Open mike 04/10/2024

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  • The Hoon around the week to October 4

    The podcast above of the weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers on Thursday night features co-hosts & talking about the week’s news with:The Kākā’s climate correspondent on the latest climate news, including another extreme climate event in the United States; on the escalating conflict between Israel, Iran ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    12 mins ago
  • Govt to underwrite new private house-building

    With housing construction stalled, the Government has come up with a plan to underwrite new developments. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāKia ora. Long stories short, here’s my top six things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Friday, October 4:The Government is set to ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    1 hour ago
  • “We Have The Money For Health”

    Yesterday, there was an excellent interview on 1News Breakfast with Former Health NZ Chair Rob Campbell. He was being interviewed in response to the government signalling to privatising our hospitals.Campbell confirmed what this publication and its readers have long talked about. One: We have the money for Health. Two: The ...
    Mountain TuiBy Mountain Tui
    2 hours ago
  • The new winning face of the Government

    Yesterday’s NZME “Mood of the Boardroom” survey should be a wake-up call for the Government. This annual survey polls a wide range of private and public sector business leaders. Respondents to the survey rated their confidence in the New Zealand economy at 3.23 out of five, the highest score for optimism ...
    PolitikBy Richard Harman
    2 hours ago
  • The Farcical Casey Costello Saga

    Do you want to hear a joke?One day a government Minister fought very hard to help out mates with tax cuts She scored them - a massive NZ $106 billion multinational tobacco company with shares trading at $192 each - $216 million worth of tax cuts on their star product ...
    Mountain TuiBy Mountain Tui
    8 hours ago
  • Skeptical Science New Research for Week #40 2024

    Open access notables Sloth metabolism may make survival untenable under climate change scenarios, Cliffe et al., PeerJ: Sloths are limited by the rate at which they can acquire energy and are unable to regulate core body temperature (Tb) to the extent seen in most mammals. Therefore, the metabolic impacts of climate change ...
    11 hours ago
  • cancer 🙁

    I have been outside this week, replacing spouting. Although this involves ladders and sharp tools, I am pleased to say there have been no cuts, no falls, no disasters. I mention this because from some of the comments some of you have made, I'm getting the feeling I may have ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    15 hours ago
  • Breakfast with Nicola and Barbara

    At six o'clock I'm goin' downCoffee's hot, and the toast is brownHey street sweeper, clear my waySweethearts breakfast is the best in townSongwriter: Donald Hugh WalkerIt’s that time of year again when NZME presumably thanks the country’s business leaders for all the advertising they’ve done during the year. They do ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    18 hours ago
  • Ableism in Medicine: Why We Need Disabled Doctors

    It’s very exciting to be getting a new medical school. It would be more exciting if the hospitals needed to train them weren’t on the verge of losing their licenses due to understaffing issues, and if the cost of such a school wasn’t coming at the expense of the health ...
    19 hours ago
  • The unsung heroes of India’s extreme weather disasters

    This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Sanket Jain Noushadbi Mujawar has created a community health model that helps people in India build resilience amid the rising climate disasters. (Photo credit: Sanket Jain) Community health care worker Noushadbi Mujawar safely evacuated everyone from Rajapur, an isolated ...
    22 hours ago
  • Throwback Thursday: a Low Traffic Neighbourhood by any other name…

    This time three years ago – as described in this Thursday throwback post by Jolisa – Auckland was deep into experiencing another prolonged shift in perspective around how a city can look and feel. . A lot has changed since then; and a lot hasn’t. As a recent guest ...
    Greater AucklandBy Greater Auckland
    23 hours ago
  • Gordon Campbell on the perils of Israel’s war fever

    Israel seems on the brink of achieving the war with Iran that Benjamin Netanyahu has been trying all year to provoke. Until now, Iran had not taken the bait. It had not replied in kind to Israel’s genocide in Gaza, its bombing of Iran’s consulate in Damascus, and its assassinations ...
    WerewolfBy ScoopEditor
    1 day ago
  • A Glitch in the Matrix: A Review and Analysis of The Rings of Power, Episode 7 (Season 2)

