I heard the interview on National Radio Morning Report yesterday – both with one of the senior team (not the CEO, who's not commenting) – on the stark hypocrisy of BlackRock managing an ethical investing fund (in which SolarZero was included), which has benchmarks for social responsibility – in dumping employees (and contractors) with zero notice, weeks out from Christmas.
And then, a heartbreaking interview on Checkpoint with one of the solar installation contractors about effectively being bankrupted (no payments for work done in November, and the ongoing work cancelled), and their employees and apprentices losing their jobs.
I wonder what the Labour Party and supporters think of the partnering with Black Rock. Could frame it as a multi-choice q+a:
1. Good idea, bad reality.
2. Wasn't God's will.
3. Market forces done it.
4. Crap shoot – win some, lose some.
5. Murk (what you get when LP members/supporters try to think of anything).
The fund's chairwoman Cecilia Tarrant was today called in for a "please explain" meeting with Finance Minister Nicola Willis and Climate Change Minister Simon Watts… She clarified later this afternoon that the fund had not "invested in SolarZero, the company". "What we've done is we've lent money on the panels and the batteries." She said the fund was "confident" it had done "the right due diligence" for the transaction. https://www.1news.co.nz/2024/12/05/green-investment-fund-questioned-over-solarzero-collapse/
The tiny wee Nat brains now cogitating the situation will slowly discern such investment as being in accord with PPP doctrine – thus ok as per political rectitude.
they're not complying with the social part of sustainability," SolarZero's former director of public affairs and policy Eric Pyle said.
I suspect that's due to there being no such clause in their contract, but since James Shaw was likely involved in establishing the fund, I hope I'm wrong! If there actually is a social accountability clause, the current govt ought to confess impotence re enforcement: "Limited liability always lets wrong-doers off the hook. Both the left & right have always supported this legal principle. Morality is irrelevant."
Perhaps it was a mistake for the then Prime Minister to promote New Zealand as a suitable place for Blackrock to operate.
Do you remember a former NZ PM with a vision of NZ as a financial services 'hub'?
Key backs off financial services 'hub'
Key's frustration with officials who recommended the proposal be canned boiled over the following month when he reportedly told the audience at the International Business Forum that official advice criticising the hub was "absolute rubbish".
I chuckled at a cartoon (can't find it now) depicting PM Rishi Sunak visiting an NHS hospital and asking staff "But who profits?" – "Who gets the profits?", implying the 'poor' man couldn’t grasp the raison d'être of a not-for-profit public health system.
Isn't it great that that Luxon is so 'passionate' about 'outcomes' though? Surely that's the thing to 'celebrate' here? Maybe they are fleeing to attend those extra maths lesson being arranged by the (also extraordinarily 'passionate') Minister Erica Stanford? Get mastery of fractions and percentages and these rangatahi will walk into the great, well-paying jobs our wonderful 'passionate' Kiwi business people will be offering. So much hope and so much 'passion' – it makes one feel (frankly) 'passionate'.
This will be interesting. The next emerging issue, although already present, will be the management of wilding pines coming from all those planted pine plantations purely for carbon credits – with little intention to harvest as you will have to pay credits back for chopping them down. We let Japan dump their used cars here and now we are letting overseas companies dump pine trees.
Gisborne District Council, in a bid to prevent further damage to the region’s landscape and swathes of woody debris covering its coastline, is seeking an enforcement order requiring a large forestry company to cease discharging forestry debris and sediment and to deal with about 16,000 cubic metres of woody debris from a forest block in the Waimata valley.
The council is seeking the order against China Forestry Group New Zealand Company Ltd. (CFGNZC) , which owns 24 forests across New Zealand, and is a subsidiary of China Forestry Group, the biggest forestry company in China.
The spread of wilding pines in the environment and the …
"Gisborne District Council, in a bid to prevent further damage to the region’s landscape and swathes of woody debris covering its coastline, is seeking an enforcement order requiring a large forestry company to cease discharging forestry debris and sediment and to deal with about 16,000 cubic metres of woody debris from a forest block in the Waimata valley."
…problem the GDC has are two sepearate issues IMO the debris is primarily uncleared slash from forestry harvesting.
New Zealand and Australia have struck a new agreement to further integrate defence forces across military procurement, planning, and operations. “In 2024, this is building Anzac, quite literally,” said Australian Defence Minister Richard Marles. The agreement was signed between Marles and Defence Minister Judith Collins on Friday morning at the second “ANZMIN” meeting between the two ministers, and Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong https://www.stuff.co.nz/politics/360511120/winston-peters-judith-collins-speak-australian-ministers
Such consolidation does make sense, but our current govt will be challenged to invest substance into it. A pea-shooter brigade won't cut the mustard…
Bolger met Bush Snr (1991), discussed overturning the nuke ban:
the pair were both drinking whiskies in a side room of the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York, with national security adviser Brent Scrowcroft also in attendance. A transcript of the full conversation has been declassified and makes for some incredible reading.
