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Open mike 06/03/2019

Written By: - Date published: 7:00 am, March 6th, 2019 - 172 comments
Categories: open mike - Tags:

Open mike is your post.

For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose.

The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy).

Step up to the mike …

172 comments on “Open mike 06/03/2019 ”

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  1. Sanctuary 1
    6 March 2019 at 7:24 am

    How far will the bitter and nasty right wing faction of old white men go in their determination to turn everything into another round of culture war?

    Well, in the case of Karl Du Fresne (a creeping Jesus if there ever was one) it runs as far as going into bat for child molesters because, you know, white male.

    https://www.stuff.co.nz/world/111003072/three-white-men-who-dominate-public-conversation

    “…Now, Cardinal Pell. Did he sexually molest two choir boys in the sacristy of St Patrick’s Cathedral in Melbourne? A jury decided he did, …”

    That is f**king right you pathetic piece of shit Du Fresne. he was convicted. By a jury. After a fair trial. But no, you think you should defend him because you are a screaming emotional cripple who clings to the authoritarian catholic church like dung to a blanket and would prefer kiddy fiddlers walk free to conservative white male clerics in positions of authority being held to account.

    What a piece of shit .

    • AB 1.1
      6 March 2019 at 7:40 am

      They will always be with us, the issue is that they have platforms all over the place. Way out of proportion to their actual numbers. We need a means of de-platforming them.

      • Sanctuary 1.1.1
        6 March 2019 at 7:42 am

        I was just gob smacked that he would defend a convicted child molester purely because of who the molester is.

        • AB 1.1.1.1
          6 March 2019 at 7:57 am

          Agreed. Du Frsne’s misplaced sense of being a victimised white male has landed him in a very bad place with this one. He just can’t see what his own retrograde ideology has done to him.

    • Bewildered 1.2
      6 March 2019 at 9:34 am

      a racist ageist rant I don’t think ethnicity or race are predeterminstic for kiddy fiddlers I think the last big nz case was a Samoan rugby coach Nor does that suggest such activities a predisposed to Polynesians as you are trying to suggest it is a white, make agre problem, looser

    • vto 1.3
      6 March 2019 at 11:26 am

      Is Netanyahu really “white”?
      What is the definition of “white” these days anyway?
      I thought the jewish people came from Arabia and eastern med?
      Arabia’s not white is it? Nor eastern med?
      It is very confusing

  2. Ad 2
    6 March 2019 at 7:35 am

    This near-silence from government on tax now looks a deliberate tactic to kill reform.

    Looks like the Tax Group dissenting view will win.

    • WeTheBleeple 2.1
      6 March 2019 at 7:41 am

      Rubbish. All because one group is acting like kneejerk reactionary schoolchildren doesn’t require the other to respond to those self-indulgent wankers. You are demanding response before the considerations are made.

      That is National’s tactics. Who the fuck are you.

      • Ad 2.1.1
        6 March 2019 at 7:51 am

        National is leading the debate in the media and Parliament, and winning.

        O’Connor won’t be able to counter Peters in Cabinet, and it will be lost on its impact outside the cities.

        Robertson is lifting his bat on this one.

        • WeTheBleeple 2.1.1.1
          6 March 2019 at 8:01 am

          To me, I see one side going ten rounds before the first bell has been rung. They’ll exhaust themselves dancing and prancing round the canvas then, when the debate actually begins, they’ll have nothing new to say.

          And they’ll get crucified as the self-interested tax dodging sacks they are (imo).

          I don’t think the public remembers the shit these people sprout for months on end. Another scandal, another news cycle, gone in the hot wind it arrived on.

          Let’s wait for the actual debate. We’re not all reeds in this wind.

          • Ad 2.1.1.1.1
            6 March 2019 at 9:11 am

            Notice commentary from the Minister of Finance, Minister of Revenue, or Prime Minister in this segment last night on the tax proposals?

            https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/consultation-needed-timing-potential-capital-gains-tax-law-change-winston-peters?variant=tb_v_1

            Me neither.

            This actual debate is now.

          • The Lone Haranguer 2.1.1.1.2
            6 March 2019 at 11:32 am

            We the Bleeple, I suspect your argument is fatally flawed.

            The “self interested tax dodging sacks” are winning the argument currently, and because of that, Peters and NZF will hang the coalition out to dry on this.

            By the time the PM has given the NZF required exemptions to farmers, small businesses and the NZX, the money left in the “fairness payments” bucket will be minimal and the Govt wont have $8b to give as income tax breaks. The working poor will feel let down once again.

            And without any real money for the “fairness payments” whats the point of the CGT in the first place?

            Then the Cullen Tax Group will be written off as Jacindas very expensive vanity project with no gains for anyone (except those on the committee)

            Time will tell if your view is the one that comes to pass, or whether my view is the one which comes to pass

        • Wayne 2.1.1.2
          6 March 2019 at 9:15 am

          Ad,
          What makes you think O’Connor will be advocating CGT for farmers? Given the PM’s statements about her concerns for farmers and small business, it will be much more likely that O’Connor will be singing a duo with Peters.

          • Ad 2.1.1.2.1
            6 March 2019 at 9:24 am

            He won’t.

            He was on RNZ this morning trying to defend against Natipnal’s inroads in rural communities on tax issues.

            Peters will defend similar rural territory at Cabinet, but more harshly. Tax reform at a sectoral level is lost in the provinces and the remaining ground is in Auckland.

            • greywarshark 2.1.1.2.1.1
              6 March 2019 at 11:55 am

              But think about the chidren! It has become a cliche’ because so often they and their parents are passed over as the tax parade goes by. A sick joke that refers to the cry so often heard and so little listened to.

              Beneficiaries should not be limited in what they can earn. They should’t be checked every week and their benefit adjusted down. Every month okay and encourage it, adjust a little at the end of six months. Reward effort and determination.

              Now they may be left with little for their work to spend after tax and removal of benefits and repayment of grants. How about the equivalent of $2 an hour and then transport and extra child care costs taking care of that.

              Stick that in your pipes and smoke it you Taxed with Working Group.

        • mpledger 2.1.1.3
          6 March 2019 at 9:21 am

          National isn’t winning the debate – far from it. Just look at the comments on any stuff article that is anti the CGT and people are mostly all for the CGT. They’re also saying the stuff Labour would want them to say – that it’s not fair to tax income from work different to income from non-work.

          • BM 2.1.1.3.1
            6 March 2019 at 9:30 am

            Stuff is a left-wing website.
            They’re also desperately hoping the government buys them, which is why there are so many articles promoting Ardern and this Labour government.

            • cleangreen 2.1.1.3.1.1
              6 March 2019 at 9:36 am

              BM = right wing website.

            • Kevin 2.1.1.3.1.2
              6 March 2019 at 11:08 am

              “Stuff is a left-wing website.”

              Fuck that’s funny.

              The ‘average kiwi’ who owns there own home and is not interested in exploiting those who have no option but to rent is going to be better off with the tax adjustments.

              Works for me and around 80% of the population.

            • Wensleydale 2.1.1.3.1.3
              6 March 2019 at 1:23 pm

              Stuff’s about as left-wing as the late, not-at-all-lamented Margaret Thatcher.

          • Ad 2.1.1.3.2
            6 March 2019 at 9:33 am

            So I took up your challenge and pulled out the latest Stuff article on the matter.

            The comments are thoughtful, but the article makes the same point I am: the Minister responsible is not making any running on this at all.

            https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/111028930/sir-michael-cullen-steps-back-into-politics-with-debatable-claims-about-cgt#comments

            Why leave any government-supporting debate to Dr Cullen?

            The government will not win this policy issue unless it fights for it.

          • Ad 2.1.1.3.3
            6 March 2019 at 9:45 am

            i checked the latest Stuff article on it.

            Featured Cullen, made same points as me.

            Comments section was thoughtful but ovrerall v negative.

    • AB 2.2
      6 March 2019 at 7:49 am

      Maybe. But if so, it’s going to look like a victory for National and the angry, middle-class media.