    This is the tardiest review I have yet done for The Rings of Power – but, alas, real-life gets in the way sometimes. It has been a busy few days, and it became a matter of finding the time to sit down and express my thoughts. Also, it took a ...
    2 days ago
  • Welcome to the end of neoliberalism: privatisation

    I’m not really sure what to say about this. What else is there?But I think it needs to be acknowledged, and acknowledged angrily and loudly: the end goal of neoliberalism was always privatisation, and National seem to think New Zealand is ready for it right now. After three decades of ...
    2 days ago
  • A private matter

    Boy oh boy, are you as excited as I am for a fresh wave of privatisation? You only need to reflect for a moment on how much better off privatisation has made us these past few decades to see that more of that would be a very good thing.The paragraph ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    2 days ago
  • National wants to loot the health system

    Hot on the heels of their cancellation of Dunedin hospital (meaning a cut to health services in half the south Island), National has revealed the next part of their agenda: the outright privatisation of the health system: The health agency is suggesting the Government to consider allowing private companies ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    2 days ago
  • Public Health Funding For Private Profit

    I've had enough of scheming and messing around with jerksMy car is parked outside, I'm afraid it doesn't workI'm looking for a partner, someone who gets things fixedAsk yourself this question, do you want to be rich?I've got the brains, you've got the looksLet's make lots of moneyYou've got the ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    2 days ago
  • How will Auckland Council address the cycling budget shortfall?

    This is a very timely post from Bike Auckland, re-published here with kind permission. See also yesterday’s post by Patrick on the abundantly clear case for funding cycling as the powerful “stealth mode” for easy access to and around our city. The short version The central Government’s transport ...
    Greater AucklandBy Guest Post
    2 days ago
  • Four ways climate change likely made Hurricane Helene worse

    This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Jeff Masters Hurricane Helene at sunset on Sep. 26, 2024, as the storm was closing in on the Florida coast as a Cat 4 with 130 mph winds. (Image credit: NOAA/RAMMB-CIRA Satellite Library) After a spectacular burst of rapid intensification, Hurricane ...
    2 days ago
  • It’s about the economy, stupid

    Neoliberalism will defend itself. It must, because it has amassed power and wealth in those who are most invested in it.Take John Key, for instance, who has taken the unusual and controversial move of quietly endorsing Donald Trump as a former NZ PM, claiming that not only is Trump likely ...
    2 days ago
  • Luxon escapes having to pay $70,000 in ‘brightline’ capital gains taxes

    The timing was fortuitous for Luxon, saving him over $70,000. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāKia ora. Long stories short, here’s my top six things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Wednesday, October 2:PM Christopher Luxon was able to escape having to pay ‘brightline’ ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    2 days ago
  • A Podcast Direct From Hell

    Hi,I will explain the horrifying painting of New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon shortly.But first, I got a text from my friend Aaron over the weekend:In short, Aaron had loaded about a year’s worth of our text history into Google’s AI (privacy, what privacy?) — and instructed the AI to ...
    David FarrierBy David Farrier
    2 days ago
  • Where is National’s care and concern for the South Island? Probably off having dinner with the CCP...

    National has a representation issue. Not in terms of gender, or race, or disability, or socio-economic background (though they do also have a lack of all of those), but with its representation for the South Island. Is it any surprise we’re the ones getting shafted when there’s only a single ...
    2 days ago
  • Government Moves To Privatise Health

    Often when folks ask me what we can do about this government’s short sighted and often dubious policies1, I frequently veer to a similar answer:Share information, stay aware, act locally where you can, stay positive, and wait.Wait - for what?Well tonight it became clear.On 1News tonight, it was revealed Health ...
    Mountain TuiBy Mountain Tui
    2 days ago
  • Luxon just became a poster boy for taxing the rich