First Bolger reminds Bush that National had “inherited” this policy, and then discusses National’s woeful polling at the time (TVNZ/Heylen had National at 22%, 20 points behind Labour), saying the party was too far out on a limb to reverse the ban right now. https://thespinoff.co.nz/politics/04-12-2024/labours-long-win-on-defence-policy
Bush replied "Don't believe that crap. The polls can change in an instant."
In 2004 Labour foreign affairs minister Phil Goff released briefing notes his ministry had taken at a meeting then National leader Don Brash had held with the US ambassador, where Brash had reportedly said the nuclear-free policy would be “gone by lunchtime”. This bit of political ratfuckery undoubtedly played a part in Brash failing to win the election, and kept Brash’s successor John Key from ever touching the issue.
Almost 40 years since Lange's govt empowered the dissident boomer groundswell, and time has thoroughly normalised kiwi anti-nuke exceptionalism. Yet a week ago I commented here on Fusion 2.0 happening in Wellington & Alwyn asked about the relevance of the law & got no response. Maybe folks assumed nuke tech is cool when a private company does it. Maybe the fine print of the law doesn't cover that. Yet it does make me wonder if anti-nuke sentiment has abated somewhat…
From memory the anti-nuke law doesn’t cover that. It was largely against nuclear powered vessels, nuclear explosive devices, biological weapons, and a bit about dumping radioactive materials in the sea. Nothing much to stop nuclear power, fission or fusion.
The Act established the legal framework for New Zealand’s anti-nuclear policy. The Act sets out the New Zealand Nuclear Free Zone consisting of all New Zealand territory (including ocean territory and airspace) and bans nuclear powered ships from entering into New Zealand waters. It also prohibits the acquisition, stationing and testing of nuclear explosive devices. Immunity from the law was granted to ships and aircraft exercising the right of innocent passage and/or the right of transit passage, as well as ships and aircraft in distress.
In addition to legislating for a national nuclear-free zone, the Act implemented four international treaties. These included the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, the Seabed Arms Control Treaty, the Biological Weapons Convention and the Treaty of Rarotonga.
It also has as schedule 1, the South Pacific Nuclear Free Zone Treaty (SPNFT) of 6 August 1985. That has some restrictions (Article 4) about non-proliferation of fissionable material unless it is subject to the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) or International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), but otherwise doesn’t restrict peaceful use of nuclear technology. Article 7 prohibits dumping of radioactive matter or wastes in SPNFT territorial sea or waters.
There was a bill in 2000, that failed to pass the house. That had limits of transport of nuclear waste which would caused issues for a local nuclear industry.
We also have some civilian low-grade nuclear industry in NZ – mostly related to medical.
As someone with a BSc in earth science, I wouldn’t be comfortable with quantities of nuclear material anywhere in NZ. It is too geologically unstable. Suffice it to say that I live in city with more than 50 reasonably recent volcanoes and calderas, and a backing range of older vulcanism from the Miocene – and I think that is one of the safest places geologically in NZ. Even here I live away from the volcanic fields and 85m above sealevel.
It isn’t that I am paranoid about geological risk. It is just that I know enough about the risks to be extremely cautious.
Ok, it makes sense that the govt lawyers would have been specific like that, thanks for clarifying. Having been part of the antinuke movement, I was always aware that many others were opposed to nuclear anything. As a physics grad, I was unusual in grasping the science context. When I saw that movie about a meltdown going all the way thro the planet to reach China on the other side I realised popular thinking will inevitably defeat science though. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_China_Syndrome
I did Geology I in 1970 because I needed an extra unit to graduate & it turned out to be more interesting than physics. The version of that map of the Ak volcanic centers we got shown had a count of more than 60, I recall, so perhaps some have since been down-graded or something. Also we were told that Symonds St was on a tuff cone like Albert Park: your map has them separate but I've walked down from one to the other a zillion times and there's no dip between them. Possibly got infilled early in the 20th century – or maybe the map-maker was not an Aucklander.
Yeah, drafting of legislation is usually an art of precision. Quite unlike irrelevant travesties like Act's treaty definition 'bill' which lacks any kind of precision and looks like it was drafted by dimwits trying to look smart.
//—
The anti-nuke movement is rife with false information. The China syndrome being an extreme example. What do people think that they are living on? The core of the Earth is an immense nuclear reactor powered mostly by the fission reaction of the slow decay of unstable isotopes into (ultimately) more stable elements. Mostly uranium 235 and 238 to lead. Adding a teeny dollop of extra uranium to a thermal nuclear reaction like that does absolutely nothing. Not to mention the energy required to boost away from the core gravitational centre.
I don't have any problem with nuclear energy engineering. Just a problem about geological stability for sites and waste. The sites are usually around water for cooling and steam generation. Which is always a danger, especially for local populations and those 'downstream'. As soon as water is involved, then 'downstream' over decades or centuries is a very large area.
Tsunamis. floods, earthquakes, drought, and even terrorist attacks aren't that much of a long-term environmental issue for roads, bridges, and buildings. However radioactive waste and debris from storage or generating sites is. Even 'short-term' radioactive waste can be a problem, one whose extent and effect we don't know long-term. Which is why disposing of all radioactive waste has been an issue. Look at Japan with tsunamis, the old USSR radioactive fallouts like Kyshtym (makes Chernobyl look minor), or even close to beach storage in California.