      • Ad 2.2.1
        6 March 2019 at 7:55 am

        All of whom vote.

        Ardern looks like she prefers two terms ahead of tax reform.

        • Stuart Munro. 2.2.1.1
          6 March 2019 at 11:25 am

          Probably better not to start flinching before you see the enemy’s fire.

          If Labour wimp out on the CGT they’ll set us back yet another generation.

    • patricia bremner 2.3
      6 March 2019 at 10:56 am

      Ad I disagree.

      I think they knew the right would go OTT.

      The Government are giving the opposition 2 months of rope, and they are doing a very nice job of hanging themselves.

      To not pay something on a fortune is hard to do when the theme is “Fairness”

      So ordinary people are going… “Wait up.. I pay on every dollar, and they want to pay nothing? Now that’s not fair”

      The Right can’t defend the indefensible, so they are losing friends and support.

      The Government can come in and suggest serious change in April, which would have seemed impossible before this.

      This woman is remarkable. She has made New Zealanders examine “Fairness”
      It has opened minds to what have been accepted patterns of behaviour and helped put a new view and perspective on some accepted forms of greed.

      Thank you J A. We are seriously considering how some are taxed and some are not and are ready to change that.

      • Kat 2.3.1
        6 March 2019 at 12:48 pm

        But then you get this quick change of tack from the Hosk today over at the fish wrap:

        “The soft bigotry of low expectation.” And that is the aspiration of this government, isn’t it? You don’t want to turn up for a work interview? No problem…………………..”

        • patricia bremner 2.3.1.1
          6 March 2019 at 1:38 pm

          Kat who do you get that from? No Government website. Just yesterday there were 20 newly employed with training in place to plant manuka for the honey industry. This is full time and leading to qualifications, which will assist the next tranche.

          The right have always blamed the unemployed. Don’t help them do it. Cheers
          They start these lies and hope they will be repeated.

          • Kat 2.3.1.1.1
            6 March 2019 at 2:47 pm

            Patricia, you are correct the “fish wrap” is not a govt website, it is however the conveyor of low brow commentary and political bias on a daily basis.

            https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12209999

            My comment in reply to yours was to highlight your point that while the opposition and its poodles are busy hanging themselves on the rope from the TWG discussion, a quick change of tack in the media, namely from the “fish wrap” appears necessary as a brief diversion.

            • patricia bremner 2.3.1.1.1.1
              6 March 2019 at 9:21 pm

              That is a good reminder Kat. I should read things twice.. I’m getting old!! lol

  3. WeTheBleeple 3
    6 March 2019 at 7:36 am

    How can we track the assets of Aunty Young, Hangry Hooten, Bury Souper et al? How vested are these interests. The public has the right to know.

    • Sanctuary 3.1
      6 March 2019 at 7:41 am

      Soper, Young, etc etc are all far, far to untypical of average New Zealand to have a clue what the public actually think – they are engaged in a giant confidence trick, where being an old, financially secure, white and old of touch person who are convinced that interviewing each other and establishment vested interests is presented as being in touch with the zeitgeist of the nation.

      In fact, they just represent narrow sectional interests – and the decline of MSM makes their views of little importance anyway.

      • Ad 3.1.1
        6 March 2019 at 9:12 am

        That is not a mistake anyone in Parliament makes.

        • patricia bremner 3.1.1.1
          6 March 2019 at 12:18 pm

          Yes Ad parliamentarians do make mistakes.

          However, many on the right have vested interests and these will be examined as the debate proper starts.

          Those on the left with large assets (Jones) will have to declare they are not letting those influence their attitudes.

          A problem to consider is the fairness of tax on reparations to Maori, however, they seldom sell, so there should be a way through that.

          When the Government produces tables showing how large holders of capital will be affected compared to those with basic or no assets, there will be an epiphany.

          We are discussing the % of tax paid on earnings from all sources.

          A whole industry has been developed to assist the asset rich to avoid tax.

          The comparisons will galvanize opinion IMO.

  4. WeTheBleeple 4
    6 March 2019 at 7:45 am

    I know they’re irrelevant, but we’re not all trained to think critically or investigate multiple sources. It would be of use to the public to see just how these Nat mouthpieces have self-interest at heart.

    P.S. Whatever happened to Swill-Cone? Surely CGT has caused more neurosis to report on.

  5. marty mars 5
    6 March 2019 at 8:02 am

    Landlords care – we mean it maaaaaaaan.

    “Amid the hype around the unusual ad, what’s been overlooked is that someone is currently paying to rent the property. This is someone’s home.”

    https://i.stuff.co.nz/business/111051624/heres-the-dirty-secret-lurking-in-that-nasty-house

    • Muttonbird 5.1
      6 March 2019 at 8:38 am

      A rare moment of conscience from Susan Edmunds. Perhaps the industry is finally getting the wake-up all it and the country so desperately needs.

      • Sabine 5.1.1
        6 March 2019 at 10:33 am

        looks to me the industry is advertising the fact that literally they can own a dumb and find someone desperate enough to rent it.

    • David Mac 5.2
      6 March 2019 at 11:34 am

      Unfortunately in most situations those that do live in places in that state would not welcome an order to vacate. With falling available rentals and masses of applicants “You’ll need to find another place” is bleak news for those previously obliged to settle for sub-standard options of that ilk.

      Raising the standards of NZ rentals and tapping into a bit of that cash cow milk are great initiatives. I’m concerned that our government are ill prepared for the equal and opposite forces these initiatives will initiate.

      I think a trending increase in the number of people that are eligible for and waiting for Government housing is an indication that my fears are not ill-founded.

      • marty mars 5.2.1
        6 March 2019 at 11:48 am

        No they won’t want to vacate and the scum bloodsucker leech landlord won’t fix it up to MINIMUM standards. Tough one hmmm

        • David Mac 5.2.1.1
          6 March 2019 at 12:02 pm

          There are plans afoot to address your concerns Marty. The govt have employed inspectors, they’ve started with the govt housing stock. I think these people will move on to policing compliance amongst the private sector.

          Just as tenants have their tribunal outcomes made public, landlords do too. The bloodsuckers you speak of would hate nothing more than having to pay a tenant and the govt $5000 because the wind whistles through their let. It would be good if via non compliance fines, the dept was almost self funding.

          I think the slumlord tally will plummet. These are of course all good things.

          But….as I say, there will be repercussions, we could and should be prepared for them.

        • joe90 5.2.1.2
          6 March 2019 at 12:12 pm

          The scum are upgrading their hovels because they have to.

          Thing is, people have been living in these hovels because they can afford them ($200)* but the scum are chucking them out while they do $10/20k worth of work. And when these not quite hovels anymore do come back on the rental market, the scum have jacked the rents ($370)* beyond the former tenant’s means.

          (anecdata)*

          • The Lone Haranguer 5.2.1.2.1
            6 March 2019 at 6:35 pm

            I seem to recall that the Government, as landlord (via Housing Corp) also has rented out substandard dwellings to desperate folk.

            Maybe the trick would to bring their own properties up to scratch (apparently they had heaps of empty ones too) and rent those out first, before bitching about private landlords.

  6. Incognito 6
    6 March 2019 at 8:26 am

    When pressed on whether he would be open to the use of genetic modification to help combat climate change, Minister Shaw told Corin Dann, “I want to see what the science says about that and what the Science Ethics Committee would say about that. I would be led by the science on it.”

    http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/CU1903/S00049/student-climate-change-strike-gets-backing-from-gov-minister.htm

    https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/government-led-science-genetic-modification-climate-minister?variant=tb_v_1

    Well, this raises the question as to whether NZ (?) scientists should be funded to undertake scientific research into other uses of GE to tackle other problems such as pest control. Or is it a matter of the end justifies the means? Sounds a bit too much like National to me …

    • Robert Guyton 6.1
      6 March 2019 at 8:33 am

      If GE will transform pasture farming, protecting it from the effects of climate change and ensuring farm-resilience and sustainability, surely industry driven by the market and smart farmers, will invest in the technology.
      Surely.