    Whenever our politicians are caught with their hand in the till, they loudly proclaim that their theft from the public was "within the rules". The problem is that they are the ones writing the rules, and there's a certain suspicion that they write them to suit themselves. And so their ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    3 days ago
  • At the end of the day we’ll always have John Key

    He dumped us years ago, but the media still pines for him, stalks his Insta, has a little flutter of the heart whenever he saunters back into the room.So naturally Stuff wanted to hear everything John Key had to say about the US election. And although the tape goes for ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    3 days ago
  • VIDEO: Health Commissioner Lester Levy: “It’s not up to me to fix everything”
    Mountain TuiBy Mountain Tui
    3 days ago
  • Climate Change: Fossil fuels versus free trade

    One of the arguments against National's gas fantasy is that it breaches our environmental commitments under various free trade agreements, including the NZ-EU FTA, which requires us to meet our Paris commitments and not weaken our environmental protections. And it turns out that MFAT agrees: Legal advice from the ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    3 days ago
  • ‘I don’t know what the point of the questioning is.’

    Kia ora. Long stories short, here’s my top six things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Tuesday, October 1:PM Christopher Luxon has made $460,000 in tax-free income this year from capital gains on the sale of two of his rental properties, almost as much ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    3 days ago
  • In the Waiting Line

    Do you believeIn what you seeMotionless wheelNothing is realWasting my timeIn the waiting lineDo you believe inWhat you seeSongwriters: Henry Binns, Sam Hardaker, Sophie Alexandra Jessica BarkerOctober already. This year feels like it’s going quickly, provided you don’t count it out in WTF moments from the coalition. Before we know ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    3 days ago
  • Land of The Bullies

    Kāinga Ora When Chris Bishop asked Bill English to help him do an “independent review” of Kāinga Ora last year, who here could guess that English’s report said exactly what Bishop already indicated?A reminder of how it went down:For the modest payday of $500,000, Bill English was paid from the ...
    Mountain TuiBy Mountain Tui
    3 days ago
  • Stealth mode: the surprisingly powerful city centre access hack

    Patrick Reynolds is deputy chair of the City Centre Advisory Panel and a candidate in this months Entrust election It might surprise you to learn that in Auckland, our harbour city, wrapped around the shores of the beautiful Waitemata, bikes bring as many people to the city centre in the ...
    Greater AucklandBy Patrick Reynolds
    3 days ago
  • How many people did the Beryl blackout kill?

    This is a re-post from The Climate Brink by Andrew Dessler link You should probably learn the term compound climate event. It refers to the occurrence of multiple weather- or climate-related hazards happening simultaneously or in close succession, leading to amplified impacts. One of the most feared compound events is ...
    3 days ago
  • The Right Are Furious That Abuse Doesn’t Work

    We must have sympathy for the right.After all, it’s difficult being a conservative these days. Progressive politics are proceeding at a rapid pace. World leaders preaching kindness and compassion are lavished with praise and acclamations. You can’t hit your kids anymore, you can’t hit your dog, you can’t hit your ...
    3 days ago
  • The Dunedin hospital crisis may be about more than just a hospital

    The news that the University of Waikato med school proposal has passed its cost-benefit analysis just two days after the Dunedin Hospital funding crisis announcement may not be linked, but one certainly impacts the other. POLITIK understands that ACT opposes the Waikato proposal and NZ First is lukewarm, but somehow, ...
    PolitikBy Richard Harman
    3 days ago
  • Gordon Campbell on the Dunedin hospital fiasco

    The word “blow-out” is such a politically loaded term. It carries a strong whiff of extravagance and incompetence. In fact, and with public health budgets in particular, going “over budget” is a sign that reality has finally caught up with what – from the outset – was always a budget ...
    WerewolfBy ScoopEditor
    3 days ago
  • 2024 Reading Summary: September (+ Writing Update)

    Completed reads for September: Old English Genesis A & B (poetry), by Anonymous Old English Exodus (poetry), by Anonymous The Life of St Guthlac of Crowland (poetry), by Anonymous The Death of St Guthlac (poetry), by Anonymous Maxims I [The Exeter Book Maxims] (poetry), by Anonymous Maxims II [The ...
    3 days ago
  • Hayden Donnell raises my ‘grim’ Hamish to ‘furious’ Hamish

