by using the modern term for what used to called "Intersex". These days they are differences or variations of sex development. There are about 40 known syndromes which fall under this category. They are actually variations on male (Klinefelter's syndrome), or female (Turner's syndrome) for example. This is shown by the fact that those that are fertile (and many are not) produce either sperm or eggs.
Unfortunately, these medical conditions have been weaponised by the Gender Ideology pushers to try and show that sex is some sort of spectrum, which it is not.
https://mrkhvoice.com/index.php/2019/05/12/statistics-and-semantics-is-intersex-as-common-as-red-heads/
You would probably have more people with ingrowing toenails.