Basically I don't believe any vague hand-waving and theories from engineers and industrialists. I much prefer actual data from actual testing before possibly causing a long-term problem. Data which is curiously absent from the nuclear industry. Hard enough to even get data from the temporary storage, or storages of short-term waste.
//—
The number of 50 volcanoes in Auckland is rough (as is 60 or more). It mostly depends if you look at events, vents, or magma pools.
For instance Auckland's most recent – Rangitoto has had at least one eruption, possibly in two close events, or possibly has had a volcanic history that is 6000yo. Just about every cone, caldera, and even lava field has similar ambiguities. Basaltic volcanic events are noted by their ability to mask earlier events. They have none of the relative simplicity of rhylotic events that distribute their gifts widely.
Never seen any volcanic tuffs in building sites on the Symonds street ridge. But it was mostly built over by the uni before I reached adolescence. From what I remember, it looked like the usual semi-metamorphic sediments on deep building sites like the new business school.
It is well within the volcanic bomb radius from volcanic areas like the Albert Park tuff ring, and on the other side of Grafton gully, including Mt Eden. I can see a reference to a possible tuff cone in Symonds Street in this 1962 paper pp 197-198. But it reads like speculation based on surface rocks. I don't know of any deep building sites on the ridge before the mid-1960s. The uni has the only really large buildings up there and tat only started those large buildings after they left the Uni of NZ in 1962. So I'm guessing this paper was formed just from shallow excavations.
No doubt Tehran doesn't quite cut it for Asma and the fam so they're probably tucked up in Moscow.
/
The Backstory Behind the Fall of Aleppo
Aleppo was never meant to fall.
A stunning offensive waged by two Turkish-backed forces over the space of the last five days has resulted in the conquering of Syria’s second-largest city and industrial hub, doing in under a week what more numerous and well-resourced anti-Assad rebels never managed. Yet Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and the Syrian National Army (SNA) found themselves the beneficiaries of neighboring conflicts, an opportunistic patron in Ankara, the recent election in the United States and a dynastic dictatorship in Damascus weakened by civil war, sanctions and corruption.
Christopher Luxon is every dismal boss who ever made you wince, or roll your eyes, or think to yourself I have absolutely got to get the hell out of this place.Get a load of what he shared with us at his cabinet reshuffle, trying to be all sensitive and gracious.Dr ...
The text of my submission to the Ministry of Health's unnecessary and politicised review of the use of puberty blockers for young trans and nonbinary people in Aotearoa. ...
Hi,Last night one of the world’s biggest social media platforms, TikTok, became inaccessible in the United States.Then, today, it came back online.Why should we care about a social network that deals in dance trends and cute babies? Well — TikTok represents a lot more than that.And its ban and subsequent ...
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Former Health Minister Shane Reti was the main target of Luxon’s reshuffle. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāLong stories short to start the year in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, poverty and climate: Christopher Luxon fired Shane Reti as Health Minister and replaced him with Simeon Brown, who Luxon sees ...
Yesterday, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced a cabinet reshuffle, which saw Simeon Brown picking up the Health portfolio as it’s been taken off Dr Shane Reti, and Transport has been given to Chris Bishop. Additionally, Simeon’s energy and local government portfolios now sit with Simon Watts. This is very good ...
The sacking of Health Minister Shane Reti yesterday had an air of panic about it. A media advisory inviting journalists to a Sunday afternoon press conference at Premier House went out on Saturday night. Caucus members did not learn that even that was happening until yesterday morning. Reti’s fate was ...
Yesterday’s demotion of Shane Reti was inevitable. Reti’s attempt at a re-assuring bedside manner always did have a limited shelf life, and he would have been a poor and apologetic salesman on the campaign trail next year. As a trained doctor, he had every reason to be looking embarrassed about ...
A listing of 25 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, January 12, 2025 thru Sat, January 18, 2025. This week's roundup is again published soleley by category. We are still interested in feedback to hone the categorization, so if ...
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Skeptical Science is partnering with Gigafact to produce fact briefs — bite-sized fact checks of trending claims. This fact brief was written by Sue Bin Park from the Gigafact team in collaboration with members from our team. You can submit claims you think need checking via the tipline. Can CO2 be ...
The old bastard left his ties and his suitA brown box, mothballs and bowling shoesAnd his opinion so you'd never have to choosePretty soon, you'll be an old bastard tooYou get smaller as the world gets bigThe more you know you know you don't know shit"The whiz man" will never ...
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It’s Friday and time for another roundup of things that caught our attention this week. This post, like all our work, is brought to you by a largely volunteer crew and made possible by generous donations from our readers and fans. If you’d like to support our work, you can join ...
Note: This Webworm discusses sexual assault and rape. Please read with care.Hi,A few weeks ago I reported on how one of New Zealand’s richest men, Nick Mowbray (he and his brother own Zuru and are worth an estimated $20 billion), had taken to sharing posts by a British man called ...
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My daily news diet is not what it once was.It was the TV news that lost me first. Too infantilising, too breathless, too frustrating.The Herald was next. You could look past the reactionary framing while it was being a decent newspaper of record, but once Shayne Currie began unleashing all ...