    Delightful piece from Hayden Donnell at The Spinoff (how did I miss it?) — Huge opportunity: Could you be the guy standing behind the PM looking furious?  OK, so I thought ‘grim’, right? But Hayden has brought receipts, as the saying goes… and his view is ‘absolutely ropeable’. Lol. “Usually ...
    The PaepaeBy Peter Aranyi
    4 days ago
  • The problem, and the solution

    Reader Pete Hodgson was in touch after Saturday’s edition to offer his speech notes from the Dunedin rally. They are excellent, they deserve the widest audience. My name is Pete Hodgson, and I chaired or served on the governance group of the new hospital for 6 years until last Xmas. ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    4 days ago
  • Climate Change: The end of coal in the UK

    It's official: coal has been eliminated from the UK's electricity system: Britain’s only remaining coal power plant at Ratcliffe-on-Soar in Nottinghamshire will generate electricity for the last time on Monday after powering the UK for 57 years. The power plant will come to the end of its life in ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    4 days ago
  • The Bewildering World of Chris Luxon – Broken Promises, An Angry Country, and a Govt on Life S...

    ..Thanks for reading Frankly Speaking ! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.National Party leader (current), Christopher Luxon, speaking at a public meeting in Gore, in January last year:“Now lets be clear, Dunedin Hospital, started under a National Government, mucked around under a Labour Government for ...
    Frankly SpeakingBy Frank Macskasy
    4 days ago
  • A tipping point?

    The National Party has been promising Dunedin - and the lower South Island - a new hospital since 2008. Despite those promises, the Key government did nothing during its nine years in office, and it was left to Labour to actually start the process in 2017. National promptly criticised them ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    4 days ago
  • Wake Me Up When September Ends

    A bit disoriented this morning. I’ll blame Daylight Savings; I slept late. To be fair, it was probably the new mattress. After going to Rotorua the other week, we realised just how terrible ours was.“Scalloped” is a term that will be familiar to guitarists. It describes how some guitars have ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    4 days ago
  • Rays of Sunshine – Bravo, Bravo !

    Cartoon: Guy BodySam Sharpe Studio brought “Wrecking Ball Luxon” to the marchPlease consider supporting my work and subscribing. Thanks, Tui.Oliver Mould provided an exciting statistic yesterday.He wrote in the comments:Source: Why Civil Resistance Works The Strategic Logic of Nonviolent ConflictAnd I paused…It was exciting to read that. Thanks, OM. A ...
    Mountain TuiBy Mountain Tui
    4 days ago
  • Is this our least worldly Minister of Transport?

    Over the weekend, the Minister of Transport Simeon Brown proudly announced his new speed-setting rule, a decision that will undoubtedly lead to greater harm on our roads. It’s a tragically predictable decision by a Minister who seems to be on only nodding acquaintance with both evidence and international norms. Fueled ...
    Greater AucklandBy Connor Sharp
    4 days ago
  • One in four march against Govt in Dunedin

    Kia ora. Long stories short, here’s my top six things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Monday, September 30:Over 35,000 people marched in Dunedin on Saturday to protest against the Government’s plans to downgrade the new hospital being built there.In the scoop of the ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    4 days ago
  • 2024 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #39

    A listing of 30 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, September 22, 2024 thru Sat, September 28, 2024. Story of the week Given the headlines dominance of hot oceans lofting water into the atmosphere where it then obeys the Clausius-Clapeyron relationship thereby ...
    4 days ago
  • Seymour vs Tame

    But what a fool believes, he seesNo wise man has the power to reason awayWhat seems to beIs always better than nothingThan nothing at allSongwriters: Kenny Loggins, Michael McDonaldWe begin.“Welcome to Q&A, I’m Jack Tame. Today, for a government that says it’s fixated on waste, what’s the point in a ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    5 days ago
  • Kiwi Power !