      • Incognito 6.1.1
        6 March 2019 at 9:28 am

        Scientific evidence is one main input into a healthy debate that looks at risks, benefits and economic returns as well. In a holistic way that looks at the whole of society and not just at a few fractions with invested interests (!) or ideological agendas.

        • Poission 6.1.1.1
          6 March 2019 at 1:17 pm

          the trouble being you cannot model the risks ie they are irreducible eg Nalimov

          We can say that the nature of change in biology is random, since it is
          impossible to find an expression for a sufficiently detailed description
          that is considerably shorter than the “most complete” description of the
          observed phenomenon. In other words, it is not possible to construct a
          model of a generator of mutations in terms of ordinary cause-effect relations,
          i.e., it is not possible to find the causes that unambiguously
          generate the full diversity of observed mutations. Having found that the
          nature of change is random, we are greatly surprised that there does not
          exist an ordinary probabilistic description of the observed phenomena.
          An ordinary statistical description of phenomena is possible if, on the
          basis of the results of observations carried out on a small sample, we can
          calculate the distribution parameters which make it possible to obtain an
          idea of the behavior of the complete sequence of phenomena. In the case
          of biological changes, observations made on a small sequence of
          phenomena do not yield information about the subsequent behavior of
          the system. In such a case, averaged characteristics have no significance.
          The individual manifestations of the phenomena are important, irrespective
          of their probability of occurrence.

    • WeTheBleeple 7.1
      6 March 2019 at 8:40 am

      Good article on plant-based diet in NZH today:

      https://www.nzherald.co.nz/lifestyle/news/article.cfm?c_id=6&objectid=12209282

      I liked it for it’s simple format – ask five experts about the health implications compared to conventional diet. No brow beating, no ethical jabs, just a health focus.

      I don’t really care what helps people eat less meat, some just get defensive when the ethics arguments are put up – so having health argued by several professionals is very useful.

      Nice one Steve Kearney. I ran some of the sideline stuff for the Warriors games once, Steve’s huge!

    • greywarshark 7.2
      6 March 2019 at 9:58 am

      stuffed it up – the headline – didn’t they. Meet-free! Was that a Freudian slip from a meat-eater?

    • left_forward 7.3
      6 March 2019 at 1:32 pm

      Thanks for posting this mauī.
      Yes, v.g. Stephen Kearney and family!

      It is very encouraging seeing how more and more NZers are understanding and experiencing the health and environmental benefits of plant-based whole-food eating and it is attracting less of the knee-jerk fear reaction that it used to from threatened individuals in our mainstream ‘animal-slaughter-dependent’ country.

      • joe90 7.3.1
        6 March 2019 at 1:45 pm

        threatened individuals

        The knee-jerk fear reaction of the thousand or more households in my burg dependent on the meat industry for their livelihoods will probably be along the lines of WTF are we going eat.

        • left_forward 7.3.1.1
          6 March 2019 at 2:05 pm

          Nice illustration – cheers.
          Do you think they are fearing for their livelihoods, or what they are going to eat, or both!?
          A little bit of knowledge would help them in either case.

          • joe90 7.3.1.1.1
            6 March 2019 at 2:19 pm

            The majority are seasonal workers so they know all about both fearing for their livelihoods and how tough it is to feed themselves during the off-season.

            • left_forward 7.3.1.1.1.1
              6 March 2019 at 2:57 pm

              This appears to be going a little off-topic from the thread Joe. To bring it back in: seems then that they would be gainfully employed in plant based food production when the ‘vegan-green-peril’ fully takes over.

              By then they will have learnt a full range of tasty vegan recipes, other than ‘lettuce and mayo’. They will be healthier and realise how much more affordable it is to feed themselves and their families on a meat-free, dairy-free diet.

              • joe90 …
                6 March 2019 at 3:26 pm

                seems then that they would be gainfully employed in plant based food production

                I reckon I’ve heard something along those lines before. Oh, that’s right, like Douglass and Prebble before them, Bolger and Richardson assured us that new employment opportunities would abound…and then they proceeded to destroy literally thousands of jobs and tore the heart out of my community. Ain’t gonna happen again.

                • WeTheBleeple …
                  6 March 2019 at 4:05 pm

                  Yeah good point. The freezing works in several small towns are the major employers.

                  For myself, I don’t think NZ is going to lose all its dairy/meat production but we’ll have to bring herds down to carrying capacity, and diversify for resilience sake… but ultimately, rotational grazing is the HOW TO of sustainable meat production, with a few tweaks (reduce/remove salts and cides, replant many trees, biodiversity earthworks and water storage, on-site production of feedstock, trees on anything > 15 degrees…) NZ could lead the way in regenerative agriculture.

                  We are in pole position to create the best food in the world due to our distance from everything, good soils and high rainfall.

                  Once we’ve learned to keep and grow soil and capture and slow rain (they’re connected), we will not only be productive, but resilient.

                  I can’t see veganism as the future. I can see diets altering to encompass more plants both for human and planetary health. The freezing worker will still be here, but maybe not so many. there will be more work with trees, bees, aquaculture, fruits, nuts, medicines…

                • left_forward …
                  7 March 2019 at 6:57 am

                  Its very different isn’t it? People making an informed choice about what they eat may certainly disrupt our ‘all eggs in one basket’ (pun intended) animal slaughter industry to some extent. Its hardly comparable to an ideological elite’s top-down imposition of neoliberalism on our lives.

  8. cleangreen 8
    6 March 2019 at 9:33 am

    Yes AB

    We do need to ‘de-platform’ the ‘right wing angry middle class’ among us.

    They only add anger and absolutely no positive resolution to any issue that we need to discuss with “a cool head”.

    If they can’t make ‘constructive comments’ – they should be banned.

    This was a very good article over on the Daily Blog that I commented on with constructive ways to “define who best to vote for over one issue we need to discuss.

    So with the tax reform issue we need a similar voting platform to make our current leaders and (candidates) to define what they will vote for.

    https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2019/03/06/guest-blog-bryan-bruce-planned-student-protest-gets-my-vote/

    We need ‘all of us adults shamed’ into action!!!

    As we are the problem currently, – since we are lazy and just vote for these lazy useless Governments; – who just sit on the fence and do nothing; – all while the planet burns.

    I am ashamed as I should be so I am 100% behind our young for standing up to show that we need to also get off our butts and get in the action also.

    Vote out any lazy politician and Local Body councillor who refuses to stand up and join the fight to save our planet.

    As this year being our ‘Local body Elections time’ we need to hold all those ‘potential Local Body candidates to account on climate change!!!

    We need to have them all sign a questionnaire on climate change, and publish their plans to “commit” to vote for climate change!!!!

    Or the public should not vote for them.

    “self preservation is the strongest principal’ – https://www.icomos.org/venicecharter2004/petzet.pdf

    • Robert Guyton 8.1
      6 March 2019 at 9:53 am

      I sit on the Southland Regional Council, clean green 🙂

    • greywarshark 8.2
      6 March 2019 at 10:57 am

      cleangreen
      You are talking about making sure that politicians do what the people and the land need them to. And I think that is what a working democracry should be about.
      We thought we had one, that was at least tottering along sometimes, and then making changes and getting better. Then the whole thing was overthrown by cutting government away and its regulations (the fat) and supposedly introducing a lean, fit model. Only it leaned too far and fell over! Hah.

      Now we need participatory democracy. The people need to form a group of practical people looking to the future, each one with an interest in one of the major drivers of an
      enterprise society perhaps transport, agriculture in general including horticulture, manufacturing in general, employment and understanding thoroughly the way that Stats gathers and presents figures for official is there a Household Labour Survey and why or not? Education and its value today, technology spread smothering traditional writing and communication, also what is driving the politicians, advisors, bureaucrats – who yanks their strings, provides the models they follow?