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This might be the longest delay between reading (or in this case re-reading) a work, and actually writing a review of it I have ever managed. Indeed, when I last read these books in December 2022, I was not planning on writing anything about them… but as A Phuulish Fellow ...
Kia Ora,I try to keep most my posts without a paywall for public interest journalism purposes. However, if you can afford to, please consider supporting me as a paid subscriber and/or supporting over at Ko-Fi. That will help me to continue, and to keep spending time on the work. Embarrassingly, ...
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Hi,If you’ve been reading Webworm for a while, you’ll be familiar with Anna Wilding. Between 2020 and 2021 I looked at how the New Zealander had managed to weasel her way into countless news stories over the years, often with very little proof any of it had actually happened. When ...
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This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Jeff Masters and Bob HensonFlames from the Palisades Fire burn a building at Sunset Boulevard amid a powerful windstorm on January 8, 2025 in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. The fast-moving wildfire had destroyed thousands of structures and ...
..Thanks for reading Frankly Speaking ! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.The Regulatory Standards Bill, as I understand it, seeks to bind parliament to a specific range of law-making.For example, it seems to ensure primacy of individual rights over that of community, environment, te Tiriti ...
Happy New Year!I had a lovely break, thanks very much for asking: friends, family, sunshine, books, podcasts, refreshing swims, barbecues, bike rides. So good to step away from the firehose for a while, to have less Trump and Seymour in your day. Who needs the Luxons in their risible PJs ...
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For the first time in a decade, a New Zealand Prime Minister is heading to the Middle East. The trip is more than just a courtesy call. New Zealand PMs frequently change planes in Dubai en route to destinations elsewhere. But Christopher Luxon’s visit to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) ...
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This is a re-post from the Climate BrinkGlobal surface temperatures have risen around 1.3C since the preindustrial (1850-1900) period as a result of human activity.1 However, this aggregate number masks a lot of underlying factors that contribute to global surface temperature changes over time.These include CO2, which is the primary ...
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2024 was a tough year for working Kiwis. But together we’ve been able to fight back for a just and fair New Zealand and in 2025 we need to keep standing up for what’s right and having our voices heard. That starts with our Mood of the Workforce Survey. It’s your ...
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Ooh, baby (ooh, baby)It's making me crazy (it's making me crazy)Every time I look around (look around)Every time I look around (every time I look around)Every time I look aroundIt's in my faceSongwriters: Alan Leo Jansson / Paul Lawrence L. Fuemana.Today, I’ll be talking about rich, middle-aged men who’ve made ...
A listing of 26 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, December 29, 2024 thru Sat, January 4, 2025. This week's roundup is again published soleley by category. We are still interested in feedback to hone the categorization, so if ...
Hi,The thing that stood out at me while shopping for Christmas presents in New Zealand was how hard it was to avoid Zuru products. Toy manufacturer Zuru is a bit like Netflix, in that it has so much data on what people want they can flood the market with so ...
And when a child is born into this worldIt has no conceptOf the tone of skin it's living inAnd there's a million voicesAnd there's a million voicesTo tell you what you should be thinkingSong by Neneh Cherry and Youssou N'Dour.The moment you see that face, you can hear her voice; ...
The Green Party has welcomed the provisional ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas, and reiterated its call for New Zealand to push for an end to the unlawful occupation of Palestine. ...
The Green Party welcomes the extension of the deadline for Treaty Principles Bill submissions but continues to call on the Government to abandon the Bill. ...
Complaints about disruptive behaviour now handled in around 13 days (down from around 60 days a year ago) 553 Section 55A notices issued by Kāinga Ora since July 2024, up from 41 issued during the same period in the previous year. Of that 553, first notices made up around 83 ...
The time it takes to process building determinations has improved significantly over the last year which means fewer delays in homes being built, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk says. “New Zealand has a persistent shortage of houses. Making it easier and quicker for new homes to be built will ...
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden is pleased to announce the annual list of New Zealand’s most popular baby names for 2024. “For the second consecutive year, Noah has claimed the top spot for boys with 250 babies sharing the name, while Isla has returned to the most popular ...
Work is set to get underway on a new bus station at Westgate this week. A contract has been awarded to HEB Construction to start a package of enabling works to get the site ready in advance of main construction beginning in mid-2025, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says.“A new Westgate ...
Minister for Children and for Prevention of Family and Sexual Violence Karen Chhour is encouraging people to use the resources available to them to get help, and to report instances of family and sexual violence amongst their friends, families, and loved ones who are in need. “The death of a ...
Uia te pō, rangahaua te pō, whakamāramatia mai he aha tō tango, he aha tō kāwhaki? Whitirere ki te ao, tirotiro kau au, kei hea taku rātā whakamarumaru i te au o te pakanga mo te mana motuhake? Au te pō, ngū te pō, ue hā! E te kahurangi māreikura, ...
Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says people with diabetes and other painful conditions will benefit from a significant new qualification to boost training in foot care. “It sounds simple, but quality and regular foot and nail care is vital in preventing potentially serious complications from diabetes, like blisters or sores, which can take a long time to heal ...