    35,000 strong march in Dunedin to protest Government hospital cuts - showing us how it’s done. Thank you Dunedin!IN PICTURES Photo Credits : RNZ, ODT, Debunking Conspiracies Aotearoa, BHN, NZH, Stuff Related Reading:Bye Bye Health Verrall to Levy: "Health NZ NDAs are North Korean - Get rid of it."Lester Levy ...
    Mountain TuiBy Mountain Tui
    5 days ago
  • Stranded in paradise

    Oh, you should have seen Reefton in 1888. It glowed. It was illuminated by the future.In August of that year — and I am confident I have my facts right because I am quoting directly from the town's own website — Reefton became the first place in New Zealand and ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    5 days ago
  • Dunedin Protests Against Hospital Cuts

    Dunedin is not a happy city at the moment. We are used to being ignored in the nationwide New Zealand media – wrong end of the country and all – but the Government’s recent announcement on the Dunedin Hospital rebuild has got people motivated. How motivated? Well, I couldn’t make ...
    6 days ago
  • The One Who Saw Too Much: accepted

    A nice bit of news. I can report that I have had a short story success – my 3,600 word gothic horror piece, The One Who Saw Too Much, has been accepted ...
    6 days ago
  • Broken Stone

    And another pitch shattersAnother little bit gets lostTell me what else really mattersOh, such a costLike pebbles on a beachKicked around, displaced by feetOh, like broken stonesThey're all trying to get homeSong by Paul WellerDoes it feel as though your country has been hijacked? That terrible people have taken the ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    6 days ago
  • I’m Glad The Right Wing Coalition Won

    Dame Jacinda Adern would not accept “acceptable death rates” during Covid. But in the UK the Tory government said “Let them die”.Additions belowYesterday, when I saw the news that a Timaru factory with hundreds of jobs on the line was going to close, I couldn't help but think:"I'm so glad ...
    Mountain TuiBy Mountain Tui
    6 days ago
  • We will never give you up, let you down, or Rickroll you

    1. What did the National party promise Dunedin last election?a. We will build the hospital you needb. We will never give you up, let you down, or Rickroll you c. We will bring back John Keyd. Pandas2. What is the National party promising  Dunedin now?a. A sawn-off half-pint watery version of ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    6 days ago
  • The 48 Hours Leading Up To An Execution

    Note: This is obviously a very heavy topic — it took me three days to manage to write it — so please read with care. In saying that, in amongst the awfulness I think this piece also contains some hope, and plenty of humanity. Thanks to those of you who ...
    David FarrierBy David Farrier
    6 days ago
  • Remembering our friend John Mason

    We are extremely sad to say that our esteemed Skeptical Science colleague— and good friend to many of us— John Mason passed away on Friday September 20, 2024. Only last week, we blew a horn of appreciation for John's remarkable gift for telling stories about science. Our expectation was that ...
    6 days ago
  • How has the New Zealand economy been doing?

    Stagnation and ContractionIn this column I use the less familiar measure of GDP per capita instead of the GDP measure favoured by the commentariat. I became familiar with it when I began doing international comparisons because of the population differences between countries, while I depended upon the measure while working ...
    PunditBy Brian Easton
    7 days ago
  • Luxon taking his cues from Amazon

    This is embarrassing: I just had to google who Andrew Jassy is.I come to substack to learn terrible thingsIn my defence, they promoted him during the pandemic and I had other things on my mind. Also watching Amazon injure their workers at a rate of over four times the US ...
    7 days ago
  • The Hoon around the week to Sept 27

    The podcast above of the weekly ‘Hoon’ webinar for paying subscribers on Thursday night features co-hosts & talking about the week’s news with:The Kākā’s climate correspondent on the latest climate news, including research suggesting a doubling of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere could trigger 8° of warming ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    7 days ago
  • Could a doubling of Co2 trigger 8° of warming?