      Then we get a picture of what is happening. You have reliable, informed academics who will give you an ear and perhaps address a meeting of keen learners. Then we can draw up rough plans for what is needed, bring the figures in to fill them out, make reasonable estimates of cost, look at who or what would be affected by it, perhaps that site is environmentally vulnerable, perhaps that local landowner would object even if it is public land, even if it is a necessary step for the good of the community. How can he/she be brought into the loop, be smoozed?

      There was an interview this morning with a Mayor on the West Coast. He and one of his cohort organised some work without going through the required steps.l
      He said they did it because it looked as if there was going to be a repeat of the flood that washed out their sewage ponds. They managed to avoid this and have done apparently a fairly good job of protection with a stopbank or something.
      People have to do this, get full information, and then press hard for necessary steps. You cleangreen appear to be doing this in Gisborne. No doubt you have worked out a case for getting quick address to your problems, with steps that even the most reluctant decision maker must notice are straightforward and cogent.

      • greywarshark 8.2.1
        6 March 2019 at 11:41 am

        I was reading a bit from David and Goliath by Malcolm Gladwell.
        He starts a new Part with Ecclesiastes 9:11 –

        I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill;
        but time and chance happeneth to them all.

        So I guess we just hope our time will last long enough to give us the chance.

    • AB 8.3
      6 March 2019 at 12:12 pm

      De-platforming needs to be non-coercive or else we become the thing we abhor.

      • left_forward 8.3.1
        6 March 2019 at 1:43 pm

        Lol. ‘There was blame on both sides’.
        To take away their platform in the kindest possible way?
        After all it surely isn’t so urgent that we don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings!

        • AB 8.3.1.1
          6 March 2019 at 4:45 pm

          I’m all for hurting their feelings, their wallets (especially) and anything else that works – short of violence or suspension of the rule of law.

    • Bewildered 8.4
      6 March 2019 at 3:32 pm

      I reckon bugger elections and democracy clean green, you and bunch of teenagers ( preferably suitably left and woke ) just determin the criteria and what constitutes correct thinking and then select who should be in council and in parliament

  9. Robert Guyton 9
    6 March 2019 at 9:51 am

    Nandor Tanczos discusses the permaculture hui coming in April, in our food forest, in Riverton.

    https://www.accessradio.org/Player.aspx?eid=64c26ccb-14ee-4074-9ae2-7085737b5109

    • Muttonbird 10.1
      6 March 2019 at 11:33 am

      Lol. But the same thing would happen in The States. Or here, but with perhaps slightly less force.

  11. mauī 11
    6 March 2019 at 12:18 pm

    More from the Gallow at Oxford. Absolutely superb.

    • left_forward 11.1
      6 March 2019 at 2:03 pm

      Thanks mauī, again I appreciate your posts today.
      This is fascinating and I hope some of our right wing trolls who are fond of spouting their version of the truth here get an opportunity to watch (and think about) this.

    • Bewildered 11.2
      6 March 2019 at 3:27 pm

      Meooow🐈

  12. Peter 12
    6 March 2019 at 12:24 pm

    You knew it didn’t you, that Mike Hosking would go all orgasmic about Paula Bennett?
    That it’d be about benefits?

  13. greywarshark 13
    6 March 2019 at 12:32 pm

    Farmers need protection from livestock rustling.
    http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA1903/S00034/nz-first-pushes-for-tougher-livestock-rustling-measures.htm

    Government is looking at it. The miniature horses deaths are an indication of a certain level of callous skulduggery that can exist in rural areas.

    • Skunk Weed 13.1
      6 March 2019 at 5:09 pm

      Was rife on the East Coast 1980’s to early 1990’s basically organised crime, some of the Maori Trust Blocks got hammered, one block at Te Arararoa lost 100 x breeding cows and a Station in the Waikura Valley lost 300 x 2 tooth breeding ewes, this ain’t just the odd animal for the freezer.

      Truck @ trailers required for these sort of numbers.

  14. alwyn 14
    6 March 2019 at 1:17 pm

    I imagine Mr Shaw may be getting a little bit nervous.
    After almost a year of the MSM ignoring the total stuff up by his Department in their attempt to hold a Census Stuff is starting to run stories about it.
    https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/111052779/365-days-and-still-counting-census-2018-results-nowhere-to-be-seen
    Young James has spent all that time with a blindfold on and his hands jammed over his ears while he, ever more desperately, claims that everything will turn out all right, and anyway “it wasn’t my fault”.
    Well tough luck James. It was your fault and your refusal to do anything about it should cause you sacking.
    Have a look in the linked article. You don’t have to accept my opinion.
    As Auckland University Statistician Andrew Sporle says

    “”It’s a bit of a disaster, we don’t know how bad, but we know it’s a disaster.”
    He said it appeared Stats NZ’s follow through after the initial response, which was adequate, had faltered.”

    In other words it was what happened after the Census that has caused the havoc and Shaw is totally responsible for that.
    Shaw also claims that it will not be possible to arrange a Census in 2021. What that means is that he, and his Department, have wasted 12 months that could have been put into organizing it.

    Economist Brian Easton has also commented on Shaw’s Shambles.
    https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/111044133/census-mess-can-be-resolved-with-a-new-one-in-2021
    Brian, who certainly doesn’t lean to the right says that the Census is unlikely to be accepted by a Court as meeting the statutory obligations that exist. He is also quite scathing about the argument that it is impossible to run a proper one in 2021.
    As he says.

    “Stats NZ has claimed that it takes three years (instead of two years and nine months) to run a new census. But I am told that if it uses the existing good parts of the 2018 census with the 2013 enumerator system, it will take 18 months to organise.
    So it could start the task as late as this September. All it requires is leadership, although it may be sensible to bring back (sometimes out of retirement) the team that ran the 2013 enumeration.”

    Well Mr Shaw is supposedly the leader. Unfortunately he has demonstrated he is anything but a good one.

    There is a lovely old US saying about people like James Shaw.
    “Piss or get off the pot”.
    As most people will recognize it means stop procrastinating an do something.
    Mr Shaw appears to be incapable of doing anything. He should resign.
    If he won’t then the PM should follow the US idiom. She should sack him.

    • joe90 14.1
      6 March 2019 at 1:28 pm

      SFW, we managed to cope with a five year delay.

      • alwyn 14.1.1
        6 March 2019 at 2:25 pm

        Now there is a man who isn’t afraid to demonstrate his antipathy to a politician.

        You do realize that the delay we “managed to cope with”, and which was 2 years not 5 years by the way, was due to the Christchurch earthquake?
        Now you are quite happy to delay the Census by 5 years and happily go from 2013 to 2123 to get any sensible results.

        I am not a great enthusiast for Mr Shaw as a Minister of the Crown, as people who read what I say about him here may be aware. To put it briefly I think he has been useless.

        However I really wouldn’t go as far as you do and describe his activities as being a great deal more of a disaster than the Earthquake was.

        • patricia bremner 14.1.1.1
          6 March 2019 at 9:42 pm

          Alwyn you are all wrong .We actually rate Shaw and don’t rate your opinion.

          The organisation was done by National. But you know that and you are redirecting.

          • alwyn 14.1.1.1.1
            6 March 2019 at 9:48 pm

            That’s nice dear. I’m sure that you absolutely adore the dishy Mr Shaw.
            What do you rate him at on a scale of 0 to 10?
            Actually don’t bother. If someone wants to be a Minister of the Crown I don’t care how he is rated by the ladies. I only care about whether he can do the job and Shaw has been an abject failure.
            But you know that don’t you?

    • left_forward 14.2
      6 March 2019 at 1:52 pm

      Shock! – I agree with you about the Census stuff up.
      Not ready to blame JS like you have though. Being a Green supporter, I will try very hard to understand what his part in this was – let’s see how he handles it when the results are published.

      • alwyn 14.2.1
        6 March 2019 at 2:35 pm

        I fear, like Brian Easton, that any fudged results they manage to cook up will not satisfy a Court that they are of a legally sufficient quality. The thing a true leader would have done was to recognize that possibility immediately after the results were in doubt and start a parallel path of preparing to rerun the exercise in 2021. This could have been done at the same time as they were trying to patch up the data.