Associate Health Minister with responsibility for Pharmac David Seymour is pleased to see Pharmac continue to increase availability of medicines for Kiwis with the government’s largest ever investment in Pharmac. “Pharmac operates independently, but it must work within the budget constraints set by the government,” says Mr Seymour. “When this government assumed ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Joanne Orlando, Researcher, Digital Literacy and Digital Wellbeing, Western Sydney University According to the latest reports, TikTok has restored services in the United States after “going dark” on Saturday evening US time. The company turned off its services ahead of a nationwide ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Melissa Bellanta, Professor of Modern History (Australian Catholic University), Visiting Professor of Australian Studies (Seoul National University), Australian Catholic University New South Wales Police Forensic Photography Archive, Justice and Police Museum, Museums of History New South Wales With almost all menswear ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Anthony Blazevich, Professor of Biomechanics, Edith Cowan University Watch any match at this year’s Australian Open and you’ll see balls curving in the air or bouncing higher or lower than expected. Players such as Novak Djokovic, Iga Swiatek and Coco Gauff are ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Chris Ogden, Associate Professor in Global Studies, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau Getty Images On the eve of Donald Trump’s presidential inauguration, the world is braced for more of what has been described as his instinct for “weaponised chaos”. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne A national Freshwater poll for The Financial Review, conducted January 17–19 from a sample of 1,063, gave the Coalition a 51–49 lead, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Diana Piantedosi, Sociology PhD Candidate, School of Humanities and Social Sciences (La Trobe University); Honorary Fellow, School of Health and Social Development (Deakin University), La Trobe University MS Australia/tompaulbyrnes.com Laura (Radha Mitchell) is an ambitious investment banker living in London with ...
We round up everything coming to streaming services this week, including Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney+, Apple TV+, ThreeNow, Neon and TVNZ+. If you love thought-provoking locally-made documentaries: M9 Season 2 (TVNZ+, January 20) The second season of the groundbreaking M9 sets out to inspire, empower and entertain by asking ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Matthew Barton, Senior lecturer, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Griffith University Studio Nut/Shutterstock When British TV doctor Michael Mosley died last year in Greece after walking in extreme heat, local police said “heat exhaustion” was a contributing factor. Since than ...
Shane Reti’s demotion is a reminder that the best experience for being a minister is being a minister, writes Henry Cooke. First published in Henry Cooke’s politics newsletter, Museum Street. Shane Reti – or “Doctor Shane”, as Judith Collins would always call him – is a lovely man. The first time ...
An Al-Jazeera Arabic special report translated by The Palestine Chronicle staff details how Israel’s military strategy in Gaza, aimed at dismantling Hamas and displacing Palestinian civilians, has failed after 470 days of conflict.ANALYSIS:By Abdulwahab al-Mursi On May 5, 2024, nearly seven months into Israel’s ongoing genocidal war on ...
If there’s one thing this country loves, it’s holding onto stopgap structures for decades past their original use-by date. Mat Brown takes a look at 10 of his favourites. Auckland’s Te Wero Bridge has endured (more or less) for over a decade, yet it was only supposed to be a ...
From matcha IPAs to koshu wines, sake making classes and brewery resorts, there’s plenty to try if you know where to look. Japan’s food is famous everywhere, but the country’s drinks culture is a bit of a hidden gem. There’s a whole world here beyond what you might expect – ...
Sometimes a long drop is just the beginning of a turd’s journey.When you’re sitting on a loo with a view, with slow mosquitoes bumbling around your cheeks and someone outside testing the integrity of the door’s latch and hinges, it may not occur to you that this particular hole ...
"I'm looking forward to sitting down with Minister Watts to work through how best we collaborate and build an authentic and enduring partnership - to make a positive difference for all New Zealanders," LGNZ President Sam Broughton said. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Rochelle Steven, Lecturer in Environmental Management, Murdoch University Home gardens can provide vital habitat for Australian birds. But there’s more to it than just planting certain types of shrubs and flowering trees. After decades of encouragement to include native plants in ...
A major demotion for one minister saw several others pick up new roles, explains Stewart Sowman-Lund for The Bulletin. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. ...
Analysis - The prime minister has taken a close hard look at the varying skills of his ministers, resulting in a portfolio allocation imbalance following Sunday's reshuffle, Jo Moir writes. ...
The CEO, Paul Ash, responds to the Meta decision to ditch fact-checkers, among other changes that come just ahead of Trump’s return, along with the recent activity of Elon Musk.One of the most resounding of New Year resolutions this month came from Mark Zuckerberg, CEO and chair of the ...
Painful penetrative sex isn’t just a medical symptom. It’s a brick wall, a monster, an unwanted third partner in the bed. The Spinoff Essay showcases the best essayists in Aotearoa, on topics big and small. Made possible by the generous support of our members. My friends sometimes describe me as the ...
And so to a new year of one of the most fragile and unpredictable industries in New Zealand: publishing. The books trade, made possible in the first instance by the imaginations and anxieties of authors, and made real by the nice people who stand behind the counter at the nation’s ...