    Long stories short, here’s the top six news items of note in climate news for Aotearoa this week, and a discussion above between Bernard Hickey and The Kākā’s climate correspondent Cathrine Dyer:A seventh planetary boundary, for ocean acidification will soon be breached, and may have already done so, according to ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    7 days ago
  • Trust Us, Luxon Said

    Just a little something for the painHospital food getting you down?Honey now I'm not one to complainBut this hangin' aroundIs wearing me outSong by David Gray.Yesterday, Dr Shane Reti, the Minister of Health, and Chris Bishop, the duty Minister for looking sad, sincere and determined, announced that Dunedin’s promised new ...
    Nick’s KōreroBy Nick Rockel
    7 days ago
  • Treasury warns of unprecedented cuts in real spending per capita to achieve surplus

    Kia ora. Long stories short, here’s my top six things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Friday, September 27:Treasury’s Chief Economics Adviser Dominick Stephens gave the year’s most important speech yesterday, saying real and per-capita cuts in public spending implied by the Government’s surplus ...
    The KakaBy Bernard Hickey
    7 days ago
  • Weekly Roundup 27-September-2024

    Welcome to the end of the week and the end of the month. Ready to “spring forward” to Daylight Saving Time this weekend? As always, this post is brought to you by a largely volunteer crew. If you’d like to support our work and keep the posts coming, we welcome ...
    Greater AucklandBy Greater Auckland
    7 days ago
  • Please consider submitting on the offshore mining bill: We have 4 full days left

    The National led Coalition government intends to bring back offshore oil and gas mining. Shane Jones made that clear as soon as he got into power last year:“Mining is coming back!” he declared in Parliament in December.And this year: “Drill, Baby, Drill!”It’s his brand of politics.It feels futile but I ...
    Mountain TuiBy Mountain Tui
    7 days ago
  • The Long and the Short: Ageing Boomers, Laurie & Les, Talk Politics.

    While a nationwide vote to confirm, or not, the public’s understanding of our foundational constitutional document would be ‘divisive’, ‘racist’, a ‘blunt instrument’, and therefore completely out of the question, a referendum to extend the life expectancy of elected politicians, which no one not deeply involved with the governing process ...
    7 days ago
  • Procedures, Processes and Principles: Is It Possible To Defend The Treaty Of Waitangi And Democracy?

    Out Of The Loop: The great insight of sympathetic Pakeha jurists, like Sir Geoffrey Palmer, was that, suitably empowered, the judiciary and the executive branch of the state could take on the role formerly played by the non-elected governors of mid-nineteenth century New Zealand. Māori resources could be protected, and ...
    7 days ago
  • Has Government Become A Public-Private Partnership?

    Dirty Deals Done In The Dark: There will be times when it is to the considerable advantage of both National and Labour to be able to shrug philosophically and pardon themselves for cooperating in the introduction of controversial and divisive policies by explaining to an outraged public that this is simply ...
    1 week ago
  • Is National A White Supremacist Party?

    By Their Deeds Shall Ye Know Them: When the defeated Reform and United parties were persuaded to unite under the rubric of “National” in 1936, the values advanced were unashamedly imperialist and white supremacist. Eighty-eight years later, National is at pains to distance itself (coalition agreements permitting) from the most obvious ...
    1 week ago
  • On the way to another “Mother of All Budgets”?

    Finance Minister Nicola Willis yesterday dismissed a grim warning from the Treasury that the country was headed for a fiscal crisis. Treasury Deputy Secretary Dominick Stephens said that fulfilling the Government’s promise to get the country’s books back to surplus by 2027-28 would require cuts to Government services “unprecedented in ...
    PolitikBy Richard Harman
    1 week ago
  • The Three-Headed Taniwha Has Begun Biting Itself

    When ACT, National, and New Zealand First joined together in a three-way coalition at the end of the last year, it was met with predictions of backstabbing, stonewalling, and inter-party politics. Many seemed convinced this government would get little done with such a diverse agenda. If only that had been ...
    1 week ago
  • Skeptical Science New Research for Week #39 2024