        They should also have tried to quickly get more people into the field to try and contact the people who were missed. Chase up those people who had done the job in 2013 and recruit as many of them as possible. They at least had once been trained.

        It would appear that Shaw, in the time between becoming Minister and the Census didn’t satisfy himself that it was going to be on track on the day. He still seems to be in a complete state of denial even a year after the fiasco. It was his job to ask questions of the Officials and satisfy himself that the answers made sense.

    • ankerawshark 14.3
      6 March 2019 at 3:48 pm

      Alywin own the census stuff up as the Nats, which it was or f off

      • alwyn 14.3.1
        6 March 2019 at 8:09 pm

        You did notice that MR (or Dr) Sporle said that the problems only occurred after the Census date. Up till then things were going OK. If all the problems started 5 or 6 months after the current lot took office an attempt to blame it all on National is only something a person like you or the current PM would attempt.

        • Ankerrawshark 14.3.1.1
          6 March 2019 at 8:16 pm

          The pm doesn’t do that. She always picks up responsibility for her patch.

          I didn’t read what your wrote about James Shaw. I will if I have time. I had read that the f ups were down to previous govt, but realize that that may not be the case

    • Jimmy 14.4
      6 March 2019 at 4:37 pm

      That’s funny. Using the name “Shaw” and “leader” in the same sentence.

    • Gabby 14.5
      6 March 2019 at 8:06 pm

      He’s got his incompetent predecessor to blame.

      • alwyn 14.5.1
        6 March 2019 at 8:12 pm

        I suggest you see my comment at 14.3.1.
        I guess I must include you in the foolish little trio rather than only the duo of fools.

        • Gabby 14.5.1.1
          6 March 2019 at 10:31 pm

          Maybe he’s wrong wally. I mean when Pricksmith stuffs things up they stay stuffed up.

      • Muttonbird 14.5.2
        6 March 2019 at 8:26 pm

        Fantastic that alwyn has been reduced to complaining about the census.

        Statistically, statistics are not something a lot of people care about.

        • alwyn 14.5.2.1
          6 March 2019 at 9:28 pm

          Hah, bloody hah.
          I have been complaining about the stuffed up Census since a few weeks after it took place. The second I saw the percentage of the population that had responded I thought that it couldn’t possibly be rectified.
          Lots of people on this site claimed that everything was OK and that of course they would get usable numbers.
          Well they were wrong and an awful lot of other people are now saying the same things that I have been saying for the best part of a year.
          You may not care about statistics, or the Census.
          That is because you are an ignorant fool. Read Easton’s article that I linked to and then ask yourself how they can possibly settle on electorate boundaries, the number of Maori seats, allocations to DHBs or money going to schools without a valid Census? The law requires that they get it right.
          Claiming that people, and by implication you, aren’t interested merely demonstrates how stupid you really are. But then your comments show that on almost every occasion you burst into song here.

          • Muttonbird 14.5.2.1.1
            6 March 2019 at 10:17 pm

            I think they could make reasonable guesses on DHBs. Maori electorates won’t have changed much because the previous government made sure they couldn’t get ahead. Schools might be an issue. It’s a pity the Nats didn’t collect data on all the money flooding into the country via property investment.

  15. joe90 15
    6 March 2019 at 1:19 pm

    The hard part is going to be generating the political will.

    .

    “Right now, we have about ninety per cent or ninety-five per cent of the technology we need,” Mark Jacobson, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at Stanford, told me. In a series of papers, Jacobson and his colleagues have laid out “roadmaps” to a zero-emissions economy for fifty states, fifty-three towns and cities, and a hundred and thirty-eight other countries, with a completion date of 2050. Just as in the Democrats’ Green New Deal, the central element of these roadmaps (and others) is converting the electric grid to clean energy by shutting down power stations that rely on fossil fuels and making some very large investments in wind, solar, hydroelectric, and geothermal facilities. Jacobson said this could be completed by 2035, which is only five years beyond the target set out in the Green New Deal. At the same time, policymakers would introduce a range of measures to promote energy efficiency, and electrify other sectors of the economy that now rely heavily on burning carbon, such as road and rail transport, home heating, and industrial heating. “We don’t need a technological miracle to solve this problem,” Jacobson reiterated. “‘The bottom line is we just need to deploy, deploy, deploy.”

    http://archive.li/kUiGN

  16. Andre 16
    6 March 2019 at 1:31 pm

    Yup.

    Convert all land-based energy use to electric. Short flights go to electric, long-haul will need biofuels. There’s a good chance shipping will find small modular nuclear reactors to be the best option.

    I can’t think of a better way to boost the economy than doing all the R&D, manufacturing and infrastructure work needed to make that happen.

    • WeTheBleeple 16.1
      6 March 2019 at 4:11 pm

      Hear hear!

    • bwaghorn 16.2
      6 March 2019 at 4:24 pm

      I wonder how the people of the bay of plenty would have felt if the rena was nuclear powered.

      • WeTheBleeple 16.2.1
        6 March 2019 at 4:49 pm

        That disaster created my favorite meme (that I made)

        Rocks Tar Economy.

        I was surprised when it didn’t take off 😀

      • Andre 16.2.2
        6 March 2019 at 5:04 pm

        Reactors for use in shipping are a tenth the size or less of land-based electricity generation reactors. So a Fukushima or Chernobyl or Three Mile Island accident has negligible probability of happening, simply because the thermal runaway issues are exponentially related to reactor size.

        In a ship, there’s always coolant available right there. Unlike Three Mile Island, Chernobyl and Fukushima which all had loss of cooling as a key part of what went wrong.

        The radioactive material is always inside a seriously grunty containment vessel, so dropping a steaming pile of uranium on the seabed just aint gonna happen. The worst case scenario is breaking off the coolant lines going in and out of the containment vessel so seawater can go in and out of the containment vessel. Which will release a very small amount of radioactive material with the initial flushing out of the coolant that will very quickly dilute and dissipate.

        After that, to release radioactive material, they will need to be dissolved into the seawater. The concentration of uranium in seawater is already quasi-saturated, so it’s going to be just barely above background levels.

        So no, there wouldn’t suddenly be three-headed fish on the menu in the BOP. By any rational assessment, the worst-case ecosystem damage done by a hypothetical nuke-powered Rena would be much less than the actual damage done by the actual bunker oil spilled by the actual Rena.

        But we’ve had decades of overhyped scare stories about the nuclear boogeyman, so rational assessment probably aint gonna count for squat if we’re ever called on to figure out how we feel about nuke-powered ships in our ports.

        edit: Here’s an industry puff-piece on existing marine use of nuclear propulsion. Glossy spin to be sure, but it’s still a useful illustration of the scope of what’s already out there.

        http://www.world-nuclear.org/information-library/non-power-nuclear-applications/transport/nuclear-powered-ships.aspx

        • Skunk Weed 16.2.2.1
          6 March 2019 at 5:14 pm

          Evidently the servicing on the cooling system had been neglected at Fukushima.

          • Andre 16.2.2.1.1
            6 March 2019 at 5:22 pm

            Apparently at Chernobyl they were doing some kind of test that involved fucking with the cooling system.

            Three Mile Island had sequential failures of cooling components. IIRC, starting with pumps, then a valve stuck open. Shitty operator interface design contributed to operators not correctly understanding what was going wrong and then taking incorrect steps to try to fix it.

          • Gabby 16.2.2.1.2
            6 March 2019 at 8:08 pm

            I can’t imagine the servicing of a third world flagged merchant fleet will be anything to write home about.

        • bwaghorn 16.2.2.2
          6 March 2019 at 5:23 pm

          Thanks

          • Andre 16.2.2.2.1
            6 March 2019 at 5:32 pm

            I can’t see that we’re ever actually gonna be called on the consider the question.

            Oil prices would have to be up over $200/barrel, maybe $300, to make nukes look economically attractive to shipping companies. The only way I see that happening is a worldwide carbon price of at least $300/tonne CO2e that captures shipping as well. Maybe more like $600 or $1000/tonne. On an industry that is remarkably successful at avoiding getting taxed and regulated.