A majority of New Zealanders say at least 15 percent of the country’s oceans should be protected, when just 0.4 percent is currently covered by no-take marine reserves.The finding comes from a new poll by Horizon Research, commissioned by WWF New Zealand and released exclusively to Newsroom, into attitudes on ...
Comment: Annus horribilis. While the vast majority of us weren’t forced to take Latin at school, thanks to Queen Elizabeth’s 1992 speech, we all pretty much know that these two words literally translate into ‘horrible year’. That’s what 2024 was. Good riddance to 2024 and welcome 2025 (or 2569 in the Buddhist ...
Comment: It’s hard to imagine a more tragic way to start a new year than the news of child homicide. In fact, two children were separately killed by homicide in New Zealand in just the first week of 2025.At the hands of close relatives and people known to them.As that ...
Comment: The incoming Trump administration is likely to introduce new tariffs on China that will reverberate across the multilateral economic system. Such a policy would change the calculations of countries like New Zealand that rely on the global trading system in their relations with Asian superpower.Donald Trump’s tariff policy matters ...
Comment: It was an anniversary holiday like no other. It had started out normally with extra visitors in town, festivities to mark the occasion, people visiting friends, playing sport, or watching the boat races and horse races. But by 9.30pm residents were in a state of shock, their familiar surroundings ...
Loading…(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){var ql=document.querySelectorAll('A[data-quiz],DIV[data-quiz]'); if(ql){if(ql.length){for(var k=0;k<ql.length;k++){ql[k].id='quiz-embed-'+k;ql[k].href="javascript:var i=document.getElementById('quiz-embed-"+k+"');try{qz.startQuiz(i)}catch(e){i.start=1;i.style.cursor='wait';i.style.opacity='0.5'};void(0);"}}};i['QP']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){(i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o),m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m)})(window,document,'script','https://take.quiz-maker.com/3012/CDN/quiz-embed-v1.js','qp');Got a good quiz question?Send Newsroom your questions.The post Newsroom daily quiz, Monday 20 January appeared first on Newsroom. ...
Auckland Transport is being reminded that transport is a public service rather than a marketing exercise, after it spent millions advertising its own campaigns in 2024.The agency has confirmed that from January 1, 2024 to December 31, 2024, it spent $3.5 million on advertising and media placements for all of ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brendan Coates, Program Director, Housing and Economic Security, Grattan Institute Monkey Business Images/Shutterstock Having compulsory super should help create a comfortable and stress-free retirement. But Australia’s super system is too complex for retirees to navigate. This can leave them stressed and ...
RNZ Pacific Samoa’s prime minister and the five other ousted members of the ruling FAST Party are reportedly challenging their removal. FAST chair La’auli Leuatea Schmidt on Wednesday announced the removal of the prime minister and five Cabinet ministers from the ruling party. Twenty party members signed for the removal ...
A professor from the University of Auckland says social media is responsible for people "directly engaging with these proposed changes" in the Treaty Principles Bill and the Regulatory Standards Bill. ...
This Boot Camp thing is turning out well eh. 10 participants, one traffic death and two absconders already according to the morning papers.
ACT ideology applied to the real world. It doesn't work.
I wonder what the Labour Party and supporters think of the partnering with Black Rock.
Especially in the light of the way Black Rock has pulled the pin on Solar Zero.
This cowardly act, has left hone owners vulnerable, workers, contractors and suppliers in the lurch heading into Christmas.
Fucken neo liberalism writ large.
Something about supping and spoon length comes to mind.
I heard the interview on National Radio Morning Report yesterday – both with one of the senior team (not the CEO, who's not commenting) – on the stark hypocrisy of BlackRock managing an ethical investing fund (in which SolarZero was included), which has benchmarks for social responsibility – in dumping employees (and contractors) with zero notice, weeks out from Christmas.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/ninetonoon/audio/2018967112/former-solarzero-employee-speaks-out-about-blackrock
And then, a heartbreaking interview on Checkpoint with one of the solar installation contractors about effectively being bankrupted (no payments for work done in November, and the ongoing work cancelled), and their employees and apprentices losing their jobs.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/checkpoint/audio/2018967187/nearly-600-businesses-owed-40-million-by-solarzero
Black Rock has some serious questions to answer in just how 'ethical' their socially responsible investing is.
https://thefinancialbrand.com/news/banking-trends-strategies/why-blackrock-opted-to-transition-socially-responsible-strategies-176800/
I think it was the first interview you cite where the interviewee mentioned Kiwisaver.
He is asking his provider if Black Rock is part of their investments.
If so he intends to change.
That may be a way we can push back if direct action is yr cup of tea.
Yeah and the last time I saw a Company Director being charged for trading whilst insolvent was?
I wonder what the Labour Party and supporters think of the partnering with Black Rock. Could frame it as a multi-choice q+a:
1. Good idea, bad reality.
2. Wasn't God's will.
3. Market forces done it.
4. Crap shoot – win some, lose some.
5. Murk (what you get when LP members/supporters try to think of anything).
The tiny wee Nat brains now cogitating the situation will slowly discern such investment as being in accord with PPP doctrine – thus ok as per political rectitude.