    Open access notables Refined Estimates of Global Ocean Deep and Abyssal Decadal Warming Trends, Johnson & Purkey, Geophysical Research Letters: Deep and abyssal layer decadal temperature trends from the mid-1980s to the mid-2010s are mapped globally using Deep Argo and historical ship-based Conductivity-Temperature-Depth (CTD) instrument data. Abyssal warming trends are widespread, ...
    1 week ago
  • Embrace the heresy, touch the third rail

    Let’s examine some numbers.This is a public transport number.3% And this is an invitation to make an educated guess: In the morning rush hour in Wellington on Thorndon Quay, what proportion of the vehicles are buses?Yes indeed …the answer is:3% However, what do we find if we look inside those buses? Care ...
    More Than A FeildingBy David Slack
    1 week ago
  • Another abuse of democracy

    This week National introduced its long-threatened bill to repeal the offshore drilling ban and promote the fossil fuel industry, and rammed it through to select committee. Today the select committee opened for submissions. If you have an opinion on this corrupt, ecocidal legislation, you will need to speak up quick ...
    No Right TurnBy Idiot/Savant
    1 week ago
  • Bye, Bye Health !

    Bye, Bye hospital plans.Today Rachel Thomas reported - $3.2 billion is sleighted to come out of “hospital and mental health infrastructure projects”, and it seems the first formal casualty is Dunedin hospital, South Island.ODT reports former Labour Cabinet minister Pete Hodgson saying:“At the end of the day, the question is ...
    Mountain TuiBy Mountain Tui
    1 week ago

  • Sir Jerry Mateparae appointed in Bougainville post-referendum moderator role

    Foreign Minister Winston Peters has welcomed the announcement of Sir Jerry Mateparae as an independent moderator, to work with the Government of Papua New Guinea and the Autonomous Bougainville Government in resolving outstanding issues on Bougainville’s future.    “New Zealand is an enduring friend to Papua New Guinea and the ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    15 hours ago
  • Latest census data highlights New Zealand’s growing ethnic diversity

    The latest 2023 Census results released today further highlight New Zealand’s growing ethnic and cultural diversity, says Ethnic Communities Minister Melissa Lee. “Today’s census results are further evidence of the increasingly diverse nature of our population. It’s something that should be celebrated and also serve as a reminder of the ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    16 hours ago
  • FamilyBoost payments make ECE more affordable

    Parents and caregivers are now able to claim for FamilyBoost, which provides low-to-middle-income families with young children payments to help them meet early childhood education (ECE) costs.  “FamilyBoost is one of the ways we are supporting families with young children who are struggling with the cost of living, by helping ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    17 hours ago
  • South Pacific defence meeting fosters collaboration

    This week’s South Pacific Defence Ministers’ Meeting (SPDMM) has concluded with a renewed commitment to regional security of all types, Defence Minister Judith Collins says. Defence Ministers and senior civilian and military officials from Australia, Chile, Fiji, France, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea and Tonga gathered in Auckland to discuss defence and security cooperation in the ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    17 hours ago
  • Minister welcomes larger Police recruitment wings

    Associate Police Minister Casey Costello has welcomed the Police announcement that recruitment wings at the Police College will be expanded to 100 recruits next year. “This is good news on two fronts – it reflects the fact that more and more New Zealanders are valuing policing and seeing it as ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    19 hours ago
  • Speech to the Minerals West Coast Forum

    Introduction Good morning! What a pleasure to be back in the stunning West Coast at one of my favourite events in the calendar.  Every time I come back here, I’m reminded of the Coast’s natural beauty, valuable resources, and great people. Yet, every time I come back here, I’m also ...
    BeehiveBy beehive.govt.nz
    20 hours ago
  • Positive progress on Government health targets

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    5 days ago
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  • New Zealand National Statement to the UN General Assembly – ‘The Spirit of San Francisco’

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  • Charter Schools Authorisation Board appointments announced

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  • Clubs and Ranges Bill passes first reading

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