            Sigh. We’re all gonna fry.

            • BM 16.2.2.2.1.1
              6 March 2019 at 5:47 pm

              What do you reckon of this?

              • Exkiwiforces …
                6 March 2019 at 6:01 pm

                A ticking time bomb?

                • Muttonbird …
                  6 March 2019 at 6:05 pm

                  Seems somewhat risky. 🤣

                  • Exkiwiforces …
                    6 March 2019 at 6:18 pm

                    When you consider the Soviet/ Russian Nuclear accidents over the yrs, it’s a ticking time bomb waiting to go pop like Chernobyl or like their Nuke Subs or Ships. Just google earth/ maps of the Northern Fleet dockyards and see all their Nuclear Subs and their Cruisers in various states of this disrepair.

                    I think even Greenpeace has a piece on this wee monster of ticking time bomb?

                    • Andre …
                      6 March 2019 at 6:41 pm

                      Greenpeace’s knee-jerk anti-nuclear-power stance is one of the reasons I’ve gone off them.

                      To me, closing down an already built running nuclear power station somewhere like Germany, just because nuclear, makes no sense at all. For starters, the big environmental costs have already been incurred, like the original build, irradiation of the guts of it on startup etc. The ongoing marginal environmental cost of continued operation is pretty minimal.

                      Then there’s the way shortfalls in electricity production from shutting a nuke is likely to be made up by burning coal. Which is vastly more environmentally damaging than nuclear, even counting Fukushima and Chernobyl and TMI and all the others.

                      Yet Greenpeace is right at the forefront of demanding nuke power plants be shut down. It’s quite the environmental and climate own goal.

                    • Exkiwiforces …
                      6 March 2019 at 7:00 pm

                      I do agree that shutting down the German Nuclear Power plants is just plain crazy and as you said doesn’t make any sense at all. But I do think Greenpeace concerns on this wee ticking time bomb is quite valid, given the track record of the Russians to run a Nuclear Power safety.

                • BM …
                  6 March 2019 at 6:06 pm

                  Gets around the earthquake issue.

                  • Muttonbird …
                    6 March 2019 at 6:08 pm

                    What about the Tsunami issue?

                  • Exkiwiforces …
                    6 March 2019 at 6:24 pm

                    True, but if it’s close inshore when a Tsunami hits. I wouldn’t want to be near that thing in a month of Monday’s, even if I had a bucket full of iodine pills while wear a noddy suit at the same time.

                    I think Andre below, pretty well sums up my thoughts on this.

                  • Skunk Weed …
                    6 March 2019 at 7:08 pm

                    Fukushima was a fuck up evidently the cooling systems weren’t serviced properly and helped cause the melt down, stupid place to build s Nuclear Plant – Stupid Yanks Again ?

                    • reason …
                      6 March 2019 at 10:49 pm

                      The cooling systems were taken out by the tsunami …. they were badly / cheaply sited .

              • Andre …
                6 March 2019 at 6:07 pm

                The general concept has some merits. It’s an example of where the rooskies have kept going with reactor developments and may be in a pretty good position if a market for small modular reactors ever develops.

                The reactors are essentially the same design the rooskies have successfully used for quite a while in icebreakers. They’re modestly sized (150MW thermal, 35MW electrical compared to Chernobyl reactors being 3200MW thermal 1000MW electrical each), so if shit goes down with them it won’t be much shit.

                Things I don’t like about them are: Russian engineering and manufacturing and respect for safety and the environment ain’t the greatest, they’re old design pressurised water reactors that rely on active control systems working at all times, and PWRs produce a lot of radioactive waste relative to power generated.

                There are newer reactors designs that respond to complete loss of control and power by depowering using the laws of physics rather than active control, which I find much more comfortable. There’s also newer designs that essentially burn their waste rather than requiring somewhere very secure to store the waste for a very long time (maybe rooskies don’t care about secure storage for the waste).

                So I’ve got quite mixed thoughts on that particular application of nuclear tech.

                • Andre …
                  6 March 2019 at 6:22 pm

                  Should add, the cost looks way up there. Wikipedia reckons the project cost will be around USD336 million for a 70MW electricity output. That’s around $5/watt of electrical output. Although since it’s Murmansk, they’re probably taking quite a bit of its output directly as heat.

                  For comparison, utility-scale wind and solar are on the order of $0.50/watt.

                  • BM …
                    6 March 2019 at 6:32 pm

                    Not a viable option then?

                    Not that I could see Kiwis excepting the concept of a floating nuclear power plant.

                    Any government that allowed this would be hung drawn and quartered.

                    • Andre …
                      6 March 2019 at 6:47 pm

                      Never ever ever gonna be viable for on-land generation in New Zealand. We’ve got so much wind, geothermal and maybe even solar if needed that we just won’t need something that expensive and politically unpopular on land.

                      The alien unicorns will have arrived and started excreting working fusion plants out their back ends long before we tap out our renewables potential.

                      But if the world ever gets serious about eliminating greenhouse gas emissions, we may have a choice of either accepting nuke-powered ships in our ports or shutting ourselves off from the rest of the world.

                    • Exkiwiforces …
                      6 March 2019 at 6:55 pm

                      To be honest BM, I don’t think Nuclear Power would be practical in NZ from a risk, safety and cost POV. A Nuclear Power station would’ve got done in the 50’s-late 60’s if NZ’s history in the Atomic age is anything to by.

                      but not now as the muppets in Treasury would have a fit, before the anti Nuke mob even got their finger out of their digit to organise any protest. Hell the Treasury Muppets are already having fits over the 20B DCP over 15- 20yrs last announce by the “No Mates Party and reconfirm by the current Government, so you think they will support this?

                      Yeah right mate.

        • KJT 16.2.2.3
          6 March 2019 at 11:08 pm

          You haven’t seen the state of technical maintenance, on every, FOC ship we have taken over. Except for AHTSV’s.

          Sometimes the paintwork looks good, and often the paperwork.

          The quality of technical maintenance on the equipment and engines, has been, without exception, abysmal.

          Let your average cost cutting “Flag of Convenience” shipping company manage a nuclear plant!

          You must be fucking, joking!

          Hydrogen is really the only promising technology, at present, for ship fuels.
          It has it’s own dangers, however.

          Note though, a diesel ship has at least 30 times less emissions per ton.mile, than trucks.

          • Andre 16.2.2.3.1
            7 March 2019 at 7:39 am

            Complexity of operation and maintenance is a very good argument against quite a few classes of reactor design. Including all the pressurised water and light water reactor designs I’m aware of. Ironically, those designs are also the easiest to get regulatory approval for, since they’re based on legacy designs with long histories. Most expensive to actually build, too, because of the complexity, but the easier approval process counteracts that. That roosky nukes-on-barge thing BM linked to is one of those legacy type PWRs.

            Several of the outfits working on newer next-gen reactors are specifically targeting outright eliminating maintenance requirements and simplifying operation to the point of making the reactor itself basically a “big battery” from the users point of view. At least the nuke thermal part, anyway, converting heat to electricity or mechanical power won’t ever be quite that simple. The containment vessel for all the radioactive bits would be all in one unit, fueled at the factory for several years of operation. Then when it’s depleted, the entire unit is pulled out and replaced with a refurbished refuelled unit, and the old one goes back to the factory for refurb and refuel.

            If you can be bothered scrolling through the big article linked below you’ll find brief descriptions of several of these efforts. But none of them look anywhere near becoming commercial reality.

            http://www.world-nuclear.org/information-library/nuclear-fuel-cycle/nuclear-power-reactors/small-nuclear-power-reactors.aspx

            • KJT 16.2.2.3.1.1
              7 March 2019 at 3:10 pm

              https://www.ship-technology.com/features/featureis-there-a-future-for-hydrogen-powered-ship-propulsion-5731545/

              https://grist.org/article/a-ferry-that-runs-on-hydrogen-fuel-cells-is-coming-to-san-francisco/

              Safe, storage of large amounts of hydrogen is an issue, but scientists reckon it is, solvable. Note: The dangers of storing large quantities of gas or petrol.