I suspect that's due to there being no such clause in their contract, but since James Shaw was likely involved in establishing the fund, I hope I'm wrong! If there actually is a social accountability clause, the current govt ought to confess impotence re enforcement: "Limited liability always lets wrong-doers off the hook. Both the left & right have always supported this legal principle. Morality is irrelevant."
Sum them up in one word SCUM
Perhaps it was a mistake for the then Prime Minister to promote New Zealand as a suitable place for Blackrock to operate.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/fran-osullivan-jacinda-arderns-star-power-shines-on-in-blackrock-deal/J5FEAZJICNB6FOO5GTUW5HMPAY/
If she wasn't doing that what on earth was she doing visiting them in the US?
I can't answer yr question as the link is paywalled.
Do you remember a former NZ PM with a vision of NZ as a financial services 'hub'?
As you so rightly observed, in a 2022 thread discussing Blackrock's investment strategy, "Sooner or later a Company has to stop money-losing endeavours."
I chuckled at a cartoon (can't find it now) depicting PM Rishi Sunak visiting an NHS hospital and asking staff "But who profits?" – "Who gets the profits?", implying the 'poor' man couldn’t grasp the raison d'être of a not-for-profit public health system.
https://thestandard.org.nz/reti-secrectly-wants-to-privatise-health/
Second young person flees from boot camp trial https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/535850/second-young-person-flees-from-boot-camp-trial
And yet I can't help thinking Luxon's still going to declare the trial a success…
Isn't it great that that Luxon is so 'passionate' about 'outcomes' though? Surely that's the thing to 'celebrate' here? Maybe they are fleeing to attend those extra maths lesson being arranged by the (also extraordinarily 'passionate') Minister Erica Stanford? Get mastery of fractions and percentages and these rangatahi will walk into the great, well-paying jobs our wonderful 'passionate' Kiwi business people will be offering. So much hope and so much 'passion' – it makes one feel (frankly) 'passionate'.
You mean it makes you feel (frankly) “incredibly passionate’ don’t you?
He's passionate alright.
/
This will be interesting. The next emerging issue, although already present, will be the management of wilding pines coming from all those planted pine plantations purely for carbon credits – with little intention to harvest as you will have to pay credits back for chopping them down. We let Japan dump their used cars here and now we are letting overseas companies dump pine trees.
Gisborne District Council, in a bid to prevent further damage to the region’s landscape and swathes of woody debris covering its coastline, is seeking an enforcement order requiring a large forestry company to cease discharging forestry debris and sediment and to deal with about 16,000 cubic metres of woody debris from a forest block in the Waimata valley.
The council is seeking the order against China Forestry Group New Zealand Company Ltd. (CFGNZC) , which owns 24 forests across New Zealand, and is a subsidiary of China Forestry Group, the biggest forestry company in China.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/350333618/watershed-moment-gisbornes-legal-fight-against-forestry-companies?
The spread of wilding pines in the environment and the …
"Gisborne District Council, in a bid to prevent further damage to the region’s landscape and swathes of woody debris covering its coastline, is seeking an enforcement order requiring a large forestry company to cease discharging forestry debris and sediment and to deal with about 16,000 cubic metres of woody debris from a forest block in the Waimata valley."
…problem the GDC has are two sepearate issues IMO the debris is primarily uncleared slash from forestry harvesting.
Reinventing ANZAC:
Such consolidation does make sense, but our current govt will be challenged to invest substance into it. A pea-shooter brigade won't cut the mustard…
Bolger met Bush Snr (1991), discussed overturning the nuke ban:
Bush replied "Don't believe that crap. The polls can change in an instant."
Almost 40 years since Lange's govt empowered the dissident boomer groundswell, and time has thoroughly normalised kiwi anti-nuke exceptionalism. Yet a week ago I commented here on Fusion 2.0 happening in Wellington & Alwyn asked about the relevance of the law & got no response. Maybe folks assumed nuke tech is cool when a private company does it. Maybe the fine print of the law doesn't cover that. Yet it does make me wonder if anti-nuke sentiment has abated somewhat…
The 2004 story.
https://www.beehive.govt.nz/release/release-brash-comments-nuclear-issue
From memory the anti-nuke law doesn’t cover that. It was largely against nuclear powered vessels, nuclear explosive devices, biological weapons, and a bit about dumping radioactive materials in the sea. Nothing much to stop nuclear power, fission or fusion.
Wikipedia says in the summary of the New Zealand Nuclear Free Zone, Disarmament, and Arms Control Act 1987
It also has as schedule 1, the South Pacific Nuclear Free Zone Treaty (SPNFT) of 6 August 1985. That has some restrictions (Article 4) about non-proliferation of fissionable material unless it is subject to the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) or International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), but otherwise doesn’t restrict peaceful use of nuclear technology. Article 7 prohibits dumping of radioactive matter or wastes in SPNFT territorial sea or waters.
You can read the Act, it is a pretty simple and clear bit of legislation.
There was a bill in 2000, that failed to pass the house. That had limits of transport of nuclear waste which would caused issues for a local nuclear industry.
We also have some civilian low-grade nuclear industry in NZ – mostly related to medical.