              Making hydrogen, of course requires a large source of sustainable electricity. Which New Zealand has the capability.

              Unless we get the Holy Grail, Fusion, which is decades away, if ever. Continued nuclear energy for transport, remains unlikely.

              • Andre …
                7 March 2019 at 3:42 pm

                Handling hydrogen is way way more difficult and dangerous than handling liquid fuels. Hydrogen embrittlement of metals, the way seals have to be metal-to-metal contact because hydrogen permeates through and reacts with polymers so quickly, hydrogen’s very wide range of explosive concentrations in air, the way hydrogen fires are nearly invisible to the naked eye (they put out a shitload of UV though)…

                The round trip efficiency of using electricity to split water for hydrogen to mechanical work is very low. I don’t see us having enough excess of electricity any time soon to make that route to widespread use of hydrogen viable.

                I reckon what might make hydrogen viable is if any of the teams working on photocatalytic hydrogen production has a breakthrough, or one of the lab methods of generating hydrogen from hydrocarbons without releasing CO2 has a breakthrough. One of the most interesting efforts in that area is bubbling methane up through molten metal, which releases nearly pure hydrogen and the carbon becomes a solid floating on top of the molten metal. Presumably like a sooty powder.

                In the early noughties when the prospect of a hydrogen economy looked more likely, there was a fluffy of articles talking about risks to the ozone layer from leaked hydrogen. That question seems to have died off, but I haven’t found whether it was shown to be a non-issue, or whether it just reflects an assessed low probability of widespread hydrogen use.

            • KJT 16.2.2.3.1.2
              7 March 2019 at 3:23 pm

              I am aware of the likely costs of new reactor designs, for ships. As well as the PR issues.

              I don’t think shipping companies will go there.

      • Skunk Weed 16.2.3
        6 March 2019 at 5:17 pm

        Probably a little bit pissed off.

        Auckland City Council have Resource Consent to dump toxic sludge out of Auckland Viaduct Harbour into the pristine waters of Great Barrier Island so some rich wankers can have a silly little boat race in Auckland Harbour ?

    • WeTheBleeple 17.1
      6 March 2019 at 5:12 pm

      I see nothing of the sort in the link provided. He said she said – no big deal. But if you need that illusion to help you get chubby by all means who am I to judge.

    • McFlock 17.2
      6 March 2019 at 5:17 pm

      Rolling a turd in glitter only works if it’s still moist. The tax debate is as dry as a desert coprolite.

    • The Al1en 17.3
      6 March 2019 at 5:35 pm

      I just watched the full exchange and the PM clearly owned it.
      The only thing I agree with is that yeah, it was funny.
      Of course, you and the Herald shills are free to pretend to see it differently.

      The acting leader of the nat party should be renamed ‘Slicks’, not for his hair, or love for big oil, but for the fact he get’s no traction when the red rain pours.

    • Red Blooded One 17.4
      6 March 2019 at 6:09 pm

      Your a funny chap there James, Jacinda neither lost it or Bridges looked in control, but you’re right it was a little funny. The Prime Minister ended still with a smile on her face and the Leader of the National Party looked like he was about to burst into tears. Thanks for bringing this to our attention.

    • Gabby 17.5
      6 March 2019 at 8:28 pm

      Did Slick get cwoss and cwy jimbo?

  18. Skunk Weed 18
    6 March 2019 at 5:12 pm

    Jimmy you have finally arrived we have been waiting all day.

  19. Peter 19
    6 March 2019 at 5:12 pm

    I can’t think why National’s only asking questions about the Cullen report. They’ve decided that recommendations in it are exactly what’s going to happen, the Government’s going to do everything suggested.

    Surely they have the imagination to work out what’s going to come out of other reviews and can put the heat on the Government about the decisions they’ve already made to instigate all recommendations. You know, make it all up – should be easy from the fantasyland they’re in.

  20. OnceWasTim 20
    6 March 2019 at 9:27 pm

    https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/111065215/kpiti-expressway-needs-25-million-worth-of-repairs-just-two-years-after-opening

    tempted to just say “lol”

    But if you dig deeper (not that I could give a fuck because of gNat and NZTA muppetry, AND if you consider the Levin Mayor’s contributions today to the debate) ….. it all couldn’t have happened to such ideologically driven peeps.

    If you go back over the years from the dismantling of MOW, to out-saucing – even where bitumen is available (primarily from a private monopoly), Hark at Thee for trying to scream foul now.
    Shudda Cudda Wudda.

    I mean!!!!! this same shit happened before FFS on that same route.

    Is there anyone among elected government representatives that has yet got past the flagellation phase of pandering to their ‘officials’ (who LEAST OF ALL have your best interests at heart)

    As things pan out, I’m actually seriously worried about the Coalition and in particular some with Ministerial responsibilities.
    For some, there some really FUCKING EASY gains to be made (e.g. with Immigration, OR with Land Transport, or various other things that could be done via Ministerial regulatory and ‘last chance’ options).
    Doesn’t seem to be happening so far (and it’s what????? 12 -15 months)
    Are some of them actually masochists do you think?

    • greywarshark 20.1
      6 March 2019 at 10:20 pm

      Why not email or write an actual letter just to show some of us know how* to the various Ministers you would like to test for masochism and see if you can penetrate their defence mechanisms.

      (*Our city post office has just been abandoned for no reason except ideology. Here in Nelson it is very busy in the tourist season and we had a nice central location which is all being given over to Kiwi Bank. With a different design we could have given Kiwi bank pride of place and had a simpler post office set up but no it has to go to the back of a nearby private book and stationery shop. Bloody Post Office dimwits and vandals. They have made up their mind that it’s a dying business and are speeding it on its way – just too unimaginative to keep it going with a simpler business model that differs depending on the site and location.)

      • OnceWasTim 20.1.1
        7 March 2019 at 8:35 am

        I’m on the move again @grey, so difficult to give you a full reply atm, but I have done so in the past as have others from various advocacy groups, unions, and so on – AND provided instances (cases) where people have been let down – either through under-resourcing, inexperience, or just sheer muppetry.

        What is annoying is that in many many instances, the failings (MBIE, NZTA, Health, DHBs, WINZ, HNZ etc.) is all a matter of record.

        And though I don’t necessarily agree with NZ1’s approach to some of our PS (the Senior ranks), I can understand their frustration.

        Unless there is some sort of reform of the PS, it is going to be hard for this coalition to be “transformational”.
        Immigrant worker exploitation (for example) could AT LEAST be minimised, along with its flow on effects in driving down wages quite easily. I’m wondering whether the only reason a couple of simple steps haven’t been taken is because there is fear that a flood of complaints might overwhelm the Labour Inspectorate – but which to do you more important? I’d suggest trying to minimise the exploitation and eventually holding the exploiters to account trumps anything based on past bad policy advice.