As someone with a BSc in earth science, I wouldn’t be comfortable with quantities of nuclear material anywhere in NZ. It is too geologically unstable. Suffice it to say that I live in city with more than 50 reasonably recent volcanoes and calderas, and a backing range of older vulcanism from the Miocene – and I think that is one of the safest places geologically in NZ. Even here I live away from the volcanic fields and 85m above sealevel.
It isn’t that I am paranoid about geological risk. It is just that I know enough about the risks to be extremely cautious.
Ok, it makes sense that the govt lawyers would have been specific like that, thanks for clarifying. Having been part of the antinuke movement, I was always aware that many others were opposed to nuclear anything. As a physics grad, I was unusual in grasping the science context. When I saw that movie about a meltdown going all the way thro the planet to reach China on the other side I realised popular thinking will inevitably defeat science though. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_China_Syndrome
I did Geology I in 1970 because I needed an extra unit to graduate & it turned out to be more interesting than physics. The version of that map of the Ak volcanic centers we got shown had a count of more than 60, I recall, so perhaps some have since been down-graded or something. Also we were told that Symonds St was on a tuff cone like Albert Park: your map has them separate but I've walked down from one to the other a zillion times and there's no dip between them. Possibly got infilled early in the 20th century – or maybe the map-maker was not an Aucklander.
I just remembered there is a dip where the motorway goes thro. Duh!
Newton Gully through to Grafton Gully. I was born on one side of and now live on the other side of Newton Gully.
Yeah, drafting of legislation is usually an art of precision. Quite unlike irrelevant travesties like Act's treaty definition 'bill' which lacks any kind of precision and looks like it was drafted by dimwits trying to look smart.
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The anti-nuke movement is rife with false information. The China syndrome being an extreme example. What do people think that they are living on? The core of the Earth is an immense nuclear reactor powered mostly by the fission reaction of the slow decay of unstable isotopes into (ultimately) more stable elements. Mostly uranium 235 and 238 to lead. Adding a teeny dollop of extra uranium to a thermal nuclear reaction like that does absolutely nothing. Not to mention the energy required to boost away from the core gravitational centre.
I don't have any problem with nuclear energy engineering. Just a problem about geological stability for sites and waste. The sites are usually around water for cooling and steam generation. Which is always a danger, especially for local populations and those 'downstream'. As soon as water is involved, then 'downstream' over decades or centuries is a very large area.
Tsunamis. floods, earthquakes, drought, and even terrorist attacks aren't that much of a long-term environmental issue for roads, bridges, and buildings. However radioactive waste and debris from storage or generating sites is. Even 'short-term' radioactive waste can be a problem, one whose extent and effect we don't know long-term. Which is why disposing of all radioactive waste has been an issue. Look at Japan with tsunamis, the old USSR radioactive fallouts like Kyshtym (makes Chernobyl look minor), or even close to beach storage in California.
Once you start factoring in the full costs of safe radioactive waste disposal, then virtually all nuclear energy starts looking extremely expensive. The Finns are probably starting the first small steps to figuring out those costs in the first permanent storage experiment in the 70+ years history of the nuclear energy industry.
Basically I don't believe any vague hand-waving and theories from engineers and industrialists. I much prefer actual data from actual testing before possibly causing a long-term problem. Data which is curiously absent from the nuclear industry. Hard enough to even get data from the temporary storage, or storages of short-term waste.
//—
The number of 50 volcanoes in Auckland is rough (as is 60 or more). It mostly depends if you look at events, vents, or magma pools.
For instance Auckland's most recent – Rangitoto has had at least one eruption, possibly in two close events, or possibly has had a volcanic history that is 6000yo. Just about every cone, caldera, and even lava field has similar ambiguities. Basaltic volcanic events are noted by their ability to mask earlier events. They have none of the relative simplicity of rhylotic events that distribute their gifts widely.
Never seen any volcanic tuffs in building sites on the Symonds street ridge. But it was mostly built over by the uni before I reached adolescence. From what I remember, it looked like the usual semi-metamorphic sediments on deep building sites like the new business school.
It is well within the volcanic bomb radius from volcanic areas like the Albert Park tuff ring, and on the other side of Grafton gully, including Mt Eden. I can see a reference to a possible tuff cone in Symonds Street in this 1962 paper pp 197-198. But it reads like speculation based on surface rocks. I don't know of any deep building sites on the ridge before the mid-1960s. The uni has the only really large buildings up there and tat only started those large buildings after they left the Uni of NZ in 1962. So I'm guessing this paper was formed just from shallow excavations.
No doubt Tehran doesn't quite cut it for Asma and the fam so they're probably tucked up in Moscow.
/
The Backstory Behind the Fall of Aleppo
Aleppo was never meant to fall.
A stunning offensive waged by two Turkish-backed forces over the space of the last five days has resulted in the conquering of Syria’s second-largest city and industrial hub, doing in under a week what more numerous and well-resourced anti-Assad rebels never managed. Yet Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and the Syrian National Army (SNA) found themselves the beneficiaries of neighboring conflicts, an opportunistic patron in Ankara, the recent election in the United States and a dynastic dictatorship in Damascus weakened by civil war, sanctions and corruption.
https://newlinesmag.com/reportage/the-backstory-behind-the-fall-of-aleppo/