  21. Eco Maori 21
    8 March 2019 at 8:06 am

    Kia ora The AM Show Its cool that today is international Wahines day for equality its is a cause that Eco Maori champions. They won’t let a truly powerful Artificial Intelligence program to give financial advice to the masses as the billionaire won’t be able to ripp us off.
    Its more than just sports that is fixed in our society.
    The Hokatika Wild foods festival would be great to go and see there are Alot of bush food that we could harvest that we don’t even know about it would be good for the environment and organic as well
    Why is Fonterra selling its silver ware its stupid are some of the people in the know lining Tip top up to buy cheap and than resell making huge profits at the expense of farmers selling is also not logical when interest rates are at historical lows.???????????????????. With the Rugby The people who control the World don’t want a team called the All Blacks domanating World Rugby don’t let the bigots win.
    Nice money Phil Goff has good control of Auckland he is doing a great job.
    Our return armed forces personnel NZDF do need more care I see all Around the world that they are suffering mental fatigue physically disabled but I would never let my Mokopunas go to war no one wins in war. judy its all very well that you’re child can afford private education but most people can not hence our government invested in our future with the money given to our youths education.
    Sir Michael Cullen has more Good knowledge on the tax system than the whole of the national party. There moto is giving more to the wealthy and take more from the poor. Anyperson with a logical brain can work out that is a unsustainable model when money is consentrated in a few hands. Te tangata te tangata te tangata when everyone ha enough KAI all te tangata are healthy and happy when only a few have all the KAI nobody is happy Ka kite ano

  22. Eco Maori 22
    8 March 2019 at 10:29 am

    Don’t believe the sandflys lieing spinning about what’s going on in my life at the minute. You can not compare my situation with ANYONE else’s it Eco Maori. For one they will and have use everything at their disposal to try and LOCKME UP the power of the states spy’s and NOTHING if they had one shread of evedince they would have locked me up druged me up and carry on shitting on the common people. Ana to kai. Some Eco Maori Music for the minute.
    https://youtu.be/tgIqecROs5M

  23. Eco Maori 23
    8 March 2019 at 2:13 pm

    I read a bit about this plite happening to Our Native Amercian and Canada Wahine Cousins I could not believe what I had read I waited for some more information on the subject Its SHOCKING that these Wahine from Amercia and Canada are missing and 4 to 5 x as much as whites WTF in a first world country this should not be happening. The aurthoritys could find them or what happened to them but because tangata whenua/ people of the land cultures are being suppressed all around the world they DONT GIVE A SHIT.
    REDress exhibit highlights epidemic of missing and murdered indigenous women
    Haunting outdoor art installation by Canadian artist Jaime Black is on display at Washington DC Museum

    The REDress Project, an outdoor art installation by Métis artist Jaime Black at Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian in Washington DC. Photograph: Katherine Fogden/National Museum of the American Indian
    T
    hirty-five red dresses hung on winter-bare trees lining the Riverwalk along the National Museum of the American Indian. A woman pushing a stroller stopped to watch the garments twist in the wind, staring at the smallest dress in the collection – one that would fit a little girl.
    The REDress Project is a haunting outdoor art installation in Washington DC by Canadian artist Jaime Black meant to symbolize the epidemic of violence against indigenous women and girls.
    “Every visitor will have a different experience with the dresses,” said Machel Monenerkit, the deputy director of the National Museum of American Indian. “But you cannot walk through this installation and not have some emotional experience.”
    For years and at astonishing rates, Native women in the United States, Canada and across the continent have gone missing or been murdered. Native American women are 10 times more likely to be murdered and four times more likely to be sexually assaulted than the national average, according to a recent report by the US Commission on Civil Rights.
    But in the era of #MeToo and after the first two Native American women were elected to Congress in 2018, there is a renewed effort to account for the disappearances and prevent future tragedies. Ka kite ano links below .

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/mar/07/redress-exhibit-dc-missing-and-murdered-indigenous-women

  24. Eco Maori 24
    8 March 2019 at 3:42 pm

    Some Eco Maori Music for the Minute.

  25. Eco Maori 25
    8 March 2019 at 6:53 pm

    Kia ora Te ao Maori News I say that those youth justice prison are training grounds for our tamariki to learn bad habits off the harden tamariki that are in their it needs to have more than just a Maori name it needs to be run by Maori as we will teach them good principles and love them not loave them and treat them like a treasure not dirt.
    Tipuni Kokori is only a shell compare to the Mana funding it once had and Eco Maori says it need more funding to help Maori tangata and businesses.
    Sports is a good way for OUR tamariki to climb up to their maximum heights on their ladders of life. I was to busy trying to building my Maunga plus we live in the wopwops to concentrate on my tamariki sport te Wahine was sleeping. That’s good to know to karakia to the Stars
    Ka pai Ken the break dancer Tau toko smoke free I hear that the Olympic committee is considering having break danceing in the Olympic. Ka kite ano

  28. Eco Maori 28
    9 March 2019 at 10:58 am

    Some Eco Maori Music for the minute.

  29. Eco Maori 29
    9 March 2019 at 11:10 am

    Te billionares oil barron climate change suppressors do obey any rules mans or GOD,s keep up the good mahi tamariki /good work children
    Student climate change strike: Rules don’t matter when you’re fighting for your future
    OPINION: I have a memory of my grandfather saying that, when he was young, children were to be seen and not heard. Reflecting on it now, I suspect that I was being naughty at the time and he was suggesting that I might consider being seen and not heard.
    On March 15, hundreds, perhaps thousands, of young people are intending to walk out of their classrooms. They will take to the streets to protest decades of complacency and inaction on climate change, on the part of the adults whose first responsibility should have been the future these kids will inherit.
    Since the “School Strike 4 Climate” was announced, a number of adults have expressed apparent concern for the impact that taking time out of school will have on the education of these young students.
    But I don’t remember any concern for the impact on my schooling when I was marshalled out of class for a morning so I could wave to a fast-passing limousine bearing Prince Charles and Lady Diana on their visit to Wellington in 1983.
    It wouldn’t have helped bring an end to apartheid if protesters had rented side-line advertising space during half time at the All Blacks v Springboks test matches in 1981.
    And homosexual law reform wouldn’t have happened if gay rights activists had stayed in the closet and out of sight.
    Should kids be skipping school to shout about inaction on climate change? I wish they didn’t feel they had to. I wish they weren’t left feeling like they have to fight for their futures.
    That’s why I, as your Green Party minister in this Government, will make sure we bring the Zero Carbon Bill into law.
    That law will establish an important certainty in Aotearoa New Zealand, that we can and must reduce the greenhouse gas pollution which is overheating our planet and threatening the delicate balance that maintains our existence.
    There may once have been a time when it was considered right and proper that children should be seen and not heard. But when our children feel like they’re fighting for their future, this is not that time.
    James Shaw is the co-leader of the Green Party and the Minister for Climate Change. Ka kite ano links below.

    https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/opinion/111139469/student-climate-strikes-rules-dont-matter-when-youre-fighting-for-your-future

  30. Eco Maori 30
    9 March 2019 at 12:26 pm

    Some Eco Maori Music for the minute.
    https://youtu.be/LHCob76kigA

  31. Eco Maori 31
    9 March 2019 at 1:45 pm

    Eco Maori Say Kia Kaha Mana Wahine pay equity Equality will give ladys the power to fight for a good cause Wahines Mana if power is money and the men are given 10 to 100 x more money than Wahine if we do close the wage gap than we will never get EQUALITY for Wahine
    United States women’s football team sues for equitable pay
    Players for the US women’s national football team have filed a gender discrimination lawsuit seeking pay that is equitable to that of their male counterparts
    The action comes just three months before the team will defend its title at the women’s World Cup in France.
    The players allege that they have been subject to ongoing “institutionalised gender discrimination,” including unequal pay, despite having the same job responsibilities as players on the men’s national team. The 28 members of the current national team player pool joined in the class-action lawsuit against the US Soccer Federation, which was filed Friday in federal court in Los Angeles under the Equal Pay Act and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act.
    The players are seeking equitable pay and treatment, in addition to damages including back pay.
    `And hopefully in that way it inspires women everywhere.”
    The US Women’s National Team Players Association was not party to the lawsuit, but in a statement said it “supports the plaintiffs’ goal of eliminating gender-based discrimination by USSF.”
    The US Soccer Federation didn’t have an immediate comment.
    The USSF has maintained in the past that much of the pay disparity between the men’s and women’s teams results from separate collective bargaining agreements.
    The women’s team set up its compensation structure, which included a guaranteed salary rather than a pay-for-play model like the men, in the last labor contract. The players also earn salaries – paid by the federation – for playing in the National Women’s Soccer League.
    The women receive other benefits, including health care, that the men’s national team players don’t receive, the federation has maintained.
    This is not the first time the players have sought equitable compensation and conditions. Ka kite ano links below P.S There was nothing wrong with our best mens sports team so why has it been turned insideout

    https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/football/world-game/111154110/united-states-womens-football-team-sues-for-equitable-pay